Idea for increasing your Google ranking

<p>It seems to me that the single most important thing that you need to help you with search engines like Google is "inbound links." These are links that point to your website along with text that includes some version of what the google user is searching for. </p>

<p>To this end I am starting a web-ring for wedding and event photographers. It's totally free, only one photographer will be accepted per market and it will take very little time. </p>

<p>I started a new "series" called "Photographer Spotlight" and wrote a short post about William Porter, a fellow photographer in Dallas. He did the same for me. The next person to join the ring will post about each of us and we will return the favor, and so on, and so on.... Imagine 100 blogs all with a post that points to you and mentions "<em>your city</em> wedding photography." That's got to help the Google ranking on your website. </p>

<p>The only qualification you need to join the ring is that you do quality work, are an active blogger and are the first person in your market to ask to join. I think that we can build a nice network of pro's who can help each other out with very little effort. :)</p>

<p>Contact me directly to join or if you have questions.</p>

<p>Inbound links are only one part of SEO. Google is not a simpleton and the programmers there are well aware of the millions of 'link exchange requests" that are emailed around every week. I'm not saying that it isn't worth it, I'm just saying don't expect miracles.</p>

<p>Josh, I don't expect miracles, and I don't believe Booray does, either. It's just one idea of many. But it's also not just about SEO.</p>

<p>Will</p>

<p>Thanks for the tip. I'm just working off what I hear from the many SEO solicitations I get every month. Even if it doesn't help (and I think it will), it's such a small amount of effort to try it. :)</p>

<p>William makes a good point that I was about to make as well! Will and I chatted on the phone after I first approached him with the idea and now we comment on Facebook etc... I feel like, regardless of the SEO success, it's great to interact with fellow professionals on a daily basis. :)</p>

<p>Actually, do your homework before you go too far down this road. There's a reason that Google employs so many people with doctorates in information sciences. They can spot a link farm a mile away. Blatant attempts to game page rank with reciprocal linking can <em>cost</em> you page rank, rather than earning you some.<br /><br />The most important thing isn't reciprocal links, it's <em>content</em>. Well put together, properly formatted, topical, non-spammy, easily accessed, quick-loading, periodically updated <em>content</em> that actually meets Google's countless criteria for matching up to what their visitors are looking for. Link farming lost its naive charms a decade ago. Google has moved <em>way </em>past that as a meaningful metric, and has instead started using all sorts of clever pattern matching to spot (and penalize) non-organic ring-like inter-site links as an indicator of popularity. They are not dummies, them google people.<br /><br />Do you know <em>why</em> you hear cheap tricks like that in SEO solicitations and recycled "newsletters" that were mostly written years ago? Because those solicitations are bot spam from unsophisticated affiliate marketing shops trying to tell you they have a solution for you, that will spare you from having to actually create what it is that Google values (real, fresh, deep information). And for that, you only need to give them your credit card number ...</p>

<p>Be careful people, I tried this 3 months ago and it did help me, I increased my ranking by quite a bit. But right now I am sitting on page 20 (i dropped to pg 40) after being on page 3! I can't be 100% sure that the blog links are the sole cause, as a lot of webmasters have also been hit. Google have just changed their algorithm so that could also be the culprit. <br>

What you need is to blog about a fellow photographer and include a link to their site in the body of the text, that photographer needs to blog about someone else not you. The trick would be to ensure that every one gets blogged about and your ring of photographers needs to be fairly large. Google can detect smaller rings. While you are at it comment on each others blogs with meaningful text, as well as facebook and twitter</p>

<p>It's a good idea, it's nice of you to share it, and the value of such a peer group to each other is likely much more than it's impact on google........... I'd just be worried about who gets voted to be the quality police.</p>

<p>I am no expert, but when it comes to links, I have heard that Google values non-reciprocal inbound links much more than a reciprocal link. If that non-reciprocal inbound link comes from a very highly ranking website then it counts even more, and if it comes from that website's homepage then it counts even more. Exchanging links is probably just a waste of time.... But as someone above has said, Google change their algorithms so you may suddenly find yourself on page 50 before you know it. I also believe content is king as stated by someone above, especially new, relevant content.</p>

<p>I searched for London wedding photography a few months ago, then for the top couple of sites had a look at how many sites link to them and it was over 2000 in each case, wow!</p>

<p>I tried something like this once as well and it definitely hurt my page ranking. After disassociating myself with the link farm my page rank went back to where it was and then eventually to page 1. Granted what Booray is suggesting sounds like a new and improved version since information - not just a link - is being provided.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Granted what Booray is suggesting sounds like a new and improved version since information - not just a link - is being provided.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Won't matter. It's the reciprocity that they so easily spot, and that's what hurts your ranking.</p>

<p>Getting a lot of good info here, thanks guys.</p>

<p>I'm not talking about a list of links on the main page but rather a single blog post about each photographer. Since Blogger generates a new page for each post, there would only be one out-bound link on the page. Also, there is no recipricol link because I link to William's website from my blog and he links to my website from his blog. Our websites get an inbound link from a blog post and have no outgoing link back. I can see where this wouldn't work if you are a photographer who uses your blog as your professional website because you would be trading links to the same domain but if you are like me and have two seperate domains for blog and website than your website would be getting written about on several blogs with no links back to those blogs. I suspect that has value with Google.</p>

<p>The biggest drawback I see is the length of the content. Since Blogger generates a new page, will Google only evaluate the info on that page or will it look at all the blog posts in the domain?</p>

<p>if your website and blog are on 2 different IP addresses and not hosted by the same company you may get away with it. Google loves links to a website embedded in the body of the content. But for photogs like me who use WordPress so my blog is my website it will not work.</p>

<p>David, I know how to see how many sites link to my site, but how do you find out how many sites are linked to other people's sites?</p>

<p><strong>David, I know how to see how many sites link to my site, but how do you find out how many sites are linked to other people's sites?</strong></p>

<p>I use chrome as my browser and there are SEO plugins that do this for me, all you do is type the url in and you see everything SEO related</p>

<p>or use <a href="http://www.seomoz.org/">http://www.seomoz.org/</a></p>

<p>Vail, what I do is type in "websitename.com" in Google, (with the quotation marks) and it will show you how often the website shows up on the web, it doesn't show the number of links out there but if you compare the results to your own site you can get a fairly accurate guesstimate.</p>

<p>I have studied web placement for many years now and finally have my listing on the first page. I pay a company, Ideal Positions, and they guarantee my listing at the top of the page. I bought the best three keywords for wedding photography in my city. So if anyone types in my three keywords I am always at the top. I also use the free listing in the map section for google. As a result of being at the top of the page in the sponsored links section, I now have what's called a natural listing on the first page on most days. I am almost always on the front page three times and sometimes four. This has increased my wedding business by 200% at least. The key is to to get as many links as you can to your site, use the right keywords on your website. Make sure your website has a HTML splash page or has the capability of imbedding keywords. Pay a company to get your listing on the front page. Do not use google adwords, you will go broke and your listing will be clicked off by other photographers. Sign up for any free listings you can get, especially the map section. You will eventually get a natural listing on the first page. It may take a couple of years but it doesn't go away very often.</p>

<p>I don't understand. You say not to use Google Adwords yet you pay a company to run Goggle Adwords for you, which means they are skimming profit off the top. Ideal Position is one of many companies that simply sets up an adword campaign for the client and overcharges for it (not that they are wrong to do so, that's how they make their money).</p>

<p>Response to Booray:<br>

Ideal Positions is a company that has a system which allows a few people in a market to own keywords. The price is a fraction of what it would cost to use Google Adwords. The problem with Google Adwords is that you can get clicked off by other photographers. If you pay for ten clicks in a day, then the other photographers can click your listing off the front page every morning. I can never get clicked off the front page and I always am at the very top, guaranteed. You should check your facts before commenting on something you are unfamiliar with. Ideal positions does not set up a Google Adwords account for me, and it saves me thousands of dollars a year compared to Google. I am guaranteed the top spot on every search engine, not just Google.</p>

<p>I did check my facts. I read the "more info" page on the website. It's all explained right there.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>I can't find that explanation anywhere on Positions website. They mention nothing about setting up a Google Adwords account. Since they guarantee position on Yahoo, Google and every search engine how could having a Google Adwords account help with that? Have you ever had a Google Adwords account? Are you aware of how much it costs per click to maintain a presence on the front page of a Google search? If the market is saturated with photographers you will probably spend between $50 and $100 a day to maintain position. I spend about $10 a day and I am always at the top. That is something Google Adwords can't even do on Google.</p>

<p>There seems to be some confusion here. When you say "I am always at the top" what do you mean? Do you mean the top listing which is in a yellow box? That listing is a Google Adwords listing. If you are referring to the listings below that one, without the yellow box, those are organic listings. If you are at the top in the yellow box, that's a Google Adwords account. Bing and Yahoo have the same service. It's called "Pay-per-Click." </p>

<p>From the website:</p>

<p>" With over six years experience managing thousands of Pay Per Click campaigns..."</p>

<p>They set up the accounts, they research the best keywords for your business, they figure the cost of the bids and average clicks per month, they add profit for themselves and that's you"low monthly rate." It's a valuable service for anyone who doesn't want to bother managing several accounts and ads but it's not magic. They create an ad for you and out-bid the competition.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>My listing is the sponsored link section, which is generally where those who use Google adwords are located. The difference is that you can click on my listing as many times as you like and it will not come off the top spot. With Google Adwords, which is the point of my disagreement with you, my listing would disappear after being clicked too many times. All I am saying is that by using a company that has agreements with all the search engines, there is no pay per click. It can be clicked forever and it will not come off the front page. When I used Google Adwords I payed $1.00 per click with a limit of $10.00 a day. That would get me on the second page of the sponsored links most days and on the first page sometimes. My listing would always disappear by about 10:00am everyday because of other photographers clicking on my listing. With this service I am at the top of the page everytime you search for Nashville Wedding Photographers. And if I'm not I get my money back. You may say it's not magic, but I disagree. I have spent the last eight years studying web placement, consulting with experts, paying consultants and this is the only thing I have found that absolutely guarantees my presence at the very top of the page. That translates into me making a huge amount of money every year. The benefit of being at the top of the page and getting clicked on all these years has made my organic listing show up on the first page on most days. So I am almost always on the first page three times, once in the sponsored link, once in the map section and then organically. I have yet to see anyone else in my area have this many listings on the first page. I also come up on top in mobile listings which is something Google Adwords does not do.</p>

<p><em>I wrote a long post but it didn't show so I'm re-writing a shorter one. Apologies if the original shows up and this is a double post.</em></p>

<p>I searched "nashville wedding photographers" on Google. You were on the right side, second from the top. I clicked your ad and searched again. Click, search. Click, search (you dropped to third), click, search and you were gone. Then I searched yahoo and Bing. You were not on the first page for either. Then I searched from another computer and my phone and you were not on the first page with either one.</p>

<p>Read what Google has to say on the matter:</p>

<p><a href="http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=6546">http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=6546</a></p>

<p><em> "All I am saying is that by using a company that has agreements with all the search engines, there is no pay per click. It can be clicked forever and it will not come off the front page."</em><br>

<em> </em><br>

That's not true. All google adwords are subject to the same rules and fees, regardless of who initiates the campaign. To do otherwise would violate anti-trust laws and result in the largest class-action lawsuit in history.</p>

<p> </p>