Category Archives: Off-Page SEO

Posts that Contain Off-Page SEO Information

Cutts, Links and Company News

Jtree August Update

It has been a scorching summer here in Boise, one for the record books no doubt. As the Summer of SEO ensues, we’ve been toiling away the heat of the day from within the cold, dark chambers of the newly developed subterranean Jtree labs.

While we don’t have submersible labs sunken within Quinn’s Pond (or, do we?), Jtree has been hard at work refining processes, renewing campaigns and on-boarding new clients.

Company News

Our SEO Reporting App has an upgraded interface; as if it didn’t already look good enough to eat, the new update refreshes the overall UI with a crisp, clean, easy to navigate overhaul. Daily data updates never ~~tasted~~ looked so good!

: Result Types

: Rankings Graph

: Reporting Overview

: Sample PDF Report

Our portfolio has also been refurbished with new clients – greetings newbies!

Industry Tidbits

In case you missed it, Google’s Matt Cutts provided insight into the value and importance of links in a recent interview with Eric Enge of Stone Temple. See the Twitter Card below to learn more.

@stonetemple interviews @mattcutts about, what else, backlinks! http://t.co/yrddPTnpIu

— Josh Laughtland (@JtreeSEO) July 29, 2013

While we’re on the topic of links, Google updated their link schemes Webmaster Tools guidelines, essentially laying out examples of backlinks that could negatively impact search engine rankings.

That’s it! Now get out there and enjoy the rest of summer!

YouTube Testing Linked Annotations with Pilot Group

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YouTube is currently testing a new feature with a pilot group of YouTubers that allow annotations in video clips to be linked to a page within an associated website.

YouTube presently allows linked annotations to a YouTube Channel, Video, Playlist and subscribe option. If the pilot is successful, users will be able to link to any page on the associated website set in YouTube settings. Linking to any other website aside from what was set as the associated website is prohibited.

Here’s How It Works (and to see if you are part of the pilot group)

Within your YouTube settings select the ‘associated website’ option. Enter your website URL in the box provided.

Getting Started with Linked YouTube Annotations

Now that the associated website has been set, choose a video in the video manager to add a linked annotation. Use the edit drop-down next to the video to select the annotations option.

YouTube Linked Annotations Edit

Once the create/edit annotation screen loads, either create a new annotation or select an existing. Select the checkbox for ‘link’, then choose ‘associated website’ from the options. And finally, add the URL of the page located within the website previously set as the associated website.

If ‘associated website’ is not one of the available options, you are most likely not part of the pilot group.

Adding a Linked Annotation to a YouTube Video

Once you’ve entered the URL for the link, save and publish the changes. The new linked annotation should look something like the one displayed below.

YouTube Linked Annotation Result

No word yet on if or how much link juice/authority will pass from annotated links. However, this could be an opportunity to further integrate website offerings with YouTube content.

Plus, giving viewers the option to obtain extended or supplemental information about the video they are watching benefits not only the viewer, but the website as well – regardless of any link juice issues.

The majority of the pilot group of YouTubers that have linked annotations enabled were sent an email from YouTube notifying them of this. Still, it might be worth it to check for yourself.

SEO for Your Tweets

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Are you on Twitter? Do you run a blog or website? Do you tweet about it?

If you do, this tip will help tweak your tweets in an effort to increase the rank of your site or blog in the search engines based on targeted keywords and phrases. There’s no guarantee as to how much of an effect, if any, this will have. However, my personal tests have returned positive results.

To get the most mileage out of your link tweets utilize text relevant to the link destination. Then, make sure to syndicate your Twitter stream on other networks and platforms.

Related and Relevant

Keyphrase targeting tweets that contain links to your website or blog just makes sense. Twitter and Google are not only indexing tweets with links, but are also analyzing the words and phrases within the tweeted link and destination page on your site or blog.

How to SEO Your Tweets

Step 1. Make sure your targeted keywords/phrases are in the text of the tweet that contain the link. Ideally, you want the text to be relevant to the link.

Step 2. Link to a blog post or web page in a tweet.

Try to keep your URL short. If you need to shorten your URL, use Tweetburner or Bit.ly – which saves the original URL and text on the web and shares data with a number of other published resources.

You can authenticate bit.ly for use with other Twitter applications like Seesmic and TweetDeck. Hootsuite’s URL shortening service and social networking management platform is another viable option.

Step 3. Syndicate your Twitter feed/stream. This can be accomplished with a number of methods; Feedburner, FriendFeed, Google Buzz, RSS embedding, WordPress Plug-Ins, Widgets, social networking profiles and aggregation websites … for starters. Backlinks anyone? 🙂

Remember, Twitter attaches the “nofollow” attribute to the link on your Twitter profile and all tweeted links in your social stream.
Many syndicated links generally DO NOT have “nofollow” attribute tags, hence the elevated potential of increasing link juice to your website or blog.

Following the above 3 steps will increase the likelyhood of your Tweets acquiring backlinks by optimizing and syndicating your link tweets with keyphrases related to the promoted link.

You may or may not see immediate results. I’ve witnessed social backlinks juice immediately, then die-off after about a week only to resurface months later. FYI, there are a lot of variables in this scenario, and keep in mind that backlink accreditation can take time.

Don’t forget to Follow Us on Twitter!

Find Out Who Links to Your Site with the SEO Backlink Checker Tool

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Why Backlinks?

Oldskool Backlink Checkers Backlinks are linky votes of confidence, and are core to any serious SEO campaign. Backlinks represent links from other websites that point to your site, and are very important in regard to how well your website or blog ranks in the search engines. The more quality backlinks a site has translates into better search engine rankings… in a nutshell.

Backlink Intel

Google typically only reveals LESS THAN 1% of the actual backlinks for your site that they are giving you credit for.
Yahoo! typically only reveals LESS THAN 5% of the actual backinks for your site.

The main reason why backlink sources are not revealed is simple; Blackhat SEOs can use that information for shady intentions. All the more reason to hire a professional SEO; which have the tools to track backlinks beyond what is readily available to the general public, and experience to formulate viable Off-Page SEO strategy. Plus, we tend to have a ‘knack’ for knowing all of the good places to get ‘juicy’ backlinks. 🙂

Backlink Checker Tool

Curious about who’s linking to your website or blog? Use the backlink checker tool below to find out. Note: Pay close attention to the PageRank of backlink locations (URLs), this is a quality indicator of the site linking to you. Generally speaking, you want backlinks from websites that have a higher PageRank than your own site or blog. You can check your PageRank here.

Tip! Enter your competitor’s website address to find out where they are getting backlinks from.

Tip! Enter your Twitter, YouTube, Facebook Fan Page or other social network profile URL to find out if people are linking to you.

Interested in Off-Page SEO (aka acquiring quality backlinks)? Contact us with questions or to get started!