On Page Tactics Contents… What is Off-Page Optimization? Majestic Analysis…. SEOMoz Analysis…. Google PageRank explanation… Why get backlinks… Link Varieties LinkBait and how to Pitch for same… And what Not to do to avoid a Google penalty… Credits…

What is Off-Page Optimization… Search engines often use the number of backlinks that a website has as one of the most important factors for determining that website's search engine ranking, popularity and importance… Websites often employ various techniques to increase the number of backlinks pointing to their website but relevant backlinks are most important! There are several factors that determine the value of a backlink – backlinks from authoritative sites on a given topic are highly valuable! A backlink represents a favorable 'editorial vote' for the receiving webpage from another granting webpage using anchor text of the backlink which is the descriptive labeling of the hyperlink as it appears on a webpage. Lets take a look at some backlink analysis at my majestic.com account…

Majestic Analysis… investigate as follows… Subdomain listings… Backlink history… Top backlinks Referring domains Top pages tip#1: use Site Explorer at first… URL:

SEOMoz Analysis… investigate as follows… Page Authority Link Authority Total Links too Open Site Explorer tip#1: free tool – but a bit limited… URL:

Google PageRank… PageRank is a link analysis algorithm, is used Google, that assigns a numerical weighting to each element of a hyperlinked set of documents, with the purpose of "measuring" its relative importance within the set…as is defined here by Google…. PageRank reflects our view of the importance of web pages by considering more than 500 million variables and 2 billion terms. Pages that we believe are important pages receive a higher PageRank and are more likely to appear at the top of the search results… PageRank could be a good quality indicator assuming that most people link to valuable content and nobody links to useless pages. However paid links, mandatory links for providing software or services, link spamming and other means can persuade or force webmasters to link, at least temporarily, to any content. As a result, PageRank is not necessarily a good indicator of the quality or value of the website, as Google uses over 200 other methods to optimize the search results…so most SEO practitioners do not count on PageRank…

Why get Backlinks… The best way to get other sites to create relevant links to yours is to create unique, relevant content that can quickly gain popularity in the Internet community. The more useful content you have, the greater the chances someone else will find that content valuable to their readers and link to it. Before making any single decision, you should ask yourself the question: Is this going to be beneficial for my page's visitors? And in Google's words-- "quantity, quality, and relevance of links count towards your rating… (note the use of the word rating and not ranking as Google does NOT LIKE link building for ranking manipulation!!! But as in all things, thats what every single website owner wants…to increase their rankings!

Link Varieties… Resource Linking – are hyperlinks to a website containing content believed to be beneficial, useful and relevant to visitors of the site establishing the link. Reciprocal Links – are mutual links between two websites to ensure mutual traffic…and as long as they are relevant they work! Forum Signature Linking – allows outbound hyperlinks in a member's signature which can be a fast method to build up inbound links to a website… Blog Comment Linking – is leaving a comment on a blog which can result in a link that gets clicked on by the readers if the comment is a good one… Directory Link Building – occurs when you list your site with relevant in- channel directories…see this Canadian Citation/Directory list here at – BUT the best type of Link building advice is to use great content…

LinkBait – learn & use… LinkBait is any content or feature, within a website, designed specifically to gain attention or encourage others to link to the website. Google defines link bait as anything "interesting enough to catch people's attention…" Great content always serves as link bait…like a how-to or a white paper or an e-Book or a survey in your channel… Manners may buy you links. If you remember to thank your partners and competitors (or cite them), they will probably do the same for you, when the time arises. Link bait could be a widget…like a calculator for your channel…or tools, contests, scoops, exposes, awards, humor, lists or controversy… LinkBait can now also be a great infographic too!

How to Pitch a Link Request… Make it personal – no matter what else, you must appeal to the webmaster by making it a friendly, conversational personal request! Keep it professional – nothing is worse that a grammatically challenged request, with typos and cultural irregularities! Tone – keep the overall tone of the on point, humor-free, editorial asides free…i.e. always play it straight! Message title – this needs to cut thru the clutter of normal spam s, be on-point yet also cool enough to get a read…not an easy task but without it, your message will simply be deleted… Bang for the Buck – so, whats in it for them? You must make it worth their while to add your site link….relevant, timely, on-topic and therefore important for their own readers too!

New Ways to Pitch Link Request… Step 1: Find relevant human beings (bloggers, journalists, forum participants, members of online communities, active social networkers, people in media, PR, or simply the well-connected). Step 2: Follow their contributions to the web world and engage (in blog comments, over Twitter, via LinkedIn, through Q+A sites and forums, or directly over ). Ask for nothing. Step 3: Build something highly relevant and useful to them. If you've truly built that connection and gotten to "know them," even if it's just virtually, you will know what they need/want/will appreciate. Step 4: Let them know about it. This can be over Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, , in a blog comment, or whatever medium makes sense. In other words, create an engagement to them…to win links!

And what NOT to do… Links intended to manipulate PageRank… Links to web spammers or bad neighborhoods on the web… Excessive reciprocal links or excessive link exchanging ("Link to me and I'll link to you.") Link Farms and/or A to B to C to A type links… Buying or selling links that pass PageRank… Never use paid links…but advertising is allowed…a tough issue to manage… Google sees all….they index every single page and they have more engineers than any other online firm….so yes, they will catch you eventually…so stay away from risk….

Google changes to look at… Google Panda Google Penguin Learn to do research….and start with these two terms at google.com

Credits… Jim Rudnick -- MCSD CEO KKT INTERACTIVE a Microsoft Certified Solution Developer more than 14 years of SEO experience with more than 17 years of web experience have worked for NY Yankees, PEP Boys, GE, The Disney Company, Canada Life, Mercedes, SAAB, Reuters and Quaker State Oil… built more than 400 sites…have run more than 100 SEO Campaigns over past 10 years we build sites that have had millions of hits come up on the first page in search engines and more than that – we build sites that generate new business for our clients day after day!!! we blog about Canadian SEO at