Here is an interesting infographic about…. well, infographics. While I have created and marketed tons of infographics in the past few years for many large brands and Fortune 500 clients, I disagree with them that infographics bloat the Web. But then again I am a very visual person and have always loved infographics of any sort. And I have seen great results with them as well. But I love the cartoons in this one!
Via: Tradebit
You will hear me say that linking is the foundation of Google’s algorithm, because it is. By ranking pages in it’s index based upon the number of referring links to the page Google developed the world’s best, most relevant, search engine. Now this is way oversimplifying things but at its basis the algorithm was is and ever shall be centered around linking. It definitely still is today. Linking continues to be the number one ranking factor, far outweighing on page optimization in most cases.
In fact, to prove to you that linking is the most powerful ranking factor consider something. That one can rank a page that has nothing to do with the keyword it is ranking for, has no on page content for that keyword, and is not optimized at all for the keyword, simply by pointing enough keyword focused links to the page. This was often referred to as Google Bombing.
So now that we have established that, let’s talk about what constitutes a “good” link. There are two things that Google likes to see in a link to your site, TRUST and RELEVANCY.
One can say without reasonable doubt that a page, and therefore the domain that page resides on, are trusted in Google if Google is ranking that page within the first few pages of organic search results. So if the page that you want a link from is ranking within about the first 1-4 pages in Google then you can safely say that it is “trusted.”
Here is where it gets a bit trickier. A page is relevant to your business/site if it is ranking for a term in Google that is at least semantically relevant to your head keword(s).
These two very simple, yet often understated and overlooked, signals are the best ways to determine if a page is a good link target IMHO. Trust and Relevancy are the signals that Google is looking for and if you can provide those signals by getting links from other pages that are ranking for related queries then you will be rewarded!
Welcome to my SEO blog. As a professional SEO consultant I am constantly evolving and learning. And I hope to share my experiences and knowledge with my readers. Just take a look at the categories of this blog and you can get a good idea of what you will get out of this blog. But first let me tell you a bit about myself.
I have worked at 2 different large SEO agencies, with my first gig in 2004 with SEO Inc. I learned a great deal about SEO and even more about link building and how and SEO company runs. That agency was a high volume shop, meaning that we had over 250 clients at one point. It was a great experience, it was the wild west of SEO, and we ranked in the top 3 for the coveted term “search enging optimization,” and the phones rang off the hook because of it!
After that experience I was asked to start a new company with a few friends of mine. That was a very interesting experience and I learned a great deal about what it takes to run a company, hire, fire, train, manage, and pay employees! I ran just about every facet of that business and it was a good run of about two years. Eventually the two founders and myself parted ways and I worked from home as an independent organic SEO consultant.
Eventually I went back to work at an agency, eVisibility. I would work here for the next three years, running almost every aspect of the business. We were as large as about 45 people at one point, had paid search, display, web development, social media and SEO departments; and maintained around 100 clients for most of that three years. I was fortunate enough to work with some of the finest people I have ever had the pleasure of working with and am still dear friends with almost everyone. We had virtually zero turnover, which says a great deal about how great of a place it was. Every other company in this industry burns through employees at a mind blowing rate, and that is a fact.
Currently I run an SEO consulting business and also work at a full service interactive agency, Geary Interactive. At Geary we specialize in web design, branding, paid media, social media, and SEO. Throughout all of this I have worked with Fortune 50 firms, as well as small local businesses with just a few hundred dollars a month to spare. I have spoken at many events, and had the opportunity to travel extensively. I have worked at shops with up to 250 clients and at agencies with just 20 clients.
I can honestly say that I absolutely LOVE what I do and feel blessed to have the opportunities that do. I hope that you will enjoy and interact with my blog, and I look forward to providing you with a great experience.
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