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Getting tired of waiting around for your search engine rankings to increase? Make no mistake. SEO is an ongoing process, and results won’t appear overnight. However, there are things you can do to help speed up your SEO efforts.

Focus on increasing social sharing of your content — Building buzz around your content is one of the best ways to speed up your SEO efforts. The search engines now incorporate social signals when generating results. The more times a particular page is shared across Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites, the higher it is likely to rank in the search results. This means you need to focus on creating content people want to share. Your content needs to be unique, interesting, and worth talking about. And you have to promote it. You need to push it across all the social networks, and you need to focus on getting the major influencers in your niche to share it as well.

Use guest blogging to get more links — Link building is a very important part of SEO. The more high quality links you have from other websites pointing to yours, the better. But building links can be time-consuming. One of the most popular methods of link building right now is guest blogging. By becoming a guest author on other blogs, you get to share valuable content, raise awareness of yourself and your brand, and include a couple of links back to your website. Check out My Blog Guest to find guest blogging opportunities more easily.

Study the competition — Checking out the competitive landscape in the search results is a good way to see what others are doing that you might be able to mimic and what they’re not doing that you could capitalize on. This offers a quick way for you to develop an SEO plan for overtaking the competition in the search results.

Take it a little at a time — There are probably dozens of keywords you’ll want to rank for and countless pages on your website that need to be optimized. Tackling all of this at once is a daunting task, but if you focus your efforts on just a few things at a time (e.g. building links around a few keywords, optimizing a certain section on your website, etc.), you’ll start to see results more quickly, and you can move on to other tasks.

Ensure proper site architecture — The layout of your site is very important for SEO purposes. The more disorganized your website is, the harder it is for the search engines to crawl it and rank it. Make sure your site has clear, easy-to-follow navigation, and use keyword-rich internal linking strategically on your website.

What are some of your best tips for faster SEO results? Share them by leaving a comment below.

The times they are changing. If you’ve been keeping up with SEO news over the past year, you know that Google released an algorithm update that’s been dubbed the Panda update. The purpose of Google Panda was to put an emphasis on quality over quantity, as it relates to the content on your website and the back links you have from other websites.

Google Panda has served to reduce the rankings of low quality content farms, like article directories, press release directories, low-quality blogs, etc. This way, websites couldn’t any longer artificially boost their search engine rankings by getting thousands of low quality links from these types of websites.
This begs the question: How should you approach link building in the Google Panda era? Here are some tips to help you out.

Steer clear of low quality content farms — In the past, you probably got a lot of your back links from article directories and press release distribution websites. While those websites aren’t totally dead, most of them are on their way out. If you still want to use article and press release marketing, at least be more selective in which sites you publish your content on.

Look out for spammy-looking, ad-heavy websites — You are who you hang around with. If your back links are mostly from spammy, ad-driven websites, it will reflect poorly on your website in the eyes of Google. Do your best to avoid publishing your content on these types of sites.

Skip the blog commenting and forum blasting — Blog commenting and forum blasting used to be moderately effective for earning more links pointing to your website, but now, it’s a total waste of time. And even worse, it could cause you to look like a spammer to Google.

Guest blog on trusted blogs in your niche — Guest blogging is one of the most effective ways to build links. You publish original, quality posts as a guest author on other blogs in your niche, and traditionally, you’re allowed to include a couple of links back to your website in your author bio. Pitch other bloggers in your field to see if they’ll let you submit a guest post to their blog.

Focus on creating link-worthy content for your website — You’ll get the most juice for your squeeze by creating content on your website that other people naturally want to link to. Think of the type of stuff that hits the front page of Digg or gets a lot of ReTweets. That’s the type of viral content you need to strive to publish.

How have you changed your link building strategy in the Google Panda era? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment below.

Comments are one of the many metrics used to measure the success of a blog. If your blog isn’t getting any comments, you’re probably not doing too well.

Here are 5 reasons nobody is commenting on your blog.

You’re playing it safe – If you never take a side on an issue or stir up any sort of debate, people won’t have a reason to leave a comment. You need to appeal to your readers’ emotions so they’ll get fired up and want to share their thoughts on the topic at hand.

You’re not asking for comments — It’s simple, but effective. Ask your readers to leave a comment. Treat it like a call to action. When you ask someone to do something, they’re likelier to do it.

You do a poor job moderating comments – Why would anyone leave a comment if you take forever to approve comments or if your comment section is riddled with spam? You have to be an active moderator if you want to give people a good reason to interact in the replies.

You make it too hard to comment — The harder it is to leave a comment, the fewer comments you’ll get. If you require the reader to register for an account before he can comment, you’re going to miss out on a lot of potential comments. Also, if you require the reader to complete a CAPTCHA before their comment can be approved, you could lose more comments because sometimes those images are just too hard to understand.

You’re not getting any traffic — We conclude with what’s probably the most obvious reason you’re not getting any blog comments, because you’re also not getting any traffic! Just because you have a blog and post great content doesn’t mean that readers will automatically come. You have to take the time to promote your posts effectively. Spread them to your audience using Facebook, Twitter, blog carnivals, emails, and other tactics.

What are some of the other reasons blogs don’t get comments? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment below.

You’ve heard the saying, “If a tree falls in the woods and nobody hears it, did it really happen?” Well, if a blog doesn’t have any readers, does it really exist? Without readers, a blog is lifeless and without purpose.

So, what can you do to attract more readers to your blog? Here are 7 tips to help you get started.

1. Guest post on other blogs—It might seem counterintuitive at first, but one of the best ways to bring readers to your blog is to post on other blogs in your niche. Guest posting exposes you to a whole new audience of readers who are interested in what you have to say. Include a link back to your blog in your guest post, so that readers can follow you back to your website to become loyal subscribers. Just always make sure your guest post is the highest quality of content you’re capable of producing as it’s your one chance to impress a new audience.

2. Allow others to guest post—In addition to writing on other blogs, you should also allow other popular bloggers to guest post on your blog. This will bring the guest blogger’s readers over to your blog, increasing your exposure and earning you new readers.

3. SEO your posts—The search engines love blogs because they provide fresh, up to date content, allowing the search engines to provide the most relevant results possible. To further enhance your blog’s search engine presence, optimize your posts for relevant keywords. Spend time before writing your posts performing a little keyword research so you can target phrases that will bring you the most traffic.

4. Get blogroll links—Most blogs have a blogroll on their sidebar which includes links to other quality blogs in their niche. Once you build relationships with other bloggers, kindly ask them to include a link to your blog in their blogroll. It might not drive a ton of traffic to your site, but it will bring highly targeted clickers.

5. Use your own unique voice—With hundreds of millions of blogs online covering every topic imaginable, your blog’s success relies on your ability to stand out from the crowd. Do you want to know what the best way to do this is? Be yourself. Give your true opinions on matters instead of simply mimicking what everyone else is saying. Also, write the way you talk. This will create a conversational tone that instantly creates a personality readers can connect with.

6. Submit to blog carnivals— A blog carnival is basically an online magazine that collects the best from blogs in its niche. Blog carnivals exist on every topic you can think of. Find a blog carnival
that covers your industry, and submit your best posts to them. This will put your content in front of a new set of eyes.

7. Leverage social media apps—Between Twitter, Facebook, Digg, ReddIt, Mixx, LinkedIn, and other social media sites, there are more than enough outlets available to promote your blog content on. Build strong networks with interested followers who will click your links and become subscribers to your blog.

What have you done to get more readers to your blog? Leave a comment with your best tips!

The question of whether or not to hire a professional SEO agency may not be as deep as what Hamlet was pondering, but it is an important consideration, especially for small business owners.  An entrepreneur is only capable of addressing  a limited number of business issues without sacrificing the well-being of the company.  An I-know-it-all or I-can-do-it-all mentality limits the business owner from concentrating on running and building the business. It also places an owner on a fast track to becoming burned out.

An online presence is a must for 21st century business.  At the very minimum this entails a website.  A website and search engine optimization (SEO) goes hand in hand or else the site is merely a needle in the proverbial Internet haystack.  Accepting this premise moves the question forward to include Who and How.  Who will perform the required SEO and how will it be accomplished?

As far as the company is concerned, the question of  Who is easily determined by a process of elimination.

• Who in the company is an expert in SEO?
• Who is capable of developing SEO rich content?
• Who in the company has the time and skills to focus on SEO and rankings?
• Who is qualified to determine which search engines will be the most beneficial?
• Who can keep up with the changing algorithms of several search engines?

After completing the inquiries, a blank page is a good indication that hiring a professional SEO agency may be in the best interest of the company.  If not totally convinced as yet, then also consider the following:

Cost-Effective Measure
There is a great deal of truth in the old adage, You have to spend money in order to make money.  You can also save money in order to make money.  Hiring professionals in SEO will lessen the cost of the inevitable mistakes made in-house and speed up the ROI with increased traffic to the site. To further  this, conduct research and compare both domestic and international agencies in order to secure reputable services at the most cost-effective pricing.

Dedicated Services
Outsourcing to a professional SEO agency ensures a dedicated commitment to the promotion of the company without sacrificing in-house resources. These resources will be best used preparing the back-end operation to receive the increased traffic and sales that will occur over time.  Opt to receive reports from the agency in order to plan for ramping up operations in line with SEO progress.

Professional SEO Strategies
Strategy is at the very core of search engine optimization.  The most effective strategies are born out of a combination of expertise and optimal implementation.  SEO agencies can supply both, as well as the ability to keep track of and forecast changes in the field.  In this time of unprecedented technological change, an SEO agency is poised to shift strategies commensurate with technology. They also keep the client informed of any new trends that will impact other business strategies as well.

Professional Tools and Analytics
It is the business of SEO agencies to possess all of the state-of-the-art content marketing,  analytic and reporting  tools necessary to provide their clients with optimal results. Their expertise also affords their clients with the tools that address their specific promotional needs. There is no way a small business, absent a fully equipped SEO division, could replicate these benefits without a greater expenditure of time and money.

Access To Learning SEO Standards and Best Practices
Learning is a key component in the success of any business enterprise.  A part of hiring a professional SEO agency is the knowledge that can be garnered about the best standards and practices in the field.

As owners know the story of their own business and industry, the SEO agency is knowledgeable in how to best implement SEO across a number of industries.  The client also benefits from learning what works and what doesn’t work for their particular field without experiencing the pain involved in trial and error processes.  The learning curve is expanded with the professional feedback received from SEO experts.  As the company grows and readies itself to take over some or all of the SEO responsibilities, the existing agency relationship can serve as a continuing learning resource.