SEO's are always bickering about link building, such as what strategies work best and which platforms offer the greatest link juice. The issue that gets brought up time and time again is how to get quality do-follow links. Many SEO's and Internet marketers fail to realize there is a gold mine of link building resources right under their noses!

Web 2.0 Link Building

Creating Web 2.0 properties is one of the most effective and natural ways to get your website or brand name out there. The benefits of Web 2.0 are plentiful, for most of these properties allow users to publish custom content with keyword targeted backlinks. In addition, most Web 2.0 sites are free and very easy to use.

Web 2.0's to Add to Your Arsenal

Wordpress.com is a stepping stone for anyone new to creating their own website. It is also an easy platform to generate your own blog or link portal to your money site.

Squidoo.com is among the most powerful Web 2.0's for link building. Squidoo lenses are pages with a specific topic, and they can pertain to just about any interest. Additionally, Squidoo offers solid do-follow link building opportunities through many flexible techniques (contextual, in body links, image links, as well as link lists.)

Weebly.com is another great Web 2.0 property that offers a user-friendly website editing system similar to Wordpress.com, but perhaps even easier to use. Weebly provides seamless control, and it is praised by some of the biggest names on the web TechCrunch, Time and the Wall Street Journal praising them.

Do-follow Link Building with Web 2.0's

Most people will tell you that do-follow links are extremely important to have pointing to your website as they hold the most weight. The great thing about Web 2.0 sites such as Squidoo, Weebly, and Wordpress is that they are highly trusted platforms that offer do-follow backlink building. Do-follow backlinks means that search engines like Google will follow and credit those links to your webpages.

You have an army of Web 2.0 properties right at your finger tips, so the question is how to get started?

Here is a great strategy if you want to maximize the exposure of your new site and start building do-follow backlinks using Web 2.0 properties.

First Create a Google Plus profile page for your money site, with a backlink directing to the domain. This will establish greater search engine credibility and can improve your SEO performance.

Next create a Squidoo lens on a specific topic that underscores your website or brand. Include valuable, relevant content and build a few contextual links to your money site. Once complete, submit your lens to Digg.com and StumbleUpon.com to spread the word about your new content.

Now take the concepts or content topic of your Squidoo lens and re-purpose the content for a Wordpress and/or Weebly site. Here you can expand on your ideas and continuously generate content (and links.)

Well that about sums up some of the best practices of link building using Web 2.0's. Do you have any ideas to share? Please, add them in the comments below.

Starting an external blog for your business can offer a number of benefits. Most of these benefits center on increasing both new and reoccurring traffic.

Before we dive too deep, let’s take a look at the fundamentals of what an "external business blog" really is.

What is an external blog?

An external blog is publishing source that is on a separate domain (.com, .org, .info) from the business's website. As opposed to an internal blog that is a part of the domain (whether as a blog page or a sub-domain,) external business blogs can offer greater flexibility and additional SEO value.

Typically, external business blogs are built with theme or topical relevance to that of the business. However, what makes an external blog for a business more flexible than an internal blog is the ability to brand the external blog as its own entity.

This is where it is important to really "carve your niche" with you blog and set the stage for highly focused content. For instance, if local winery is unveiling an external blog, they will want to focus their content specifically on the wine industry. Furthermore, the winery could carve its niche deeper by focusing the content of the blog unique aspect of wine and how it relates to local interests.

Developing an external blog that flows with the brand of the business is key to attract targeted, in-market traffic. Flexibility and creativity come into play when determining just how aligned the brand of the blog meets that of the business.

Brand your blog strategically

All blogs should have a primary goal. The common goal for most blogs is to attract users to the blog (with solid marketing and interesting content) and funnel that traffic to the website of the business.

To do that, you need to brand your blog in a way that relates to your target market. The type content in which you plan to publish plays a big role in positioning the brand of the blog. Also a factor in blog branding is the nature of the target audience.

Does your blog seek to advise and teach visitors? Or does your blog seek to inform and enlighten visitors? The answers to these types of questions can help you determine the ideal brand image of your blog.

Populate your blog with precision

Referring back to the concept of "carving your niche," the content in which you publish on your blog is your way to achieve just that. Expansive blogs that cover a broad range of topics typically have a number of experts and writers populating the blog (to cover each topic.) Evaluate your goals and your resources, and start determining the target theme to position your blog.

Regardless of your area of specialty, stay focused on your niche and write content that stays specific to your blog's topic. Sometimes writing about topics that are outside the realm of your blogs topic may seem tempting, but always try to stay close to your blog's main idea.

Generate SEO value from your external blog

The SEO value of your external blog comes in two ways:

1. inbound traffic from visitors who find your blog, and later make their way to your website
2. building keyword-targeted links to your website to help its search engine rankings

The first SEO advantage of inbound traffic hinges on the quality and nature of your blog's content. Again, highly focused content that speaks to a precise audience is imperative to compelling visitors to further explore your blog and find their way to the website of your business.

Link building with your blog can help you grow your rankings in the search engines on specific keyword targets. The practice is quite simple. You must first have a blog story that relates to the link (or anchor text and URL destination of that link) that you want to build. It is important to ensure that the article or blog post has some relevancy to that of the link.

In addition to content relevancy, the anchor text, or link text, should contain the keywords in which you are targeting for the page receiving the link.

For instance, let’s say a small batch winery on the Leelanau Peninsula of Michigan is supplementing the local SEO efforts of its website with an external blog. In that blog, they are writing articles about various wine-related topics in the Leelanau Peninsula region. To make their website more relevant (and better optimized for) searches like "Leelanau Peninsula wineries," they should use the anchor text "Leelanau Peninsula wineries" in the links that they build from their blog to their website.

Well that about sums up this post on external blogging for you business. If you have any additional insights, or questions, please post them in the comments section below.

Google search has been witnessing a lot of changes recently. The search placement of a particular website is no longer a specific number in the rankings as much as it is a probability within a range.

As a result, SEO's and Internet marketers are faced with further difficulties in analyzing SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages.) In addition to the blended SERPs of videos, images, news, and shopping suggestions, things are getting even more mixed. 

Now enter "Search Plus your World," which introduces a host of factors that may further sway the search results. Location, personal preferences, search history, logged in or out as a Google users, searching from mobile device - it is almost impossible to define (and predict) the search engine rankings of a website because the results may vary from user to user.

SERPs of Search Plus your World

With Google's new "Search Plus your World," its ranking algorithm has significantly changed. Here Google observes the social behaviors of users through its social network platform called Google Plus.

In essence, Google Plus users who perform a search while logged into their Google account may be delivered more personalized search results. The webpages displayed in their SERPs may be pages in which people of their Google Plus network have shared or have clicked the +1 button of the page.

Pages that have been socially endorsed by fellow Google Plus users may rank much more favorably for a searcher. In a personalized SERP, the searcher will see tiny avatars of the people in his or her network who have +1'd certain pages. Additionally, the searcher may be exposed to webpages with more local relevance.

In short, some of pages displayed in the "Search Plus your World" results have been vouched for by people within your Google Plus network.

Local Business Impact

Google’s individually-tailored search results will become very important for local businesses. As Google Plus continues to grow its membership base, typical users will have networks (or "circles") which primarily consist of family and friends, and Google+ profile pages of local businesses.

Local businesses need to avoid the schemes that offer selling hundreds of +1 votes for better rankings. Earning mass-quantity +1's from unspecified accounts will be pointless for a local business, as none of these "people" will likely be in the local network of the business. As the system was intended to be, +1 authority must be built naturally.

As a business with a local market focus, you want to encourage mainly locals vouch for your webpages with the Google +1. Exploit your creativity, and offer promotions and incentives that are tied to your Google Plus. In turn, this will enable your rankings to be favored for more by local searches. Below are three simple ways to better your local SEO performance using the elements of Google Plus.

• Create a Google Plus profile for your local business – it’s just like Facebook and the membership base is growing. Funnel content about your business to your Google+ following and represent more local awareness.
• Place +1 buttons on every page of your website – this is becoming the new form of local SEO and displaying search engine credibility. Visit this page to get the code for various +1 buttons.
• Include your Google Plus profile link everywhere – traffic to your Google Plus page can be just as effective as any traffic to your website. Google Plus popularity can have immense impact on your local search rankings, especially with "Search Plus your World."

If you have additional insights on how to encourage more +1's for a local business website, be sure to add them in the comments below.

Content is king on the Internet, hence why it is very important to use it in the right manner to market your products or services. Content writing is a very crucial aspect of Internet marketing, and if you can't get your content right, then you are likely to struggle with your online business efforts. 

Article writing is one of the most effective ways of inviting customers toward your product or service. The Internet is a repository of splendid article directories. These are quite popular among Internet marketers because this is an easy way to connect with highly relevant consumers, and in a very economical way.

Article marketing helps an Internet marketer in two ways. First, writing optimized articles can help build links to your website, and thus making it more popular and found in the search engines. Secondly, well-written articles about your product or service can further establish trust and reputation for your business. A compelling article can make you seem like an expert in your field, and thus motivate readers to learn more (by visiting your website.)

Content marketing can be performed through writing press releases too. It is said that a press release can reach the potential buyers in a telling manner. That is, instead of boasting your product or service, your tone is more neutral and simply explains "what is."

Many Internet marketers are realizing the innate marketing power of press releases to generate more leads to their products or services. That said, make genuine use of the writing press releases, and explore some of the most popular press release publication sites that can make the most of your content, such as PRWeb and PRNewswire.

Content marketing can improve the popularity of your website to a great extent. Not only can your search engine rankings get a boost from the links built in your content, but the content that you publish is promotion piece in itself for curious readers.

Search engines have a flair for well-written, unique, and highly-relevant content. So as you move forward with your content marketing efforts, write to the reader and focus on the value you can provide them with your content.

More communities are realizing the importance of local sustainability and protecting their local economies. Businesses are focusing more on building relationships at a local level, and as a result marketing and advertising efforts are also shifting toward more local markets.

SEO has earned the reputation of being a highly efficient marketing channel that can provide an incredible return on investment. However local SEO, a unique sub-specialty of search engine optimization, can offer even more marketing efficiency and bang for the buck.

So what exactly is local SEO?

The concept of local SEO, also commonly called “hyper-local SEO,” is simply the practice of search engine optimization with a geographic focus. 

Many businesses and individuals are seeking a specific product or service within their local vicinity. So instead of searching the keyword phrase “bike shop” to find a local cycling store, a geo-modified search query would include something like “Traverse City bike shop” or “bike shop in Atlanta.”

In essence, local SEO makes a website relevant on both the core keyword phrase and the geographic modifier. By focusing a website’s SEO efforts the local market, businesses can earn qualified search traffic from potential customers in their local area.

Advantages of Local SEO

Like mentioned above, local SEO is efficient. The geo-targeted search market is considered highly “in-market,” meaning the traffic that comes to locally optimized website is often highly qualified to take action, or in other words, convert.

But local SEO is more than just an efficient connection between a website and a search engine user. Local SEO is typically less competitive than non-local SEO, and thus more cost-effective.

Unlike traditional SEO that can require months off-site link building, sometimes all it takes is a simple on-site, local SEO tune-up to see top search engine placement.

As more and more companies and consumers advocate the local approach to doing business, the opportunities for local SEO will offer great advantages.