As a Web designer, Webmaster and inhouse SEO/SEM, I was THRILLED when Google announced that its Webmaster Tools had added a “Linked From” feature. This new feature finally allowed Web site owners to find out which URLs were linking to “not found” pages on their site.

For example, let’s say you did a redesign and in the process, renamed some of your URLs. If another Web site was linking to your old URL and you move it or rename it, the link from that other site is now broken and you’re not getting credit for that link because the search engines aren’t finding anything when they follow that link. Booo!

How do we fix this? Well, for starters, I would suggest keeping the old URLs and creating a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one. This preserves any ‘link juice’ your older URL had acquired and transfers it to the new one. It also prevents “Not Found” links from appearing in your Google Webmaster Tools > Diagnostics > Web Crawl > Not Found list because anyone still linking to the outdated URL will automatically be directed to the new one and you don’t have to do a thing.

The “Linked From” function was going to make my life, and the lives of many SEO/SEMs, much easier because it could save us the time of trying to find out who was linking to our “Not Found” URLs. Alas, you can imagine my supreme disappointment when I logged in to use the new feature and 95 percent of the time I get is this error message.

This kind of tool is invaluable to SEOs, especially inhouse SEOs, who are trying to make the most of their limited time and budgets. By identifying sites that have outdated links to our site, we can contact their Webmaster and provide the updated link, thus increasing our link juice. Of course, IF Google’s Webmaster Tools’ “Linked From” feature worked, it’d be even better.

By Gary Cope
President

Link building or link “campaigning” is vital to the success of your Web site. Whether you are running an e-commerce site (selling products online), want to drive traffic to your site to increase your profits from ad revenue, or you just want more people to see yoru site; you need to get quality links to your site from other Web sites that are related to yours.

How do you get those links? It takes time and patience. One of the best way to spread the news about your site is to get bloggers to link to your site. This means doing your research and finding the blogs related to your business. Then, you must develop a strategy for contacting them, whether it is a phone call (if you can find a phone number) or send them a well written e-mail. In most cases, it will be an e-mail.

Once you get in touch with them, either ask for a link to your site, or maybe they will even be willing to write a review about your business and/or services and post it on their blog. In return, you can provide a link back to their site - this is called reciprocal linking.
If you would like to learn more about link building, send an e-mail to gary@cwimedia.com.

By Gary Cope
President

Link building is one of the single most important ways to increase your organic search rankings. But anyone who has heard my shpiel on on link building knows that it’s about the quality of the links, not quantity. Having fewers links from highly trusted (by the search engines) sites counts for more than a thousand links from sketchy sites, which often times are link farms (a major SEO no-no!) If you can get a link from a .gov or .edu site, “that’s GOLD Jerry! Gold!” (Obscure Seinfeld reference…). So, how does one build links to one’s Web site? It takes a lot of time and effort to build quality links. First, you have to find trusted sites that are preferrably related to your business or industry. For example, if you belong to a professional membership that has a Web site, check to see if they will link to your site. And remember to offer to return the favor by adding a link to their site from yours (called reciprocal linking).

This process can be laborious and time-consuming, but if you want to increase your organic search rankings, it is well worth the time. However, if you are new to SEO, there are some other steps you’ll want to explore first before doing battle in the link-building arena. Some examples include doing your keyword research, making sure each page on your site has a unique and relavent page title (title tags), and include a site map. For more information about improving your site’s SEO, e-mail us at info@cwimedia.com.