Since most website visitors only spend a few seconds analyzing a new website before deciding whether to engage with the content further or click the back button to search for an alternative, your home page content plays a vital role in capturing attention and encouraging visitors to stick around long enough to turn into customers.

So today, let’s look at few different ways you can use home page introductions and other site design elements to capture these cold visitors and ultimately improve your site’s conversion rate.

1 – Styling your home page

The first thing you’ll want to decide when creating a home page introduction is how your page should be styled.  For example, when you land on the Single Grain website home page, you don’t see any old blog post or a page that lays out everything about the company right away.  Instead, what you see first is a home page introduction that shares the most compelling reasons to work with Single Grain right away:

This type of home page introduction – basically, a separate home page that’s designed to capture visitor attention quickly – can be seen across a number of other major sites, including Crazy Egg, Zaarly, Rhapsody and more.

However, this isn’t the only type of home page introduction you can – or should – use.  The specific type of home page introduction that’s right for your website and your business will vary based upon a number of different factors, and can really only adequately be determined by split testing.

The following are a few examples of other types of home page introductions you may want to experiment with.  First up is the traditional, long form sales letter, which is most often used if you’re selling a single product at a high price point.  In this example, the Market Samurai website uses a traditional copywriting headline and video clip to capture interest:

Yet another alternative can be found in sites that don’t use a separate home page, but instead integrate a message to visitors into the home page alongside other content.  In this example, blogging expert Chris Garrett introduces a main focus element that serves as a home page introduction for new readers without eliminating the presence of other types of content.

It’s also worth considering that your site might not technically have one “home page”.  If you receive traffic from a number of different sources – for example, organic search, PPC ads and social networking sites – these visitors may all be landing on different pages throughout your site.  For this reason, it might make sense for you to create multiple landing pages – each with their own unique, targeted home page introduction – that can be customized to each specific referral source.

As an example, web designer Eric Hall uses the following Twitter landing page to connect guests that click through from the social networking sites with the information they’re looking for right off the bat:

2 – Use traditional copywriting techniques

Of course, while it’s important to choose a home page introduction style that’s appropriately targeted to the type of visitor you’re receiving from each traffic source, it’s just as important to use the right words in each of these instances to encourage prospects to stick around.

For example, in Chris Garrett’s home page introduction featured above, the words “Sign up right now for email updates and get these two free ebooks” follow established headline guidelines that promote a feeling of urgency (“right now”) and demonstrate value to the user (“two free ebooks”).  Garrett has seamlessly integrated standard headline techniques into his site’s design in order to create a compelling home page introduction.

The Single Grain home page also makes use of traditional copywriting techniques by starting with a “feature” – in this case, “More Traffic” – and translating that feature into benefits for the user (stated here as, “Rank Higher. Get Exposure. Increase Revenue.”  This home page introduction takes the obvious goal of improving traffic and transforms it into benefits readers can imagine, all while encouraging them to take the next step of either downloading a report or working with the company.

Now, plenty has already been written about how to write the compelling headlines that’ll make visitors want to stick around on your home page for a while.  Check out any of the following articles to learn more about how to incorporate traditional copywriting techniques into your home page introduction:

• 5 Types of Killer Website Headlines (Single Grain)
• 8 Different Types of Headlines Which Sell (Trevor Crook)
• 9 Proven Headline Formulas That Sell Like Crazy (Copyblogger)
• Steal These 15 Headline Formulas for Your Next Landing Page or Blog Post (Crazy Egg)
• 7 Proven Headline Formulas That Capture Your Reader’s Attention (Intuit Websites)

3 – Test your home page

So now you’ve got your landing page structure and you’ve got a fancy headline that’s sure to generate interest in your site.  Here’s the problem…

As webmasters, we pour so much effort into our sites that it’s hard to imagine that we haven’t come up with the most perfect page possible.  After devoting hours to building a new page or to creating just the right headline, it’s nearly inconceivable that a better, more effective solution might exist out there.  But the truth is, the only way to know for sure that your page is as good as it could be is by backing up your assertions with actual data.

For this reason, it’s critical that you test different elements of your home page introduction to be sure it’s working as well as you imagine that it will.  The following are a few of the different types of tests you’ll want to conduct:

• The “Five Second” Test – Essentially, the five second test script attempts to replicate a user’s initial viewing of your site by giving testers access to a screenshot of your site for just five seconds and then requiring them to answer questions based on what they perceived.  This can be a fascinating way to determine whether or not viewers are able to identify and process your home page introduction within that crucial new site visit window.
• A/B Split Testing – Even the smallest elements can make a big difference in user engagement.  For example, swapping out a different home page image or even changing your font color could result in dramatic improvements in your average time on site.  To get started with split testing, check out Single Grain’s list of “Different Elements to Split Test on Your Website.”
• Heat Map Testing – Another great way to determine whether or not readers are honing in on your home page introduction is with the use of heat maps, which track users’ mouse movements across your site.  There are plenty of different heat map scripts out there, all of which operate by displaying a graphic overlay of your website that indicates “hot” areas of your site (where readers are focusing and clicking).  If your home page introduction isn’t a “hot” area, you’ll want to rework your page to feature this element more.

It may take some time to find the ultimate combination of layout, design and wording that results in the highest possible level of visitor engagement, but as your conversions start to increase and your average time on site improves, you should quickly see the benefit of investing time in these efforts.

Image: orange mushroom

You all know how important generating high quality backlinks are in order to build traffic back to your site and improve your rankings within the search engines.  But too often, discussions about backlinking and linking best practices tend towards the theoretical, which leaves webmasters knowing what they *should* do, but not necessarily how to do it.

So today, we’re going to look at a few examples of existing sites and the results of their backlinking efforts.  Hopefully, you find this information helpful in terms of understanding how to implement a solid backlinking strategy on your own website.  Let’s get started!

Today’s analysis sites come from the invoicing software vertical.  This market is growing, as consumers are increasingly turning towards cheaper, more flexible cloud-based accounting products over their pricier desktop competitors.  Because of this, businesses that implement good backlinking techniques now will be well-positioned to take advantage of growing traffic and business opportunities.

For this post, we’ll be looking at five of these competitors – Invoice Bubble, Zoho, Freshbooks, Invoice Machine and Trade Shift.

Invoice Bubble

Currently, Invoice Bubble has a number of good links from authoritative blogs, as well as some low value links from blog comments, which have resulted in rankings in positions two and three for the keywords, “Free Invoice Software” and “Invoice Software,” respectively.

Unfortunately, their weakness is link volume – they simply don’t have enough backlinks to compete with the site that’s ranking in the number one position for these keywords.  Not only does Invoice Bubble not have the exact match domain name its competitors have, the sites in the number one spots have an excess of 2,000 back links, while Invoice Bubble has less than 200.  Clearly, this represents a significant opportunity for the company.

Because the company’s current link building speed is adequate, we would recommend working social media promotion into their SEO strategy.  Not only would this help to improve rankings for the site – as social signals now function as a ranking factor in the search algorithms – it would also help to generate social media buzz and more backlinks from tweets, shares and likes.

Zoho

One of the top competitors in this space, Zoho’s backlinking strategy has been to combine multiple keywords in the same piece of backlinking anchor text.  For example, they’ve built a lot of links with the anchor text “Online Invoicing Expense Billing time tracking software,” which breaks into three different keywords:

• “Online invoicing,” which they rank number six for,
• “Expense billing,” which they rank number one for,
• And, “Time tracking software,” which they rank 24^th for.

In general, the site would benefit from mixing up the anchor text it uses in its backlinking campaigns to vary more naturally. Their current anchor text strategy looks spammy, and could result in an over-optimization penalty down the road.

Additionally, like Invoice Bubble, Zoho could derive some SEO benefit by working more social media promotion into their SEO strategy to build more linked tweets, shares, and likes for the page related to invoicing.

Freshbooks

Freshbooks is the shining star in our case study here, as they appear to have a well-rounded and diversified link building strategy.  Freshbooks is definitely doing it right!

Freshbooks currently has a number of links originating from many different root domains and going to all the pages on their site (which is important in order to spread link and page authority effectively). They’re also promoting themselves effectively via social media, which means that their pages are accruing valuable likes, tweets, and shares. Finally, their PR campaigns appear to be performing well, as the site has a large amount of links referring either to their brand name or just the website.

Freshbooks is targeting terms like:

• “Online invoicing,” which gets 22,000+ searches per month and for which they rank number one,
• “Time tracking,” which gets 246,000+ searches per month and for which they rank on page five,
• And, “Expense service,” which gets 12,000+ searches per month and for which they’re ranked number one.

Overall, you’re doing a good job, guys – keep up the great work!

Invoice Machine

After a quick look at their backlink profile, it’s clear that Invoice Machine is not doing enough link building to challenge their competitors effectively.  Because of this, we’ve identified a few areas they could improve on in order to compete with sites like Freshbooks and Zoho:

• Identify the right keywords and target them properly with the anchor text of all backlinks created.  The keywords Invoice Machine chooses to target should be relevant to what they offer and chosen specifically to drive visitors with commercial intent back to their website.
• Acquire links at a more consistent pace that’s meant to keep up with their competitors.
• Implement social media campaigns designed to attract consumers and build backlinks through tweets, shares and likes.

Although the site appears to offer a good quality product, no one is ever going to know about it if the site isn’t ranked for the right keywords.  We estimate that Invoice Machine could see substantial traffic and subscriber growth by implementing the steps listed above.

Tradeshift

Tradeshift is a newer service that’s taking a really innovative approach to billing and invoicing systems.  They’re based in Europe and are working not to build yet another invoicing program, but to create a “billing social network” of people who can use their free invoicing software to bill each other.  Looking at their current SEO strategy, I can see that they’re getting a decent amount of links, but there are some issues with their approach.

Our biggest concern is that they’re not targeting any particular keywords with their anchor text selections. After looking through their backlink profile, it’s clear that the large majority of their anchor text is branded terms or links referring to the founders of the company.  While these links are beneficial from a PR standpoint, the company needs to diversify its anchor text to include “buyer” keywords if it wants to attract the right people to the service.

For this reason, we’d give them the same advice we had for Invoice Bubble.  Figure out which keywords will bring the right people back to your site and conduct a targeted backlinking campaign that utilizes these keywords as anchor text within links from high profile, authority sites.  In addition, make use of social media promotion – which is especially relevant given the social nature of Tradeshift itself.

After looking at these stats, it’s clear that some players in the invoicing software vertical understand what to do and how to do it.  But a few of these sites need to focus on diversifying their link building strategies and developing a keyword focus that actively targets the phrases you’d like to rank for and get traffic from.  By implementing the recommendations described above, these sites could dramatically increase the amount of traffic they receive by boosting their positions within the search engine rankings.

Image: mcmstocksolutions

<a href="http://www.singlegrain.com/blog/google-panda-in-plain-english-infographic" target=”_blank"><img src="http://www.singlegrain.com/newsite/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Panda-infographic.jpg" alt="Google Panda Update"/></a> [Via: <a href="http://www.singlegrain.com/">Single Grain - A Digital Marketing Agency</a>]

Very few websites have seen the meteoric rise of interest and engagement that Pinterest has, and – as you might expect – this rapid adoption offers plenty of potential for website owners to get their content noticed.  But what is Pinterest, and how can you use this innovative new website to promote your own content in the increasingly noisy digital environment?

Let’s take a closer look at how to use this fun new social bookmarking program to promote your website effectively…

Essentially, Pinterest is a visual way to organize your internet bookmarks.  Instead of simply saving interesting links to your browser’s bookmark menu or making use of list-based social bookmarking services, Pinterest allows you to create image-heavy “boards” where you can capture and sort interesting links by group, as well as share your curated links with your followers.

The first step to using Pinterest is to score an invite, as the program is not yet open to general registrations.  The Pinterest website allows you to request an invitation, but since this process may take several weeks, you can also ask friends who are current members for an invite or post your request to the Pinterest Facebook page for an immediate response.

Once you’re inside, you’ll likely find the site’s set up to be overwhelming at first, as your first login will greet you with every item your Facebook and Twitter contacts have pinned recently.  Don’t panic – once you spend a little time exploring the site, you’ll find that the way it’s set up makes intuitive sense.

To really understand how Pinterest works, start by installing the “Pin It” button to your browser’s bookmarking toolbar and creating your first board.  Keep the topic of your first board relatively narrow – for example, “Recipes to Try” or “Styles I Love.”  Remember, you can always expand the subject of your board, but ultimately, you’ll likely find that narrowly-defined board topics are most useful to you and your followers.

Let’s walk through an example to get an idea of how Pinterest is used…  Say you keep a list of inspirational blog posts that you like to read when you’re having a rough day.  In this case, consider creating a Pinterest board titled, “Inspirational Blog Posts,” which will provide you with a visual collection of these posts that you can reference when you need an extra kick in the pants.

To load your Pinterest board with the posts you’ve already collected, visit each post on your list and click the “Pin It” button from your browser’s toolbar to add it to your newly created board.  Pinterest will automatically grab an image from the post and add it to your board, where you can reference it at a later date.  As you continue to come across inspirational blog posts, you can make sure these pages are tracked by clicking the “Pin It” button again to store new posts on your Pinterest board.

By now, you should be starting to see how a site that enables readers to share web pages amongst each other in this way offers some interesting opportunities for site owners.  In fact, the power of Pinterest as an SEO and social bookmarking tool comes from two specific elements:

1. The fact that Pinterest users can quickly and easily share “Pins” amongst each other (contributing to an effortless, viral expansion of brand awareness), and
2. That every image used as a Pinterest pin retains a source link back to the original page from which the image was collected – no matter how many times it’s shared.

Basically, when one of your followers sees a pin you’ve posted and likes it, she has the opportunity to “re-pin” it, making the pin accessible to all of her followers as well.  If a pin is interesting enough, it’s possible for the content to go viral as it’s shared amongst different groups of people.  This has substantial implications for the use of Pinterest to build your brand and increase awareness of your offerings across a wide network of users.

In addition, every time you create or share a Pinterest pin, you’re forming a back link to the original site, which can then be spread throughout your social networking connections.  As of right now, these links are still “do follow”, lending a tremendous amount of authority to links from the site, although there’s speculation that the company may convert these links to “no follow” in the future due to the potential for link spam (as in other social bookmarking sites).

Here’s how to use Pinterest in order to safely and ethically promote your website on this new social networking site:

1 – Share your own content via Pinterest

If you run a blog, you can create a board that’s specifically related to your blog, as well as Pinterest pins for your favorite pieces of content from your site.  Your Pinterest followers can then subscribe to this board and “re-pin” your posts to their own profiles, allowing awareness of your content to spread virally and result in a steady stream of new back links to your site.

Of course, you shouldn’t create a pin for every single post you write.  This looks “spammy” and may cause people to stop following your board if you pin too often and clog up their profiles.  Instead, create pins for only your best content to increase your chances of getting shared.

2 – Position content on your site for easy sharing on Pinterest

Just as you’ve added social sharing buttons to your site to enable readers to easily upload your content to Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites, you can also optimize your content for effective sharing on Pinterest.

The first thing you’ll want to keep in mind is that Pinterest is a visual network.  If you don’t incorporate images into your posts, your content can’t be automatically shared on Pinterest (although users can add it manually if they’re so inclined).  For this reason, it’s important to add an aesthetically-pleasing, relevant image to each post to make your content as attractive as possible on your readers’ Pinterest boards.

Depending on your niche, you may also find it valuable to integrate a “Pin It” button directly onto your pages.  Adding this feature to your product pages, best blog posts or other important pieces of content will increase the number of times your content is shared on Pinterest, as well as give you control over the specific images, descriptions and links that are associated with your pins.

3 – Increase back links by “reclaiming” pins

Occasionally, you’ll find content from your site shared on Pinterest without a link back to your site, which can occur if your content is syndicated to other sources like blog directories, Google Shopping and other aggregate sites.  By searching Pinterest for relevant brand and product keywords, you can find these pins and contact the owners to request that the link be modified, dramatically increasing the number of Pinterest links pointing back to your site.

Because Pinterest has mostly been used to share personal interest items (like recipes, home décor ideas and shopping lists), there’s a tremendous opportunity for webmasters to obtain a “first mover” advantage by being among the first to showcase their content on Pinterest.  If you haven’t already, take a look at this fun new site and get started pinning – you’ll be amazed at the amount of traffic and interest this seemingly-simple site can generate!

When it comes to creating viral content, there’s no reason to reinvent the wheel.  If you aren’t seeing the kind of interest you’d like in your blog posts and articles, read on to learn more about the processes that we use to build traffic to a website through the use of proven viral content techniques.

At Single Grain, when we create content for a client’s website, we often draw from ideas, structures, and strategies that have already demonstrated success on the web and in the blogosphere.  Essentially, we take a “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” policy – instead of attempting to generate interest for an unproven topic or article structure, we learn from past experience to develop content that’s likely to generate viral activity.

The advantages of this type of content are two-fold.  Not only does the viral content we create help to build traffic to a website by capitalizing on trending topics, it also leads to an influx of new backlinks which help our clients rank even higher in the search engine results pages.

Sounds pretty cool, right?!  Read on to learn more about the two methods we use to reverse engineer potential viral content…

1 – Develop viral content by searching trending topics

The concept of reverse engineering viral content from trending topics is actually pretty simple.  To start, we find one or more topics that are trending rapidly across the search engine results pages and social media networks, and then we write content that relates everything back to the website we’re working on.

For example, sometime ago, Charlie Sheen’s break down on TV was a major trending topic in the news, on social networking sites, and in the search engines.  We might also look for events related to our business vertical or events with nationwide importance (for example, the Sugar Bowl) that are trending as well.  Next, we’ll combine a few of these events with topics from within the industry we’re targeting in order to produce a blog post that’s likely to get picked up and shared via social media.

As an example, since Single Grain is in the SEO industry, we might leverage the trend listed above to produce blog posts like “Charlie Sheen’s Approach to Link Building,” or “Which Teams Belong in The Super Bowl According to their SEO: A Competitive Link Analysis”

These aren’t great examples, but they should illustrate the concept for you.  Basically, we combine several elements that are trending upwards, produce fresh content for them, and then point links at the new viral article.  Doing so earns us more visitors, increased CTR on the search results page, and buzz in the social media world.

To use this technique on your own websites, you’ll need to start by identifying the trending topics that will generate the most interest for your content.  Play around with the tools listed below and make a note of any trending topic that catches your eye – whether or not it’s related to your business.

From that larger list, make a smaller list of ideas that relate closely to your industry and those for which you’ll be able to produce content for.  Keep in mind – not all trending topics lend themselves to viral posts, though with practice, you’ll find that most trending topics can be connected in some way to key topics within your industry.  Finally, use this list to come up with potential blog post titles and draft your viral content.

Tools:

• http://trendistic.indextank.com/
• http://www.kurrently.com (Use this to search Twitter and Facebook updates)
• www.socialmention.com
• http://trendsbuzz.com/
• http://topsy.com/s?q=Volcano+Vaporizer
• http://trendsmap.com/ (Use this tool to identify trending topics on a regional basis)
• http://www.google.com/insights/search/
• http://www.google.com/trends
• http://www.monitter.com/

2 – Reverse engineer viral content from articles that are already performing well

Another really effective method for generating content that’s likely to get shares and links on social networking sites (as well as to build traffic and backlinks back to our target site) is to find examples of articles that are already performing well on sites like StumbleUpon, Reddit, Digg, HackerNews and Delicious, and then model our content after them.

StumbleUpon

To make this process work on StumbleUpon, start by creating an account (or a dummy account, if you’re investigating topics for a client’s site) and set your interests to include topics related to our business niche.  Then start “stumbling” with the Stumble button and watch for articles to come up that catch your eye and generally look awesome.

Copy the direct website URL out of your browser, according to the following image, and then paste it into the search field at www.socialmention.com.

At the bottom left of the search screen, you should be able to see how many StumbleUpon stumbles, Facebook shares, and other social metrics that the linked article has achieved.  If there’s not enough data in this screen, you can plug the same URL into the Open Site Explorer to get the exact number of tweets and likes (if you have a pro account).

When you see an article that’s achieved a high number of social shares through various networks, make a note of it – keeping in mind that what constitutes a “high number” will vary by industry.  After evaluating several articles, you should have a good idea of which articles are performing best amongst your industry’s audience.  Try to identify any similarities between these successful articles and use the conclusions you’re able to draw when creating your own viral content.

For example, if all of the successful articles you come across follow a list post format (as in, “7 Steps to Reverse Engineering Viral Content”), that could be a signal that this type of content performs well with your target audience.  Similarly, f you notice a similar tone or point of view being used across multiple articles, try to mimic these effects in your own content to improve your chances of success.

Digg, Reddit and HackerNews

StumbleUpon is unique in the way the service is used to identify new content, so consider the following process if you plan to identify viral content on Digg, Reddit, HackerNews or any other site that uses community voting to rank articles.

First, go to your chosen website and find the articles that have been voted up the most in the categories that are related to you or your client’s business.  Glance through them quickly and look for content structures that you could modify for use on your own site.  For example, if you come across popular tutorials in your niche, consider that this type of information could be just as valuable written in your own words on your own website.

Similarly, when you find content on these sites that have a lot of social media shares or a lot of Diggs, Stumbles, and so on, you can write your own articles modeling the same format and style in order to increase your chances of having your articles shared virally.

Of course, be aware that we’re in no way, shape or form recommending that you go out and plagiarize existing viral content.  Instead, use these articles as guides from which you can draw the necessary conclusions that will help you to see the same success with your own unique articles.

Image: bilisimhukuk

For too long, the standard advice on keyword research has been to go out, purchase an expensive keyword discovery tool and then spend hours running searches until you find keywords that meet the specific parameters in terms of search volume and competing pages that you set.

But this is 2012!  It’s time to shake things up and explore new ways to find the keywords that will best suit your business model and content needs.  Today, we’re going to look at how to use Twitter’s trending topics for keyword research, using a simple three-step process.  Let’s get started!

1 – Understanding What Trending Topics Are and What They Tell Us

Before we can start using trending topics in our keyword research, we’ve got to understand what they are and what types of information they tell us.  According to Twitter:

“Twitter’s Trending Topics algorithm identifies topics that are immediately popular, rather than topics that have been popular for a while or on a daily basis, to help people discover the “most breaking” news stories from across the world. We think that trending topics which capture the hottest emerging trends and topics of discussion on Twitter are the most interesting.”

Essentially, Twitter uses these trending topics to highlight breaking news and viral topics that are growing in popularity exponentially.  As you might expect, this type of information offers some intriguing prospects when it comes to keyword research.

For example, if you’re pulling keywords to use in your pay-per-click (PPC) ads, how much extra money could you make if you were the first one to advertise on keywords related to new trending topics?  How many extra hits would your website get if you were the first to put out a blog post based on keywords related to a Twitter trending topic?

As you can see, there’s a lot of potential for using trending topics to identify keywords that will generate immediate interest in your ads or website.  But before we can start using these trending topics, we’ve got to know where to find them…

2 – Identifying Trending Topics within Your Industry

The easiest way to identify trending topics is to log in to Twitter itself.  On the right hand side of your Twitter profile, you should see a section titled “Trends”:

The default trend location (“United States” in the image above) will be set based on your location, but if it makes sense to do so for your business, you can also change this display to feature trending topics that are popular in individual cities or across entire countries.

Now, although these Twitter trending topics are easy to access and provide a good starting place for your keyword research, they have two major problems:

1. The inclusion of promoted topics skews the results, since these trending topics don’t represent actual public interest – just advertising dollars.  When evaluating Twitter’s reported trending topics, be sure to leave these out.
2. The scope of these topics is too broad.  Because Twitter is pulling the top trending topics from all users across all of the United States (in this case), the results include things like “Happy New Year” and “Iowa”.  While these trending topics may capture the mood of the public at a given point, they aren’t all that useful for webmasters who want to turn these trending topics into effective advertisements or articles.

Instead, we need a way to identify trending topics within specific industries in order to pick up on more relevant phrases that can be used in our keyword research.  To do this, check out either of the following free tools:

1. TwitScoop – Although the TwitScoop interface can take some getting used to, it provides an incredible amount of information once you understand how it works.  Use TwitScoop to identify trending topics from the past day, week or month, and to search for up-to-the-minute tweets from any industry.
2. TrendsBuzz – Not only does TrendsBuzz show you major trending topics across several different leading websites (including Twitter, Google+, Wikipedia and more), it also includes enhanced search features which will allow you to enter your industry keywords and find related news articles, blog posts and Web 2.0 updates to get a feel for what’s hot in your niche.

Using these two sources should enable you to get a pulse on what consumers in your industry are thinking.  Now, all we need to do is to figure out how to use this trending topic in our ads and web content…

3 – Transforming Trending Topics into Keyword Research

Unfortunately, there are no “hard and fast” rules on how to transform trending topics into keyword research, given the variability of the subject and differences that exist between industries in niches.  So instead of telling you exactly how to transform the trending topics you’ve identified into keyword research, let’s look at a few examples of how trending topics could be used to drive decisions about ad positioning and web content:

Example 1 – Keyword research for your ads

Currently, the Yahoo Buzz Movers section on the TrendBuzz website includes the keyword “bathroom cleaning tips”:

Entering this keyword phrase into TrendBuzz’s search feature turns up a number of news articles and questions related to “bathroom cleaning tips” that confirms that there’s public interest in this topic:

Now, suppose you run a plumbing supply website and want to capture some of this current interest to generate sales for your business.  Given the interest in this topic, you could decide to put together a report on the Top 7 Bathroom Cleaning Tips and offer it for free as part of your PPC ads.

As an example, the following PPC ad could help you to build generate traffic to your site by capitalizing on the trending topic you’ve identified:

Example 2 – Keyword research for your web content

When you’re writing website articles and blog posts, you have a little more flexibility in using trending topics from outside your industry, as the focus isn’t so much on providing totally relevant information as it is on capturing attention.

For example, say you run an SEO blog that helps webmasters figure out how to get their sites ranked well in Google.  According to the general Twitter trending topics pictured above and the current Google Buzz results pulled from TrendBuzz, there’s a lot of interest in the upcoming Iowa political caucuses:

As an experienced SEO strategist, you know that Rick Santorum has a long-standing problem getting his website ranked well in Google, but instead of using this issue for comic effect, you decide to harness this trending topic to build traffic back to your site with a blog post titled, “Why Rick Santorum Can’t Win in Google: 7 Lessons Webmasters Need to Know to Rank Well.”

Example 3 – Keyword research for market research

Finally, you can use trending topics to help drive market research for your company in terms of deciding which products to stock or what services to offer next.

In this example, let’s say you run a health food supply company.  When you log on to TwitScoop, you notice that “supplement” has been a trending topic for the past month (which is unsurprising, given the popularity of New Year’s Resolutions around this time):

When you click on the term “supplement”, you’re taken to a display that features every Tweet that relates to this keyword phrase in chronological order.  And although there are plenty of advertising messages mixed in to the results, you’ll also see plenty of people asking questions about specific types of supplements, which can clue you in to potential product lines your website could carry, as well as information that could attract visitors to your site when incorporated into a FAQ or information section.

As you can see, there’s no one way to incorporate trending topics into your keyword research.  Instead, for maximum success, use these tools to get a pulse for what your industry – as well as the general public – is interested in, and be open to incorporating this valuable data into your business plan in a number of different ways.

Image: michaelhyatt

The New Year is upon us, which means that a new crop of web trends is about to unfold.  Although we can’t make any concrete predictions about what will definitely happen in 2012 (heck – think back to January 2011 and try to think of anyone who predicted the enormity of the Panda updates!), there are a few trends we’re pretty confident will influence website success, now and in the future.

Here’s what you need to know to stay on top:

1 – Further Panda rollouts

Whether they come out under the name “Panda” or pick up a new name throughout the process, there’s no doubt that further changes will be made to Google’s search algorithm in order to punish low quality content and low quality link profiles.

We’ve discussed what constitutes bad content and poor quality links pretty thoroughly here on the Single Grain blog, and we’ve already talked about why these things matter to Google from a profit standpoint.  So instead of rehashing all of this, let’s get to the point…  Google isn’t going to stop until they’ve eliminated spam sites from the SERPs, so if your site doesn’t meet their quality guidelines, you will be punished at some point.

To Do – If you have duplicate content issues on your site that haven’t yet been addressed, make them a priority in 2012 (check out Yoast’s article on duplicate content for more info on how to identify and remedy these issues).  Also, make sure that any content you publish to your site in 2012 meets Google’s quality guidelines, as demonstrated in Amit Singhal’s 23 Questions post.

2 – Increased mobile access of websites

It’s already pretty much a given that smartphone penetration and usage is growing throughout the cellular marketplace, with no signs of slowing down any time soon.  But what’s really interesting is how people are using this increased mobile access.  A recent study by Google and consumer research organization IPSOS OTX uncovered some very interesting information about how people use their smartphones to access the internet and the role they play in making purchase decisions.

The study found the following trends about general smartphone usage:

• 81% browse the Internet, 77% search, 68% use an app, and 48% watch videos on their smartphone
• 72% use their smartphones while consuming other media, with a third while watching TV
• 93% of smartphone owners use their smartphones while at home

But even more interesting was the data relating to how smartphones are used when making buying decisions:

• 71% of smartphone users search because of an ad they’ve seen either online or offline
• 82% of smartphone users notice mobile ads
• 74% of smartphone shoppers make a purchase as a result of using their smartphones to help with shopping
• 88% of those who look for local information on their smartphones take action within a day

In the past, we’ve recommended pursuing mobile marketing in limited cases, where consumers specifically access and interact with your website via mobile platforms.  But given the way mobile usage is shifting and expanding, it’s safe to say that more companies than ever can benefit from providing mobile access options to their customers.

To Do – First, check Google Analytics to see if you’re getting traffic from mobile devices.  If you are, look into creating a mobile version of your site using tools like MoFuse, WireNode and MobiSiteGalore.  If not, keep an eye on this metric throughout the year.  If you see your number of mobile users increasing, revisit this suggestion to create a mobile version of your website.

3 – Keep an eye on Tumblr

Though it seems strange to take internet marketing advice from a presidential campaign, the Obama campaign – widely recognized as leaders in social networking – launched on Tumblr at the end of 2011, and you should be paying attention.  Tumblr is growing like a weed in the otherwise stagnant microblogging market, making it a potentially viable option for website owners who have never ventured into blogging to explore in 2012.

According to SEOptimise:

Why is Tumblr such a success? It’s a bit like Facebook, a bit like blogging and a bit like Twitter, but it combines the best of all of them. In 2011 many high level bloggers even moved their blogs from WordPress to Tumblr for the sake of simplicity and ease of use. Also, never underestimate the huge Tumblr audience.

To Do – Follow a few different Tumblr blogs to get a feel for how the site works.  If you like what you see, consider creating your own Tumblr blog to support your main site.

4 – New metric tracking models rise to prominence

To be honest, anyone can measure number of visitors to a page or the average time these visitors spent consuming your content.  The future of SEO relies on entirely different metrics, which strive to capture more than just past performance by understanding real-time impact and the value of intangibles (like social networking ROI).  The big two that you need to be aware of are real-time analytics and social networking value scores.

• Real-time analytics – Google Analytics expansion into this territory (previously only occupied by third-party script and software vendors) highlights the importance of being able to understand how users are behaving in real-time and initiate immediate changes based on this data.  For example, if you launch a new promotion and market it via social networking sites, you’ll be able to see immediately which networks – and even which specific tweets or status updates – result in the most traffic.
• Social networking value scores – Social networking value is notoriously difficult to track, but that hasn’t stopped companies like Klout or Venulabs from attempting to create structured influence metrics.  In 2012, we’ll likely see more competitors in this space, different factors being added to their algorithms and an increased importance of these scores in real-world activities (for example, when applying for new jobs).

To Do – If you run a website, start experimenting with real-time analytics as soon as you’re able to using either Google Analytics (though the new version hasn’t rolled out to all users yet) or a third-party program to make data driven decisions.  It’s also a good idea to follow both existing and upcoming social networking value programs and optimize your profile accordingly on them.

5 – It’s all about conversions, baby!

If 2011 was the year of content quality following the massive Panda updates, we predict that 2012 is going to be all about conversion rate optimization (CRO).  After all, it doesn’t make sense to pump hours and hours of work into a site to meet Google’s nebulous and ever-changing content and navigation structure requirements if your website isn’t making any money or generating any leads in the first place!

Conversion rate management refers to the process of ensuring a website is meeting its intended goal as effectively as possible.  If your site sells products, CRO is about removing the barriers that prevent people from putting items in their shopping carts and ultimately completing the sale.  If you generate leads for an offline business, it’s about demonstrating value as quickly as possible in order to get people to opt-in.

To Do – If you don’t yet have a conversion rate optimization plan in place, create one ASAP, as focusing on improving your conversion rates can make a tremendous difference in your company’s bottom line.  To get started, read up on principles of good conversion rate management and the split testing techniques you’ll need to implement worthwhile conversion rate tests.

We all know that performing proper search engine optimization is vitally important for getting your website ranked in the search engine results pages for the best possible keywords.  However, it’s also true that you can have too much of a good thing.  In fact, over-optimizing your sites has been known to trigger penalties that could cause your sites to drop significantly in the SERPS – or worse, be eliminated from the index altogether.

So to take advantage of the power of SEO without triggering an over-optimization penalty, consider the following tips for maximizing your on-page and off-page SEO:

On-Page Over-Optimization

On-page optimization refers to the SEO activities that take place within your website, including traditional SEO activities like meta tag optimization and keyword inclusion (as measured by the instances of your keyword found in your body content).  While the standard best practices of on-page SEO are widely accepted, there are still a few things you’ll want to keep in mind when optimizing your website.

Keyword inclusion

Yes, the search engines *will* notice if every single page on your site is optimized the exact same way.  While there’s value in including your target keywords in prime locations, it’s also possible to make your pages so unnatural looking that they trigger over-optimization penalties.  For example, if every page on your site includes the exact same tag structure and keyword inclusion percentage, there’s a chance the search engines will issue a penalty.

So how can you prevent this penalty from occurring while still maximizing your on-page SEO?  Simple – think “natural” first.  Imagine for a second that you were building a natural website without any ulterior SEO motives in mind.  How often would you include your target keyword phrase and where would it make sense to do so?  How would your site look if you weren’t trying to wedge in your keywords a certain number of times?

Once you have an idea of what a more natural site would look like, try to incorporate some of its attributes into your own site.  Add your keywords in areas that have a demonstrated SEO impact, but do it in a way that feels natural to both your readers and the search engines.

Content creation

Similarly, when drafting the articles you’ll use on your website, be careful to maintain a natural voice instead of “writing to the keyword.”  For example, just because the keyword, “national park pa forest” has good potential doesn’t mean that you should write an article around this unnatural keyword.  Consider the following sample text to see why:

“National Park PA Forest: The Best National Forest Park in PA”

Visitors everywhere are flocking to national park PA forest for its stunning natural features.  You should go to national park PA forest to see these features for yourself.  To learn more about national park PA forest, click on the link below.

Sound goofy?  Although this might seem like an exaggeration, this type of content – and worse – plagues the internet due to mostly well-meaning SEOs who believe that the only way to rank well in the SERPs is to build content around strict keywords.

And yes, sometimes this content wins and ranks highly for the keywords it targets.  However, before you run out and start creating your own keyword-stuffed articles, consider that Google’s primary goal is to provide the best possible search results to its users and that good quality content is always going to win out in that consideration in the long run.  Google Panda provided plenty of evidence that content quality will be a major focus going forward, so be sure to write your content to appeal to your visitors – not just the search engines.

Off-Page Over-Optimization

While on-page optimization refers to the way you build your website to appeal to the search engines, off-page optimization includes the activities you engage in on other sites to improve your rankings.  For most webmasters, backlinking remains the primary off-page optimization activity, but just like with on-page SEO, there are a few things you’ll want to be careful about when creating inbound backlinks in order to avoid penalties.

Backlink velocity

Although backlinks are incredibly valuable in helping to improve your search engine rankings, building too many – too quickly – looks suspicious to the search engines.  For this reason, it’s important to build quality links using a slow link velocity at first until your site overcomes Google’s trust barrier.

But how many links is too many links?  That’s tough to say, and realistically, the answer will never truly be known as long as Google keeps its lips shut about specific algorithm ranking factors.  However, most experts put the maximum number of links that should be built in a day at no more than 30-100, depending on your site’s industry, audience and traffic levels.  When in doubt, slow down and re-focus on building quality links over quantity.

Anchor text creation

Besides the rate at which you build links, it’s also important to consider the structure of the links themselves.  Using the same anchor text for each link you create looks suspicious as well, so be sure to vary your anchor text to create a natural looking link profile.

But not only can varying your anchor text phrases help you to avoid an over-optimization penalty, it can also help you to get your site ranked in the SERPs for different, but related keyword phrases, thus expanding your market penetration and increasing traffic.  To find out which additional keywords Google feels are substantially related to your main target phrase, enter your target keyword into Google and then click on the “Related searches” option in the left-hand sidebar.  This should display a number of related keywords to use as anchor text phrases in your link building efforts:

Link type

Anyone who’s ever built a website knows that there are dozens or hundreds of different link types that can be built.  From spammy profile backlinks to links from high quality directories like DMOZ, there are tons of different ways to create links, each with its own set of advantages and benefits.  Unfortunately, many website owners focus too heavily on one particular link type over another (typically determined by whatever latest method the “gurus” are preaching), which leads to an unnatural looking link profile.

Again, it’s important to consider what your site would look like if it grew entirely organically.  Chances are – as long as you put out good quality content – you’d attract a wide range of link types from many different types of sites, including social networking links, in-content links from other sites in your industry and others.  When building links, try to mimic this diversity, as building a single type of link or creating links in a single, tightly-defined neighborhood reflects poorly on your site.

So finally, when considering good SEO and how to avoid over-optimization penalties, the general rule of thumb is this – create high quality, natural-looking content and backlinks, and your site is sure to win in the long run.

Image: Mitchell Bartlett

No matter what else you might have to say about the year 2011, you can’t deny that it’s been a time of incredible changes in the SEO world.  So to recap everything that’s happened this year, we’re bringing you the top SEO posts of 2011:

Google Panda

Probably the biggest change to hit the SEO world this year was the implementation of the Google Panda algorithm change.  Plenty of great articles were written on what this update means and how to recover from any assessed penalties, so be sure to check out the following sites:

What is Google Panda?

Quick Sprout – Absolutely Everything You Need to Know About the Google Panda Update
Sistrix – Google Farmer Update: Quest for Quality
Search Engine Land – Number Crunchers: Who Lost in Google’s Panda Algorithm Update?
SEOMoz – Google Algorithm Change History – 2011

Google Panda Update History

Search Engine Roundtable – Google Panda 1.0 (February 24^th)
Search Engine Roundtable – Google Panda 2.0 (April 11^th)
Search Engine Land – Google Panda 2.1 (May 9^th)
Search Engine Land – Google Panda 2.2 (June 18^th)
Search Engine Roundtable – Google Panda 2.3 (July 22^nd)
Search Engine Land – Google Panda 2.4 (August 2011)
Search Engine Roundtable – Google Panda 2.5 (September 28^th)
Search Engine Roundtable – Google Panda 2.5.1 (October 9^th)
Search Engine Roundtable – Google Panda 2.5.2 (October 13^th)
Search Engine Roundtable – Google Panda 2.5.3 (October 19^th)

Succeeding in a Post-Google Panda World

SEOMoz – Beating Google’s Panda Update – 5 Deadly Content Sins
Six Revisions – Creating Websites Optimized for Google’s Panda Algorithm
SEOMoz – How Google’s Panda Update Changed SEO Best Practices Forever
Business Insider – How Google Panda Will Create Jobs in News and Publishing
Search Engine Land – 5 New Tactics for SEO Post-Panda

Google+

This year, Google made major strides in its efforts to compete with Facebook and provide the best possible search results by customizing the SERPs to its users’ preferences.  Here’s how it happened:

The Launch of the Google +1 Button

The launch of the Google +1 button surprised many SEO experts, as the full strategy behind Google’s search and content integrations wasn’t yet completely clear.

Search Engine Land – It’s Here: Google +1 Button for Websites
Huffington Post – Google +1 Button Explained: What Happens When You Click It
Search Engine Journal – Does the Google +1 Button Signal the End of “Don’t Be Evil”?
Search Engine Watch – Google +1 Button Loses Search Visibility

The Google+ Social Networking Site

Although it has yet to steal a significant amount of market share from Facebook in the competitive social networking space, Google+ offers a number of unique tools and features that could make it a contender in the future.

Official Google Blog – Introducing the Google+ Project
TechCrunch – Google+ Project
Mashable – Google Launches Google+ to Battle Facebook
Forbes – 10 Things CMOs Need to Know About Google+

Personalized Search

With personalized search results replacing traditional SEO rankings in many Google SERPs, webmasters are well advised to focus on building their social networks and developing viral, sharable content.

SEOMoz – Social Annotations in Search: Now Your Social Network = Rankings
NY Times – How Useful is Google’s Personalized Search?
Leo Dimilo – Personalized Search and the Future
Kikolani – How Personalized Search Should Affect Blogging Strategies for Ranking
Common Sense Marketing – 5 Things You Need to Know About Personalized Search
SEOptimise – The Pros and Cons of Personalized Search

New Metrics in SEO

Across the search engines, major shifts have been taking place in terms of the factors that lead to high rankings.  No longer is it enough for webmasters to optimize their title tags, fill out their meta descriptions and include target keywords at a specific density.  These traditional SEO markers are on their way out – and the following new metrics are in!

Social Media

Probably the biggest change to SEO metrics in the past year has been the increased importance of social media signals as a ranking factor.

Quick Sprout – How to Create a Jaw Dropping Social Media Strategy in 5 Steps
SEOMoz – The Social Media Marketer’s SEO Checklist
Search Engine Watch – Top 13 Social Media Ranking Factors for SEO
Search Engine Journal – How SEO and Social Media Add Up to Online Marketing Success
Mashable – How Social Media Affects Content Relevance in Search
Social Media Examiner – Social Media and Search Engine Optimization: Why They Work Together
Search Engine Land – It’s Not “He Said, She Said” Over Google Rankings & Facebook Shares
SEOMoz – A Tweet’s Effect on Rankings – An Unexpected Case Study

Site Speed

Although site speed isn’t a new ranking factor, its importance is growing, which makes it a relevant area of opportunity for most webmasters.

Distilled – Site Speed for Dummies Part 1 – Why Bother…?
Distilled – Site Speed for Dummies Part 2 – How to Do It
SEOMoz – Take Advantage of Google’s Site Speed Algorithm
Google Analytics – Measure Page Load Time with Site Speed Analytics Report
WebProNews – Google Analytics Site Speed Metrics Expanded

Bounce Rate, CTR and Other Metrics

Smart webmasters are shifting their attention off of keyword density and other traditional SEO metrics and taking a look at bounce rate, CTR and other current indications of site quality.

Bruce Clay – Meaningful SEO Metrics: Going Behind the Numbers
Single Grain – The New SEO Metrics You Need to Know About
SEO Theory – SEO Metrics You Must Track and Report
Search Engine Watch – Maximizing Your CTR for SEO in Organic Results
Inc. – How to Reduce Your Website’s Bounce Rate
Traffic Generation Café – Bounce Rate: 16 Ways to Make Your Blog Sticky

Freshness

Recently, content “freshness” has grown hugely in importance, making it a vital consideration for brands, blogs, content sites and more.

Official Google Blog – Giving You Fresher, More Recent Search Results
Huffington Post – Google’s Freshness  Update: New SEO Opportunities
SEOMoz – Freshness Factor: 10 Illustrations on How Fresh Content Can Influence Rankings
TechCrunch – The Winners and Losers of Google’s Freshness Update Revealed
SEOptimise – Google Freshness Update – What it Means for Your Brand
Search Engine Land – Brands & News Sites Among Winners from Google’s Freshness Algo Update

Content Quality

The Panda update was all about rewarding content quality and weeding junk sites out of the SERPs.  Here’s how to improve the quality of the content on your site to take advantage of this new metric:

Search Engine Land – Why Quality Content is the Only Sustainable SEO Strategy
Google Webmaster Blog – More Guidance on Building High Quality Sites
Single Grain – How the Search Engines Could Quantify Quality
Search Engine People – The 5 Point Checklist to Quality Content
SEODesk – Why Quality Content is So Essential to SEO
Openview Partners – Why Quality SEO Equals Quality Content (and Visa Versa)

Branding

Surprisingly, SEO has shifted in focus to favor defined brands, meaning that high rankings can no longer be achieved by keyword optimization alone.

Kaiser the Sage – Branding in SEO – The Big Shift in Online Marketing
Brafton – Expert Tips on Brand Marketing to Boost SEO
SEODesk – Branding or SEO?
Adrants – SEO is for Tail Chasers; Brand Awareness is for Pack Leaders
Search News Central – Dealing with Brands in SEO

The Future of SEO

Although there’s no way to know for sure which factors will impact SEO most in the coming years, we can make a few extrapolations based on what we’ve seen so far.  The following articles highlight the changes we’ve seen to SEO over the past year and make predictions about what will be big in 2012:

SEOMoz – 2011 Search Engine Ranking Factors Survey
Search Engine Journal – The Future of SEO: 5 Clear Facts You Should Know
Quick Sprout – SEO Trends You Can’t Ignore if You Want High Rankings
David Wood – Google Panda Updates and the Future of SEO
Small Box – The Future of SEO
SEOptimise – 30 Web Trends for 2012

Image: manishpandey

But while past SEO marketers had success getting their sites ranked well using this technique, are they still a valid promotional strategy? Or has Google uncovered the practice and penalized links created in this manner? Let’s take a closer look…

First of all, let’s look at the theory behind the link wheel. Essentially, a traditional link wheel includes 5-10 Web 2.0 sites, all of which have one link pointing to a main site and one link pointing to the next Web 2.0 property in the wheel, resulting in a structure that resembles a bicycle or wagon wheel. Ideally, the PageRank that’s passed from Web 2.0 site to Web 2.0 site strengthens each link that then points towards the money site.

Consider the following traditional link wheel structure, as designed by LJ Interactive:

Suppose that, for the sake of simplicity, each of the Web 2.0 sites in the link wheel pictured above has 20 points of link juice that can be passed on through links. If the Hubpages property contains two links pointing away from the site, conveying 10 points of authority, both Digg and the home site will receive these benefits. But now, in addition to the original 20 points of link juice, the links coming out from Digg have additional authority that they’re able to pass on. As the wheel gets bigger, this benefit increases, making links from a link wheel more powerful than links pointing directly from Web 2.0 sites to the main site.

At least, that’s the case in theory. The problem – as you might expect – is that this defined wheel structure is incredibly easy to detect. When a new website pops up with thousands of links pointing at it in this particular arrangement, it’s easy to understand that the site in question is trying to game the system and achieve an artificially high rank. To make matters worse, many of the link wheels that are created are done using automated software that spins stock articles and pumps out link wheels without regard to quality.

As the SEO Design Solutions blog describes:

“The only problem with mass automation is (a) if proportions reach unprecedented levels of unusual likelihood (such as a post being circulated in 2 minutes to 1000 social media sites) or the same old new same URL, title or “footprint” inundate search engines – there is a high degree of that cluster of “social proof” tripping a filter and creating a null set (effectively making the links moot or suppressed).”

That sounds technical, but the basic point is that when link wheel creation is automated, a digital footprint is created that’s easy for the search engines to detect and penalize. As Google explicitly states in its Terms of Service, linking schemes such as the automated link wheel method described above are subject to penalty or removal from the index entirely.

According to the Google Webmaster Tools Help section:

“Some webmasters engage in link exchange schemes and build partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking, disregarding the quality of the links, the sources, and the long-term impact it will have on their sites. This is in violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines and can negatively impact your site’s ranking in search results.”

So, with all of this in mind, there’s no way that link wheels could still work as an effective SEO strategy, right?! Well, don’t jump to conclusions too quickly…

The truth is that the underlying model of the link wheel does have some merit. Building Web 2.0 sites is still a powerful linking strategy, especially considering the increased value the search engines are placing on links from social networking sites. However, it’s the way that you build your link wheels that matters most in terms of receiving link juice and ranking benefits from this technique.

Consider the following guidelines when adding link wheels to your marketing mix:

Use unique content on every spoke property you build. Although past link wheel creators have advocated spinning a single article and then using the variations resulting from this content to build every property in the link wheel, the increased importance of site quality conferred by the Google Panda updates makes using spun articles a very bad idea.

Yes, it’s a lot easier to use spun articles than unique content, but doing so runs the risk of having your Web 2.0 properties penalized as a result of the recent algorithm changes. So instead, every single spoke property you build needs to be created using totally unique, useful content. Essentially, you need to build every spoke property with the same care and attention you’d give to your main site in order for this strategy to work successfully.

Create your spoke properties over time. Instead of rushing out and building an entire link wheel in a day (which worked in the past but has since been penalized), build your spoke properties over time for maximum benefits. Think of the new link wheel as a long term project and add new content to your wheel as you have time, returning to interlink the properties at a later date.

Avoid the traditional spoke and wheel format. In the past, link wheels could be simple, with 5-10 Web 2.0 spokes pointing at a center site in a perfect circle. However, as this link format has been identified and devalued by Google, building a successful link wheel now requires website owners to create more complex linking structures.

Check out the following diagram by Affhelper:

As you can see, there’s no defined, circular link wheel structure as in the previous example. Instead, the format is disjointed, with various feeder sites and backlinks pointing at different Web 2.0 properties – some of which are interlinked and some of which stand alone. Although it isn’t recommended that you follow this exact pattern, it’s important that you vary your internal linking methods in order to create a more powerful link wheel.

Finally, if you’d still like to pursue link wheels as an SEO and traffic generation technique, keep in mind that you’ll want to be careful about how you link back to your main site. If your site is still young, sending thousands of links back to it via link wheels can raise a red flag with the search engines that the site is being promoted artificially.

Instead, consider sending any additional backlinks you create to the Web 2.0 properties used in your link wheel structure. These older, more established sites can tolerate more backlinks without triggering any penalties, and the additional link juice they generate will flow through the Web 2.0 properties you’ve created back to your main site. Over time, the effects of these additional links will turn your link wheels into power backlink sources that result in both increased traffic and rankings for your main site.