Creating Links for Article Submissions

Posted on August 30th, 2007 in Tutorials/Helps, Offsite SEO by Dan

One question that I get a lot is, “How do I create a link in my article submissions?” Most article directories do not use a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor, meaning that you have to actually put in HTML code in order to create a link for your article. So, here is the basic idea of what to do.

1- Write Out Your Author Bio

I would recommend that before you even consider creating any links for your article, you should write the author bio first. This is the final paragraph, sometimes called the “Resource Box” where you put in the little blurb about yourself or your site. Make sure that you use 1-2 of your keyword phrases in this bio so you can turn them into links.

2- Decide Which Page You’re Going to Link to

When you’re doing article submissions, it is a good idea to do some deep linking whenever appropriate. Deep linking is when you link to another page within the site rather than just the home page. This helps you to create a good link popularity for the whole site, not just the home page (I’ll probably talk about this more in a future post).

So once you’ve chosen your 1-2 keyword phrases, go to your site and grab the URL (address) of the pages that are most appropriate for you to link to with those phrases.

3- Create the Link

To create the link you’re going to need a little bit of HTML code. Let’s do an example and say that I am going to create a link for the keyword phrase ‘website marketing’, and I’m going to link it to http://www.ecommtips.com. I’ll break the code down into two parts: what goes before the phrase and what goes after the phrase.

Before the Phrase
What you need to put before the phrase is this: <a href=”http://www.ecommtips.com”> but of course you would replace it with your own address.

After the Phrase
After the phrase you would put this: </a>

So, once it’s all said and done, the code to create a hyperlink will look like this: <a href=”http://www.ecommtips.com”>website marketing</a> when you insert it into the “Author Bio” or “Resource Box.”  But, when the article is published it will look like this: website marketing.

There you go! That’s all you need to do to create a hyperlink for an article submission!

Code Variations

One thing I’ve learned from submitting to different article directories is that different directories like to see the code slightly differently sometimes. Here are some variations:

<a href=”http://www.ecommtips.com”>
<a href=http://www.ecommtips.com>

Notice that the second one has not quotation marks around the address. This is the way that ArticleDashboard.com prefers it. Just use trial and error. The variation I showed you in the original example is the more common one, but every now and then you may need to use this variation.

Happy Linking! ;-)

Onsite vs. Offsite SEO

Posted on August 27th, 2007 in Onsite SEO, Offsite SEO by Dan

I had the thought today that some people may not know the difference between onsite and offsite search engine optimization (SEO). So, I figured I’d take a minute or two and do a quick summary of the difference between the two and why both are important to rankings.

Keep in mind that search engines want to give their users relevant content. In other words, if you go to the search engine and do a search for ‘fishing pole’, you want to get sites that are about or sell fishing poles right? That’s the whole basis of what search engines are trying to do. Keep that in mind when you’re picking out your keyword phrases and such.

Onsite SEO

Onsite SEO is anything that you do to your website to make it more relevant to your key phrases. Some of the strategies to use for onsite SEO include:

  • Meta Tags
  • Title Tags
  • Keyword Density
  • Use of Keywords in Alt Tags
  • etc.

In other words, onsite SEO has to do with how you use keywords phrases on your site and make your site relevant to the phrases you are targeting.

Offsite SEO

Offsite SEO has to do with what you do out on the internet as a whole. Most of this has to do with link building and other such strategies. Here are a few of the common link building things you can do:

  • Vary anchor text in links
  • Different link types (two-way, one-way)
  • Link locations (blogs, articles, directories, other websites, etc.)
  • Social links (del.icio.us, Stumble Upon, Digg, Reddit, etc.)
  • etc.

Offsite SEO seems to be a more important factor than all of the onsite SEO stuff. I still recommend spending time doing the onsite stuff because it really does help the site to be more relevant to the terms you want rankings for. It’s the content that comes behind the link.

Both onsite and offsite SEO are important and you should spend time with each of them. Don’t worry so much about exact percentages and what not (for example, and exact 5% keyword density of every page of your site might be pushing it a bit…), just make the site relevant to the phrases you want. Then, build plenty of links using your keyword phrases.

That’s all for today!

Update for SiteCreatorPlus (Website Dynamics) Users

Posted on August 23rd, 2007 in General, Website Help by Dan

I know that a good number of the people that read this blog are people that I work with to show them how to setup and advertise their websites. This message is directly mainly towards those people and anyone else that is using a Website Dynamics builder (SiteCreatorPlus.com, CityMax.com, CityMaker.com, AtomicShops.com, etc.).

Website Dynamics has added a new feature to their builder where you can add a custom message on your confirmation page after someone places an order. This is a nice little feature, and I’d recommend you take advantage of it. As a side note, you cannot do this if you are using PayPal Standard as your merchant processor.

Here’s a link to the announcement from Website Dynamics: Customize Your Order Confirmation Page

Why You Should Have a Link Building Strategy

Posted on August 20th, 2007 in General, Offsite SEO by Dan

The way I look at it, you have two ways that you can go about building links to your site: following a plan or doing it haphazardly. Which do you think works better? Speaking from experience, the planned way is a lot more effective!

Why to Have a Plan

Yes, its very cliche, but there’s something about these cliche statements: they is usually some good truth to them! So here’s the cliche statement for today: if you fail to plan you plan to fail.

If you go about your link building very haphazardly you’ll get some work done, but not as much as you would with some sort of a plan. It doesn’t really matter what you plan is, just make sure you have one so that you make the most of your time.

Link building can be a very monotonous exercise (especially for things like directories). So keep the big picture in mind and develop a plan.

What Makes a Good Plan

I don’t believe that there is any one perfect way to do it. So here’s the basic idea of what I do: I just do a different technique each day to give myself variety. For example, Mondays I mainly focus on blogs, Tuesdays I work on an article or two, Wednesday I do directories, etc. I will modify this from time to time, and on some weeks I have to make little adjustments. For the most part though, I will try to stick to this type of a schedule.

When you first get going, any plan is better than no plan. Maybe your plan is that you’re going to spend 3 hours on Saturday. Great! Now decide what you’re going to get done in those 3 hours and you have a plan!

Once you have your plan the next step is simple: work that plan! As you work your plan you may find that it is not as effective as you may have thought. That’s ok, make some adjustments and keep going.

Should You Learn HTML???

Posted on August 17th, 2007 in General by Dan

Every now and then I talk to a person that is just barely getting started with things on the internet and they wonder if it will be necessary to learn HTML. Well, here’s my thoughts on the subject.

If you’re going to really get to know what you’re doing online, you’ll want to at least learn the basics of HTML. This will free you up to be able to do more with your site even if you’re using a template builder.

But do you need to learn HTML before you have a site? No.

You can still build a website using some type of template builder without knowing any HTML at all. This way you can start to learn some of the basic principles of building a site, marketing it, etc. and not have to worry about all of the technical, programming related stuff. I still think it’s worth your time to learn it in the long run, but don’t let your lack of programming knowledge be an excuse for not starting your website.

Building a Site Part 3 - Using a Builder

Posted on August 16th, 2007 in Website Help by Dan

As with the other two options that we’ve talked about, using some type of a website builder can have it’s pros and cons as well. For example, if you are brand new to building websites but don’t have the funds or desire to have someone else do it, using some type of a builder program would be a good option for you.

There are a lot of website building programs on the market today. For those of you that are really just getting started, you’ll want to use some type of a template builder. Look for one that is easy to use, but also has all of the functionality that you need. Here are a few things to look for:

  • Ease of Use
  • Shopping Cart
  • Email
  • Professional Look
  • Good Support
  • Price

There are some more advanced features to most of these programs that you can look for as well, but these should be enough to get you started. I would also recommend that before you sign up with a builder, see if you can use it for a few days as a free trial. It’s also nice if you can see examples of some sites that use the same builder so you can see if they have the look and feel that you want to achieve.

Building a Site Part 2 - Hiring it Out

Posted on August 13th, 2007 in Website Help by Dan

Hiring out your website design and build is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, you’ll probably get a much nicer site than you could ever do on your own.

Probably the biggest concerns that people have with this one is price and control. So, let’s take a look at those two.

Price of Hiring a Designer

There are plenty of website design companies that could do a website for you. One thing about design and that type of work is that you will generally get what you pay for. Yes, there are those people and companies that way overcharge for the quality of work that you do, but that’s why you always look for a good portfolio before you do anything with them.

Another option is to have a freelance designer do the work for you. You can find them at either Guru.com or Elance.com. With these sites you post a job that you need done and designers that are interested in doing the work for you will bid on the job and show you a portfolio of what they’ve done in the past. Then you would hire on of them and work with them to get it done.

Contol of the Site

One mess that you can easily get into with having someone else do your site for you is losing some control of the site. What you want to avoid is the type of situation where if you need to make changes to the site you have to go through your designer to make those changes. This puts the control in their hands, not yours. This type of setup can also create a really bad lag time between when you submit the changes and when they actually get done. So if at all possible, have them create the site on a platform that you are comfortable with so you can easily edit it yourself as you need to.

Next Page »