Do you appreciate comments on your blog?
Recent announcements with the way Google Pagerank flows via nofollow links at Google has bloggers… concerned. So, this has prompted a new WordPress plugin that rewards regular contributers with a link, but removes the actual link from comments from those that haven’t bothered to continue participating on your blog past that first comment.
So Basically;
- Regular commentors will get a dofollow link that passes link love – with this, you really reward regular contributors
- Those with less than say 3 comments will not get a link at all (although you can modify this) but when they do hit 3 comments, hey presto, link love, and with anchor text value!
- Pagerank won’t evaporate through nofollowed links from link droppers because they won’t be links!
You can see it in action below once comments appear (or on any other post on the WebDog site) when you comment.
What does this mean? Well, if we’re to believe Google, this may help increase the amount of pagerank circulating on your site and indeed improve your overall Pagerank score, just by watching who you’re linking to using nofollow.
Download the plugin here – It works on WordPress 2.8, and should be backward compatible (though clearly no warranties – it’s free – use at your own risk)
We are using this plugin ourselves, so if you want a link on your comment, be sure to participate in the discussion often! 
Installation is simple – just install as you would any other plugin, and go to the admin section (Settings > Hobo Link Love) and ensure in the field;
“Keep dofollow off comments less than some number of days old?” – You insert the value ‘0′.
This plugin is based on Lucia’s LInky Love so you MUST UNINSTALL THAT PLUGIN FIRST FOR IT TO WORK (if you have that installed).
Tips for Optimizing YouTube Videos
YouTube is more than just a place to upload your videos. It’s an extremely popular video search engine, an online community and a powerful marketing tool for every business promotional campaign.
YouTube offers marketers the chance to develop great inbound traffic to their business websites, since an interesting and well-optimized video can attract many viewers. As you already know, YouTube is one of the most popular sites on the web. According to Alexa, it ranks as the 3rd most popular website in the world and it receives millions of users per day.
1. Video content
Be original and create interesting videos. Use existing material of your business such as virtual tours, flash presentations, various videos shots and quality images in order to make a clever montage targeting your videos’ theme. Also add music or voice-over for a nice presentation.
2. Video Length
The most popular videos on YouTube have an average length of 3 minutes. This means that the ideal length is between 2 and 4 minutes. Keep in mind that longer videos usually make visitors lose interest.
3. Video Resolution
Upload high resolution videos when your presentation includes slides. It makes them easier to be read.
4. Watermark your video
Add your domain name, your contact details or your logotype, in order to increase the chance to turn video viewers into loyal customers.
5. Optimize your account
In order to post videos on YouTube, you will need to create an account. Make sure you use your brand name as username or/and a keyword term relevant to your videos. Update your YouTube profile, write optimized texts, add links and use the appropriate theme and colors.
6. YouTube search results
YouTube works as a typical search engine regarding listing results. The search algorithm checks the title, the description, the tags, the number of views, the links and ratings of the video. Therefore you should focus to the above factors to make sure that you have fully optimized your videos and get high rankings not only on YouTube but also on Google.
7. Use Captions/Subtitles
Having Captions/Subtitles in your video is something very important since you give the chance to people who do not speak your language to watch them. Lately having captions in videos become easier since YouTube uses experimental speech recognition technology to provide automatic timing for English transcript.
8. Include a URL on the top of description
When you post a video make sure you add a URL before the descriptive text. In that way, even when the “more info” option is collapsed, the user will still see the link and he/she will be able to click it.
9. The commandments
- Include keywords in your video name, titles & description.
- Build a video library to make your channel more relevant
- Activate comments, rates, favorites through your channel
- Add a link to your website within the description
10. Create a channel with multiple videos
A single video upload does not lead to a successful video campaign. To be successful you must upload content on a regular basis. Don’t forget that the more videos you create, the more chances you will have to attract new visitors and increase your online reputation.
If you follow these tips, you will ensure popularity and higher rankings YouTube Videos and consequently you will increase the traffic of your online business. Don’t forget to have fun while creating your videos. It will surely increase your “optimization” if your feelings are translated in the video’s results!
Search Engine Optimization in 2010
If you want to use search engine optimization best practices, or want to get updated on the latest search engine optimization techniques, there are a lot of good SEO resources to keep you up-to-date.
Each web page must have generally accepted “best practices” applied to it, which includes:
- A proper title tag
- Proper meta tags, including a meta description tag and a meta keywords tag.
- Proper use of .css style sheets, headings and sub headings, and SEO friendly navigation.
- No hidden text or content that’s not viewable by humans.
- Good use of internal anchor text, which is the text that you use to link to other web pages on your site. It needs to describe what you’re linking to. For example, if I link to the “search engine marketing services” page, the link text should be “search engine marketing services” or something equally appropriate.
- Proper internal link structure, which includes having more links to your most important web pages.
- Proper use of URLs (i.e., search engine friendly URLs), which includes using keywords in the URL. Don’t use parameters, do rewrite the URLs whenever possible.
- Adding good, on-topic content on a regular basis to your site. This can be in the form of articles, a blog, news items, new videos, PDFs, a message board, a directory, a glossary of terms, press releases, and other content. The most important idea here is to keep adding content and growing your site, not just leaving it alone to be a static site.
Off-page Factors
To get your site “trusted” by the search engines (mainly Google), do some press releases and distribute them through the proper channels, and get a few important directory listings, such as Yahoo! Directory, Best of the Web, dmoz, Business.com, and others.
Your website also needs to be in your more important niche-type of directories, which will depend on your industry. The whole idea is to get listed on websites that require a human element or human review.
- Get your site trusted (TrustRank).
- Human-edited directory listings.
- Analyze competitors’ links.
- On-topic links are key.
- Focus on links from many unique domains.
- Create off-site content and link back to your site.
- Deep links are key (not just to home page).
- Get “links to your links.”
- Get a few links each day.
Social Media
Combine SEO efforts with social media marketing efforts. When you post new content to your blog, promote it through the social media channels. Get links to your social media links. Also, read more about Google’s Top Links feature.
Anchor Text
Exact anchor text is not necessarily good. It’s okay to have a few exact anchor text links, but you need to vary it.
Example of anchor text: Search Engine Marketing
Example of good anchor text: Heather Bashaw, WebDog Services search engine marketing expert
Example of better anchor text: At the WebDog Conference in Twin Falls, Heather Bashaw, a search engine marketing expert from Kansas, says that you need to vary your anchor text.
Links within sentences are ideal, search engines are aware of content surrounding the anchor text.
More About Search Engine Optimization
If you want to learn more about search engine optimization, here are two great resources to learn about search engine optimization.
SEMPO Institute – Part of the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization, this is a place where you can take SEO courses and other Internet marketing courses and get certified.
DIYSEO – If you’re a small business and want to be coached through the entire SEO process so you can essentially do it yourself, then DIYSEO is the place to go.
