Anchor Text Links - what, why and where!

Right, nitty gritty time. Links back to your site are what count, well for a good proportion of getting good rankings they do. And while the sheer number of links are important and the relevancy of the sites they are coming from and where on the page they link from it is also important, nay vital, that if possible they are constructed correctly.

Basically if you have a link coming back to your site the actual link needs to contain the keywords you are taregting. So instead of the link looking like this:

We sell blue widgets, click here

It should look like this:

We sell blue widgets

That is all there is to it! Or is it...

Well no, when you are targeting keywords make sure you vary the actual words you use. So as well as our old chums Blue Widgets you may also choose to use Cheap Blue Widgets or London Blue Widgets or Free Blue Widgets - you get the idea!

So there you are, it is ireally very easy as long as you know what terms you are targeting, that you mix up the terms and that you can persuede teh site that is creating the link to do what you want them to!

Next time: Where on a page to get the link placed for maximum SEO benefit!

Here are some terms that get used by me and others and you are probably thinking WTF!!!

We are not saying these all actually exist as real SEO problems but you will see these terms used!

BLOOP - backwards over optimisation penalty

In other words the anchor text you used is too similar and the search engines know what you are up to.

SERPs - Search Engine Results Pages - these are the organic results you see every day, the top 10 per page.

PPC - This has two meaning, Pay Per Click, as in Sponsored Links on Google and Yahoo! but it also can be used in referance to Pills, P**N and Casino when it comes to Black Hat SEO.

Anchor Text - The text used to link to you site from another site - this is where it is at the next post will be all about that!

And finally on this very short post...

WHITE HAT - operating in the way the search engines want us to. Follow the guidelines and stick to the rules. It's slow but it works!

We kept this short as our attention span is rubbish and if you are like us it can be hard to retain information.

Hope this helps you all.

Get your link noise going!

One area, perhaps the main area, you need to concentrate on is getting inbound links to your site. And while it is true that quality (read relevancy) rather than quantity is essential for good rankings it is also true that link popularity plays a part.

And if you are just starting out on SEO for your site then getting links can be tricky. So here is a great resource for getting started and creating some link noise: http://info.vilesilencer.com.

We recommend you download their latest Excel list and go through the nearly 300 directories they feature, all are SEO friendly!

Things to bear in mind when submitting include:

1. Submit slowly and regularly, start with 10 a week and build up the rate of addition so it should take about two to three months to submit to all of the 300 directories.
2. Be very clear about which category you want to be listed in. The more accurate you are the more chance you have of being listed.
3. Use at least five differant titles, mix and match but stay on theme. There is less chance of a (BLOOP) penalty if you do this.
4. Use differant descriptions and keywords, see above.
5. Link to ALL areas of your site, you are looking to create a 'natural' pattern of linking so do not just link to the home page.

Have fun doing this and remember ethical SEO takes time but this is the groundwork so get stuck in!

Free Website Review on YOUR site!

Hey, here's a thing. We are going to offer you the chance of a free website review for your site. We will have a look and check out how good the SEO is and make some key recommendations - and all for free!

There is no catch, and this willl be a manually written report that will be clear with the action points laid out. This is advice that would normally cost you thousands and is available to anyone in the world. However we will not review the PPC sites (Pills, P**n and Casino) as this is not what we do - sorry!

We will turn around the reports as quickly as we can and we will limit this depending on demand. We will not do anything, and we mean anything, with your email so rest assured there.

So just email us at lazeedogseo@googlemail.com and we get onto this just as soon as we can. All we need is the URL of your site, your name and your email address. If you want to give us more information that is great but really that is all we need just now.

Why are we doing this? We want you to know how good we are and for you to tell your friends!

So go on, give us a go. You have nothing to lose and a hell of a lot to gain.

Getting Started

This is a really simple lesson. All you need to know is that SEO is all about content and links.

Now that's not too hard is it? All you have to do is write unique content and get some other sites linking to your site. It really is that simple!

Of course there is more to it, a lot more but these are the principles that should guide you. Do not lose site of this and you will be OK.

Thinks about what the search engines want to achieve, not what will rank you, this is the way we think. And what they want is information, useful information.

So write about what you know, become an expert, create news, add white papers, but always write it in your own style. Never copy and paste, and we mean never!

Links, well that is another story but we are just going to plant a germ of an idea here. Links are votes and the more you get the better - BUT ... the link has to be worth something so aim to get links from other sites within your industry or service area.

That is all for now, we want to keep this simple so think about it and we will soon start to get into more detail!

Welcome to SEO - lazeedog style!

There are so many sites covering all angles of SEO from the basic to the technical and from white hat and ethical to black hat and fun! At least that is our take on it.

What we want to do with this site is use our experience to show you what you have have to do to get started and how to be successful in the long term. This is not a short term game. We have over 8 years of SEO knowledge and a proven track record and knowledge base that means we can show you short cuts that work and explain why you will need to have a lot of patience. And if you are after monetized terms we mean a lot of patience.

While we know about SEO strangely we don't know much about blogs - so there you are first lesson - you don't have to know everything to get top rankings! But, as we are doing, you have to keep learning so if this site looks bad then I am sorry but we want to get the infromation to you. Guess what, lesson 2 - looks don't count, content does!

Why are we doing this? Well fun mainly, and the need to learn about blogging but our motivation is very simple. Its is this:

The more we tell you, and you could be our competitors, the more we have to learn and know.

So this is a way to keep ourselves ahead - that is all. We are never going to charge money, place ads, run Adsense, or promote anyone we really don't believe in, that is not our style.

But we will point you in the right direction for SEO advice, tools, forums, chat and resources.

We don't have much on here yet and we will never be as big as some of teh truely great SEO sites out there.

But we will keep you up to date and show you exactly how to put into practise what we recommend.

Good luck and keep watching, I am off to see how this blog actually works!