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SEO Advantage's Secrets of Marketing on the Web

Who is Linking to Your Web Site - and What Does that Say about You to Google?

Linking is the mechanism that connects all the pages on the Internet. You've got links throughout your web site to let people navigate their way around. You may have links going out to other web sites that you think will be useful for your visitors. And hopefully you have links coming into your web site from independent sources.
 
All types of links can impact your search engine optimization results, helping determine where your web site shows up online. Though the hardest to control, inbound links pointing to your site can make the biggest impact.
 
At its most basic, the concept is that if several high-quality sites are linking to your web site, then Google and other search engines figure your site must be a popular, valuable resource - and they will be more likely to show it higher in their search results. In effect, your site receives "link juice" from other web pages that link to it.
 
However, it's not enough to secure a couple links and then sit still. The Google PageRank algorithm looks at the pattern of links to your site as they build over time. Building the right kind of links can bring a major payoff, while the wrong kind of links could get you penalized - and the Google Sandbox is not easy to dig out of.
 

Creating a Buzz to Build Rankings - and Customers - Quickly Featured Case Study

MaxFilings.comWhen a business service operates entirely online, it can face fierce competitive barriers. Picture a startup company up against thousands of established businesses in an industry where making the sale depends on the perceived credibility of the company. Online incorporation service MaxFilings tackled this challenge and succeeded by creating a buzz to secure a search engine presence and build credibility and customers quickly.

Assessing that new web domain name you've got your eye on Tools You Can Use

Whether it's your business's first web site or you're looking at additional web properties, it pays to consider a few things when selecting a web address. Also called a URL or domain name, your web address should meet these following criteria.

Easy to remember - This includes the order of the words as well as the words themselves. (Was that davisroberts.com or robertdavis.com?)

Easy to spell - Avoid words that people commonly have trouble spelling. It'll save you misery when you're trying to give your URL over the phone and help avoid typos in any press coverage you get, too.

Contains keywords (your product, location, etc.) While it's sometimes debated whether there are any optimization benefits, all things equal, it may help. Use hyphens to separate the words so the search engines can recognize the separate words (seo-advantage.com versus seoadvantage.com). But make sure you buy both versions, so you can redirect any people who enter your URL without the hyphens.

Brief - What's a good length? Well, that depends. Don't sacrifice the other criteria just to have a short URL - your initials, for example, are not going to carry a lot of benefit unless your business is very famous (GM.com, for example). But don't make your web address so long and full of keywords that people will confuse the order or leave out words if they're trying to enter it directly. Consider that it should also look good on your business cards, brochures and other marketing materials.

The web address you choose will be influenced by your business name and situation. If your company is well known or its name already meets some of the criteria above, you'll be best off simply using your business-name.com or businessname.com. After all, that's your brand, and you want to build it to the max. Another thing to keep in mind is that you can purchase multiple domain names that you think people may try to type in to find you and then point them all at your main address.

Some final advice: Get impressions from a few people before you settle on your web address. You never know what a set of new eyes can pick up that you might have missed. We wouldn't have these hilarious URLs to poke fun at if the owners had done that: Experts Exchange: www.expertsexchange.com; IP Anywhere: www.ipanywhere.com; Speed of Art; www.speedofart.com...you get the idea!
 

@ SEO Advantage

Awarded Best in Search 2009 by TopSeos.com
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Find informative articles on social media optimization, SEM, optimizing for e-commerce, and more. Visit our growing knowledge center of online marketing topics at http://www.seo-advantage.com/seo-topics/ 
 
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About SEO Advantage

SEO Advantage, Inc. is a professional search engine optimization firm that helps enterprises, small businesses, and nonprofits rise to the top of their industries online. Our clients enjoy top rankings on Google, Yahoo and MSN through a suite of unique pay-for-performance search engine optimization and online marketing services. Our multidisciplinary team of SEO engineers, copywriters, and web designers are dedicated to increasing the value of your web site. Find out more today. Visit www.seo-advantage.com, call 1-800-366-1639 or email us here.
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