In a recent article I wrote about the conflict we face in trying to resolve a contradiction in content marketing.  In a nutshell, the difficulty is that we frequently want to use links in our articles to our “money pages” for the purposes of search engine optimization, but the readers are not yet at the buying stage in terms of their mindset as they are busy gathering information (the reason they found our syndicated article)..  I pointed out that this is compounded by the marketing commandment that any effective page should satisfy the major goal of our website visitor–at that time.

My purpose was to bring the inherent conflict to the attention of article marketers.  With this article, I’ll try to bring some resolution to the dilemma.

There are actually at least two solutions to the dilemma.  One is to violate the rule of website design by letting our linked page offer two alternatives (both learning more and buying) for our readers who click through.  The other is to provide two kinds of links in our articles.  One link option or type leads to a landing page dedicated entirely to providing valuable information (and an opportunity to learn even more by signing up for our newsletter), while the other link category will direct the visitor to a product (or purchasing) page.  In these cases, our anchor text must make clear what to expect on the landing page.

I recommend the second of those two options.  Allow me to elaborate on why I endorse this approach and what the respective landing page for each type of link will contain.

Remember that our distributed article attracted the readers because those readers intended to gather useful information.  The only likely way we are going to attract those readers to our site is to offer them even more information than our article provides.  I trust that I don’t have to tell you that we always must deliver what we promise our prospects.  Thus, our article marketing content must be interesting, accurate and informative, but it must leave the impression that we still have more to tell them.  We must subtly persuade them that our site will provide all the remaining necessary information, and we make sure that link delivers them to a content page.

We also want to move them along that decision making continuum by implying that there is a product or service that will provide the ultimate solution to their current problem.  By making the implication that our product or service will be their ultimate solution, even after they have gathered all the necessary information, we have justified linking to our product or money page.

It is easiest to achieve the task of incorporating these two types of links within articles that we syndicate directly to other sites within our niche, because we can place those links contextually.  On the other hand, when we publish on article directories, we must make the connection between our informational link and our selling link more quickly as it must fit within our resource box and not within the article.

On of first type of linked page, we will move our prospects along the decision continuum.  We have already made progress by getting the readers to click the link in our syndicated article.  We can now treat them as serious prospects and ramp up our selling strategy a bit.  We shall offer them a link to the page where they can actually buy, but we focus primarily on getting them to take one more small step by asking for the contact information in exchange for the promise of even more valuable content.

We establish ourselves as experts in our distributed content, so we are “selling” that expertise to our readers.  On the linked page, we’re selling our credibility and integrity.  After they have signed onto our mailing list, we can actually begin selling our product by building our relationship with our new prospects and then more blatantly recommending our product or service.

The second type of link from our article marketing content leads directly to a product page.  The primary purpose of that link is increasing our SEO, so we must be especially careful to research and have anchor text that is a long tail keyword with commercial value.

As marketers, all of our efforts are toward increasing revenue through a sale.  As writers we must make the sale without disturbing the flow of our content.  So our first objective is to convince the article readers that they need more information, and that the necessary information can be found by clicking our link.  Second we sell the search engine spiders on the accuracy of our description of our selling page by making sure that the linking text and the page match in meaningful ways.

Tweet This Post

back links

Sometimes called off page links, backlinks are the sledgehammer of search engine positioning and traffic generation. To understand backlinks there are three elements you need to consider, the source from which the backlinks come from, the anchor text of the backlinks and the content of the page to which the backlinks sends the visitor to.

The number of backlinks

The amount of backlinks to a page is one of the key properties the search engines take into account when deciding where to position the page in the results displayed to the searcher.

The source of the backlinks

The pages from which backlinks originate pass ‘authority’ and traffic to the page to which the backlinks point. So it follows that pages with backlinks from ‘trusted pages will receive a much higher value consideration from the search engines. Pages from sources such as educational (.edu) or government (.gov) sites naturally carry more trust and authority.

Google Page Rank

Backlinks from web pages with high page rank (a value awarded by Google to each page that it has observed over a period to have attracted, sustained and continued to accumulate relevant backlinks) pass some of their page rank via the backlink to the target page.

The ‘anchor text’

When you see a backlink on a web page it normally has a label a word or text associated with the subject at the page to which this backlink is pointing, what this ‘anchor text’ says has influence upon the value the search engines award to the link. If the content of the page is about ‘parenting’ and the backlink on the page is labeled or given the ‘anchor’ text ‘parenting’ then the search engines consider this to be of more value to the searcher looking for sites related to ‘parenting’ than if the backlink was labeled ‘babycare’.

Common mistakes

Many people screw up their backlinks building activities because they focus on quantity as opposed to quality of backlinks. Having a large volume of backlinks to your page doesn’t necessarily mean the search engines will see your page as relevant.

How to manufacture backlinks

So let me share with you my fail safe method for getting backlinks that will make the search engines love you and bring quality and relevant traffic to your web site.

1. Choosing the right keywords from the start is critical.
2. I always set out to put together a keyword cloud.
3. I always start with a single ‘top’ level keyword or key phrase which has substantial visitor traffic.
4. The fastest and cheapest method to find out how much traffic a keyword or key phrase is getting is to use the Google keywords discovery tool.
5. I analyse words and search phrases related to my primary phrase and create my ‘cloud’.
6. From this cloud I put together a selection of content containing articles, videos and blog posts each with backlinks labeled with the appropriate anchor text and then use a suite of content distribution systems to send my articles and videos to a group of directories.
7. My guiding principle is to write content that will attract visitors and persuade them to follow the backlinks to my target pages as well as send backlinks.

Tweet This Post

Some people sell products from other website owners while others sell products and services that they offer. Whatever your online business is, we need to generate a lot of traffic to our website. Of course, you want traffic that are interested with your product or services.

When I started studying internet marketing, I learned about many techniques on traffic generation. Many of the programs and services that I have purchased did not have a lot of effect on my website traffic.

Listed below are the three traffic generation techniques that I found most effective:

• Text Link Advertisements

Linking can be by either paid or unpaid methods. Adding links in e-zines or in other websites are some examples of paid linking methods. Make sure you need the traffic from that source before buying advertising space to make the most out of your money. For ezines, make sure they have a good number of subscribers before you advertise.

The unpaid method is through article creation . If you keep doing this, it will definitely make a good impact in your business. Keep in mind, your articles should be relevant and address the subject matter of your site and products.

• Pay Per Click (PPC)

If you have some advertising budget, it makes sense to put it in pay per click. In this advertising method, you create an advertisement like in the classified section of the newspaper and bid on the keywords that you would like to target. This takes time, energy, persistence and money  and research unless you know the google secret loophole by now. Make sure you understand the rules of the search engine where you want to do PPC before you start your campaigns.

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

The main goal for SEO is to make sure your website is ranked well in the search engines by optimizing your website. Although you get free traffic with SEO, optimizing your website can be time consuming.

These are traffic generation tactics that are the most effective.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Get Website traffic with SEO (opencircle.co.za)

Tweet This Post