I just read a series of blog posts at SEOMoz that are essential reading for anyone interested in link building. Here is a link to the last post so far in the series (I don’t know if there will be any more or not) - that page contains links to the other posts in the series. Let me take a moment and tell you why I think these posts are so important.

I’ll start with a question - when you produce content for your site, who do you produce it for? Until today, I would have said that we produce content for our customers - after all, they are the people who we ultimately have to please. And while I think that is still true, I no longer think that it is totally true. There is another group of people who you need to write content for, and they are the Link Masters (Rand Fish at SEOMoz calls them the linkerati, but I like link masters better).

The link masters are the people who control the links, and they often times are not your customers. In other words, they are the masters of the links - they decide who gets them and who doesn’t. Who are these people? Well, it depends, in part, on which industry you are in, but there are some generalities that we can mention. The link masters tend to belong to the following groups (this is, btw, Rand’s list):

• Bloggers
• Forum posters
• Web News Writers
• Content Creators
• Resource Editors
• Social Taggers
• Viral Connectors
• Journalists

This list definitely needs to be expanded upon, and Rand does a good initial job at his post entitled “Identifying the Linkerati” (I suggest you go check it out and then come back here).

The existence of this group of people has serious ramifications for your site in general and your link building goals in particular. It means that you are going to have to broaden the type of content that you write. Some content you will need to write for your customers, while other content you will have to write for the Link Masters. Of cousre, if you can make your content appeal to both groups, that’s great, but that’s not always the case.

This means that not only will you have to figure out who your target audience is in terms of your customers, but you also have to figure out who your target market is in terms of the Link Masters. In other words, it is important that you spend some time figuring out who are the Link Masters in your particular industry. And then, you have to figure out what they want to link to and create it. We’ll discuss those issues in future posts.

Technorati Tags: Linkerati, link building, link, links, linking, link building strategy, link-building, link-building-strategy, linking strategy, Link Masters, Link-Masters

Link Building Link Building Strategy Link Masters Linkerati Linking Strategy No comments

Here is the second video in my series of blog posts on how to use Google Webmaster Tools. If you want to see the first video, check out the first post: How to sign-up to Google Webmaster Services and click on the appropriate link.

Enjoy!

P.S. I will create screen shots, but that will have to wait until another post.

Technorati Tags: Google, webmaster, tools, webmaster-tools, webmaster tools, google-webmaster-tools, google webmaster tools, marketing, blogging, online, free tools, web development, seo, keywords, webmaster, google, Marketing Tools, SEO Tools

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I recently discovered SEOMOz’s new community blog called YOUMoz. Here is how SEOMOz explains YOUMOz:

User Generated Blog

Created by SEOmoz readers, the YOUmoz section features subjects of discussion that are of interest to our members. Anyone can contribute, and the best submissions are promoted to the main SEOmoz blog, where thousands of readers will see it.

Well, yours truly decided to jump on in and give YOUMoz a try with the following post. It’s called 7 Tips for Writing Quality Content. Go check it and YOUMoz out. And don’t forget to join the conversation and leave a comment after you read the post.

Technorati Tags: SEOMoz, SEOMoz.org, YOUMoz, SEMBasics, SEM Basics, writing, content, content creation, content-creation, blogging, blog, blogs, Tips, writing tips, writing-tips

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After reading Danny Sullivan’s article “Google Now Reporting Anchor Text Phrases” at Search Engine Land, I thought it might be helpful if I created a short video series on how to use Google Webmaster Tools. Here, then, is the first video showing you how to sign-up for Google Webmaster Services and add your site. I also begin to discuss the process of verifying your site with Google.

 

You can access this video by clicking here!

 

In tomorrow’s video I’ll finish showing you how to verify your site with Google. As we shall see in this video series, Google Webmaster Tools has a number of useful features.

 

Note: the following screen shots may also be of assistance:

 

How to sign up to Google Webmaster Tools

Step #1: Go to http://www.google.com/webmasters

 

Step #2:  Click on Webmaster Tools
 

 

 

Step #3:  Enter your Google account username/email and password (if you have a GMail or Google Account.  Click on "Create a Google Account" if you do not have a Gmail or Google Account.

 

 

 

Step #4:  Add your URL to the Add Site text box and click ok.

 

 

 

Step #5:  Click on Verify your site

 

 

 

Step #6:  Choose a verification method.

 

 

 

Step #7a: Add a Meta Tag.

 

 

 

Step #7b:  Upload an HTML file.

 

 

 

Technorati Tags: Google, webmaster, tools, webmaster-tools, webmaster tools, google-webmaster-tools, google webmaster tools, marketing, blogging, online, free tools, web development, seo, keywords, webmaster, google, Marketing Tools, SEO Tools

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