Here are some reason why I do not believe you should submit your new websites to the search engines. I have determined this from doing some research and some testing, but also have concluded that it is largely a waste of time. The biggest reason for this is that there are now better ways to get a new website indexed. In the case of Link wheel properties, it probably is also a non issue.
In the case of Google, there is some good evidence that submitting a new site will just get your site in the "Google Sandbox". This is all speculation, as there is no term or function like this acknowledged by Google. The idea makes some sense though. The idea is that when you submit a new website to Google, that you simply are alerting them to the fact that this is a new website. Google then somehow flags your site and puts it on a watch list od sorts for the search engine spiders, and at the same time this somehow prevents you from possibly ranking in their search engine results until this probation period expires.
Who knows if this is accurate, but my stance would be why even take this change that it might be true. When it come to search engines, Google is the only search engine that really matters. It is the only game in town when you are marketing online. So, I don't waste any time submitting sites to the other search engines either. This goes for paid submission services, too. Save your money on this one.
I do create site-maps for most of my sites, and I do submit links for Google to find naturally in other ways. This works better and is much faster. We will look at ways to get your websites indexed quickly in the next few posts.
Online Reputation Management Considerations
Related to a recent post here about online profiles, you do need to give some thought to your online reputation management. Remember that you want accurate and professional looking information about you whenever you are posting articles, or even making blogs comments and forum comments. You do not want to be spammy, snarky, or write opinions that may come back to haunt you, your business, and your reputation. One good test is to always remember that whatever you put online will potentially be there forever. So give this some serious consideration to this before you place your name and personal information online.
Since we are using profiles to get links as part of our overall strategy, go the extra step to monitor your online reputation as part of your SEO plans, like you do with any other aspect of link building. This is not just for RSS feeds and link wheels. Online profiles and reputation management are often ignored, done in the wrong way, and sometimes poorly managed. I strongly suggest that you don't overlook guarding your reputation when planning your online marketing strategies.
You need to be aware that this drills down to the products you promote, reviews you make, and even how you market via email. There are plenty of horror stories about seasoned online marketers making a small mistake and then losing everything. The worst case scenario could even be legal or criminal actions against you and your business.
I guess you could consider this the dark side of online marketing. Just be aware that things can come back to bite you, so my advice is to always follow the Golden Rule. Run your online ventures with integrity, be honest, and treat folks fairly. This is one last thing you will have to worry about, and you will sleep better, too.
Take the right steps to build your online reputation, and then make sure you keep it.
Since we are using profiles to get links as part of our overall strategy, go the extra step to monitor your online reputation as part of your SEO plans, like you do with any other aspect of link building. This is not just for RSS feeds and link wheels. Online profiles and reputation management are often ignored, done in the wrong way, and sometimes poorly managed. I strongly suggest that you don't overlook guarding your reputation when planning your online marketing strategies.
You need to be aware that this drills down to the products you promote, reviews you make, and even how you market via email. There are plenty of horror stories about seasoned online marketers making a small mistake and then losing everything. The worst case scenario could even be legal or criminal actions against you and your business.
I guess you could consider this the dark side of online marketing. Just be aware that things can come back to bite you, so my advice is to always follow the Golden Rule. Run your online ventures with integrity, be honest, and treat folks fairly. This is one last thing you will have to worry about, and you will sleep better, too.
Take the right steps to build your online reputation, and then make sure you keep it.
Social Media Profiles
One area most people do not give enough attention to is the profiles that they can fill out for any type of public profile online. Profiles can be found on micro-blog platforms, social networking sites, bookmarking sites, and video sharing sites. There are hundreds of these sites and they all can provide valuable one-way back links.
Practically all social network sites give you the ability to create a "personal profile”.
You want to add personal photos, videos, and any extra information that you are allowed to enter. This gives readers a way to your learn a bit more about you. This a a great free way to brand yourself and promote practically any product, service, or website.
Each of these kind of sites work a bit differently, and for this reason your strategy will be a little different for each type of site. When you are creating your profiles, focus your interests on the topic of the website or product/service you are promoting. Don't over-sell and don't promote too heavy, simply invite your profile readers to visit your sites for more information by providing links back to your link wheels,target websites and blogs.
Don't miss this opportunity to promote yourself and create links back to your link wheels and other websites and blogs.
Practically all social network sites give you the ability to create a "personal profile”.
You want to add personal photos, videos, and any extra information that you are allowed to enter. This gives readers a way to your learn a bit more about you. This a a great free way to brand yourself and promote practically any product, service, or website.
Each of these kind of sites work a bit differently, and for this reason your strategy will be a little different for each type of site. When you are creating your profiles, focus your interests on the topic of the website or product/service you are promoting. Don't over-sell and don't promote too heavy, simply invite your profile readers to visit your sites for more information by providing links back to your link wheels,target websites and blogs.
Don't miss this opportunity to promote yourself and create links back to your link wheels and other websites and blogs.
Naming Your Link Wheel Sites
Choosing names for the sites in your link wheels should be fairly straight forward. This gets back to the notion of using keywords and keyword phrases. All the other rules that apply to picking domain names apply to picking URLs and titles for these sites, too. You don't want to use product names, trade-names, service marks, slogans, tag-lines, or other copyrighted material unless you are the owner, or have explicit permission. I would stay away from these situations even if you are an affiliate, or some type of paid sales associate like with network sales companies, and MLM. These companies will typically have TOS agreements that will protect these names and phrases, and include provisions where they can make and change the rules at any time.
Start with the best niche keywords and work you way down the list. Long-tail keywords (3-4 or word phrases) will be eaiser to rank for in the search engines. I sometimes like to include words that add some weight like "guide", so an example would be "RSS Link Wheel Guide". Always place these modifiers at the end. You want the keyword phrases you are targeting at the very beginning. Some SEO experts will suggest you stay away from "stop" words like "the" and "for". Stop words are words that are ignored by the search engines. Another thing I have seen in research is that Google in particular does not like the term "review" in titles. Supposedly this is because of all the fake review sites built by affiliate marketers.
I like to work my way through my keyword list, using the best keyword phrases for the URLs first, then the next tier for titles, subheads, categories, tags, etc. Look around this blog and you will get the idea. Here are some of the names and titles for a few of the sites in this link wheel:
Start with the best niche keywords and work you way down the list. Long-tail keywords (3-4 or word phrases) will be eaiser to rank for in the search engines. I sometimes like to include words that add some weight like "guide", so an example would be "RSS Link Wheel Guide". Always place these modifiers at the end. You want the keyword phrases you are targeting at the very beginning. Some SEO experts will suggest you stay away from "stop" words like "the" and "for". Stop words are words that are ignored by the search engines. Another thing I have seen in research is that Google in particular does not like the term "review" in titles. Supposedly this is because of all the fake review sites built by affiliate marketers.
I like to work my way through my keyword list, using the best keyword phrases for the URLs first, then the next tier for titles, subheads, categories, tags, etc. Look around this blog and you will get the idea. Here are some of the names and titles for a few of the sites in this link wheel:
"http://rsslinkwheels.blogspot.com"
"How To Build RSS Link Wheels"
"htp://linkwheelsage.wetpaint.com"
"Automated Link Wheels"
"http://rssmarketing.webs.com"
"RSS SEO"
"RSS Marketing and RSS Feeds for SEO"
"How To Build RSS Link Wheels"
"htp://linkwheelsage.wetpaint.com"
"Automated Link Wheels"
"http://rssmarketing.webs.com"
"RSS SEO"
"RSS Marketing and RSS Feeds for SEO"
Post and Ping Techniques
When most people hear "Post and Ping" they naturally will think this means to "make posts" to your blogs and then "ping" those posts manually on popular pinging services, or using a pinging tool. If you are already familiar with using Wordpress than you also know that this is a built in feature of Wordpress. Every time you make a post, it automatically notifies a certain number of the pinging services that you have updated your content. There are some Wordpress plugins available that will also allow you to customize some additional functions.
These certainly are good and worthwhile ideas, but I have a different take on "Post and Ping". I use a Blogger blog as a tool for post and ping. This only makes sense, because we know that Blogger is going to crawl new content on Blogspot and then quickly index it in the search engines.
This has also been termed a feeder blog, as you can use it to quickly feed links from any site to Blogger and be assured to get the links noticed and indexed by Google. Google makes it pretty easy by providing a "share" button for Blogger that resides in your Google toolbar. This is used almost like a bookmarking button to send a link to your Blogger blog. Another approach can get fairly sophisticated by employing a tool like Ping.fm to post statuses.
You have to use this in a way that is not considered spam, which means adding some content before and after each link that you are sending, but this can just be an extra sentence or two. Mix this in with some scheduled posts, or a free content resource like UniqueArticleWizard.com and you will have created a powerful mini-site for your link wheel that is automated. Then just ping your Blogger blog every once in a while on a service like Pingler.com.
As an example, I wrote 52 posts in advance that were then scheduled to post on this blog once a week for 12 months out. I occasionally can add articles I have written and published to EzineArtcles.com, and I can always add content from the email option function that Blogger provides (part of the scheme for using Unique Article Wizard).
These certainly are good and worthwhile ideas, but I have a different take on "Post and Ping". I use a Blogger blog as a tool for post and ping. This only makes sense, because we know that Blogger is going to crawl new content on Blogspot and then quickly index it in the search engines.
This has also been termed a feeder blog, as you can use it to quickly feed links from any site to Blogger and be assured to get the links noticed and indexed by Google. Google makes it pretty easy by providing a "share" button for Blogger that resides in your Google toolbar. This is used almost like a bookmarking button to send a link to your Blogger blog. Another approach can get fairly sophisticated by employing a tool like Ping.fm to post statuses.
You have to use this in a way that is not considered spam, which means adding some content before and after each link that you are sending, but this can just be an extra sentence or two. Mix this in with some scheduled posts, or a free content resource like UniqueArticleWizard.com and you will have created a powerful mini-site for your link wheel that is automated. Then just ping your Blogger blog every once in a while on a service like Pingler.com.
As an example, I wrote 52 posts in advance that were then scheduled to post on this blog once a week for 12 months out. I occasionally can add articles I have written and published to EzineArtcles.com, and I can always add content from the email option function that Blogger provides (part of the scheme for using Unique Article Wizard).
Why You Need A Blogger Blog
Many people may think that Blogger blogs are outmoded, or only for beginners. All things considered, you do have to admit that Blogger is a great way to get started online. This post is intended to give you a new perspective on Blogger, why it is important, and why you need to have Blogger Blogspot blogs as part of your SEO network.
First and foremost is the fact that Blogger is owned by Google. This should give you some clues why Blogger blogs need to be in your mix of link wheel properties. You may want to have some Blogspot blogs even if you are not using them for link wheels. I still build a bunch of these reliable blogs for other reasons. There are probably people that can make a living using only Blogger. The only caution would be not to put all your eggs in one basket.
Blogger is easy to set up and get rolling. Believe it or not, Blogspot blogs can be very efficient for what we need to get done. These blogs get indexed quickly, and because they have the distinct advantage of being part of Google, they also get visited by the Google spiders often. This means you can use these guys to send you loads of traffic, and then direct some of that traffic to other sites with your content and links. A big plus for us in our linking scheme is what is called "Post and Ping", however, I will devote a future post to this.
Other traits include the "ease of use" that is simple point-and-click. You will not to have to learn anything about html code, or how to customize templates or themes. Although of recent note, Blogger has added features that allow for a certain degree of customization. I actually like to use these features to create customized squeeze pages. Just look at this site and see how well it accommodates all the things we want like a page navigation bar, an RSS feed, plenty of sidebar gadgets, plus many other functions that most visitors will find familiar.
You can associate your own domain name with Blogger, but I have never found the need to do this. Just find and use an appropriate keyword phrase to title your blog. Maybe the greatest advantage is that all of this is supported by Google, and for free.
I have decided over the years that these little sites can be very powerful and of great value for generating traffic to another blog or website.
First and foremost is the fact that Blogger is owned by Google. This should give you some clues why Blogger blogs need to be in your mix of link wheel properties. You may want to have some Blogspot blogs even if you are not using them for link wheels. I still build a bunch of these reliable blogs for other reasons. There are probably people that can make a living using only Blogger. The only caution would be not to put all your eggs in one basket.
Blogger is easy to set up and get rolling. Believe it or not, Blogspot blogs can be very efficient for what we need to get done. These blogs get indexed quickly, and because they have the distinct advantage of being part of Google, they also get visited by the Google spiders often. This means you can use these guys to send you loads of traffic, and then direct some of that traffic to other sites with your content and links. A big plus for us in our linking scheme is what is called "Post and Ping", however, I will devote a future post to this.
Other traits include the "ease of use" that is simple point-and-click. You will not to have to learn anything about html code, or how to customize templates or themes. Although of recent note, Blogger has added features that allow for a certain degree of customization. I actually like to use these features to create customized squeeze pages. Just look at this site and see how well it accommodates all the things we want like a page navigation bar, an RSS feed, plenty of sidebar gadgets, plus many other functions that most visitors will find familiar.
You can associate your own domain name with Blogger, but I have never found the need to do this. Just find and use an appropriate keyword phrase to title your blog. Maybe the greatest advantage is that all of this is supported by Google, and for free.
I have decided over the years that these little sites can be very powerful and of great value for generating traffic to another blog or website.
How Many Sites in A Link Wheel?
If you haven't already figured it out, you do not need all that many sites to build an effective RSS link wheel. If you do some searches on "link wheels" you will see that some SEO companies offer services to build link wheels with anywhere from a dozen to several hundred websites involved. That many sites probably is not going to hurt your SEO efforts, but at the same time it also could be considered overkill.
I find that an RSS link wheel works just fine with only 5-6 website properties. I think it is more beneficial to create more links to the individual link wheels once you have them up and running.
You can treat the websites in each of the link wheels as targets for other kinds of link building activities. You can bookmark these links and internal pages on a few of the social bookmarking sites, and you can use some of the semi-automated tools for this like Stumbleupon and many bookmark services provide as tool bar buttons. Some that I use occasionally include sharing buttons for Twitter, Facebook, Bing, Diigo, Friendfeed, and Clipmarks.
You really don't need a lot of these kind of links. The important thing is to mix up the type of links, and then just from time to time 'bookmark your bookmarks" using different profiles. There are automated tools available for bookmarking, but this too is an option and not really necessary.
I find that an RSS link wheel works just fine with only 5-6 website properties. I think it is more beneficial to create more links to the individual link wheels once you have them up and running.
You can treat the websites in each of the link wheels as targets for other kinds of link building activities. You can bookmark these links and internal pages on a few of the social bookmarking sites, and you can use some of the semi-automated tools for this like Stumbleupon and many bookmark services provide as tool bar buttons. Some that I use occasionally include sharing buttons for Twitter, Facebook, Bing, Diigo, Friendfeed, and Clipmarks.
You really don't need a lot of these kind of links. The important thing is to mix up the type of links, and then just from time to time 'bookmark your bookmarks" using different profiles. There are automated tools available for bookmarking, but this too is an option and not really necessary.
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