And rightfully so.

Which is why creating a meaningful link requires a connection from both the link builder and the prospect they’re going after.  It’s like I’ve said before with any link building campaign:  it’s all about hustle and being meticulous with how you go about it.

One of the best examples of that is with email outreach.  Going after prospects in a related field as your client by establishing a connection via emails and understanding their interests through a couple back-and-forth messages and from there, finding ways to accommodate both their needs and yours with content.

That’s why hitting a homerun on the first email is crucial.  From making the language natural to keeping it short, here are a couple ways to set your emails up for more feedback.

Personalize Your Message

While templates can be a lifesaver for hitting multiple prospects at once, a lot of the time it’s all about taking a few minutes before each message and researching your prospect’s site and finding some sort of conversation piece to dangle in front of them.  This means starting every email off by addressing them on a first name basis (if you can find it on the site).

Toss out the “Dear Sir/Madam,” “To Whom It May Concern,” and “HEY THERE!!”  intros that seem overdone or too much in line with con artists and spammers.  I bet 99% of the time they are headed for the spam folder anyways, and if a prospect clicks on one of those and responds back, odds are you’re either lucky it got through or that blog might be extremely desperate for content, i.e., they don’t care if it’s affiliate links or not.

Be Sincere

Make the tone of the email warm and inviting with praise and compliments for their site, give kudos on a recent blog post or product and always, always close out the letter with the same appreciation you showed with the salutation.  Think of it this way, if you appreciate little things such as people telling you to “Have a great day…”, “Hope the week’s going well…”, “Take care…” and other sincere endings, pay the same compliments to them in your outreach.

And don’t even think about making out the Subject Header with “Gimme a link!” or “I need traffic “ or “Can I have a link, pretty please?” or anything like it.  It shows you don’t care for their time and effort they’ve put into their site and is in poor taste, overall.  Those intros go directly to the trash bin.

Don’t Write a Novel

Finding a way to be personal with each message without resorting to multiple paragraphs can be tough at first, but keeping each email around 1 to 2 sentences is sufficient.  Some prospects may be too busy during the day and/or have dozens or hundreds of emails to read and could skip your message if it’s formatted like the opening to “The Hunger Games”.

Think of how people write back and forth to each other on Twitter and find ways to throw in compliments and questions in under 144 characters.  Put that mindset (albeit with correct grammar and less capitalization) to use with each outreach email until it becomes second-nature.  Short emails that are courteous, feel natural and have some objective that opens the door for a follow up are the way to go.

Because in the end, when you treat outreach emails like a  face-to-face conversation, prospects are more willing to give a shout back.  Even if it takes four or five emails before you get to the matter at hand, it shows that you’re capable of developing relationships and improving your marketing muscle at the same time.

You’ve heard us touch on Google’s Panda updates in the past and, while it’s (perhaps) the most well known update, the penguin is an entirely different species. This update aims to target outdated, spammy SEO tactics. It’s also been dubbed the “over-optimization penalty” and “webspam update”. All in all, Google’s goal in this most recent change to the algorithm seeks to improve the internet by finding (and, subsequently, penalizing) a number of spam-related factors including keyword stuffing and shady backlink creation. According to the search engine, since its launch, it has already impacted slightly more than three percent of English queries.

The biggest benefit of this shift in Google’s algorithm is the more leveled playing field that now exists for sites that have quality, natural content but don’t use SEO. The new search results display more relevancy with each inquiry by penalizing sites that abuse SEO. We’ve hit on this in the past but, as a refresher, what we’re referring to is placing too many keywords within the copy on a page, having too many link exchanges, and having an unnatural backlink profile.

This new and improved Googlebot is said to have the ability to detect differences between the content that’s written for the sole purpose of SEO and that which is written naturally to improve user experience. This marks an evolution of sorts, a movement away from the old school algorithm calculator and towards a more artificial intelligent bot. The updates of 2012, like Penguin and Venice (which improved local, more organic, search results) are steps towards serving up naturally appealing sites within search results.

What does all of this mean for online marketing companies like Adcuda? It’s music to our ears. One of our goals is to help make the internet a better place which is why we’ve always focused on providing quality content for our clients and our readers. For us, it’s still about intelligent on-page SEO and creating a more natural backlink profile.

If you’re a developer with a passion for the front end and a bit of the backend, we’ve got a job for you. Adcuda is currently looking for a junior level web developer with a desire to learn more. The pertinent bullet points are below. These will be the skills you’ll use every day.

• PHP / WordPress / jQuery development
• Understanding of MySQL
• Working knowledge of Linux system administration
• Excellent communication skills
• Ability to work in a fast paced team environment

If your interest is still peaked, we have an interest in meeting you. head on over to the careers page and upload your resume!

It's Kayser Söze!!!

So goes the game of shady tricks and super black hat SEO with regards to content swiping. Being a content thief – like the Hamburglar is to McDonald’s burgers – is lazy, can be a detriment to the blog, especially because the poster often refuses to add the links from the original post.

And that’s the most disappointing part of having your content stripped from you. There’s a difference between retweeting or linking back to someone’s article and just copying the information and changing out the title with something else.

Now, from a link builder’s point of view, stolen content can be advantageous if you know how to find it. And the best part? It’s really simple and only takes about 5 minutes or so of your time.

Although I must say, some of the blogs that scrape your content might have zero benefit to you in terms of relevancy or domain authority, but every now and then you’ll come across a site that has decent metrics and similar interests.

Here’s what you do:

• Do a Google search for the title of your article, making sure to put quotes around the beginning and end for a more accurate search result.
• Now that you’ve got the results in front of you, scan down the list to see the different sites your article’s been posted to. The tricky part with this area is not bypassing a result because on some occasions you’ll have duplicate websites show up or some sites are merely grabbing a short description and doing a 301 back to the original URL.
• On the chance you come across a URL that’s blatantly taken your article as their own, do a cross-check of the URL’s relevance, see what kind of backlink profile the site has and whether it’s even worth your time to hassle them.
• But if it’s a solid match and they’ve stripped the article of your links, well then it’s game time, my friend.

You will need to look for some sort of contact form to get in touch with the webmaster. It’s usually pretty easy to find.

• If they don’t have a “Contact Us” form or some logo showing which company the website was built on, there’s a way around that. A link building tool such as Raven Tools has an efficient “Find Contacts” tool that, when you enter in the desired URL, it’ll scrape the page for contact outlets such as “info@companyname.com” and give you the means to dig deeper.
• Once you’ve covered both bases on getting in touch with them, it’s time to send off a cordial email asking to restore the article to its original state via adding in the anchor text and accompanying URLs. It’s important to try and not be hostile or emotional with the first email because you risk not getting a response or just having the article wiped clean.
• Now on the other hand, if you don’t get a response after multiple requests or receive negative feedback, then it’s time to ratchet up the tempo via the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Many times, you won’t even have to use this, but if you do, it’s an avenue to use the long arm of the law and get your content taken down. ***Note, from a link building standpoint, it’s safe to say if you throw this line out, chances are you won’t be getting a link back from them as courtesy. It’s just there like a second parachute option.***

After all’s said and done, the main thing with this type of link building strategy is you’re trying to protect the integrity of your work, but if it’s compromised and the site it’s taken from has some kind of clout, it might not be a bad idea to come knocking. Who knows, it might just be the quickest and easiest link you’ll ever get from outreach.

MozBar by SEOmoz
The full use of this tool requires an SEOmoz account, but it does offer some degree of functionality without one. If you do have an account it integrates very nicely with other SEOmoz tools and resources that allow you to look at things like keyword difficulty, on-page optimization and rank tracker. We use this extension as one of our main tools for quick analysis of the quality of a given page, its authority and its backlink profile. You can also see no-follow, followed, internal and external links as well as keywords conveniently highlighted.

Another main feature of this tool is the link metric information built into the SERP, which allows you to see link profile metrics of competitors by simply typing the specific keyword into Google.
You can even set up customized profiles and sort your information by local search criteria. Out of all the extensions out there, this toolbar offers the most features relevant to link building and helps us analyze information on the fly.

ToutApp
We use ToutApp to help track our outreach methodologies and simplify email processes. This extension helps track what happens after an email is sent – are they opening it? Are they sharing it with other people within their organization? Did they click any links or buttons? ToutApp provides all sorts of insights that tell us what types of outreach are getting the best responses.
It’s an easy way to analyze the process of building a relationship with the webmasters we contact and, in the end, helps provide our clients fantastic links. ToutApp does requires a paid subscription but the time it saves makes it well worth it. There’s a ton of other stuff it helps with, including quick and easy A/B testing, automatic CRM updates, custom email templates and more.

WOT (Web of Trust)
WOT is a quick way to tell if the site you’re on is trusted for safe surfing. Ratings are created by a global community of users so you can get a good sense of any site’s reputation at a glance. Right off the bat, the extension alerts us about potential problems the minute we land, after which we can check the user-generated feedback to figure out exactly what’s wrong with the site. We also give back and participate in the community by giving our own ratings for sites, which helps the greater good. Though its not a foolproof system, it gives us a set of data from the largest group of people we can find to give their opinion on the issue, and we value that in our analysis. The more information our link builders have when trying to build up a network of trustworthy sites to post links on, the better.

PageRank Tool
PageRank has been a well-known metric for quite some time – Firefox and Internet Explorer had add-ons well before Chrome was around. This tool helps us investigate the backlink profiles of pages we’re interested in (ones that rank well on Google) so we can try to work out what they’re doing well and not so well and how we can improve on their link building strategies. At a minimum, it provides a way to measure and compare sites – in terms of both the positive aspects of their SEO efforts and what may have lead to penalties. However, as a metric, it has lost its luster and again, something we use on the fly.

HootSuite
When it comes to link building, Kansas City business owners may be surprised how easily it is to spark a positive relationship with other companies simply by sharing their content. That interaction could ultimately lead to them posting links back to your site. That’s where extensions like HootSuite come in to play. They help us monitor keywords, manage accounts and share media across social media networks like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, WordPress and others. It can help you schedule and publish messages and even provides information about your audience based on their social presences, authority and publishing history. It’s a great tool to help with outreach and networking, and ensuring your efforts stay simple and organized.

That should be some good ones to get you started if you are taking link building seriously, have paying clients, and need the tools to do a better job finding them new websites to partner with. Kansas City link builders, start with these Google Chrome extensions and you’ll be on the right track to getting quality backlinks.

Generally speaking, I’m not a “puppies and rainbows” type of person (don’t get me wrong, I think puppies are among the most adorable things ever…second to my daughter, of course) but I really love our clients here at Adcuda. Since I started working as an advocate for our them in 2010, I’ve had the chance to work on a number of projects involving upscale car dealerships, a moving service, a quaint Ozarks resort, an arcade game dealer, a motorcycle dealership, and a few other really unique clients all of which have inspired me to break out of my element and explore new things. That’s what I love most about working in the field of search engine optimization, I’m always learning something new and I believe that’s necessary in our field. Our industry is rapidly changing and growing and it’s up to us to stay on top of these changes for the benefit of the people we work with.

In the early days of search engine optimization, which started in the mid 1990’s, webmasters didn’t have to be strategic when it came to indexing their websites. The early search sites, like Ask Jeeves and Alta Vista, didn’t have a process of determining which sites were legitimate and which weren’t. Search results were similar to how Forest Gump describes chocolate, you just never knew what you were going to get. That all changed when two Standford graduate students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin developed an algorithm using mathematics to rate websites (what we now refer to as “page rank”). A year later, the two developed Google which quickly had a die hard fan base who appreciated their simple, user friendly design. With the birth and evolution of Google over the years, webmasters now have to rely on strategy to ensure their websites are visible to consumers. That’s where I come into play.

I realize I’m letting my inner nerd out here but similar to the Jedi and Sith from ‘Star Wars,’ Internet marketers fall into one of two categories: the good guys, known as “White Hat” and the dark side which is commonly referred to as “Black Hat”. Search engine optimizers who utilize “black hat” techniques often rely on deceptive practices to trick the search engines into boosting a site’s rankings by placing text that matches or is similar in color to a site’s background, invisible, hidden, or placed off screen. Some black hats even go so far as to utilize cloaking techniques on websites (meaning that the information search engines see and what is visible to readers is not consistent) but, fortunately for the rest of us, Google is “Pretty good. Pretty, pretty good,” (read Larry David from ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’) at quickly penalizing these techniques.

I love working in a white hat SEO company because we pride ourselves in creating valuable content for our clients. It’s been said that White hate SEO tactics are comparable to web development in that they both promote accessibility for a site’s readers. As Internet marketers here at Adcuda we aim to work with, not against, the search engine algorithms. By doing so, we ensure that the quality content that we’re placing on the web will stick around and, in turn, provide our clients with higher visibility and traffic. Being a white hat marketer, I am challenged to explore topics I wouldn’t normally focus on. The process we use for our clients has opened my eyes to interests other people have that I wouldn’t have otherwise been exposed to. In my time here at Adcuda, this twenty-something, sarcastic Midwestern transplant,who loves nature and family has researched and written about motorcycles, jet skis, classic arcade games, luxury vehicles, grain bin management systems, and so many other incredible topics. That is why, my friends, I love our clients.

1. http://php.net

PHP.net is one of the best places to check out when you need help working with PHP. Although it’s an essential component of many websites and as a developer, it can be tough to learn. On the site, you can get access to the latest PHP manual so that you can learn how the scripting language works and how to implement it. In addition to the manual, you can also read other documentation and check out the frequently asked questions section of the site. This is an invaluable resource if you want to improve your use of PHP.

2. http://www.w3schools.com/

W3 Schools provides information about many different types of web programming tools. It can teach you the basics of HTML, how to use cascading style sheets (CSS) and how to implement Javascript. They offer a number of user-friendly tutorials that walk you through the steps that you’ll need to take. You can also use their test editor so that you can learn how to implement code without having to try it out on your own website.

3. http://css-tricks.com/

CSS Tricks is primarily about the use of CSS, but it also includes information about other kinds of web development languages like HTML. If you are still learning about all of the neat things that CSS can do in web design, you need to check out this resource. They add regular feature articles that provide information about things you can use CSS on. If you want to make your web design look its best, you’ll need to become familiar with how to use CSS. This is one of the best resources in this regard.

4. http://stackoverflow.com/

Stack Overflow is a good place to go when you have a question about web development and you can’t seem to find the answer anywhere. This is a community of web developers and you can usually get your answers pretty quickly. You can post a question on the site and then it will be visible to the entire network of web developers. When someone answers your question, you’ll be able to go back to the site and view it. If you enjoy being part of a community and you don’t mind helping others with their problems, this can be a very valuable tool for you to utilize.

If you’re a web developer, you should bookmark all of these sites and use them regularly when you have a problem. They can pay big dividends and help you save money on consulting fees.

That being said, let’s focus on how to own guest posts; more specifically, how to timeline each post so that readers stay entertained and bloggers have more incentive to welcome your craft with open arms (i.e., link bait).

Taking the time to write content that’s both original and relevant to the source is where it’s at, plain and simple. The ability to add something new to the discussion and give the source more of an opportunity to be passed around is what good, quality content entails. And it’s here where some writers may stumble at first. For some, their idea’s wholly original, but the timing of their approach may be off. Or maybe the guest post is a statistical nightmare with no direction or bullet points for readers to follow. All in all, a poor guest post will fall on deaf ears and cut down the percentage of successful responses from your link building strategy.

So rather than stick with old habits, a guest post has a better chance to flourish when you take these tips into account.

Up-Tempo Research and Analysis

Going deep into the archives of a subject on the Internet can be confusing and overwhelming at times because there are so many sources out there. Drawing from the most relevant and trusted resource is key for an effective link building strategy. You don’t want to be writing a post on car accident analysis in today’s world while referencing crash statistics from the 1950s-60s. It just wouldn’t compute. Nor does stuffing your post with so many charts and graphs that the reader doesn’t know whether it’s a game of Tetris or a blog post.

There are many resources to pull from that can both save time and force you to “cite and write” instead of copy and paste for your link building strategies. Options like Zanran allow you to enter specific keywords related to the article and spits out a handful of pages with statistics, thoughts and references. And the beauty of it is you can use your cursor to run over each picture, bringing up a chart, graph or opinion, which essentially lets you gauge value. The important thing is you’re still devoting time to research because at the end of the day, Zanran and tools similar to it aren’t going to magically conjure up the theme of your post. That’s your job. It just shows you the path to providing quality resources that you’ll put towards writing a guest post.

Being Timely

After writing a great post with proper data and photos, there’s a good chance that on credentials alone, it will be picked up by the right audience. But a topic that might be a little complex or harder to market, well, that takes a little creativity. Thus, being timely with your position and your post can benefit a good, but not great, guest post from being snatched up.

For instance, writing about health and fitness tips – while mostly good throughout the year – could stand a better chance of acceptance right after New Years or before the start of summer. Same goes for writing about swimwear in early spring instead of on Christmas…unless you’re the lucky bunch living in Miami or other year-round warmer climates (although the water’s probably still friggin’ cold). Essentially, think like your audience and what topics are trending in their minds, not their Twitter feed. Sure, Twitter’s great as a link outreach tactic for completed articles, but the chances of that post being shared at a much higher rate might just come from penning timely topics.

Hooray!!

In the end, to get maximum value from a guest post – and the accompanying contextual links for the client – link builders must branch out from their comfort zone. Quality control has to account for something. Think about how your online marketing solution as a whole would be better for it by realizing that extensive, timely and creative topics can make bloggers more willing to drop a line to your Inbox.

So I headed to YouTube to look for videos – and, not surprisingly, there were tons to choose from with detailed instructions for how to fix the red ring of death on Xbox 360. I quickly became frustrated because I couldn’t find vital information within the video descriptions on a lot of them. Then I realized – a lot of these could use some SEO copywriting tips – they’re losing me as a user because their descriptions aren’t up to par.

That’s a big part of our philosophy here at Adcuda – you can pump all the SEO tactics you want into your videos but if your content doesn’t live up to expectations, your visitors aren’t going to pay much attention to your message.

Similar to other SEO copywriting methods, you’re going to have to incorporate your keywords into the description text in order for people to find your video. But it should also be informative, helpful and as in-depth as possible. If you’re a small or medium sized business, this kind of how to video is a great chance for you to captivate users and get your company noticed. Here’s what the best Xbox 360 red ring of death videos included in the descriptions:

Proof of Expertise
While the video is playing, I like to check out you and your company to see if you know what you’re talking about. Tell me why I should trust you with my expensive machine, and make it sound convincing.

Tools I’ll Need
Fixing the Xbox 360 red ring of death is somewhat complicated. I wasn’t sure what kind of supplies I would even need or how much I would have to spend to get them. The video pictured clearly says it’ll cost about $12 in parts and that I would need a Torx screwdriver with both T8 and T10 bits. Step 3 also mentions thermal paste – and that’s it, all of the supplies you need are listed right there and you don’t have to waste 3 minutes getting into the video to figure that out.

Outline of Video’s Content
This is pretty self explanatory. Along with the video instructions, the description has a section with all the necessary steps outlined in sequential order. That’s helpful for when I want to skip forward or backwards without messing with the playback on the video.

Helpful Links
This is your chance to turn your viewer into a potential customer. If you’ve done your job – with a relevant, engaging video – a simple link to your website can be just the nudge the viewer needs to check your company out. You can also throw in helpful links, which could lead to additional resources, online stores or anything you feel will supplement your video.

From an SEO copywriting standpoint, it’s easy to see how important video descriptions are if you want to get your YouTube channel off the ground. Follow these guidelines to see where informative, engaging content can get you.

Oh, and in case you were wondering – yes, I was able to fix my Xbox myself, using nothing but YouTube tutorials and about $12 worth of tools. Thank you, interwebs!

Yes. Yes it is.

Whether you have a brick and mortar business that’s ready to expand to the web or you’ve developed a product to sell exclusively online, there are a dizzying array of options and price points. To have the expectation that an existing e-commerce platform will fit your every need is asking for quite a bit. E-commerce software solutions run the gamut and with all of that choice comes a compromise on features.

“What do you mean, compromise?”

There are many factors to take into consideration. Here is just a shortlist of thing to think about when choosing e-commerce software:

• If I have current products, does the platform allow me to mass-upload them into the system?
• How are payments handled? Does the platform provide a credit card processor or can I use my own?
• Does the system handle purchase orders if I need them?
• How many shipping providers does the platform offer? Does each one have an extra cost associated with it?
• Can I offer variations on my products?
• Can those variations be setup as conditionals within the product selection?
• Does the shopping cart software provide any inventory control systems?
• Will my current POS terminal interface with the commerce software?
• Can I customize the content that appears on the page and select the types of fields shown?
• Can the commerce system handle tax-exempt customers?
• Does the e-commerce platform have updated tax tables for all municipalities?
• How customizable is the layout and design?
• What’s the cost?

This list could go on and on but I think you’re getting the idea.

The key to choosing the right e-commerce software for you will be a tradeoff between the feature set required and the cost of the solution. That doesn’t mean you won’t find shopping cart software that will make you happy. It’s possible that you will find that blend of form and function that fits the bill, but it’s going to take quite a bit of research and planning. Many hosted solutions will provide a short free trial. Take advantage of this. Play around with the administrative controls, get a feel for what possible, don’t just believe the marketing on the sales site. If you’re looking to purchase a hosted solution, your option of a free trial may not be possible. However, the vendor should still provide you with access to a test installation in some capacity. Find out what language the software was written in and make sure you have a developer who can make modifications if the provider won’t do them for you. If you still feel trepidation or need additional help, enlist a marketing agency to help you. They may have a solution that fits your needs.