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In the world of SEO, SIZE DOES MATTER! If you have a site with 5 backlinks and a site with 500 backlinks (assuming they are both decent sites), who wins in the battle for the top spots; the one with the bigger backlink count or the one without? (yes, there are circumstances that can cause the site with the lower backlink count to rank higher, but we’re sticking what’s generally the norm, extenuating circumstances notwithstanding, in this post)

Your site needs votes, and it needs its link to be embedded in relative sites telling the search engines ‘Hey I’m a good site and this link has content that’s very relative and good, check it out and share it!’

It also needs its link to show up on different types of sites to say to the SEs ‘Hey this site is being linked to all over the web! It’s being bookmarked, it’s showing up on blogs, it’s showing up in articles, it’s showing up on social and web 2 platforms…it’s EVERYWHERE, you REALLYYY need to share this site!’

If your site is being ‘talked about’ all over the web and the other site isn’t…what do you think the search engines will think?  …that your site is more relevant and more popular, so it says ‘Hey, I need to share this site with people because it’s relevant and it’s well liked!’ and it gives you a boost in rankings.

That’s the plain English version of ‘why’ size DOES matter. It really is that simple (yes you still need content, yes you still need on-page SEO…we’re speaking in terms of off-page).

It’s the size of the ship that makes the motion in this ocean! Minnows will just be little visitors swimming by here and there!

~k, Visibility Specialist
@areaK on Twitter
@areak on Facebook

Need more links? The Link Vines team will build them for you!

photo credit: toiletbowl martini

Forum posting is not a new technique but it’s consistently a great traffic source for blogs I use it on and it’s a multi-faceted attack. Forum posting gives you the benefit of both backlinks and targeted organic traffic.  I get a good amount of organic traffic from it…plus it’s targeted traffic because the forums I’m in are related to the niche of the blog I’m representing on that forum, and I get a good number of backlinks from it.

Whenever I check my links for a blog, I consistently see my forum links and I generally see them pretty quickly.

(And I usually get extra benefit from forums by learning some new information, getting some new ideas or finding some resources since the forums I’m in are related to whatever blog/site I’m representing them in. You may even learn about an additional problem in your niche that you can solve for people or improve on your existing site by improving your solution or getting ideas for blog posts.)

And you’ve heard that forum posting can help you become an authority in your niche, and it can. I have had people message me and say “I’ve read a lot of your forum posts and I’d like to ask you about xxxx or will you review my new xxxx” or have people go to my blog from the forum and leave a blog comment. You generally have to be reasonably active within a forum to have this happen but if you are, it truly can help boost your authority.

Not to mention, it’s a GREAT way to find people looking for a solution to a problem that you have solved for them. If you get in front of them, they’re bound to look because they have that problem. Get out there and find forums in your niche and get in front of people that are discussing and looking for the solution you have.

So, again, it’s not a big secret, it’s not a brand new technique but it’s one that I consistently see in my blog stats for organic traffic and one that I consistently see in my backlink reports.

A lot of forums will allow you to use anchor text in your signature, and if they don’t at first, they often will after you’ve made a certain number of posts. The more you actually contribute to the community the more you’re likely to get organic traffic directly from the forum.

It’s such an easy way to accomplish a number of goals: getting backlinks, driving organic traffic, getting in front of targeted traffic, establishing visibility and authority; and even gaining new ideas and resources.

I bet if you set aside an hour a day for the next 2 weeks to interact in forums, you’ll see some traffic coming in from them and you’ll see them popping up in your backlink reports.

Don’t forget about this traffic builder.

Forums are still “in”!

Are you already using forums to increase visibility? What have been your results thusfar?

~k, Visibility Specialist
@areaK on Twitter
@areak on Facebook

Need more links? The Link Vines team will build them for you!

photo credit: Tifa^

photo credit: Rego – twitter.com/w3bdesign

Comment Luv is a Wordpress Plugin that shows some love to your commenters by adding a link to their last blog post under their comment. It’s a nice little thank you to your commenters and it’s also an encouragement for them to leave comments.

I think it’s nice to show people a little love back and to give them a little incentive to comment. Personally I love comments and enjoy people interacting on my blogs, so why not say thanks and let them get some luv? A lot of my favorite bloggers use Comment Luv.

Sure you may be concerned about spam but you can install something like Askimet that will catch most of it (I usually scan my Aksimet every few days because occasionally it catches non-spam comments) and are you going to just shut your blog off from the world in fear of spam? Blogs are meant to be interactive so let them take their natural course and help you build and engage with a community. And when others see people leaving comments, it’s encouragement for them to get in involved in the discussion too so don’t be scared of them, embrace them.

But now Comment Luv also gives YOU some more link luv! Install Comment Luv and register at http://comluv.com and you’ll get to create a profile over there AND:

• You can add your site so that every time you comment on a blog that uses Comment Luv you’ll get up to 10 links from chosen sources.
• You get your own blog over there (do you smell MORE links?) Tip: add a blog post and link it back to your site & add yourself to your blog roll.
• You can also purchase credits (really cheap but not necessary) to do some different things like register more sites or choose a static post that you always want to show when you comment on a blog that has Comment Luv installed.

If you’re always looking for new ways to get link juice this is a great way to accomplish 2 things: encourage readers to comment & say thanks to them for doing so AND to get YOURSELF some more link love! Go ahead, it only takes a few minutes to set up and start spreading, and getting, link luv!

And then come back over here and comment on your first Comment Luv enabled blog and get those links rolling!!

~k, Visibility Specialist
@areaK on Twitter
@areak on Facebook

Need more links? The Link Vines team will build them for you!

photo credit: seelensturm