To many, the world of SEO seems like an archane art: website owners will happily pay an awful lot of money to get backlinks to their site. And let’s not forget all those fantastic new link building tools that will fire your website to the top of the SERP’s in the blink of an eye. You know the ones I’m talking about, right? If only it were that easy.

Search Engine Optimisation IS hard work. Well, it is if you want to rank for a decent keyword or phrase. I’m not saying that using comment links or profile links is wrong. I’m simply trying to say that you shouldn’t expect them to launch you onto page for phrases like ‘credit cards’. Especially not when you use some of the crappy software that’s out there.

Real SEO is hard work but there are still plenty of ‘secrets’ that the top link builders don’t tell you. Simple things like building a network of sites that can call on for backlinks is a prime example. How about linking to your links? In fact, if you want a nice intro to this second point, check out this post link boosting by Tim Grice.

The point of this post? Stop getting scammed! There are plenty of internet marketers out there prepared to sell you the most expenxive software they can find in order to “help you build links to your site and rank high in the SERP’s”. A more likely explanation is that they want to line their pockets with your cash. Let’s put it this way; if you found a way to syphon millons from ClickBank would you really tell anyone?

Quality Links Build High Ranking Sites

Put simply, you’re either going to have to work hard to find those quality links or you’re going to hvae to pay. The top flight SEO companies don’t come cheap. The lowest package I’ve found so far costs me about £245 per month. Mainly sidebar links, these come from sites with a homepage PR of between 1 and 6 (I don’t get excited about PR anymore – that statement is probably the best way to illustrate how powerful some of the links are).

Don’t want to pay? Get off your arse and start guest blogging. There are thousands of sites out there looking for additional (good quality) content. Once your shiney new article goes live – get some links to it.

No, this is nothing to do with my discount codes for Comet. The comet is me and, like many bloggers, I get pretty pissed of with the way some so called SEO specialists use commenting to boost either their own or clients websites. Now, as seasoned and reasonable marketers, we all know that Goog devalued the worth of comment links to the point that they have almost no value in the world of SEO. So why do so many SEO experts from India (I’m not going to out you… well, not today) still insist on spamming the hell out of blogs? Simple: because it works.

A while back, Matt Cutts said, “A link is a link”. At that point, the traffic lights suddenly switched from amber to green. Comment links might be low value but they’re still a link that G’s spiders will pick up on. Hence our external dilema; do we make our sites entirely nofollow or maintain some semblance of humanity and reward legit commentators with a little dofollow link juice? I, for one, vote for the second option which is why digital-coffee won’t be going nofollow. Sadly, I can almost hear the spammers drooling over their lard packed burger.

For me, it’s not a problem – I have a big fat button that sends the crap to SPAM purgatory. It’s not a problem for Mr comment scraper as he moves on to the next dofollow site. The problem will hit the legit website owner who fell for the, ‘I’ll get you onto page 1 in 7 days’ crap that’s pedalled all over the web. Here’s a tip for you real site owners – forget paying some clown a couple of hundred quid per month and do some link building yourself. There are plenty of sites using plugins like ComLuv and KeywordLuv and, if you’re good, they’ll let you have anchored links back to your site. As an added bonus, you won’t get picked up by Askimet (which will, effectively, end your chance of ever getting a comment link again).

That’s all for now. I’ll be back soon.

P.S This Comet has no relevance to this post

As we all know, sniffing out good quality links to your website can be hard work. The most common advice available seems to be to use a combination of Google operators (inurl, site, etc) and keywords to really dig into your niche. But is this really enough? Digital coffee isn’t an SEO blog but I do like to try and add something to the mix from time to time. Continue reading →

Google, the biggest search engine in the world is moving into television. What has this got to do with discount vouchers and the human mind? Quite a lot.

Here in the UK, one of the big price comparison websites decided to jump into the coupon code market. Ok, it may not be a recent decision – the strategic planning may have been in place for years and they’ve only just got their arses in gear. The method of promoting the new voucher section on their site? Take one ‘comedian’ in a boring, yet tried and tested, advert format and have him shout, ‘…discount vouchers…’ So what? The key here is getting you and I, the consumer, to focus on one phrase or word.

I’ve no doubt that in the hours and days following the adverts showing that searches for the phrase ‘discount vouchers’ went insane. It’s probably a bit early to tell if this phrase will stick as we all have our phrases but it almost certainly had the desired effect – to get visitors to the site.

I haven’t drifted away – the whole point of this post is to get an understanding of where Google fits into all of this. As many of you know, the very first Google TV has been unveiled (Oct 2010). Part of G’s plan is to try and dominate the world of audio visual but what’s in it for them? Are they simply helping to deliver a better experience out of the kindness of their hearts? Don’t bet on it. There’s serious money to be made using television as an advertising medium and that’s what Google does best.

So far, Goolges advertising revenue has come from either plain little text boxes appearing on web pages, etc or in the form graphical ads. Looking at Googles ad revenue I’m sure this format works well. But I’m also sure that many search engine users are now starting to look beyond advertisments as they try to find highly relelvant text in the organic listings. Hences Googles move into television. Currently, the Chome-based Google TV only displays the same ads that you see on the web but there’s no doubt that as delivery methods get more intelligent we’ll see ads that can interact with with what’s being shown on the television – now that’s scarey!

Here’s my little experiment for readers – “Free discount codes for everyone!”. Will it work? I’ll check the clicks.

Internet Marketers Scalped – Droid Style

The world of IM/AM is in a bit of a mess right now. The get rich quick gang has overstepped the mark and, although the powers that be don’t seem to be doing much about it, some individuals are making a real effort to expose the scams.

Let’s be fair; the world of internet marketing is evolving but the underhand tactics of some internet marketers simply hasn’t changed. You know the stuff I’m talking about – the latest, greatest training package guaranteed to funnel thousands into your bank account in a matter of days – most of which is crap.

One of the most vocal opponents of what has been dubbed ‘The Syndicate’ is Salty Droid (public health warning: this guy doesn’t pull any punches or mince his words!). Salty has launched a full scale assault on the world of scam internet marketers.

The underlying issue that Salty Droid, and a number of other seriously pissed web site owners, have is the way in which some of the scams schemes are being run. In one case, the suicide of a woman has been attributed to the colossal sums of money she spent on crappy products from Affiliate Marketers (not my words – straight from Salty’s blog so don’t even bother trying the C&D route).

Dubious product launches claiming to make you millionaires in a short space of time get short shrift. In fact, Salty mentions one marketer in particular (no names) who sells a product that teaches you the art of getting high rankings in the SERP’s. Want to know the gist of it? Get links! Seriously. Here’s the bitter irony – Salty outs the scheme and even demonstrates that the creator got only 2% of his traffic from organic SEO (the rest was PPC).

But this isn’t just confined to our cousins over in the US; many of you already receive similar emails from UK marketers. I can understand that some people have made created their own cash spewing web sites and I know that, seeing as they’re so considerate, they just want to help us do the same!

Want some advice? Steer clear of the get rich quick club and learn something useful. Not sure you’ve got what it takes? You’d be surprised at what information people will link to. Personally, I’m a fan of Hobo SEO (some great content and SEO advice there) and Cornwall SEO – great blog from a seriously clued up guy. I’ll leave you take a look at Salty Droid and his laser targeted disembowelment of unscrupulous internet marketers and their affiliates.