As all webmasters will surely know by now, the Penguin and Panda algorithm updates from Google have caused some chaos for many sites this year. Not only have many sites found themselves dropping down the SERPs like a stone, Interflora flower suppliers got hit with a penalty following the discovery of paid advertorial links in February.

More recently, both the BBC and Mozilla have received manual penalty notices, due to what was thought to be unnatural linking on both sites. This has thrown up the question in many forums exactly how Google is imposing these penalties, especially since the aforementioned penalties only targeted specific pages.

At the end of May, Google’s Matt Cutts released a video surrounding advertorials, paid links and full disclosure. In it, he states that any link that appears have been placed in content that has been paid for must have rel=”nofollow” and it should be clear to site visitors that it is promotional.

He also said that people who receive manual penalties and submit a reconsideration request would get a “clear answer” about where they’re going wrong.

Know your link profile

Many webmasters and designers use the footer of a site to place a link to their own site as the creators in order to gain more business. According to Google: “Widely distributed links in the footers of various sites” may “negatively impact a site’s ranking in search results”. The guidelines also cite this as a “common example (sic) of unnatural links that violate [their] guidelines”.

In a recent interview, Matt Cutts advised anyone that has received a webspam penalty to hit the forums for advice, but is this enough?

In the first instance, taking a good look at your link profile is advisable and this can be carried out using Lynx web browser, as it allows a site to be viewed in the same way that a search robot would look at it. You can also use Open Site Explorer to look at links specifically.

Look at:

• Anchor text variants
• Link quality
• Where the links are coming from
• Site wide links

Then once you think you’ve found the culprits, if you’re not managing it, ask the webmaster to add rel=”nofollow” to the <a> tag or use a robots.txt file to block from search engines.

As simple as this sounds on the face of it, it’s not always possible to get a response from site owners, especially if the sites are no longer really used and this is where the problems occur.

Overcoming the penalty

The first step is to get together a spreadsheet of all of the links on a spreadsheet. This should include all of the links you’ve managed to have altered and should contain:

• Link status (altered or live)
• Links to and from URL
• Anchor text
• Email address for linked from site
• Removal request dates

It’s also advisable to set up a dedicated Gmail address to deal specifically with this problem and nothing else. This allows you to keep a full record of any communications for further proof that you’ve addressed the problem.

You can also find plenty of link removal tools online to help if you have a large link profile.

Tell Google all about it

Once you’re sure that you’ve done as much as possible to clean up the link profile, then it’s time to appeal to Google for resubmission. This should be a detailed explanation of what’s gone wrong, how you’ve dealt with the problem and so on.

However, at this point it’s worth pointing out that first-time requests tend to be unsuccessful, so don’t lose heart if this is the case.

Disavow tool

It’s only recommended that you use the disavow tool as a last resort if you’re having serious problems getting backlinks removed. Before doing so though, have a good look at the overall SEO for the site.

You can download links from within Webmaster tools and going to the dashboard, clicking ‘Search Traffic’ and ‘Links to your site’. Then choose ‘who links the most’ and download the URL list.

According to Google: “This is an advanced feature and should only be used with caution. If used incorrectly, this feature can potentially harm your site’s performance in Google’s search results.”

They also recommend that the tool be used only if all other steps have been taken. In general, Google will actually respond to the request and if they can see you have made an effort to address it, even if they don’t immediately lift the penalty, they can help you see what else needs to be done.

If the disavow tool is the only option

If you feel you have no choice when it comes to using the disavow tool, then use the information you downloaded to create a text file, which must be .txt and UTF-8 or 7-but ASCII encoded. Allow one link per line and ensure that you only add links that you want Google to ignore.

A valid file should look something like the below:

# example.com removed most links, but missed these

http://spam.example.com/stuff/comments.html

http://spam.example.com/stuff/paid-links.html

# Contacted owner of shadyseo.com on 7/1/2012 to

# ask for link removal but got no response

domain:shadyseo.com

Then it’s just a case of uploading the file and selecting your site and clicking the Disavow links button. Hopefully you should then receive a communication from Google such as the one below:

 

Although an SEO company can do wonders for your online presence, there are some links that even they can’t get.

The main thing to consider is that there are plenty of webmasters that you already have a relationship with; you have probably just not realised it yet.

Here are some ideas to obtain a couple of links that your competitors won’t have…

1. Content Writing Providers, Web Designers & Coders
Did you use a content writing service provider when you started your website? Has your website been professionally designed? Did a coder produce a bespoke CMS?

Most content writers, designers and coders will have a portfolio. Check out there portfolio and see if they are linking to their clients. If they are, ask them if your company can be featured.

2. Uniform Suppliers & Sign Writers

Have you recently purchased new uniforms or had a van sign written?

Most websites will have a page that you could get a link on such as:

• Related links
• Partners
• Resources

It is unlikely that your supplier/service provider is going to say no; you have lined their pockets after all!

3. Friends & family

Do your friends and family have a website? Maybe they run a blog or have recently started an online store? Get a link on their site and give them 1-2 hours help in return.

An SEO company will work on a building relationship in an effort to get links; you already have that relationship!

4. Training Providers

Education and training is something that is never finished; it is always work-in-progress.

If you are using or have used training providers, see if they can offer you a link. Maybe they could produce a success story/case study based on you completing the course? 

5. Business clubs

Business breakfast meetings have become extremely popular throughout the world. After going to these meetings just 2-3 times, you will have already made some great contacts.

Let’s break down a niche quickly and see what it could mean in terms of sales and profit for your company…

We actually have experience running a store and doing ongoing e-commerce SEO; it really pays dividends.

Here is an example of an incredibly small niche in the extreme sports industry; motocross.

Based on local (UK searches) and exact match keywords (the exact phrase, not a variation), here are some figures (as of 03/06/2013):

Keyword	Monthly exact local   searches
Motocross helmets	1,000
Motocross gear	1,300
Motocross boots	590

 

Using e-commerce search engine optimisation for just 3 key phrases, there is the potential for just under 2,000 visitors per month.

• Based on research here, you can expect a click through rate (CTR) of 42.13% for being 1^st position for a keyword.
• With 1,890 searches, your site would receive 796 visitors per month in 1^st position.
• The average order basket for online shoppers in the UK is around £81.00, with these stores getting conversion rates of 4.35%. (New Media Trend Watch).
• This would mean that by ranking for just 3 search terms mentioned above, that would create 415 sales a year and £33,656 in turnover.

Now we know that this niche has hundreds of smaller search terms getting 200-500 searches per month that can be ranked for. By ranking for the initial 3 search terms (all covering “motocross”), the site will become stronger in the niche on the whole. Ranking for the other phrases therefore would not difficult.

With a solid search engine optimisation campaign in place, it would be reasonable to say that within a year of implementing e-commerce SEO, the site could be ranking in the top 10 for 100+ of the most popular related phrases.

Of course, all of these figures do not include customers that return in the future.

Now consider some other products and niches, maybe you even sell some of these products but are not ranking for the key phrase.

How much annual revenue could this produce for your company based on the stats mentioned above?

 

Keyword	Monthly exact local   searches	Potential revenue
Walking shoes	5,400	£96,192
Winter coats	9,900	£176,352
Office furniture	27,100	£482,743

 

 

We have successfully set-up, managed and sold e-commerce stores in the past. One of the main factors that allowed us to run these stores effectively and increase web sales was actively pushing consumers down the e-commerce sales channel, even those that rang us to place an order. Thinking of launching a store for your online business idea is one thing, creating one that is successful though, is actually quite hard to do!

Do you really need a phone number if you have an online store?

Most consumers will look for an address and telephone number before placing an order with an e-commerce store. A phone number alongside an address gives your potential customers the confidence they need to make a purchase. Phone numbers are still as important now as they were before the e-commerce stores were alive.

How can you push telephone sales through your e-commerce store?

It would be rude to greet a customer by sounding uninterested and pointing them elsewhere.

You have a few options here:

• Offer a discount
• Explain your loyalty discounts
• Free competition entry

You can see the pattern occurring here; incentives…

Offer customers an incentive to go to your website. A discount code could just be a 5% one off that you change every week. Once a customer realises how simple and easy the process it is, they will continue to order online.

It’s really important to push all orders through online sales channels, and here is why…

Increasing capacity and efficiency

When a business hits its capacity, something needs to give. You need to increase your staffing levels to meet the increased demand. The problem is, just one month later, if sales dip, you are stuck paying those extra employees.

Pushing telephone sales through your online sales channel will save your company time and money by ensuring you do not:

• Have to directly speak with the customer to produce revenue
• Go through the time consuming process of manually inputting order details
• Risk data entry errors due to the above
• Have to employ extra staff members to deal with increased sales volume

Boosting revenue

If you are using clever shopping cart software, you will be automatically up selling to your clients to try and increase web sales.

Under the product listing you could have “Other customers also purchased…” with 3-4 products listed; the same happens at the checkout.

Customers buying bicycle inner tubes will suddenly realise that they do in fact, need a puncture repair kit and dust caps.

Better still; consumers will browse through other products on your site. Although they might have come for an inner tube, they might not be able to resist the offer you have on tyres!

Statistics from Econsultancy shows that up selling products could boost revenue by around 4%…4% for nothing!

Propel exposure

One of a business’s best marketing tools is recommendations. This only comes about when a company has a solid customer base that likes the service and/or products that they receive. A customer placing orders via the internet, in comparison to another method such as in-store or telephone, is more much likely to give the company exposure.

Why? People are lazy and sharing information on the internet is easy. You can expect your business to get much more exposure via social media platforms thanks to pushing your customers down your online sales channel; leading to more sales.