The internet has become one of the most powerful communication tools available with the ability to outperform traditional communication channels such as radio and newspapers. Some would even argue that today’s internet outperforms television when it comes to breaking news.

Sitting in the middle of the traditional Labor Day weekend, the power of the internet has never been more evident. Hurricane Ernesto threatens the coast and millions of people around the world are relying on their computers rather than other forms of media to get instant information.

In the meantime, the US Presidential race continues and again, it is the internet that is being used as a tool to both communicate by the contenders, and for users to seek information.

Businesses in the bricks and mortar world that don’t have an internet presence are going to find over time that marketing activities such as the creation of brand awareness won’t succeed unless there is some form of online presence, including search engine optimization.

More importantly, today’s commercial websites require professional development with professional SEO strategies applied if they are going to succeed. For those also looking for brand awareness, social marketing will need to be strongly considered.

The internet has reduced the size of communication world considerably. Where instant communication can be undertaken to any part of the world, virtually free, and international online trade booming, developing a professional well optimized website and online presence is now a must.

Yahoo! beefed up their Search Explorer a little more and now provide some useful search engine optimization information. The information is still fairly basic when compared to the data you can collect from Google Analytics; however, seeing how other search engines view your site is equally important.

Site Explorer has a new interface and provides information such as:

• Site URL
• Number of pages known
• Number of pages crawled
• Number of host on this domain
• Number of inlinks
• Number of inlink domains
• Number of outlinks
• Number of outlink domains

Other news from Yahoo!, although only rumored at present, is that Yahoo! may be starting to indent search results in a similar fashion to Google. Keep your eyes on Yahoo! search results to see if you can see any indented results.

Yahoo! is starting to look more like Google everyday!

If you are operating an online business then you have an opportunity to create content that is not only of value to your readers, it can be an effective SEO resource to develop links.

Build a Resource Directory
If you are going to build a resource directory then you need to be sure it really is a resource directory and not just a list of links. A list of useless links will do more damage to your sites credibility and provide nothing of value to your readers. From an SEO perspective, all links in your directory should be to related sites in your niche.

When creating your directory, spend some time and do properly. A list of site names with links, while providing a resource to visitors, is no different to a blog roll. Good directories that will encourage others to link back needs to be informative and provide value. Include the following information in your link directory:

• link to their websites
• contact information
• a map and street directions to their off line business
• brief summary of services

It may take 20-30 minutes to create each link in the directory, however, once completed your directory will look very professional, provide a wealth of information for your visitors, and prove to be the perfect link bait for other sites. If you limit the number of links to only the best sites, you will suddenly find other related businesses requesting inclusion as part of their SEO program. You are in a position then to dictate the terms of your links.

Create an Industry News Section
If you stay up-to-date with all the news in your industry, provide a page or series of pages that publish all the latest information. Try to keep your reporting unbiased be sure to only publish facts. If the information is based on rumor then be sure to clearly state that it is a rumor.

If you are publishing news on a regular basis, others from within your niche will comes to recognize your pages as a one-stop-shop for industry news. With this reputation will come links particularly as others start using your news articles in their content (with links of course). News articles can also be useful to promote on social media sites.

Many businesses utilize a blog to publish directories and industry or business news. While the blog is a perfect tool for these tasks, it can be done through standard web pages. From a search engine optimization point of view there are pro’s and con’s to both. If you have the time and resources to maintain a blog then there are opportunities to publish information on a wider scale. Whether it is a blog or through your web site, effectively done, these two tips can really boost your search engine optimization link building strategies.

An article by Patrick Altoft on Blogstorm seems to indicate that perhaps Google is placing less emphasis on keywords in anchor text and looking more for natural links.

The article raises some interesting points and if the situation is true, it could have a major bearing on search engine optimization and the way we try build links to out pages. I can understand his point where he feels that Google:

wants to show the most relevant and trusted websites at the top of the search results but anchor text has no relation to trust for most queries.

The argument he uses however, is fairly narrow using people’s names. The problem with anchor text in general is that it is used by both trusted sites trying to link intelligently to other sources, and by those who are trying to amass links with only keywords as anchors. Anchor text in itself does not imply trust, however, search engines, particularly Google, have enough information on sites to determine whether or not the link is to be trusted or not. Anchor text provides the contextual link that can then be associated with search queries.

I wrote a post not too long ago, the real power of anchor text, where we pointed out how Adobe ranked number one for ‘click here’. This is a common term associated with Adobe and not one that would be optimized by them. Checking today, they are still ranked number one for that term.

In a natural link building program, you are going to receive links in a variety of formats. There will be links to the domain name and root page. There will be links to page URL’s. There will also be links where ‘here’ is the anchor. Good search engine optimization practices should allow for a variety of anchors in links with the more powerful links carrying the best anchor possible.

If his observations are true, SEO will need to undergo a rapid change in procedures and many links will require re-evaluation. Until there is further evidence to the contrary, aim for a balance of anchor texts in your link building activities.

At present, one of the major search engine optimization factors in determining website authority, and subsequently search result placement, is the number and quality and relevant links coming in to the pages of your website. If you set aside a small amount of time each day you can steadily build and manage your links effectively. These five tasks will go a long way to making you task easier.

1. Your first task is to ensure that all current links are active and going to the right places – this includes internal links. If there are any dead links, check them and repair or remove them altogether. Every day check on the number of links on any one page and keep them under control.
2. Spend some time researching your niche and looking for link opportunities. The best links come from sites that complement yours, not compete. If you sell cleaning detergents, look at sites that sell brooms, mops or even buckets and other related cleaning accessories. Contact webmasters and ask for a link to your pages. Be prepare to exchange links so make sure the site is one that you would be happy linking too.
3. Finally, while not directly link related, check all aspects of your site to ensure everything is functioning correctly. If you send out link requests you need to be sure your site presents itself well if they decide to check you out. Naturally, you want your site working properly when you receive visitors.

If you set aside a set time each day to cover these tasks the whole process will run smoothly. It is very easy to get caught up responding to emails as they arrive. This takes you away from other equally important parts of your online business. SEO is an important aspect to building traffic to your website: it should not dominate your day.

When you set out to get a website ranking well on the search results pages, it can be a good idea to set out goals and a timetable for your search engine optimization activities. There are times however when individuals set goals that are unrealistic and timetables for events that are out of their control.

Every webmaster would like to see their sites ranking at number one for their preferred keyword. In niches that are highly competitive, achieving number one may rather difficult. I have no problems with an individual setting that as a long term goal. In the short term you may only make page two or the bottom of page one despite a concentrated search engine optimization program.

Over time, with a lot of hard work and little relevant link building luck, you may reach that number one spot. In the meantime you need to set realistic milestones that are achievable. Your SEO program can only achieve so much.

Timetables are one area that can be a concern. Having a timetable of when you are going to have components of your SEO program completed by is fine. Setting a timetable of when you expect to see results can often be demoralizing and frustrating.

Achieving your timetable of task completed is a smart move. The results however are generally out of your hands. Yahoo! for example often takes longer to index new pages than Google. There are so many components that can affect your results that setting a timetable is not realistic.

The most important component is the search engine itself. You have little control over when and how often they visit and index your pages. While you may be able to prompt them, in reality they come and spider and index a site in their own good time.

Part of an effective search engine optimization campaign is to set goals and to establish a timetable. You should also understand that some of the components that go into establishing rank, components such as indexing and the discovery of inbound links can take time. I have seen pages rank well after only a couple of weeks while a similar page elsewhere has taken several months if not longer.

SEO is an activity that, like a fine wine, takes time to mature. As it matures it will grow and as your PageRank climbs, so too will your inbound links. One of the most important virtues to SEO is simple… patience.

A WebMasterWorld forum thread discussed one members view that they had run out of link building ideas. Some of the suggestions were interesting; some were also quite valuable from an search engine optimization perspective.

The question was based on one member’s frustration. They had done all the normal link buildings tasks such as article submission, forum participation, blogs, directories and “traded links with pretty much every site I can find in my niche that’s worth exchanging links with”.
The final response to the question was probably the most pertinent:

are you really out of places to get links? That’s impossible!(sic)

It really is almost impossible to run out of sites to acquire links from. Sometimes the problem can also be one of trying too hard and not having the patience to see the results of the current activities. While they may have developed hundreds or even thousands of inbound links, the search engines may not spider all of them for several months.

There are times when you may feel you have all bases covered. The reality is, perhaps you need to do more. The writer claimed to have four or five articles written and submitted to directories. Perhaps they need to double that number and spread across as many article submission sites as possible.

If they are experienced in their given field, finding related blogs and undertaking guest posts using your target page in your links also results in links. More importantly, you are getting your name out and with your reputation. One of the major benefits to any search engine optimization campaign is your reputation as there is little doubt that reputation goes a long way to encouraging others to link to your pages.

There are endless opportunities to developing relevant one way links to your sites. Sometimes you need to look outside the square. It can often help to check out your competition to see where they are obtaining links. This may provide ideas for sites or areas that you have not considered, or perhaps considered and discarded. As an exercise in SEO management, you need to be aware of what your competition is doing – find what they are doing in the way of link building – and do it better.