A 5-Step DIY Promotion Guide for Startups to Generate Business Without Google

t's no secret that I'm a huge fan of search engine traffic, and the strategies that you can use to attract and keep it. But here's something everybody who loves SEO needs to recognize: It's dangerous, short-sighted, and risky to count on a search engine monopoly to subsidize your business model, not without diversification.
That's why you should favor an SEO strategy that makes sense for promotion,even if the search engines completely ignored what you did.
But let's take things a step further by looking at how you can diversify your incoming traffic streams and boost revenue and awareness without the search engines.
Some of these tactics will help your SEO, but that's not the focus. Today, it's all about securing business growth without the aid of Google.
Let's break it down into a five-part process.

1. Join Your Audience's Largest Communities and Forums

This is huge.
It doesn't take a genius to figure out that people won't find out about you unless they actually see you. In order for them to see you, you're going to have to go where they are.
Now, I can already hear the mouse clicks as you race to your browser's URL bar and type "Twitter" or "Facebook," but let me stop you right there. Social media can certainly be a great place to gain exposure and drive traffic, but it's not where the topically oriented conversations are happening.
Facebook is a place for friends and family to share bite-size images that make them laugh or go "aww." The sooner you understand that, the sooner you'll be able to master Facebook marketing, and the sooner you'll realize it's not the best place to find relevant traffic.
As for Twitter, it's a great place to find influencers, and we'll talk more about that later. But Twitter isn't really a place where in-depth conversations are happening, especially not about specific topics.
So I want to stress this. I'm not necessarily talking about social networks. I'm specifically talking about the places on the Internet where your target audience hangs out. There are a number of answers here, and you need to broaden your scope a bit in order to figure out where these people are.

• Internet Forums and Message Boards. These are some of the most important places you can get involved, and they're also seriously overrated. I bring this up a lot, but it's really important and it gets ignored. People actually spend more time on Internet forums than they do on blogs. About 62 percent of social media users visit a message board at least once a week. Only 54 percent visit a blog that often.
• Blogs. Obviously, blogs are still hugely important, though. Any blog that has an active comment section is a good place to join the conversation.
• Google+ Communities. This is what has really helped Google+ come into its own as a genuine player in the social networking sphere. Google+ communities are topically oriented discussion groups, pretty much like forums, except that the accounts are tied directly to real people. This is where some of the most in-depth conversations are taking place about specific subjects.
• Reddit Subreddits. Reddit is supposedly a link-sharing, social bookmarking site, but as it's matured it's becoming more of a discussion forum. Do a search for "reddit [keyword]" in Google to see if there are any subreddits where your target audience might be having discussions. Bear in mind that Reddit is extremely anti-commercialist and you could get banned from the site if you use it to promote yourself too frequently. Links are only welcome if they are extremely relevant. If nothing else, Reddit can be a great place to learn more about your target audience, and what they like to "upvote" on the site.
• LinkedIn Groups. If you're in a B2B sector, this can be a good place to find topically oriented discussions.
• Facebook Groups. While these aren't typically as active as Google+ communities, they are at least topically oriented, as opposed to the Facebook News Feed, which is for the aforementioned cat videos and image macros.
• Question and Answer Sites (Quora). These are another one of my favorites, Quora in particular. While a single answer with a relevant link in it doesn't send a huge amount of traffic, it does build up over time as you answer more questions. The most important thing I've noticed about Quora is the fact that links tend to keep sending a steady trickle of traffic for a long time.

Regardless of where these discussions are taking place, your role is going to play a similar part:

• The fundamental rule is to be helpful. People can be spotty as entertainers and will often be ignored or banned if they promote themselves too heavily, but being helpful is always welcome.
• Promotion is best left in the sidelines. A link in your forum signature or the equivalent is usually the best choice. For platforms that don't have signatures or anything similar, don't be the guy who will only post something if you can find a way to work a link in. Post links only when they are relevant and helpful to the discussion, even if that means writing a blog post to answer a question on a message board. In the meantime, take part in the conversation and be helpful even when a link wouldn't make sense. It's important that the members of the forum feel like you're "one of them," and that's not going to happen if you only post when there's something immediately in it for you.
• Be wary of sites without avatars that people can use to recognize you. For example, usernames on Reddit typically go ignored, and without avatars, very few people on the site are memorable, even if their posts are wildly successful. These sites are still worth using, but primarily for understanding your audience and what they like, not for building a reputation.
• In addition to answering questions, you should also post your own helpful content, guides, etc. I'm specifically talking about posting these directly to the site, as opposed to posting a link. You can certainly place a link within these guides, but try to treat these posts almost like guest posts on popular blogs. Look at previous successful posts to get an idea of what style and length people are looking for.

One more bit of advice: focus your attention on a limited number of platforms. It's much better to completely win over a single community, even a small one, than it is to have a scattered presence on a large number of platforms. Community strategies tend to work only after people have seen you more than once, and always had a favorable experience when they did. It's much less common for people to see a single post by you on a forum with a link, click on it, and then make a purchase.

2. Capture Attention With Problem-Solving Content

It's sort of a no-brainer these days that you need great content in order to capture or keep an audience, but all too often this ends up falling by the wayside. A big part of the reason for this is the ambiguity of a phrase like "great content."
What you really need to do is produce content that solves a problem for people. You need to think of the content itself as a product, and that means defining its unique selling proposition, figuring out its target audience, and working through exactly how it's going to help the person on the other end. This is the activity that keeps people coming back.
Make sure you're solving the right problem. This is a big one. While it can be wasteful to perform marketing research every single time you create a blog post, it's good to have at least some data to work with when you're deciding what to write about. I'm not just talking about keyword research here. Remember, it's not about the subject, it's about the problem.
A few ways to discover the problem:

• The most obvious place to start is with your product. What problem does it solve?
• You don't necessarily want to produce content that solves the exact same problem as your product. In fact, this can sometimes hurt revenue. Instead, you want to ask yourself who is interested in this problem, and what related problems might they have?
• Once you've defined your target audience, the best way to figure out what problems they have is to simply ask them. If you have an email list, there's no harm in emailing your audience and asking them what problems they are struggling with.
• If you don't have an existing audience already, pay attention to what people are talking about in the forums and online communities we talked about in the last section. What kinds of questions keep coming up over and over again? What are people griping about the most? These are the kinds of problems you want to solve with your content.
• Additionally, you can run surveys using a tool like SurveyMonkey to find out what people are struggling with.

Once you've found your problems, the next step is to solve them in ways that haven't been done (or at least done well) before. This is all about your unique selling proposition. Think of your blog like a magazine. You need to stand out in order to keep an audience.
This all happens on two levels:

1. Ideally, each piece of content you post to your blog should solve a problem in a unique way. (I say specifically "to your blog," because you may end up repeating yourself a little when you promote yourself on other platforms, and this is OK, as long as the audience is different.)
2. Much more importantly, however, your entire blog should have a unique selling proposition. The best way to accomplish this is usually by targeting a specific kind of person in a way that appeals to them. It's important to point this out because it's not the same thing as a specific subject. Most people will get bored of an extremely niche subject, no matter how interesting it might be to them.

A few other things you can do to make the most of your content strategy:

• Do not forget how important it is to build up an email list. No matter how great your content is, most people will forget the name of your blog and never return, even if they really like what you have to offer. Your email signup form should be highly visible, and users should have an incentive to subscribe, like a free e-book, a 30-day challenge, a tool, a video, etc.
• Get your information from outside of your particular corner of the blogosphere. While it's a good idea to reference ideas brought up by similar bloggers in order to stay topical, this shouldn't be the core of your content. You want to get your information from less-obvious sources like academic journals, books, interviews with experts, raw data, personal experience, anecdotes, original research, and from other industries.
• Creativity is an important component of creating interesting content, and that's usually the result of combining ideas that seem otherwise unrelated. Again, draw analogies and bring in ideas from places outside of your specific filter bubble.

You need to actually promote your content in order for any of this to matter. Obviously, you should leverage your presence in the communities I mentioned earlier in order to get your content in front of people. Brian Dean has also shared some awesome untapped promotional strategies:

• Forums (told you!).
• Let influencers know whenever you mention them in a piece of content (in particular by thanking them on Google+).
• Don't be afraid to ask readers to share your content explicitly. (To this, I'd like to add that it helps a huge amount to spice your blog posts up with embedded social media posts, since bite-size content tends to do better on social networks than full blog posts.)
• Quote experts and then let them know about it.
• Send out emails in the early afternoon when they are most likely to get read.
• Talk to people who post link roundups.
• LinkedIn Groups (what did I say?).
• Find people who like to post curated content.
• Use a syndication service like Outbrain or Taboola to pay for visitors.
• Content curation sites like Paper.li and Scoop.it are gold mines of people who like to share content.
• Use social sharing communities like Social Buzz Club and Triberr to get in touch with other bloggers in the same boat.

3. Get Mentioned on Top Platforms

It should go without saying that a bit of mainstream press can go a long way.
Journalists are always on the lookout for a new story, and if you can help them accomplish that, you can put yourself in front of a big audience and gain quite a bit of traction.
One of the best ways to accomplish this is through a site called HARO, or Help a Reporter Out. This is a great way to get in touch with professional journalists and let them borrow your expertise in exchange for some publicity.
I also can't stress enough that signing up for HARO as a journalist can also be a great idea, as long as you meet their requirements. This is great because it makes it easy to find people to interview and it can put you in touch with a lot of experts.
Signing up for HARO as a source, on the other hand, isn't free. If you'd rather not spend the $20 a month to sign up, I would still highly recommend reaching out to journalists. While the response rate can be low, the payoff is more than worth it.
The real question is how to capture the attention of a journalist to begin with. Here are a few pointers:

• Remember, journalism is all about the story. Journalists aren't at all interested in talking to you about a product you created, unless it's exceptional. Instead, they are looking for news.
• Focus on actions. A journalist is going to be interested in something you have done, not something you sell. Examples would include publicity stunts, creative charity donations, interesting events, initiatives, and so on.
• The alternative is to focus on expertise. Again, you aren't talking about a product, but you are offering your insight as a professional to a story that will be relevant to a professional. For example, you can offer your expert input on a current event.
• If you're using HARO, make sure you only respond to queries where you can be genuinely helpful as a source.
• If you're reaching out to journalists directly, make sure you have some kind of story pitch already prepared. Don't simply approach them saying that you are an expert, and expect that to mean anything useful. While most journalists aren't going to want you to approach them with a full story or outline in hand, they will want some idea of the story angle.

4. Become a Contributor on an Industry Leading Platform

In addition to contacting journalists, if possible, becoming a contributor to a popular blog or online magazine is one of the smartest things you can do.
A lot of digital marketers will talk to you about how great guest posting can be, but in this case I'm talking about taking things to the next level. We're talking about multi-author online magazines, such as Search Engine Watch. When you post frequently to one of the top sites for your audience, you get the kind of much-needed repeat exposure that can make all the difference.
Becoming a regular contributor on a top platform isn't necessarily as hard as you might think. While you probably won't be a journalist for The New York Times anytime soon, plenty of high-quality publications are always looking for more content.
If you have at least some history getting published on high-quality sites, there are plenty of multi-author magazines that will be willing to take you seriously, especially if you aren't asking for any financial compensation.

5. Use the Power of Influencers

This has already come up a few times during this post, and it's easy to see why. As much as the Internet has given us the power to publish and reach people on our own, there are still influential people, and they are still very important. In fact, they may be more important than ever.
The difference is that the modern "gatekeeper" doesn't look like the CEO of a massive media conglomerate. The modern gatekeeper is instead an influential tweeter, a blogger with a large audience, or a YouTuber who gets millions of views every time. These people are influential, but they aren't deciding who is and who isn't getting published. They're simply the people who have an audience to send your way.
We've already talked about a few of the ways that influencers can help, but let's go a bit more in depth:

• I mentioned when we were talking about HARO that it can be very useful to sign up as a journalist, not just as a source, because it gives you the chance to interview people. Interviewing experts doesn't just spice up your content, it can also put you in touch with influencers. These influencers are naturally willing to promote the interview and share it with their followers, because it doesn't just help you, it helps them.
• Again, anytime you mention an influencer in your content, it's a good idea to let them know about it. This can be a good way to launch a conversation that could end up being mutually beneficial.
• Try emailing influencers every once in a while when you're putting together your content. Even a short answer to a quick question can be a good way to spice up your content and give it a more journalistic feel. Naturally, many influencers are happy to see that you used what they said in a blog post, and they might be more willing to promote you as a result. Your audience, as well as other influencers, will also take you more seriously if you do this fairly frequently.
• Be helpful to influencers. Email them with information that you think will help them solve a problem they are dealing with, and offer your expertise to help with any specific problems they might be having. Strike up a conversation and connect with them as an individual. Keep in touch, even when it isn't business related. This kind of connection can be very valuable.
• An influencer doesn't have to be somebody with a massive audience. They could be a blogger in pretty much the same boat as you. Reaching out to people like this and asking if they would like to write a guest post, or join you in a podcast, can be very rewarding.

You Don't Need Google

As useful as search engine traffic can be, you don't need it to launch a successful business online.
When you seek out the communities, influencers, and platforms that your audience is spending time with, you can gradually persuade those people to see what you have to say. After capturing and keeping that interest by solving problems for these people, you can build up an audience and continue to grow.
Don't rely on the whims of a search engine monopoly to keep your business afloat. Diversify.

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Your SEO Competition Isn't Who You Think It Is

I had the pleasure of discussing the SEO competitive landscape as part of the 5 Spying Strategies You Can Use Today to Dominate Your Competition panel at ClickZ Live New York earlier this month.
The key takeaway: your online competition may not be who you think it is.
Here's why you should avoid making assumptions about who your competitors are, why you should view the competitive landscape in aggregate form, how you can compete with Google for clicks, and why you should discard old competitive thinking.

Avoid Stale Assumptions About Your Online Competition

Whether you work at a search agency, at an SEO platform, or as a consultant, you've probably asked new clients to provide a list of their keyword competitors. You might get back a list of competitors A, B, and C – but with some research you discover that your client's primary online competition is actually D, E, and F.

This phenomenon spans both B2C and B2B companies and occurs either because there are assumptions about competitors that carry over from a brick-and-mortar world to the digital world, or because it is the first time marketers are looking at the competitive landscape in aggregate form.
Evaluating on a keyword-by-keyword basis hides the fact that competitors are pulling away from the rest in the overall space.
Here's the problem with not knowing who your online competition really is: Any subsequent competitive analysis – competitive backlink opportunities, keyword discovery, and even content strategy – will be misguided because you will be looking at the wrong competitors. The solution is to be thorough about discovering who your online competition really is before diving into the tactics.

Online Competition Can Vary by Product or Business Line

Viewing the competitive landscape in aggregate form allows for the discovery of true online competition. Segmenting keywords by business or product line allows for even greater granularity and insight.
Take a large retailer that carries multiple product lines. By segmenting keywords into "furniture" and "apparel" segments, the retailer can clearly see that their competition differs significantly and can adjust strategy based on that knowledge.

It's You vs. Google in the Currency of Clicks

Competition in search is different from the competitive landscape we've previously encountered.
In the traditional brick-and-mortar world the customer either bought from my store or they bought from the competitors. In search, the currency is the click, and if they aren't clicking on our link they could be clicking on any other link on the page, whether or not we think about them as direct competitors.
We've got to be thinking about competitors as anything on the page that could capture customer clicks and attention. Increasingly that means we're competing with Google. Whether it's news, images, video or Knowledge Graph results, we shouldn't neglect opportunities to capture real estate on our SERPs.

That doesn't mean we can create sophisticated videos for every one of our keywords to ensure Google surfaces video snippets for every relevant search, but it means we want to be plugged in enough to our competitive landscape to know when there is opportunity to optimize a digital asset for some strategic keywords.
This is true even if we are in a top ranking position for the keyword – the more real estate on a SERP we can capture, the better – particularly when it comes to rich media.

Discard the Old Competitive Thinking

With more than 3 billion online searches occurring every day, there has never been greater opportunity for search marketers. But along with that opportunity comes competition; the competitive landscape has also never been more crowded, with many jostling for their share of the online pie.
We have to discard "old thinking" when it comes to the online competition. Old thinking that includes outdated assumptions about who our competitors are, how deeply we examine them, and the actions we take to capture our fair share of the search click.
Fact is, if you aren't thinking outside of the box when you're looking at your online competition, you're likely to find out that you're no part of the competition at all.

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5 New SEO Mantras to Replace Old, Inefficient Thinking

its time for some spring cleaning. I'm not talking about our homes, but rather our thought processes.
Let's make a pact as an industry to do away with the old ways of thinking that have absolutely no place in what we do anymore. Our industry has truly grown up; there are more effective and sustainable ways to ensure long-term success for our clients.
SEO has changed and evolved, definitely for the better. It's a very enjoyable time to be working in the industry, as we're now tasked with building brands, growing communities, enchanting audiences, and flexing our creative and analytical muscles. We play integral roles in the growth of businesses. Our thinking should match the new responsibilities that have come our way.
Here are five new mantras to replace old and inefficient ways of thinking that have permeated across our industry.

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Old Thinking: How do I get my content to go viral?

New Mantra: How Can I Be of Most Help to My Customers?

It's time to change our thinking from being "all about me" to being all about the customer. Long-term SEO success is – and has always been – all about providing value.
Going viral isn't a very realistic goal if that's the only way to think about the type of content to produce. Only about 0.01 percent of content put out is considered "viral." It isn't a tactic that can be relied upon or scientifically generated.

While there is certainly considerable value in receiving a lot of shares and building brand awareness, like American Greetings did with their video for "World's Toughest Job," it takes some creative thinking and a little bit of luck.
If it's a large number of shares you're after, then you need to employ a different mindset. Think instead how you can provide the most helpful and valuable content. After all, if you give people something they really need or enjoy, you can bet they will want to share it.
You can increase your odds of share-worthiness by taking the time to research the consumer's purchase path. Understand the thought process throughout and seek ways you can add a lot of value, either by being helpful or being entertaining, at a key step in the process. Segment your efforts down to relevant personas and the content will experience a much better success rate as you will be speaking with a more engaged pool of relevant audiences.

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Old Thinking: What's the latest "it" tool/directory/tactic?

New Mantra: There Are No Silver Bullets

Much like socialites changing the "it" bag of the season, the industry has in the past been frenetic in its pursuit of the hottest new tool or tactic that does everything in a couple of easy steps.
Unfortunately, tempting as it may sound, there are just no SEO shortcuts that work long-term. There's no replacement for good old strategic thinking and hard work.
Certainly tools have their place and there are great ones out there, but we need to treat them just as supplemental add-ons for efficiency and not the sole basis of our efforts.
Additionally, every time a new SEO tactic is recommended, even the most well-meaning among us can overuse them to the point of devaluing them for the entire industry. Case in point: infographics and guest blogging, which often became the only tactics used and resulted in a market flooded with infographics and many relying heavily on guest blogging and then despairing when these tactics lost effectiveness.
Devise a strategy that adds value and then ensure you have a diverse array of tactics in your strategic plan, so no one tactic can ever becomes overly relied upon.
As long as you provide information that people will relate to and enjoy, then you can even put out an infographic or a guest post and still have them be successful, no matter what Google may claim.

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Old Thinking: The more content I put out, the better.

New Mantra: It's All About Quality

Let's stop cluttering the Internet with average-quality content. The amount of content being published every day has reached record levels, but unfortunately quality hasn't increased at the same rate.
The Web doesn't need the one millionth article on painting a house or traveling to Spain. We need to ensure we put in the effort to publish content that really stands out and that merits its own place on the Web. Otherwise it's just a waste of resources.
Re-evaluate your content calendars. If you're dividing articles into part one and part two just so you have something to post on your blog to hit the one-post-a-day metric, then you're not being helpful or providing value. Look instead to reduce the frequency of blogging but instead focus on getting out something high-quality every time.
Even just one stellar blog post a month could make a huge impact to your bottom line - so if that is all you can manage then it's just fine. It's better that every piece of content you post is valuable and well-received by your audience than posting often and having your content be ignored.
A good example of someone who blogs infrequently (relatively speaking) is Avinash Kaushik on his Occam's Razor blog. Every post is a fantastically in-depth learning opportunity and the RSS feed of a new blog post is always a happy occasion.

Try it. Your results will improve drastically and you'll have resources freed up to work on other business initiatives.

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Old Thinking: But my competitors who outrank me are still doing [insert black hat tactic].

New Mantra: Focus Only on Long-Term Sustainable Efforts

It's supremely annoying when competitors have higher positions in search but appear to employ not-so-kosher SEO tactics. It can be tempting to think "oh if we can't beat 'em, let's join 'em," but don't give in to the temptation. Google is getting really good at cracking down on dodgy tactics so really it's just a matter of time before they could get penalized.
There is no point at all in jeopardizing the long term for any quick short-term gains. Instead, look at the situation as something fortunate for you, as these "cheaters" are essentially digging their own grave and you'll have an easier time of out-ranking them in coming months once they get themselves slapped.
To be even smarter about it, don't worry overly much about rankings alone. Look at other ways to grow, such as influential sites that can send relevant traffic to your site, leveraging social media to scale link-building, and even online PR efforts.
Not only can these different strategies compensate for any traffic lost by ranking lower, but by resonating well with these other audiences you can also help your search rankings improve. Win-win.

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Old Thinking: I hate Google!

New Mantra: If We Want to Play in Google's Sandbox, Let's Make Their Rules Work in Our Favor

While it can be easy to settle into a Google-bashing mindset (e.g., they favor large brands or whatever complaint du jour you may have), ultimately that type of thinking isn't entirely true. It's also won't help you reach your goals.
Google is a darn good search engine. Google processes provide tremendously relevant content for every search and they are striving to provide better experiences, so people continue to use them. That's why they have the majority market share and why we can't afford to ignore them.
If we want to play in Google's sandbox, then we'd be best served by making their rules work in our favor.
All Google wants to do is list the sites that are most relevant to the query and that people have a good experience on (i.e., within one or two clicks the searcher can have the specific question answered).
By constantly focusing on improving the customer experience, Google has been able to dominate the market. We can just take a page out of their book.
If you consistently put out high-quality work that people like, then Google will essentially want to rank it higher since they know it resonates well with searchers. Be helpful, focus on user experience, treat customers well, and you'll enjoy better conversion rates and improved rankings.

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How to use google trends for seo

Google Trends is one of the best and most versatile tools available for SEO. It is the marketing equivalent of the Leatherman or Swiss Army knife. If you could only use one SEO tool to develop an Internet marketing campaign, this product would be a serious contender.

Working with Google Trends

When performing a search on Google Trends, you have the option to set four variables or parameters (default shown in bold):

• Web Search – Image search – News Search – Product Search – YouTube Search
• Worldwide – Option to choose a specific Country
• 2004-Present – Past 7 Days – 30 Days – 90 Days – 12 Months- Choose a Year
• All Categories – Arts & Entertainment – Autos & Vehicles – Beauty & fitness – Books & literature – Business & industrial – Computers & electronics – Finance – Food & drink – Games

You can compare up to five search terms or groupings at one time, with up to 25 search terms in each grouping.
For example:

• pen + pencil + paper (grouping 1)
• stapler + tape + notebook + ruler (grouping 2)
• eraser + paper clip (grouping 3)

By using the + sign between your search terms you are telling Google that you want to include searches for pen or pencil or paper.


Google also displays Hot Searches and Top Charts in Google Trends, listing the top searches of the day as well as popular searches by category.
Having all of this data available is great, but knowing what to do with it is even better. Following is a guide on how to use this information for SEO.

Keyword Research

Since Google Trends doesn't give actual search numbers, it works best when used in combination with the Keyword Planner. Google Trends will show a "normalized" or relative level of interest over time for a prospective keyword phrase. It also allows you to compare the level of interest among potential target phrases.
Let's say you're selling car parts. When does interest in car parts peak? What potentially drives more traffic; the search phrase "car parts" or "auto parts"?

In this example, I set the parameters for the U.S. from 2004 - present. We can see that Americans are most interested in "car parts" at the onset of summer. It is also clear they search for "auto parts" 4X as often as "car parts". There is a general upward trend in searches for auto parts, albeit a mixed bag over the last 12 months. Good to know when optimizing a campaign.
How about ecommerce potential? Use product search as a parameter to find out:

Product Searches have more than doubled since fall 2010. Clearly, the interest is there, but you should do a competitive analysis, before jumping into any space.

Geo-Targeting

Google Trends breaks down the search data by region. As you can see below, there is some level of interest in auto parts across the entire U.S., with the greatest level coming from Georgia and Florida.

Drill down further and you will see that Atlanta is a particularly strong market:

If you're doing local SEO or geo-targeted PPC, this data is invaluable.

News Jacking

Newsjacking suddenly, is all the rage in SEO. According to David Meerman Scott, it's "the process by which you inject ideas or angles into breaking news, in real-time, in order to generate media coverage for yourself or your business."
If Hot Searches didn't exist, someone would create it for newsjacking. The newsjacking formula is a simple one:

• Choose a trending topic.
• Blog about it.
• Tweet it (using the established hashtag).
• Don't be a moron (e.g., don't try to capitalize on tragedy).

Here's a great example of newsjacking in Bongo Bongo land.

Content Creation

Top Charts is the perfect resource for developing content ideas that people are actually interested in. Sticking with the car parts theme, navigate to Car Companies, click on "BMW", then click on "explore" in the right column.

Looks like a blog post about the BMW i3 and / or the BMW electric car would garnish some interest. If the term "Breakout" appears under Rating, the searches for that phrase have jumped by +5,000 percent.

Link Building

Links are still a primary driver of rankings. By creating content that people are looking for and want to read, you will attract links. Links are a measure of success when reviewing the outcome of your content marketing efforts.

Video Content

Poop. That's right; poop is the top result when I do a Google Trends search for "YouTube" with the search parameter set to YouTube:

I sure wasn't expecting to find an explosion of YouTube Poop (+250 percent since '08) and that's precisely the point of using this tool for video content research. Congratulations to California, with a search volume index of 100 on this one.
To play this game at home:

• Navigate to Google Trends.
• Enter your keywords.
• Change "Web Search" to "YouTube" search.
• Brainstorm
  • Is there an idea that you can use for your niche?
  • Is there a trend that you can capitalize on?

This data may also be used for video optimization:

• Creating great titles.
• Using the right tags.
• Optimizing descriptions.

Brand Monitoring

This one only works for "big Brands" with sufficient search volume. In the case cited below, three of four competitors are static, but one company is clearly in the zone. AutoZone.

Takeaway

Google has a voracious appetite for fresh topical content. Google Trends is the single best tool available to develop content ideas that will garner traffic and links. If you haven't been using this tool for SEO purposes, you should check it out now.

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Duplicate Content Checker Site

Google’s Panda algorithm launched in February 24, 2011. Recently updated Google Panda. The main caused or purpose of Google panda update was just to keep low content sites. So, Broken link and duplicate content is harmful for website or blog. Duplicate content can be dropped your good targeted traffic and ranking. Google like unique content. If Google find any duplicate content or low quality content on your website or blog site will be kicked off from their search results. So, check your content use seo tools with Duplicate Content Checker and remove duplicate content on your blog or website. This tools is free to use.  

No	Content Checker Tools	Google Page Rank	Submit Type
1.	http://www.copyscape.com	7	Free Submit
2.	http://www.plagiarisma.net	6	Free Submit
3.	http://www.duplichecker.com	5	Free Submit
4.	http://www.virante.org	4	Free Submit
5.	http://www.copygator.com	4	Free Submit
6.	http://www.plagium.com	6

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Link Building in 2014 is All About Building Your Brand & Reputation

Many of those who pursue link building have had a tough year. Google's verbal and physical assault on link building practices has been unrelenting.
You may be wondering if link building is illegal now. The answer is yes and no. Why? Let's explore the "yes" and "no" of link building to try and help make some sense of what it is that you can and can't do.

Recounting the Body Blows

1. The latest major hit took place January 20 when Google's Matt Cutts wrote a blog post titled The decay and fall of guest blogging for SEO. In it he wrote:

Okay, I'm calling it: if you're using guest blogging as a way to gain links in 2014, you should probably stop. Why? Because over time it's become a more and more spammy practice, and if you're doing a lot of guest blogging then you're hanging out with really bad company.

He also wrote:

So stick a fork in it: guest blogging is done; it's just gotten too spammy. In general I wouldn't recommend accepting a guest blog post unless you are willing to vouch for someone personally or know them well. Likewise, I wouldn't recommend relying on guest posting, guest blogging sites, or guest blogging SEO as a linkbuilding strategy.

2. On August 12, 2013 Matt Cutts recorded a video where he talked about widgets and infographics. Here's what he said:

I would not rely on widgets and infographics as your primary way to gather links. I would recommend putting a nofollow, especially on widgets because most people when they copy and paste a segment of code, they don't realize what all is going with that, and it is usually not as much of an editorial choice because they may not see the links that are embedded within that widget.

Depending on the scale of the stuff you are doing with infographics you might consider putting a rel=nofollow on infographics links as well. The value of those things might be branding, they might be to drive traffic, they might be to let people know that your site or service exists but I wouldn't expect the link from a widget to carry the same weight as an editorial link freely given where someone is recommending something and talking about it in a blog post

3. On July 26th, 2013 Google updated the Link Schemes section of their Webmaster Guidelines to talk about Press Releases. You can see this listed in the following image in the 2nd red rectangle in this image (the first and third red rectangles relate to guest posting and widget):

4. Going further back, I published an interview on July 9, 2012 called Matt Cutts and Eric Talk About What Makes a Quality Site. In a moment of inspiration, I asked him the following question:

It dawned on me recently that link building is an interesting phrase that has misled people. It's a bit of a cart before the horse thing. It has led people to think about links as something they get from the "dark corners of the web". Places where no one ever goes, so it does not matter what you do there. So by thinking of it this way, as link building, you are off on the wrong foot even before you get started.

Here is what he said in reply to my question:

That's right. It segments you into a mindset, and people get focused on the wrong things. It leads them to think about links as the end goal. It's important to think about producing something excellent first. If you have an outstanding product, world class content, or something else that sets you apart, then you can step back and start thinking about how to promote it.

I remember the response to this interview very well. It currently has 168 comments.
There was a raging discussion about the discussion on content. There was a lot made about the comments on infographics (he also said this in the interview: "I would not be surprised if at some point in the future we did not start to discount these infographic-type links to a degree.").
But, no one talked about his comment on link building being a fundamental problem in their write-ups of the interview. I knew right then and there that it was the most important comment in the entire interview. The future was already laid bare.

Dangers of Link Building

There is certainly a type of approach to link building that Google is trying to kill off, but there are hints in Cutts' language as to what they still think of as OK. So let's make some sense of this.
First, let's talk about how to get hurt by link building:

1. Algorithmic Detection: There are many things Google can't easily algorithmically detect. Unless you're far out there, this isn't a main source of exposure, but you can't discount it.
2. You Get Reported to Google: Someone might report you to Google, and they might take a look at it. Once they do, any and all of these areas will rapidly get revealed. In short, cross any of these lines and a manual review will torch you.
3. Someone Public: A blogger somewhere might figure out what you have done and write about it. Google's hand gets forced and they take a look at you. This is the worst. You will be publicly exposed and you will get hit by Google to boot.

There is a very important secondary algorithmic danger.
Imagine that you do a lot of work to get links using one particular method. Let's say that Google tests a new algorithm, and they see that devaluing all sites that use this method improves their search results without causing any significant false positives (i.e., no major brand gets torched) – they are going to release that algorithm.
My point is that if you aren't a major brand, even if you're "unjustified collateral damage", Google will push the algorithm out. For Google, it isn't about you, it's about the average satisfaction of their users. They measure this on a massive scale, and your site is less than a decimal point in the grand scheme of things.
This is exactly how Panda and Penguin work. They are large-scale algorithms that improved Google's search results, but that also caused lots of innocent businesses to suffer (and others prospered too). This isn't because the Google engineers are bad people, they are just trying to make their product better.
This is the reality of small to medium businesses and SEO. As a long time friend of mine used to say, "if you don't like it, you should have become a dentist."
So let's start with a statement of what your objective should be: Don't just obey the letter of the law, but learn how avoid the net. In other words, you need to learn how to stay away from the types of practices that may cause you to get lumped together with the great mass of truly bad actors. So let's talk about how.

Building Links the Right Way

Fear not, there is a right way to go about things, but it may require a mental mindset change.
If you're focused on link building for link building's sake, then you need to see these words again from Cutts on link building in my 2012 interview: "It segments you into a mindset, and people get focused on the wrong things". OK, let's get to the work on the task of getting our heads in the right spot.
First, let's clear something up. Cutts isn't saying you can't promote your website. He knows that you need to do marketing. We talked about ways to approach link building in detail in my July 10, 2013 interview, Link Building is Not Illegal.
If you read the interview carefully, you'll see that it's a blueprint for content marketing. Basically, it lays out the components of how you can create great content on and off your site, promote it with strong social media presences, press releases, and other tactics to build a great brand online.
And there it is – the b-word: Brand. This is what your link building efforts should all be about.
Everywhere you go online building your brand and reputation should be the goal. If you strictly abide by this one principle, you should be in good shape, and you will probably be getting links that Google wants to value.
However, making the mental shift can be hard, so let's review some additional guidelines that can help you keep the right focus. I published some guidelines on April 7, 2013 in an article which I boldly titled Penguin 2.0 Forewarning: The Google Perspective on Links, and Matt Cutts tweeted the following in response to the article:

Here are the four guidelines from that article:

1. Would you build the link if Google and Bing did not exist?
2. If you have 2 minutes with a customer, and the law required that you show a random sampling of your links to customer prospects, would you happily show the link to a target customer? Or would it embarrass you?
3. Did the person giving you the link intend it as a genuine endorsement? This is where widget and infographic links fail.
4. Do you have to make an argument to justify that it's a good link? Still my favorite – truly good links require no justification.

I have a fifth one to add to that list. When you get a link back to your site, be it the result of a guest post, a direct link request, or any direct activity, you should also ask yourself this question: "Would someone seeing your link on that page have a decent chance of wanting to click through an attribution link to learn more about your company and perhaps become a customer"?
Now that's a acid test if there ever was one. Think about it.

Summary

Get branding front and center in your online marketing, stay SEO smart, play the game the way Google wants you to play it, and your risk of being whipsawed in some future Google algorithm update, or hit by a manual action, go way down. Not to zero, as any SEO plan has inherent risk because of the way that Google manages its business, but lowering your risk as much as possible seems like a great idea to me!

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COMPLETE LINK BUILIDING SERVICES

SEO campaigns are all about raising the rank of a website in the search results. Now, this sounds challenging but we at pixxelznet.com like challenges and take them willingly. Cyber world is highly competitive and cutting through such competition is possible by use of appropriate tools and techniques which we thoroughly use and implement to give an edge of success to businesses.

We are dedicated and devoted to move websites up in the search engine ranks. We offer Link Building Services to various businesses and clients to make their presences felt in the cyber world where millions of websites are hovering. We have an expert SEO team who are highly qualified and have thorough understanding about how the SEO sector operates and what effective tools to use to outrun the competitors. Our team is well versed with the knowhow of designing effective websites which help you in grabbing attention of those million cyber users.

We do know that the popularity of a website can only be measured by the exertion capacity of its links. Obviously, the chances are more of your website being visited by countless customers only when there is more number of other links to your website. The only way to become popular and ascend the ranking list is by getting customers and users hitting those links. Hence, we ensure you of providing maximum number of users which are suitable for your website offering.

With the best minds at work, we create and build websites which use advanced algorithms resulting to use of links and their parameters by which your website will be relevant and will be visited by numerous users only because of it being relevant. We ensure usage of appropriate anchor text (text linking to a particular webpage) so that the right information is put across to the users. We use attractive anchor text as an attempt to attract attention of maximum users. By this technique, your link building campaign is sure to be rewarding.
With best SEO service bundle offered by us at pixxelznet.com, get famous within less time.

• One Way Link Building: In this type of link building you get incoming links to your website without having to link out. We make sure that your website gets high quality, relevant, one-way links.
• Reciprocal Link Building: In this type of link building, two websites provide a link back to each other. We are commited to providing quality, relevant reciprocal links to your website.
• Contextual Link Building: As the name suggests, these links are placed in relevant content of websites or blogs. You might also consider these contextual links.
• Guest Blogging Services: Get the high quality links with our guest blogging services and rank higher in search engines. We post your blogs with 1 or 2 links in author bio to your website.
• Web 2.0 Links: This is one of the latest link methodologies and can be very effective. These links are generated by placing links on Web 2.0 sites such as squidoo, hubpages etc..
• .Edu & .Gov Links: These are the most effective links for an SEO campaign, but they’re also some of the most difficult to get. As the name suggests, these links are generated by placing links on .Edu & .Gov sites. Because of the strength of the domains, these links can be very valuable.
• Link Wheel Creation: Another effective way of promoting websites is a link wheel. We connect our back links to each other so that a wheel of links is generated.

Some of the benefits of link building services include:

• Improved organic search engine ranking
• High ROI
• Improved brand awareness
• More quality traffic

We know very well why Google is kicking sites out of top rankings. With the additions of Panda and Pengiun, you need a link building company that will work to keep your rankings beyond the constant changes of Google. We make sure that we provide you only high quality links and all of our techniques are white hat. In other words, your rankings won’t be harmed when Google decides to make changes to the algorithm. Here are some of the major points we keep in mind while engaging in any link building campaign:

• No network links
• No poor content sites
• Links from top level domain sites only
• Links from related and various high authority resources

To get the best results from a link-building strategy, you need relevant links that enhance your online popularity. Links coming from popular sites are the best way to bring more traffic to your website and Ranking By SEO India guarantees this type of link building strategy. To make sure that you get the best quality link building services, we always follow the guidelines set by Google and other search engines. This is part of our white-hat link building promise.
After 3-4 weeks of regular link building, you will see the quality of the backlinks in our report that we send once a month. You can also search in google link:www.yourdomain.com for your website to find new links indexed by Google. So what are you waiting for? Choose the link building package that is best suited for your website.

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Google’s Matt Cutts: We Can Improve Our Algorithms For Authorities On Topics

In an interesting video released by Matt Cutts, Google’s head of webspam, Matt answers the question on how Google separates the concept of popularity from authority.
The truth is, he answered that question quickly by saying popularity and authority are two different things. The example he gave was that porn sites are often way more popular than government or organization sites but government sites are often more authoritative than porn sites. So the two concepts are different.
Matt then explained in more detail the concept of being popular within a topic, or maybe being more authoritative within a topic. So by query or class of query, how does Google determine which site is more relevant or authoritative for a query.
Matt said that Google is working on new algorithms to do a better job at that. He said Google showing sites that “actually have some evidence that it should rank for something related to medical queries. And that is something where we can improve the quality of the algorithm even more.”

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