Welcome to part nine in this search engine positioning series. Last week we discussed the important topic of link building. In part nine we will be covering the monitoring and the various areas you should consider and tools you may want to use.

While this area isn’t directly related to attaining higher rankings it is definitely equally important. Once you’ve got good rankings your competitors are going to work to beat you out. You have to keep on top of it to insure you maintain your top positions.

Over this series we will cover the ten key aspects to a solid search engine positioning campaign.

The Ten Steps We Will Go Through Are:

1. Keyword Selection
2. Content
3. Site Structure
4. Optimization
5. Internal Linking
6. Human Testing
7. Submissions
8. Link Building
9. Monitoring
10. The Extras

Step Nine – Monitoring

After days, weeks, or perhaps even months of researching, optimizing, proofing and link building you’ve got your website into the top positions. First thing’s first: congratulations! It’s no easy task to get your site where you got it and you deserve a break. Take a week off and don’t look at your site, at the very least this’ll let you come back at it again with fresher eyes – at best it’ll give you time to spend with those who missed you during your obsession with your site and rankings. But don’t take too long … your competition is right on your heals.

As important as the first eight steps were to getting you the rankings, so to is this step that will help you keep those rankings. There are three basic yet critical steps to the monitoring process. They are:

1. Monitoring your rankings
2. Monitoring links
3. Monitoring changes in the search engine environment

Monitoring Your Rankings

There are a number of ways that you can monitor your rankings. You can run the searches manually, you can use software to check your rankings or you can use online services to check your rankings. There are advantages and disadvantages to each.

Checking Manually

Advantage – You will be able to visually confirm the results and also you will remain in full compliance with the search engine’s rules governing use of their systems including the use of automated rank-checking software.

Disadvantage – This method for checking rankings can be extremely time consuming is checking for multiple phrases across multiple engines. If you are targeting 20 phrases and want to check your rankings across the top ten engines and know where you’re places as far down as position 50 you will have to check up to 1000 different pages for your site.

Rank-checking Software

Advantage – This method for checking your rankings is extremely efficient. With software such as WebPosition Gold you simply enter the keywords you are targeting, the engines you want to check for results on, and how deep you want it to go. After that it’s a matter of running the program and doing some other work or grabbing a coffee while you await the results.

Disadvantage – This software often violates the search engines rules regarding the use of their systems by running a large number of searches. If you are going to use this type of software please set the software to run courteously (a setting you will find in the options) and register for Google’s Web API which will allow you to legitimately run 1000 automated queries per day.

Online Services

Advantage – It is much faster than checking manually and doesn’t have the cost associated with it that software does. An example of an online rank checking tool can be found at http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/ranking-reports/.

Disadvantage – It is still far more time consuming than automated software and over a few months you will have made up the money spent on the software in time saved by using it. Also, I’m a bit paranoid when it comes to entering detailed info regarding my SEO sites and targeted keywords. I’m not a fan of anything that requires me to give my targeted phrases and URL to another marketing site. But maybe that’s just me.

Monitoring Links

Monitoring your links is equally important to attaining them. When you were first starting your SEO and link-building you probably checked to see how many links your main competitors had and built more. So what makes you think they haven’t been building more links since then.

It’s a good practice to schedule weekly checks of how many backlinks you have detected by the major search engines and also check to see how many your main competitors have. If you document the results on an ongoing basis you will be able to note whether theirs are growing or not.

While you should always be generating more inbound links for your site whether you see your competitors doing so or not, knowing when they are and where they are can give you a solid advantage in reacting to this new threat. Remember, as hard as you worked for your positioning, so too with others.

There are software and online services to check for links however the only one I would recommend has nothing to do with its link number abilities. As noted in previous articles, Top Optimizer Pro is the link-building tool I would most highly recommend. On top of giving you the number of links your competitors have it will tell you what the anchor text is, what the PageRank is of those links, and more. It will even help you find link partners.

Monitoring Changes In The Search Environment

The last thing you will have to monitor is for changes with the search engines themselves. First of all, with changes such as MSN’s upcoming shift from providing results based on Inktomi to providing their own results, you will want to know when this happens and what to expect when it does. Additionally, you will want to know when changes are occurring in the search engine algorithms, when major ones take place, and what those changes are.

This is why there are full-time SEOs. To monitor all of these things can be very time-consuming however assuming that you have the time and inclination here are some resources to help you keep on top if it all:

Newsletters

SEO newsletters can definitely help keep you on top of what’s going on however you have to know who to listen to. Here are a few people/organizations I have found worthy of my respect (not to say these are the only ones but I can’t list everyone here so I’m listing the three top SEO newsletters).

Climbing The Beanstalk – Beanstalk Search Engine Positioning’s own bi-weekly newsletter. Of course we have to include it and if you’re enjoying this article and the ones before it you’re likely enjoy the newsletter as well. You can find the subscription box in the right-hand navigation.

ISEDB Newsletter – a weekly newsletter with links to a variety of articles. Gives a very balanced look at search engines, what’s going on, and SEO tactics. Subscription can be found at the bottom of the homepage.

High Rankings Advisor – a newsletter put out by Jill Whalen. I may not agree with everything she writes but she knows what she’s taking about and is definitely worth reading. She gives a balanced look at SEO in easy-to-understand terminology.

Forums

Forums are perhaps one of the best places to find up-to-date information on the search engines. Because they are updated constantly and by numerous individuals you will have the benefit of many opinions and perspectives. The downfall is you have to know whom you can trust and who’s knowledgeable. Some quality forums can be found at:

• Web Pro World
• SEO Chat
• Search Guild
• High Rankings
• Li’l Engine

There are of course tons of other resources out there and you’ll just have to keep hunting until you find them all (or subscribe to some newsletters and ask in some forums where you might find additional information).

Some wiser webmasters will use the robots.txt file to block search engine spiders. If you look for robots.txt at the root of the domain (i.e. at http://www.domaininquestion.com/robots.txt) you will see the files/folders that are being blocked. Look for the links pages and/or the directory these pages are in, in this list. If you find it, then don’t exchange links with them.

A new one I’ve recently found along this tangent is to draw the links from a script and to block the script and database folders from the search engines. The files won’t show up in the excluded list but the links won’t be counted. To detect this the easiest thing to do is to view the cache of the page. If the page is cached but none of the links appear and the script directory is listed in the robots.txt file then this tactic is being used. Again, don’t bother exchanging links.

If you find Webmasters employing any of these tactics they are unethical. Unethical Webmasters shouldn’t be rewarded with high PageRanks or good results. If you have the time and inclination you may want to email those websites listed on the page (heck, they may be good recip link partners anyway) and let them know what’s going on. You’ll be doing them a favor and they’ll probably be happy to exchange links with you as well.

Link Pages With More than 50 Links

Webmasters who are trying to actually do their link partners a favor will limit their links pages to 50 links (the lower the better). The reason for this is that every page gets one vote. A link to another website counts as a vote for that site. This is why it can help improve rankings. As each page only gets one vote a link from a page with 10 links counts at 0.1 of a vote, whereas a link from a page with 100 links counts as 0.01 of a vote. Anything past about 100 links is not counted at all.

Additionally, the higher up on a page your link appears the more weight it is given. If the page lists sites alphabetically try to insure that your title begins with a number or a letter early in the alphabet (which works well for companies like “Beanstalk Search Engine Positioning”).

Prepare For The Future

Just because a rule applies today does not mean that it will tomorrow. This is true in on-site SEO as well as link building. If generic recip links work today, consider whether you believe it’s in the best interest of your targeted engine to keep it this way. As the answer will undoubtedly be “no” it’s in your best interest to insure that you take the extra time to build links that will still be valuable months and even a year from now to save yourself a drop in the rankings and additional work later.

Directory Listings

Having your website listed in quality directories is perhaps one of the most valuable things you can do for it in regards to inbound links. Directories link DMOZ and Yahoo! hold significant weight. Google draws it’s directory results from DMOZ and Yahoo! draws it’s directory results from, well, Yahoo!. These links are given a lot of weight.

Make sure that you submit your website to both of these directories and if they’re not listed a couple months down the road, try again (and you may want to try a slightly different category if a relevant one exists, as you may have hit one of the many overworked editors who’s getting behind).

Aside from these two there are literally thousand of other directories our there. Look for others and submit your site. Some may charge a fee. If this is the case, take a look at the page your site would be listed on, take a look at the PageRank, the number of outbound links on the page and determine whether it’s worth the price. I’ve seen directories charging $10 for a permanent PageRank 5 link on a page with 3 other outbound links (though this number is certain to grow over time). Well worth the $10 investment.

You can find may great directories using search engines and, of course, the major directories. For example, were I looking for topical directories a great place to start would be http://directory.google.com/Top/Reference/Directories/ in the Google directory.

Non-Reciprocal Link Building Tactics

There are a number of other tactics for building non-reciprocal links. Here we will outline three of the most popular:

1. Articles
2. Press Releases
3. Paid Links

Articles

Writing articles is a great way of getting inbound links and generating quality traffic. Articles give you the opportunity to control the content on the linking page meaning that you can guarantee that it is totally relevant, it’s a one-way link, and it’s a link that you’ll actually get traffic from.

Let’s assume that you run a small computer shop. Why not write an article about how to troubleshoot a common Windows problem (no no, it’s true … Windows can be a bit buggy every now and then). The next step is to simply find places to submit your article to and do just that. From experience I would highly recommend keeping a list in your favorites of the sites you submit to. If you decide to publish another article you probably don’t want to have to find them all from scratch again.

If you were looking for places to submit to you would run searches on the major search engines for “my topic articles” (in this case a search for “windows errors articles” and “computer troubleshooting articles” would be great places to start). If you find a lot of results only post their own articles you may want to add the word “submit” to the string.

Press Releases

Press releases are another great way to attain one-way inbound links. If you have news that you feel worth telling, submit a press release about it. While you’ll probably want to manually submit your site to the key online publishers, services such as PRWeb exist to submit your press release to a large audience at a very reasonable price.

Like articles, if the news is good you’re likely to get quality traffic from a press release and on top of that, you are likely to get some good, related links to your website.

Paid Links

Paid links are links from other websites purchased solely for the value of the link rather than for direct clicks. Paid links have become so popular that auction sites have sprouted up for just this purpose and they can even be bought on eBay.

There is no particular problem with paid links per-se however I would recommend applying the same criteria that you would to reciprocal links. If you are going to purchase links, only purchase them from related sites and try to make sure the link is not buried down at the bottom of the page.

Run-of-site links (links that appear on every page) are not significantly more valuable than single links on the homepage other than for the traffic. If you’ve purchased a link in a good location and on a good site you’re likely to get some good traffic from it. In fact, this is the general rule I go into any paid link arrangement with – purchase the link for the traffic. If the link increases my PageRank it’s a great bonus but if I’ve bought the link for the traffic and I’m getting it, then the link value becomes secondary.

Link Building Tools

Because link building has become so important to improve search engine positioning, a number of great tools have been developed to help in the process. While I couldn’t possible list them all here there have been two developments by a company named TopNet Solutions than have truly impressed me and which are the only tools that I use in every link building campaign.

PR Prowler

PR Prowler from TopNet Solutions searches the web based on your specific criteria providing results with a minimum PageRank that you determine. A very handy tool for your link-building efforts.

Total Optimizer Pro

When we first purchased PR Prowler we thought we’d found the ultimate link building tool. That was, until we found Total Optimizer Pro. Made by the same folks who put out PR Prowler this tool rips apart and tells you everything there is to know about your competitor’s backlinks, the anchor text used to link to them, the PageRank distribution of their incoming links and much more.

If you have any questions about these tools or how they are used feel free to contact us. I’m happy to answer any questions that you might have.

Final Notes

If there are any points that I hope you take away from this article they are the following:

1. Automated search engine submissions services are not worth the money they charge.
2. You do not need to be submitted to thousands of “search engines”. The vast majority of traffic comes from the top few.
3. You will want to consider whether it is even worth the time to submit to search engines or whether that time could be better spent building quality, relevant links to your site and submitting your site to the major and topical directories.

An additional failing to the automated submissions systems not covered above is their inability to take into consideration the exact characteristics of your website for their directory submissions. When you’re submitting your website to directories you will have to choose the exact category your site falls into. Most directories have slightly different category hierarchies and the more exact you are in your submission, the higher the chance you will be listed. Automated systems can never be as exact across multiple directories as a human can.

Submitting your website, even correctly, will not guarantee you top rankings however it will leave you with money in your pocket to spend on other promotional endeavors that may actually produce a solid ROI. And THAT’S what it’s all about.

The rankings? You’ll have to read the other nine steps of the series to find out how to attain those