Weekly SEO news: 15 January 2013
Welcome to the latest issue of the Search Engine Facts newsletter.

Good backlinks from related websites are the most important element in Google's ranking algorithm. Getting these links is the hard part. Since Google's Penguin update, automatically created low quality links don't work anymore. What can you do to get good backlinks and what can you do if your link requests get rejected?

In the news: The latest search engine statistics, tablet computers become more important, many people don't know how Google makes money, and more.

Table of contents:

We hope that you enjoy this newsletter and that it helps you to get more out of your website. Please pass this newsletter on to your friends.

Best regards,
Andre Voget, Johannes Selbach, Axandra CEO

1. What to do if your link requests get rejected
Good backlinks from related websites are the most important element in Google's ranking algorithm. Getting these links is the hard part. Since Google's Penguin update, automatically created low quality links don't work anymore. What can you do to get good backlinks and what can you do if your link requests get rejected?

link building

Step 1: find the right websites

It can be difficult to get good backlinks and you shouldn't waste your time on websites that won't have a positive impact on your own website.

Use IBP's link building tools to find websites that are related to your site. The better the linking website, the fewer links you need. Focus on quality, not quantity. Get a list of good websites that should link to your site.

Step 2: get in touch

After building your list, contact the owners of the other websites. Tell them your story, let them know that you are passionate about what you do and explain why both sites could benefit from the link.

Don't just ask for a link to your site. Offer the other webmaster a guest blog article that he can publish on your site. Tell them that you have infographics or statistics that are interesting to their website visitors.

Link building is relationship building. Both sides benefit from a good relationship. Ask yourself how the other website benefits from the relationship before asking for a link.

Step 3: how to deal with rejection

If your link request gets rejected, don't take it personally. There are many reasons why a link request can be rejected:
  • They are just busy and the timing is not right.
  • The pitch was not a good fit or your pitch was confusing.
  • They have had bad experiences in the past.
Decide on a case-by-case basis how to proceed after the rejection. It might be that the other webmaster simply did not know what a guest post is. In this case, it helps to explain the concept. A guest blog post usually benefits both parties.

If you get many rejections, check your pitch. Maybe you have to offer something better to get a backlink. Rejections can help you to fine-tune your requests.

You can also try something new. Contact other websites by phone, try another approach (inform them about broken links on their site, etc.)

If you want to have a successful link building campaign, it is important to have as much data as possible. Keep track of the date of your first contact, the website owners contact information, the link type, conversation notes, etc.

The link manager in IBP helps you to keep track of that data so that you can build links as efficiently as possible.

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2. Search engine news and articles of the week

StatisticsDecember 2012 U.S. search engine rankings

"Google Sites led the U.S. explicit core search market in December with 66.7 percent market share, followed by Microsoft Sites with 16.3 percent (up 0.1 percentage points) and Yahoo! Sites with 12.2 percent (up 0.1 percentage points). Ask Network accounted for 3 percent of explicit core searches, followed by AOL, Inc. with 1.8 percent (up 0.1 percentage points). [...]

More than 17.6 billion explicit core searches were conducted in December (up 4 percent), with Google Sites ranking first with 11.8 billion (up 4 percent). Microsoft Sites ranked second with 2.9 billion searches (up 5 percent), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 2.2 billion (up 5 percent), Ask Network with 534 million (up 5 percent) and AOL, Inc. with 310 million (up 4 percent)."


Study: tablet computers become more important for marketers

"We saw mobile traffic peak at nearly 22% of all paid search clicks on Google in the US; we saw similar mobile traffic levels in the UK and Australia. Most noteworthy in the US was the share of spend on tablets eclipsing that of smartphones at 9% and 8%, respectively."



GoogleWhy Google does not show your pages

In an online discussion, Google's Gary Illyes told a webmaster why his pages weren't shown on Google:

"As we improve our algorithms, they may decide to not reindex pages that are likely to be not useful for the users. I took a look on the pages that were once indexed but currently aren't and it appears there are quite a few that have no real content [...] Your Sitemap is referencing URLs that are not canonical."



Study: many people don't know how Google makes money (PDF)

"More than one-third of U.S. online adults believe search engines sell users’ personal data to marketers. Nearly 29% believe that companies pay annual dues for use, while 20% believe that users pay for premium search features.

Respondents in the West were more likely to answer correctly, that advertising runs with search results (84%) while just over three-quarters of the total U.S. online population realizes advertising is a source of income for search engines."



Is the Google+ Local dashboard moving towards a freemium model?

"That Google has finally added some semblance of human support to G+ Local raises a number of questions that are still unanswered. [...]

As far back as Maps Guide Jen, Google has always said that local was a free product (free as in you only pay with data, suffering, time and eyeballs) and that free Google products did not receive phone support."

Search engine newslets
  • Facebook, Google may face tougher EU curbs on data usage.
  • Bitly announces social data APIs.
  • LinkedIn has 200 million members.
  • Google sued by Foundem in U.K. for anti-competitive behavior.
  • Discussion: Google testing ads without arrows.
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3. Recommended resources

seoprofiler

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4. Previous articles
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