Often when web marketers are starting off with new websites, they hit the ground running, so to speak, when it comes to backlinks, after learning that backlinks are important – and due to a misunderstanding when it comes to the way baclinking works, many people end up defeating the object of backlinking all together.

Nothing to do with Google & the other search engines is really that simple in reality, but there’s no point in talking about things technically, there’s always a way to simlify the often complex facts – and the most simple way I can explain what I’m wanting to get across here, is to say “keep it looking natural.”

In a nutshell, Googles intentions are to allow the cream to rise, and the crap to fall – so that when searchers search Google for stuff, they find the best quality websites which are publishing the most relevent content in relation to their search – so that they continue to dominate the search market. They do this by having systems which are clever enough to be able to weed out artificial indicators.

A good analogy for this is the olympics, sports people are expected to compete within the legal guidelines, which means not cheating by taking performance enhancing drugs. We all understand why this is, they want the real quality & talent to win, and they don’t want to allow drugs to give people the edge and beat people who have more natural talent, ability, drive & focus.

So if we see page one Google ranking as winning in relation to the olympics analogy, Google want to ensure that the real quality wins – they want the best quality & most relevant content to reach the top, while discounting any cheating – they want to block any efforts to cheat. They can’t dope test websites… so the way they do this is with their clever algorithms.

Many search engine marketing resources teach the specifics of all of this, so if you’re really interested then the info is there to be found – personally I say, why waste time figuring out all of the specifics, just be aware that you need your marketing efforts to look as natural as possible, and not look like any kind of performance enhancement has been attempted.

If you have a brand new website, just indexed, and all of a sudden there are thousands of backlinks flying in to the website, all from similar kinds of websites (and by the same kinds of websites, I mean the same quality of website), does this look natural? OK you may say that it could be natural if a lot of offline marketing has been done for instance, or if there are other reasons for a great deal of interest – but Google (and the other search engines) are not daft, their systems can tell if a massive influx of backlinks are naturally gained or not. I’m not going to get into the nitty gritty of how Google know – they just do, they’re Google, they probably know what your favourite brand of butter is, what coffee you drink, your inside leg measurement you really think they’re not clever enough to know if you’ve just  paid for a ton of backlinks?

What does look natural, is a steady flow of various different kinds of backlinks from different kinds of websites. You can do a LOT more good with 10 backlinks gained over a period of a few months, than you might do from gaining several hundreds of backlinks in a week or two.  It’s a lot more to do with quality than quantity anyway, but if you get tonnes of backlinks fast, it just doesn’t look natural. Don’t get me wrong, if you develop the latest hit iphone app, and all of a sudden news websites & tech blogs are writing articles about it & you get hundreds or even thousands of backlinks – I am not saying that this isn’t going to be taken well by Google – but they will know due to the kinds of websites giving the links, the quality of these websites, that its legitimate – and the backlinks will count.

So what I would recommend is that you don’t go looking for massive backlink blasting packages, but instead you look at ways to achieve dripfeed backlinking. That is, you do the work in one chunk, but then the backlinks drip in over time, which looks natural

You can achieve dripfeed backlinking with article marketing, by submitting well written articles to networks where other webmasters will pick them up over time – and by continually working little & often on gaining backlinks from various sources, and of course publishing great content & having a good website & great features is a way to naturally gain backlinks over time (i.e people will link to your website because they feel it’s of value to their readers / visitors)  however one of the easiest way to achieve constant dripfed backlinks is with a content syndication network such as traffic kaboom.

Whatever you do, just remember you don’t want a huge blast of backlinks & then nothing – as this doesn’t look natural, dripfed backlinks from a range of different types of website is what you should be aiming to achieve.

If you read my longer post on backlinks, you’ll see that I spoke about Google pagerank – I just wanted to create a post just about pagreank and expand a bit on what I was saying in there about Google pagerank.

Google pagerank is actually called “toolbar pagerank” – and that’s all it is, it’s for “display purposes only” – it’s a snapshot of the actual pagerank which Google use to rank sites, it’s out of date (they update it 3-4 times per year usually) and it’s just an indication.

So why do people put so much stock in pagerank?

Simply because up until a few years ago – pagerank was one of  the major currencies of the internet. “linkjuice” was akin to the illegal booze trade of the early 20th century. OK it wasn’t “illegal” as such, but people were literally using Google pagerank as a currency, how much they could sell a backlink for depended on the pagerank, and this trade was responsible for pagerank being over valued. Google didn’t like this one bit, so they worked very hard to stamp it out, they have done so successfully, to the point that if you are buying backlinks, there’s more chance of it hindering than helping.

The fact is though, pagerank has never been anything but a token, out of date indication of how much linkjuice a site has – and even if the toolbar PR was anywhere near the true PR, there is a lot more to  it than this, for example the number of outbound links per page (the linkjuice is shared among all the dofollow links present on the page) .

Pagerank is important, in that it gives you an indication – of what a potential backlinking site has to offer and whether it’s worth putting in the effort to get the backlink, but that’s where it stops. What you should focus on more than anything, is the quality & quantity of unique content. For example – this site currently shows as a PR0, simply because I changed domains & re-directed & there’s not been a toolbar update since.

Backlinks, backlinks bla bla bla – what who why where when?

If you’re slightly confused about backlinks, what they are, the different kinds of backlinks, whether to buy them or build them, whether they even matter, and whether or not you should even be concerned about them – then this post may help.

What are they?

Backlinks are a hyperlink from one website to another. So if my website is mysite.com and your website is yoursite.com, and create a link on a page from my website to your website, then I’m giving you a backlink.

Nofollow Vs Dofollow

The Nofollow attribute means that search engine spiders ignore the link – Nofollow links are fine for passing visitors from one site to another (for example if you buy an advert on a website, to get visitors of that site to go to your website), but have no SEO benefit.

“DoFollow” is a term which describes links which haven’t had the nofollow attribute attached to them (or another method of achieving the same).

Both “NoFollow” and “DoFollow” links can pass visitors from the linking site to the linked to site, but only DoFollow backlinks have an impact on search engine optimisation, as they pass linkjuice.

What is linkjuice?

Linkjuice is a term used to describe the SEO benefit of a dofollow link from one site to another. The better quality & quantity of backlinks going to the site which is linking to your website, the more juice there is to pass to you.

What is pagerank, and how important is it when building backlinks?

Google toolbar pagrank  is the indication Google give of how much linkjuice a website has. It’s viewed via the Google toolbar, or you can also view with SEOquake plugin, and other plugins. It’s best used as a rough indication only, as it’s out of date (Google only update it usually three to four times a year) and it’s only a snapshot of the pagerank that Google use internally. Many people do not realise, or forget, that the pagerank we know about is just “toolbar pagerank” it’s a snapshot, it’s not Google’s actual pagerank.

A fairly good analogy for toolbar pagerank, is credit score. A company or individual’s credit score is a snapshot of their credit file, it’s not bang up to date, it’s not comprehensive, it’s meant to give a rough idea – a bank wouldn’t give you a mortgage based only on your credit score. So don’t get to focussed on pagerank. Those who often get concerned about pagerank are those who’re selling backlinks – and if you’re selling backlinks to pass linkjuice, then you’re breaking Goolge’s terms of service, and that never goes very well…(more on  buying backlinks shortly).

Are backlinks the only important “off the page” factor?

No, there’s also domain age / website age – but there’s not a great deal you can do about that, other than either buying an aged domain (or better still, a website within your niche which has a history of activity, i.e. there has been pages of unique content on it for a number of years)

Should you buy backlinks or build them?

Build them, don’t buy them! See my post “why paid backlinks are a waste of money”  and also “paid backlinks vs backlink building services” .

Here’s why buying backlinks is a bad idea – in brief (I won’t go into it in detail as I have done in the previous posts I’ve just mentioned) Google clearly state that if a website sells a link, it must be NoFollow – if it isn’t, then it’s against their T.O.S. They stop sites that are selling links & passing juice, from being able to pass linkjuice.  They even go further and state that a website’s search engine results may suffer as a result!  Yes there are some directories such as Yahoo, that Google do trust to pass linkjuice, and other directories that it’s believed Google trust (but there’s no 100% guarantee) – but most of the sites out there selling backlinks for SEO benefits, are selling snakeoil – i.e. selling stuff which they say will have an effect, which it usually will not have.

There is only one type of backlink buying/ trading that is possibly worth considering other than a listing in the Yahoo directory – and that is the old fashioned approach, of picking up the phone & speaking to people who own websites that are relevant to your niche  & have link juice to pass , building a relationship up with other webmasters, and seeing what can be done. It’s possibly not the best way in terms of quantity, but quantity can be overrated when it comes to back links anyway, quality is way more important.

Do I need lots and lots of backlinks as soon as possible?

No, not necessarily, in fact if you read my post on backlinking too quickly you’ll see an example of the fact that too much too quick is not a good thing. It needs to look natural, a spike in backlinking activity & then nothing, doesn’t look natural.

What about link wheels?

Be careful of anything which looks like a “linkfarm” (which is the term that describes a way of creating artificial backlinks, by pooling linkjuice & sharing amongst the included sites. It works in theory, but in practice – Google will sniff it out & plant their foot firmly in your ass…

So what backlinks do I need?

Natural looking backlinks, in terms of the quality and quantity and frequency - continuously & consistently. Links which would appear to have come naturally, due to natural activities & down to the quality of the website, and not via spammy processes.  There are lots of things you can do, article submitting, REAL blog commenting on high quality blogs which dofollow links in comments (when I say real, I mean not silly spammy “I love your post” comments, which are pointless & just get deleted). Social bookmarking, guest posts, social networking, and content & video syndication programs such as Traffic Kaboom.

Don’t try to make the crap rise…

Google use backlinks as part of their system of allowing the cream to rise & the crap to fall. If you make your website the cream (in terms of the quality of the website & the content and features) then it’s far more likely to rise, and you’ll find it generally easier. If you have a website which isn’t very good, with little unique content, with little value to offer the web, you’re going to be swimming up stream trying to get your website ranked highly on Google – where as focusing on building a quality website is like swimming downstream, you still need to apply yourself, but it’s much easier!

Just received this question from Matt:

Kev, Is it good to pay for backlinks? Some say yes, some say no – I’m confused. help. Thx. Matt

Hi Matt,

First of all, I’ve written about the paid backlinks issue in two previous  posts: Why paid backlinks are a waste of money, and paid backlinks vs, backlinking services , so you may want to read these for a bit more background info.

The first thing I need to do is make it clear what I’m talking about when I refer to “paid backlinks” or “buying backlinks” – I’m referring to paying a webmaster / website owner for a DoFollow backlink on their website. For instance you may get to a directory, which sells inclusion to the directory including a DoFollow link to your website, for $x per month / per year.

What I’m not referring to is paying someone to do backlinking for you, or paying for membership to syndication networks such as traffic kaboom - investing money wisely into gaining quality backlinks is a good idea – investing money by simply paying webmasters to give you a link on their website, is not such a good idea.

What I’m also not referring to, is buying links on websites in order to refer traffic – it’s a perfectly good idea to invest in an ad on a website which is relevant for your products or services, which links people to your site – but if the advertiser is acting in accordance with Google’s rules, they will NoFollow the backlink, in other words visitors can follow the links, but code is used to stop the search engine bots from following them.

So if you’re asking is it good to pay for backlinks, in terms of looking for directories and other sites with paid inclusion, to get your backlinks that way – then no, it’s not good – as it’s against Google’s terms of service, anything that is against Google’s TOS is not worth doing – not so much because it will have a negative impact (although Google say that paid links “can negatively impact a site’s ranking in search results”) but mainly because it’s a waste of money. I’m far less concerned about the potential that paid backlinks may hinder ranking, than I am that paid links are money down the drain, as Google is clever, they can see which sites are blatantly selling DoFollow links, and when they do, these sites that are doing the linking, lose the ability to pass anything of value (link juice) to the sites they’re linking to. This is what Google say about buying or selling backlinks:

So there you go, from the horses mouth.

Just to be clear, we’re talking about buying a link from a website, we’re not talking about the act of gaining backlinking, by article submitting, social bookmarking, quality blog commenting on high PR quality blogs that allow comment links to be DoFollow, content & video sydication programs such as  traffic kaboom - or hiring the services of a professional SEO company or consultant to outsource all of this.

If you’re using an SEO consultant (like me) or seo company, just make sure you ask them what they’re doing & that you can be confident that they’re not doing stuff like buying backlinks, or other ineffective or black hat (against Google TOS) stuff. I have had experience of so called SEO experts just investing the money you pay them into buying backlinks – at one time I was so busy doing SEO for other people, that I decided to hire someone else to take care of my own SEO, I spent a thousand pounds (nearly $2k at the time as the pound was stronger then), and to my dismay a few months later I found that all the guy had done, was to spend probably a quarter of what I paid him (if that) on buying backlinks – and it was £1k completely wasted, not one iota of improvement, and if not for the fact that I’m an SEO guy myself, I would probably have never known, so if it’s easy for me – a professional web marketing consultant – to get stung, then it’s not difficult to see why large numbers of business people have had their fingers burned!

SO anyway, there you go, in short:

 Is it good to pay for backlinks?

Nope!

So you’re looking for info on how to be found top in Google search results.

This is pointless if one of the following is the case:

1:You haven’t got great search term data from the keyword research you have conducted, or have hired a specialist to conduct.

2:Your website isn’t a marketing machine.

Many people focus time, energy and money on trying to get their website found at the top of Google without having done any search term research therefore it’s completely hit & miss in terms of whether or not they’re A) going to stand a chance of gaining page one ranking for the term even with a lot of effort and / or money invested, and B) going to bring any relevant, converting traffic. When I say converting traffic, I mean traffic which is likely to so whatever you want people to do on your website. Most business models revolve around people buying stuff, whether it’s products or services – so for most businesses what you need is buying traffic.

So it’s not general industry specific search terms you should be focusing on, but product or service related search terms which those who’re looking to purchase, will be searching for. You want the search terms that are being searched for one handed while the other hand is holding their credit card….

For instance, lets say you sell a natural homeopathic remedy for curing headaches – you may think you need to rank for “headaches” and other terms which would indicate that the searcher is probably in need of the product – but these kinds of terms are low conversion because just because someone has a headache doesn’t mean they’re wanting to buy a herbal headache treatment. Someone searching for “herbal headache cure” “Natural head ache remedy” and so on, however, are people who’re looking for exactly that product. So make sure that you’re targeting search terms that are bringing buyers to your website. Also make sure that the search terms bring traffic, and that they’re not far too competitive to stand any chance of gaining a page ranking for this term any time soon.

So that explains a bit more about what I mean by people focusing on the wrong terms – it’s pointless being on the top of Google for the wrong search terms, and it’s also pointless targeting the right terms when it comes to relevence, but which you’ll never get to page one for because they’re too competitive.

When I talk about your website not being a marketing machine, I’m talking about it’s ability to convert.

Your website is there to do something, right? Not just to look nice. So what is your websites main required function? What’s the one main thing you want your website to achieve for your business? It’s different for different businesses, it may be there to convert visitors into online sales. It’s job may be to convert visitors into enquiries, or demo’s, or to set sales appointments. It may be that your website is there to convert visitors into list subscribers so that you can communicate with them over time & build a relationship, let them know about new products etc., Whatever it’s job, it’s a conversion of some form.

Many businesses have websites which have been built with design in mind, they’ve been built to look good, but no thought has been put in to the question “what is it there to do” and as a result business websites often to very little – or they do very little particularly well.

Most new clients I speak to are very disappointed with their website, it just doesn’t do anything, and often when I ask the question “well, what is the job of the website – what’s it supposed to be doing that it’s not?” There is no answer, as the client realises that actually, they just wanted a “website” because they knew they should have one, and now they realise it’s not doing much for them but at the same time they’re not sure what it should actually be doing anyway.

Websites can be – and should be – fantastic marketing tools. Whatever it is that you decide your website needs to do – convert visitors to sales, convert visitors to subscribers, convert visitors to enquiries – it will do it’s job 24/7/365, it’ll never ask for a raise, pull a sickie, crash a company vehicle… It’s the perfect employee! But like any employee, if it doesn’t know what it’s job is, it’s going to struggle.

So if your website isn’t properly set up to perform a particular function very well – then again, being found on top of Google is pointless.

For more web marketing tips, join my web marketing tips list, up there – top right.

Thanks

Kev

SEO Cover Letter

Jack T just asked me this question:

Hi Kevin, thanks for the email tips – you work hard on them!! Nothing like the other emails I get from people where they’re just ads! Yours is real, and I can see you put a lot of effort in, so thank you!

Here’s the thing, I have been studying seo for a ages, I have created lots of websites and got them to page 1 google, some no1 pos’s, I’ve done some SEO work for friends of friends, etc, but I don’t earn enough with affiliate marketing and things, to pay the bills, maybe one day I will, but  I’d like to become an SEO person for a company. But if you’ve not done SEO for a company before, how would you approach someone? Can you help me out with a cover letter?

Thanks in advance

Jack T

Hello Jack, thanks for your email – and the kind words!

First of all – if all you’re looking for is some help with cover letters then see amazing cover letters, Guerilla Resumes  & Oneclick cover letters but if you’d like more insight about getting a job in SEO, then keep reading.

First of all let me say, that I think you’re making a great decision. If you like SEO, and you need a job for stability – then looking for an SEO job is a GREAT idea!!

Many people who are wanting to make money online (and I did this at first!!) are so keen to live the perceived web marketing lifestyle of getting up whenever, working from a laptop in a cafe, having complete freedom and watching the cash flow in.

This is a nice vision – and there are some who achieve this – most don’t however, what we have to keep in mind is that it’s a business, whether you’re affiliate marketing, consulting, whatever – it’s a business, it’ll take your time up, you’ll prpbably end up working way longer hours if working purely for yourself, and often you’ll earn little – all in the aim of one day achieving that amazing position of having lots of residual income, and not having to work much – problem is, far more people go broke (or nearly go broke and end up looking for a job) on the way to achieving this, and never get there.

So my advice to myself if I could go back in time 12 years or so, would be to work on the web marketing stuff in the background while holding down something stable, and putting away money so you have a buffer when you go for it. Be patient and go it alone only when you have some back up funds, and some residual income flowing, don’t be impatient and make the leap of faith, because often times it results in landing on your face! I’m speaking from experience, I have made that leap a number of times, and landed flat on my face, god only knows how I’m still so handsome!! . Just remember, that it’s difficult to jump from a wobbly platform, the more stable the ground you’re on, the higher you can jump – and the more unstable, the more likely a leap will end up in an injury…Even now, years on, I’m still suffering from making that leap too early on more than one occasion – the first time I did it, we had to sell our first house & downsize as a result (loved that house too!)…And the second time I took a leap like that, we nearly lost our home – with two young children… not great - luckily my wife is incredibly patient & tolerant! Don’t put too much stock in old wives tails like “you need to be brave” – you may as well say “you need to be stupid” , it’s a fine line – if you’re being brave, it probably means you’re overcoming fear to do it – fear is your friend, if you feel fearful of something, listen to that fear in the same way that a fear of falling to your death would prevent you from stepping of a cliff. Fear may be a sign that you’re not ready, financially or otherwise, to be running your own business or self employed, it may be you infinitely more wise subconscious portion of your intelligence telling you “you’re not stable, you have no back up funds, don’t do it!” What’s more, don’t forget how your decision in this area can impact upon others, if you have a partner, and / or children, there’s more than just yourself that will be effected if you decide to quit your job & go it alone prematurely.

If you enjoy SEO, then what better job could there be for you, than doing something you like doing in order to keep some stability while you keep working on your web marketing stuff? SEO tends to be fairly well paid, comparatively speaking. There’s a big bonus too, in that when you work for a company in SEO, they will usually pay for things, for instance premium memberships for sites like SEOMoz which gives you all of their tools, content syndication networks such as traffic kaboom, and some of these memberships & tools are multi-site, meaning your own sites can benefit from them also (you may want to make sure this is OK with your boss first, most don’t mind that you have your own stuff going on to make extra money, and as long as it doesn’t cost them any more money, and that you’re not doing it in your working day while you’re on there time, many firms will be fine with this, more so if it’s client-side, rather than agency-side where things tend to be more strict & there tends to be more of a hierarchy.) Not to mention stuff like training, attending seminars & so on.

I’ll get to the SEO cover letter shortly, first of all though:

Agency Side or Client Side SEO Job?

So if you know you want a job in SEO, the next question is, agency or client side? Client side is where you work for a company on their own SEO – Agency side is where you work for an SEO firm and do the SEO on their clients sites.

Client side tends to be more relaxed, easier, less hassle, less politics, and less of the stuff that many SEO and SEM people hate, like sales meetings, training sales staff, sitting in on sales meetings with clients, creating reports for clients, phoning clients & explaining their monthly reports, fire fighting when a client isn’t happy, and various other stuff that comes with working within a marketing agency.

Client side is usually not quite as well paid as agency side – but also client side can be a more stable position, if you get a job as the SEO person for a well established company, this is often a much more secure position than a position within an Search company or Agency, as many seo firms are not so well established, and it’s not uncommon to find when you check out the financial stability of web marketing firms, including some of the larger ones, that they’re in risky positions – and there does often tend to be a more “hire & fire” mentality with agencies, than there is with client side positions for established companies.

I’ve done agency side, as SEO manager for a UK agency, parts of it is nice, work with some nice people, team spirit, the money tends to be better than client side – but for me, there was a lot I didn’t enjoy, such as having to try to keep clients happy while the management wanted me to do more & more stuff which had nothing to do with SEO, politics within the company – of which there was lots, and this can come with the territory with marketing agencies.

Client side can be a very cushy number, it really depends on the company. There are people in client side SEO jobs who are under very little pressure, encouraged to do well rather than put under pressure, and in environments where it often doesn’t even feel like work. Of course, there are positions where people are put under extreme pressure and expected to do the unexpected & perform miracles – so just do your research and make sure that duriung the interview you see it that you’re interviewing them as much as they’re interviewing you.

By the way – midway through writing this post, I left the laptop & drove to a local farm to buy some food for our hens (we keep hens & ducks, fresh eggs every morning, yum!) , and it’s Lambing season at the moment, so I asked the farmer how much sleep he got last night – he told me with a smile “went to bed at 5 AM, and was back up & working at 6.30 AM” – I nearly fainted from exhaustion at the mere suggestion of someone working physically all day, through until 5.30 AM and then having only one and a half hours sleep before starting again. I asked him how long this lasts, he said a couple of weeks. I asked what his working hours are outside lambing, and he said he starts working at about 7am, until it’s dark, but then at night he usually has things he needs to do also.

This really brings it home – there are jobs out there that are ridiculously hard, where you have to work physically, for long, long hours – not just farming, there are many jobs that are real hard work, us web marketing folk don’t know we’re born! We’re incredibly fortunate that we’ve somehow got ourselves into an area which involves just sitting at a computer, and where the pay can be way better than most physically exhausting jobs! OK we have to learn stuff, but so do people in physically demanding jobs. Just makes me appreciate how fortunate I am that I got into SEO and web marketing, instead of ending up in agriculture or one of hundreds of other jobs which involve real hard work!

So anyway, back on topic – have a think about what suits you better, agency side or client side, because the cover letter etc., will be different depending on which way you decide to go.

SEO Cover Letter

If you want some help with the cover letter, see amazing cover letters, Guerilla Resumes  & Oneclick cover letters - but the cover letter is not the be all and end all of getting the interview.  ANYONE can have a program like the above, and crank out a professional cover letter –  the cover letter is important, but in combination with the advice I’m giving you here, you have a lot more chance of landing your perfect SEO job.

Think of what you’re doing as creating a written sales pitch, you’re selling yourself as someone who can acheive the results that your prospective employee is looking to achieve, and  your cover letter is the entry into this pitch. So there’s some prep work that I’d recommend you do first, for much better results in terms of impressing a potential employer.

Examples / case studies & testimonials / references.

You need to put together some proof that you know what you’re doing & you can get results. If you already have a bunch of sites that you’ve worked on, either your own or for clients, then create a case study of each site, explain the search terms targeted, roughly the work that you did (but I wouldn’t go into infinite detail here, just breifly explain what was done), over what period of time, the starting & finishing rankings, traffic increases, and increases in sales / enquiries.

If you can get a few examples of sites you’ve worked on for clients – then this is great, because coupled with a testimonial from the client, it’s much stronger proof than an example of your own website.

If you haven’t done any work for any clients, and if you’re not desperate to get into an SEO position right this minute, then consider asking around, offer to work free or very cheap for friends, friends of friends etc, ask anyone you know who’s in business or has a family member or friend who’s in business – you may well find that someone with a small – medium business would be very happy indeed for you to work on their SEO free or cheap as an example to help your career.  Just make sure you focus on websites & search terms where you know that you can make a decent impact without too much time passing – if you can work on sites which are currently terrible for SEO, where you know you can make a big difference just with on-page changes alone, then these are the kinds of sites to work on, as you can get some good results for the client, get a glowing testimonial / reference, and dramatically strengthen your chances of landing a great job in SEO.

Put together the best case study or case studies possible, don’t make them to technical or full of jargon and waffle, just focus on the results you achieved, the before & after, and the testimonial / reference if applicable. Take care of presentation, make sure it’s not a dogs dinner, you want to put yourself forward as being professional & on the ball.

Then, find out who’s responsible for the position, who should you write to? Never write to “Dear Sir or Madam” – imagine if they receive 30 applications, and yours is addressed to the correct person, when the rest aren’t – not only will yours get more attention, yours will probably get to the decision maker first.

Before starting the cover letter, make sure you fully understand what the role is, for instance is it SEO only, is it an SEM position, is it “web marketing manager” to includer SEO, pay per click, display, affiliate management, web master, etc? Only apply if you think you’re right for the position – if you don’t think it’s right for you, for instance if it’s mainly PPC and you’re not that in to PPC, or if you don’t like the industry, or if it’s client side and you only want agency side, or agency side and you want client side – or if there’s anything that makes you think it’s not right for you, don’t waste your time on it, select those which appear to be the positions which suit you the most.

In your cover letter, address the person who’s responsible for the position, give a bit of background, sell yourself, not just in terms of your abilities but in terms of how you get on with people and work well both individually and as part of a team, explain that you believe you’re a perfect match for the position and why, and that you have enclosed some proof of your abilities in the form of recent case studies, and references (or testimonials, same thing). End by saying something along the lines of “I would very much welcome the opportunity to meet you, and to find out if I am a good fit for the company culturally, to ensure a long and mutually successful relationship between my self and the company.” or words to that effect – don’t use these exact words, write how you would right, but in other words you’re saying that you know you’re the right person to achieve the results they want achieving,  this isn’t in question – but what you’re eager to discover, is will you fit well in the company, will you enjoy the environment, get on well with the people, will they get on with you.

This makes it very easy for the employer, they can see by the proof you’ve shown that you can do what they need you to, you’ve also shown that you’ve done your research and you know what the position entails, and you’ve shown that you’re not jumping at any opportunity because you need the job, but you’re looking for a long term move, so you want to make sure that you’re a good fit for the company.

Do the above, send along with the case study or studies, and a well developed CV – and you should find a VERY good conversion rate from letter to interview.

If you don’t have a good CV, then write one – or find someone to help you to write one (I’m not a CV expert)  - but, if you do as I’ve suggested above, the CV will be a lot less important, in fact some employers will look with interest at your cover letter, case studies & references & will just briefly scan the CV with little interest, as they’re already sold that if they like you when they meet you, then you’re the person for the job.

Don’t forget, when someone is employing, they have a real challenge to find the right person. I know from experience, it’s not easy – you  have to sift through some junk – and by junk, I mean that people will send CV’s with no cover letter, a cover letter with spelling errors or silly statements which make me throw the whole thing in the bin without even reading the CV! I’ve had CV’s which don’t have their phone number on, and no phone number on the cover letter so how can I call them to offer them an interview? I’ve had typo’s all over CV’s, CV’s with dirty marks on them, covering letters sent to “Dear Sir!” when my name was even on the job ad… so beleive me, when you put in the effort to send something of quality to a potential along the lines of what I’ve suggested above, you will get their attention.

Next step – the  job interview

If you do the above well, you’ll get some interviews, or send me a hat and I’ll eat it!

This is the important bit, you need to make sure it’s the right company for you.  Don’t go in there completely focused on you being right for the company, and on answering their questions – it’s a two way thing, and you need to make sure that the company is right for you.

When you’re offered the interview, ask is it a two step interview or one step. If it’s only one step, insist that the interview includes being introduced with everyone that you would be working with (if it’s 2 interviews this will usually happen at the second interview). If they question you about this, reply that you’re looking for a position that you’ll be happy in for at least the next five years, and you’re not going to make a decision about whether the company is right for you without meeting the people you’ll be working with. If they’re funny about that, move on to the next potential employer – because if they don’t see the value in making sure it’s a perfect fit, then the chances are it’s not going to be a great company to work within.

Be yourself, don’t try to act differently, if you’re a character – be a character, if you’re funny – be funny, obviously don’t go over the top,  but the important thing is that they like you. We like people when we know they are who they are, when we sense someone is being fake,  acting for the interview, it’s just not the same. If you’re yourself and they don’t like you – good, you just saved yourself an uncomfortable period of employment! What’s more, if you’re more relaxed and yourself, the employer is likely to be also, so you’ll get a better feel for who they really are too. And of course the more relaxed and normal you are, the less difficult it’ll be, so you will find that you’re not dreading interviews as much as you may have in the past.

Ask questions – make sure you know exactly what the job is, is it SEO only, is it SEO & PPC, if it’s PPC what programs? (just adwords, or other PPC also?) Will you be part of a team, or the sole SEO guy or web marketing manager. (if it’s agency side, more than likely you’ll be part of a team unless it’s a web dev firm branching out into SEO, in which case just be careful as that can be a tough gig, with sales people selling stuff that you may find difficult to deliver!). Are you taking over from someone, why did they leave. What are their goals,  etc etc, write lists of questions, not just lip service though – you want to find out, is this going to be a nice place to work, and will you enjoy the job.

ASK ABOUT MONEY. Some careers advisers say not to do this – complete balls – you’re not going working there to pass the time, you’re doing it in return for money, so talk about it. Don’t make it the first thing you mention, but make sure it’s discussed. Find out if there’s a bonus scheme, or any form of incentive.  Make sure you talk long term, employers usually hope that you’ll be with them a few years, they don’t want people in & then out in a few months, so ask about things like pensions, things which put forth the impression that you would be hoping to stick around (even if actually you hope to only be working for a year before you can go it alone, if that’s what you want to do).

So there you go – this is my advice on getting an SEO job, including the cover letter – I really hope this helps you Jack, and anyone else reading who has a similar question.

Thanks

Kev

So you’ve got your website, and you now need targeted traffic to create enquiries & sales – so you’re wondering how much SEO is going to cost you?

You have a couple of main options: Do it yourself, or hire an SEO firm or consultant.

Obviously the cheapest option is to do your own search engine optimisation – and it’s not really rocket science, yes there are things you need to learn, and it’s time consuming – but if you don’t have the budget to pay for SEO, then doing it yourself is a perfectly reasonable option.

If you decide that you don’t have the time or inclination to do it yourself, then again you have a couple of options, with varying costs.

You can decide to hire an SEO company or agency to setup & manage your optimization campaign, hire a freelancer to design & run your search engine optimization campaign, or design your own campaign & hire different individuals or companies to handle the various aspects.

How Much Does SEO Cost? Time to smash Mr. Piggy?

In terms of costs, the most expensive option would usually be to hire an SEO agency or large optimization firm, hiring a smaller search marketing company is usually cheaper, and seeking out a freelance SEO consultant can be cheaper still – and if you find a great freelance consultant you can get a great deal more value for your money, in my humble opinion – for the simple reason that companies & agencies are paying sales staff, account managers, and all the overheads associated with running a company, premesis, business rates etc., whereas with a freelance all of the money you’re paying is going into the time of the freelancer.

Running the campaign yourself and hiring different people to handle the different elements, is also a valid option, and can be the cheapest in terms of costs, but at the same time it can be hit & miss in terms of finding people to do a good job. For example, you could find someone to do keyword research for you, someone to do content & article writing,  someone to sort out your on-page SEO, someone to do directory submissions, profile backlinks, Angela’s backlinking packages, etc. There are an abundance of freelancers available via various freelancer sites, and often they’re in India, the Philippines, or other countries where the currency conversion rate & cost of living etc means that website owners in the US & UK etc can get great value for money. The problem with this is that just like with managing your own property development yourself, there can be a lot of hassle involved in managing various people handling different aspects of a campaign, so although it can work out well in terms of cost – you may lose a fair amount of hair in the process!

In initially got into SEO because in the late 90′s when I started my first online business, I couldn’t afford the cost to hire a company, or a freelancer, I was running the business on a shoestring – so I decided to teach myself. I discovered that I found it challenging & enjoyable – but having said that, when I first started it was easier, far less competition online, when Google came along there was no backlinking factor, it was all about onpage, the keywords tab etc -it’s definitely got more difficult over the years.  I didn’t really plan on becoming an SEO consultant, it was just word of mouth, family & friends were asking me to help them get traffic to their site, I started to get some good word of mouth & it grew from there.  So, investing some time & effort into learning to market your own websites may well take you further than you thought & end up with you doing it for a living, who knows – that’s what happened with me, and I wasn’t planning on it.

Thanks for reading,  my How Much Does SEO Cost post, I hope it’s helped.

There are many people out there who have been into internet marketing for years, many who make some money online but have never quite managed to turn it into a full time income. If this describes you, and you know lots about web marketing but you’ve never quite managed to find the right vehicle to make the web your full time income – how about becoming a full time, or part time web marketing assistant, as a job?

The web is fast becoming mainstream, so whereas in the past only the larger companies were investing in online marketing, now the majority of businesses are doing so. This has created a fantastic opportunity for large numbers of people all over the world, who have invested thousands over the years in learning about online marketing, and who can now cash in on this skill & knowledge by doing web marketing for a living.

Web Marketing Assistant job description

In a nutshell, it involves managing all website marketing activities for your employer, usually it’ll involve various disciplines, SEO, PPC, social media, affiliate marketing, display advertising, content creation, general web master work. It depends on the size of the company, but usually if the job is being described as web marketing assistant, it’s usually a single position rather than a team position – if it’s a larger company with a web marketing team, the title is usually slightly different.

This is a GREAT gig for web marketers who supplement their income with online marketing but would like to make it their full time job –   it’s EASY, it’s fairly well paid, it comes with autonomy, and as most people within the company will have no clue about web marketing, usually, you probably won’t have some boss breathing down your neck & telling you what to do – all they’ll want you to do is make sure that the web marketing is looked after, as they won’t know what to do, it’s hard for them to tell you what to do….

Obviously it’s a job, so you’ll have management etc – but if you get in with a company that is a pain to work for, try to stick it out for a year or so for the CV, then move on.

Web marketing assistant is a client-side position, so you’d be working directly for the company you’re doing the work for, not agency-side, which is where you work for a marketing agency working on clients sites. Agency-side work is generally a lot more competitive, more difficult to get into, it can be particularly well paid, but there’s often a lot of other “crap” you need to do, such as sales related stuff, dealing with clients, conference calls, explaining reports and so on (I know, I did a stint as SEO manager for a UK web marketing agency) and it’s generally more stressful and less fun than a client side marketing assistant position.

Many people in this position are on a cushy number, tucked away somewhere at a desk, listening to their Ipod, drinking coffee, chilling out & doing  the kinds of marketing stuff they could do with their eyes shut – doing exactly what they’d be doing anyway if they weren’t working – but getting paid for it.

So if you love web marketing but you’ve not found a way to make much money from it yet – this could be for you, especially if you’re broke, as many web marketers are!

If you’re wondering how you’re going to pay the bills, this is a million times better than flipping burgers, far better money, far less stressful, much easier work, and you’ll love it if you love WM.

Give it some thought, and search for web marketing assistant jobs locally.

So your website is ready, and now SEO is needed in order to start the flow of targeted search engine traffic. But, is SEO the logical next step – the answer is no, don’t jump the gun or you may waste time & effort.

Before you start doing SEO or paying someone to start doing it for you, what you need to do, or to get someone to do, is keyword research, then figure out which search terms you need to focus on for maximum results – then start SEO activities.

Many people get thuings back to front, they build a website, start working on SEO or investing in search engine optimisation services, then when they see they’re not getting much of a return, at some point they’ll realize that they need to go back to the drawing board & conduct keyword research first.

So without a doubt, SEO is needed – but it’s only worth doing once you know which search terms you need to focus on.

If you’re looking for a description of SEO, you’re not alone – many clients I speak to, including some very successful business people, are not quite sure what SEO is, and what it involves.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation (or optimization if you’re in the states).

In short, SEO means optimising a website to be able to rank higher on in the organic search engine results positions (SERPS for short) for your important search terms.

If you’ve heard the term “SEM” and wonder how SEO & SEM are different – SEM is the acronym for Search Engine Marketing,  and encompasses both SEO & PPC (pay per click marketing). For more info about PPC see my recent post PPC Vs SEO.

SEO is for ranking in the organic search engine results positions – not the paid search, pay per click marketing is different and you can find more about it in my PPC vs SEO post that I’ve just mentioned.

There are two parts to search engine optimization – onpage & offpage.

On page optimization means tweaking the pages of your website, to make it relevant for your important search terms. Page titles, meta description, header tags, alt image tags, internal linking anchor text etc (I will explain all of these in other posts, this is just a brief description for now).

Off page optimization is about improving the search engine’s opinion of your website, by gaining links to your website from other websites, known as “backlinks” – again, I won’t go into detail in this SEO description, but the general idea is that you want links to your site, from as high quality, well established sites as possible – and the “anchor text” which means the text used in the hyper link, should be a search term, so instead of “click here” you would use the search term that you want to rank for.

Some quick SEO tips:

1: Do search term research – or you could be wasting your time trying to rank your website for terms which bring no traffic, or which are far too competitive for you to expect to rank for in the near future.

2: Aim for page one – most buying visitors do not browse beyond page one of the search results.

3: Focus on buying search terms, not research search terms. Think about the search terms your clients are likely to search if they’re looking to buy, they will often be different terms than they would use if they were looking for info. It’s fine to rank for info terms too, but buying terms are where the money is.

4: Target your home page at your most important 2-3 search terms, and then sub pages should focus on one main search term each don’t try to target dozens of search terms with one page.

5: Page titles are very important, make sure your page titles are different for each page, keep the page title short & make the most important search term for each page, the first phrase in the page title.

6: Install the SEO quake toolbar into your browser, so you can easily research the competition.

7: When figuring out which search terms to focus on, search for the term in quotation marks “like this” , to see how many competing pages there are, if there are under a hundred thousand results then that’s an indication that it may be a lesser competitive term, if there are millions of results for the term, then it’s probably going to be a tough search term.

8: Once you’ve done the above, research page one using SEO quake plugin, or another tool, to check out how competitive the other sites are on page one, so you can see if you think you’ll be able to out-rank any of the sites currently on page one. If they’re all very well established sites with thosands of backlinks & masses of indexed pages, and a long website history, then it’s going to be tough, and you may want to look at focusing on a lesser competitive search term to begin with.

9: If you use PPC marketing and you have conversion tracking running (and if you don’t, then how do you know if you’re getting a return?) then use your PPC keyword data to figure out which search terms to focus on.

10: Write lots of unique content, search engines love fresh, unique content.

I hope you found this short SEO description informative – best of luck with your plans, and don’t forget to come back soon to see my other SEO & web marketing posts.