You’ve learned how important it is to link relevant blog posts to each other in Step 5a – we call this internal linking – to build authority and help Google understand what you do. Now we’re going to learn about the other 2 types of links: inbound and outbound.

What Are Inbound Links?

Inbound links are links that point from another website to yours – they happen when someone else finds value in your blog, and wants to refer their readers to you. Inbound links are one of the most important ways Google ranks your site. Why? Because they tell Google that other sites are relevant to yours, and that your site should be given a higher authority.

How Do They Help My Business?

Inbound links are weighted based on how important the site that’s linking to yours is. For example, if The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times are linking to your site, you’ll have a higher authority than if your mom’s personal blog is linking to yours (unless your mum is a stellar blogger, then lucky you!). The weight given to a link is known as “link juice.”

Now that you understand links aren’t just the paper chains you made when you were a kid, let’s jump into the different ways you can get inbound links!

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We’re excited to say that Small Businesses trumped Dragons’ Den on Friday to cap off Vancouver’s Social Media Week! Chris and I presented Spokal on a live stage in CBC’s Studio 40 to some amazing entrepreneurs, including Den favourites’ Bruce Croxon (Founder of Lavalife) and Jim Treliving (True Creator of Boston Pizza), and honorary Vancouver Dragon Danny Robinson (Founder of Perch and Strutta).

Spokal was in good company. Among the 3 finalists were Kassandra and her partner Adam with a company that’s reinventing how people choose universities, and Patrick Harris, who’s trying to shake up the public transit advertising space. The event started with lessons from Bruce – “The road less traveled isn’t easy” – and Jim – “If you’re not using social media for your business now, you might never catch up,” followed by pitches from the teams.

Spokal Wins Dragons’ Den Summit!

After some deliberation, the Dragon’s awarded Spokal as the winner of the Dragon Summit, and we were presented a golden ticket to skip the audition line and appear on the Season 8 – a fun event to look forward to! Socialized does a good recap of the Dragon Summit, as seen on Twitter, and Maura (Founder of Strutta) did an interview with Guest Dragon Danny on what it was like to be a Dragon for the day. But since we all love looking behind the scenes, we thought we’d share a little secret with you… [Read more…]

So far we’ve learned how important it is not just to have a blog and create remarkable content in Step 4, but to optimize your content. We also covered how you can help Google find your pages through keyword research and page optimization. Now we are going to learn how to link build for your small business.

The Basics of Link Building

There are 3 types of links that help you build authority:

1. Inbound: Websites or blogs that link to your blog.

 2. Internal: Blog posts on your website that link to other blog posts on your website.

3. External : Links on your blog post that link to other websites or blogs.

We’re going to review internal linking below, and we’ll be covering inbound and external linking in Step 5b.

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Hi Everyone!

As part of our journey, we’re creating a logo for Spokal. We know some of you are branding and design experts, and we’ll love to invite you to participate in the creation process. Yup, it’s time to get those creative juices flowing.

How Do I Participate?

We’ve launched a contest on 99 designs – sign up (it’s free) and submit your design. It’s a paid gig ($499), plus we’re giving lots of feedback and direction, so if you work hard there’s a good chance you could be the lucky person who designs our future face!

When Is My Logo Design Due?

First round applications are due Wednesday evening. Then there’s a selection process to choose the finalists, and we’ll work with them to create the final logo submissions. Spokal can start embracing its’ new logo as early as next week, which is really exciting!

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I see so many small business owners make the same mistake when they try to gain more clients online.

They spend waaaaaayyyy too much time on how their website looks and nowhere near enough time on how it works.

It’s as though they think their business website is meant to be a personal reflection of who they are. So they have it designed (and spend a bunch of cash on it), so they can proudly show it to their friends and family.

After the initial coo’s of how great it looks and pats on the back from the fam are over with – they’re left with a website that’s been a drain on their wallet and their time, and that does not bring in any new customers. They don’t even realise that this is an age old debate. Form vs function. [Read more…]

Rich Brooks over at Social Media Explorer has written an excellent blog post on how to create highly valuable blog content.

Do you struggle coming up with content ideas for your blog?

Or maybe you create plenty of blog posts, but they get few views and even less engagement?

If you find that creating engaging content is challenging, keep reading.

….

#1: Be the resource your customers really need

#2: Answer the unanswered questions

#3: Find the questions your customers are asking

 

Rich has some great ideas, and if you’re struggling with what to come up with for your blog – following these tips will get you started in the right direction.  Look for us to automate some of this in a future update to the Spokal platform!

If you’re not quite sure what to write about, following these tips could prove really useful!

Now that you’ve finished Step 2: Getting Found using SEO for Small Businesses, it’s time to focus on the words that will help your site rank in Google. Dive in to Step 3: Keyword Research For Your Small Business and start getting found by potential customers!

How Does Keyword Research For Small Business Work? 

When someone wants to find something, they type words into a search engine – these are keywords. The search engine ranks the results based on their relevance and authority to the keywords, and displays the results. Since keywords are just words that identify what you’re talking about, any word can be a key word. You may not realize it, but you are using keywords every time you write a post, although depending on how you use the words, Google may or may not “see them.”

Your job is to learn how to use keywords effectively so when people search for a term related to what you do, your website will appear.  [Read more…]

Who would wake up at 7am on a Saturday morning to attend an event where you don’t know what will happen until you get there? Apparently 187 freelancers in Vancouver!

Freelance Camp Vancouver 2012 was a huge success. For those of you who don’t know,  Freelance is an “unconference style event for independent workers to connect, share knowledge and become better freelancers.” Basically, it’s a place for small business owners to connect and share successes, failures and best practices. It was hosted by The Network Hub, and proved to be a great event.

The morning started with everyone pitching to the group about sessions they want to lead, and the crowd voted on who would present. Everyone was there from Contractually (contracts for people who hate contracts) to amazing PR and Business Coaches (including Felicia Lee) to accounting professionals, blogging gurus Owen Clark and Bosco Anothony, web designers and more. [Read more…]