Being in the world of SEO often involves hearing the same things repeated… A lot! This is probably useful in some ways as there are more sources of knowledge available as a result, particularly to newbies. However, some terms eventually start to grate, especially when they’re a load of bull! Let’s take a look at some of these:

Content is King

This is one that even most of the newbies would have heard after 5 mins of online research relating to SEO. This one annoys the crap out of me. Especially when you read the rubbish put around this term by most. Yes, content is necessary but what really annoys me is when people try to say you don’t need SEO, all you need to rank is great content. The trouble is, an SEO with crap content can get more traffic in than someone who just has a great bit of content, sticks it on their blog and does nothing else. We need to mix these two. Everyone wants to see great content on the web but SEO and other online marketing methods are also needed to get people reading this content.

SEO is Dead

There was a phase not so long ago when content that was considered controversial was very popular with the ‘content kings’. Change the record! Even the debates on this at some of the UK’s top SEO events felt like a complete waste of time. As long as there are websites that are competing, then SEO will never die. It will change, yes. But it won’t die. SEO is about optimising for search engines. If people don’t do this, they will fall behind. It may become more social focused or change/expand in other ways but die? Of course not. To me this seems so obvious, so it does my head in when you see article after article trying to jump on this pointless bandwagon.

Don’t Buy Links

Every SEO event you go to or every linkbuilding tips article you read, you’ll hear someone saying “don’t buy links”. Personally I’m not a fan of buying links. I like to think longterm and try to avoid those methods that are going to make you fall behind later on. But buying links can work. This isn’t me saying do it. But I do think most SEO’s realise the risk and should just make their own choice as to whether this is a route they want to take.

How about everyone else… Are there any SEO terms that you’re getting a little tired of.  And what would you rather be hearing about at SEO events or on SEO blogs?  Would be great to hear you thoughts.

Link building isn’t always easy and can be quite time consuming.  But some people are just not sure where to start.  Here are a few tips to give you a little kick start and help you drive your link building campaign in the right direction.

• Look for sites that are relevant to your market.

Search engines look for relevancy and 1 link from a good, relevant site will be much more beneficial to your campaign than a load of low quality, irrelevant links.

• Avoid directory sites.

Ok, when I say this I don’t mean all directory sites are bad.  But if you come across a low quality directory, that’s irrelevant to your niche, and will link to anyone, it’s best to completely avoid it.

• Avoid pages that have over 50 external links (can check this using the seoquake toolbar for Firefox)

Google’s Matt Cutts recommends webmasters keep their links per page to under 100.  Although this may have changed over time, when it comes to getting a link do we really want a link on a page with 100 other links on it?  The link juice on this page will be shared making the links very weak.  That’s why I always recommend looking for quality pages that aren’t stuffed with too many links.

• What is their page rank and authority.

Many SEO’s hate the use of page rank but before disagreeing with this point hear me out.  Although page rank shouldn’t be used as a definitive measure it does still hold some credibility.  PR does give you a good idea of the quality of a page and the higher the PR the higher the chances are of that page having decent authority with the search engines.  This doesn’t mean if a page has PR0 it’s not worth going for.  Especially if it’s a good relevant site.

• Try to get links in content if possible

Links in sidebars, links in footers, links in links pages… we see them all the time.  But the links that are of real quality to users are links within content.  The search engines see it this way and love these links.  So go for links within content if you can get them.  Even if this involves offering to write an article for a site yourself.

• If links on the page are nofollow, don’t bother!

We want quality links that are going to pass link juice to our site and help us rank higher in the search engines.  Links that ask the search engines not to follow them will not pass link juice.  Use the SEOmoz toolbar to check for nofollows.  Saying that, it’s still worth getting some nofollow links as well as followed ones.  We want our links profiles to look as natural as possible.

• Choose the right anchor text

Time and time again we see links saying click here or view.  Ask the webmaster of the site you want a link on if they can give you specific anchor text and try using one of your key terms.  Doing this will help your chances of ranking for that particular term.  So rather than click here, go for something like Puppies for sale.  Also consider approaching sites you already have links with to see if you can have your anchor text changed to something more keyword friendly.  But remember to mix it up and not always go for the same anchor text.  And get plenty of branded anchor text links too.

So, time to get started.  Start looking for relevant sites, contacting some webmasters and getting those good quality links.

Linkbaiting can be a great method for obtaining a large number of natural backlinks.  Here are just a few ideas to get your brains kicking into gear for those great linkbait ideas and tactics:

1. Top 10 lists: Or any other number for that matter.  Maybe a top 7 or even top 101 list.  This could be anything related to your niche.  Top 10 WordPress Themes or 101 linkbuilding tips for example.
2. Interviews: If you can bag an interview with someone interesting in your niche, or maybe even a celebrity, this could gain you a good number of backlinks.
3. Tools: If your company has a tool that could be made available to the public you could gain great links this way… especially if the tool is free.
4. Humour: People love linking to humorous material so if you can come up with something funny related to your niche, publicise it and see how many backlinks you get.
5. How-to’s: ‘How to’ info can be great linkbait… especially if there’s not much alternative information out there.
6. Controversy: Give a potentially controversial point of view and get a debate going.
7. Reviews: People love to check out reviews before they buy.  Review some products in your niche and make these reviews available for people to see… and link to.

Good luck!