PalatnikFactor.com

As search marketers, we talk and breath SEO/SEM, etc. We also know that talking about SEO and the industry is almost like a little cult and while amongst the years its been growing, it has never been as big as industry as it is today with growing popularity amongst business owners for the want and need to optimize their websites.

Matt Cutts of Google was featured in a USA Today piece, "Google's Cutts: Good directions drive traffic to your website," which talks about SEO and he states 5 optimization tips:

1. Spotlight your search term on the page.

5. Register for free tools.

Also, while watching CNBC, the CEO of EW Scripps was being interviewed about the break up of the media company into two divisions. TV an Digital. While he talked about their hot properties online, he spoke about the importance of SEO and SEM into their strategy for growth!

I came upon this list on SEO2020.com and thought I'd put it up since people are always looking for free website submission directories. You should not go crazy submitting your site to every directory as it is important to choose certain directories and be selective where you submit your site.

A great place to also get directories is through forums such as Digital Point or even ask people in the industry you know.

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If you wanted top ranking position years ago, all it would take it shooting webmasters an email asking to exchange link and that was link building for you.

Granted, things have changed and the engines have come a very long way since then. Reciprocal linking is almost out of many SEOs strategies in their link building plan. I think reciprocal linking still holds value if you can exchange links with the right sites.

What do you do?

Let’s say you are in the employment services industry and want to start a reciprocal linking campaign. Any site that has to do with employment services or related to the employment services industry holds value (granted it has good pagerank and good rankings)

I would go to into Google and search for the keyword “employment services” and start drilling down the niche to resume services, etc. I would contact those webmasters and start exchanging links to top ranking sites.

What if they don’t respond to my email?

Many SEOs have killed the email way of exchanging links from spamming for so many years. Webmasters, I’d say 90% of them, ignore linking emails because they don’t want to waste their time or just plain ignore them.

WHOIS.org. Go and get the webmasters number or owners phone number. Call them and ask to speak to the webmaster about exchanging links and introduce yourself and a bit about your site and how the exchange of links can help both parties.

So, a lot of people think submitting to the Yahoo directory ($299 Anually) is a bit too expensive for their SEO efforts. Sure, its great to submit to Yahoo but there are other directories which can give you some good weight.

Abilogic.com
JoeAnt.com
Skaffe.com
2yi.net
ebJuris.com
Cascandra.com
Qoobe.org
Kahuki.com
Avivadirectory.com
Linkopedia.com
Anthonyparsons.com
Szab.net
Zorg-Directory.com

These are some I came upon on a thread so I'm suggesting them as a resource to check them out and see what you think. Obviously, if you ask me, I'd put money into the Business.com directory and also Best of The Web seem to be the heavy weights.

OK, most of you already have heard that commenting on blogs will get you a link and can be good for branding. YES. It’s true. ONLY if you actually add quality content and have some good input on the story.

Here is the deal, as you know, it is time consuming in our busy lives to read every story that pops up and start commenting on every blog. So, what do you do?

Comment on stories that have a lot of comments already! The people are already involved in the conversation and they are reading the comment above them.

Where do you find these stories? For example, if you’re a bit short on time, find 10 stories on the top of the sphinn home page and go from there. See what stories are really hot, where the buzz is, and get involved.

Like every industry, or almost every industry, you have some sort of spam hitting your inbox. I’ve blogged about the SEO industry several times since the whole Shoemoney thing happened about disliking 95% of SEOs.

So, how or why are SEO spammers? I’m not even talking about the actual optimizing, I’m talking about hitting people up or companies for work.

Take at this email I got for example:

“I am trying to contact Pablo Palatnik.

Anyway I specialize in getting sites
listed at the top of Google in organic listings.
Since you already do some type of advertising in MSN, I know you need to get more placement in Google. I was wondering
if you could get back with me as soon as possible.
I look forward to working with your site.

In today's Internet Economy everything is about
performance. I know I can help drive traffic to
your site.

After the first month, it is only $300 month.
That's all there is to it.
I hope that sounds good to you.
I look forward to hearing some kind of response.”

My response:

“Hi ———-,

Can you gurantee any results for $300 a month in organic placement?”

His Response:

Hi Pablo. Give me a call. 1888-359—–
I just emailed you. We can guarantee top page placement.

What a load of crap…never guarantee anything, one of the first rules of SEO. Anyway, more and more people are using this tactic. Hungry for business and being unethical with potential customers won’t get you too far.