Welcome SEO Inside, the new international SEO blog of Gerald Steffens aka Minivip, one of Germany’s most reknown SEO bloggers, currently #1 in Google.de for SEO blog.
SEO Inside is based on Wordpress and looks good as it uses one of my favorite themes, Cutline. The first post is already really news, Google Trends has been updated and apparently testing a lower threshold for keywords to show up on Google Trends.
Rumors spread for weeks by now say that the way of checking supplemental results many of us in the SEO industry used has already or is going to disappear. The old method still works for me though, just compare those two search queries:
Whether it’s true or not there is a new way according to Search Engine Roundtable, even an simpler one:
If you compare the old way and the new one, you see that the results are almost identical. The numbers of results differ substiantally, 4,730,000 (old) vs 90 000 (new) but if you click page 10 here (old) and here (new) they are almost the same minus one.
Why explain what SEO 2.0 is, if you can give examples of it? So here is a list of 10 SEO 2.0 examples in no particular order.
Human Brain Cloud is a “multiplayer word association game” that I am addicted to for some days now. I am not the only one as their servers experience outages again and again.
Via Google Blogoscoped.
As I think more and more about SEO 2.0, it’s all about participation. So before introducing “the” definition myself, I want you, you and you to tell me what SEO 2.0 means for you.
I ask, because I do not believe that any or all of the definitions voiced until now will suffice.
Imagine a new SEO beyond PageRank, web directories or paid links, a new way of search engine optimization!
So what do you think?
Before Wordpress webmasters had to do “on page optimization”, they had to care for things like “search engine submission”. With Wordpress they can quit SEO in those cases. Even “link building” with Wordpress is not the same as before.
With Wordpress you can concentrate on content creation and socializing with like minded people. In other words Wordpress is SEO 2.0.
Even unchanged Wordpress installations will rank, as URLs like ?p=123 rank technically as well as others even if they are not as self evident as speaking URLs using the post title the way SEO 2.0 does: quit-seo-use-wordpress.
You can enhance your Wordpress with some measures like changing the title order from “blog name - post name” to “post name - blog name”, but it does not matter as much as the content and the socializing.
So quit SEO, start SEO 2.0, use Wordpress.
Some days ago I read a blog post about Netscape.com being better than Digg. After reading it I finally decided to try Netscape. First I submitted a story about my aversion against Digg and why I want to use Netscape from now on. On a side note: I did not choose Reddit because my eyes hurt looking at it.
After 2 hours or so, I noticed that nobody voted for my article. So I thought Netscape users like Digg users also dislike SEO. That’s why I started submitting very interesting articles from reknown sources and for different topics like I do with other social media sites (in Germany I am a social news power user).
After almost a day nobody voted for any of those stories.
Even today not a single vote has been cast for my 5 stories although I mentioned that on Sphinn and linked my profile and stories there.
So all in all, either Netscape does not work for new users or the votes are faked in some way. After several days I got only one visitor from Netscape.com
I disliked Digg for disregarding newbies but Netscape.com is even worse. You won’t reach anybody probably.
So do not waste your time with submitting to Netscape. You will be ignored or not noticed in the first place. Do not tell me that it’s my own fault. I know how social news sites work. Sites that do work send at least some users to your site. Sphinn for instance got me 10 visitors yesterday for my link bait article, but the headline was too negative I guess so they did not vote for it. Anyways, Sphinn works, Netscape does not.
Deaf Musician, author of the great minimalistic Wordpress theme DM Bloodless that I use offers to create a custom Wordpress theme for a passionate blogger for free! I wonder why people do not flock to his blog to get it.
He is one of the best Wordpress theme authors I have ever seen. Just watch his other themes, they’re incredibly aesthetic. That’s why I supported him in the first place. Beside, you do not have to change anything, his themes are already perfectly optimized in terms of SEO.
OK, link bait sucks predominantly as a term but not completely as a tactic. Nonetheless there are certain aspects of link bait (or linkbait in one word) that really make this SEO 2.0 method obnoxious in some cases. No wonder then, that people on social media sites like Digg often hate link bait although they fall for it again and again.
Therefor I will introduce new terms for the concept of link baiting, without treating users like fish. Let me explain first what the problem with link bait is.
The concept of link bait is, if you don’t like it:
“manipulating people to link to you against their will”.
If you like the concept you probably will explain it along the line
“creating killer content so people link to you”.
Of course the truth lies inbetween. It’s more or less 50/50. So if you create killer content link bait people will link to you but if you refer to it as link bait you might get buried on Digg or even blacklisted.
People do not like being treated as fish you want to eat for lunch.
Respect your audience and create killer content! In order not to fool users to link to you you have to change your frame of mind. Drop the bait concept and replace it with one of the following:
The last two might sound strange at first in English, nevertheless there are shades of grey that differentiate those three.
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A link incentive is easily explained: It’s anything you do right away and directly to get links, for instance “win an iPod“, “the first 5 bloggers who trackback me will get a free ebook” or the John Chow way “those who link to me, get reviewed in my blog”.
Link stimulus sounds very frivolous and indeed it is, link stimulus might be for example a headline like “female SEO consultants naked”, “How I earned 1 million with adsense in two weeks” or “be forever young with this new revolutionary method”. Link stimuli stir positive emotions, they make you crave something.
Link incitement is the next logical step, something that makes others disagree, is controversial or so innovative people feel as if they fall behind you. As you might suspect “SEO 2.0 will kill SEO as you know it” is such a link incitement, but even my former headlines “The Only 5 SEO 2.0 Blogs You Need“, “10 Reasons Not to Use Digg“, “10 Reasons Why You Don’t Need to Read Matt Cutts’ Blog” stir incitement because they voice new opinions, debunk myths or are contrary to the main stream. Do not mistake link incitement with flaming or pure provocation though. Moreover, it’s not provocation for provocations or the links sake. It’s about being yourself and voicing your own opinions.
Link incitement means always at least 50% agreeing with the status quo and changing it from within. In my case I agree that link bait is the most important white hat SEO tactic to get links nowadays. I agree that link bait works in many if not most cases. So I want to optimize the concept of link bait and diversify it with new and better terms.
You might argue that out of my link incitements none have worked out, as for instance “10 Reasons Not to Use Digg” gathered “only” 21 diggs. The thing is, I did not try very hard and my goal was not to make the Digg front page, hell, I’m on shared hosting with this blog! I was just exercising and filling my empty new blog. I want to get noticed, the real stuff follows.
Nevertheless, what the three new terms and concepts have in common is: You do not manipulate anybody and you do not treat humans like fish.
Link incentives are so direct that people of course notice what you are up to and they decide consciously whether they support you or not.
With link stimuli you meet people’s demand for things they really want. So they are thankful that they get them.
Link incitement is all about being yourself and not just following the leaders. Nobody likes people that just parrot the elite without adding any new thoughts or value. By being yourself with everything that annoys you, you will reach people. Many of them will dislike you for not agreeing with them and their idols. Many other people though will like and support you realizing that you are yourself and thus authentic.
Now you might argue: This article just rephrases what link bait is about anyways replacing the term with three new ones.
No, that’s not really true. My concept does not fool anybody into linking to me. Either the people receive a present (link incentive), or I fulfill their dreams (link stimulus) or I just say what I want to say without flattering people just for the sake of being friend with everybody.
So the main difference may be the ethics, link bait is grey hat SEO while link incentive, link stimulus and link incitement are about respect for the users.
The nice folks at SEO Refugee, the friendliest SEO Forums in this universe, reviewed my new SEO 2.0 blog. As I value their opinion very much I reacted quickly. One problem mentioned were empty categories leading to a funny but cryptical 404 message devised by the Deaf Musician for the DM Bloodless theme.
Until I manage to fill every category, this post will show up in all empty categories. Visit the homepage, you wil find many interesting articles.
