Anchor-text Strategies

Exact Match VS Match Variants

For many years the strategy for anchor-text linking has been to create an exact match for the desired keyword phrase to rank well in the search engines. This exact keyword phrase would then be used over and over again within all areas of SEO, both on-page SEO as well as off-page SEO, for backlinking hypertext and anchor-text links.

Over time, these methods had to be tweaked here and there to keep up with the changing of the search engine algorithms. However, little change was made regarding anchor-text links.

In 2011 Google introduced the highly intelligent Panda algorithm, with an ever- increasing content evaluation IQ. The goal of this algorithm is pretty simple: to deliver the best user-friendly search engine experience while obtaining the most relevant as well as beneficial results.

There has been a lot of speculation and rumor about how to rank well in the search engines during these changes. However, if we want to know how Google’s new Panda thinks, the best way to figure things out is to go directly to the source.

Matt Cutts – Anchor-Text Variant Strategy

Matt Cutts is one of Google’s representatives who assists webmasters in understanding what they need to do in order to make Google’s new Panda algorithm happy. I was reading one of his blog posts today about how to write useful articles and within this article I found a wonderful gem of information.

Pay attention to his little bit of advice regarding keyword anchor-text links:

“I’d recommend thinking more about words and variants (the “long-tail”) and thinking less about keyword density or repeating phrases.” Matt Cutts, Writing Useful Articles that Users Will Love.

This helps us understand where our thinking should be when it comes to creating SEO content, anchor-text links, and on-page SEO. Exact keyword phrases repeated over and over again are not what this new Panda algorithm has been trained to look for. Rather than stuffing our SEO content with the exact keyword phrase that we are trying to rank, according to Matt, we should be using partial phrase matches along with keyword variants.

For instance, we might write an article with the title “Organic Gardening Tips for Newbie’s.” In the article we can use a variation of that keyword phrase, such as; gardening without chemicals, organic gardening secrets, tips for gardeners, etc…

Each of those keyword phrases is a variant on the targeted keyword phrase that we want to rank. The overall content of the article as well as the title can help the search engine understand that our site is all about organic gardening.

When writing articles, your keyword anchor-text no longer needs to be an exact match. Instead, the combination of your keyword variants along with your on-page SEO will help your site rank well for a wide variety of keyword phrases, including your targeted keyword phrase.

If we really think about what Matt said in that one little comment, we will come to understand that we no longer need or want to be focused on exact phrase matches or any type of keyword phrase stuffing. Rather, our focus should be on consistent variants of the keywords that we want Google to give a high-ranking position.

Comparing the Old Exact Match with MC Recommended Anchor-Text Variants

Back in the Day, Exact Match:

Organic gardening in the title tag, organic gardening in the h1, h2, and h3 tags, organic gardening in the alt image tag, organic gardening mentioned 2% to 4% throughout the content, and organic gardening anchor-text links in the side-bar, footer, and header.

And Today, the Panda Way:

Organic gardening in the title tag, gardening tips in the URL, h1 – gardening without chemicals, h2 – organic mulch tips, h3 – simple tricks for a healthy garden, alt image tag – best organic practices, and so forth.

As you can see, this new way of thinking about anchor-text linking is quite liberating. When someone types the keyword phrase, “Mom blue jacket”, with the old-school thinking we’d have to toss out using correct grammar in order to get that specific keyword into the article.

Today, we can easily add in that phrase by a simple variation, “My mom needs a blue jacket.”

I am sure that using the exact phrase match in some of our anchor-texts will still have a positive impact on our rankings. However, if we are not developing our SEO strategies so as to include well rounded variants of the keywords that we want to rank well, in time, it could possibly do more harm than good.

And if we are true forward thinkers, we’ll understand that the great Panda is learning to think more and more like a human being. And the more we conform to the new wave of SEO, the better our sites will fair with each and every Google Panda update.

TWITTER 101 – LEARNING THE BASICS

For those of you who need to understand why anyone would ever want to Twitter, watch the video below.

Twitter is a great way to connect with family, friends and business associates. Here are a few things you need to do when you set up your Twitter account.

1 Create your profile. Help people understand what you’re all about and why they should follow you. You can include a link to your site within your profile. Include a nice picture to represent your business or add your own mug.

2. Don’t spam. Think of Twitter as a way to help people, not spam your affiliate products in their face. Retweet helpful information you find on the web. Tweeting things of value is a good way to build a good rep among your Tweeting followers.

3. Follow to be followed. Follow people that deliver worthy Tweets of interest, and they will appreciate your worthy Tweets as well. If you want to be followed, you need to find people to follow first. Don’t get all caught up into the greedy Tweeters who try to tell you how to use and abuse your Twitter followers just to sell products or information.

4. Inspire and communicate. Since you’ve been smart and are following experts in your field or niche, feel free to ask questions. Be kind and helpful. It’s not just about YOU. Twitter is about sharing and communicating relevant information.

5. Tweet your blog posts. Gotta WordPress blog? Use the TweetMe plugin and Tweet your blog posts to your followers.

How to Set Up Your Twitter Account

I’m not a techi gal, and you’re probably not interested in the programming details of Facebooks new um… Open Graph Protocol and Graph API, but if you FB, you’ll wanna read this post.

Facebook LIKE Button

To Like Or Not to Like

Facebook Colonizing the Web Via LIKES

Everywhere you go you’re going to start noticing something. That little button that offers to LIKE what you see. I have one at the bottom of my page here. Go ahead… LIKE ME!

Simple to use and implement tools like these are expanding Facebook’s colonization efforts.

With this tool and a few others, FB has developed a seriously deep stake to position itself as the colony leader via the social aspect of the Internet.  With more than 75 partners participating, Mark Zuckerberg predicted that there would be “One billion Like buttons on the web within 24 hours after launch.”

I’ve tried to find out if those statistics came true, but so far it’s a prediction without a follow-up. But if you pay attention to where you surf, take note of just how many places you can now LIKE and share at the click of a button.

What Does This Mean for YOU and ME?

Okay, here’s my wee incite on this issue. While some people are going to be screaming and kicking about how their privacy is invaded, others like um… people who make money with CPA advertising on FB may quite possibly gain access to data that is more targeted resulting in higher click-through rates and a better ROI.

What Does This Mean for YOU and ME Personally?

While FB is making these leaps and bounds with it’s LIKE button it’s also stirred up some frustrations and doubts regarding the privacy issues.

The most important aspect of this feature is that you can LIKE any page without a special login request or connect request via logging in with a user name and password.

So, how can you avoid LIKEING something without it automatically LIKING it to your FB account??

First let me tell you why you should know this.

I have two FB accounts. I have one that is totally 100% dedicated to friends and family. My other FB page is 100% dedicated to Netwoozy.com. I don’t mix and match. Some of my friends and family have recently decided to Friend my Netwoozy FB page, which is fine. However, I don’t force my business in their FB Face.

When I want to LIKE something that is business, my Internet business, that which totally confuses a lot of my friends and family. I mean their eyes begin to blur and their minds start to wonder whenever I talk about some of the things I LOVE or DO online – SO… I try to avoid these types of one-sided conversations. Which is also why I have a separate business FB account.

How to Avoid LIKING in the Wrong FB Account

Simply remember to LOG OUT of your account before you continue working on other things. Or, remember you are LOGGED IN when you surf and decide you want to LIKE something. You won’t be asked if it’s ok. You won’t be required to LOG IN and accept the intrusion. It’s a done-deal if you are already logged in.

THAT my friends is how to avoid sending LIKES to your personal account when you were simply trying to LIKE it for your business account. Or Vice Versa.

Okay so, are you logged in? Do you wanna “LIKE” this post?

What’s your take on the LIKE without the double opt-in so to speak?

To help you navigate to make these changes on your FB account watch the video below.

These tips are for beginners, but even some advanced webmasters may find them helpful reminders.

Quick and easy tips to help you covert your traffic into traffic that converts into a lower bounce rate, a higher click-through rate, or a higher rate of opt-in subscribers. Basically, these tips will help keep your visitors from leaving your site before they get a good taste of what you have to offer.

Design Tip – KISS – Keep it Super Simple

This is also a Google pleaser.

Avoid having any type of introductory video or slideshow as your main page. No one wants to site back and wait while your special introduction loads. I’m sure you’ve visited sites that have these types of things. Typically they will include a little link that says, “Click here to skip intro”.

Many times instead of waiting or skipping the intro, people simply click out.

In addition to annoying your visitors, your rankings will suffer. Matt Cutts mentions that one of the things they look for when ranking a site higher than another site is how fast it loads.

Conveying Trust – Add Your Contact Information

It’s scary to add in your real address and phone number when you think about all the identity theft going on. However, a site that includes a name, address, and phone number conveys trust.

Back in 2002 I started a pet sitting business. I added my phone number on my site via an image. If you’re uncomfortable about leaving your information thinking it will get scrapped by hackers who sell this sort of information to telemarketing companies, do what I did. Add your contact information on an image.

In addition, adding your “mug” to your site helps people to see you’re a real person and it adds another level of trust.

Install Tracking – Google Analytics

Google Analytics (GA) will help you see what your bounce rate is, how long people stay on your site once they arrive, and if they click-through to another page on your site. There are many more factors that are revealed by installing GA to your site such as where your traffic is coming from.

GA is far more statistically revealing than the typical site tracking that comes with your hosting account. You can get GA here.

Google Webmaster Tools

Google also provides a nice assortment of tools to help you fix broken links and other things to help improve your site conversions. Click here to go to Google Webmaster Tools.

These things may seem like tiny tips, but they are very powerful when taken into consideration for making site improvements.

From basics to advanced, stay tuned for more traffic tips coming soon, right here on Netwoozy.com.

Tools to Help Improve Your SEO

ON-Page SEO

I personally use SEO Professor to help me with on-page SEO.

Traffic & Backlink Tool

I also use both Unique Article Wizard and Article Marketing Automation to submit my articles to other blogs, websites, and article directories.

WordPress Plugins – In my next post I’ll reveal what WP Plugins I am using and those that you may want to use as well.

Please Tweet, Like and Share – It helps me deliver the best possible, free content.

Was this post helpful? Post your thoughts in the comments section below.

FaceBook VS Google Plus

Remember those silly commercials by Yahoo? Do you YAHOOooooOOO??

Well, there was a time when Yahoo owned the search engine market. Up to 60% at one point in time. Then this amazing thing happened. Almost over night Google was THE search engine. It seemed like whenever a search was conducted in a movie, on a TV series, in the news… they “Googled” it.

WHAM! Yahoo was smacked out of this market in one clean sweep. Every since Google snagged the lions share of the search engine market, there has been no other contender.

Yah, Bing gave it a whirl, even making an appearance in the entertainment media here and there, but it was David trying to take on Goliath without his handy bag full of stones. Bing walked into that fight totally unprepared to take on the mighty Google.

The next step for Google was to dominate the video market. They bout Youtube last year in 2010 for a whopping six billion plus dollars!

Next they went after Groupon, but Groupon wouldn’t have it. They continued to turn down the SIX BILLION dollar offer to buy them out. Perhaps you are wondering what Groupon is. It’s a Deal of the Day website. So, taking over Groupon would be like snagging up a huge piece of the Ebay and Craigslist market share.

The rumor is that Groupon is perhaps holding out for a bigger offer based on the possible up to $2 billion in yearly sales.

What’s next?

Introducing Google+. Working it’s members up to 40 million within 4 months time.

Like Facebook but with some improvements.

Group video chats – it’s a chat room via everyone using video to be face to face.

Google allows it’s users to connect it’s Blogger personal blogs to their Google+ social networking accounts.

Facebook VS Google – Why Should YOU Care?

Social networking is a big part of making money online. Used correctly you can drive a huge amount of traffic to your website without worrying about SEO. And you can boost your SEO efforts using social networking. They go hand-in-hand.

If I was looking for a new product to create, this is what I’d be looking at now:

How to USE Google PLUS and Blogger to …

Drive traffic and Boost Your SEO

THAT I am SURE is going to be a new step by step video offer soon. Or maybe it’s already being done. I dunno. I just know that it’s worth keeping track of this new Google + social network.

Will Google make a quick snack of Facebook?

What do you think?

Post your thoughts below.

If you liked this post, please give it a Tweet.

UPDATE:

Google spent 500 million on um… their sneaky plot to rule the Internet.

Facebook Denied – Matt Cutts removes his FB page – why you ask? Well…. he “claims” its because they are not providing the proper education on privacy for their new addons.

Rumor – He’s in Kahoots with Google Plus to take over FB’s 750 million users.