A starters guide to SEO STEP 3 Site Promotion

In the previous three posts of this series we saw the basics of SEO, Choosing the right keyword and using these keywords to optimize our websites. Optimizing and making it SEO ready will help you traffic only from searching, which will only happen after a period of time. But for website to be successful, promotion is the most important step. Promoting a website includes a process of requesting links, buying links etc. Recently Google seems to have problem with people buying and selling links on there websites. It says buying/selling or link exchanges alters the Google algorithm. Google’s algorithm rates a website based on the number of links to the site, also the quality of the link matters.

This is what Google has to say:

Your site’s ranking in Google search results is partly based on analysis of those sites that link to you. The quantity, quality, and relevance of links count towards your rating. The sites that link to you can provide context about the subject matter of your site, and can indicate its quality and popularity. However, some webmasters engage in link exchange schemes and build partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking, disregarding the quality of the links, the sources, and the long-term impact it will have on their sites. This is in violation of Google’s webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact your site’s ranking in search results. Examples of link schemes can include:

• Links intended to manipulate PageRank
• Links to web spammers or bad neighborhoods on the web
• Link exchange and reciprocal links schemes (“Link to me and I’ll link to you.”)
• Buying or selling links

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?

It is not only the number of links you have pointing to your site that matters, but also the quality and relevance of those links. Creating good content pays off: Links are usually editorial votes given by choice, and the buzzing blogger community can be an excellent place to generate interest. In addition, submit your site to relevant directories such as the Open Directory Project and Yahoo!, as well as to other industry-specific expert sites.

My Comments:

As a webmaster of a website we should learn to look beyond Google. Google does mean a lot of thing but it is not everything. Apart from the alteration of Pagerank ,I recommend you to read why Google is against paid links which I blogged sometimes back. Google expects us to submit our websites to Yahoo! Directory which costs us $300 and to DMOZ (you will grow old and die by the time (if) they approve you). So I recommend do not be bother about Google, if it strictly starts implementing this policy many non link selling website will be affected and there will be major changes in the search engine results.

Anyways lets get back to our SEO for website promotion, since Google says it may penalize websites we will try to avoid link building process and try alternatives to generate traffic for our websites.

Advertisement:

To promote your website the most important thing to consider is your budget. It is better if you have good budget, but if you are tight on your budget I consider you should get some free advertisement.

Social Bookmarking Websites:

You have to be exceptionally well if you want to make it to the front page of website for eg.Digg. But people can actually buy there way up. It is not the right way to do it, but it is a good alternative to get lots of traffic to your website.

Web directories:

Web directories are also a good way to build your links. There are thousands of directories out there where you can submit your links. Previously I wrote a post for directory owners, on how they can earn money from directory. As a webmaster you can buy these featured links to be placed above the rest of the websites in the category, it will help you get some traffic to your website. But directories can generate a lot of link backs, which seems ok to Google. Currently I am offering web directory submission service myself. You can contact me on [info [at] idigitalcore.com] for more info.

Packages Available:

Starters pack:

• 50 Directory Submission – $3

Directory Submissions without Excel Report Sheet

• 100 Directory Submissions – $5
• 200 Directory Submissions – $9
• 300 Directory Submissions – $14
• 400 Directory Submissions – $19
• 500 Directory Submissions – $24
• 1000 Directory Submissions – $49

Directory Submissions with Excel Report Sheet ( Consists of the Directory List sorted by Page Rank)

• 100 Directory Submissions – $9
• 200 Directory Submissions – $14
• 300 Directory Submissions – $19
• 400 Directory Submissions – $24
• 500 Directory Submissions +50 Directories Free = 550 Directories – $29
• 1000 Directory Submissions + 100 Directories Free (WOW) = 1100 – $54

Directory Submissions with Screen shot and Excel Reports Sheet ( Consists of the Directory List sorted by Page Rank)

• 100 Directory Submissions – $19
• 200 Directory Submissions – $29
• 300 Directory Submissions – $39
• 400 Directory Submissions – $49
• 500 Directory Submissions +50 Directories Free = 550 Directories-$ 59
• 1000 Directory Submissions + 100 Directories Free (WOW) = 1100 – $79

Article Submission:

You can also write articles regarding your website and submit it across various Article directories. You can find the list of free article directory at Directory critic.

For my website ghuj.com I have bought around 700 article submissions across various blogs and currently doing link building using directory submission. I am going to submit Ghuj.com to all the directories I have in my list.