GlobalBX

The primary thought behind all techniques should be: “What is natural”?

If you are constantly asking yourself,
“Am I using this in a way that the search engines will view as a natural enhancement to my site and not as an overused and abused method”?
then you should be fine. So, Keep it Natural, Don’t (Over) Use and Abuse should be your new mantra.

Let’s look at specifics.

RSS Feeds:
• Do: Use them to enhance existing content.
• Don’t: Use them in place of hand written, unique content

• Do: Limit the number of feeds you use on any given page to 3 or 4.
• Don’t: Clutter every page on your site with endless feeds.

• Do: Target feeds are specific to the keywords you are using on each page.
• Don’t: Put feeds that are about other topics that are not relevant on your site.

• Do: Turn your hottest, most newsworthy content into feeds to get out there to other people. Blog posts are a natural for feeding content to other people. Blogs are often updated very frequently and are about the hottest topics in your industry.

Article Syndication:
• Do: Post your article on your own site first, and wait for it to be indexed by the engines before you syndicate it out.
• Do: Date each article with the date it was written.
• Do: Interlink your articles to other articles on your site that you have written that are relevant to the topic.
• Do: Update your SiteMap when you add articles to your site.
• Do: Link to your article from your Blog.
• Don’t: Post the article on your Blog and on your site – that is duplicating content and can be considered spam.
• Do: Take the time to create different versions of your article. When syndicating articles out to various article sites, use a handful of different version. Vary the text used as the anchor text in the links, and vary the pages that you link to within your site in the various versions. This will give Google what they are looking for – varying anchor text and links going to many pages on your site, not just one. This is one of the most important, and overlooked steps out there. This alone can increase the value you get from article syndication.
• Don’t: Stuff your article with too many links to your site.
• Don’t: Link to pages on your site that are not relevant to your article topic.
• Do: Create an Article Syndication Plan so that you have a clear plan to consistently release quality articles out to the public. Often people go crazy getting a couple articles out there, but then never do it again. Constant syndication, at a natural rate will get you the most benefit.
• Do: Remember to look at the guidelines of each source you submit to – they all have various rules for submitting articles.
• Do: Consider the “keyword weight” of your article; aim for a good keyword density, using 1 – 2 keywords per article.
• Don’t: Stuff the article with keywords, creating something that is not an easy flowing read for your audience.
• Do: Look for a unique viewpoint or angle when writing your article. Rehashing the same old topics, sharing the same old opinions won’t get you as much mileage out of the article.
• Do: Have fun with it. Let your personality shine through in your writing. Articles should not be stiff and stilted. Let your readers connect with you through your writing.
• Do: Consider breaking longer articles into a 2 or 3 part series. This will vary how the engines see the content out there, and it creates suspense and anticipation as readers wait to see what the next article in the series will say.
• Do: stay on top of the latest talk, news and buzz in your industry and be prepared to quickly pump out a great article to take advantage of some hot buzz or breaking news in your industry.

Press Releases:
• Do: Consider the topic of the press release, and make sure you can say YES to the following questions: Is this a topic that people other than me will find interesting? Is this positive press for me and my company, without being too filed with hype and sales pitches?
• Do: Keep the press release witty, to the point, informational and well written. Don’t elaborate on too many small points. In a press release, often less is more.
• Don’t: Send out a press release every day, unless you have something newsworthy to share every day.
• Do: Have your press release edited.
• Don’t: Send out a press release riddled with errors.
• Do: Verify all facts and information used in your release.
• Don’t: Under-use releases. You should plan on 1 or 2 releases each month, as long as you have news to back them up. More is OK only if the news is really important to release out there.
• Do: Ask an expert if you aren’t sure if your topic is news worthy.
• Do: Include a link back to your site, where people can get more information.
• Do: Create a section on your site where all your press releases are archived. It is great for credibility.

With careful thought and planning, using some of your own creative ideas and sticking to the Do’s and Don’ts outlined above, you can expect long term success with these techniques.

Whether you handle your SEO yourself, or hire a firm to get your rankings – be sure the focus is on long term success and not abusing techniques.

Always stay current – if a technique is abused and no longer beneficial, you’ll want to eliminate it from your repertoire quickly so it doesn’t hurt you.