As the months’ progress, it pushes for HTTPS implementation. Chrome 62 warns visitors of sites with unsecured forms. Last but not the least, it increased its Meta Description limit. Google allows 300 characters. It’s double the amount of the previous one. There are other updates which are unconfirmed as the people at Google tweak the algorithms almost d6y gain the most of their link building strategies.

Link Building Strategies for 2018

Keeping these updates in mind makes it essential to rethink some of the link building tactics for 2018. The existing methods you apply may not function as well as it did before due to the updates. Hence, you must try other ways to deliver and attract high-quality links. Matthew Woodward of matthewwoodward.co.uk has ten link building strategies meant to increase your search traffic.

Below are the link building strategies to use this 2018.

• Guest Blogging
• Broken Link Building
• Reverse Engineering
• Newsjacking
• Influencer Marketing
• Data-driven Content
• Reddit Marketing
• Link Reclamation
• Content Syndication
• Local Citation

However, he advised using three and keep working on it for the rest of the year. Choose methods which are quick and easy to execute. Doing so minimizes distractions and helps you track your results. If guest blogging results to the table before, it’s safe to say it still does, but it’s not the same.

Guest Blogging

Guest blogging is a white hat method and helpful in promoting brands, leading new visitors and potential clients and customers to a site. Moreover, it’s useful in getting in touch and establishing relationships with industry bloggers and webmasters.To achieve these, you must create a high-quality piece of content then add links to your site in the content body. Get the content piece published in a high DA (domain authority) site.

The idea of guest blogging is simple which makes it the most effective and popular link building strategy. Creating content is only the beginning. The bulk of work lies in searching for a list of prospects to publish the guest post. Use the search engine and few search queries to come up with quality blogs. Compile them and consider how relevant they are to your brand.

Like other commodities, these websites must also undergo quality assurance. Here are examples of qualifiers:

• Domain authority (metric used by Moz)
• Trust flow (metric used by MajesticSEO)
• Number of referring link domains
• Placement of content
• Niche-specific / multiple categories
• Panda-proof content

There are various tools available online showing the DA, number of backlinks and traffic. Copying the information and including them in your list helps you refine your list. Though it takes time and effort to execute, it becomes worth it to sort the list and maximize your guest blogging efforts. Once you’ve determined the websites to pitch the content, it’s time reach out to the webmaster or site manager.

Guest blogging isn’t over once the content piece is published. It is only the beginning. Engaging in the comment section of the guest post strengthens relationship marketing. Monitoring the social media shares and setting up Google alerts for URL everytime it gets shared are some ways to get the most of the guest blogging strategy.

To summarize the guest blogging process, here’s how to get it done.

1. Look for prospects.
2. Trim down the list to the relevant and qualified.
3. Reach out to them.
4. Create the content piece.
5. Establish a relationship.

Creating the content first is a backward process. Following the process above helps your site earn links and brand’s online presence. A significant boost in your traffic happens when used for industry and niche specific websites.

The post Link Building: Dissecting Tactics That Work – Part 1 appeared first on Internet Marketing Reach.

Guest blogging remains to be the topmost choice of the creators. However, there is one important strategy that these creators forgot about: syndication. No, this is not about paid networks, but rather the organic channels syndicating the RSS feed of your blog.

Syndication is the process of republishing contents as is on other websites with proper credit to the content’s original author. Syndication has various benefits, some of which are:

• More traffic
• Wider reach and sharing
• Content exposure to new audiences
• Obtain expert status
• Obtain quality links
• Better search ranking

Further, syndication is often frowned upon by creators because of the following reasons:

1) Duplicate content

Google penalizes duplicate content; we all know that. However, the attribution will make it clear to Google bots which is the original article actually. Ranking authority (or link juice) will be passed onto the right website. This is the reason you should syndicate contents on reputable syndication networks, putting a link that points to the original article.

If, in case, you have a reputable network in hand but will not link the article, simply put a canonical URL. You can do this through Yoast SEO plugin, advanced setting in WordPress. Go to the editable blog post and input the canonical link.

2) Stagnant traffic

Traffic will stay on the syndicated network and won’t necessarily flow back to the actual website. To continue with the above, traffic will pick up because of the link back to the original article. Such a link is regarded as a quality link.

Further, syndicated contents allow the readers to know more about the topic, clicking through the entire website is possible.

3) Status dilution

If you already have an expert status, this might be diluted and spread too thin on the syndicated networks. This won’t happen as long as you get to share your contents to those who will find value in it. Keeping it in one place is kind of selfish.

Oppositely, if you have yet to establish your credibility and authority, syndication could be the perfect venue.

Come to think of it, we painstakingly create contents. The next best thing for us is to have as many people as possible to read such content. On the other end, we should not treat syndication as a panacea. We shall all proceed with caution.

Anyhow, here are some of the content syndication best practices.

• Choose only the highest quality sites possible
• Make sure the site manually reviews every post
• Make sure the site is not using RSS feeds automation
• Ensure the fit between your content and the site
• Publish regularly for at least three months prior to contacting the site
• Make sure the site checks for blogging consistency
• Write about consistent themes
• Write following a concrete, well-planned editorial guidelines
• Provide adequate internal links to the to-be syndicated contents
• Ensure the existence of relevant conversion elements on your site

Here are some of the best sites to syndicate content:

1.         Quora
2.         Reddit
3.         AllBusiness
4.         BizSugar
5.         Huffington Post
6.         Business Insider
7.         Social Media Today
8.         Business2Community
9.         The Social Customer

Original content is still king. We all love that phrase. So, don’t go overboard with content syndication. Make sure that the contents you will syndicate offer great value to whoever will read it otherwise the purpose of syndication will be futile. What will it be – to syndicate or not to syndicate?

The post Content Syndication… Really? appeared first on Internet Marketing Reach.

1) Several ads above the fold

There are ad-greedy sites, and Google penalizes these sites by removing them on SERPs. Google doesn’t want to see these ads because they ruin the user experience out-and-out. Matt Cutts mentioned that the first thing to see on the website must be contents, not ads. On the other end, a site with ads doesn’t necessarily mean a bad guest blog site as long as the site isn’t devaluing itself with too many ads.

2) Unpleasant or outdated design

Spammy-looking sites are actually spam sites. Give any site an eyeball test, and you would know if it is spammy or not. Contents must be visible above the fold. Clear navigation directions must be evident as well. There should be either a sitemap or navigation header as well as a linking structure. Navigation must be consistent as well on all web pages. These are important elements for SEO. Without proper URL link structure, the search engines may not scroll the guest blog at all, or it may perceive it as a single page that effectively dilutes the keyword. Your goal should be finding websites with clear navigation and linking structures.

3) Random and far-ranging topics

Unorganized contents are a tell-tale sign that the site is spammy. These sites intent to rank for any given keyword and rake in revenues. Guest blog-worthy sites are those that cater to a specific niche or have topics organized in silos. Better yet, find sites and blogs about your niche especially those that deal with single subjects. It is okay to find sites about different subjects, but make sure that the topics somehow complement one another.

4) Content publication approval

Guest blogs must be edited by the site owner before publishing. If it doesn’t review or edit guest posts, it’s a red flag. Sites which give publish privileges have questionable validity. Sites that value their content as well as editorial structure value their reputation so much that they cannot allow poorly written articles to be publish on their sites. ‘Submit for Review’ icon or button gives any blogger the confidence how much a site values its integrity.

5) Stringent editorial process

Credible sites that welcome guest posts have an exhaustive list of requirements. A lengthy editorial guideline is a good sign because of the risks involved. Google is currently on a crackdown of unscrupulous guest blogging networks. These rules thereby are put in place to avoid devaluation and penalties that Google may impose on the network or site such as de-indexing the website.

6) Above 50 domain authority

Rule of thumb: guest blog on sites whose domain authority exceeds yours. This is how you can increase backlinks. Sites with domain authority that is lower than 25 are categorically spam sites. If your site’s domain authority is 52, don’t bother writing for a site with 39 domain authority. Look for anything higher than 52. The higher the domain authority, the higher the rank and the stronger the traffic.

Some SEO experts said that link building is dead. If it is, why is guest blogging still alive and well? So you won’t be victimized by deceitful site owners, you have to be extremely cautious. Look, choose and write carefully. Stay as vigilant as possible when hunting for the good sites to guest post. Weed out the bad ones and you will gain huge benefits eventually.

The post How to Avoid Bad Guest Blogging appeared first on Internet Marketing Reach.