Search Engine Marketing Secret #3 Revealed: Links are Like Recommendations

This is the last of our “Search Engine Marketing Secrets Revealed” series with The Search Guru, Leslie Caruthers.  In the first post, we learned how important it was to focus on search engine marketing because it’s one of the most powerful ways that your customers will find you.  Our second secret was to use natural phrases that your customer might use and search for.  Leslie has included great resources, exercises and links to help you get the most out of the series; I hope that you’ve been bookmarking them!

3. Links are like recommendations; they tell Google you are important.

Inbound links are links from other websites to your website. Solicit and earn valuable inbound links, as this is an indication to Google that your site is popular, relevant and valued by others, as well as helping the search engines understand better where your site fits into the web and what you offer.

• Back Links (Incoming or Inbound Links): hyperlinks placed on other web sites that lead to a page on your web site; quality, relevant inbound links help boost site rankings in the search engine results pages and are an integral part of SEO strategies.
• Link Popularity: measure of both the number and the quality of inbound links. Most search engines take this factor into consideration when ranking web sites on search engine results pages.

Carefully crafted link building campaigns:

• contribute to Google PageRank
• position your site as a hub or authority on the Internet
• drive targeted traffic to your website
• help your website achieve high rankings for competitive keyphrases and therefore
• increase your viability in the search engine results pages to
• boost your conversion flow and sales.

And don’t forget… While it is critical to rank well with the search engines, you must never forget it is the human customer that matters – search engines don’t buy your products, services or click on your advertisements; people do.

Next month, we’ll share insider copywriting strategies to get started including those great keyphrases you’ve uncovered!

This month’s opportunities:

Didn’t take on last month’s opportunities? Go back and start there – that’s your best bet – then move up to this list after that.

1. Bonus: read past blog posts: http://www.thesearchguru.com/blog/ and back issues of the newsletter here: http://www.thesearchguru.com/email-archive.asp to learn more.
2. Register for Google Analytics if you haven’t yet: http://www.google.com/analytics/
3. Register for Google Webmaster Tools http://www.thesearchguru.com/google-webmaster-tools.asp if you haven’t yet.
4. Read through the Search Marketing Terms Glossary and catch up on basic terminology.
5. Burning question or comment? Email me at Results@TheSearchGuru.com.

Leslie Carruthers is President of The Search Guru, a best practices full services Search Marketing firm creating breakthrough results for their clients since 2004. Leslie can be reached at 440-306-2418 or Results@TheSearchGuru.com.