The world of search engine optimisation is a constantly changing one, and hence also a very difficult area of online marketing to learn everything about. Most recently, the latest Google algorithm for deciding its rankings has shifted the focus of SEO hugely, alongside smaller shifts in the external online landscape, and this is just another example of the important considerations posed to SEO based marketers moving forward. It is now, more than ever, hugely valuable for affiliates to master the SEO environment and to capitalise on the new opportunities which have arisen in the market. This article discusses how best to stay on top of the advances in SEO thinking which will, as I’ve just said, be essential for affiliate marketers as we progress into the next decade.

What is SEO?
SEO stands for search engine optimisation and refers to the process of tailoring your marketing towards receiving organic search engine results. Basically those sites at the top of the Google rankings in popular niches have done an excellent job with their SEO, and gain a large amount of traffic in return. The real advantage of this organic traffic is that it is totally free and highly targeted – the people searching have got to your website because you have something they are looking for. For sales related keywords this traffic is hugely valuable. Unfortunately for you however, SEO techniques and knowledge has grown immensely as people try to find the secrets to getting to the top of the search engines – as a result competition is fierce and you really have to do something special to get the SEO advantage you desire.

How is the SEO world changing?
Now at this stage I think it is important to ask, what’s actually changing? And the quick answer is – ‘a lot’. The SEO world has seen a paradigm shift away from backlink quantity and towards backlink quality and the high quality content this suggests – this means there is an opportunity out there to move in ahead of those punished by the Google algorithm change. This isn’t to say that many of the traditional factors determining search engine ranking, for instance backlink quantity and keyword density, are not still important however. This article explains how you can combine the best elements of the old, and the new of affiliate marketing, to create a highly successful website SEO marketing campaign. You just need to know what you’re doing and develop experience in the modern media becoming vital for search engine optimised exposure.

Content is king, sultan, emperor, almighty ruler etc – you get the point.
As I have already mentioned, the most important changes in the SEO industry are concerned with how content is rated. This has seen Google, especially, start to put far greater emphasis on those articles featured on sites regarded as high quality – the backlinks from high page rank sites are therefore given a lot more weight when determining rankings. For this reason many affiliate marketers who published poor quality blogs and articles have started to see their rankings plummet – this kind of auto-blogging or quantity focused approach has resulted in only very low quality backlinks so you will need to grow a lot of them for any noticeable movement.

What is more, Google has really taken into account the effects of instant blogging and social networking in seeing content go viral – as a result newly published content is now far more likely to be seen at the top of the search rankings than it was previously. These articles are given a chance to build backlinks, before they are punished for not having any, meaning that good quality content is likely to remain at the top of the rankings while the rubbish falls away.

A positive step forward for the affiliate industry
For me the change in attitude of Google can only be a good thing, for both affiliate marketers and those surfing their sites. The committed and truly talented affiliate marketers are now rewarded in accordance with the quality content they produce – those affiliate who take little pride in their work, spinning and submitting awful, vague articles and buying cheap backlinks, are being deservedly punished. There are some affiliates who I feel have been wrongly punished by the algorithm change, including friends of mine, however I’m sure these sites will rise back up the rankings sooner than later. The major advantage is of course that poor quality competition is removed from the field of play in the long run – marketers are ranked in terms of effort put in and not because they can cheat the system, as with the spamdexing of the past.

Modern strategies for SEO
So now we know that quality content and backlinks are being given far greater weighting in the search rankings, and also that there is a great many new pieces of technology to help you take advantage. It is therefore important to know how to optimise your own search engine optimisation strategy for best results and this involves both on-site and external SEO strategies. White hat search engine optimisation techniques are the future and this will be the focus of the next few paragraphs.

On-site SEO
It is useful to start by considering internal SEO best practice therefore. This has remained largely unchanged although really great content is seeing greater ranking and traffic rewards nowadays. Your affiliate site should therefore prosper from including informative and interesting articles, and hopefully those horrible long sales pages will be removed from search engine rankings in the next few years. I have no problem with these sales pages being promoted but I think there are far too many in place of genuine, high quality content sites. To compete with these site make sure you are getting every tiny detail of your on-site SEO right – for instance you should be cross linking to your best pages, including all relevant keywords in the tags and any other tiny changes in the code which might help. It may seem a bit dull but it is surprising the difference the smallest changes can make.

Also remember to make your content as keyword rich as possible as this is the only way Google and the others know which niche you’re in – also keep your content relevant and don’t write about a wide range of random topics. I have tried this and it simply doesn’t work – be niche specific and helpful to your reader and you will see success in the search engines. It is also very useful to create interactive content like games or mini quizzes which increase the attractiveness of your website for reasons I’ll discuss in more depth later on.

Social bookmarking and the age of product recommendations
The importance of this attractiveness and interactivity is in the increasing need to impress your visitors while they are at your site. This is partly because you want the repeat traffic from each visitor, but the main advantage is really within the recommendation culture we are now operating in as affiliates. The invention of social bookmarking is a prime example – people will recommend your site to others and if the content is good enough you can rise very quickly into the five star categories on sites like Reddit and Stumble Upon. I won’t go into great detail about the ins and outs of social bookmarking but it can be a hugely powerful weapon, not only for instant traffic generation but also for a very highly rated SEO backlink – check out your highest ranking competitors and try to replicate exactly what they are doing.

Article marketing for SEO
Considering gaining instant exposure, rather than backlink quantity, as the primary purpose of article marketing campaigns is another important step forward in the affiliate industry. This isn’t to say that backlinks aren’t important but that these should largely take care of themselves. If you write great content people will republish your content and your backlinks will spread organically -furthermore don’t forget that your articles can get picked up by the social bookmarkers to so you should build this into your strategy. If your articles can gain a large number of subscribers you build yourself a longer term traffic membership, alongside the instant benefit of website exposure, and the further hidden benefit of backlink growth. For this reason article marketing, in my opinion, offers a fantastic SEO solution.

Social Networking for SEO
It is this idea of creating an easily accessible traffic source that is central to affiliate social networking strategy. By offering the very best content you can find online you will generate an army of Twitter followers and Facebook fans. I won’t go into great detail but using interesting content to get your readers on a hook is the most central determinant in social network marketing success. Once again, interactive content will impress you visitors and make them far more likely to buy from you in the long run.

Contribute in your niche
My final advice for building backlinks, and a good reputation for content, is to contribute to blogs and forums around your niche. This is a tactic that has been around since affiliate marketing was just a baby but is still as formidable as ever. Some blogs and forums will let you post direct links, others you will have to include in your profile. Either way you can build traffic very quickly, get people interested and build backlinks at the same time. Don’t just promote, promote, promote (as you shouldn’t with any other technique I’ve discusses) but offer good advice and contributions and you will be rewarded for it.Submit article
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