SEO Tycoon

**adityas** · 10-08-2007, 01:23 PM

I need some SEO advice and some leads plz!

After spending some time on forums like these I have realized the value of inbound links coming from relevant sites and blogs.

I have written a few articles and submitted them to article directories.
Now, I wish to try and develop some inbound links through some blogs.
I need to know if there is a list of PR3+ blogs where I can post for free and then incorporate some links in them in the form of anchor text. I basically provide a few webmaster services, so looking for blogs that talk about content creation, web design etc.

Also, I'd like to know how much of a great part is my website's design going to play in all of this!!! My pages are not very heavy, but am hosting with a service, which tends to become Painfully slow at times, how much will that affect my rank on search engines.

Advise from chrishirst, vangogh, ADAM Web Design are really really appreciated! This doesn't mean the rest can't give their 2 cents

, all help appreciated guys.

Best of luck and warm regards,
Aditya

**Learning Newbie** · 10-08-2007, 01:42 PM

Slowness will only affect your search ranking if the search bots timeout waiting for a response. I don't think anybody knows the timeout values. They're almost surely custom.

But you might find it harder to talk these others into linking to you if they constantly have a bad experience waiting for your pages to load.

**ADAM Web Design** · 10-08-2007, 02:31 PM

John's right...people who can't reach your site can't link to your site.

The first and best thing you can do is to say "screw PR." Say it loudly and proudly..."screw PR." The best traffic generating links that you'll get will not only have 0 PR, but in some cases they won't even be indexed or even reachable from the outside.

For example, try reaching blogs.tap.ibm.com . I'm not linking to it because it won't work, and I'm posting it for that reason. It's a legitimate site, but only if you're part of the IBM secret society of employee/nerds. And, if you're lucky enough to somehow get a link from one of their blogs, it can send hundreds of visitors in a very short time period (I've seen it).

But is it "SEO friendly"? No...it's about as SEO-unfriendly as it gets.

So...how does one get such links from such places? The secret, if you're actually as good as you say you are at it, is something that you practice: content building and a user-friendly layout, in conjunction with telling a few of the right people.

Speaking of which, you have one significant barrier right off the top. Look at your site in Internet Explorer 7 (specifically the "Prices" column). It's not doing what you want it to do.

In other words, to get the inbound links that you covet, it starts from a solid foundation (i.e. a well-built website with unique content.)

**Learning Newbie** · 10-08-2007, 03:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ADAM Web Design

The first and best thing you can do is to say "screw PR." Say it loudly and proudly..."screw PR." The best traffic generating links that you'll get will not only have 0 PR, but in some cases they won't even be indexed or even reachable from the outside.

To drive this home, you said you want links from relevant, on topic blogs. Probably you want new, topical, timely links. Like instead of them going back and editing a 6 months old post with PR that nobody is ever going to do for you, you want to get a link in their next post. Well the next post hasn't even happened yet, the search engines don't know about it, and it doesn't even have 0 PR.

All of the links you want have no PR. If someone did edit a year old page no one would see it. Links are for traffic, not PR.

**vangogh** · 10-08-2007, 09:29 PM

Aditya I'll echo what's already been said. I also want to add that I doubt there's a list you can look up for blogs that allow posting. Guest posting is a good idea, but you're best bet is to read blogs in your industry and when you discover one that lets you post go ahead and post.

Don't go crazy on the links. Even if a blog does allow you to post an article they might be sensitive to people trying to add to many links back to their site. It should be ok to add links, but too many optimized links gets flagged.

**scorpionagency** · 10-09-2007, 12:42 AM

In addition, While I do preach that having your article content on your own Domain in order for a higher Organic inbound link rates, there is also the option of writing a unique article on a free blog hosting site (E.G. Blogspot) with an author link (Anchored) in the header & footer. This provides an additional inbound link from a separate root URL & coming from a targeted article. Some say that you get better link juice when it comes from a separate URL.

Again, Myself, I prefer having all my unique content on my own site, It's an idea for you to think about though seeing that you're actively seeking blog options.

Good luck...

**adityas** · 10-12-2007, 02:31 AM

Thank a lot guys, apologize for not being able to reply earlier, anyways, I quite agree with what you say, I have read Vangogh's post about PR, and how irrelevant it is, chasing the PR goal! Just have one other small question to sum up the array of doubts I have.

PRESS RELEASES:
How effective can press releases be?
Does it make a difference, if I submit my PR to free Press release submission sites, as compared to a paid for service like PRWEB.com?
I can understand that each may have their own "power and reach", but will that make an astounding difference. Also would you choose Google's keyword tool or any other tool, to really estimate your competition for a keyword or phrase?!?!

Regards,
Aditya

**ADAM Web Design** · 10-12-2007, 03:20 AM

Quote:

How effective can press releases be?
Does it make a difference, if I submit my PR to free Press release submission sites, as compared to a paid for service like PRWEB.com?

They can be very effective, or they can be completely useless. It really depends on how well-crafted your press release is and if it appeals to the people who can help you spread your word. It's a lot like good website copy: make it unique, make it appealing, tell the right people, bang, your news is out there. But you'd **** well better have something different to say or your release will end up being filed in a blue box or paper shredder.

PRWeb? They were good way back in the day (1999-2000) when they were still more or less a secret and totally free. Then they got discovered, grew too large, and then got diluted and in my mind never have fully recovered from that from a user point of view. They're not what they once were, and with everyone and their brother using them, it would stand to reason that a lot of the editors being contacted would see PRWeb and start automatically rejecting them as well.

Ultimately, this is one of those situations where a "DIY" press release subscriber base might be a lot smaller, but more effective. I haven't really messed with PRs much in the past few years myself, though (no need).

As far as competition/keyword tools go, I go against the grain and don't bother anymore. There are too many people looking up too many niche phrases that are too easy to attain organically to want to bother much with competition tools. Not only that, most competition tools (WordTracker comes to mind) draw from a comparatively small and increasingly inaccurate sample size to really be able to get a good read on what keywords and phrases to target. I've seen keywords and phrases searched 20-30 times a day for short periods that would never show up in the keyword research tool. Heck, people look for my name once every 1-2 days (for God knows what reason...I don't ego search, and don't have a **** clue why other people feel the need to do it for and to me), and I'd almost bet that wouldn't turn up on any keyword research tool.

**MrCat** · 10-12-2007, 04:47 AM

I would also suggest the OP to promote his site/services further at relevant forums by means of his signature. The best way of doing this is by contributing constructively to the discussions than dropping links in your posts

**adityas** · 10-14-2007, 02:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrCat

I would also suggest the OP to promote his site/services further at relevant forums by means of his signature. The best way of doing this is by contributing constructively to the discussions than dropping links in your posts

Not sure, I quite understand!

**zonker720** · 02:43 AM

Adityas, I like your website. It's a good adaption of the Template world template that you started with, but you should fix a few things in the site before you bother promoting it.

The main thing is that it took me 5 attempts to work out that clicking the sample content links, displays the text below the fold. This is a huge problem for an impatient surfer, and the first impression is that your site is only a front page.

I would just link those headings directly to the corresponding pages. Much easier to understand.

Having said that,... I'm still going to buy some pages to try you out. We might have some work for you.

My second comment would be that it took me 5 clicks to find the "buy now" button. ;-)