Small Business SEO | Small Business Social Media

Matt Cutts recent posted on his blog that Google is now enlisting the help of us average Joes to help them find and report linkspam. The form to report linkspam is at http://goo.gl/linkspam

Now, while I will applaud Matt and the Googlebunch for actually giving a sh*t about the quality of the SERPS for a change, I can’t believe the timing/irony of this announcement as Google continues to fill the SERPS with meaningless doo-doo such as Tweets, Facebook status updates, etc. – all in the name of progress for ‘real time search’.

Now don’t get me wrong. Paid links, link farms, three-way linking, etc. are all complete shite and need to be done away with. Needed to for years. All are ‘SEO tactics’ give all respectable SEOs a bad name and help give the SEO ‘industry’ the snake-oil salesman reputation we are so regularly labled with. Hopefully this new push by Google will help clean up the streets, and I am all for it.

But I find it way too ironic that at the same time Google is deputizing all of us as linkspam cops, they continue to dilute their (what was once cutting edge and extremely useful) search tool with utter n0nsense posted by folks on Twitter and Facebook.

To me, it seems like we are just trading one pile of dung for another.

What do you think?

Mark Thompson has complied a handy list of the top 75 article directories and press release submission sites. Although article directories and PR sites don’t carry nearly the SEO juice they used to, including a few of them in your backlinking strategy is a good idea.

A few rules to follow:

1. Don’t submit a press release unless you REALLY have something newsworthy to tell. Creating and submitting press releases about your latest website/blog re-design, etc. is just a plain ol waste of your time. Save your press release submissions for new product launches and such, and make sure to follow online press release submission best practices to get the most bang for your buck.

2. Write ORIGINAL articles that are actually informative/entertaining/useful for the reader. Don’t just hash together a bunch of industry quotes and jargon and a few of your own blog posts and call it a day. And although it should go without saying… NEVER copy someone’s existing work verbatim and call it your own. Seriously, don’t be a dick… write your own material every time.

Looking for killer web 2.0 quality backlinks? They are out there. But how in the world do you find them? Google, of course…

Use the following custom Google search queries to find even more sites that may be good candidates to link to your site. The following list just barely scratches the surface of what you can find, but it will give you a great head start over your competition…

Comment Luv (Blogs)
CommentLuv is a popular Wordpress plug-in that displays the last post from your blog when you make a comment to someone else’s blog. This provides you a nice keyword related deep anchor text link.

To locate blogs in your industry that use CommentLuv, use the following search. Make sure to replace KEYPHRASE with your target/industry term. Once you get the results, simply go to each blog and see if there is a discussion(s) you can join by adding your intelligent/useful comment.

“title=”CommentLuv Enabled”” KEYPHRASE

Squidoo Lenses
Squidoo lenses are user created websites, similar to blogs. To locate Squidoo lenses in your industry that allow links, use the following search in Google. Once you have the results, click on a lens and scroll down to the ‘List’ near the bottom of the lens. Click ‘Add to This List’ and add your website URL to the list, making sure to vary your keywords/title for each lens you submit to (i. e. DO NOT use the exact same title/description for every submission).

KEYPHRASE + site:squidoo.com + “0 points”

Youtube
To locate Youtube channels in your industry that allow comments, use the following searches. Once you have the results, scroll to the comments section at the bottom and make (you guessed it) a useful comment about the video(s) and nab a few links. Note that these links will point to your own Youtube channel (not your website).

“KEYPHRASE” “Channel Comments” site:youtube.com/user
[site:youtube.com/user “KEYPHRASE”]

Facebook
Search your KEYPHRASE and become fans of good pages that you find. Post to those pages with helpful comments and links.
[site:facebook.com/people “KEYPHRASE”]

Twitter
Find likeminded Twitter users with the following search. Once you have the results, you can follow, direct message or add the users you like to a list. Again, you’re not going to get direct links to your website, but you will expand you reach dramatically.

[site:twitter.com -inurl:statuses -inurl:status “KEYPHRASE”]

Tumblr
Use the following search to locate Tumblr blogs with your KEYPHRASE in the title. Peruse the blogs and bookmark/post to the one’s you find interesting.

KEYPHRASE inurl:tumblr.com

LinkedIn
Find groups in your industry and post relevant articles. Or, if you have just updated your blog (or posted an article somewhere else), just post a note to the group explaining the article and the URL.

[site:linkedin.com inurl:in “KEYPHRASE”]

MySpace
Find MySpace users with the following query and post comments to the ones that seem appropriate.

[site:profile.myspace.com inurl:myspace inurl:fuseaction “KEYPHRASE”]

Flickr
Use this query to find groups with similar interests and  (of course) post useful comments to them (or join them outright as well).

[site:flickr.com/people “KEYPHRASE”]

This post is an excerpt from my High Rankings Traffic SEO and Social Media system. High Rankings Traffic will show you how to get massive traffic to your site by leveraging my 12+ years of SEO and social media experience. Get your copy today and start exploding your traffic!

This is sweet! No more selecting your Facebook friends by hand to promote your latest Facebook Fan page. Thanks to John Chow for posting this awesome tip.

How to invite all of your Facebook friends AT ONCE to your Facebook fan pages, etc.

1. Go to your Fan page and click the “Suggest to friends” link. This will bring up a pop up box with a list of your friends to invite. Normally, you would have to manually select everyone on your list.

2. Copy and paste the following line of code into your browser’s URL field (where you normally type www.website.com) and it will automatically select all your friends.

javascript:elms=document.getElementById(‘friends’).getElementsByTagName(‘li’);for(var fid in elms){if(typeof elms[fid] === ‘object’){fs.click(elms[fid]);}}

If you have a lot of friends, it may take a minute or two before everyone gets selected, so be patient.

3. Now, just hit the “Send Invitation” button and an invite will go to your friends asking them to become a fan of your Fan page.

Awesome!