Beyond SEO
Optimizing Your Web Presence For Inbound Traffic In A Post-SEO World
Source: SearchEngineLand.com
SEO! You name it and instantly feel frustrated and overwhelmed with one of the most controversial and misinterpreted concepts of being online successfully.
What is really SEO?
How does it work and does it really work today?
Asking the right questions will get you on the path to finding the right answers.
First and foremost, let’s remark something crucial that many VR owners do not seem to fully grasp:
4 Routes To Owning Your Website
There are several platforms allowing you to have a website of your own property quite fast:
- You can go the developer route and hire a professional to do the job for you.
- You can work together with industry specific platforms like Webchalet, MyVR or Lodgify.
- You can go the fully independent route, take everything in your hands and do the site yourself without having to be a developer, thanks to the tools available online these days.
- You can go Route 1, then have your developer teach you how to manage the site by yourself (my favorite).
Each route has his pros and cons that you need to evaluate to find what’s the best for you and there is a pretty informative article written by Tyann Marcink for those of you who want to investigate things further.
On the path to independence, I consider being fully in control of every single aspect of your own website without depending on a third party, a pretty fundamental step, and in doing so I’ve been embracing WordPress for several years as a self taught entrepreneur.
WordPress allows full control – something I like -, while not too much of a steep learning curve to understand how it works. I’ve actually trained fellow owners to manage their own website entirely by themselves so they can be as free as I am.
WordPress is the most widely used platform in the world allowing anyone to mold their own website the way they want. Currently, more than 1 out of 5 websites in the world is on WordPress and the numbers keep growing.
But How About SEO?
How do I make sure my site ranks well, so I get found?
How do I get traffic to my site?
After all, I understand how the most beautiful website in the world is useless if nobody finds out about it, right?
At the Summit we’re going to dig deeper into these key aspects of your quest for independence.
Introducing Kirk Biglione – VRWS2015 Speaker #5
Kirk Biglione – Founder, WPApprentice.com
You may have not heard of Kirk before, since he’s not directly involved in the VR space.
Yet his knowledge of Websites, WordPress, Search Engine Optimization and all things technical are unrivalled and top-notch.
Kirk has spent the past decade helping entrepreneurs and business professionals to master the digital tools critical to their online success.
As a consultant at Oxford Media Works, he helps businesses optimize their websites to make more sales, generate more leads, and create a more friendly customer experience.
A skilled coach and trainer, Kirk is founder of WPApprentice.com, the premier WordPress training resource for business professionals.
His WordPress Quick Start course has helped over 10,000 individuals – including VR owners – to build their first WordPress website. And you can get your hands on it for free by clicking on Kirk’s bespoke page at VRWS2015.
⤹ ⤹ Ask Kirk Your #1 Question ⤵︎⤵︎
Now, in preparaton for Kirk’s session:
How Are You Currently Ranking Online?
What is the biggest problem you have with your website?
With regards to SEO and the ranking of your site, what is your biggest struggle?
Add The Summit To Your Calendar (& Watch It Online)
Linking. In the old days we simply linked to appropriate directories or businesses and received appropriate links from their users back to our sites. We did no link farming – actually we didn’t even try to get links as we figured our website content was king and linking really didn’t matter. We were in the first 5 results for Maui related queries with MauiOwnerCondos.com and first 1 or 2 for WaileaEkahiVillage.com. Then google changed it’s algorithm and all of a sudden we were being penalized for bad links we didn’t ask for and even links back to us from members of our directory. Today links seem more important in SEO – at least the bad links are. Try as we might – getting GOOD quality links from high PR sources and keeping track of and eliminating the bad links is overwhelming. How important is this and how best to accomplish???
Hi Bonnie,
High quality links are hugely important. But they need to be entirely organic. Anything that smells fishy will get you penalized. Ideally you’re getting links from a broad source of sites, including social shares. If you’ve focused on only high PR links, that actually looks suspicious.
The best way to build links is to produce high value content and location specific resources. If you can create content that becomes the ultimate go-to destination for anyone considering a trip to Maui, you win.
Based on your comments it sounds like one of the Google filters is being applied to your site. If it’s for shady inbound links you’ve got your work cut out for you. The type of links that set off Google alarms don’t happen by accident. Have you ever hired anyone to “help” with link building? If so, those links are a problem. If not, there’s always the possibility that you’re experiencing fallout from a negative SEO campaign (it’s possible, it doesn’t happen all that often). In either case Google has a tool you can use to disavow links that are a problem: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/disavow-links-main (you’ll need a Webmaster Tools account to see this).
HI Kirk – Thanks for taking the time to respond! I just thought linking would be a good topic to discuss – especially since Antonio is pushing for owners to have individual websites.
I don’t FOCUS on high PR links – I don’t focus on anything about linking – our site has good info and links just seem to happen. I have never run an SEO link campaign nor requested links from anyone (except our members who have their own sites – we are a directory) yet we have over 3000 inbound links. Our sites are full of great info and do exactly what our content says we do.
It was when I first noticed the drop in SERPs for MOC that I began checking our links and even hired Casey at PlanetOcean to help. We have asked our members to remove links to us (they were simply using the name of our group and saying they were a member or use our booking calendar in an Iframe on their site) unless they wanted to link organically to recommend information or a resource on our site.
We have used the disavow tool at Casey’s suggestion (I have a webmaster tools account) and over time we have crept back up BUT our site is a popular one and owners who have their own websites and don’t understand that links out shouldn’t be site wide, etc keep linking to us – in ways that Google has decided are suspicious. Checking on the inbound links, writing to people and politely requesting they stop or link more organically is time consuming and takes away from my time improving our website yet we are now forced to do this constantly.
Linking is a very important SEO topic, but also very involved. And constantly changing (as you’re finding out).
It’s good to hear that you’ve been working with a professional who understands the issue. I think your case is very much an exception to what most site owners experience. I almost wonder if you’ve been wrongly trapped in some some Google filter that relates to travel.
Thank you! – now if we just knew how to request Google take a look just in case… I understand they are trying to help their search clients have a good experience but reaching out to Google is a bit intimidating and it’s not always obvious as to how to do it. I do think there are cases where it is best to hire a professional.
I got so much out of just one of the free videos that I upgraded to the full lesson plan, WordPress Essentials Training. Just a few little tidbits of things I hadn’t learned in over 3 years of posting to my VR website and I was hooked.
No wonder why Kirk is one of my mentors and a fellow peer in my secret Mastermind group! Glad to read your comment @beckydeloymcintyre:disqus
Thanks Becky! It’s always gratifying to hear the training is helping business owners. Welcome to WPA!