SEO For The Common Webmaster

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.

Often times as a webmaster, we do not want to do all the work of starting a site from scratch. To avoid this, we may purchase a website or blog that is already up and running. However, when doing so, one needs to do lots of research to make sure that they know all the details before buying a site.

If the site claims to have loads of traffic, find out where that traffic is coming from. Traffic by the thousands can be generated by using services like Stumble Upon. Though the number of visits increase, the traffic is useless. Ask the seller to provide proof by showing the stats from the website. Most websites have some kind of tracking that shows where the traffic is coming from. If it is mostly from social bookmarking sites, the traffic is useless and lowers the value of the site. Also beware of false traffic from weird sites. Check those out to see what they are.

Another consideration is what is the site earning and from where. If they claim to be making $400 a month from Google Adsense, make sure you see proof. Also find out what they are doing to get that amount of earnings. If they are spending $300 a month on things like Adwords, than the earnings is really $100 a month. This is still decent earnings but it changes the value of the site.

Looking at the domain name is important. Is it something that is easy to market, when does it expire, and how easy it to transfer? You need to know if it has any fees to transfer. Also make sure how the files of the site will be delivered. Ask if the seller will transfer to your host or are you required to do so. Make sure you know how to transfer the whole site prior to buying.

If you are looking for original content that is not just copied from elsewhere, make sure to both ask and check for yourself. It is easy to copy the first paragraph into Google or use Copyscape.com  to check to see if the  content is located elsewhere. Be sure to check several articles to make sure that the original was not just copied from the site you are wanting to buy. To me, a website or blog with original unique articles is worth a lot more than a site loaded with content that belongs to someone else. Be sure to give the owner the chance to explain and not jump to conclusions. However, if they lie about it than it is better not to deal with them.

If Page Rank or Google PR is important to you, make sure the PR stated is not faked. There are many PR checkers that can check for fake PR. You can also check Google by searching for the site URL. If it shows up with a different URL, it most likely is faked.

One last piece of advice is to check the WhoIs information for the domain. this can be check at http://whois.sc. They will tell all information related to age, domain registrar, and owners information along with details about the site.

I would like to think that the majority of webmasters are just honest people who are trying to make an honest living. However, there is always scammers trying to steal your money.  Make sure if you are thinking of buying a website or blog, you follow the above advice and do all the research you can so you avoid being scammed.

Many webmasters crave the famous Alexa traffic ranking. I for one find it useless. Their rankings are based off of visits by users of their toolbar. Their system is very flawed and can be easily manipulated to change the outcome of the traffic rankings.

To me this is flawed in many ways.  Of course, last month Alexa announced a brand new way of calculating their stats that include many other sources. They do not disclose what the sources are but I still do not trust their system as a reliable way to measure traffic. The only true way to know your traffic is tracking the stats for yourself through either you control panel or other means.

What do you think?

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.

I have used Stumble Upon since they first came out. A few days ago, I got an email that my account was suspended for violating their terms of service. It seems that you can not promote your site or anyone else’s. In other words, if you choice to stumble all your posts or websites, you could violate the policy. I see no other purpose for Stumble Upon.

It seems that they sucked people in to use their service but once eBay purchased them, they decided that unless you pay for their premium services, they no longer want you around.

As far as traffic, I got a lot of traffic from the service but it amounted to just click through traffic. Most did not even read a post or bother staying on my sites. I am annoyed that they suspended my account but I am glad to delete the clutter off my browser. Good bye Stumble Upon, YOU SUCK!