SEO For The Common Webmaster

When one creates a blog or website, a key is to find out if the effort is paying off. This can be seen in many aspects. We webmasters often want to see what our site is worth and what we need to work on. How much is your site worth?

This is a complex question. It takes a look at many factors from how many back links you have to your traffic stats. There are a few sites on the Internet that can track some of these stats for you and give a basic idea of where you are and how you are doing with your site. The problem I have run into is that when I want to check different stats, I have to jump all over the place to find different ones.

I recently ran across QPGR.com. They offer an updated set of Page Rank Checker & SEO Tools. This includes many of the standards used to judge a webmaster’s performance. Being located in one place relieves the stress and time of having to search all over the Internet to get all the stats you are looking for.

Their Quick Page Rank Checker gives you up to date rankings so you know what your current PR is. However, they also throw in Alexa traffic rankings, possible link sale value, site, value, back links, and more. The nice thing is, it takes only a few seconds to get the result of all of them with one simple tool.

These standard stats are not the end all to be all for a webmaster; however, it can give a nice sense of how you are doing. If you ranking and stats are super low for a given site, you know that you have a lot of work to do. If they are high, you know that you need to work to keep them there and you are inspired to work that much harder.

Checking your stats on a regular basis will allow you to find problem areas and improve on those to become more successful.

In previous posts, I have spoke of how important it is to build quality back links. In order for the links to be counted in both PR and SERPs, they need to be dofollow. However, it is sometimes hard to find dofollow links related to your website.This job has gotten a little easier.

I recently found this great Dofollow Directory that lists only sites that allow comments and that offer dofollow links. This is something I have personally been looking for and it is a great asset to webmasters everywhere. I tried on this blog to include a small list of dofollow blogs but their directory does a much better job of including many blogs and sites to leave comments on.

Unlike many dofollow list you find on webmaster forums, this directory allows the webs owner to Submit Dofollow Blogs. This means that these are sites that want and welcome comments and offer a quality link in exchange for a good comment. This saves lots of time because you will be commenting on related sites that want your comments.

The directory offers either free or paid submission and has several categories to cover all ranges of topics. Submitting is easy and is a great way to improve traffic for your dofollow blog. I suggest you look at the links I provided and find some great sites to submit your comments today.

Link baiting is a great way to build traffic to your site. However, many webmasters have no idea what link baiting is.

Linking baiting is writing or doing something on your site that will cause others to want to visit your site and link back to your site. There are many ways to do this.  Many sites do link bait with widgets and badges that are added to a website or blog with a link back to a site.  Good examples of this are social bookmarking sites like Digg.

Another example of link bait is writing something that is current breaking news. Many people will find it interesting and link to it. This is a little harder unless you have an inside track because news spreads so fast on the Internet.

Creating an unusual list or great tool that others find useful will get people to your site and wanting to link to it. One example is my post on here about checking for no follows. I have no idea how to incorporate the script in my post so I linked to the original creator’s blog because it is a helpful resource for my readers.

The final and most common way is to write something very controversial that will cause a stir and cause people to read it. This could be political, something funny, an attack on someone famous or any other idea. I wrote an article on my other blog on a religious topic. My plan was not link bait but it caused quite a stir and I had tons of traffic and lots of comments. This to me proved that it works.

If you decide to do link baiting, make sure you spread the word about your article. This can be done by placing it on news sites, social book marking sites, and on related forums. Link baiting is only good if others see it.

Many webmaster go crazy trying to get their site listed in one of the biggest directories on the Internet, DMOZ. I found that it could be a benefit to be listed but nothing to obsess over.

I will normally submit my site to them when I feel it is ready to be listed and then I forget about it. Most of my sites never get listed and many sites takes over a year to get listed. I submitted this blog once I had the theme set up and some good content and basically forgot about it.

Today, I was going through my blog stats and I seen some traffic from DMOZ and thought that it was strange. I clicked on over to their directory and lo and behold, my little old SEO blog was in the listings. I can not say that it will mean a lot but I hear that many directories pick up listings from them to feel their directories which will mean a possibility of many new back links. I do not get my hope up but it would be nice to generate some new traffic to increase the earnings for this blog.

Has anyone seen any real benefit from being listed? Please share your own experience by leaving a comment here.

One of the best means of building back-links that will also equal traffic is by joining forums related to your topic. On forums you can converse with people who share a common interest in your topic and you will have a chance to promote your website to them.

The key way to promote your website on forums is through the signature line. Some forums limit your links to a certain number of links and a certain number of characters. Others allow as many as you want. There are some forums that offer only no follow signatures. Do not overlook these! The important thing when promoting your site is to build traffic. By using both do follow and no follow links, you will be able to spread your links to places where like minded people will see them.

When using signature links from forums, be sure to read all the rules of the forum. Some forums have a certain amount of posts or time as a member before you are allowed to use the signature line. I was very active on a forum once and when I started a new site related to that topic, I added my link to my signature. I received a nasty email stating I could not add a link of a competing site. Seemed crazy since mine was a related topic but not a forum. This is why I say to read all rules carefully and try to stick with in the rules.

Most forums that offer signature links do so to provide and extra benefit to their members. It is a way to share your site and discover new sites. Please do not spam! It will ruin the benefits for everyone. Become an active member and really be a part of the community and you will gain many benefits from the forum signature.