Part 5 – Offpage Search Engine Optimization
We’ve already optimized our blog to rank well for search results of
certain keywords that we’re targeting, but here comes the sad news – it
affects your ranking in only very minor ways. However, don’t skip this step as
every little bit helps when you’re competing for search engine rankings!
Now, we’re moving on to off-page search engine optimization. That is factors
that are not on your blog but affect your search engine rankings very greatly. There
are a lot of off-page factors, but we shall study them one by one. The first and
most obvious one is the number of links to your blog.
Generally speaking, search engines will rank you better if they believe you are an authority in that certain area and have a lot of links pointing to your blog. However, take care to observe the quality of the
links.
For example, a thousand links from totally irrelevant sites like online
dating sites would not help at all because your blog is a technological product
blog. In contrast, a single link from a highly authoritative site about
technological gadgets will get the search engines crawling about your blog like
the Feds storming a crack den…
Anyway, the most cost-effective way of getting high-quality links from
authoritative sites is simply to ask for them. Suppose your blog contains high quality content that is original and will provide valuable information to the site’s readers. In that case, chances are the webmaster(s) will link to your blog or even write
about you! high-quality
Let’s talk about how we should ask these webmasters of authority to link
to your blog. We’re discussing this based on the presumption that your blog is
really content-rich and offers high-quality information to anyone in your niche
or topic of discussion.
First, let’s look for the top sites in your niche. Simply search the
major search engines for the term that you’re targeting. In this case, let’s
search for “technological gadgets”. The first few results, www.t3.co.uk and www.acarplace.com/brands/gm/gadgets.html are commercial sites,
so don’t bother asking. We’re looking for community-based sites and other blogs
that are more accessible to a complete newcomer like you. Seems like www.gizmodo.com would be a good option!
So,
compose an email to the webmaster of www.gizmodo.com
(whose email address you shall find on the site). They even have their AIM
contact there, so it’s also a good choice if you use AOL Instant Messenger. Start
by stating how you came across their site (i.e. “looking for gadget
information”, NOT “looking for link partners!”) and how you think their site
provides valuable info. Basically, try to say something really good about their
site honestly.
Then,
suggest that so-and-so content on your own blog will be a nice complement to
their site’s content and vice versa. Put a link on your blog to their site and
ask subtly if they might be able to do the same to weld a mutually beneficial
relationship between the site and your blog.
People who won’t even reply to your emails may come up along the route; in that case, go on and forget about them. Remove the links from your blog to their site if they
have not responded to your email within two weeks, which is a pretty long wait.
Keep
doing this for the first 30 search results that pop up, and before long you
should have quite a few good sites all linking to you.
