Hobo Link Building

Table of Contents
Creative Commons .................................................................................................................... 3

Shaun Anderson........................................................................................................................ 3
A Basic Quick Linkbuilding Intro ............................................................................................ 4
Should I Buy Links To Improve Google Rankings? ............................................................... 5
Linkbuilding Is Easy When You Have Content worth Linking To......................................... 6
Your Link On ‘Links To Useful Sites’ Pages – Yuck!............................................................. 7
Some Google Toolbar Grey Pages Do Not Pass Anchor Text Value Or PR? ........................ 7
Stop Building S*&t Links ....................................................................................................... 10
I Spent a Year Adding Content & My Competitors Nicked My Rankings............................ 13
Quick Linkbuilding Tip – Get Links From Universities ....................................................... 14
SEO – Limit Anchor Text Links To 55 Characters In Length?............................................ 16
Google Promotes Uncool URLs? ............................................................................................ 18
Google – How Many Words In A Page Title Tag? ................................................................ 18
What Is The Best Title Tag For Google? ............................................................................... 20
How To Get Quality Back Links The Top Competition Has ................................................. 22
Go Off Topic & Get Natural Links From Trusted Sites ........................................................ 23
How I Got 500 Real Backlinks In 2 Minutes ......................................................................... 24
Broken Links Are A Waste Of Link Power ............................................................................ 24
Finding Suspended Websites & Link Opportunities With Google ........................................ 26
Link Building – Should I Avoid Reciprocal Links? .............................................................. 27
Linkbuilding Tip – Syndicate The $h!# Out Of Your Content Via RSS! ............................. 29
The next article is a bit of a theory…… ................................................................................. 30
Is It Diversity Of Keywords In Link Profile That’s King? .................................................... 30
Link To Important Pages In Your Site – Often ..................................................................... 31
What Is Nofollow? Should I Use It On Internal Links? ....................................................... 32
Buying Old Domains & Redirect Them To Get High Rankings ........................................... 34
How To Change Domain Names & Keep Your Rankings in Google ................................... 34
301 Ways Of Getting A No1 In Google > Moved Permanently! ........................................... 35
Links From Unrelated Sites.................................................................................................... 38
Google Trusts Domain Online Business Authority ............................................................... 39
Are Directory Links Still Worth It? ........................................................................................ 40
Do Article Submissions & Press Releases Still Work? .......................................................... 41
How To Get Started In Social Media | Shana Albert............................................................. 42
Links That Effect Ranking Change In Google SERPS......................................................... 47
The Ultimate/Best/Complete/Directory/List Of Dofollow Blogs ........................................... 49
What Do You Want To Rank No1 In Google For Anyways?................................................ 50
1 Blog Comment, 2 Hours Work & One Amazing Link ........................................................ 51
Hide Your Links & Muddy That Link Profile! ...................................................................... 52
Get Links From REAL Sites (IE Sites That Aren’t Just THERE To Link To Other Sites) 53
The Perfect Link Strategy In SEO – Mix It Up!.................................................................... 54
Why Vary Anchor Text In Linkbuilding Campaigns ............................................................ 56
Bad Neighbourhood = Google Penalty – Do You Link To One? .......................................... 58
Beginners Guides .................................................................................................................... 60
SEO News ................................................................................................................................ 60
Hot Articles .............................................................................................................................. 60
Forums .................................................................................................................................... 60
Great SEO Articles .................................................................................................................. 60
SEO Blogs ............................................................................................................................... 61
SEO Tools ................................................................................................................................ 62
More DIY SEO Resources ...................................................................................................... 62
Contact Us @ Hobo ................................................................................................................. 63

Page 2
Copyright © 2009 The Hobo SEO Company VAT No. 880 5135 26 • No. SC299002 | Contact us and request a
free seo quote / cost estimate. Hobo is based in Greenock (near Glasgow) in Scotland in the UK.

Creattive Com
mmons
•
The Hobo SEO
S Blog and
a its original content are licensedd through a Creative
Commons Attribution
A 2.5 Scotlannd License. You are perrmitted to republish an nd
rework conntent on youur own blog if you link to the origiinal article oon the Hobo o
website.
• Created in
n October 20092 by Shaaun Anderso on
• Warrantiees – Absoluttely 100% none n – This whole publlication is oopinion, speculation
and possiblly, out of daate already. Supplied ass is, and refferences possts on the Hobo
H
SEO Blog asa well as other
o notablee and generrally reliablee sources. I hope it help
ps you.
Shaun
n Anderrson
Shaun Anderson
A iss the Web Marketing
M D
Director and Lead SEO at
Hobo Web
W LTD, one o of Scotland and thee UK's best seo compannies.
An obseessive passiion for on-site SEO, linnkbuilding and
a web
accessibbility, Shauun has workeed on hundrreds of web
bsites, in eveery
kind off market.
Shaun sttarted working in an advvertising agen ncy in 1999, instrumentaal in the
foundingg of a dedicaated websitee design divission of the aggency, in 200
01/2,
and co‐ffounded Hob bo Web LTD, a specialist seo and web bsite design
company based in G Greenock, Sco otland, on Appril 01, 2006
6.
Throughhout his careeer Shaun haas been invo olved in
websitee design and search engin ne marketin ng
projectss for universities, college
es, charities,
corporate, small bussiness and sme, finance sites,
well knoown UK bran nds, cathedrals and the N NHS ‐ to
name bu ut a few.
Page 3
Copyrighht © 2009 Thee Hobo SEO Company

C VAT T No. 880 51335 26 • No. SCC299002 | Contact us and request a
free seo quote
q / cost estimate.
e Hoboo is based in Greenock
G (neaar Glasgow) inn Scotland in tthe UK.

A Bassic Quick Linkbuilding Intro
• If a site waants to link k to you from m a page wiith 100 linkks on it you can basicallly
forget it as the strengthh of the linkk is shared by,
b well, 100 others!
• You should d try to gett your webssite into thee good ‘neighbourhooods’ of yourr
industry. TryT and get links from the t neighbo ourhoods at the top of G Google for your
y
key phrasess after all Google
G likes these sites enough to rank
r them! FFind that circle of
sites wheree all the big boys in youur industry linkl to and are
a linked frfrom and get
involved. Don’t
D worryy too much about
a “themme” of webssites linkingg to you thou ugh – as
this is well,, a bit, unprroven. Goodd for traffic though!
• See who lin nks to yourr competitoors and try and a get a linnk as well (oor pay mon ney to
have their link
l replaced with yourrs lols
• Use Yahooo and type “link:yourco
“ ompetitors.ccom” and seee who linkss to them. Yahoo
Y is
kind enouggh to rank paages virtuallly by the nu umber of baack-links sittes have in site
s
explorer – making
m it onne of my most
m used seo o tools.
• Join Sociall Networkss, not for thee links them mselves, but to get yourr content no oticed so
real sites linnk to you!
• A link is a link. If som meone, anyoone wants to o link to youu accept, juust don’t alw
ways
reciprocate with a linkk back to theem (may negate the vallue of the linnk) and cou uld see
your site loose trust. Reemember Gooogle says it i is (virtuallly) impossible for a sitte to
hurt your siite by simplly linking too your site, but you cann hurt your ssite if you liink to
another sitee with a ’shaady’ backlinnk profile.
• It doesn’t hurt
h to get a link fromm a low or hiigh Google Page Rank page. Todaay’s No-
PR page miight be a PR R 5 page in reality, as Google
G Tooolbar Pageraank is out off date.
• So if you have
h a site about
a Dogss you might want to lin nk out to Crrufts or the Kennel
K
Club or Wiiki is a goodd one. Naturrally, MOST T importanttly, you shoould also gett
relevant sites to link too you. If yoou have a co ostume website, find a ccostume weebsite
you can addd your url too for free. Again
A thouggh, this is a bit
b unproveen – and harrd to
prove! Goood for user satisfaction
s though!
• Good Googgle rankinggs is not all about who you get a liink from (allthough it manly m
is!) it’s whoo you link to t – this is thhought to be the measuure of the truust of a sitee and
seems fairlyy reasonablle to me. Linnk to authorrity sites in your industtry as well as a other
sites that loook like quaality upcomiing sites, an nd stay clearr of suspectt sites.
Obviouusly I assum
me you have a blog withh original co ontent on it!! And remem mber its qu
uality of
links noot quantityy. If I was too sum it up, I’d say – get links fromm real sitess.
I’ve gott some articcles that migght illustratee how to geet links, and how to makke links, bu
ut in a
responssible way. I’’m not abouut to give otther sites heeadaches beccause in thee end, the more
m
people know
k aboutt certain linkks, the fasteer their wortth evaporates.
Page 4

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Should I Buy Links To Improve Google Rankings?
Buying links that are search engine friendly is against Google TOS. If you buy links to take
the risk Google will penalise you (from a reduction in your toolbar pagerank, up to removing
your site from its index).
If buying links was ineffective, it wouldn’t be against Google TOS. Think about that.
I can’t remember the last vertical I checked there weren’t people buying links to improve
search engine placement – so the competition is doing it. Last time I checked, they were
ranking pretty good.
I can’t advise you to buy links but I can’t honestly advise you not to – although I will point
out again Google will take you down if it finds out.
If you are buying links, make sure your links aren’t obviously paid links, though. That is,
don’t buy links from obvious places. If Google gets better at detecting these, it’s the obvious
paid links that will be hit first.
I can say, I don’t buy links. Not at the moment anyway.
There are still plenty of ways to get links without paying for them: SEE How I Got 500 Real
Backlinks In 2 Minutes for example.
Page 5

Linkbuilding Is Easy When You Have Content worth Linking To
Getting other sites to link to yours is easy when you have content worth linking to. It
really is that simple in some cases. Your content should be original, but it doesn’t need to set
the world on fire.
The more content you add to your site, the more likely people will link to it, today or in the
future. I’m still getting links from stuff I wrote years ago.
So first thing you should be doing is, er, adding content to your site. I personally think How-
To articles or articles that discuss a common problem often discussed in forums etc – some
call it timeless content – is best suited to linkbait (and visitors!). This is always going to get
linked to at some point if it’s presented slightly differently, and interesting. Once you get
enough links and you feature in the top 3 results, you’ll find you start to pick up more and
more natural links – it’s a reinforcing effect.
Where to start? See that crap little FAQ on your site? Those frequently asked questions
nobody asks about? Those need expanded – each FAQ should be its own page with a good
page title and in a well structured site. You need to ask yourself what people want to know
about your products, or your industry – not necessarily YOURbusiness.
Having content on your site makes it so much easier to pick up links. If you have no content,
while you can still rank in Google via links alone, you’re limiting yourself in a way you
might not recover from.
So first lesson in linkbuilding ….. Add content to your website that’s not strictly about
your boring company.
Page 6

Your Link On ‘Linkss To Useeful Sitess’ Pages – Yuck!
Don’t settle
s for a link on “usseful links”” pages on sites
s as these are about 1% as usefful as
your siggnature linkk on the 10thh page of a forum threaad – e.g. nexxt to useless! – Unless of
course the
t Page is a PR 9 withh a lot of baack-links itseelf! That’s not
n likely.
Google hates links pages. Try it – throw upu a “links to useful sittes” page onn your webssite and
watch as
a Google iggnores yourr page unlesss you have a LOT of onlineo businness authoritty.
Google doesn’t waant to list paages with noothing but liinks on it annd actively identifies th
hese
pages and
a nukes thhem from thheir SERPS in a LOT of o cases!
If someeone wants to
t list your site on theirr links pagees, consider how much value thesee links
really are.
a If there are a lot (1000+) of linkks on there – any benefi
fit to your siite is microsscopic.
• Check if thhe links pagee is in Googgle at all utilising the innfo operatorr - info:www w.hobo-
web.co.uk
• Consider hoow authorittative the sitte in questio on is – is it an
a importannt site within your
industry? (IIf it is, it’s perhaps
p worrth getting a link here just in case.)
• Find out thee Google Paagerank of the t actual page
p the linkk is going too feature on
n – not
the PR of thhe home page. Some people PR iss totally uselless – it’s nnot, not for a quick
check on what
w Googlee thinks of thhe page.
• Check how w many backklinks point to the linkss page from m within the actual site, and if it
has any extternal backlinks using thet Yahoo site s operatorr.
Some liinks pages might

m be useful if it’s on uthoritative site, but moost link pagees go
o a very au
the wayy of the Doddo within tim
me. Avoid getting
g a lin
nk on linkss page if at all possiblee.
Related
d Articles
Some Google
G Toollbar Grey Pages Do Noot Pass Anchor Text Vaalue Or PR??
First – I actively monitor

m Greyy Google tooolbars on in
nternal pagees on variouus sites. I love it
when I see a new one
o
Having a Google Toolbar

T Greey bar, (pagees that look
k, according to Google’s toolbar fo or your
web broowser, to haave no Pageerank) whilee it may hav ve no appareent detrimenntal effect to
rankingg the actual page
p in SERRPS, *migh ht* be an inndication thhat page is not passing
anchorr text value or pageran nk.
I’ve tested it on a couple

c of paages. I can’t find a greey bar pagee that I can n determinee passes
anchorr text value. The same pages appear to pass pagerank,
p buut on closer inspection,, this
might be
b because of o syndication to other sites. As I monitor
m the phenomenoon, it’s interresting
to see which
w pagess pop up witth Grey Tooolbar valuess. The last one
o I saw (w which appeaared
from noowhere) was a page witth sloppy innternal anch hor text variiation to thee same page, low
link equuity and a possible slight dupe conntent issue.
Page 7

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But what is the meaning of the Google Grey bar? If it is not a ranking penalty, perhaps it’s a
sign the page isn’t passing value to other external sites?
Some other notes:
• Typically pages that have relatively less links pointing to them, but well linked to
pages can have a grey toolbar too
• Pages with no Toolbar PR do rank so they must have real PR – in most cases for
‘honest’ pages toolbar grey has no detrimental effect in rankings even for mildly
competitive phrases
• Obviously pages that are nothing more than manipulation or engage in shady links
somewhere, or have a severe duplicate content issue, might have grey bar and will
probably not be in the Google SERPS
• Some pages don’t seem to pass anchor text value, some do (although this could be
because of syndication issues by scraper sites and duped and reworked content)
• Pages with a toolbar grey may still apparently pass PR to other pages (I tested this
specifically a couple of months ago) with one link to a new site from a greybar page I
thought might have been a 3 or a 4 – and the site got a PR 2 I think (although again
this could be syndication ripples i.e. links from other sites that’s republished this
blog’s content).
• Common problems associated with Toolbar Gray which caused the page to disappear
from Google *sometimes* seemed to suffer from dupe content issues, and another
typical example was pages with just links.
• Pages with low link trust that have different anchor text links to the same destination
page
• Pages with links to irrelevant sites which Google *thinks* could be paid links (which
are against Google terms of inclusion)
Results? Its buggy that’s for sure – and it’s probably meant to be. You cannot make any
assumption about a page with Toolbar PR grey until you look at it, how it’s linked to within
the site, which it links to, where it ranks and if its links are passing anchor text ranking value
– so this isn’t a simple check.
Some pages did seem to pass value, but on closer inspection, I found these articles
republished on other sites, so there’s a chance some of these links passed on the anchor text.
Theories – I think if you have a toolbar grey page,
• the page may be either brand new and Google does not know about it
• Google is ignoring it because it has a problem with it (like too much dupe content),
• the page does not have enough trusted link equity,
• Google may have penalised it for something like too little unique content
• Or doesn’t like what the page links to (a paid link?),
• how the linking is set up or
• it looks like a traditional links page (which Google doesn’t like)
Of course, it also could be a bug. It sure is glitchy!

Page 8

What to do
• Check if the page ranks in Google for its title / main keywords – if it does, it’s not
penalised – maybe it just isn’t passing anchor text (although that’s not to say every
page with toolbar pr passes value).
• Get more links to the page in the internal navigation and in page and see if it’s a lack
of trusted links problem.
• Examine who the page links to (a possibility but I see the same type of linking on
pages with PR) – I surmise a page might need a certain level of trusted links
• Is the text totally unique? Rewrite it.
• Does this page look like a links page? Change it.
• Trying to do too much with your anchor text? Change it.
• If it’s a low quality page with little traffic anyways, sometimes I just 301 Redirect it
to the most relevant page on the site
Finally, if you see a grey toolbar – check to see if there are any issues I’ve highlighted above.
Sometimes it looks like a glitch, sometimes not. If it ranks and you’re not bothered about
spreading link equity to other sites, don’t worry about it (for now). Remember – not
every grey bar links page pass no weight!
Page 9

Stop Building S*&t Links
When you build a wall, you do it bit by bit, with the same kind of identical bricks until you
have a lot of bricks that all look the same… presto, you have a wall. That’s building. My
mate does that.
You can’t build links that way and EXPECT to win the ranking wars in Google as Google is
actively fighting you. Your bricks kind of need to be different brick to brick.
There’s a thought out there. Get 200 or 300 or 400 links and you’ll rank. So it’s natural that
you think I’ll buy some links from that mob (and I mean mob) for $200 and I’m sorted.
You’re not.
Those links are s*&t (sorry no other word to describe it). Depending on how good the search
engine optimisation company is of course – there’s different varying colours of s*&t but
generally speaking you stand in it when you open your email and it says:
We noticed you don’t rank for any of your keyterms. We are an expert linkbuilding
company…..
They’ll come from spammy blog and forum comments that might hurt your brand, or web
hosting companies with an obvious paid link profile. Even if they are decent at their job – a
competitor will just report you for buying links if you do it too much. It will stick out like a
sore thumb you’re buying links and that’s against Google TOS.
Stop thinking about building links. Start thinking of promoting your useful content.
Page 10

Here’s how I built links the past 2 months to the Hobo site.
First, I understand building links (YUK) is about relationships with real people and trying
to get links from real sites.
1. I refocused my internal links (I’m testing a few things)

2. I created my
1. SEO Guide For Beginners which Matt Cutts sphunn (V Cool) – a thanks to
Edward Lewis of SEO Consultants who gave me the confidence to publish.
2. A PDF of my SEO Guide (along with an email burst telling my subscribers
and Linkedin buddies it was ready (latter, a bit spammy, sorry about that!)
3. a free wordpress plugin that may conserve Google Pagerank
4. A month of linkbuilding tips on my blog (about one a day – spending no more
than 1/2 hour each article) – more for beginner subscribers to the blog than to
garner links at this time.
5. An online press release or two
6. I sent out a couple of email requests for links to sites I thought would actually
benefit by linking to a particular article on this site – no, really!
7. Syndication (!) – I really don’t care who republishes my content if they link
back
8. I pointed out to a few people their blog rolls looked a bit thin without Hobo on
it lol
9. A couple of other minor things…. one of which was a mistake I’m reversing.
3. I told the world about my content (and in doing so my online buddies) via Twitter
(mainly – it costs nothing to promote my content or others) hoping they’d help me
give it a push (as I do theirs – in fact I have been asking a lot of them lately… next
month will be about helping them push their stuff – it’s all me, me, me at the moment
it seems!)
I didn’t ‘build’ one anchor text rich link like ‘Scotland’ in there (well, until just then).
(I will go into all that above during the course of the month). I’m finished with all that
2005 seo crap – it’s depressing, not lucrative and in some cases, a total con; even if you do
lose rankings on some narrow terms that are pure vanity.
The results were Wordpress itself linked to me,SEroundtable linked to me,

SEOconsultants linked to me, Sphinn linked to me, Search Engine Land linked to me (a
couple of times), I got a couple of links on PR7 and 6 pages, and I got a couple of blog post
links out of the blue from buddies and people I’ve just became buddies with lol (not because
they were buddies, because the content was worth a link and not just a Twitter). On top of
that, Smashingmagazine.com and some Brazilian version of Techcrunch linked to posts
that where over a year old that largely went unnoticed at the time. For a small company in
Greenock, Scotland, that’s a lot of attention. I also got links from some other really
authoritative seo sites (I’ll reciprocate later).
As a result, my subscription count has went from @1,500 in a month or so to nearly 3,000
which will make the whole process a lot easier next time. Oh, I got a lot of traffic too and I’ve
Page 11

been asked to do a couple of guest posts on blogs I read which is V cool. That will hellp in the
future tooo.
What diid I do? – I just helpedd people out with some free stuff thhat helps theem achieve their
own goals in the hoope similar minded folk will help me to achieeve mine. Easy. I createed
content and I told people
p abouut my site:
Tell thee world abouut your site. Google
It’s cleaarly not rockket science but it takes a lot of efffort.
(I even got to chat briefly withh a Google Spam guy (Not MC) who wished me luck wiith my
SEO Boook)
This poost might seeem a little serve servinng – apologiies for that.
I just wanted
w to ensure this moonth I said Stop
S ‘buildiing links’ annd Start prromoting yo
our
site. It’ss easier andd more rewaarding.
Page 12

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I Spent a Year Addding Contennt & My Coompetitors Nicked
N My Rankings
I just sp
pent a yearr adding oriiginal content which peeople have toldt me is reeally usefull,
getting relevant linnks from thoose in my niiche, going for quality of links rathher than quaantity
of crap links, not keyword
k stuuffing, stayinng within Google
G guideelines, not bbuying linkss from
crappy host compaanies in far-away-landss, nofollowin ng links to bad
b neighboourhoods, not n
hiding text
t or linkss, preventingg Google’s index being g spammed,, not using m my client siites to
promotee my own rankings.
Some ofo my comp petitors now w rank aboove me with h cheap exacct match dom mains, reguurgitated
content, no relevannt links, crapp links, keyyword stuffing, floutingg Google guuidelines, bu
uying
links froom crappy host
h compaanies in far-aaway-lands, links to baad neighbouurhoods, hid ding text
and linkks, spamminng Google’ss index, usinng client sittes to promoote their ow
wn rankings lol
LOL OK K I have 1000 more tim mes Google traffic

t than these guys because theeir terms aree so
narrow and their coontent is lukkewarm, so maybe I sh houldn’t com
mplain. I’vee got a lot off real
humanss subscribedd, too, whichh is very vaaluable to me.
m
But it alludes to ann age old quuestion:
What to
t do? Link
kbuild, or Add
A Conten
nt?
I chose to add conttent becausee I am tryinng to build a brand. THA AT’s what I recommen nd to
clients. I prefer to syndicate
s annd network (for this sitte anyway) these
t days tthan linkbuiild. If
you plaay this gamee Google wiill actually send
s you a lot
l of decennt traffic butt you’ll prob
bably
lose groound on verry focused teerms to commpetition that are reallyy going for tthem – see what I
think off natural linnks and googgle seo.
PS I donn’t out anybbody and it’’s not sour grapes

g – I th
hink SEO iss SEO – goood luck to everyone
e
whichevver tactics and
a strategyy they choosse to employ y. I am actuually friendlly with a lott of my
competitors. Maybbe I should register
r SEOO Greenock k Dot Com just
j in case lol.
I actually change thhe terms I target all thee time too with
w this sitee – and I’m ALWAYS testing
on site – that’s whaat you can do
d if you’vee got a lot of traffic andd a little braand and I sup
ppose.
working, synndicating or linkbuildin

What arre you doing just now?? Adding coontent, netw ng –
somethiing else? Reemoving yoour internal nofollow links (?) evenn heh heh.
Page 13

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Quick Linkbuilding Tip – Get Links From Universities
One of the simplest ways I use to build links for any business is finding colleges and
universities who link degree students and alumni to to job opportunities, and promote their
student discount partners online. I consider links from very real sites like these as
authority building links.
Obviously the first thing to do is get used to publishing your job vacancies and any offers on
your site, and then telling potential linking partners about them. TIP - never take these jobs
offline either - just mention "Role Filled" and strike out the text.
Target Asset = Job Vacancy / Internships For (with your important keywords of course)
Key Link prospects = Universities and colleges, alumni sites
Link prospecting queries (in Google) = jobs degree site:.ac.uk, careers opportunities
site:.ac.uk, careers advice site:.ac.uk, jobs degree site:.edu, careers degree site:.edu,
careers advice site:.edu + variations
Example Page typical of what you might find -

http://www.careers.manchester.ac.uk/recruit/target/mgip/employerprofiles/
Another variation of this is colleges and universities that publish links to sites that offer their
alumni special student discounts (so effectively, all you need is a student discount for
products or services). This is useful even for small businesses in a very tight catchment
area.
Target Asset = Student Discount For (with your important keywords of course)
Key Link prospects = Universities and colleges, alumni sites
Link prospecting queries (in Google) = student discount partners site:.ac.uk, student
discount partners site:.edu + variations
Example Page typical of what you might find - http://www.richmond-

college.edu/content/student-affairs/student-discounts.aspx
Of course, in every case you need to dig around the site in question but offering a
student discount to all colleges and universities and building a list of marketing
communications offers at unis and colleges and contacting them asking for a link in their
newsletter (which many have) in return for a student discount is going to be more rewarding
than sending out 1000 unsolicited spam link request emails. TIP - don't be cheap. The better
your offer for students, the better chance you'll get a link.
Ultimately these kinds of educational links are a win win - they are not hurting either site, and
students get a good deal too. If you have good content on your site, you can just go right on and
ask them to link to it if they already have a habit of linking out to similar sites to yours, or even
send them articles about "How to get a job in {keyword} services" for their careers newsletter
or resource section.
Page 14

Tell The World
d About YYour Sitee But Don
n’t Ask Fo
or Links!
Google used to sayy:
“Have other relevaant sites linkk to yours.”
Now itss guideliness recommennd:
“Tell thhe world aboout your sitee.”Google
It’s cleaar. Google does

d not waant you ask king specifiically for lin nks becausee this is a cllear
attemptt to manipullate their lisstings and thhis is as far as I think thhey go at thhe moment. It’s a
bit poorr advice whhen the key tot ranking inn Google iss having othher relevant sites link to o your
site!
Links are
a what the web is about though and a it is why y Google is the numberr 1 search en ngine.
Links were
w about beforeb Googgle. There’ss nothing wrrong with getting
g otherr sites to lin
nk to you
as long as it doesn’’t stick out like
l a sore thumb
t you’rre looking for
f Pagerankk or improv ved
rankinggs for particuular terms.
Private discussionss with people you know w are anotheer thing, buut when I askk for links (which
( I
don’t doo very oftenn), I never ask
a for speciific keyworrd anchor text. If I sendd out an emaail, I’ll
point soomeone in thhe directionn of the pagge, and I’ll point
p out thaat linking too it might haave
some beenefit to theeir visitors. On some occcasions in the past, I’vve offered too reciprocatte the
link IF it is of beneefit to the reeaders of thee other pagee. I never sppecify any aattribute of the
t link
either i..e. whether or not it is search
s enginne friendly.
I wouldd not go on record thesee days sending an emaiil out sayingg:
Link to me using thhe followinng keyword text on a paage with paggerank of minimum 2…
….
… and neither
n shouuld you. Yoou never knoow who willl end up reaading that aand it makess it clear
you donn’t have a cllue what yoou are on abbout and willl take links from
f and liink back to
anybody
dy.
If you want
w peoplee to link to you y in a particular way, make suree the title off the page yoou want
links to have the keeywords yoou want to raank for and generally speaking,
s a llot of folks will use
those words
w to linkk to you. If, of course, the
t page is useful
u in soome way! A
And don’t sen nd out
spam em mail requests.
I get huundreds of bottom

b feedeer link requuests and don’t answer any of them m. A waste of o time.
There iss many wayys to skin a cat of coursse, but this is
i how my seos companny does it – and I’ve
said beffore, we’re a content foocused seo agency.
a Wee don’t buildd links to crrap (not eveen s!&t
links).
PS – Hoow do you tell

t the worlld about youur site? Twitter. Stumbbleupon. Preess Ads. Arrticles.
etc etc
Page 15

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SEO – Limit Anchor Text Lin
nks To 55 Charaacters In
n Length
h?
Republlished from
m Oct 20, 20008 – As this post is geetting talkedd about in foorums at thee
momennt I thought I’d bring too the front of the blog so comments can be addded if you wish
w
Anchorr Text Optiimisation
As a seoo I wanted to
t know – how
h many wordsw or chharacters does
d Googlee count in a link?
What’s best practicce when creeating links – internal, or
o external?? What is thhe optimal leength of
a HTML L link?
It appeaars the answ

wer to the quuestion ‘how
w many worrds in a textt link” is 555 characters, about
8-10 woords.
Why is this importtant to know

w?
1. You get to understand how many words Goo ogle will couunt as part oof a link
2. You can see why you should
s keepp titles to a maximum
m a
amount of ccharacters
3. You can see why yourr domain nam me should be b short andd why urls sshould be sn nappy
4. You can see why you should
s rewrrite your urlls (SEF)
5. It’s especiaally useful especially
e w
when thinkinng about linkking internaally, via bod
dy text
on a page.
I wanted to see how

w many woords Google will coun nt in one ‘lin
nk’ to pass on anchor text
power to
t a anotherr page so I did
d a test a bit
b like this one below;
1. pointed som me nonsensee words in one

o massivee link, 50 words
w long, at the homee page of
a ‘trusted’ site
s
2. each of the nonsense words
w were 6 characters long
3. Then I did a search forr somethingg generic thaat the site would
w rank nno1 for, andd added
the nonsensse words to the search, so that the famous “Thhis word onnly appear in n links
to the site” (paraphrasee) kicked inn
4. This I surmmised wouldd let me see how many of the nonsense words Google wo ould
attribute to the target page
p from thhe massive 50 word linnk I tried to get it to sw
wallow.
Using a character calculator

c toool the answ
wer was…..
1. Google couunted 8 worrds in the anchor

a textt link out off a possiblee 50.
2. It seemed too ignore everything elsse after the 8th word
3. 8 words x 6 characterss = 48 charaacters + 7 sppaces = a nice round annd easy to
remember number
n – 555 Characterrs.
So, a poossible best practice in number of words in an

n anchor texxt might be to keep a lin nk
under 8 words but importantlyy under 55 characters
c because
b everrything afteer it is ignorred (in
the linkk)?
Page 16

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Continued…..
This off course has an impact in i writing your titles fo or pieces youu want linkked to – espeecially
for thosse with a haabit of takingg the articlee title and lin
nking it to the
t page. M Most are awaare a
title shoould be under 70 characcters to havve maximum m impact in Google. Froom a test I did,
d
Google ignored woords in a titlle after 70+ characters. But if Gooogle only atttributes the first 55
characteers in a linkk, does this mean
m there’’s at least a 10-20 charracter no-m man’s land to
consideer when creaating links & headliness?
All the more reasonn to have im

mportant keywords at th
he beginninng of your ppage title, an
nd your
brand name
n at the very
v end?
If you like this testt, you mightt like;
1. Will Googlle Rank Pagges Better With

W Valid Code?
C
2. How Manyy Words Will Google Count
C In Thee Title Tag??
3. A Google Friendly
F Weebsite Naviggation Systeem
4. Do It Yourself Search Engine Opttimisation
Addendum
If peoplle used the title

t of this page to linkk to this artiicle, which is preferablle, (Limit Anchor
A
Text Links Under 55 5 Characteers In Lengtth? (I’ve tw weaked this again))
a – Thhat’s 54 chaaracters,
within measured
m toolerance. Buut because ofo my websiite URL struucture and llength, I miight be
losing out
o if peoplee link to thee article usinng the URL L. (http://wwww.hobo-weeb.co.uk/seo o-
blog/inddex.php/ancchor-text-length/) – Unnfortunately y that’s overr 60 characteers, with Gooogle
*possibbly* ignorinng the rich keywords
k at the end of the
t link
What doo you thinkk about this anchor text optimisatio

on observatiion?
Page 17

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Related
d Articles
Google Promotes Uncool

U URL
Ls?
Google recently gaave more assistance to webmasters

w s, if you cann call it thatt, concerning url
rewritinng, or changging dynamiic variable filled
f URL to more seaarch engine friendly, more
m
human readable staatic lookingg URLS (OK K, URI).
They acctually could be interprreted as recoommending

g not to rew
write a website urls, beecause
there is a chance yoou could screw things up.
u
They buusted some ‘myths’ tooo;
1. Myth: “Dynnamic URL

Ls cannot bee crawled.” (knew that))
2. Myth: “Dynnamic URL
Ls are okay if
i you use fewer than thhree parameeters.” (thou
ught
that)
I’ve meentioned beffore having a keyword in a url on its own has a minusculle, if any, efffect on
the rankking of a paage but mayy have somee benefits wh
hen people use the url to link to th
he site (I
think it does).
I do seee what Googgle is doingg – they are telling peop

ple ‘Google can read dyynamic urlss –
that’s what
w I will taake from thhe post…. buut only the most
m ignoraant seo doessn’t know th hat
already.
It’s not exactly in line

l with whhat the W3C
C recommeends, from what I can determine.
In Cooll URIs Don’t Change, they t determmined a SEF url was moore user frieendly, now and a in
the longg term, for humans.
h Some may sayy W3C adviice is outdatted, or trite,, but I still try
t and
follow it
i where I caan. I still beelieve the beest method for construccting urls iss short and to
t the
point – human readdable preferrably. If youu go through h a site CM
MS change, yyou can rew write to
keep oldd urls.
mes it’s hardd to follow even the beest advice, but

Of courrse, sometim b it’s alwaays worth
remembbering and trying
t in thee end to achhieve usabiliity, accessibbility and viisibility.
I wouldd still recom

mmend rewriting urls, despite
d this post
p from thhe Google W Webmaster Team.
Then aggain, this addvice is morre usability orientated than
t a searcch engine opptimisation benefit.
…and interestinglyy, the Googlle Webmastter Blog seeems to prodduce SEF Urrls LOL and d it’s
worth pointing
p outt – Google is not the onnly search en
ngine (I didd say that didn’t I)
Google – How Maany Words In

I A Page Title
T Tag?
Page 18

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Note – This is a test, testing Title Tags in Google. Consider also Google Title Tag Best
Practice and How Many Characters In A Title Tag For Google.
We recently tested “how many keywords will Google read in the title tag / element?”
using our simple seo mythbuster test (number 2 in the series). And here are the results, which
are quite surprising.
First – here’s the test title tag we tried to get Google to swallow. And it did. All of it. Even
though it was a bit spammy;
<title>HoboA HoboB HoboC HoboD HoboE HoboF HoboG HoboH HoboI HoboJ HoboK
HoboL HoboM HoboN HoboO HoboP HoboQ HoboR HoboS HoboT HoboU HoboV HoboW
HoboX HoboY Hob10 Hob20 Hob30 Hob40 Hob50 Hob60 Hob70 Hob80 Hob90 Hob11
Hob12 Hob13 Hob14 Hob15 Hob16 Hob17 Hob18 Hob19 Hob1a Hob1b Hob1c Hob1d
Hob1e Hob1f Hob1g Hob1h</title>
Using a keyword search – hoboA Hob1h – we were surprised to see Google returned our
page. We also tested it using – Hob1g Hob1h – the keywords right at the end of the title – and
again our page was returned.
So that’s 51 words, and 255 characters without spaces, 305 characters with spaces, at
least! It seems clear Google will read just about anything these days!
**************
Update: Qwerty pointed out an interesting fact about the intitle: site operator in Google.
…..results as expected.
But next in the sequence returns the following, unexpected result…..
Page 19

So whaat does this tell
t us? Gooogle seems to t stop at th
he 12th wordd on this paage at least when
w
returninng results ussing the intiitle: site opeerator. Anotther interestting observaation. Thank
ks
Qwertyy.
**************
We’re obviously
o n sure whaat benefit a title
not t tag with
h this manyy keywords in it has forr your
page, inn terms of keyword
k dennsity / dilutiion, and “clickability” in
i the searcch engine results
pages (SSERPS). 500+ words is certainly noot best pracctice!
When creating
c youur title tag bear
b in mindd Google on
nly shows yoou the first 70 characteers
(about 8 words) in SERPS andd many thinnk you need d to get a weell formed uunderstandabble call
to action in this spaace.
But from
m this simpple experimeent, its clearr Google reads much more
m to factoor your pag
ge in the
serps. A lot more.
1. SEO Myth Buster #1 – Google Prrefers Valid

d HTML & CSS?
C
2. SEO Myth Buster #2 – How Manny Words In n Your Title Tag For Gooogle?
But whaat about Yaahoo and MSN? Well so far, neitheer of these engines
e has indexed thee page,
even whhen it was created
c withh a title tag of
o 26 wordss. They are obviously a bit choosieer than
Google at the time of writing.
• Character Counter
C Toool
Update – Check thhis out aboutt Google annd Spammy Page Titless!
What Iss The Best Title

T Tag Foor Google?
Page 20

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I’m keeping these 1 A Day SEO Tips in July quick and simple – and again, this is just my
preference, backed up with observations I’ve made over the last few years I’ve been learning
/ practicing seo. This is the stuff people ask me on a daily basis at my seo company – What Is
The Best Title Tag For Google?
<title>What Is The Best Title Tag For Google?</title>

Title Tag Best Practices
For me, a perfect title tag in Google is;
1. Highly relevant to the page

2. The ‘crown’ of a keyword targeted article with keyword once
3. Probably 5-12 words, but ideally under the 70 characters limit, so the full title appears
in Google SERPS (search engine results pages) but it depends on the page content –
character counter.
4. A call to action which reflects exactly a searcher’s intent (i.e. to learn something, or
buy something, or hire something. Remember this is your hook in search engines!
5. The perfect title tag is unique in relation to other pages on the site
6. I like to ensure my keywords feature as early as possible in a title tag
7. For me, the company name goes at the end of the tag, and I use a variety of dividers
as no one way performs best
8. I like to think I write titles for search engines and human
9. Know that Google tweaks everything regularly – why not what the perfect title keys
off?
10. Don’t obsess! Natural is better, and will only ‘get better’ as engines evolve
11. I think the more unique a title is relative to the site, the better in the long run. For
instance, I’m probably going to change the title of our blog, to just ‘Hobo’ – one
word. If all my titles were different and had ten words, that’s a 90% variation title to
title. I like this and will be moving towards it. I would expect Google to reward this
lol
Note;
When you write a page title, you have a chance right at the beginning of the page to tell
Google if this is a spammy site or a quality site – for example – have you repeated the
keyword 4 times or only once? I think title tags, like everything else, should probably be as
simple as possible too, with the keyword once and perhaps a related term if possible.
I think it’s fair to surmise Google might treat title tags (or title elements) on more
authoritative domains differently than on new sites, too, that is, as with other things, more
trusted domains might get away with more spammy titles, but from a user point of view and
with searcher intent (and Google’s commitment to this) at the forefront, I’d try and keep
things as simple and looking as human-generated and unique as possible.
I’m certainly cleaning up the way I write my titles all the time. How do you do it?
Page 21

How To Get Quality Back Links The Top Competition Has
Here’s a quick strategy to get quality links anyone can do – it’s white hat and gets you
pagerank, trust, authority and rankings. Depending on the type of niche you’re in, you may
have to go slightly off-topic in your linkbuilding efforts, but these are real quality links – the
type SEO talk about but many don’t actually explain where to get them.
I build links through content of course:
1. Identify the top ranking sites in the vertical you’re observing

2. Identify the top ranking sites top linked-to articles, and the highest Toolbar PR pages
on their site using a tool like Yahoo Site Explorer (which does a pretty good job of
listing pages by the amount of links they have) – consider running it through
LinkDiagnosis too for PR values
3. In turn, pick out the sites that link to those sites – chances are you’ll find these pages
have a lot of PR and are trusted by Google.
4. Where relevant create similar but original, perhaps more up to date content on your
site
5. Contact the sites that link to competing sites, and send them a link to your page,
asking politely if it might be relevant to their visitors too.
You only need a couple to come off and you have a few links on high PR pages (I’ve done
this with pages PR0-PR9 before) and more importantly Google will trust your site more.
The steps are easy, but can be a drawn out process. Worthwhile though every now and again
to get.
It’s not a get quality links fast game, it’s just a get quality links game.
Page 22

Related Articles
Go Off Topic & Get Natural Links From Trusted Sites
A lot of SEO & Internet Marketing blogs will say pump out a lot of relevant content on your
blog, build a resource all around a specific subject. Even Google says to do the same. What
you won’t normally hear is to improve your traffic, improve the number and quality of your
links to your website is to go off topic…. write about anything that is timely – especially
when it’s even slightly topical.
While on the whole of course that’s good advice, I’ve went off topic on a number of times.
Because of that I’ve been linked to by authority sites that wouldn’t link to a seo company
normally.
I had a PR 9 link once because I wrote about something ‘slightly’ off topic. Today I was
linked to a .edu on a ‘slightly‘ off topic subject to an article I wrote 2 years ago. Last week
this site got a home page link on what I can only determine was the Brazilian version of
TechCrunch and sent me nearly 5,000 visitors on a link that was buried 4 pages in on the
article (to an article that was a year old). The link was to a ‘slightly’ off topic subject area but
I rank number 1 for in that competitive but similar niche.
When you go off topic into less competitive niches, you have a better chance of ranking on
the first page of Google. If you are the number 1 link in a SERP, you wouldn’t believe the
amount of natural links you get just because you are already No1 – it truly is a self re-
inforcing effect and can be a powerful way to attract links over time. The number 1 position
truly is a self reinforcing position especially if there’s any semblance of a natural linking
profile in that particular keyword vertical – i.e. tutorials, research, how-to etc.
These links from trusted sites help ranking your content – especially your new content. A
natural link from a trusted site (or even a more trusted site than yours) can do nothing but
help your site. I would think when a trusted site links to your site, the trust Google places in
your site because of that link raises your own trust levels, and while not helping you rank
immediately for your main terms, can help you when you publish new content in the future.
Of course if the off topic trusted site links to you with good keywords you don’t get much
better.
Now for sure, I don’t go that far off topic so my links are even better for linkbuilding
purposes. Sometimes I’ll write about something we intend to do in a few months so it’s of use
long term.
But certainly, going off topic every now and again, especially with a helpful article on
your blog certainly gets you links, sometimes tons of traffic, some you wouldn’t normally
receive in your boring niche. And you know you can monetise anything if you can be
bothered and take advantage of any page that’s been linked to heavily.
Sometimes it’s surprising the quality of links you get.
Page 23

How I Got 5000 Real Backlink
ks In 2 Minutes
This is something similar
s to thhe linkbuildding tactic I laid down in
i my last ppost. It’s all about
spottingg opportunitty.
Only laast week I ussed a very simple

s methhod to get 5000 links froom a PR 5 siite with oveer 3000
links to it. Yes a REAL
R site. Best
B of all, I’ve
I used the same method to conttact 10 otherr sites
with exxactly the saame request about the exact
e same matter.
m I’ve used this m
method quitee a bit
over thee last couplee of years.
Lookingg at the SERRPS I was interested

i inn, I spotted an
a expired suspended
s ddomain thatt was
rankingg for a term I cherishedd. The site was
w actually suspended,, and had beeen like thatt for the
last six months. Thhere was no content on the site, so I knew imm mediately itt was the strrength
of the inncoming baacklinks alonne that was keeping thiis high. I coould of courrse look to buyb the
expiredd domain (buut it belongs to a comppetitor – I’m m sure if I exxpressed a vvalue in it I’’d lose
out!)
So I rann the expiredd suspendedd domain thhrough a baccklink checker, identifi

fied the mosst
powerfuul links, conntacted the site
s owners in question n and explaiined to themm:
1. They were linking to a dead site (and

( had beeen that way for 6 monthhs)
2. I had exactlly the same (nay betterr and up-to-date) contennt on a site that they co
ould
link to if thhey wished.
Not onlly did I get a friendly email thankiing me for pointing

p outt they had broken links on
their sitte (broken liinks are nevver a good thing),
t I now
w have 500 new links oon a real sitee
pointingg to my sitee.
Linkbuiilding for me
m is all aboout opportunnity – spotting it and acctioning it too get real baacklinks
from real sites. If you
y can see a win-win (something
( as simple as
a links in reeturn for po ointing
out another site hass broken linnks on it) jump on it.
If you can’t
c see win-wins – yoou’re not a linkbuilder
l – hire someebody lol.
Part of linkbuildingg month forr beginners At Hobo!
By the way,
w the ressult is I now
w rank and that
t suspend
ded domain has sunk – oops
Related
d Articles
Broken Links Are A Waste Of Link Pow

wer
Page 24

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The best piece of advice I ever read about creating a website / optimising a website was years
ago:
Make sure all your pages link to at least one other in your site
This advice is still sound today and the most important piece of advice out there in my
opinion. Yes it’s so simple it’s stupid.
Check your pages for broken links. Seriously, broken links are a waste of link power and
could hurt your site, drastically in some cases. Google is a link based search engine – if your
links are broken and your site is chock full of 404s you might not be at the races.
Here’s the second best piece of advice in my opinion seeing as we are just about talking
about website architecture;
Link to your important pages often internally, with varying anchor text in the navigation and
in page text content
…. especially if you do not have a lot of Pagerank to begin with!
Page 25

Findiing Susp
pended Websites & Link
k Opporttunities With Go
oogle
I thoughht it was woorth a post specifically
s on finding suspended accounts with Google. I really
don’t want
w to causee other sitess trouble, soo most of mym tips you’vve got to use your brain
n a bit.
Here’s an examplee:
Basically, you find d suspendedd accounts using Goo ogle which are
a related to your site, find
out whoo links to thhem, and conntact the linnking sites informing
i thhem they linnk to a dead
d
/suspennded accounnt, and ask thhem to linkk to yours innstead.
Examplle – here’s the

t first onee that poppeed into my head:
h Toys & ” “suspeended accou unt” –
bingo – number 1 listing
l is a site
s with aboout 35 linkss (see here
http://w
www.googlee.co.uk/searcch?q=toys+ +”account+ssuspended”)) from otherr sites using g yahoo
site expplorer. Repeeat ad nauseeum till you find decentt link opporrtunities – itt’s not just
“suspennded accounnts” you loook for eitherr
Using thhis strategyy you’re cleaaning up thee web, gettiing backlinkks and helpiing webmassters
removee deadlinks on o their sitee. OK, so yoou’re screwiing the susppended webbsite a little, but it’s
suspendded for a reaason, and haas been thatt way for soome time or Google woouldn’t havee it in its
index.
This woorks especiaally well forr How-To Content

C and Tutorials etc and helps you build the
trust annd authority of your sitee.
It’s a doog eat dog world

w out thhere lol
Page 26

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Link Building – Should I Avoid Reciprocal Links?
A lot of seo will say avoid reciprocal links because they are less benefit today. Some years
ago it had seemed apparent that ranking improvements via reciprocal linking strategies had
been to a large extent nullified. I remember reading in the forums something like a 90%
reduction in effectiveness – statistics, eh?
Theory – If someone links to my site, and I don’t link back to them, that’s said to be a good
link. A one way link. When you link back to that site, that’s what a reciprocal link is.
If a very trusted site links to my site, and gave me a ranking boost, am I expected to believe
that linking back to them will remove my ranking boost? I don’t believe that to be the case. I
don’t think it aligns what Google is trying to do (when not trying to make money) – i.e.
improve their search results.
When a trusted site, or a site with online business authority, links to a site it deems
trustworthy, and boosts rankings to improve its SERPS in line with its algo, it’s not going to
dump that site back down the rankings just because it reciprocates.
Linking back to a site that links to you is actually a very common thing on the web. All these
links build your own sites trust and authority in Google, which you can unlock with fresh
topical content via a blog for instance – which I think is more useful these days than ranking
for a major keyterm.
Consider the small site that links to its industry body, and a year down the line the small site
is a big player, with links from the industry body. Is that link useless?
I would think Google is a lot smarter than that, at some level anyway.
I think Google would at all times take into account the trust and authority of the sites in
question.
Perhaps in the algo it’s about who links first, but even then, I think it’s about HOW
TRUSTED the MOST TRUSTED SITE IS IN THE PARTNERSHIP and whether or not
Google will like the links. I would think trust in a site lifts it out of the normal filters Google
applies to low quality sites, or untrusted sites.
My rule of thumb is I don’t mind reciprocating links at all, especially if the other site is
more authoritative or is highly relevant to my audience and I never use low quality
reciprocal linking between untrusted sites as an actual ranking improvement strategy.
I never answer reciprocal linking request emails, or send them out. I never link to a site JUST
BECAUSE THEY LINK TO ME, because the chances are, they are linking to any site out
there regardless or not if it is in, or has the potential to be one day, a bad neighbourhood, and
Google reserves the right to penalise you badly if you link to one of these.
Page 27

So:
• avoid low quality reciprocal links where possible, and avoid get-links-quick schemes
• try and get other sites to link to you first, Google has a LONG memory
• don’t worry about reciprocating links with real trusted sites
• don’t use reciprocal links as a ranking improvement strategy – get those kind of links
elsewhere
• don’t just link to just anyone, especially just because they link to you
Of course, you could robots.txt out of nofollow links you give to other sites but generally
speaking it’s bad karma – better to play nice, where possible.
Page 28

Linkb
buildingg Tip – Syyndicatee The $h
h!# Out Of Your Contentt Via
RSS!
You will see a lot of
o people beemoaning other
o peoplee nicking theeir content aand using itt to
power crappy
c spam
m sites plasttered with Adsense.
A Wh hile this is a real conceern, generallly
speakinng I don’t mind
m people republishinng my conteent (on this sites anywayy – hey it’s creative
c
commoons seo anyw way) as longg as they linnk back to th
he original article.
Syndicaating via RS
SS is a greatt way of addding links to
o your link profile, andd driving traaffic to
your sitte.
ALWA AYS link to other

o articlees on your blog
b in an arrticle you write, even if it’s just sp
pam
blogs thhat are scrapping your coontent.
If you are
a using Wordpress,
W use a plugin like Joost DeD Valk’s RSS
R Footer pplugin, which
places a link back tot your articcle in the foooter of you
ur RSS feed so when peeople nick your
y
feed theey are linkbbuilding to your
y site, whhich is nice.
w RSS synndication (if you are a content provider) is friightening, in

The posssibilities with n terms
of linkbbuilding andd instant proomotion whhen syndicatted to places picked upp by Google news.
I’ve donne quite a bit

b of this ovver the last year
y especiaally.
• ENSURE you’re
y feed is pinging Google
G Blogg search, piingomatic annd preferabbly
feedburner etc
• and ensure the feed haas links backk to the orig
ginal article,, because ulltimately yo
ou want
Google to recognise
r yoour content on your site as the origginal sourcee
• Always linkk to other pages on youur site in anny article – you
y should bbe doing th his
anyway!
• If I am despperate to maake sure myy site is defiinitely the first
fi site Gooogle picks the
t
content up on, I’ll hit publish,
p go to Feedburn ner, sync myy feed in Trroublehootize and
pull it in myy Feedreadeer just to bee sure Goog
gle knows exxactly wherre it found itt first.
nother site. Before I hit publish, th

Some tiime ago I diid a quick teest with an article on an here
was no exact matchh in Googlee or Yahoo for f the exacct title of thee article. Noow, there arre still
127,0000 mentions of the articlle in Yahoo. A month ago a there were over 300,000 menttions of
the articcle.
All I didd was publiish a blog arrticle.
Syndicaating your content

c is goood news iff you know what
w you’ree doing so practice a biit –
results vary
v of courrse
PS – Neever, ever, ever

e link baack to the sittes syndicatting your feeeds, in casee Google deecides it
actuallyy is just a sccraper site.
Page 29

free seo quote
q / cost estimate.

One other thing to note – while these sites can send you traffic and link back to you, their
whole aim is to get people to their site and usually you’ll find them plastered with distractions
to keep them from clicking through to your site.
In the end, it depends on your intent and how compelling your call to visit the original site is.
You do control that!
The next article is a bit of a theory……
Is It Diversity Of Keywords In Link Profile That’s King?
No this isn’t an article about backlinks beating content because we know the right backlinks
keep nearly blank pages high in Google – for months at a time. It’s just a theory so feel free
to discuss with me in the comments. Bit of a ramble. I’m thinking about this and looking for
exceptions, or evidence against, and to start an honest discussion. I’m fed up pumping info
out; I’d prefer to start a discussion on this one.
It’s about ranking in Google or not ranking. Based on observations.
Links affect rankings, more, they even PERMIT rankings. If you haven’t got the keywords
in links you won’t feature and you certainly won’t rank.
Content is king, especially for humans, but that content can’t rank without links. I often
wonder if Google needs the keyword you want to rank for in the site’s link profile. If it’s not
in this link profile for your site, you won’t rank.
You get the keywords in your link profile by
• getting links from other websites (primary)

• internal navigation links (secondary)
I’m wondering if Google treats a page title as a tertiary link if the first two signals aren’t
clear enough and especially if the content is well cited (but with poor anchor text)?)
The relationship between content and links is incestuous and can’t be separated. I think seo
zones. To rank it needs to be in your link profile and in your content, more specifically in:
1. Links
2. Title
3. Content
In that order. Google is making it harder to rank without having the keyword in these zones.
Even though the title is 2nd in my list, you can quickly see how pivotal your page title is. I
mean can you even rank what’s more important out of the 3?
Adding a made up keyword to a page invites the supplementals to kick in with different rules
– letting content rank without links (I think).
Page 30

In norm
mal serps yoou can have the word onn the page butb because it is not in the link pro ofile it
won’t rank. Thouggh in a page title, it mayy rank, throw
w in an inteernal link orr backlink, it
i will
rank. I’m talking keywords
k heere not phraases.
Perhap ps authorityy sites rank k because of

o their link
k profile, noot the contennt (although
h, of
course, they woulddn’t have thaat link profi
file without that
t contentt!) – But I aam talking about
a
the actuual wheels thhat are playy here.
I don’t think
t I needd LOTS moore content on o one pagee, I think I need
n LOTS more titles and
words in my link profile
p – thee content jusst backs thiss up (a strannge thought if you think
k about
it). So in effect for new pages you can geet away with h less contennt (more maay increase long
tail searrches).
So it’s not
n content I am addingg, I am add ding important keywoords (and d diversity of these)
to my link profile. More links less conteent – and I’m m still not liinkbuilding yet. You caan do a
lot of thhis via internnal links onn a strong doomain.
So for ranking,
r th
he most imp
portant is:
1. Diversity of
o keywords in your enttire link pro
ofile
2. Diversity oof keywords in your pagge title
3. Content (ennough to maake a page relevant
r to the keywordds it can rannk for)
If you thhink this waay you can get pages thhat don’t ran
nk to rank, quite easilyy. and you don’t
d
need to buy 100 crrappy links from
f domaiiners (althou ugh that cann work too llol).
But yess you can geet to the endd of this artiicle and say so links beeat content, and yes, theey can,
but youu’ve missed the point off what I am m on about or o my writinng has confuused – sorry y.
Mmmm
m…. I don’t think I neeeded this muuch content!!
Note peerhaps I am not thinkinng about thiss the right way.

w If someeone can heelp, let me know
and yess of course I know theree are other things
t at plaay too.
PSST – Did you seee our new SEO

S Refereence Guide For Beginnners? I certaainly didn’t need
that muuch content, but hey I went
w for it
Link Too Importantt Pages In Your

Y Site – Often
O
I’ve meentioned this before. Onnsite, one of the most important

i thhings you caan do, is lin
nk to
important pages often.
o I usedd a ‘links-arre-lasers‘analogy last year
y which I still use today.
1. Links Are Lasers

L
2. Linking Too A Page Heeats Up A Page
P
3. Pages Get Hot
H Or Coldd Dependinng On Numb
ber & Qualiity Of The Links To It
4. Cold Pagess Don’t Rannk For Sh*t
5. Hot Pages Rank!
R
Page 31

free seo quote
q / cost estimate.

In the diagram above, this is how I optimise sites. I focus on the main pages in the structure,
the pages we need to rank at any one time (especially on a new site). I make sure I link to
these pages more than any other – and it appears, by doing so, Google does see these as
important pages on my site.
You can achieve this with secondary navigation arrays and links in content, but I would err
on the safe side, and vary your anchor text as much as possible. And don’t just link for
linking sake.
Remember, links from other websites also heat up pages. Make sure you link to other
relevant pages from these hot pages, to spread the heat throughout the site.
I’d go one step further and say link to your important pages from your home page.
1. Optimize A Website Structure

2. SEO Heat Analogy
What Is Nofollow? Should I Use It On Internal Links?
Adding rel=”nofollow” to a link effectively stops a link being a link, as far as Google is
concerned. This means the link does not count as a vote, does not pass page rank, nor topical
Page 32

relevance(!). For innstance, moost blog com
mments are nofollow linnks, unlike this blog;
<a href="http://www.hobo
o-web.co.u
uk/" rel="
"nofollow"
">Hobo</a>
>
There are
a a lot of people
p who argue everyy single thinng about nofollow and PR. That no ofollow
links paass PR, that you cannott sculpt page rank becaause you cannnot see it. I think nofo
ollow is
as Googgle says effe
fectively a non-link
n – annd I think you
y can scullpt PR, just not ‘accuraately’
lol.
You cann certainly control

c PR on a granular level (paage by page in this casee) – i.e. whicch page
gets avaailable Google PR.
Some thhink, if thatt’s the case, you can scuulpt Pageran nk, and chaannel page rrank to impoortant
pages inn a site. Forr instance – adding nofo
follow to yo our contact page,
p or discclaimer, or privacy
policy. I’m attemptting to get tot the end of this seriess before I mention
m Pageerank, as it really
r is
not som
mething youu should be thatt concernned about. You Y get pagge rank by bbuilding link ks to
your sitte – PR is a by product. Just get linnks.
I think it
i was Matt Cutts from
m Google whho said (paraaphrasing);
1. Yes, it’s okk to do this

2. Yes, it can have a ’second order effect’ (cryp
ptic as usuall)
I tested it, and as faar as I am concerned, on a 300 pag

ge site at leaast, any visiible benefit is
microsccopic.
Unlike some of thee White Hatt Shock Trooops, I have no problem

m using it, bbut I would prefer
p
to keep it to a miniimum, and, old school, sculpt PR by
b having an
a intelligennt navigationn
system.
As I saiid, I have noo problem using

u it. It’s up to you. And Matt Cutts was teelling the tru
uth –
it’s veryy much a seecond order effect, if noot less.
I am using it on thee Hobo site at the mom

ment, althouggh most of it will be gooing shortly
y. I will
be keepping the noffollow link on
o my homee page, to en nsure the linnk back to m
my home paage is a
keyworrd. Just old habit
h really. (ED that’ss long gone too becausee it doesn’t work like th
hat)
Nofolloow can be a ‘complicated’ construcct, dependin

ng on who you are listeening to. I go into it
more inn the article;;
• http://www
w.hobo-web..co.uk/seo-bblog/index.p
php/sculpt-ppagerank-noofollow/
If you have
h never heard
h of Rel=”nofollow
w” before, probably
p best to forget about it – but I
thoughtt it best to toouch on it
Page 33

free seo quote
q / cost estimate.

Buying Old Domains & Redirect Them To Get High Rankings
Say you see an old site that is ranking in Google for a lot of terms and there is an opportunity
to buy that domain and redirect it to your site – will you keep those Google rankings?
I’ve not actually bought someone else’s domain for a long term myself, but I’ve redirected
plenty.
The way I see it, Google ranks pages because of the trust of a particular domain it’s on, the
links that point to it and the content it has on it. If you keep most of these intact, buying old
domains and redirecting them to similar content shouldn’t be a problem.
Even when redirecting pages, I usually ensure page titles and content are very similar on both
pages if I want to keep particular rankings.
Be careful though – Google is under no obligation to redirect domains and transfer rankings,
and has said as much, as plenty of folk have been involved in bait and switch strategies. AND
I would keep such things under the radar as possible, and I’d also worry about changing the
actual registrant’s name on the domain in case it’s reset.
Google has offered via webmaster tools a method to validate both sites (not needed in my
experience but perhaps worth it if you are shelling out a lot of cash) and redirect via 301
redirects.
Related Articles
How To Change Domain Names & Keep Your Rankings in Google
We’ve all been there. Sometimes when you rebrand, you want to transfer your old domain to
a shiny new web address. Many don’t realise though that you should actually ensure you
transfer the age, authority and trust your site has in Google to this new web address.
Traditionally when I move one domain to another, I usually just stick a few 301 instructions
in an htaccess and start getting links to the new domain. I’ve always found it pretty painless
although I can appreciate it’s easy to screw up if you don’t know what you’re doing.
Now you can actually tell Google about your domain name change in Google Webmaster
Tools.
If you’ve moved your site to a new domain, you can use the address tool to tell Google about
your new URL. We’ll update our index to reflect your new URL. Changes will stay in effect
for 180 days, by which time we’ll have crawled and indexed the pages at your new URL. The
change of address tool is safe, because only verified site owners can use it. You can check the
tool at any time to see the information provided to Google about your domains.
Page 34

This new tool from Google will be handy for some, though, you’ll still need to know your
way about some technical aspects to use it. See moving your website to another domain.
301 Ways Of Getting A No1 In Google > Moved Permanently!
It amazes me more people don’t use the search engine friendly 301 Redirect (Moved
Permanently) to capture top positions, especially when they control satellite sites for
particular keywords, that rank well, or even are in the top ten serps.
I see satellite sites all the time ranking for good keywords, but the actual satellite sites
themselves are often garbage and usually outdated – sometimes not exactly a compliment to
the main brand site.
Recently I decided to 301 an unbranded satellite site (or mini site) into the main site of the
company as I am fast falling out of love with the mini-site strategy. Creating 10 (interlinked)
sites in a crowd out strategy for one serp is embarrassing to me nowadays but it is a technique
I used years ago. I just prefer having the one main site to seo now and working to increase
that sites authority and trust – managing 10 sites usually means a lot of them won’t get the
time spent on them to actually convert the traffic to leads and sales.
Absorbing the satellite site would at least ensure these old pages previously on the satellite
site where more likely to be kept up to date on the corporate site, and at the same time, the
actual corporate website, well branded, now ranked for the competitive term.
Page 35

You can see from the illustration above and below when I achieved the no1 position with the
satellite site, the actual corporate site was actually taken in a slightly different direction.
I wanted to make the main company site (in Green) be the number one result, and basically I
wanted the mini-site to vanish, but transfer all itsGoogle juice / Google ‘heat’ and good
rankings (as well as 600 visitors a day) to the corporate site.
The diagram shows it seems to have worked exactly as expected.
Page 36

I completed this utilising the oft forgotten about (but perfectly white-hat) search engine
friendly 301 Permanent Redirect in the .htaccess file on the old site (in red) to the corporate
site (in Green).
redirect 301 /old.htm http://www.example.com/new.htm
I ensured the new page on the corporate site was basically very similar in theme to page that
Google currently ranked at No1 in the SERPS, so Googlebot wouldn’t think I was up to
anything other than transfer rankings I had earned largely through organic links and ninja
linkbaiting & linkbuilding on the old site.
The end result is very satisfying as:
1. The main site now ranks no1 in Google

2. The main site now has absorbed the authority and trust of the old page which should
help its overall domain trust score in the search engines.
3. The page is now branded with the corporate id = better brand visibility
4. Inexperienced linkbuilders will be scratching their head for ages to come wondering
what has happened and how the main site actually ranks at No1 in their attempt to
reverse-engineer that particular serp.
It took about 2 days to actually see the old site disappear in Google and for the redirect to
take effect.
A ‘new’ no1 position and 600 more visitors to the main site each day.
Page 37

Links From Unrelated Sites
You do not always need to get links from related sites (in your niche, subject area) to rank
better in Google.
I’ve engineered better rankings for sites getting links from unrelated sites so I would say
getting links from unrelated sites is not a bad thing in itself.
It really depends on the sites in question, what you’re linking to, and the intent.
It’s a bit of a band-aid though. I’ve only used that method for clients who seem incapable or
unwilling to add content to their site and to be honest I am moving away from those kinds of
clients all the time.
For maximum impact, it’s far more important to try and aim for links from related pages at
least – i.e. a page with a good page title etc with your desired keywords in it.
A link on a page on an unrelated website with a measure of domain trust / authority

discussing your subject area is worth its weight in Gold. I’ve actually increased rankings
from unrelated pages too, though.
I am not saying don’t get links from related sites – the audience and traffic possibilities alone
make links from related sites worth it. I’m just saying links from unrelated sites work just as
well sometimes.
The same goes for linking to unrelated sites.
And I’m not advising getting links from unrelated sites or to use this strategy as the only
linkbuilding strategy you employ, in case I upset the white hat shock troops.
I just think a link from any real site is a decent link.
It’s easy for seo to advise “get links from related sites….” – it’s safe, it’s what Google wants
to see, it seems to compliment some of Google’s ranking algorithms – that’s why they do it.
Just don’t discount links from unrelated sites as useless – they are clearly not.
Page 38

Related Articles
Google Trusts Domain Online Business Authority
So Google calls it online business authority?
Basically, you have a ‘popular’ site a lot of other sites link to. Perhaps a site which has a lot
of links from other online business authorities too. An OBA usually has a decent amount of
traffic too. This is what Google calls it anyways.
Amazon has a lot of online business authority…. (Official Google Webmaster Blog)
SEO more usually talk about domain trust and domain authority based on the number, type
and quality of incoming links to a site.
Examples of trusted, authority domains include Wikipedia, the W3C and Apple. How do you
become an OBA? Through a killer brand or service, usually a lot of useful content on your
site and through telling a lot of people about the excellent content on your site.
How do you take advantage of being an online business authority? Either you turn the site
into a SEO Black Hole (only for the very biggest brands) or you pump out information – like
all the time. On any subject.
Can you (on a smaller scale in certain niches) mimic an online business authority by
recognising what OBA does for Google, and why Google ranks these high in search result?
These provide THE service, THE content, THE experience. This takes a lot of work and a lot
of time to create, or even mimic.
In fact, as a SEO, I honestly think the content route is the only sustainable way for a most
businesses to try to achieve OBA at least in their niche or locale. I concede a little ninja
linkbuilding goes a long way to help, and you have certainly got to get out there and tell
others about your site…
Have other relevant sites link to yours. Google Webmaster Guidelines
Page 39

Are Directory Links Still Worth It?
The problem with trying to answer such a generic question is that not all directory sites are
treated equally. Some are good sites, and some are spam. Inbetween the vast majority of
directories are just so wide in depth and so narrow in keyword diversity and so strung out in
terms of pagerank (or ranking ability) and full of pages Google doesn’t want to list in search
results to make them very low quality links to your site.
From my experience (and I’ve tested recently) I’ve never seen a site penalised by MANUAL
directory submissions to any directory site nor by building these links over time. On the other
hand, I’ve never seen a site really benefit from having a lot of directory links in the last
couple of years. Perhaps there’s a massive grey area between these two that means spammy
tactics actually would give you a better result, but I don’t know, I’ve not pushed in this
direction for years.
The time spent manually submitting to directories is often better spent elsewhere like adding
a page to your blog and hoping you get somebody to link to it. Niche Local business
directories are another matter though. If there’s a local business directory for your area, you
should be in it especially if it’s unpaid.
If you have an exact match domain, that might be another reason for you to consider
directory link building strategies.
One thing’s for sure, most directories send you little or no traffic and on their own in little
numbers have little impact in SERPS.
The only directory I use (every now and again) at the moment is Yahoo, and generally, that’s
for brand new sites or sites with low quality or no incoming links. Results can vary dependent
on of course the levels of competition in your niche.
• I don’t pay any directory, other than Yahoo, to be listed (and for brand new sites and
even then, I question the actual cost/roi more and more) – Hobo does not have a link
in it as I knew I was going to actively add content / linkuild to pick up links and I
wouldn’t expect any ranking improvement by getting it listed now (20,000 links later)
• Dmoz is worth considering in a long term strategy – submit to Dmoz and forget it –
but one other tip if you want to become an editor if you are a SEO – LIE
THORUGH YOUR TEETH ON THE SUBMISION FORM AT EVERY STEP if you
want listed!
In summary – I wouldn’t bother with directory links at all if you’re actively linkbuilding.
Better to get those links elsewhere. Directory link building can be good for muddying your
link profile in a long term strategy.
Update – Eric Ward knows a thing or two about link building and I found this recent article
of his a good read and it’s largely about building links via directory submissions – What If
Everything You Knew About Linkbuilding Was Wrong (I think about this a couple of times a
day lol)
Page 40

Do Article Submissions & Press Releases Still Work?
The answer is yes, supremely well in terms of promoting your site rather than improving your
website ranking in Google. The question is, where you syndicate your articles to, and in
turn, which news and press outlets pick those articles up for maximum exposure, and also
if those articles on the submission site have a chance of ranking themselves.
I avoid article submission sites these days, although they can still be useful. The problem is
the competition is so intense in these places, why bother if you can cut them out altogether?
The first place for your articles is your own blog, next, it’s getting those article noticed via
social media sites and your articles syndicated to other sites. I’ve done that a lot in the past on
this blog, but shortly, I’m going to spend a bit of time away from the blog, and add articles to
other sites and do a few guest posts I have lined up to get more traffic ultimately, to this blog.
I don’t do mass article spinning, each article is unique. I want the actual article to rank and
the links to my client website to count for something, every time, so I minimise duplicate
content issues by rewriting everything. I prefer to do HOW TO articles, or Press releases that
point out USEFUL CONTENT on a particular site. I also limit the number of articles on one
PR release site before I move on to another to maximise ranking ability for individual
articles.
One thing to note about article syndication is your capturing traffic for another site, which
does its best to nick the attention of your hard earned visitor to its own content. So 500
people might read your article and only 10 people might actually click through to your
website. If you’re seeking attention and mindshare, that might be useful for people to be
reading your content, but the point of the article and the call to action need to be thought out
extremely carefully.
In summary, I’d rather create articles than say chase directory linkbuilding strategies.
Page 41

Related Articles
How To Get Started In Social Media | Shana Albert
4 Steps to a Successful Start in Social Media
The difference between the web of a few years ago and the web today is Social Media.
Social Media is basically communication online. That doesn’t sound too complicated, huh?
But for many beginners it can be. There are many different forms of Social Media… many
different ways of communicating online.
Getting involved in Social Media can be intimidating. So much so that you might not know
where to even begin. There is Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Plurk, Mixx, Digg. There are
blogs, forums, wikis, photo sharing, vlogging (video blogging), and others. They are all
different, so which do you devote your time to?
In this post I’m going to get back to the very beginning….I’m going to explain the very
basics of how to get started with Social Media.
1) Figure out what you want to get out of Social Media
Ask yourself the question, “What do I want to get out of Social Media?” The answer to this
question should direct you to the type of Social Media activities you should participate in….
What activities you will benefit the most from. If you are looking to network online with
people who share your passion for swimming then joining Digg is probably not the most
productive way to go about that.
Below I made a quick chart of common Social Media activities and what needs they meet.
Please keep in mind that this chart just gives you a small piece of a much bigger picture.
There are many more social media activities and tons more Social Networking sites;
SOCIAL
PERSONAL USE BUSINESS USE
MEDIA
Blogging • Create a Journal or a • Add a blog to an established
Diary website to add updated content
• Write as a hobby about often
anything • create a Blog as a Business in
• Allows you to have itself (i.e. eCommerce, Google
conversations with others Adsense, Affiliate Programs)
regarding your Blogging • Allows you to communicate
Topic with your customers/clients.
• Establish yourself as an expert
in your field.
Page 42

Forums • Ask Questions & get • Answering questions can help
Answers establish you as a known expert
• Meet others with the same in your field.
interest. • Answers to your unknown
business related questions
• Branding
MicroBlogging • Fun Chit Chat • Create a Buzz

• Keep in Contact with • Occasional Links to Posts and
Friends & Family Product Pages
• Business/Industry Networking
• Branding
Video Sharing • Keep Family & Friends in • Great way to let other people
the “know” as to what is know about your business &
going on in your life. what you have to offer. Show
• Find humorous videos off your products or services.
• Find “how to” videos. • Help with Universal Search
Photo Sharing • Another wonderful way • Put images of your products and
to share memories with services online. Another way for
family and friends…. viewers/clients/customers to
anytime online. find you
• Helps with Universal Search
Social • Friends – MySpace, • Jobs, Professional – LinkedIn,

Networking Facebook, Friends The Square, Yahoo Kickstart
Abroad • Industry – Radiologist, Fashion
• Relationships – Crazy , Art, Marketing
Blind Date, • Tips, Answers, Suggestions –
• Animals – DoggySpace, SpongeFish, Yahoo! Answers
Animal Internet, Petster • Traffic – Digg, Mixx, Reddit
• Virtual Communities – • Fancy Dress – Costumes
Playdo, Habbo , Whyville
• Family / Parenting – Got
Kids Network,
BabyChums, Parenting
• Hobbies – Sports, Music,
Reading, Car
Enthusiasts
• Social News – Digg,
Mixx, Reddit
Page 43

Again, the above chart is simply a tiny piece of social media activities and what you can do
there. There is so much more, as a matter of fact, many of the above Social Media activities
and Social Networking sites can be used for either business or personal. It is all in how you
use it….. in who you network with.
2) Create your Profiles
Once you have determined what Social Sites you want to be a member of it is time to create
your Profile.
This task should not be taken lightly. It is extremely important to get the profile perfect
because this is the first impression other members of the community will get of you. And, we
all know the saying, “You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression”.
I know very cliché, but also very true. Your profile is how community members will begin to
get to know you. What you have in your profile will tell other community members a bit
about you…. will help members determine if that want to check you out further.
What is it you want other members of the community to know about you?
• Avatar – Do NOT use the default avatar. These get ignored. Not only do the default
avatars get ignored, but community members feel these members aren’t very serious
about the community.
• Profile Name – This is the name you want the community to know you by. Make this
name memorable. If you are networking for business purposes think of using your
Company Name…. great for branding purposes.
• Profile Details – Take a few extra minutes to come up with a great description of
yourself and/or your business. It shouldn’t be too long… just long enough to tell the
important things about you and/or your business. If it is too long members might not
take too much time to read the entire thing. So, keep it short, but detailed.
• Website Links – If you have websites that you would like to let others know about
and you are able to add links to your profiles….then do it. Active members of Social
Networking Communities will most likely be checking your profile out. If you have
links in your profile you have a pretty good chance of members clicking on them to
check out your sites.
3) Learn the Community
Learn the Ins & Outs of being an active and genuine member of that particular community.
I know…. boring & unnecessary, right?! Wrong!!
• One of the things that can get you started on the wrong foot with any community is
doing something that is against the Terms of Service (TOS). For example, my
favourite Social Site is StumbleUpon. But, you can get kicked off of StumbleUpon for
many things. One of which is constantly stumbling your own website or stumble
Page 44

exchanges. So, that would be a huge mistake that many would make if they joined
StumbleUpon and started participating without reading StumbleUpon’s TOS.
• Also, check to see if the community has a FAQ page for Newbies. This would be a lot
easier to understand than reading the Official TOS page. Plus, the Newbie page
probably lists plenty of tips and community suggestions that can make your transition
from Newbie to Community Pro much easier.
• Another idea is to keep an eye on the popular, most active members. What are they
doing, what are they voting on, what are they submitting & what are they commenting
on? Keeping an eye on these facts can help you determine what might work and what
might not work.
• I know these things might be time consuming, but in the long run it can make the
difference of “making it” or getting lost within the community….. instead of blending
in do what you can to stand out. Taking the time to study and learn from the
community can give you the information you need to learn what it will take to stand
out from the rest.
4) Become an Active Part of that Community. Enjoy it.
This is the fun part. This is where you put all that you learned above into good use. Social
Media can be a lot of fun and very rewarding & powerful in so many ways. But, the thing is
you will need to use this power for good and not evil. I have created the following image to
show you what I envision this aura around your Online Community Profile to be:
Bottom line to be a success in an Online Social Community, just like in any Community, be
real, be genuine and “do unto others as you would want done unto you” and you will be
success. Treat others with respect and you can’t screw up too badly.
Page 45

To partiicipate in Social Mediaa can be woork and takee up a lot of your time. But, as with
h any
commuunity as longg as you aree participatinng in a com
mmunity in ana honest annd genuine way
w
you willl get back as
a much as you
y give annd probably come awayy with so muuch more.
A Bit About
A Shanaa Albert by Hobo
Shana is a Social Media
M Speciialist and onne of my favvourite blogggers – you can learn a lot
from Shhana, believve me. It waas a real pleaasure to hav
ve her guestt post on thee Hobo Blog to
help vissitors learn how
h to use these netwoorks properlly.
She wriites on all thhings Sociall Media andd Web 2.0 on

o her blog – Social Deesire. Subscribe to
hear moore of her raamblings orr check out her
h Stumbleeupon favorrites.
Get more of Shanaa at http://ww

ww.socialdesire.com/
PS – Annd why not vote for her at the Hotttest Bloggeers Calendarr so she cann get a nice prize
Shana now
n has thee keys to thee Hobo blogg, so hopefu
ully we’ll geet more greaat posts from
m her in
the futuure
Shaun
Page 46

C VAT T No. 880 51335 26 • No. SCC299002 | Contact us and request
r a
free seo quote
q / cost estimate.

Links That Effect Ranking Change In Google SERPS
Any link that sends you traffic could be seen as a good link, but what are quality links,
what are good links and what are crap links, when it comes to improving the actual ranking of
your own pages in Google SERPS?
First, you need to be aware that the quality of a link (that effects a ranking improvement
for your own site in Google) is dependent on the page and site it is on. Is the site trusted,
is the page trusted, is the page in Google’s index at all, how many links point to the actual
page your link is on, are people actually going to click this link (that in itself is a good
measure of the quality of a link!)?
Most importantly, it’s all about the page the link is on. Just because you get a link on a high
PR domain does not automatically make that a good link. It’s the page you need to be
interested in.
You should have a mixture of focused anchor text links, unfocused anchor text links and
URL citations (www.hobo-web.co.uk etc) in your link profile to ensure long standing
rankings (i.e. a natural link profile).
What follows is my general rule of thumb:
1. Your internal links! Get your site in order before you get links. Google loves a good
site structure with plenty of text links pointing to each page on your site. I prefer
minimal sitewide navigation and a lot of in content links if you have a lot of useful
content, and I consider all the time if Google is only counting the first link on a page.
Don’t forget to link to your important pages often – ENSURE your get them into
Google’s index in the first place.
2. Links on mainstream news sites and other types of authority sites – the Holy Grail
in my opinion – promotion, old style. Purely because they are trusted and have a lot of
links to them.
3. Related industry site (the aim of seo, and excellent quality, but depends on the site,
niche and the type of link – can be very useful) – usually, they too have a lot of links.
4. Link on a high PR old style aged trusted page – like a university resource page –
excellent if you can get the webmaster to link to you
5. Links from unrelated sites (depends on the site and the type of link – can be very
useful for improving your Google ranking & PR)
6. Link on a blog post (good, dependant on the site, but easily deteriorates over time as
a post is gobbled up in sometimes very crap site architecture – a link (in the actual
post, not the comments) on the Hobo blog however is a decent link, I’ve tested it, and
can be as valuable as 2-3 TPR points.
7. Dofollow Blog Comments (low quality in terms of PR and trust transference, decent
anchor text transference if you can get it)
8. Social media site links (opinion, I think these are pretty low quality, but they do get
your page out there and of course, it depends on whether it’s a popular piece or not –
at any rate, it’s a very temporal effect and it looks like what you end up with is
nothing less than a directory style and weighted link from the actual social media site)
Page 47

9. Site wide links & blogrolls (generally low quality in terms of anchor text
transference – used to be good for PR transference but not nearly as effective as it
used to be)
10. Article submission sites – dependant on the quality and syndication exposure of the
site in question can be useful but usually low quality. Syndicating to these sites can
have some cool effects, for now.
11. Directory Links (low quality, perhaps useful when you have a weight of links –
depends on the quality of the directory)
12. Forum Signatures (generally low quality, dependant on page and forum, perhaps
dependant on number of links too)
13. Link on a useful links page (very low quality)
14. Reciprocal link on a links page (very very low quality)
15. Nofollowed links (like those on most blog comments – useless (though can be used to
generate traffic if you link to a popular blog post or comment on one)
The above is a general rule of thumb I think and of course based on my experience – some
people will obviously agree or disagree based on their experiences. As with a lot of seo,
identifying good links is a very time consuming task – Google is always moving the
goalposts.
Remember too though links need to be complimented by well structured title tags, good
content, and a good site architecture.
For me, another rule of thumb is the easier a link is to get, the LESS quality it is and you
won’t get a better links than from a REAL site.
Page 48

The Ultimatee/Best/Coomplete//Directorry/List Of Dofolllow Blog
gs
Yes – we
w are a doffollow blog (though youu need to co
omment fasst before wee close the posts
heh hehh).
I’m nott 100% surre, but I don’t think blog

b commeents pass thhat much, if any Pagerrank.
They may
m pass ancchor text (I think
t they do),
d but I wo ould have thhought som
me smart guy
y at
Google has workedd a way to identify
i andd reduce the weight of these
t links.
But, eveen if dofolloow links paass some semmblance of ranking abiility, becausse of dofolloow list
spammeers, most bllogs dump dofollow
d aft
fter a while, and you’re hard earnedd dofollow blog
commennts get nofoollowed. Thhe very natuure of blogs too means pages
p themselves usuaally get
sucked deep into a poor archittecture, andd the links seeem to reduuce in value,, and that’s only on
posts!
If dofolllow blogs area your onlly way of geetting links,, you might have a lot tto learn – haave a
read of our free linnk building guide.
g A few
w links fromm a real sitee is much m
more value, even
e on
this sitee, than a linkk in the com
mments.
Blog coommenting is great wayy to introduuce your sitee to others inn your nice – don’t waaste the
opportuunity to imppress aimingg for such a low quality
y temporall link such is a dofollo ow
link….
EDIT – For beginnners – Whatt is a dofolloow link? It’s a poor maade up term that means the
opposite of nofolloow – i.e., it is
i a search engine
e frien
ndly link. It’s just a verry low qualiity type
of link.
PS – We
W use the frree to downlload Hobo Custom
C Lin
nk Love to control
c spamm and nuke human
pondscuum dofollow
w link buildders, and som
metimes wee out idiot ninja
n link buuilding
commennters.
PPS – I intend to teest everythiing I have cllaimed heree, too.
Additioon – Phil froom Search Engine

E Optiimisation (D
Dot) Org lefft the follow
wing commeent I
thoughtt was worthhy of a link:
I also hate the hum

man people who w feel thee need to filll the “namee” box with multiple
keyworrds. On my blogs,
b if it’ss not what is on your birth certificate or soomething veery
close, th
hen it’s gettting removved.
Severall times I’vee had to cheeck my own n sites to make

m sure itt didn’t acttually say “spam
“
your keeywords heere”, and evvery time it’’s not been that. I pity the
t fools whhose “seo” tactics
t
revolvee around theese tactics.
(See whhat you get from actuallly commennting on otheer blogs andd taking parrt in real
converssation insteaad of chasinng dofollow
w links ONL
LY…. somettimes you gget real linkss with
decent anchor
a text anyway)
Page 49

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What Do You Want To Rank No1 In Google For Anyways?
Some companies want to rank for different things and certain links and strategies achieve
different results. That’s the end of link building for beginners month on the Hobo site – hope
you found it useful.
I’d thought I’d close mentioning you really should have a specific goal every time you start
linkbuilding.
What do you want to rank no1 in Google for anyways?
• Your company name or brand? Not only do you want to rank for it, you want to
control every mention of your company name in Google, easily done by social media
participation and using the authority of other sites to rank for your brand. Very easy to
achieve with just on page optimisation and a few incoming low-quality links
(sometimes, not even).
• Your service, in your area? – again, fairly easy. Done with on-page optimisation
(geographic mentions in the title and in the text for instance), and generally speaking
some low-quality links
• Your service in your country? - slightly more difficult than above, but can be
handled with plenty of low quality links from even low quality, unrelated sites in
some cases
• Your service? – difficult depending on the niche – you’re going to need some decent
links or at least the same amount of crap links your competitors have. Crap anchor
text links outweigh unfocused poor anchor text links from even relatively authority
sites.
• Your products? – generally speaking, very difficult, especially if your products can
be bought in a 1000 other places. You’re going to need links that pass pagerank,
anchor text and trust i.e. ranking ability. You’re going to need a few trusted sites to
link to you to rank all those products. The more pages on your site, the more pagerank
you will need. To get pr, you need incoming links.
A weight of crap links built over time can beat even a relatively trusted site in Google in 2009
– still. However, it’s these links Google have a lot of brainy people working on attempting to
nullify, so why swim against the tide?
ESPECIALLY considering just a few links from one site can transfer instant ranking ability
and trust to a new site, or one link from one PR5 page can transfer enough pagerank to heat
up an entire 200 page website with no other links. Finding those sites can be a full time
occupation though.
Deciding what you want to rank for and how you want to do it are at the core of link building
strategy.
Page 50

1 Blog Comment, 2 Hours Work & One Amazing Link
I don’t do that much blog commenting these days, and I certainly don’t do dofollow list
commenting anymore. I spent nearly 2 hours making one comment on a VERY TRUSTED
(PR 8) site for a client a couple of months ago because I knew the link I would get would be
GOLD – and it was.
I’d already determined the site was passing anchor text value, but there seemed to be heavy
moderation going on so the comment itself would need to be stellar for them to leave my
links intact and not look like some blog commenting scumbag.
The comment I left was actually as much as a full blog post as a comment. I researched the
topic, tested out the actual blog platform (the blog platform was unfamiliar to me and I
needed to see how it handled HTML formatted links) and in the end pulled together some
really valuable advice and dropped a link to my client site with spot on anchor text.
It took two hours to make that comment, but now one of the most trusted sites in the world
links to my client with the exact anchor text we need to get to the top of Google and I didn’t
piss anybody off (even Google!).
Spot the difference between that type of comment and the no-mark dofollow link-droppers
that leave “great site!” in your blog comments.
Yes, they might do 100 comments in the time I did one comment, but mine is 100 times
better.
If you have a good opportunity to get a link – take all the time in the world – all night if
necessary – in fact, come back next week. Don’t screw up a perfectly good chance to drop a
top quality link just because you can’t be arsed to create a useful comment.
Page 51

Hide Your Links & Muddy That Link Profile!
I am working with a new client who wants to know why, after being no1 for years, their site
is now no.2, 3 or 4 for some of their most valuable terms. Looking at the competitor’s
backlinks using Yahoo site explorer for 30 seconds I quickly identify the problem.
Your competitors are actually picking up some very decent amazing ninja links from trusted
sites with excellent anchor text
Very quickly in my head I had a strategy to assimilate these links and add them to my client’s
link profile while all the time sourcing my own decent links – links that can’t be so easily
cloned.
Then I thought:
Why haven’t these guys bothered to try and hide their link profile – even a little? It’s as if
they’ve sat back and patted themselves on the back for getting, to be fair, excellent link
drops.
The only problem is that these links are right at the top of Yahoo site explorer! I am going to
go in and pick off these links with no work at all using nothing more that site explorer (which
conveniently sort of lists pages by the number of links pointing to them i.e. perhaps stronger
pages).
It’s virtually impossible to not leave a footprint when linkbuilding but what you don’t want to
do is have your good links sticking out like sore thumbs especially if they are ninja link drops
that any sod can recreate.
While you won’t stop a dedicated link hound with a passion to take you out of the top spot at
Google, you will make it harder for the inexperienced linkbuilder to pick of your good links
by muddying your link profile.
The easiest way I know how to do this is by commenting on popular blog posts. Either
comment, or via trackbacks if you want to be lazy and do it en-mass. Comment on 50 popular
blog posts – nofollow links will do – (you’ll know how strong they will be by the number of
comments on the post) and hey presto.
You just made it that bit harder for the average joe to find your links in 10 seconds using
Yahoo site explorer.
If people are farming your links and using old hat competitor research tools, you at least want
to make it as difficult and time consuming as possible to identify those links, no matter what
tool they use.
Page 52

Get Links From REAL Sites (IE Sites That Aren’t Just THERE
To Link To Other Sites)
Sometimes it’s hard to explain to people what a quality link is but in simple terms this is how
I describe a site you want a link from:
• It doesn’t have to be relevant to your industry

• It doesn’t have to be an authority in its niche
• It doesn’t have to be the same links as your competitors
It can be totally unrelated to your site, too.
What it has to be is a site that wasn’t built SOLEY to provide links to other sites because
generally speaking, it takes a lot of authority for Google to like such sites (social media sites,
directories etc).
That’s the sort of links I go for anyway and the more authoritative the site, the better.
• You don’t want it on a useful links page

• You don’t want it on a page with other sites as to make it look like a paid link whether
it is or not
You do want it on a page that’s in Google’s index, ranks for its title somewhere and does not
have a Google grey bar toolbar value (although this can change).
If you want to increase Pagerank, you better make sure the pages that link to you have PR,
can transfer it and are making your link the focus of the article.
Do the stuff above (and a lot of it) and you’ll have a natural link profile as is possible that
will probably stand the test of time.
I don’t use that many tools for linkbuilding website promotion because I don’t really want the
same links as my competitors for my clients – you just need Google, your brain, and I find a
script being able to identify Nofollow comes in useful (I use SEO For Firefox but that’s about
all I use it for).
Of course there’s many ways to SEO the cat (and I don’t IGNORE competitor research) but if
I was a linkbuilder picking through a competitors backlinks instead of trying to think a bit
more creatively about building a brand online I think I would shoot myself in the head.
Page 53

The Perfect Link Straategy In
n SEO – Mix It Up!
“The beest piece off advice I can give you is
i to vary yo
our linking strategy. It’s the only way
w to
be sure you’ll achiieve good raankings, andd keep them
m. Remembeer that whatt works toda ay might
not worrk “tomorroow” – so it’ss worth expperimenting while all thhe time huntting for thosse
“qualityy” links.”
Surely everybody
e k
knows by now,
n Googlee, and indeeed the Internnet, is poweered, by HTM ML
Links. Good
G rankinngs, and succcess, in alll the search engines ressults pages, eventually lies in
getting links from other sites to
t your site.. Effectively y, the more the better.
Bearingg in mind “C
Content Is King”
K on thee web, no matter
m how great
g your ccontent is, no
n
matter how
h search engine optiimised yourr page is, if you don’t have
h inbounnd links, you u’re
usually next to now
where in thee Google serrps – especiially in com
mpetitive maarkets – probably
becausee a competittor has got in
i there first and generated some content
c and links beforre you.
But whaat is the perrfect link? What

W is the bestb linking g strategy? The
T answer is – everyb body has
a differeent view off a perfect link, and eveerybody hass different ways
w of meaasuring exacctly
what a perfect
p linkk is.
Here’s my
m take on what I lookk for when I am link hu
unting (all, I think wortth thinking about
and in no
n particulaar order).
1. Pagee Rank
Did I saay Page Rannk? Yes. Gooogle Page Rank R is still important regardless of what som me seo
people claim.
c Googgle (well, Matt
M Cutts, says s the easiest way to get your intternal pagess out of
the suppplemental inndex (Googgle’s back up u listings) is
i to get PR to those paages. A high h page
rank cann also meann your site isi spidered more
m frequeently than itt might be (ggood if you u are
constanntly adding content
c to your
y websitee – which of course, yoou should bee doing!)
So in a sense, the love affair with
w Googlee Page Rank k, which useed to be the be-and-end d-all of
good Google
G serpss, has startedd again, to some
s degreee. How do youy increasee Page Rank k? You
simply (!) get linkss from pagees with highh Page Rank k. If you havve a search eengine frien
ndly
navigation structurre that effecctively spreaads GPR an nd manage too get a link from a very y high
Page Raank (7-10) youy are laugghing all thee way to thee bank.
Equallyy a lot of linnks from low

w page rankk pages will help to incrrease your own site Go
oogle
Page Raank, eventuually.
Some saay ignore Page

P Rank. We
W don’t. Perhaps
P why
y we achievved a Page R Rank 7 site after
a 10
months when the self
s proclaimmed “best inn the industrry” is a Pagge Rank 7 affter more th
han 10
years LOL
2. Anch
hor Text
Anchorr text is simpply the text in the link. If I want to

o rank for soomething annd I have an
n
optimissed page waaiting to get links to it, I’d
I like a linnk with my actual desirred keyworrd or
Page 54

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keyword phrase in the actual link i.e.seo scotland (feel free to link to me with that!) instead of
“click here” or something.
My thinking is, I’m not trying to rank for “click here” am I?
3. Link within text, surrounded by text
Google can easily spot a long list of links (like navigation arrays etc) so I would always try
and get a link from within the actual text on a page so it looks more “natural”. Ideally the
surrounding text would also be relevant to my page. Sometimes the only sure way of
generating these links is to write good content on your site to “force” people to link to you
(unless you own the other site of course). These types of links are in my opinion the crème de
la crème of links (which is why some seo’s actually buy these types of links (I don’t)!
4. Trust / Authority
Trusted sites pass “trust factor”. Basically the thinking is, trusted sites rank well in Google,
because they are, well, trusted! (Stop me if this gets too complicated!). Trusted authority sites
rarely link to spammy sites – they only link to quality, probably related, sites. If you can
manage to get a link from a trusted site in your niche, this could be worth its weight in Gold.
How do you tell if a website (or page within a website) is trusted? Well that’s the question
that’s on the lips of every seo! How do I determine it? Well, if you think simply, if it’s all
about HTML links, then trust would be calculated by Google by the number and quality of
links to that site / web page. Simply, Get Links from Pages with Links!
5. Relevance / Relationship / Theme
How relevant is the page that is linking to you? I mean, if you have a seo site, are you trying
to get links from search engine optimization related websites? Where possible, I’ll try and get
a link on a page that is actually about the same subject matter as the web page I want a link
to.
6. Hub / Neighbourhood
Every niche has an authority hub, an inner network of sites every other site in the niche links
to. This is the “neighbourhood” a (remarkably!) few seo’s, including myself, harp on about.
Getting a link from these sites has got to be a good idea in any campaign, as these sites that
Google already trusts and rates, pass along a portion of this “trust” thingy Google calculates.
Linking out to these sites is also thought to be useful, as these links determine the online
neighbourhood your site resides within.
Page 55

7. Any old link!
Don’t get
g me wronng, I’ll take a link from m anyone! Feeel Free! Buut links varyy in everyth
hing
from quuality and trrust etc – I just spend my
m time tryiing to get quuality links where posssible,
and at least from reelevant pagees. It’s these kinds of links that wiill help you in Google.
And don’t think I dreamt

d all thhis up myseelf. I read a lot of seo blogs on the subject and
d try and
take a subjective
s view on whaat’s best for my purposees and whatt mood I’m in that day and
what soounds “intelligent” to me,
m and I’m always exp perimenting with everyy option!
It’s alw
ways a good idea to varyy your link building strrategies, so you’re not susceptible to
massivee ranking allgorithm chaanges whenn one strateggy is devaluued.
Bonus Tip
T
Reciproocal Linkingg – Should you

y bother?? I think reciprocal linkking is someewhat naturaal,
especially betweenn hub sites inn the same neighbourh
hood, and inn this case, w
where relevant,
they woon’t hurt youu.
The bigggest risk yoou lay your site open too in reciproccal linking is
i eventuallyy linking en
nough
out to a “bad neighhbourhood” (basically a neighbourrhood of weebsites Googgle doesn’t like)
could seee your sitee devalued inn Google Search Engin ne Results Pages
P (serpss).
The besst piece of advice

a I cann give you iss to vary yo
our linking strategy. MMix it up! Itt’s the
only waay to be suree you’ll achhieve good rankings,
r annd keep them
m. Remembber that whaat works
today might
m not woork “tomorrrow” – so itt’s worth ex xperimentingg while all tthe time hun
nting
for thosse “quality” links.
While you’re
y mixinng it up, you’ll also maake it harder for others to reverse engineer yo
our hard
work, creating
c “nooise” in the search
s enginnes.
Oh, didd I say, get plenty!

p
Related
d Articles
Why Vaary Anchorr Text In Linnkbuilding Campaigns

C
Someonne asked mee why they should varyy anchor teexts in linkbbuilding.
Imaginee you couldd see Googleebot record your links as

a it finds thhem by spiddering sites in real
time.
Page 56

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Even, consider,
c thaat’s your linnk profile reecently geneerated.
Hmmm m. I wonder how hard it is for thee brainiest people in search

s to piick out you
ur
naturall links and ignore / devvalue the rest -but caan you spot the worthw
while manuffactured
link thaat might slipp past?
Unnaturral mass linnk acquisitioon might weell be discou

unted or be totally ignoored. I think
k it
totally depends on n the site yoou are gettiing the link
ks from thoough. 5 trussted sites? Hell,
H
don’t boother mixinng that anchor text up at
a all.
Most tim
mes you need a gun at a gun fight, but you haave to do it smarter thann the abovee in
2009.
Note – This is a vissualisation I use. I don’t know if th

his is the way
w it actuallly works off course,
nobodyy does. (Cheeck out our beginner’s
b g
guide to seaarch engine optimisatioon for more)).
Originaally Publisheed on: Jan 15, 2009 @ 13:00

Republiished as parrt of Hobo Link
L Buildinng For Begiinners Monnth
Page 57

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Bad Neeighbourhoood = Googlee Penalty – Do You Lin
nk To One??
As if we need any affirmationn that linkingg to “bad neeighbourhoods” can caause your raankings
in Googgle to noseddive, but herre’s an interresting quotte from the Official Gooogle Webm
master
Blog ;
Q: I’ve cleaned it up,

u but will Google pennalize me iff the hacker linked to anny bad
neighboourhoods?
A: We’ll try not too. We’re prretty good att making su
ure good sitees don’t gett penalized by
b
actions of hackers and spammmers. To be safe,
s completely removve any linkss the hackerrs may
have addded.
Bad neiighbourhoods, to Googgle, are typiccally identiffied by spammmy on-pagge ‘seo' techhniques
and dubbious backliink and inteerlink profiles. You do not want too link to thesse neighbou
urhoods,
becausee who you link to matteers.
You seee search enggine spam sites

s more often than no ot link out to other spamm sites. Spaammers
and Craackers, intellligent if sommewhat unsscrupulous, know that theset spam networks (o or
neighboourhoods) needn links frrom trusted sites to valiidate their existence.
e L
Links from trrusted
sites traansfer trust and
a votes of relevance (Google Ju uice, whatevver) to the reeceiving sittes,
allowinng these sites into Googgle’s index. So, they haack your sitee, place hiddden links in n the
code, annd leave you none the wiser.
w
Google hates hiddeen links andd spam netwworks. Ratheer than let your
y site “heeat” up and
validatee a spam neighbourhoood so that it can start receiving visiitors from G Google, it might
m
just rem
move your site from thee index, by classing
c youur site as paart of that baad
neighboourhood.
Determmining if a siite is in a baad neighbouurhood can take

t some experience,
e but using th
his
quirky tool,
t you caan actually spot
s some of
o the most obvious
o infr
fractions, likke hidden lin
nks in
articles. I ran the teest on the Hobo
H site and was surprrised to see one of my ffriends had indeed
been the victim of a hidden linnk injectionn to casino sites
s and loaan brokers.
Have yoou been haccked? If youu’ve spottedd it before you’ve

y seen your rankinngs bomb, there
t are
measurees you can take
t (apart from
f deleting the offennsive links im
mmediatelyy!). This hass
happeneed to me beefore, and ass long as yoou take actio
on immediaately, you’ll probably be OK.
Check out
o this site about Wordpress secuurity for morre on how to secure yoour blog from m
hackerss. I’ve not im
mplementedd all the meaasures I would like to yet,
y but vigiilance is stilll a
good foorm of securrity.
If you’vve been pennalised by Google

G (i.e. removed
r fro
om the searrch engine inndex) becau use you
now linnk to a bad neighbourho
n ood, you should read Google’s
G offficial advicee if you’ve been
b
hacked..
My theoory is that Google

G will crawl yourr site a numb
ber of timess to check iff you still haave
these linnks to spam
m sites. If yoou remove thhem, no pro
oblem. If they survive m multiple craawls,
Page 58

free seo quote
q / cost estimate.

your site may suffer some kind of Google ranking penalty based on a violation of Google
guidelines for inclusion or as part of bad neighbourhood identification.
UPDATE – Google now helps you with notifications you’re hacked, and how –
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/10/fetch-as-googlebot- and-malware-
details.html
Page 59

Beginners Guides
• Quick SEO Tutorial
• Website Design Tips
• Web Project Checklist
• Social Media Help
• Robots.txt Tutorial
SEO News
• Search Engine Land
• Sphinn
• Search Engine Watch
Hot Articles
• Stumbleupon Faves
• Top Delicious Tags
Forums
• Webmasterworld
• Cre8asite
• Accessify
• High Rankings
Great SEO Articles

• Ranking Factors
• Link Factors
• Google Authority
• Geek Ranking Factors
• Link Building Tactics
• Link Development
• SEO Success Pyramid
• SEO Domination
• Local Search Ranking Factors
Page 60

SEO Blogs
I've learned a lot from reading SEO blogs and other sites. I'm going to list places you can dig
for a more comprehensive seo education.
• Hobo
• Sebastian's Pamphlets
• Bill Slawski
• Aaron Wall
• Rand Fishkin
• Edward Lewis
• Andy Beard
• Half’s SEO Notebook
• Michael VanDeMar
• David Naylor
• Search Engine Journal
• Blumenthals
• Daily SEO Tips
• Tim Nash
• Jim Boykin
• Matt Cutts
• Weip Knoll
• David Harry
• SERoundtable
• Search Engine People
• Tad Chef
• Kalena Jordan
• Patrick Altoft
• Hamlet Batista
• Michael Martinez
• Seoptimise
• Lyndon Antcliff
• Fantomaster
• SEO Black Hat
• Slightly Shady SEO
• Joost de Valk
• Donna Fontenot
• Rae Hoffman
• Eric Ward
• Matt McGee
• Michael Gray
Page 61

SEO Tools
• Google Webmaster Tools
• Backlink Analyzer
• Backlink Watch
• Link Diagnosis
• Xenu Link Sleuth
• Hittail
• PageRankBot
More DIY SEO Resources

Wikipedia
What Is SEO
SEO Fast Start
SEOmoz Beginner Guide
Page 62

Contact Us @ Hobo
We’re a crazy-passionate professional full service marketing company in Scotland,
specialising in graphic design, print planning and buying, standards based website design and
online marketing including Google Adwords PPC management and expert search engine
optimisation.
Our website is visited by over 60,000 people every month – and we’ve never spent a penny
promoting it.
If you would like to contact us regarding this e-book or would like to hire Hobo-Web for
SEO or Website design projects then please contact us by any method detailed below:
Hobo-Web LTD,
The Stables,
24 Patrick Street,
Greenock
PA16 8NB
Scotland
UK
TEL: 0845 094 0839

FAX: 0845 868 8946
Skype: Hobo-Shaun
AIM: HoboShaun

Page 63

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Copyrighht © 2009 Thee Hobo SEO Company

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I can say, I don’t buy links. Not at the moment anyway.

Some liinks pages might

First – I actively monitor

Having a Google Toolbar

I’ve tested it on a couple

Copyrighht © 2009 Thee Hobo SEO Company

Some other notes:

Theories – I think if you have a toolbar grey page,

Of course, it also could be a bug. It sure is glitchy!

1. I refocused my internal links (I’m testing a few things)

The results were Wordpress itself linked to me,SEroundtable linked to me,

Tell thee world abouut your site. Google

It’s cleaarly not rockket science but it takes a lot of efffort.

Copyrighht © 2009 Thee Hobo SEO Company

LOL OK K I have 1000 more tim mes Google traffic

But it alludes to ann age old quuestion:

PS I donn’t out anybbody and it’’s not sour grapes

working, synndicating or linkbuildin

Copyrighht © 2009 Thee Hobo SEO Company

Example Page typical of what you might find -

Example Page typical of what you might find - http://www.richmond-

Google used to sayy:

“Have other relevaant sites linkk to yours.”

Now itss guideliness recommennd:

“Tell thhe world aboout your sitee.”Google

It’s cleaar. Google does

I wouldd not go on record thesee days sending an emaiil out sayingg:

I get huundreds of bottom

PS – Hoow do you tell

Copyrighht © 2009 Thee Hobo SEO Company

Anchorr Text Optiimisation

It appeaars the answ

Why is this importtant to know

I wanted to see how

1. pointed som me nonsensee words in one

Using a character calculator

1. Google couunted 8 worrds in the anchor

So, a poossible best practice in number of words in an

Copyrighht © 2009 Thee Hobo SEO Company

All the more reasonn to have im

If you like this testt, you mightt like;

1. Will Googlle Rank Pagges Better With

If peoplle used the title

What doo you thinkk about this anchor text optimisatio

Copyrighht © 2009 Thee Hobo SEO Company

Google Promotes Uncool

Google recently gaave more assistance to webmasters

They acctually could be interprreted as recoommending

They buusted some ‘myths’ tooo;

1. Myth: “Dynnamic URL

I do seee what Googgle is doingg – they are telling peop

It’s not exactly in line

mes it’s hardd to follow even the beest advice, but

I wouldd still recom

Google – How Maany Words In

Copyrighht © 2009 Thee Hobo SEO Company

1. SEO Myth Buster #1 – Google Prrefers Valid

What Iss The Best Title

Copyrighht © 2009 Thee Hobo SEO Company