Komarketing Hiring Search Engine Optimization Manager is a post from: Boston SEO

The following is a guest post from Randall Davidson, the lead project manager and online marketer at AudioTranscription.Org.

SEO professionals certainly don’t lack access to helpful tools. Before you go out and spend money on expensive SEO tools, however, make sure you’re familiar with the free SEO tools that are available. Here are five great free SEO tools to get you started.

1. SeoCentro.com’s Rank Checker – SeoCentro.com’s Rank Checker is the quickest way to see how your website ranks against other websites for a given keyword. While there are resources that produce similar information but in much larger quantities, the beauty of SeoCentro.com’s Rank Checker is its simplicity and clarity.
2. Yahoo’s Site Explorer – Yahoo’s Site Explorer is a hugely powerful free SEO tool. It allows you to enter any URL and view the links (up to 1000) that point back to that particular page. This allows you to check what types of links point back to your competitors’ sites. It also lets you know whether or not Yahoo has taken note of links you know to be pointing back to your site.
3. Google Webmaster Tools – Google Webmaster Tools is one of the most powerful free SEO tools available. I would even suggest that it’s one of the best SEO tools available out of all of the paid and free options. Google Webmaster Tools allows you to view how often your website is apearing in search engines and how often it is clicked, it identifies and alerts you to errors Google’s spider has when crawling your website, it tells you which keywords are most prominent on your website, it tells you which websites link to your website and to which pages they link on your website, it identifies when there is malware on your site and it recommends search-friendly HTML changes.
4. Google Analytics – Google Analytics is not strictly an SEO tool; it is a free analytics tool that is used to understand visitors’ behavior on your website. That said, it does have an important role in SEO: Google Analytics is great for identifying which search keywords drive the most traffic to your website and which links drive the most traffic to your website.
5. Quirk.biz’s SearchStatus Firefox Extension – SearchStatus is a free Firefox extension for SEO purposes. It allows you to see SEO-related performance metrics for any site, including the page’s PageRank, it’s Alexa rank, it’s Compete rank, which links on the site are nofollow and a lot more. The results are automatically listed in the bottom right of your browser, meaning you don’t have to extraneously click to get the info you need.

Randall Davidson is part project manager and part online marketer for AudioTranscription.Org, a transcription company. Many search engine optimization professionals request AudioTranscription.Org’s services, particularly its video transcription and podcast transcription services. This is because search engines cannot index video or podcast content, but they can index written transcripts of videos and podcasts, which can drive targeted search traffic.

5 Free SEO Tools That Can Make Your Job a Whole Lot Easier. is a post from: Boston SEO

When looking to build a website, the first step is determining which CMS (content management system) you are going to use. Sure, you could code it from scratch, but why waste the effort when you don’t have to?

There are literally hundreds of choices, and it can be hard to determine which is best. Unfortunately, not all content management systems are created equal, and some can actually do more harm than good.

As an SEO, one of the problems I see most often is clients who’ve built their websites on a CMS that does not support SEO best practices, thus making it difficult (if not impossible) to rank for their target keywords.

Let me give you an example. I recently had a client who paid $6,000 to have an ecommerce website built. The web design company, which claims to build SEO friendly websites, built his site on the Adobe BusinessCatalyst CMS. 9 months later, this client came to me wondering why they weren’t ranking on Google, Yahoo or Bing for any of their keywords even though they had paid for an “SEO friendly website”.

When we went into the CMS to determine what was wrong, we found out that BusinessCatalyst didn’t support all the necessary SEO functionality that was needed, and that was why his site wasn’t ranking. That was a pretty expensive oops, and totally avoidable with a bit of research.

To help you avoid making the same mistake, here is a list of the things you want to find in an SEO friendly content management system.

10 Must Have Features

1.      Static, customizable URLs – You should be able to define both the page name and the directory structure for the entire website. Keyword rich and search engine friendly URLs are an SEO must have. If this feature is missing it should be a deal killer.

2.      Support for custom URL redirects (301s, 302s, etc.) – At some point you will change a page name, move it, or change its structure in your site hierarchy. In order to keep the trust and value of any inbound links to that page, you MUST properly redirect it when you move it using a 301 permanent redirect.

3.      Customizable Title tags and Meta tags on Every Page – The Title tag and Meta description tags are important SEO elements, and should be unique for each page. They should always be carefully written, and never duplicated from page to page. Meta keywords tags have no value, and should be left blank.

4.      Custom Image Filenames and Image ALT Tags for Each Image- Search engines look at image filenames and ALT tags for keyword usage to help define the topic of a page.

5.      Support for Rel=Canonical tags and Meta Robots tags on Each Page – These elements help to prevent duplicate content penalties, especially with ecommerce websites.

6.      The Ability to Directly Edit the HTML on ANY Page - This is important for customizing link anchor text, NoFollow tags, heading tags and other HTML elements.

7.      Automatically Generated and Updated Sitemap.xml File – Search engines use this file to find and index all of the pages on your site. It can be a real pain to maintain manually, so the automatic feature is a must.

8.      Support for Blog Integration – Every website needs a blog, since that is the best way to ensure ongoing content growth (which search engines love.)

9.      Clean, Lean Coding – Your CMS should make use of HTML best practices, using clean, current code (validates with W3C), and that loads quickly. Valid, fast loading code is appealing both to visitors and search engines. Avoid code filled with useless JavaScript, unnecessary non-breaking spaces and antiquated tables instead of clean CSS. If possible, find a CMS that supports HTML5.

10. eCommerce Support – Every CMS should support the selling of products, either as a core component or available as an add-on. Even if you don’t need it now, you might want it later, so better safe than sorry.

Nice to Have

1.      Web 2.0 Integration – If you want people to share what they read on Facebook or Twitter or any other social site, you need the ability to integrate buttons to make that sharing easy.

2.      Custom 404 Page – Hopefully your site will never have any 404 errors, but if it does it’s nice to have something show up other than “404 error – page not found”. Create a custom 404 page that lists your most popular pages and perhaps a search box. Keep them on the site.

3.      Automatic Link Management – Whenever you change the name of a page, any links to that page break. While implementing a 301 redirect for the changed page will fix this, you would ideally want to go through the site and change all links to reflect the new page name. Doing this manually sucks, so find a CMS that supports automatic link updating.

With the above in mind, there are really only a handful of options available that don’t require extensive customization or programming skills.

• WordPress (.org, installed on your own domain/hosting, NOT wordpress.com.)
• Drupal – a bit more complex than WordPress, but also more versatile.
• Joomla – I’m personally not a fan, but the features are there.
• ExpressionEngine – I haven’t used this one, but I’m told it has the above features.
• MODx – Just recently learned about this one.

There are 2 other CMS options that come pretty close, and those are Weebly and Shopify. Both are easy to use and visually appealing, and have most of the features listed above. Some are missing, but nothing that would prevent you from ranking well.

In my opinion the absolute best CMS for most websites is WordPress, hands down. The best for eCommerce CMS, from what I’ve experienced, is Drupal. Both have massive user communities and plenty of plug-ins and add-ons to expand the functionality of your site.

If you are building your own website, please keep these things in mind. If you are hiring a company to build the site for you, take this list with you and INSIST that each of the 10 must have elements must be present (except #10 if you don’t really need eCommerce functionality.) Regardless of what they try to tell you, stick to the list. If you don’t, you’ll regret it.

Once you have your SEO friendly website built, do it justice and host in on a dedicated IP address with a reputable hosting provider.

Sam McRoberts is the CEO of VUDU Marketing, a Utah SEO company. He has been involved with online marketing since 1999 and has worked with hundreds of clients, from small local businesses to Fortune 500 companies.

Selecting an SEO Friendly CMS is a post from: Boston SEO

When you graduated college, you listened to everyone else and allowed your fears to convince you to go for a stable dead end job instead of following your heart and starting an online business. Let’s face it, you didn’t want to go into uncharted waters and risk drowning.

And now you’re dreading going to that job. Every. Single. Day. Lately, you find yourself daydreaming about that online business again.

Good for you! If you’re still thinking about it then it means you really feel passionate about it and the doldrums of the cube farm didn’t kill your dreams.

But, even though you’re toying with the idea of starting that business you may find all these lies are rushing to your mind of why you can’t or shouldn’t strike out on your own. So, before those vicious thoughts take root, let’s look at the lies you’ve been telling yourself that are potentially blocking your path to becoming a successful online entrepreneur.

Lie #1: You are not good enough.
This lie gets people all the time. When this thought enters your mind, you begin agreeing and start thinking you have to research more, prepare more or get more experience in the corporate world before you are worthy to launch your business.

Truth
You are more than good enough. You are stellar and don’t need to do any more research, prepare anything else, or wait for the approval of others.

There is no magic formula or moment that is going to happen to tell you, you are an authority. You have experiences other people don’t have and lessons you’ve learned that qualify you as the perfect person to do this. So stop waiting for someone to elect you worthy and hand you a certificate saying you are good enough. You have to claim it for yourself.

Repeat this line, “I am better than good enough.” So it is written, so it is!

Lie #2: This isn’t the right time.
Well, when is the right time? What time is it supposed to be for you to get started? Saying you have to wait for the right time is just an excuse. I understand, you are really nervous to put yourself out there. This business you want to create feels as if it is an extension of you. It’s your baby and you are very protective of it, and are understandably nervous to unveil it to the world.

Truth
Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich says, “Do not wait; the time will never be ‘just right.’ Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along.” Richard Branson took this idea a little too much to heart because when he started Virgin Atlantic Airlines, he began selling airline tickets before he had a plane.

Now, that was a huge gamble but it shows he didn’t have time to waste waiting for the “right time.” He just got started. And that’s what you need to do. Just get started. NOW! If you keep waiting to have everything in place, you may find you never will. You have to create the time.

Lie #3: I will never be a successful online business owner.
Because you don’t believe you are good enough, you’ve also talked yourself into failure so that you won’t even bother to try. It’s just another way to protect yourself. The dangerous part is when you continue to say this to yourself it could turn out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Truth
You can absolutely be successful. And, the beauty is that it is within your control to create your success. There are many entrepreneurs who decided the corporate life was not for them and started their own business such as Laurie Davis, Jordana Jaffe, Jenny Leonard, and Travis Levius. Check out their stories and get inspired. They chose something they were passionate about and went for it with just an idea, determination, and belief in themselves. They are successful and happy with the path they have chosen and you can be too!

And, truthfully, by not unleashing your business, you’re being really stingy. Your creation could be just the thing someone is waiting for to help solve their problems. But instead of sharing your genius, you are being selfish and keeping it all to yourself. That’s not nice!

These are the top three lies potential budding entrepreneurs tell themselves. You don’t have to succumb to the lies and stay at that job you know is not going anywhere. I mean, if you like spending 40-60 plus hours a week doing something you hate then by all means stay where you are. But if you have a dream business that energizes you when you think about it and the only thing stopping you are the lies, then go for it.

You are young and have plenty of time to experiment and create the business of your dreams. But make sure you keep that dead end job around until you do.

ChaChanna Simpson is an author, speaker, life coach, and owner of Twentity.com LLC — a company specializing in helping twentysomethings graduate into the real world.

3 Lies that are Keeping You From Starting Your Business is a post from: Boston SEO

For entrepreneurs looking to grow their market share and connect directly with potential customers, very few marketing approaches are as inexpensive or as easy to use as online marketing.

Within the lexicon of marketing, there are essentially two marketing approaches:

This article was written by Kristen Bradley at SuretyBonds.com, an agency that provides surety bonds to professionals across the nation. SuretyBonds.com helps entrepreneurs meet licensing requirements every day. The agency offers advice to new business owners to help them open their business as soon as possible.

How online marketing can expand a new business is a post from: Boston SEO

Getting Rid of Your Bad Rap

With the increasing popularity of consumer communities such as blogs, forums and social media websites, managing your online reputation is becoming important for all business owners.

Although you as a business owner cannot control what your customers are saying about you online, you can manage it and effectively work to turn the situation around. In doing this, you will do two things:

1. Build your relationship with current customers
2. Build trust with your prospects

What are Others Saying?

There are a few ways to search across the Internet and keep up with what your customers are saying about your business.

1. The first and most obvious way is to search in Google (Bing, Yahoo, etc) for “name of your business reviews.”
2. Set up Google Alerts for your company, your name, ties to your company, etc.

Some review directories, such as Google Places allow the business owner to respond to each customer review. Many, however do not. Though you cannot directly to respond to upset and negative customers in other outlets, you can create an account with your business name and leave comments in the review section that way.

It is important when responding to customer reviews (especially ones that are negative such as this one for USAA reviews), to remain 100% transparent. Others will be able to see your response to customers to treat them in a way that future prospects would respect. Call out your fault, apologize to the customer and then state a call to action (“contact me at myemail@mywebsite.com to fix the problem,” “sorry about your experience John, I want to help resolve the issues, could you give me a call at 555-555-OOPS?”)

These steps will help you manage the negative reviews that are being published about you and your company across the Internet.

Increase Positive and Natural Reviews

Another way you can manage your online reputation is to maximize positive and honest reviews from customers you have strong relationships with. You have a list of your top customers who would be more than happy to write an honest and legitimate review in directories across the Internet or in response to negative reviews (in a respectful manner of course).

About The Author

This guest blog post was written by Lauren Bradley. Lauren is an online marketing consultant and account manager for Lift Division in Columbia, MO.

How To Remove Negative Brand Reputation Online is a post from: Boston SEO

We often see marketers complaining about the low conversion rate of their campaigns at Google Display network (also known as Google content network. In fact a significant portion of the online marketers completely overlook the huge potential Google display network have and focus entirely on Google Search network. If you are one of those, then here are the few facts you should be aware of

Google Display Network serves more than Six billion ad impressions per day.

On Average, Display Network CPA was at least 2.6% lower than Search Network CPA (Cost per action)

Display network clicks are around 28% cheaper than search network clicks.

(Source – Google display network)

Here in this article, we’ll cover some tips to optimize your campaigns on Google display network and to improve the conversion rate and overall ROI of the campaign. But before moving to the tips, if you are completely new to the Google Display network then I’ll recommend you to go through the “Display Network Getting Started Guide” by Google which covers are the essential basics like creating ad group, selecting keywords etc you should know about. Now let’s move on to the tips.

Create separate campaigns for search and display networks – Do not run your ads on search network and content network under same campaign. Both networks are entirely different. In search network, your ads get displayed when a searcher is searching for information related to your keyword. Whereas in content network, a person might be reading some article and then will see your ad. On search network, advertisers can get the better idea of the sales cycle by determining the commercial intention of keyword whereas in display network search engines scan the content of every page and decide which ad to be shown.

Enable Remarketing – Remarketing is a feature of interest based advertising which helps you to reach the audiences who’ve visited your website in the past. To use this feature, you first need to enable audience tab in your account and then add a short code known as remarketing tag to pages of your website. Every time a visitor will visit your page, his cookie ID will be added to your remarketing list and they will be shown your ads when they browse other relevant Google display network sites on the web. To learn more about remarketing and how it works click here.

Utilize category and placement exclusion feature – Go to Network tab after navigating to your campaign. Scroll down to bottom and you’ll see “Add Exclusions” feature where can exclude by category and by placement. In exclude category option you can exclude websites on basis of categories – forums, image sharing sites etc. In exclude placement option, you can exclude the sites.  Check your campaign’s placement performance report to find out the poor performing sites and add them under Exclude placement option at campaign level or ad group level. To learn more about exclusions click here.

Launch Placement targeted campaigns – With the help of Google placement performance report find out the top performing sites and create a placement targeted campaign for these top performing sites. With the help of Google placement targeting you can select specific sites, specific pages on those sites, section of site and lot more where you want to display your ads. With the help of placement targeting campaign for top performing sites, you can easily reduce the cost per conversion of your campaign.

Make use of Conversion Optimizer Feature- With help of Google Conversion optimizer, you can tell Google about how much you are willing to pay per acquisition (CPA). After enabling this feature, Google conversion optimizer will manage the bids for you until the price reach to maximum CPA bid. For e.g.- If you are selling shoes by showing your ads on Google display network and can pay up to $5 per sale.

Now based on your past conversion history, Google will determine where to show your ads, when to show your ads, whom to show your ads and till what price to show your ads. For e.g.- if conversion from website A costs more than conversions from website B, conversion optimizer will make sure to show more ads on Website B. To learn more how to enable it and to use it Click here.

The other things which you commonly do for optimizing your campaigns on search network and should be done for content network too are-

Create tightly themed ad groups – Make sure that your ad group contains keywords which are highly relevant to each other. Try to keep maximum 5-10 keywords in each ad group.

Install Conversion Tracking- Install Conversion tracking code on your website so that you can find out the keywords or ad groups performing better than others. To learn more about conversion tracking click here.

Keep on Testing – Keep on testing your ads by modifying and fine tuning your ads text and landing pages.  In online advertising even a small change can make huge differences so keep on testing you ads and landing pages until you are satisfied with the overall conversion rate of your campaigns. For further reading about landing page optimization and how to use Google website optimizer for testing, I’ll recommend articles – “30+ principles to a better landing page design “ and “55 Google Website Optimizer Tips and Tricks”

Do you’ve any more tips you’d like to share with us? Feel free to share with us in the comments below.

Author Bio

David Smith works for Conversion Optimization Company Invesp and enjoys writing on SEO, landing pages, conversion optimization and affiliate marketing.

Tips to optimize your Campaign on Google Display network is a post from: Boston SEO

Boston Pay Per Click Search Marketing Specialist

McDougall Interactive has been managing internet marketing campaigns since 1995, has won web marketing awards and has been featured in the Boston Herald and on Internet Retailer. We are currently in Gloucester but will be moving to Danvers in November.

POSITION SUMMARY:
The pay per click specialist will be responsible for all of our pay per click (PPC) accounts. He or she will work with our clients mostly via email and phone calls with occasional in house/offsite meetings. We have an SEO department, so traditional SEO skills are a plus but not required as this is a full time PPC job. You will be responsible for developing keyword sets, ad groups, ad copy, and goal tracking in Google Analytics. We have a certified analytics expert on retainer, so your analytics skills can be limited. Our analytics guru does a monthly report for all clients, so as long as you set up a goal/s to track, your info will be in our monthly PowerPoint presentation. Ad copy and landing page optimization skills essential.
This position is in the office full time – please no freelance, outsource or work from home requests.
We also have a full time writer and webmaster on staff and a link builder on retainer, so these areas are managed separately from PPC but will have a strong tie in. For example, our web designer can make forms for you on request, if a client does not have a lead submission form when we start an account.

PRINCIPAL DUTIES:

- Create and manage ad groups and keyword lists
- Track Leads and campaign process and send reports to clients
- Answer client questions and implement ongoing changes to increase ROI
- Track changes in how PPC tools work and be our thought leader in this area
- Construct and prepare weekly performance reports for internal purposes
- Write one blog post a month, if possible, on our blog

QUALIFICATIONS:

- Strong written and verbal communication skills
- Google Adwords expertise (Adwords certified if possible), Yahoo Sponsored Search and MSN Ad Center a plus
- Proficient in Excel (MS Office)
- Multitasking and exceptional project management skills
- Knowledge of display advertising / content network helpful but not required
- General HTML knowledge a plus
- Having worked at a digital agency or on large volumes of PPC accounts is a plus

Interested candidates who meet the minimum qualifications for this position may apply by replying to this message and attaching a resume or listing qualifications. No phone calls please.

McDougall Interactive

www.deeperclicks.com Our new blog

Boston Pay Per Click Specialist – PPC – Google Adwords is a post from: Boston SEO

An entrepreneur I met with told me her startup business needed a website. When I asked why, she said, “Because every company has a website, so why should mine be any different?” When I pressed further and asked what end the website would serve, she paused, looking a little puzzled, and said, “Well, I don’t know, you tell me.”

This same entrepreneur never would have imagined launching her startup without a business plan. Yet she had no problem with the idea of starting a website with no purpose in mind. She is not alone. This Field of Dreams mentality of “If you build it, they will come” is pervasive among startups. Unfortunately, it does not work.

A website with purpose has significantly more impact than one without it, so the first step is to define its purpose. Is the site intended to inform and educate, sell products or services, raise your company’s profile, build a community or something else? Think of purpose this way: Assuming your website is to be successful, what will it accomplish?

To ensure your website furthers its purpose, develop a plan in the form of an RFP (request for proposal). The RFP describes each area of your future site, how it works and what end it serves. Ideally, your RFP should address at least the following:

Website purpose (who and what information do they need)
Target audiences (how will they find it?)
Design considerations (colors, pages)
Call to Action – contact information
Navigation (easy to find the information)
User or account login requirements – contact us, FAQ, technical support
Audio/visual elements – pictures, video
e-commerce, if necessary (on line sales)
Search engine optimization requirements – links to other sites
Hosting and maintenance – domain name (specific to business)
Not-to-exceed cost (manage to get the most for your money)
Development schedule with deadlines and launch date (project management)
Management structure – information on executives, career opportunities
Periodic Updates – how easy is it to maintain

With RFP in hand, you’re now well-prepared to start building your website internally–if you have the expertise and resources–or solicit bids from website developers. Either way, your RFP will enable you to manage the project more effectively and ensure the site conforms to your vision.

About the Author:

Steven J. Beaman is the founder & principal owner of BCSG, LLC, a general business consultancy and coaching organization whose primary focus is independent professionals and small businesses. Steven helps businesses to determine the constraints that are causing them to become stagnant or unproductive. He also assists start-up businesses to determine the roadblocks or obstacles that they may not have perceived. He also guides organizations through the start-up process, rapid business growth, or a turnaround situation. He does this using his wealth of management experience gathered during his over 35 year career of managing a variety of business functions in both small and medium businesses. He has expertise in numerous types of businesses (for profit and non-profit).

Have a Purpose-Driven Website is a post from: Boston SEO

By now, you have probably heard many people complain about outsourcing to India, yet there are
also even more conflicting success stories of companies that have expanded their businesses into
multimillion dollar industries simply through outsourcing overseas. Outsourcing is something that
large companies have been using to increase their revenue for some time, so what truly makes the
outsourcing experience successful?

To begin, here are a few insider tips to have the best SEO outsourcing experience based on
my work as a provider:

1. Identify what skills you are looking for. Before begin working with an outsourcing
or virtual assistant company, you must identify the skill sets you are looking for in your
provider or outsourcing team from the get-go. If not, you are absolutely setting yourself
up for failure by having unclear or unrealistic expectations. As an example, let us say you
need someone who can do some networking with other webmasters, for this you will need
someone who has persuasive writing skills as well as relationship building skills. So before
you make any hiring, analyze your requirements and identify the skills you are going to need.

With any new project or task you need completed, start out by defining the required skills
in detail, the steps and milestones of the project, and what type of provider you will need
to complete the task. This will ensure that you do not pile an unreasonable workload on an
outsourced employee that is not right for the job, and you will be able to work with the right
provider to get the job done correctly the first time.

If you are wondering how to identify a provider’s skill level, you can start out with small
manageable jobs as a test. As an example, you can ask your virtual assistant to prepare a list
of your competitors and their back link profiles, and then ask them to identify your top three
competitors based on Google SERPs. After that, ask them to find your top three competitors’
back links, and finally, ask them to provide a report on these competitors. Be entirely clear
about what you do and don’t expect within this research, such as if you would like your
assistant to omit multiple incoming links from the same directory. These small instructions
must be specified in detail beforehand because your outsourced employees are not mind
readers. When you make any and every expectation clear, you can then judge the capability of
a provider as they complete a task.

Once you have your task clearly detailed, it is imperative to break it up into manageable
chunks to eliminate a learning curve and boost confidence in your staff. If you are working
with a dedicated outsourced assistant, they will be able to meet your needs for the next task
to make your life even easier because of your clear communication.

2. Identify the tasks you want to outsource. To ask your offshore virtual assistant to write a
persuasive e-mail intended for webmasters might be a disaster, instead, you can ask them to
research webmasters that meet your criteria to create an e-mail list. The idea is to break your
projects into tasks and decide what can be outsourced and to whom. As an example, I always
use native English writers for writing tasks while I use my own team for later tasks like finding
webmasters and potential link partners.

Begin the preparation of your project by identifying the criteria you would like your outsourced
assistant to stick to. As an example, you may want your target blogs to have an Alexa ranking
of less than 200,000 and must be in the technology niche. Whatever your specifications
may be, they must be prepared in a document to instruct your outsourced assistant on
the research that you are asking for. If you do not want to take the time to create this
documentation, be prepared that your provider will find their own way to complete the project

and make potential unexpected mistakes because of a lack of direction. In such situation you
must take ready, fire, aim strategy by telling them their mistakes and correcting them.

3. Understand that your outsourced provider is not an entrepreneur. As a business
owner, you may take many things for granted – one of which being decision-making. As an
example, you may have developed the ability to identify paid links by just looking at the
website, however your outsourcing provider will not be able to take those decisions for you.
You will have to provide them with a clear set of instructions on how to classify a link as paid
link. It is pretty much like training your in-house staff members. Also, you need to understand
and live with the fact that if their decision making skills matched yours then probably they
will be running a business themselves. When starting with outsourcing, try to take away the
decision making part, instead break every decision into a smaller Yes/No type of question set.

Furthermore, shy away from using broad catchphrases or industry terms to describe what you
are looking for. If you would like your provider to find blogs to comment on to get a Do Follow
link back to your website, you must explain the bigger picture to your provider and define
what blog commenting means for your project specifically.

Although these tips are highly detailed, they are truly the just the beginning in creating a positive
outsourcing experience to ensure that you will swim and not sink as you create your outsourced team
to build your company!

This article was contributed by Nitin Aggarwal from Offshore Ally – a virtual assistant and outsourcing
company. Nitin is a full time blogger and SEO enthusiast. His team of virtual assistants is trained on
basic link building jobs and has the internet marketing mindset.

The Insider’s Guide to Successful SEO Outsourcing is a post from: Boston SEO