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If you’re in the search marketing industry, you would know that Google considers strong backlinks as one of its major indicators to rank a website on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page). The same goes for videos. If Google sees that many authority sites have backlinks to a particular video, it would think of it as something of great relevance and importance.

This is one of the reasons why an SEO company or enthusiast does not limit its optimization practices to on-page alone, i.e. Youtube video page. Off-page plays an important role in getting good search engine rankings as well.

How To Get Backlinks To Your Youtube Videos

Acquire incoming links to your Youtube videos. Here are four (4) quick tips to show you how.

1. Embed it on your blog.

Blogs are excellent avenues to insert your videos on. It is fresh, frequently updated and Google simply loves that. Write a quality content that goes well with the video you are promoting. Do not forget to include social media icons on the entry so users can easily share your article.

2. Post it on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest.

On Facebook, you could add the Youtube link on the Timeline, design an engaging photo with your Youtube URL in the description or use an App to fetch your channel as a tab. On Twitter, get people’s feedback by asking open-ended questions as captions. The more people interact or reply on the said tweet, the higher the chance you’ll increase the number of links it gets.

3. Hold a promotional campaign.

Holding contests that require participants to re-blog or re-embed your video is not a new concept. Not only will it increase your views but it will give you the number of links that you are aiming for. You can start with a small prize such as free dinner, concert or movie tickets. Allot three to four days for the promotion to run. The contest does not have to be limited to weblogs. You can hold it on Facebook and Twitter as well. Perform an initial research first to gauge your target audience to ensure the success of the campaign. During the planning stage, see to it that the linking would be done as natural and as gradual as possible too.

4. Share it on the bookmarking websites.

It may be considered as an old tactic to submit it to Delicious, StumbleUpon and Folkd. However, do not totally erase them from the equation as these sites still count. You just need keep your link building service strategy to minimum, that is, do not build them in huge volumes all in one day. Submit to both no-follow and do-follow websites. Vary your title, description and keywords. Perform the backlinking regularly.

Devising a good linking strategy is a must in any digital marketing campaign. From analyzing the linkswithin the webpage to optimizing content for inbound opportunities, it is integral for all website owners to focus on this aspect as this is one of the significant factors that contribute to how high or low the site would rank on major search engines like Google. The higher the SERP position is, the bigger the chance for traffic conversion and lead generation.

Four (4) ways to improve the structure of your links

Learn how you could maximize the usage of standard WordPress features to boost your rankings and come up with guaranteed SEO results.

1. Widgets.

With its built-in widgets, WordPress has made it extremely easy for its users to customize the various elements of their blog. For instance, you could quickly add your popular or recent articles and put them along your Sidebar. You could also interlink your main pages such as About, Contact and Privacy Policy and include them on the Footer area. Considering that the sidebar and footer sections are visible on all of your webpages, putting them there is a great way to establish deep interlinking. Let us not forget the ever user-friendly navigation system that WP provides. You could build your top menu in just a few clicks. Insert your most visited category or tag URLs and you’re good to go.

2. Excerpts.

Excerpts are post teasers normally displayed on the homepage. Instead of showing the entire content of your article, the visitor would see a preview first and if he wants to learn further, he could click “Read More”. As the admin, you could modify the default “Read More” and change it to your entry title. You could go as far as inserting your key terms there to optimize your keyword strat.

3. Advanced Linking Option.

This is perhaps one of the underused features in WP when it comes to interlinks. To access this, go to the Edit Post Box, highlight a piece of text then choose the Link icon. On screen just below “Enter destination URL”, you’ll see the label “Or link to existing content”. With this feature, you could find a list of available posts and easily connect them to what you think is deemed fit for the current one.

4. Plugins.

There are several plugins in WordPress that offer link building service as part of its feature. You could go from automatically connecting a keyword to its landing page if the word appears on one of the entries to displaying related posts based on the tags and meta keywords.

Use WordPress to power your company’s website. Get the most out of its repositories to extend your
site’s functionality and capability. Improve traffic and search engine rankings by installing the best
keyword tools WordPress could offer. Here are some of them:

Name:      WordPress SEO by Yoast
URL:      http://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-seo/
License:      Free
Requires:      3.3 or higher
Compatible up to:      3.6
Downloads:      5,959,404
Rating:      4.7 out of 5 stars
Description:      WP SEO by Yoast is one of the most popular plugins mainly designed for SEO aficionados. If
you ask any of the local guys – Davao, Cebu, Manila SEO pros for their recommended add-ons, this
would surely be on top of their list. Developer Joost de Valk covered all the needed aspects on technical
optimization. Content and keyword-wise, it forces you to focus on a term when you write your content,
then ensures that that word is fully utilized on every pages – image alt tags, meta description, titles and
subheadings. From page analysis, link elements, xml sitemaps, RSS setup, breadcrumbs to social
integration, it offers a full package for both enthusiasts and SEO companies alike.

Name:      Keyword Statistics
URL:      http://wordpress.org/plugins/keyword-statistics/
License:      Free
Requires:      1.5 or higher
Compatible up to:      3.3.2
Downloads:      193,355
Rating:      4 out of 5 stars
Description:      Keyword Statistics is another free tool that mainly checks for the KW density on your posts.
It initially reviews the page for single words and optionally two and three-word phrases, for each the 1-
10 most commonly used would be displayed. It comes with English and German stopwords which could
be filtered out before the calculation of KW densities. It updates information automatically even during
the entry update. Aside from the statistics it provides, it also generates canonical URLs and controls the
index/follow settings for specific aggregations.

Name:      WordPress Keyword Tool by CodeCanyon
URL:      http://codecanyon.net/item/wordpress-keyword-tool-plugin/2840111
License:      Paid
Requires:      3.0 or higher
Compatible up to:      3.4Downloads: information not available
Purchases:      79
Rating:      4.33 out of 5 stars
Description:      WP Keyword Tool by CodeCanyon is a paid option amounting to $15. No fee is paid by the
user to access the end product. Among its features include a list of key terms people use to search,
number of daily searches for each and a density checker for keywords to ensure that your article is
search-engine friendly. It recognizes relative KWs and allows you to add them as tags. It is responsive
with Javascript JS and PHP files bundled along, has 24/7 support and uses English as main language.

 

Related Article:

WordPress is inarguably the most widely-used platform today. For new and small businesses that are looking to make a mark over millions of competitors over the web, using WordPress as the main CMS to build a website is very beneficial mainly because Google loves it. It is very search-engine friendly with its valuable plugins that are guaranteed to improve SEO SERP (Search Engine Results Page) results. There are plugins that make XML, video and image sitemaps easy to generate. There are those that weigh the keyword density on a specific entry. There are some that provide special themes and features to further target mobile audience. And there are others that offer automatic link building service to strengthen inbound and outbound content strategies. Below are some best link-building options that could help boost your rankings up.

 

Name:      Broken Link Checker
URL:         http://wordpress.org/plugins/broken-link-checker/
Requires:      3.2 or higher
Compatible up to:      3.6
Downloads:      1,949,846
Rating:      4.1 out of 5 stars
Description:      Broken Link Checker monitors the links in your posts and comments that do not work. It checks for missing images and redirects and proceeds to notify you if any are found either via Dashboard or through email. You have an option to prevent search engines from following these URLs too. It is highly configurable because you can do various editing without manually updating each post.

 

Name:      Link Library
URL:      http://wordpress.org/plugins/link-library/
Requires:      2.7 or higher
Compatible up to:      3.6
Downloads:      315,002
Rating:      4.4 out of 5 stars
Description:      Link Library basically outputs a list of link categories with notes and descriptions. It initially creates a page that contains the URLs specified inside the Links section of the WordPress administration. The user can select a sub-set of category to be displayed or not to be displayed. This is especially useful for blog owners who have several groupings on their content as they could quickly organize and sort them in a more readable and user-friendly fashion.

 

Name:      Keyword Strategy Internal Links
URL:      http://wordpress.org/plugins/keyword-strategy-internal-links/
Requires:      3.0.0 or higher
Compatible up to:      3.3.2
Downloads:      14,762
Rating:      3.7 out of 5 stars
Description:      Keyword Strategy Internal Links makes internal linking automated by connecting the keywords to the pages within a site. For example, you can make the first instance of the word “widgets” on any section of your weblog to repeatedly use yoursite.com/widgets/ as its landing page. Aside from finding additional entries within your site that would be suitable for internal linking, you can also insert variations on your key terms to attract more visitors.

 

Related Articles:

A site map (or sitemap) is a list of pages aimed to aid visitors and web crawlers find the different sections on your website. It can either be an HTML sitemap which is designed for users so they can easily browse the contents, or an XML version that is intended for bots so they can include every part of your site to their search engine index. We’ll talk about XML sitemaps on this post.

 

Table of Contents

  1. Definition and Importance of an XML Sitemap
  2. Sitemap Usage
  3. Protocol, Formats and Types

3.1   Sitemap Protocol

3.2   Sitemap Index File

3.3   File Formats

3.4   File Types Based on Content and Device

        1. Image Sitemap
        2. Video Sitemap
        3. News Sitemap
        4. Mobile Sitemap
  1. Web-based and Downloadable Sitemap Generators
  2. How To Submit An XML Sitemap

5.1   Submit Sitemap via an HTTP Request

5.2   Submit Sitemap through Robots.txt

5.3   Submit Sitemap via Webmaster Tools

        1. Google Webmaster Tools
        2. Bing Webmaster Tools
  1. XML Sitemap Best Practices

 »Definition and Importance of an XML Sitemap

One significant task when you perform an SEO Audit Checklist  is to submit an XML Sitemap. In simple terms, an XML sitemap or an Extensible Markup Language sitemap is a map of your site. It contains the overall structure, sections, links and information about all the pertinent URLs found on your website. It is basically submitted to Google and Bing so they can:

  • quickly navigate around your site
  • add your pages to their index
  • be immediately informed about any changes made on your website
  • understand which among the pages are most important
  • improve your visibility on search results
  • help you discover broken links or orphaned pages within your site

»Sitemap Usage

Sitemaps are especially useful if your site:

  • has dynamic content
  • has rich AJAX, Flash, scripts, videos or photos on the page
  • is relatively new and has built minimal internal and external links
  • has a large directory of archived content yet no good internal linking structure to active pages

 »Protocol, File Formats and Types

Sitemap Protocol.

An XML sitemap follows a data protocol as stated on Sitemaps.org.

Required/optional tags for a sitemap file:

  • should begin with an opening <urlset> tag and end with a closing </urlset> tag
  • should specify the namespace (protocol standard) within the <urlset> tag
  • should include a <url> entry for each URL, as a parent XML tag
  • should include a <loc> child entry for each <url> parent tag
  • <lastmod>, <changefreq>,  <priority> tags are optional.

Here’s an example. Items in italics are optional.

1

Each sitemap file has the following limitations:

  • must have no more than 50,000 URLs
  • must be no larger than 10MB (10,485,760 bytes)

Sitemap Index File.

For large sites (e.g. e-commerce sites) that do not meet the usual requirements, a sitemap index may be used.

Required/optional tags for a sitemap index file:

  • should begin with an opening <sitemapindex> tag and end with a closing </sitemapindex> tag
  • should include a <sitemap> entry for each Sitemap as a parent XML tag.
  • should include a <loc> child entry for each <sitemap> parent tag.
  • <lastmod> tag is optional.

Here’s an example:

2

File Formats.

Google and Bing supports the following file formats for a sitemap:

  • XML format based on the Sitemap protocol
  • RSS, mRSS and Atom 1.0 (for Google)
  • Text file (for Google)

File Types Based On Content and Device.

Google supports specialized sitemaps based on the content type and device used on your website.

  • Image Sitemap.

As image search is separate from web search, it then equally important to create and submit an image sitemap. For each URL you list, note the essential images on that page. You can record up to 1,000 images for each page.

Required/optional tags:

-should begin with an opening <image:image> tag and end with a closing </image:image> tag

-should include a <image:loc> child entry for each <image:image> parent tag

-<image:caption>, <image:geo_location>,  <image:title>, <imagelicense> tags are optional.

3

  • Video Sitemap.

    For video sitemaps, you can either add video information to an existing sitemap or generate an mRSS feed for your site and submit the feed as a sitemap. Each video sitemap or mRSS feed file that you provide must be under 50MB in size when uncompressed, and can contain no more than 50,000 video items. If it exceeds the usual limit, you can submit multiple Sitemaps and a Sitemap index file. Read more about the video-specific tags and protocols as recommended by Google Webmaster Tools.

  • News Sitemap.

    This is a special file that allows Google News to discover, crawl and index all news articles faster; extract and display article information and characterize content more accurately; and annotate them with meta data. Learn the protocols and news-specific tags here.

4

 »Web-based and Downloadable Sitemap Generators

If you’re an SEO company or an Internet/Digital Marketing agency, it would be a great practice to make use of tools and sitemap generators available over the web to easily facilitate the sitemap creation. Here are a few free and paid options:

1.       Sitemap Generator by XML-Sitemaps.com. Build sitemap online in different formats: XML, text, ROR, HTML.

2.       Google Sitemap Generator Tool by Internet Marketing Ninjas. Generate Sitemaps over the internet in XML, Excel and HTML formats. Additional Reports include: Internal Page, External Links, Internal/External Redirects, Internal/External Errors Reports.

3.       Google Sitemap Generator for Windows by GSiteCrawler. Download and Install on your Windows unit.

4.       A1 Sitemap Generator 4.2.0 by Micro-Sys ApS. Download for free, fully functional with a 30-day evaluation period, format includes: HTML, XML, image, video.

5.       Google XML Sitemaps, Image XML-Sitemap Generator and Google XML Sitemap for Videos, WordPress Plugins. Install these plugins if your website platform is WordPress.

»How to Submit an XML Sitemap

There are mainly three ways to submit an XML sitemap to search engines.

How to Submit Sitemap via an HTTP Request.

Type this line to your browser’s address bar. Use the following format:

For Google:

http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/ping?sitemap=http://www.YourURL.com/sitemap.xml

For Bing:

http://www.bing.com/webmaster/ping.aspx?sitemap=www.YourURL.com/sitemap.xml

How to Submit Sitemap through Robots.txt.

Insert a line on your robots.txt file, typically at the end of the file, referencing the location of your sitemap.

Example:

Sitemap: http://www.YourURL.com/sitemap.xml

How to Submit Sitemap via Webmaster Tools

Google Webmaster Tools.

1.       Verify that you own the website via Google Webmaster Tools.

  • Sign in to Google Webmaster Tools.
  • Type in your website.
  • Either copy the meta tag indicated or download the HTML verification file.

Example of meta tag:

<meta name=”google-site-verification” content=”z5mJLjVGtEe5qzCefW1pamxI7H46u19n4XnxEzgl1AU” />

  • Insert the meta tag on your homepage header or upload the HTML file on the root directory.
  • Once done, go back to Google Webmaster Tools and click verify.

2.       Once verified, head over to Site configuration and choose Sitemaps.

3.       Enter your sitemap URL: http://www.example.com/sitemap.xml

4.       Submit.

Bing Webmaster Tools.

1.       Sign in to Bing Webmaster Tools.

2.       Use Sitemaps Tool. Paste the sitemap URL into the Direct Sitemap Submission text box.

3.       Click Submit.

 »XML Sitemaps Best Practices

Here are some of the best practices to follow to ensure that your sitemaps are well crawled and submitted:

1.       Adhere to the Sitemap guidelines:

  • Must be UTF-8 encoded
  • URLs must be URL-escaped and encoded
  • Required tags such as namespace must always be indicated.

2.       Know the limits.

  • For a generic XML sitemap, must not have more than 50,000 URLs and not larger than 10MB.
  • For an image sitemap, enlist up to 1,000 images per page.
  • For a video sitemap, must be under 50MB in size when uncompressed, and can contain no more than 50,000 video items

If it exceeded the above limits, use Sitemap Index File instead.

3.       On using Sitemap Index file, remember to upload the referenced multiple sitemaps under the same root domain.

4.       For image sitemaps, including <image:title> tag is a must.

5.       Validate before going live. Use W3C XML Validator.

6.       Always upload at the root folder of your website.

7.       Make it a habit to regularly check your Webmaster Tools for crawl results.

 

References:

http://www.sitemaps.org/protocol.html                                                                             http://www.internetmarketingninjas.com/blog/search-engine-optimization/the-ultimate-guide-to-xml-sitemaps http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=20986&parent=8476&ctx=topic http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=156184 http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=183668&ctx=cb&src=cb&cbid=1gkdr7vlcoxwn&cbrank=1 http://www.bing.com/blogs/site_blogs/b/webmaster/archive/2009/08/15/uncovering-web-based-treasure-with-sitemaps-sem-101.aspx                                                                                                                                              http://www.webconfs.com/importance-of-sitemaps-article-17.php

 

 

 


 

  1. Company Size and Structure

    In SEO, the larger the team is the better. In your search for an SEO company, find out how many dedicated SEO staffs will be assigned to your SEO campaign. The more staff, the shorter it will take for you to rank on your chosen keywords.How is their SEO team structured? What is the organization’s structure? A company’s efficiency can be affected by how the company is structured. Find out about this too.

  2. Accessibility

    In SEO, as well as in any digital marketing service, location is not an issue. Instead, you need to know how accessible the company is in terms of virtual communication channels. Do they operate 24×7? How fast can they respond to your queries and requests?

  3. Company Values and Vision

    A company without a vision and a core set of values can be chaotic. Find out about the company’s vision and their guiding values. See if this aligns with the services they are selling.

  4. Culture

    Study shows that a company with culture has happier employees. Happier employees then leads to better quality work. If possible, visit the company to see what their culture is like. You may also request a virtual meeting with the team that will handle your seo campaign to assess how the team will work together.

  5. Quality of their Website’s content

    Quality of the SEO Company’s website content is important. If the SEO company can’t write quality content and images on their own website, how can they produce a quality SEO Campaign?

  6. Softwares/Tools Used

    Ask about the softwares/tools that these companies use. Quality and efficiency are affected by the type of softwares and tools they use. Ask about the softwares/tools they use to perform SEO audit on a website and what tools they use to improve their efficiency.

  7. Employee Retention

    The longer the experience of an seo staff with a company, the more knowledgeable they are. This means, they’ve been there through the different phases of SEO evolution. They say that the more you know about history, the better prepared you are about the future. Search engine algorithms evolve rapidly. In 2012 alone, there about 14 updates made for their Panda algorithm and 3 updates for Penguin.

  8. Ranking on Search EnginesHow do these companies rank on search engines on the services they provide? If they can’t rank, how can they rank you?
  9. Technical Knowledge

    How knowledgeable is the team in SEO strategies? How long have they’ve been doing this service?

  10. Ranking Portfolio

    Lastly, a good ranking portfolio is required to support everything above. Ask for sample rankings from clients and client references to verify their portfolio.

Optimind offers guaranteed first page ranking on major search engines or your money back.