The success of link building depends on who is doing it and how it is done.

First, you need to understand the purpose of link building. Many non-professionals don’t build links because they just don’t get the point. Some people may think that optimized links in their content can be unnatural or disturbing for readers. This might be true, but it depends on how you do it. The links will be a natural addition when they help readers to explore a subject further.

One should understand that he/she is giving additional value in the form of external resources when readers want to learn more. At the same time, links save time for readers who don’t want a lot of information on one page. Links also help other pages on your site, and external sites with worthy content, rank high and be found by real people. They help the Web to be more organized for us all. Links are vital for SEO (search engine optimization)–they help the promoted page to rank high for its keywords and to be found by those looking for it. Link building is essential to increase anyone’s web presence.

It’s not just about sending out templated emails and sometimes responding to the replies. Moreover, we all should understand that spam is evil. There are plenty of ways to gain natural links from related pages, without getting on people’s nerves.

Link building requires some technical skills (to insert the link codes, for example) as well as extraordinary search skills (to find strong link partners for automated or manual link submissions).

A good link builder is the one with a “good eye.” This person is able to see the link value of certain pages within the enormous pile of worldwide Web information. Ideally this person will have wide interests,  is versed in hundreds of subjects, and is capable of identifying a great link partner on-the-spot.

Link building requires a creative approach. While everyone knows the rules, only those with original moves and strategic vision can outrank others.

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I’m a maaan, baby!

At least, in my writing I am.

The other day I came across an application called Gender Genie, which allegedy can suss out if a writer is male or female by studying a piece of writing . I tested several of my own samples, from this blog and others, ranging in topic from text messaging to acoustic music. And every time, the software declared, “The Gender Genie thinks the author of this passage is: Male!” Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. And wrong again.

Luckily it’s OK to be gender-neutral when writing about marketing technology or underground music. In these cases, knowledge about the subject, and the ability to make it easy to understand, are more important than whether the “voice” is male or female.

But I got to thinking that the Gender Genie could be a useful tool for other copywriters. It could help them make sure content is tailored to the intended audience. That’s something that marketers, especially, must worry about when creating copy–even for websites and SMS/email marketing messages. Recipients sign up to receive the latter; if they don’t feel like these notices speak to them, they will cancel their subcriptions.

My experience with the writing algorithm reminded me of jobs I’d applied for long ago. Gigs for which I was more than qualified, and which were in the city where I lived, meaning it would cost the company nothing to bring me in for an interview. I never got my foot in the door. These positions were at places like gossip websites and mid-scale cosmetic vendors–that is, businesses that catered almost exclusively to women. The person writing lipgloss ad copy or catty celebrity news would likely need to have a certain type of female voice. And according to Gender Genie, that is not me!

Certain marketing experts, especially those selling a product that only appeals to a certain demographic, should see how they can tweak their marketing copy to really speak to that audience. Now, I don’t think Gender Genie is all that. I mean, it categorizes the very common word “a” as male! But since it’s fun to use, copywriters might as well make it one more tool to help craft the tone of their content.

I ran this post through the Gender Genie one more time–and once again, I scored far more male than female. In that vein, I’ll just say: D’oh!

Eydie Cubarrubia, Marketing Communications Manager, mobileStorm

“I’d rather you text me”

This article kicks off a series of posts on website usability. While SEO is great to bring people to your site, WU (website usability) will make sure they enjoy their stay and don’t leave right away.

By focusing on WU, you will greatly increase conversions and sales since users always return, and will refer others to your site. You’ll also experience other positive side-effects when you show visitors that you care about their user-experience on your website.

Website usability includes almost all aspects of your site’s structure, design, programming, forms, scripts, layouts, and navigation. WU is closely attached to SEO; I am confident that many of its elements are built-in within search engine algorithms as ranking factors for websites. The more you take care of these elements, the better your rankings will be in the search engines. Note too that WU is more about converting the traffic, rather than just attracting it.

The first thing to do is to answer these three initial questions: What is the goal of your website? Who this website is for (target audience)? What are your resources?

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Universal search is here. Regular Internet users are enjoying it without even noticing that sometimes, along with the normal text results, they see links to news stories regarding their query; related images and videos; and even blog posts and books about what they were searching for. This is what universal search is about. It brings results in all different shapes and forms, thus making the life of a searcher easier.

Would that simplify the life of an SEO expert? Of course, not—everyone will have to become wiser about using optimization and link building techniques for not just textual content pages, but also for videos, images, blog posts, press releases, and books. We now need to expand our skills and be able to optimize external pages and objects that will eventually bring us traffic and leads. We need to expand our expertise to other fields and fight for rankings with all these forms in the SERPs (search engine results pages).The competition now isn’t the first ten places of text results on the first page. Now, it might be just four or six text results, plus image, news, or video results.

Other search engines besides Google are trying universal search. Yahoo’s cool-looking _blank href="http://au.alpha.yahoo.com/">Alpha Beta is a strong competitor. Live.com and Ask.com are implementing universal search as well.

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