SEO Hosting Blog

SEO Sites To Keep An Eye On: Part 2

Posted by McKinneyBrown on May 16, 2012 in Search Engine Marketing

Today is Part 2 in our SEO sites to watch series. Check out these useful resources below, and let us know what you think of them in the comments!

Search Engine Round Table
Search Engine Round Table distinguishes itself by working outside the bounds of only-Google SEO to include Bing and Yahoo.

Search Engine Journal
Search Engine Journal delivers some great strategy tools related to SEO, but also related to social networking and link building.

TopRank Online Marketing Blog
TopRank tends to take a intensely marketing approach to SEO that is distinct from most other SEO services.

Pronet Advertising
Pronet Advertising advocates a heavy social media presence to drive your content to the top of SERPs.

Marketing Pilgrim
Using inbound marketing as a big part of your SEO strategy? Let the experts at Marketing Pilgrim guide you in results-driven direction!

Stay tuned for part 3 tomorrow!

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SEO Sites To Keep An Eye On: Part 1

Posted by McKinneyBrown on May 15, 2012 in Search Engine Marketing

Search Engine Optimization is a field that is constantly evolving. As a result, there are always new strategies designed to help your site reach its potential and ways to build on your existing strategies. To help you stay on top of your SEO game, we are going to give you 15 sites over the next three days that are incredible resources for keeping ahead of the curve.

Search Engine Land
Search Engine Land is your one-stop-shop for all things SEO. From professional services to SEO news, Search Engine Land has it all.

SEO Book
SEO Book offers some great customizable plans to fit your needs exactly

SEO Moz Blog
SEO Moz has become legendary in the SEO world and its blog features some of the best SEO strategists in the world.

Matt Cutts’ Blog
As the head of Google’s Webspam team, Matt Cutts offers inside information to get your site off the ground and high in search results.

Search Engine Watch
Search Engine Watch features a host of other services besides SEO to give you a well-rounded approach to making your online presence a success.

How have these sites helped you boost your SEO in the past? Let is know in the comments!

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SEO Success Stories

Posted by McKinneyBrown on May 14, 2012 in Search Engine Marketing

Sometimes the tediousness of SEO can really get to you. Getting lost in the details of content generation, link building, and keyword research and get monotonous without some spice. Today we’re going to show you some great success success stories from people who’s SEO efforts paid off fantastically in the long run. Have a look at these articles and get inspired!

Search Marketing Success Stories
This fantastic article tells the tales of several successful SEO journeys that in many cases just needed a certain “umph” to get them on and near the top of search results. Check out the tactics mentioned in this post and try them with your site!

A Small Success Story Inspired by SEO Moz and Its Contributors
Aran Smithson shares a somewhat humble, but encouraging story about how he jump started traffic for an online retailer specializing in coat hangers. The post shows that even small things that don’t require much effort can have profound effects that outweigh hours of work with other SEO methods.

10 Extraordinary Examples of Link Bait
Link bait is a common way to get people to visit your site, but what happens when this content goes viral? Check out these link bait success stories from XKCD to OKCupid.

What are some of your SEO success stories? Share them with us in the comments!

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SEO WH Weekly Round-up: May 7-11

Posted by McKinneyBrown on May 11, 2012 in Search Engine Marketing

Hello readers! It’s Friday and time for the Weekly Round-up! We’re changing some things up this week to give you all even more useful resources to use in your SEO endeavors. This week, we’ll give you some posts which discuss Google’s latest “Penguin” update. Have a fantastic weekend!

SEO Social Links From The Week

Creative Link Building for Ecommerce Sites
[SEO MOZ]

Are You Setting Up WordPress For SEO Success?
[SEO MOZ]

Whiteboard on Google’s Penguin Update
[SEO MOZ]

10 Great Google AdWords Options for Boosting Conversions
[SEARCH ENGINE LAND]

Google’s Penguin Update

Another Step to Reward High Quality Sites
[GOOGLE WEBMASTER CENTRAL]

Straight from the horses mouth, Google’s Matt Cutts explains the implications of Google Penguin and what exactly it is designed to achieve (namely, weeding out “webspam” sites from SERPs).

Matt Cutts and the Google Penguin Update: SEO World Debates
[MUNCIE FREE PRESS]

This highly detailed article gives you a greater idea of the particulars of the effects of Penguin, not just for English queries, but searches worldwide.

Google’s Latest Webspam Crusade “Breaks” Search Results
[THE REGISTER]

Kelly Fiveash takes a look into the complaints and praises of Penguin, including a link to an online petition calling Google to repeal the new algorithm.

Google’s Penguin Search Algorithm: Wrap Up
[BUSINESS INSIDER]

This informative post tells you how to survive Penguin if your site is affected by the update.

SEO Hosting Social Outposts

Join SEO on Facebook.
Follow us on Twitter.
Visit us on Google+.

Your Weekly Spot of Humor

See you all on Monday!

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Intermediate and Advanced Link Building: Part 2

Posted by McKinneyBrown on May 10, 2012 in Search Engine Marketing

In our last post, we went over some link building tools for the experienced SEO. In this post, we’ll continue with 5 more resources for your reading pleasure. Enjoy!

The Power of Using Lists for Link Building
If you’re like me, you thrive on lists. This post illustrates the importance and power that lists have to develop online relationships so that other members of the internet community will link to your site.

Video Sitemap for Guide for Vimeo and YouTube
This great piece from Justin Hammack coaches you on the detailed of creating effective video content on Vimeo and YouTube that translates into back links for your site. The post also shows you how to create an effective video sitemap for your site that will make search engines notice.

Strategic Link Building: Why You Don’t Need to Outrun Lions
In this great David Klein article, the importance of focusing on real results, namely beating your competition, is highlighted. He uses the competitive query “online shopping” to illustrate how to skillfully outmaneuver your competition and come out on top in search results.

The Inside Scoop to Finding Linkbuilding Opportunities with Free Alerts
This article shows you how to incorporate Google Alerts and other alert mechanisms that let you know when someone has mentioned your site on a blog or social network. Along the lines of the Power of Lists post, the goal of this article is for you to use mentions as a way to build online relationships for link building. These types of alerts are usually free and easy to set up, so it’s definitely worth your while to check out!

Linkbuilder Productivity Setup and Outreach Examples
Since much of linkbuilding revolves around establishing meaningful online relationships, and establishing meaningful online relationships revolves around email, this post is a must-read. John Doherty gives some great tips to powerfully ramp up the speed with which you send emails to online contacts, while can save you loads of time for other SEO tasks.

What are some beyond-the-basics linkbuilding strategy that you use for your SEO? Let us know in the comments!

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Intermediate and Advanced Link Building: Part 1

Posted by McKinneyBrown on May 9, 2012 in Search Engine Marketing

The importance of link building has been clear since the early days of search engines. The internet has grown up a lot since then, however, and link building has become an art requiring a fair amount of strategy from SEOs. Check out these articles that will boost your link building skills and your site’s SEO.

How Authorship and (Google+) Will Change Link Building
Tom Anthony takes us back in time for a brief history of link building in the post. From this perspective, you’re are given a unique look at and understanding of exactly how link building works and how to apply it to your site.

What’s Better – On Page SEO or Link Building?
In this post, Peter Meyers takes you through the basics of what kind of SEO breakdown you want when it comes to budgetary and time constraints. The post details four hypothetical case studies of good and bad link building and their link building/on-page SEO ratios. Peter also illustrates how even though you could be following all of the “correct” SEO rules, you could be missing some potential for greater success.

Building Links with Video Content
Any link building strategy should include a good amount of video content for better SEO. Jacob Klein shows us in this post exactly how to produce good video content in a way that will most positively affect your site through video back links.

Grassroots SEO – Strategy, Process and Lifecycle
Steven Wideman offers some great tips in this post about how to turn SEO strategic inspiration into long-term tactics for SEO (including a lot of link building). Steven’s Milestone approach gives SEOs a chance to channel their energy into real action that will have payoffs even years from now.

Tools, Twitter and a Ton of Opportunity
This article shows some great ways to build online relationships for future link building opportunities via Twitter. Cory Eulas demonstrates how the free software “The Archivist” can export your Twitter data into an Excel spreadsheet for easy interpretation and organization. Between this unique tool and some additional tips on the side, use this post to start ramping up you online relationships for future opportunities to build links.

What are some intermediate or advanced tools and tactics do you use while building links? Let us know about them in the comments!

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5 Great Blog Posts from The Content Strategist

Posted by GeraudStaton on May 8, 2012 in Search Engine Marketing

Photo by raphaelle_ridarch

The Content Strategist is a great blog site with tons of information on web content. We’ve picked out some of our favorite articles related to blogging and how to improve your following.

If you have a few articles that you would like to share, please post them in the comment section.

1. One CEO’s Story on the Benefits of Daily Blogging
This post is brief and shares a great message on the benefits of daily blogging, as told per one person’s point of view.

2. How to Turn Blog Readers Into Brand Advocates
Did you know that 1% of your blog readers can influence as much as 30% of your overall end actions by recommending your site? This blog post will tell you all about how to exploit this.

3. The Importance of Niche Blogging
Gaining the millions of followers needed in order to make a few dollars through your blog is a Herculean feat. But, with a niche blog you can gain a very dedicated group of followers and make some money to boot.

4. 3 Simple Steps to Building a Loyal Following On Your Blog
Want to get people to talk about you and to follow you, no matter where you head. Then you need to read this post, which shares a few great tips on how to get people to become loyal to your posts.

5. 6 Ways to Get Ideas For Your Blog
Whenever you’re writing a blog post every day, it’s easy to get stuck for ideas sometimes. Here are a few ways to get unstuck!

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Successful Internet Branding: Part 2, Getting Your Name Out

Posted by McKinneyBrown on May 7, 2012 in Search Engine Marketing

In our last post, we talked about some basics for establishing your brand and growing your recognition through inbound marketing and building relationships. This post will deal solely with getting buzz generated for your brand through getting your name out to media outlets and blogs. Do you have any branding strategies that have worked especially well for you? Let us know about them in the comment section!

92 Ways to Get and Maximize Press Coverage

This article is a great place to start if your brand doesn’t have a comprehensive PR strategy as of yet. This post from Chris Winfield combines classic PR approaches like compiling a spreadsheet of media contacts with more innovative tips like a 15 ways to use LinkedIn to your advantage.

5 Steps to Bootstrapping Your PR Efforts

This article offers some great advice on how to approach classic media outlets and blogs with confidence when wanting to generate some buzz about your brand. Also be sure to have a look at the “don’ts” list to avoid some common mistakes in your efforts.

How to Launch, The Spotify Way

In less than a year, Spotify has revolutionized the way internet users in the U.S. listen to music. What is at the core of Spotify’s success? It’s launch. Preparing for a large rollout can be daunting, but taking the time to learn from success stories like Spotify’s can give you some good direction in generating the right kind buzz for your big launch.

Tips From a Recovering Journalist: How to Write Effective Press Releases that Help SEO

Get some tips from a former journalist and press release pro to know exactly what you need to include and leave out of these documents. Be sure to look over the checklist provided in the article before sending out releases too.

Have Online Press Releases Gone the Way of the Dodo?

Spoiler alert: Yes and no. According to Rebecca Kelley, press releases can be effective, but only if they include certain content. Check out what kind of stuff is up to press release snuff by from this post.

What PR strategies and press release tactics have you used for promoting your brand? Let us know about them in the comment section!

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SEO WH Weekly Round-up: April 30 – May 3

Posted by McKinneyBrown on May 4, 2012 in Search Engine Marketing

Hi everyone! We’re back with another week of links and blog posts from the week. Have a look!

This Week’s SEO Hosting Blog Posts

SEO HW Community Newsletter: Volume 2, Issue 4

5 Great PPC Articles from Search Engine Land

Web Analytics: Beyond the Basics

Successful Internet Branding: The Basics

SEO Social Links From The Week

Three Pillars of SEO Competitive Analysis
SEARCH ENGINE WATCH

How to Use HTML Meta Tags
SEARCH ENGINE WATCH

Top 5 Giveaways of SEO Con Artists and How to Protect Yourself
SEARCH ENGINE WATCH

17 Ways SMBs Can Survive the Google Penguin Update Effect
[SEARCH ENGINE WATCH]

SEO Hosting Social Outposts

Join SEO on Facebook.
Follow us on Twitter.
Visit us on Google+.

Your Weekly Spot of Humor

Have a wonderful weekend!

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Successful Internet Branding: Part 1, The Basics

Posted by McKinneyBrown on May 3, 2012 in Search Engine Marketing

Looking to build your brand online? You need a plan. Here’s some articles to help you assemble one. The following posts deal with inbound and search marketing, how to generate excitement around your brand, and content strategy. Jump in and discover some tips to define and refine your brand.

How to Build Brand Engagement with Inbound Marketing
This great post from Structure Marketing gets straight to the heart of using inbound marketing for brand development. This is a good starting point if you’re new to the territory and need some initial ideas for your marketing tactics.

8 Methods for Getting to Know Your Audience
A key part of Internet branding is getting a good feel for who your audience is and how to cater to them in the best and most effective way. Laura Lippay answers some of the most important questions in branding: what does the customer want out of you, the industry, and your site.

The Best SEO, Social + Content Strategy: Thought Leadership
Rand Fishkin presents in another great post how changes in SERPs require changes in SEO and social content strategy – both pillars in online branding. Check out the history and future of branding and learn how to refine your own strategies.

How to Brand Your SEO Agency
The title says it all. If your brand is SEO, be sure to check out this article for some terrific tips to SEO branding success. The “Become a guest author” section is especially helpful for getting your name recognition.

The Power of Volunteer Search Marketing
If you think you can build an effective brand without much effort put into establishing and maintaining good online relationships, think again. This post offers some planning help in getting those vital connections that will have enormous payoff in the long run.

What branding strategies have worked for you in the past? Let us know in the comments!

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