37 replies to this topic

[chrishirst]

Why does a business not need very many backlinks?

Because they don't!

It's a myth that every page need masses of inbound links.

How do you think that pages on your website get rankings when you only ever get links to your home page?


It's not magic, those pages rank and get found ONLY on the page content.

[Jill]

I think visitors to my parents site would be interested in this information "industry news" and also it will give my small (under 10 page) website some more ammunition to come up in the search engines at it will have articles.

If it's good for the visitors then it's good for the site.

it will give my small (under 10 page) website some more ammunition to come up in the search engines at it will have articles.

While that's good, do you think the people coming in from the search engines to those articles are those who will be interested in the services being offered at the website? Cuz if not, then why do you need them to come in the first place?

Will this help me in the search engines?

It may help you show up for the long tail keywords that are naturally used in the articles (or it may not since the articles are featured on other sites as well).

Also, as far as copyright goes. If I copy only a portion of the article and provide a link to the website where the reader can find the full article is this copyright infringement?

It's copyright infringement if you don't have permission to publish the articles. Be sure to get permission for anything you want to use.

[Catz]

You could get your family in on the process. They know the business better than anyone, they know what actual customers ask about and need to know, info you could be providing on the website that you might not be at the moment.

They can contribute content for articles, so you can put together something original that would be of benefit to your customers/potential customers. You can use other articles you have seen for inspiration on things to write about, but original content is what the spiders are looking for.

Duplicating articles is not going to work to your benefit like something original would.

What about info on upkeep of their vehicles between service? Summer or winterizing their vehicles (which can sometimes bring in visitors)? Or info on checking air pressure in their tires, or safety checks they can be doing to keep from having accidents while on the road...who knows, there are all kinds of options.

(just guessing at what they might be interested in.)

One other thing, when you have a list of services you perform, it can help to have those link out to a page describing what is actually done. If you offer something like Maintenance Plans, describe what they are, what they entail.

Getting info like that into your site if it is not already there can be helpful because it gives the search engines more relevant info to index.

[ABAR]

This is great info! Thanks for the advice.

So, I was reading up on another thread on this site and saw a list of free directories that I can submit my site to.

I submitted it to two that require a reciprical link but my site has not been added yet.

Should I leave the reciprical link on my site until it is added ot their dirctory?

Or are things like this not worth the time or they don't give me any boost in the search engines.

The reciprical link directories I submitted to are something like PR 4 or PR 6

[Michael Martinez]

I would avoid directories that require a reciprocal link. If you're going to submit to directories, you should use tools like Compete.com and Quantcast.com (and maybe Alexa.com) to choose directories that appear to actually have real traffic. Their links may or may not help with search engines but if they are being used then you may get some traffic from them.

[cybernac]

Don't forget social networking. This could be very beneficial with a new site to get the name out there. You can even concentrate on marketing to your parent's location.

[ABAR]

Don't forget social networking. This could be very beneficial with a new site to get the name out there. You can even concentrate on marketing to your parent's location.

does this mean if I create a facebook page and tell all my facebook friends and family to repost the link to the site then those will count as backlinks?

because my parrents target customer are commercial truck fleet owners (not your average facebooker) I don't know how many customers they will get just from raising awarness.

I think the best shot there is to get focuse traffice is to come up on key search terms in Google, Yahoo.

Terms such as:

Commercial Fleet Repair

Truck Fleet Repair

Semi Truck Repair

Etc.

[Jill]

does this mean if I create a facebook page and tell all my facebook friends and family to repost the link to the site then those will count as backlinks?

No.

You need to stop thinking in terms of backlinks.

Just think about what will bring the target market to the site.

[ABAR]

No.

You need to stop thinking in terms of backlinks.

Just think about what will bring the target market to the site.

this is confusing... arn't backlinks what makes your site come up higher in the search engines... is this a myth?

[Michael Martinez]

this is confusing... arn't backlinks what makes your site come up higher in the search engines... is this a myth?

It's one way of looking at search engine optimization but not a very efficient way. It leaves out most of what is involved in SEO.

Creating the content that is worthy of attention should be first and foremost.

Once the content exists, showing it to other people through social media and RSS feeds is very helpful. But many people don't seem to realize that simply publishing content for popular keywords may produce signals through services like "Google Alerts".

At some point, when enough people pay attention to your content, you'll start earning links.

Somewhere down the road from that you should have enough resources to look at how you can link to yourself without being too aggressive and spammy.

[ABAR]

what is google alerts?

can a site get better than a PR 0 without backlinks?

[Michael Martinez]

You can set up Google Alerts here:
http://www.google.com/alerts

Their system will email you when it discovers new content for the keywords you specify.

[Jill]

this is confusing... arn't backlinks what makes your site come up higher in the search engines... is this a myth?

You need to brush up on why we do what we do in SEO.

[rmorrow]

The size of the site does not matter at all. A search engine can only see a site as a group of URLs. Each page stands on its own merit. The main benefit of having more pages is to attract more people that are looking for different things. Then, with a good menu system, they can see everything else you have to offer.

As an example of a small site ranking well - my wife has a very small (3 page} site with each page having approximately 400 - 500 words (NOT a "magic number" of words so don't interpret it that way). She has her home page that describes a little about what she does, a page that tells a little about "recent" jobs, and a page about her pricing. That's it. And I used quotes around the word "recent" because she hasn't updated the site since she put it online in 2004.

Her current standings for her chosen 2-word phrase in the SERPS are:

Google: #3 out of 1,440,000,000 results (yes, that is 1.4 Billion - with a
Yahoo: #1 of 317,000,000
Bing: #1 of 310,000,000

It's small - it's ugly - and it works for her.

Just make sure your content is relevant to the phrase people will actually use to look for your services. Amd make sure that the search engines will not encounter any stumbling blocks while crawling the site.

[ABAR]

You need to brush up on why we do what we do in SEO.

nicely written article... very helpful.

I like how you broke it down so simply "what you say about yourself" and "what others say about you"