Google Bowling occurs when a competitor deliberately creates thousands of spam links pointing to your site in order to get that site slapped down the rankings.

Now, according to Google “There’s almost nothing a competitor can do to harm your ranking or have your site removed from our index”

There is the worrying use of the word ‘almost’ in that paragraph!

So, my question to you is whether or not you have evidence that Google Bowling actually exists, whether factual or anecdotal, and if so what can be done about it?

Thanks

Mark

Web Traffic SEO

Linkbait is used to attract traffic to your website or blog. It is content on your site written to entertain anger or educate your readers. If these articles are well written and create a reaction then you will create a buzz that spreads through the internet virally from one site to another producing links and comments about what you have written. The search engine spiders then follow these links back to your site and hey presto! Your ranking improves.

Here are 5 different types of linkbait which will bring links and visitors pouring back to your site:

1. Argument and Debate. Have a rant about something (or someone) in a really negative fashion and you will invite a whole load of attention to your site. People will argue with you, call you names, agree with you, support you…everything! It doesn’t matter because the attention is there, the comments will flow and you will be attracting plenty of links. Great Linkbait!
2. News. Write about what is happening now in the world. Both with the internet and the world in general. If you keep up with breaking news, even a short blog post will produce links to your sites.
3. Knowledge. This is always a good one. If you pen information and articles that educate people then you will always get a good response. People are hungry for knowledge.
4. Make them laugh. A bit of humour goes a long way. Keep it brief, remember ‘Brevity is the soul of Wit’. But funny stories, anecdotes, videos and cartoons will keep people coming back to your site.
5. Resource. Build a good resource list and viewers will link to it. A resource list can be incredibly useful for someone involved in your specific niche and will become a reference for them. This is probably one of the best forms of linkbait that you can have. A niche specific list of resources is invaluable and will generate far more links and traffic than your other pages of content, no matter how good that may be.

So keep these 5 points in mind, or better still link to this page, and you can start building your own linkbait straight away!

Thanks

Mark

Your list is your potential customers, clients, contacts and possible team members. Here are a few reasons why list building can be so useful.

• Opt In email marketing grows your business and leads to long lasting business relationships
• Ethical – Opt in list building gives your subscriber the right to change their mind at any time and opt out. This eliminates any possibility of spam or spam accusations.
• Announcements – send any news about your business to all your subscribers easily and quickly
• Automatically send updates to facebook and twitter
• Autoresponder – builds profitable relationships with your subscribers and allows you to welcome new subscribers

“The Money is in the List” is a common refrain from the internet Gurus.And this is an important point. ‘The List’ is basically your list of subscribers who are interested in what you have to say, or interested in the products or service you provide.

If you have a great website and you get a visitor, how do you get them to come back again for more of your quality products? The answer is in the list. It is ‘The List’ that allows you to communicate with your subscribers. You are receiving this email because you are on my list, and I, in turn, am on many other people’s lists. I am happy to subscribe to someone if they provide useful, quality information.

Having a relationship with your subscribers is the point you want to get to, so it is important that you provide good quality information and products. This allows you to invite your subscribers to your site again and again.

And this is what I try to do, I want people to return to my site many times, so I try and post useful information that will help or educate people. I think I manage this most of the time, but maybe some people disagree!

So if you have a website or a blog, how do you grow your list? Well the best service out there without a doubt is  aweber service. I would recommend this to anyone. It has a double opt in (whereby you have to enter your details to subscribe and then confirm your subscription) and this eliminates any accusations of spam. They have hundreds of form templates and great customer support. Plus, you can also subscribe as an affiliate and build another income that way.

There are other list builders on the market, and it may be that you find one that you prefer. But whichever you decide to go with it is extremely important in your marketing efforts that you use a good, ethical list building company.

The money really IS in the list.