The first thing you need to know about getting top rankings in Google is that you need to have quality content - so when you get Google's traffic you can actually generate business from it - then you need Inbound Links to get you to the first position. So, for those of you that just want to know how you can get those oh so coveted links, read quick and I'll show you how to get thousands of quality links in one minute.

You Need to Get Inbound Links for the Keywords You Want to Rank For

Okay - this may seem a bit oversimplified - but it's not really. Finding link partners is really pretty simple. Simple I mean like walking to New York from Miami. It's not a difficult concept to grasp, but it takes time to get there ... so, let's get started.

1

Go into Google and Search for the keyword that you most want to rank for and then copy the link location, (Right Click and then Copy Link Location, Copy Shortcut or Copy Link Address) to the first page, first position listing on the results page. For example, if we want to rank for Lawyer Directory, we would search Google for Lawyer Directory and simply copy the address to the top ranking site. (Not too difficult - eh?)

2

Next we are going to open a new tab in your browser. It doesn't matter which browser you have, the shortcut for "open a new tab" is CTRL+T in Windows or CMD+T in Mac for Firefox, Opera, Chrome and even Internet Explorer, I am using Firefox because I'm addicted to it ... but it really doesn't matter so go ahead and open a new tab ...

3

Then we are going to go the address for Site Explorer in Yahoo! (http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/) - You can either highlight the address that's currently in your browser by hovering over the address area with your mouse and clicking or you can do it like a pro and learn the shortcut for highlighting the address area in your browser of choice. I bet CTRL+L in Windows or CMD+L in Mac are what you're looking for, so either type in the address for Yahoo's! Site Explorer or be a whiz kid and get there through the nifty little shortcut you just learned.

4

Once you've gotten to Yahoo's! Site Explorer simply paste in the URL to site that is ranking in Google for your keyword and click Explorer URL.

5

Now that we have access to your competitors information courtesy of Yahoo! We only need to retrieve the Inbound Link Data. In order to get just that, we have to click on the Inlinks Tab ...

6

Since we now have access to the info for the Inbound Links, we want to sort the data so that it only shows information on Inbound Links from other sites. We don't need to know if our competitors' site links to itself as they probably wouldn't be a very good link partner for us ... so we need to select "Except from this Domain" from the "Show Inlinks" dropdown list.

7

If you're still with me thus far, (a quick study shouldn't be more than about thirty seconds into this ...) you're doing great and just a few more steps to dominating the SERP's ... Now what we need to do is Grab All the Inbound Link Data. To do that, we are going to click on Export first 1000 results to TSV to download your competitors' link info as a .tsv file. The .tsv format is simply a text format that uses a tab as the delimiter - hence the name Tab Separated Values.

8

Okay ... the file you are downloading contains all of your competitors' Inbound Link Data, but to make this information easy to work with we need to massage it a little. If you have Excel this is a breeze, if not - well, you may have some luck with Calc from Open Office.What we need to do now is save the .tsv file. When you download the file, (which should be named 'url_inlinks.tsv') you need to save it to either your desktop or a place that you will be able to easily find it - unlike your browsers' temporary folder ... eh hem.

9

The next step is to simply open up Excel or Calc and then import the file into a more readable and manageable format. So, Open up Excel and Select the Data Tab.

10

Now we want to import the data from our 'url_inliks.tsv' file. So with the Data Tab active, navigate to the far left hand side of your Excel window and select Get External Data and then select From Text.

Now once you've selected the From Text button in Excel the 'Import Text File' dialogue box will open up. You need to select All Files (*.*) from the Files of Type Dropdown List and navigate to where you stored the file. I simply stored mine on the desktop for now ...

Now the Text Import Wizard will open up ... and for simplicity I'm only going to show one diagram here.

• Text Import Wizard - Step One: All you have to do is select Delimited as the data type and click next.
• Text Import Wizard - Step Two: Since the format is .tsv, the Delimiter should be automatically set to Tab but if it's not, check the radio button for Tab and click next.
• Text Import Wizard - Step Three: You shouldn't have to anything here except click Finish.

If Excel wants you to select an Area or a New Sheet, just select Cell A1 in the top left corner and that's it! I like to get rid of all the Title information as it really doesn't do me much good ... so I clean up my spreadsheets a little by simply deleting the A column ...

If you did everything correctly you should have up to a thousand highly targeted links for your primary keyword. I hope this helps you and Good Luck with your link campaign!

The title, Link Building Articles for Link Builders, pretty much says exactly what it should. Over the past few years I've collected some of the most influential articles available on the subject of link building. Though it's not a complete list, I think there's enough about link building here to keep even a pro busy for quite a while. If you feel that you can contribute to the list leave me a comment and I'll check it out ...

A Linking Campaign Primer

Backlinks: The Beginner's Guide to Backlink Theory

Link Building from A to Z

LinkMoses Linking Commandments

Professional's Guide to Link Building

Link Building 101 - The Almost Complete Link Guide

Link Building with the Experts

Up Close Look at Eric Ward's Link Building Desktop

Advanced Link Building Strategies

The Enormous Link Baiting Articles List

Link Building Strategies: 69 Solid Tactics

101 Ways to Build Link Popularity

131 (Legitimate) Link Building Strategies

Link Baiting: Which Hook Attracts the Right Fish?

Market Research for Link Building - Who You Can Get Links From

Matt Cutts Interviewed by Eric Enge

Eric Enge Interviews Eric Ward

How Google Finds Your Needle in the Web's Haystack

The Google Pagerank Algorithm and How It Works

Matt Cutts on PageRank sculpting

Over 125 Legitimate Link Building Strategies

.edu Link Fallacies Explained

Are You A Link Whore?

Linking's Holy Grail: The Passively-Obtained Backlink

Looking for Links In All The Wrong Places

What Makes a Web Site Link-Worthy?

Linking Mistakes To Avoid, Part 1 - Link Optimization and Short URLs

Linking Mistakes To Avoid, Part 2 - Removing Orphaned URLs

Why Reciprocal Links Will Always Be Viable

What If Everything You Know About Link Building Is Wrong?

Riding The Twitter Link Waves

How Link Signals Can Be Misunderstood

Link Building's Glass Ceiling

8 Ways Backlink Analysis Can Offer Competitive Intelligence

10 Commandments of Link Building

10 Goals For Link Building Campaigns: Moving Beyond "Get More Links"

11 Experts on Link Development Speak Out

12 Different Types of Links and How To Get Them

17 Ways Search Engines Judge the Value of a Link

21 Link Builders Share Advanced Link Building Queries

Jim Westergren - Link Building Guide

Florida SEO Says, "Dear JavaScript ... Will You Ever Forgive Me? "

In my last post ... I attempted to explain how pure JavaScript menus were not good for SEO. However, after reading how the message came across to some of my readers, I feel it's probably best if I add some clarification. Thanks to Dan Switzer at PengoWorks for pointing out that my post needed some explanation. What I mentioned regarded the usage of pure JavaScript menus -Not All- JavaScript menus. If my post confused anyone, I apologize. There are lot's of SEO friendly menus that incorporate both JavaScript and yet maintain good web design practices ... So, now let's take a look at a few that stuck out with me.

In my humble opinion, menus that use JavaScript to manipulate the DOM (Document Object Model) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) to handle styling, maintain a good balance between usability and provide a dynamically appealing experience.

Okay ... So Show Me Some Cool Stuff Now

Before I show the following examples I want to point out the main factor that make these menus search engine friendly is the accessibility of the links to the robots. These menus do not rely on JavaScript to display the content either.

The first example here is from one of the most respected names in design ... A List Apart. Here Dave Shea provides an excellent detail on creating a menu implementing CSS Sprites with JQuery.

1. CSS Sprites2 - It's JavaScript Time

A List Apart
by: Dave Shea

Next, one of my favorite designers, Collis Ta'eed provides in exhaustive detail, everything required to create a very attractive and effective tabbed content area using CSS & JQuery ...

2. Slick Tabbed Content Area using CSS & JQuery

NetTuts
by: Collis Ta'eed

Soh Tanaka offers a very clean and attractive JQuery & CSS menu. Aside from issues with IE6's non-support of the :hover psuedo-class for elements other than anchor tags, this is a very good menu and degrades gracefully with JavaScript disabled.

3. Sexy Drop Down Menu w JQuery & CSS

Noupe
by: Soh Tanaka

Clark gives a solid example of how to create an animated drop down menu that also degrades well with JavaScript disabled - The key here is that the animation on the list elements is acceptable regardless of whether the visitor has JavaScript enabled.

4. Animated Drop Down Menu with jQuery

ClarkLab

Okay ... I'm not a great designer by any sense. But, when I created this site I decided I wanted a little DHTML action and of course promote good SEO techniques at the same time ... So, I used Adobe's Spry  Accordion Widget to build my right navigation ... It too degrades gracefully with JavaScript disabled - The menus tabs will simply open up if JavaScript is not activated.

5. SEO Compliant Spry Accordion Menu

by: Adobe Lab

There are many excellent examples out there ... I really just wanted to take a few minutes to clarify the difference between a pure JavaScript menu and a menu that uses JavaScript and CSS.

That's it.

SEO 101: Search Engine Robots Can't Follow Links in Pure JavaScript Menus

I've recently been receiving some interesting quotes for SEO services with Florida Search Engine Optimization. As part of the standard procedure I employ when reviewing a prospective client's site, I inform them that site architecture is very important and therefore must be taken into consideration. On several occassions I've suggested the removal of JavaScript based menus, and was met with a challenge. One of the prospective clients asked me why it was neccessary. So, I explained the mechanics of a crawler to him in some detail. The other prospective client wasn't all that trusting at first, so he decided to get a second opionion from another SEO before giving me the go ahead. I didn't have any problem with that ... I've been doing SEO for a while now and I've yet to find a client that accepted my opinion of a site review on blind faith regardless of the successful campaigns I've demonstrated.

SEO Experience Required - A Case for SEO Standardization?

What happened next really suprised me. I expected the need to debate my case with the prospective client that was not all that warm to me. However, I was actually opposed by both client's SEO's. Yes, that's correct. Both of the prospective client's SEO's were baffled as to why I suggested having text based menus. Oh yeah ... we SEO's tend to think they know everything ...

After receiving the suggestion for the menu removal, one of the SEO's mentioned to my client, "It's not important ... just make an XML sitemap so the robots can find you ... " I found that rather amusing. However, I found the other SEO's comment to be just as interesting as the first's. He simply stated that "He's even made Flash based sites rank on the first page ... " Thing is, the client requested a quote for services with me primarily due to the SEO's lack of effectiveness ... said SEO didn't so much as provide one case-in-point example - Pwned. So an experienced SEO is essentially stating that by providing an XML sitemap to the navigation of a site, serious issues arising from JavaScript based menus can be resolved. Okay - I don't think so ... But, let's see how accurate this is ... or isn't.

To Crawl or Not to Crawl? That Is ... Important.

A web site's internal link structure is very important when considering SEO. Almost any Decent SEO will attest to this. So why is it important? Because a web site is really nothing more than a group of pages linked together. Granted the linking relationships can become quite complex but it's really just a  Web of Links. When robots can't determine what is and isn't a link, they can't move from link A to B ... Link A was never realized.

To demonstrate ... Let's take a look at a site that employs JavaScript navigation and may not neccessarily require having highly crawlable links. I'm going to use Deluxe-Menu.com for this example - It's a very nice site that uses a JavaScript based menu, and does so with impunity - The site's entire theme is provided on the home page.

From the Eyes of a Spider - Where's the Web?

So what we see here is a screen shot of the site's navigation ... We can clearly see the links for Home, Product Info, Samples, Download, Purchase and Support in the menu. Simple enough. However, if we inspect the internal linking of the page through a text-only browser such as Lynx,  it also shows that there are no visible traces to these links. The screen shot below is from the SEO text browser over at domaintools.com which, I have quite a habit of using ...

So what are we're looking at here? This basically provides a detail of the elements a search engine robot would recognize when they visit a site. Blue signifies an anchor or link element. Red signifies images - for this example it isn't relevant to us whether those images are also links. The first link we see at the top of the page is for the site's logo, deluxe-menu.com. The next link we see in the document structure is for the site's sitemap which comes directly after the JavaScript menu. Notice how there are no links elements recognized by the text browser for the menu. A crawler would not identify this as a link either.

Okay, so I wouldn't expect someone in the C-Suite to be able to gauge the performance or effectiveness of a web site. But for an SEO? This should be first year  ... I find an unusually high amount of people claiming to be a "professional SEO" that don't know the first thing about web design, web development, Server Side programming or even HTML for that matter ...

In short ... This is old hat.

While doing my morning crawl through my email I ran across an article from Eric Enge of Stone Temple Consulting regarding a recent interview he had with Angus Norton of Microsoft ... after reading the article, I was persuaded to go check out Eric's site to see if there is anything valuable to the SEO world that he was kind enough to share with the rest of the us ... and sure enough there was ...

Perusing through the linkbuilding category on his site, I found a reference to LinkDiagnosis.Com ... knowing Eric to be of a discriminating taste, I investigated a little more ... and I'm glad I did ... This is one gold mine of a tool ...

Once you go to LinkDiagnosis.Com ... you need to click on the download link and install the firefox extension (Sorry IE users) and then restart your browser ... then return to the page and enter your URL or your competitions ...

I'll let you be the judge of the rest ...

That's it ...

Well, it seems that the mighty Google is back at their PageRank updates again. At the time of writing this post, the Tool Bar PageRank of Florida Search Engine Optimization and SEO Fort Lauderdale went down a point. That's interesting since Matt Cutts recently mentioned the possibility of this happening on his blog ...

However, I'm not too sure the update has stabilized yet - many sites I visit often have also dropped a point from the prior rankings and I've noticed some new sites that had no PageRank a day or two ago now showing up as PR 4 and 5. This leads me to suspect that this ain't over yet.

In the last post in my series on creating a link campaign to increase a web site's authority and improve visibility, I decided to describe a link campaign as one might do when planning for a long trip. Now, I am not a 'bad planner' per se, however, when I get excited or impatient about doing something, like the opportunity to get away on a trip, I have a tendency to romance the illusion of the trip and forget about the details which might have made that trip a more enjoyable reality. You with me there? So, to make the illusion of a successful link campaign a reality, I am going to reference some advice from the journals of link campaign masters.

Travel Lite – Be a Lazy SEO

One thing I've learned on my path to "SEO" – programmer – developer nirvana, is that being a 'lazy programmer' is much better than being a busy programmer. That basically just means that I am going to plan to get the most out of the resources that I have. Transferring this mentality over to link building, I am going to use the experience of veteran link builders, as a "Lazy SEO" guide. So, I have a few link builders that I tend to have quite a bit of respect for. First and foremost is the "Link Moses", Eric Ward. I really like the way that Eric approaches etiological link building. (That sounds rather confusing to me) I think it just means good content attracts good links – Go figure.

Follow the Stars

Another one of the linkerati that I like to follow is Eric Enge. So, now we have Eric squared (Eric √). One of my favorite link building articles is from Eric Enge's "√" interview with Eric Ward back in April 07'. Another Enge article that I reference quite closely is: "Linking is the Key ", that is a really good overview of the importance of inbound links. There too, are some others that need mentioning here; "101 Link Building Tips to Market Your Website" from Aaron Wall, "evil blogger" and Andy Hagans, is also a very good resource to reference. I created the title of this series, with the incredibly played out yet extremely effective, "{insert anything} 101", from the first suggestion in their 101 list.

There are many, many, excellent link builders out there to follow for your own personal mentoring as well. Some of the others that you might get some clues from are:

• Maki
• Sugar Rae
• Aaron Wall
• Jim Boykin
• Andy Hagans
• Nick Wilson
• Rand Fishkin
• Michael Gray
• Todd Malicoat

Make Your Own Path – To Thine Own Self Be True

So, on with the details. The most important I consider when planning for a link campaign is what I shall do to make a good impression upon those that I want to link to me. The craziest thing I see is when I receive an obviously automated link request asking to please link to whogivesashit .com, without so much as a reason as to why I would want to do so – Useless. In order for me to link to a site, I would need to have three very important questions answered ...

Credibility – If I don't have respect for the individual that is requesting that I link to them, I don't want to link to them. That simple. If however, I respect the content, value and purpose of a site, and I find that the site is relevant based on the quality of the content, or as a resource, then I 'may' be compelled to provide a link to it. Without establishing credibility first, I don't have any respect for that site. Why would I want to link to that site? On the other hand, if I have respect for a site or blogger, then I will freely link to it on my own. The sites that I am compelled to link to, are typically from those that would not ask me for a link – Any link request that I receive, better be pretty good.

Curiosity – I don't want to link to a site or content that is not interesting. I don't think that any webmaster, blogger, copywriter or casual internet surfer would either. In order for me to be curious enough to open up Dreamweaver, find or write a page to put the link in, and place it on my site for all my visitors to see, I am going to have to have quite a bit of curiosity at the onset of the link request dialogue to go through changing the look and feel of my masterpiece website to compensate for the needs of another. Even if the link is a benefit to me, the simple fact that I was "solicited" a link request, is enough to put me on the defensive. Call me a hard ass, but that's just how I am.

Benefits – Something else that I feel is vitally important to a link request is the benefits. I rarely see link requests that address this extremely effective measure. If I want something important from someone, I am not going to tell them why it is I want "blue widgets" from them without first letting them know what the benefits are for them. Why? Because, most people don't really give a damned about what I want. They want to know "what's in it for me"? Asking for something empty handed is never an easy proposition. Couple that with a request to a total stranger, and the likely hood of failure or rejection has just multiplied exponentially. However, if the request is delivered as a description of the benefits to the other, then we have taken on a whole new paradigm. If I started seeing link requests in the form of, "Our site provides ... {Benefit A, B, C ...}", I might see that there is a need for this link from my site, and credibility 'may' then be established in my mind.

Where Do We Go Now?

At this point I think I have opened up the "path to link building enlightenment", enough to determine that it is important to establish a position of credibility to the person that is receiving a link request, and that without credibility and curiosity, the best of intentions are sure to end up just that, intentions. Establishing quality links is done through having quality relationships with other sites. Websites are run by people. People have relationships with other people. Next time, we're going to discuss just how to build our link relationships. Link » Building Relationships » 101.

If you are wanting to get a nice back link from Twitter, Dave Naylor recently exposed a way to get a do follow link from Twitter - If you're reading this, you might just want to open up another browser tab and do it while you're here ... I don't think this opportunity is going to be around for too long.

Here's the deal. The "More Info URL" area in the account settings page for twitter offers a link for whatever web site you have ... But, the link is a NoFollow link which doesn't give you any PageRank ... if your twitter page even has any at all ... Mine does not ... (Florida_SEO).

So, if you take a look at the Bio information ... You can insert your URL in there, and get a Do Follow back link ... for now ...

Alright ... well I wrote an article a few weeks ago that has generated some fairly decent response from the folks that have been kind enough to share their opinions about it ... so, I am going to cut it loose here too. Check it out ... A Search Optimization Campaign - Quick & Dirty