Archive for the ‘Website Strategies’ Category
Baby got back links?
By Kyle Henrie | July 30, 2008
Building quality backlinks is a great way to ensure search engine success. With an emphasis on “quality”, a tool called the Backlink Builder can help you get backlinks in all the right places.
Backlink Builder asks you to supply a keyword or theme, and then returns relevant websites that contain phrases like “add link” or “add site.” Make acquaintances with as many out as your heart desires, and know that you’ve given a huge boost to your online campaign.
Topics: Backlinks, SEO Tools, Website Strategies | No Comments »
Horde your business’s domain names
By Kyle Henrie | July 22, 2008
Smart businesses don’t just own their company name as a “.com.” They purchase several variations or related names to drive additional traffic to their primary Web site. In fact, buying additional domains for your company can pay off in big dividends—here’s why.
1. It cuts marketing costs. A memorable, highly targeted and keyword-rich domain name from the secondary market gets more free, organic search engine traffic. As a result, you spend less money to build traffic than by purchasing often-costly keyword search buys or print advertising.
2. It builds your brand. Owning domains related to the products and services you offer sends a strong and consistent message to your customers that you are the leader in your space. A photographer, for example, could own domains related to cameras, weddings and portraits.
3. It cuts your competition. Owning several domains prevents lost traffic and allows you to cut short the reach of your competition.
4. It gives you global reach. Although the “dot com” is the most common—and valuable—extension, opportunities still exist to purchase variations, such as country-specific domains like .co.uk, .it, .de, .hk and so on. These have extensive recognition in their region and dramatically increase your global reach.
5. It builds a valuable portfolio of assets. Like fine wines, domain names appreciate in value over time, thanks to the navigation traffic they acquire from prominent search engine positioning. By acquiring and using multiple premium domain names, you create a number of well-known and recognized secondary brand triggers associated with your business.
Topics: Website Strategies | 1 Comment »
Search Engine Keyword Position Tool
By Kyle Henrie | July 1, 2008
Trying to keep track of your site’s ranking for every keyword or phrase can turn into a full time job. That’s even more true if you intend to keep tabs on multiple search engines. Shazam! The Search Engine Keyword Position tool to the rescue!
Just enter your site’s address and a key word or phrase, and it’ll determine where you stand with Google, Yahoo, and MSN. You could hardly ask for a quicker or easier way to gauge your search engine success.
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Topics: Keywords, SEO Tools, Website Strategies | No Comments »
SEO design guidlines even your mom will understand
By Kyle Henrie | June 22, 2008
Whenever someone finds out that I am have a background in Internet marketing, it never fails that I am asked the exact same question over and over again - “What can I do to get my website more visible to search engines?” I usually ask for their website address so I can take a look at what they have done so far. 99% of all of the websites I see do NOT follow the simple guidelines for design and content development that search engines provide.
In an effort to make this as easy as possible for you, here are some of the more relevant design and content guidelines provided by Google, Yahoo or MSN that you should follow -
- Make a site with a clear hierarchy and text links. Every page should be reachable from at least one static text link.
- Offer a site map to your users with links that point to the important parts of your site. If the site map is larger than 100 or so links, you may want to break the site map into separate pages.
- Create a useful, information-rich site, and write pages that clearly and accurately describe your content.
- Don’t overdo the use of graphics. Visitors can read the text on an image, but search engines can’t.
- Think about the words users would type to find your pages, and make sure that your site actually includes those words within it.
- Try to use text instead of images to display important names, content, or links.
- Make sure that your TITLE and ALT tags are descriptive and accurate.
- Check for broken links and correct HTML.
- Use only well-formed HTML code in your pages. Ensure that all tags are closed, and that all links function properly. If your site contains broken links, search engines may not be able to index your site effectively, and people may not be able to reach all of your pages.
- If you move a page, set up the page’s original URL to direct people to the new page, and tell them whether the move is permanent or temporary.
- Keep your URLs simple and static. Complicated or frequently changed URLs are difficult to use as link destinations. For example, the URL www.example.com/mypage is easier for spiders to crawl and for people to type than a long URL with multiple extensions. Also, a URL that doesn’t change is easier for people to remember, which makes it a more likely link destination from other sites.
- Make pages for users, not for search engines. Don’t deceive your users or present different content to search engines than you display to users, which is commonly referred to as “cloaking.”
- Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings. A good rule of thumb is whether you’d feel comfortable explaining what you’ve done to a website that competes with you. Another useful test is to ask, “Does this help my users? Would I do this if search engines didn’t exist?”
- Limit all pages to a reasonable size. We recommend one topic per page. An HTML page with no pictures should be under 150 KB.
This is a small list of the things you can do to improve your website design. To see a comprehensive list of guidelines provided by the big 3, click on their logo below to read their specific guidelines.
Topics: Website Strategies | No Comments »
KISS your website - you’ll thank me in the morning
By Kyle Henrie | June 15, 2008
Companies create websites for a variety of reasons. Some are designed to be an online brochure, many try to generate leads and others focus on e-commerce. Nearly all are intended to favorably showcase a business’s credibility. Increasingly, companies are giving consideration to whether generating an organic presence within the search engines is a priority, i.e., incorporating search engine optimization (SEO) techniques into the design and structure. We believe it to be the most important aspect of creating a relevant website that gains visibility to the Internet world. Andrew Wetzler, of More Visibility, provides us with some good advice on this subject.
Andrew writes “If you haven’t written down the most important objectives for the site, then you should. It will help you to impartially assess whether your site is communicating the most appropriate message. Sometimes the priorities aren’t consistent with the realities of the site.
As I review websites, I am often struck by the degree to which they (those who are responsible for the site) create something that is considerably more difficult than they need to be or ignore the fundamentals of making a site appropriate for natural search.
One compelling reason to Keep It Simple is that Simple typically translates into Good from an SEO standpoint. Simple still allows for creativity and relevant content though.
From a user experience perspective, there are usually a number of sites that will show up in the search results or that people are aware of for any particular search, so there’s no reason to assume that you will be able to retain their viewership if your site is not sufficiently intelligent and compelling.
On the most fundamental level, a site should be easy to navigate and zeroed in on the top objective. A primary call to action should be central to the page’s design as should alternate contact methods. For example, if the goal is to complete a transaction, then the site should prominently display a telephone number that someone can call who doesn’t want (or isn’t ready) to fill out the form, but has a question.
When a site is being initially created or redesigned and an outside Web design firm is involved, there tends to be an emphasis on the sizzle instead of the substance. Web design firms, much like offline ad agencies, have a propensity to differentiate themselves by accentuating their artistic side. That is fine, until it gets in the way of an intelligently designed website. For instance, I reviewed a new real estate site recently that was very artsy, in the sense of beautiful pictures, which were intended to set an upscale impression of the property being developed. While it achieved that objective, I believe it was at the expense of other critical items; their Contact Us form was obscured behind a “menu” link. The initial results were modest. We have since created a landing page for their paid campaigns that is able to overcome many of the flaws of the site, and which is delivering a markedly higher conversion rate (into a lead).
Flash openings on home pages are probably the best example of a misguided technology today. Besides the fact that Flash is an impediment from a natural search perspective (impedes crawling by the engines), it delays and oftentimes confuses the site visitor’s experience. It’s fine to encourage a visitor to play a video on the site that accentuates the intended look and feel, but don’t make it the first thing someone encounters when coming to the site. This is particularly incompatible with attracting repeat visitors.
Websites don’t need to be fancy to be effective. Sites that are well-designed are straightforward and precise in their intentions. Everybody has looked at competitor sites to see what else is out there. Try looking at them as an objective critic. Ask a family member or someone whose Web acumen you admire for their opinion to rate your site versus theirs. Above all, commit to refining on a continual basis.”
Keep it Simple and Smart (KISS) and you will be a step ahead of many other businesses.
Topics: Website Strategies | No Comments »
Ping your blog
By Kyle Henrie | June 12, 2008
You have your blog all ready to go. It has a nice, clean design and solid, original content. Now what? You need to get your blog visible to the Internet world. To do this, we recommend you submit your blog’s URL and/or RSS feed to as many high-ranking blog directories as you can. This is often called a “ping” or notifying a directory that you have a new blog or that your blog has recently been updated.
The first submissions, or pings, should be Google and Yahoo - if you have not submitted your Blog URL to them you need to do that first. Then you can move on to the remaining list of directories (see below).
Different directories have different forms to fill when submitting your blog. Their instructions are usually pretty easy but take some time to follow. Here are few things to note when submitting your blog.
- Some directories require you to register before adding your Blog. While most of them allow you to submit more than one Blog, some may require you to use a different login name for each Blog.
- If you are asked for the RSS Feed or your Feed URL, check that your blog software on how to locate or use this feature.
- You may be asked for an image to represent your blog, make sure you add this. The Internet is a visual media and needs to be exploited at every turn.
- The Reciprocal Link URL is the main page where you may need to put a link back to their blog directory.
- The meta keywords or“tags are keywords that represent your blog’s content. Basically meta description is one or, at the most, two sentences describing your blog, while meta tags provide information about your Blog for search engines to help identify and search matches.
Another way to submit your blog to the www-world is to use a FREE blog ping service like Pingoat.com. This is a quick and easy to use tool that does the heavy lifting for you. This is especially helpful if you are just getting started and need to get your new blog noticed right away.
What about updating these same blog directories when your publish new content to your blog? Most of the well know blog tools (i.e. Wordpress) can automatically ping these groups for you. This is much quicker and easier than manually submitting your blog every time you add a new post or page. Technorati has a great configuration page that walks you how to set this up. Go here to read how to configure popular blog tools to do this.
Once you know how to configure your blog, you need a list of all of the blog directories and their automatic ping urls. For your convenience, I have created this list for you. Just copy and paste the list below into your blog as instructed by the Technorati’s configuration page (listed previously) and you are good to go! Happy blogging!
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC
http://blogdb.jp/xmlrpc/
http://coreblog.org/ping/
http://ping.blo.gs/
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/
http://ping.cocolog-nifty.com/xmlrpc
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://pinger.blogflux.com/rpc
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping
http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://1470.net/api/ping
http://www.a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b
http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://api.moreover.com/ping
http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
http://www.bitacoles.net/ping.php
http://bitacoras.net/ping
http://blogdb.jp/xmlrpc
http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
http://blogmatcher.com/u.php
http://www.blogoole.com/ping/
http://www.blogoon.net/ping/
http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
http://www.blogroots.com/tb_populi.blog?id=1
http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php
http://www.blogsnow.com/ping
http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC
http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc
http://coreblog.org/ping/
http://www.lasermemory.com/lsrpc/
http://mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatt
http://www.mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatter/ping.php
http://www.newsisfree.com/xmlrpctest.php
http://ping.amagle.com/
http://ping.bitacoras.com
http://ping.blo.gs/
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/
http://ping.blogmura.jp/rpc/
http://ping.cocolog-nifty.com/xmlrpc
http://ping.exblog.jp/xmlrpc
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.myblog.jp
http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://ping.weblogs.se/
http://pingoat.com/goat/RPC2
http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php
http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2/
http://rpc.blogbuzzmachine.com/RPC2
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://www.snipsnap.org/RPC2
http://trackback.bakeinu.jp/bakeping.php
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://www.weblogues.com/RPC/
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/
http://xmlrpc.blogg.de/
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://www.a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b
http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php
http://www.blogsnow.com/ping
http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi
http://coreblog.org/ping/
http://ping.blo.gs/
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/
http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
http://api.moreover.com/ping
http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/
http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/
http://ping.blo.gs/
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/
http://rpc.newsgator.com/
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi
http://www.newsisfree.com/RPCCloud
http://ping.weblogs.se/
http://blogmatcher.com/u.php
http://coreblog.org/ping/
http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc
http://trackback.bakeinu.jp/bakeping.php
http://ping.myblog.jp
http://ping.bitacoras.com
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/
http://ping.blogmura.jp/rpc/
http://xmlrpc.blogg.de
http://1470.net/api/ping
http://bblog.com/ping.php
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC
http://rpc.pingomatic.com
http://ping.weblogs.se/
http://blogmatcher.com/u.php
http://coreblog.org/ping/
http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc
http://trackback.bakeinu.jp/bakeping.php
http://ping.myblog.jp
http://ping.bitacoras.com
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/
http://ping.blogmura.jp/rpc/
http://xmlrpc.blogg.de
http://1470.net/api/ping
http://bblog.com/ping.php
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC
http://www.wasalive.com/ping/
Topics: Website Strategies | 1 Comment »
No-Cost SEO Tools to Help You Increase Your Website Traffic
By Kyle Henrie | June 3, 2008
The right SEO tools can work wonders for your search strategy. You can save time, effort and investment, not to mention improve your rankings. A big thank you to Marketing Sherpa for providing the background for each of these.
Google Advanced Search
Cost: Free
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en
Description: This tool can be found by going to Google, clicking “Advanced Search” and then clicking the “+” symbol next to “Date, usage rights, numeric range, and more.” Now you should see a field titled “Where your keywords show up.”
This lets you limit a search to:
o Anywhere in the page
o Title of the page
o Text of the page
o URL of the page
o Links to the page
The big one is “links to the page.” By selecting this option and searching for your competitors, you can find which sites are linking to them. You can also limit the search by date to uncover the links that have been created most recently.
Google Trends
http://google.com/trends
Cost: Free
Description: Google Trends reveals keywords’ historic search volume on Google (but not the exact figures). Say you’re torn between two keywords. Type them into the text box, separate them with commas and click to see which has received the most search traffic over time. The data dates back years and is illustrated with graphs.
Use the tool to:
Decide on a keyword, i.e., should you go with singular or plural?
Search engines return different results for singular and plural forms of a noun. So, a tractor manufacturer might rank well for the term “tractor” but not for “tractors.”
Rank Checker
http://tools.seobook.com/firefox/rank-checker/
Cost: Free
Description: Rank Checker is a Firefox plug-in that takes keywords and reports your rankings on:
o Google
o Yahoo!
o MSN
o Google in other countries
If you check your rankings by typing in search engines and sift through results, stop now. This tool automates that process.
SeoQuake
http://www.seoquake.com/
Cost: Free
Description: SeoQuake is a Firefox plug-in that’s great for researching your search competition. It can resort search results based on a range of factors, including:
o Number of Web pages
o Number of links from Yahoo!
o Number of links from MSN
o Alexa rank
o Domain age
o Links from del.icio.us
Today’s Hot Trends
http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?sa=X
Cost: Free
Description: Another Google Trends feature is Today’s Hot Trends. You can access it by clicking “More Hot Trends” on the Google Trends homepage. “It’s been talked about for a while, but I don’t think a lot of people are using it,” Reynolds says.
Today’s Hot Trends is updated every hour and shows the top 100 fastest-rising search terms on Google.
Yahoo! Search Assist
http://www.yahoo.com/
Cost: Free
Description: When you’re using the search box in Yahoo!, you might notice a gray textbox of terms that appears when you start typing a phrase. The words in the box are Yahoo!’s suggestions for related keywords, loosely based on word content and search volume.
The difference between this tool and many others is the fact that Yahoo!’s suggestions are not based on character order alone. For example, typing “bug” into some tools will only return keywords that begin with “b-u-g” like “buggy” or “bugs.” Yahoo!, on the other hand, returns “fashion bug,” “bugs bunny” and “bed bugs.”
Topics: SEO Tools, Website Strategies | No Comments »
Search Engine Spider Simulator
By Kyle Henrie | May 29, 2008
Sometimes you put a lot of work into your website and then find out that the search engines can’t see the content (i.e. Flash). The problem usually occurs because everything rendered on the client-side may not be visible to search engines (i.e. JavaScript).
This tool simulates the search engines spider by displaying the contents of a web page exactly how a search engine spider would see it. Give it try!
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Topics: SEO Tools, Spiders, Website Strategies | No Comments »
32 Search Engine Optimization Tips
By Kyle Henrie | May 23, 2008
- Repeat information throughout your page. Make sure your title tag, meta content, headers, and content all match up.
- Have a strong text to code ratio. If 95% of your page is made up of code the search engines are going to have a harder time reading the content.
- Add keywords to your page names. A page with the name of purina_dog_treats.html is more likely to boost search results than treats.html.
- Bold keywords in your content. Many search engines give more relevance to bolded terms.
- Don’t create a Flash website. Maybe someday in the future search engines will be able to make sense of Flash, but for now, you won’t get ranked under more than one page if you build your entire site in Flash.
- Promote your website on blogs, forums, and other websites you webmaster. Backlinks are important for seo, but traffic can be too. If your link is in a relevant place and it draws a steady stream of traffic, search engines will give it more relevance.
- Make sure you use your keywords in your alt tags. But avoid keyword stuffing.
- Practice only ethical seo. Unethical seo practices could get your site banned from Google.
- Use <h1>, <h2> etc. in your headers. Search engines place more relevance on header tags.
- More content is typically better. A page with more content will have a better text to code ratio meaning the search engines won’t have to wade through as much code. This also allows for more opportunities to use your relevant keywords.
- Make sure to research your keywords. Choosing keywords that merely represent the company or services your website offers isn’t always the best route to take. Instead, look for relevant search strings and alter your content to reflect what is actually being searched. For example, if your company sells all sorts of posters and frames, but gold framed posters are getting a high search volume, target those keywords instead of being general.
- Put some thought into your description meta. This is the text that people will typically see on the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). If the description is not enticing or relevant, users will not click.
- Track which pages get hits and find out what is working. Using software like Visitorville lets you see very detailed statistics about which pages are getting hit and what site directed them there. If you are getting a lot of traffic from a certain keyword, considering writing more content for that term.
- Avoid using text colors that are similar to their background colors. Google may interpret your text as being cloaked- meaning a possibility that you will be taken off of their list. Contrasting text is not only search engine friendly, you will be doing a service to your readers.
- Move away from tables in your designs. Tables create code bloat which makes it more difficult for search engines to find the relevant content on your page. Use css positioning whenever possible.
- Install Firefox developer toolbar and poke around competitor sites that have high ranking. If you want to compete with the big companies, find out what they’re doing right and try to emulate them. Seo techniques aren’t copyrighted.
- Pay a blogger to review your website.Not only will you get backlinked, you may also generate some decent traffic.
- Target appropriate backlinks. Quality backlinks are great for your site’s organic relevance and will also drive traffic.
- Create a facebook, myspace or moli page for your site. All of these are indexed by Google.
- Add keywords to your image names. Sometimes people will find your site on a Google images search. Image names will also be read by search engines and give the page more relevance.
- Create a text document called robots.txt in the site root.
- A frequently updated sitemap is vital. Whether you use an xml or html sitemap, it’s important that search engines can easily find every page that you want indexed. Make sure to update the sitemap every time you add a new page.
- Create a 404 page. In some cases you will have to fight against Internet Explorer which likes to hijack your 404 functionality, so Google a tutorial if you’re having trouble. 404 pages are an excellent way to capture any misspelled links or broken anchors that would anger your users and throw off search engines.
- Use external styles and javascript.Don’t clutter your page with in-line styles or heavy handed javascript statements. This is more code that search engines have to wade through to get to your content.
- Don’t add too many conditions to dynamic urls. A url of only one or two conditions will do much better on the SERPs than a url with 5 conditions (all other things being equal).
- Rewrite dynamic urls if possible. It’s an advanced technique- but if you have access to a knowledgeable developer it is advantageous to rewrite dynamic urls to contain keywords from the page content.
- Submit your site to DMOZ. But don’t hold your breath. DMOZ chooses which sites they want to add to their directory- and the waiting list is typically very long. It’s worth it to submit to their list- but definitely not essential.
- Clean up your code. Programs like Visual Studio and Dreamweaver allow you to automatically clean up your code for readability. This will help you trim the fat and eliminate as much code as possible.
- Don’t duplicate content in your site. Search engines are looking for unique content that can only be found on any given page. If you duplicate large portions of content from one page to another you will be creating competition within your own site for top ranking on the SERPs.
- Write a blog. Many webmasters, seo specialists, etc. have created blogs that they update 2-3 times a week. The more popular the blog gets, the more value the backlinks you’ve created will be to the search engines.
- Create a Youtube channel. If you don’t have video content relating to your website, buy a webcam and start filming some. Even if your videos are only moderately successful, they can provide a fair amount of regular traffic to your site- as well as provide backlinks.
- Create microsites.Many companies have created microsites that have gimmicks in them such as flash games- and backlinked to their main website. This not only produced more interest in the company services and products, but improved seo results.
Topics: Website Strategies | 1 Comment »
Link Popularity
By Kyle Henrie | May 16, 2008
What is link Popularity? Link popularity is a general representation of the total number of web pages which link to a website (or individual web page). Most of the major search engines support the “link:” operator. Type in “link:” (without the quotation marks) in front of the URL about which you want to learn.
What does this tool do? This tool will query all the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, and MSN) when you enter the “link:” operator with your chosen URL. It will return the total link count for each URL.
Why is link popularity important? Link popularity is important because it is a major factor used by search engines in determining a site’s position in search results. Generally, a site with more inbound links will be positioned higher than a similar site with fewer links. Other factors that are considered include anchor text.
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Topics: Link Analysis, SEO Tools, Website Strategies | No Comments »
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