SEATTLE, WASHINGTON – In this post we’ll examine the criterion that Google uses to rank websites, and how smart link building will make websites popular and businesses more profitable.

There are approximately 200 points of criteria that Google uses to determine the ranking for any website, but these can be condensed into three basic categories: content, relevancy and popularity. All three are important, but it’s popularity that ultimately wins high ranking. And good links will win popularity.

“Link building is the cornerstone of any successful search engine optimization campaign,” says SEO expert Ali Husayni, CEO of Sinai Marketing. “No matter how great your website looks or how great its content, without links your website will not rank on Google.”

The formula itself is relatively simple: the more high quality websites link to your website, the more popular your website will become. And it’s important to know that not all links are created equal.

It’s no difficult feat for a small business to find or buy scores of cheap links, but that’s a flawed SEO strategy to be avoided. Google employs sophisticated anti-spam filters and algorithms that can quickly identify low quality, shady or “bad neighborhood” links, and will promptly penalize a site by dropping its ranking.

One problematic strategy is “reciprocal linking,” where businesses link back to each other. That can actually negate the value of a link and drop the site’s rankings. Some more examples of links to avoid can be found here.

The key is to create quality and relevant links. This is the very core of ecommerce SEO and Sinai Marketing’s niche. For more than nine years, Husayni has worked with Google platforms and is at the forefront in understanding the latest criterion that Google rewards.

Relationship building is critical to successful link building.

“Being engaged in or sponsoring any kind of community activity as a business owner can be a great advantage,” says Husayni, “if those organizations link back to your website or your services.” Likewise, building partnerships and relationships with other non-competitive businesses can be a good way to garner links to your site. Joining trade groups, belonging to the Better Business Bureau and the local Chamber of Commerce can also generate good links that will get high rankings.

Advertising with other websites is another good choice for quality link building, and also getting articles published about your business that link to your site. An important nuance in that regard is to ensure those links are properly optimized. It’s also advantageous for small businesses to instigate their own public relations and place releases and articles for publication. Think of it as the place where PR and SEO meet.

The company blog is an important PR vehicle in establishing your website as an authoritative source. The first step for any small business looking to employ a SEO campaign is to use its website as a publishing outlet, and that’s another essential service that top SEO company Sinai Marketing provides. “If they don’t already have a website, we build one and embed a WordPress blog for them,” says Husayni, “and we help them to keep that blog up to date.”

Listing your company in business directories and on Google + local pages is also a great way to advertise and establish links. It gives you another outlet to get the word out about your business and provides an opportunity to build your audience. Google + also presents an opportunity to set up authorship and create a personal profile, which is a service we provide for all Sinai Marketing clients.

SEO opportunities present themselves frequently, and we stay on top of all of them. If you’re a small business owner who handles your own Internet marketing, subscribe to the Sinai Marketing blog to stay abreast of the latest in SEO.

SANTA MONICA, CA — I know that we all thought we were done with hearing about “making a list, and checking it twice,” but when considering either having or being a guest blogger, ’tis the season to make a list of steps and goals along the way. What should that list look like? From targeting a market, to joining a group that shares blogging opportunities, planning ahead of time will make it easier to decide what to post and where to spend your time maximizing link building, an important search engine optimization tactic.

1. Understand the Importance of an Inbound Link. Inbound links are one of the key components to quality SEO, because it tells Google that your website is trusted and important. More links make you an authority. To further understand the anatomy of a link, see the full explanation in a recent article by Andrew Pitre on HubSpot’s blog. And remember, not all links are created equal.

“If you were to get an inbound link from a domain with lots of its own inbound links, like the New York Times, for example, you would get more authority transferred to your domain than if you got a link from my friend Brian’s blog,” Pitre says.

2. Target Blogs With Keyword Research. If you’re looking for a guest blogger, please skip ahead to the next step.

For the writers: what do you want to write about? Think of words or phrases that you currently want to be found under in a Google search. Search for these keywords on Google and determine the list of websites that you wish to write for. To further expand your horizons, use the Google Adwords Keyword Tool, which will give a thorough list of the keywords from the previous month that relate. Another Adwords column also displays those keywords’ popularity for the last month, a very valuable tool in deciding which sites are worth your time.

Another option is signing up for a service like WordTracker.com, according to Ali Husayni, the CEO of the SEO service company, Master Google. WordTracker’s function is like the Google Adwords Keyword Tool, in that it helps you find and evaluate keywords.

3. Join a (Free) Service Like Blogger Link Up. BloggerLinkUp.com is a website that connects blog writers with website owners who need blog content. Each week, a newsletter is sent out with lists of requested blog posts, and writers wanting to be a guest poster. The form is the same, whether you are a prospective guest blogger or a website in need of a guest blogger.

4. Make Yourself Uncomfortable With Your Guest Blog Efforts (Within Reason). What makes you uncomfortable about writing or hosting a guest blog post? Change can be scary, but we need to try every serious idea we have at least once, urges Cathy Stucker, the founder of BloggerLinkUp.com, in a recent post.

“The problem is that too often we don’t try a second or third time (or even a first!) with marketing activities which seem difficult,” Stucker says. “I was terrified the first time I gave a speech. But I got up and did it anyway. You can, too.”

So, forget your fears, and remember, the worst thing that can happen with new content is that, well, you don’t receive any at all. Go get it.

© 2012 Master Google. Authorization to post is granted, with the stipulation that Master Google is credited as sole source. Linking to other sites from this press release is strictly prohibited, with the exception of herein imbedded links.

ORLANDO, FLORIDA — How do updates impact search engine algorithms? Richard McCreadie, a computer scientist at the University of Glasgow, U.K., researched the subject at great length, and this recent article in The New Scientist summarizes his findings well.

The most promising news is that of a Panda update, a search engine algorithm update from Google, which was initially released in the U.S. in February of 2011. It restructured parts of the algorithms to integrate a rating system of sorts for websites. One effective part of this update was penalizing content farms, which are typically sites with thin or shallow content, or sites with a poor content-to-link ratio.

Danny Sullivan, an SEO guru who heads up Search Engine Land, took to a recent article to define content farms as companies or people who look for popular searches in a particular category and generate shoddy content tailored to those searches, usually spending little time, effort and money to do so, with the sole goal of getting clicks.

McCreadie’s research further shows the ever-increasing intensity of the war between search engines and content farms, and, luckily for users, search engines seem to be prevailing. Ali Husayni, the CEO of the SEO service company, Master Google, agrees that search engines are winning, and improving the user experience in the process.

“This win against content farms is good news for reputable SEO firms that adhere to white-hat techniques,” Husayni says. “Many sites were hit hard by this update, but none of our clients lost rankings.”

This reinforces the point that Master Google’s SEO is on the right track and that good SEO services will continue to be in demand. Some critics of SEO have said that the industry is dying and losing relevance due to social media and networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Google+, but Husayni is adamant that they are wrong.

“The industry is constantly evolving and SEO has grown to encompass much more than on-site optimization. It’s really only five or ten percent of the total work,” Husayni says. “As long as we continue to grow with it, SEO will continue to be relevant.”

The vast majority of SEO is generating useful, high-quality content on a regular basis, technical research for keywords relevant to the company, and a long-term link building campaign to get the new information out to the readers who are searching for it.

Google’s search engine algorithms are constantly being refined to get more effective at mimicking human readers’ behaviors. Husayni says he is just glad that the updates continue to weed out the SEO companies that give a negative reputation to the industry he is so passionate about.

© 2012 Master Google. Authorization to post is granted, with the stipulation that Master Google is credited as sole source. Linking to other sites from this press release is strictly prohibited, with the exception of herein imbedded links.

ORANGE, CA—Search engine optimization is an often confusing, constantly changing science but, at the same time, an absolutely essential part of marketing your business on the Internet. So what’s an overwhelmed newcomer to do?

According to Ali Husayni—industry expert and founder of SEO company Master Google—a newbie should do anything but give up.

“Without a strong SEO campaign, it is very difficult to compete in today’s market,” he said. “With the economy down, people spend their money wisely. Potential customers research anything and everything on the Internet before they contact any retailer or decide on services. If your site is not easily found, you are not able to compete effectively.”

I know what you’re thinking. “Okay, so it’s essential, but what is SEO, exactly?”

Husayni explained that SEO is “the art of changing sites and their popularity on the Internet so that search engines perceive them as highly valuable, thereby placing them at the top of their search results.”

What search engine should my SEO campaign focus on?

Now that we have established what SEO is and why it’s so important, it’s time to decide which search engine you should focus your campaign on. Husayni said that, while Yahoo and Microsoft’s Bing do get some traffic, those search numbers are nothing compared to Google.

“Google receives more than 75 percent of the global search market and about 65 percent of the domestic market,” Husayni said. “Google is the giant of search engines. If you are visible on Google, you’ll be attracting customers.”

How do I go about initiating my SEO work?

This should all be becoming a bit clearer, but we still need a plan of action. Husayni advised that there are multiple ways to go about SEO, such as hiring a company to do the work for you, employing an in-house SEO professional or working with an experienced SEO consultant.

“The path you choose to take depends on your market, your budget and your level of Internet savvy,” Husayni said.

Small companies, he said, are better off hiring a professional SEO company who can place them at the top of search engines at an affordable price. On the other hand, a larger firm working with a bigger budget could benefit from having an in-house SEO team, supplemented with coaching help from a reputable SEO company to keep them in check. And, of course, the more ambitious business owner with minimal time constraints could learn SEO practices himself, though Husayni recommends receiving some guidance from a seasoned professional.

What do I need to know about SEO before I begin?

Even if you choose to hire a SEO company to do your optimization work, it’s still important to know the main elements that will help you increase your site’s ranking. Husayni said that the three most crucial aspects of any Internet marketing campaign are optimization, lots of fresh content and popularity, also referred to as link building.

“The optimization gives Google the information it needs to understand the theme of each site,” he said. “Content gives Google the impression that the site is being updated with valuable information on a regular basis, thus providing useful information for its visitors.”

But remember, “Google is a machine with limitations and language barriers,” Husayni warned.

“The only two ways for Google crawlers to determine if your site is valuable are by measuring how often you update your content and by gauging whether or not you’ve copied your content from elsewhere, or written it yourself.”

Google’s algorithm is always changing, too. For example, Husayni said that, with the development of Google+, the search engine has “added the +1 button to further determine your site’s usefulness.”

I’ve started my SEO campaign, but how long will it take until I see results?

After learning the basics of SEO and how to get started, you still have a long, albeit rewarding, journey ahead.

“While changes to optimization are viewed by Google almost immediately—provided you have quality back links—other SEO components are built over time,” Husayni said. “So, initially, when we optimize a site, there is a jump in its ranking on Google. Then, slowly thereafter, the site gets ranked better and better.”

And it’s a journey you have to stick to in order to see lasting results.

“Google revamps its algorithm every few months, making it important to stay on top of new techniques,” Husayni said. “And your competition is not sitting idle. They’re also doing SEO and, depending on how many resources they allocate, they could replace your number one listing in a matter of months. So, take a deep breath and get ready for a long SEO battle.”

A brief explanation on what works and doesn’t work for Google…

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SEO for Google consists of three main parts: optimization, content, and popularity. By understanding these factors in Google SEO, you can rank any Web site at the top of the search results.

Updated on May 8, 2013 (we replaced 11 websites from the previous list.)

Press release distribution was the focal point of 2009 link-building campaigns. Many high-end SEO companies used this technique to:

1-     Provide their clients with a presence on Google News

2-     Drive more targeted traffic to their clients’ sites

3-     Obtain high-quality inbound links. Read more…

Dear Clients/Friends,

In general terms SEO services are divided into two categories: Web site optimization and link-building. The former refers to modifying each Web page so Google spiders (algorithm) can read it without any obstacles and keywords are placed appropriately on each page so these spiders rank the particular page higher than the competition.

Link-building on the other hand has very little to do with your Web site. It refers to encouraging “other” Web sites to place a link of “recommendation” on their site pointing to yours.  In other words and in contrast to Web site optimization, nearly all link-building efforts are done off-site.

In our company, Web site optimization is only about 10% of the work. The other 90% is link-building. That’s what makes us very successful when it comes to Google SEO. As a matter of fact, we offer Web site optimization for free to any Web site on the planet.

A few days ago, one of our free SEO clients who is now interested in our link-building campaign sent me the above question. I thought this may be the same question as many of you, so I’m placing my answer here – with some modifications to keep our client’s identity hidden:

***

Dear Client,

Link building is a sophisticated service and we cannot give you exact estimates on how much each link costs. It’s actually wrong to think of link-building that way, because having many cheap links is not necessarily the best deal. Cheap links usually come from low-end Web sites and are less valuable to Google spiders.

Our different link-building services cost from $79 to thousands of dollars per campaign. So, the best way to approach link-building is to know the kind of budget you want to work with. Of course, the more you can spend, the better link-building campaign you can have.

How many links do we generate with these campaigns? The number of links has to be multiplied by the quality of the sites that are giving us the link. So, the number of links could confuse people who do not understand the subject well. In other words, there are Web sites out there that having only one link from them is equivalent to having 1,000 links from low-end sites. So, asking about the quantity or the price/quantity of links is the wrong way to approach this subject.

We tell our Top of Google clients (the ones we guarantee their rankings at the top of Google search results) that they need to have a specific budget – which is different for each client – based on the competitiveness of their market. Almost any Web site could enjoy top of Google rankings for competitive keywords if we have the right budget to work with.

***

In case you need a proposal on how much you need to spend to get your Web site ranked at the top of Google (or how many high-quality links your site needs to get there), simply fill out our services request form. I will personally respond to you within a few days.

Also, I’ve discussed our link-building techniques in our Google SEO eBook. This is a great guide for anyone who’s either interested in doing his/her SEO campaign or those who want to understand what we do in order to make our clients successful.

Leave a comment and I’ll be happy to answer any other questions you may have.

Best,

Ali Husayni

With Google’s ever-changing algorithms and competitors catching up, Master Google, a leading search engine optimization (SEO) company has invested heavily in R&D to develop new, unique approaches to SEO that yield big results for the company’s clients.

As a result of their research, Master Google will be changing approaches to its SEO strategy each month to keep up with Google and keep their clients climbing Google’s search results pages. Read more…