Getting Inbound Links to Your Business Website

If you have a blog or a business website that allows comments you have no-doubt seen many people attempting to leave comments that amount to nothing more than spam. Do these people think it’s difficult to spot spam? I can’t, for the life of me figure out who they are trying to fool. There are a couple criteria I look at for each comment I approve on one of my 20+ blogs…

1. Is the comment more than 1 line? If not, I usually don’t approve it. If they’re congratulating me on a nice post – I probably won’t post it unless I know the person, or know their website. There’s little added value in a comment that says “Thanks” or “Great post”. If the person commenting isn’t adding something to the conversation and helping other readers of my business site – then probably there’s no point in approving the comment.

2. Does the commenter add the url to their own site? Some comments I approve just because they don’t have their url listed. I know they’re leaving a comment because they’re genuinely interested in the post and aren’t leaving comments for other self-promotion reasons.

3. Is the commenter making sense? Senseless comments don’t get posted on my blog unless they are mere spelling mistakes. Many times  a comment that doesn’t quite match up with what the article was talking about is spam that was sent to many sites in addition to mine.

4. Does the commenter leave a url within the post? Sometimes I approve these, but the comment should be razor focused and really add to the post. The link too – must add something substantial to the original post or I don’t approve it. I might just edit out the link or I might not have time and just reject the whole comment.

5. Is the commenter talking about how much better some other blog is? Almost a sure sign that the comment is spam either paid for by the site being promoted  – or perhaps it’s the site owner herself spamming away and trying to take my visitors.

So, you can see how I look at comments and decide whether I’ll publish them or not. How can you get your comments published on A-level websites?

Basically, you should post a paragraph of razor focused, relevant, helpful information about the article on the other site and don’t try to add a URL to your comment. Add your url to the URL form field – yes, but don’t use the <a href=”www.yoursitehere.com”>my site!<   / a > tag to add another link – it likely won’t get approved.

Posting comments at other sites in order to gain links back to your own site is a great way to find new visitors, and, when the links aren’t “nofollowed” by the site you’re commenting at – a good way to add inbound links to your business website.

Spamming in the comments section of other business websites blogs is not the way to go – we all can spot spam a mile back. Take the 5 minutes to read the article and comment in a way that adds something to the conversation going on. Make the website owner WANT to publish your comment – not wonder what your intentions are.

8 Google Basics for Your New Business Website

Google is the most powerful money making tool that you could focus your business website on mastering. Some think of it as a good thing that Google became the single most important source for driving search engine traffic – it’s much easier to focus your business website on one set of criteria for ranking well in the search engines than it is to try to focus on four or five different search engines.

On the other hand – if you’re not being found in Google you’re not enjoying the huge volume of free traffic they can send your site. Many thousands of businesses (millions?) exist (and thrive) off solely what Google sends them through their search engine results.

Here are some Google basics that can help you. All of these are free!

1. Go to Dmoz.org and register your business there. Dmoz is Google’s directory and though it’s next to impossible to get listed because they rarely (ever?) update it, it’s still worth your time in the off-chance that you actually get listed. A listing in Dmoz is quite a vote of trust from Google itself and will help you climb in the search results.

2. Go to Google Local Business center and register your business with them. They’ll verify it. Add as much information in the forms they offer as you can.

3. Register your business website with Google.com/webmastertools/. This will provide information about what google is doing in regards to your site, how many pages it has indexed of your business site, the top keywords Google is sending your business traffic for, and many more bits of useful information.

4. Register your business website at Google.com/analytics. This is Google’s statistics program. It has some great features – even linking up with your Adsense or Adwords program (other Google services you should also explore). Google analytics is more accurate than general stats programs and gives more information than most. It is NOT realtime – there is a substantial delay of more than 24 hours at times, but still well worth it… being free and all.

5. On your site – the Title, <H1>, and Alt=, Title=, tags are all very important. It’s becoming important to not only use specific keywords with your site but also use different words to describe the same thing.

6. Content is King. Having 60 pages of content about your niche is much better than 10 pages. Go way beyond what you think is the minimum. Google wants to index the BEST sites in the top 10, not those that offer what everyone else is offering. Be different – be comprehensive. Be anything but what everyone else is doing. Have some depth.

7. Inbound links are still very important. Websites, forums, comments, and even Twitter links are starting to be counted by Google. Social media is taking off – and you’d better be riding that wave too.

If you just keep in mind that Google is trying to find the best sites, the most helpful sites, the most comprehensive sites, the most user-friendly sites to index in the top 10 results for every search engine query you’ll have a better undertstanding what you need to do to get there.

8. Trust. Quality sites Google can trust is what it wants. Whatever could increase your trust level – will help. Adding a copyright to the bottom of your business site makes it more respectable. Adding your address, phone, email, fax… etc. Everything helps. Having a privacy statement, disclaimer, about us, shipping policy pages all help. That’s what quality sites have – right?

We’ll have some elearning courses here to help you learn all about Google and what you need to do to optimize your business website for high search engine ranking. Sign up for our free newsletter to get notified of some free elearning coursestoo!

Collecting Leads for Your New Business

When starting a new business the most important thing you could focus on is undoubetdly marketing. Marketing is usually the key to all new business ventures and a company that’s focused on it will do well over the short and long-term.

New business marketing requires new business customers. Where do you find them? If you have a website and you’re having even 10 visitors or more per day stopping by you could be adding to your potential customer list everyday.

People online are looking for something. Every time you go online you’re looking for something – right? The focus of all the people arriving at your site is slightly different, but there’s one thing that everyone is always looking for. FREE!

Free things catch an internet surfer’s attention like nothing else. Across the world – everyone loves to get something for nothing – I guess it’s a universal truth, so to speak.

In order to add to your list of potential business customers you have to be able to contact them. The state of email in the USA, being what it is – you must have permission to send email to people on a recurring basis. Sending email on a recurring basis is what you need to do because rarely does someone become your paying customer for some product or service your business has after the first email. In fact, most sales take place after the 5th email – so studies have shown.

So, in order to collect email addresses and have permission from the person to send them recurring email you should go to Aweber.com and start a subscription there. Aweber has an easy system to setup your website to start registering visitors to your site that join your email list. Aweber will send them a confirmation notice once they join your list – which is called a “double opt-in” process. This ensures you have the legal right to email this future customer until they opt-out (unsubscribe) from your list.

The best way to go about gathering leads from your website is to offer something for free in exchange for a name and email address.

What could you offer for free from your new business?

You’ll have to figure that out on your own. Give something of value. Something that makes it almost impossible for someone to not take you up on your free offer. The usual freebie is a PDF file – an ebook about some important topic that goes along with your business. Files, programs, videos, mp3’s and free media that can be transmitted electronically without any mailing costs are smart. Electronic media can be viewed instantly too, there’s no need to wait for something through the mail.

Spend some time today thinking about what short ebook, report, training, or free-information session you could offer to visitors stopping at your website that would convince them to exchange their name and email address to get it.

If you join our free newsletter subscription we give you “The Ultimate Business Website Checklist” which is a group of checklists that help you remember the essential tasks for starting and progressing with your  business website. We also give you access to some free online elearning courses about online business. The only way to get access to these courses is through joining our newsletter.

Increasing the number of leads for your to market your products and services to is probably the most important task you can focus on with your new business. Get started with an Aweber account today – and start thinking about what free product you can create to give to visitors to your business website.