After a long discussion with a few fellow SEOs I think I made my point. They said: “You cannot get every site you’d like, to link to you. Most authorities and competitors won’t give their linklove.” and my opinion is: “You can get all the best authority links. Sometimes you just need an intermediate site.”

The best way to get any link, is to create content specifically as linkbait for that link or website. Normally a competitor will not intentionally link to you directly, but here’s where an intermediate site comes in. Use an existing intermediate or create your own one for full controll how the linkjuice is transfered.

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So far Google was all about reading what normal users could read. If you made your website accessible to all visitors (including visually impaired), you had a perfect site for Google. Every guideline in the Webmaster guidelines has always been focussed on making a good website for users and forgetting about (spamming) search engines.
But now Google wants us to do the complete opposite. If links are extremely relevant to your users, but not contextual enough to search engines, you need to nofollow them or completely remove them to be able to score. Matt Cutts has written a few blog posts on nofollowing paid links.
What will they think of next? From now on you have to make your website for search engines and hope that it is ok for your visitors?!

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How up-to-date does your SEO knowledge need to be?
I frequently talk to people that aren’t convinced that they need to keep their SEO knowledge up-to-date. “Old whitehat knowledge works just fine!” is what they say. And in some cases I think they have a point. Most SEOs don’t need to read all the SEO news everyday. But what changes do you need to check on a regular basis?

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Finding the right search terms to target with your website isn’t just about finding the most popular queries. “The Long Tail” in search is all about finding large amounts of search terms with little or no competition. The importance of the long tail is known to many search engine marketeers, but what do they really know? In this article I will unvail some misconceptions that exist on the long tail.

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The behaviour of people using search engines and vertical search is different for every target audience. As a search engine marketer you should always know the target audience and how they search. In this article I will share some of my experience on the subject of “searcher behaviour”.
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Some years ago search engine optimization was mainly about using the right keyword densities in the text of your website. Nowadays it seems to have lost much of its importance. But isn’t it important anymore? In this article I will give my opinion and maybe we can get a discussion going on what you think.

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A nofollow attribute within the code of your website tells search engines not to follow certain links. This way you indicate that you have links on your website, which you don’t want your website to be associated with. Is this a safe way to have contextual intercourse? In this article I will try to explain the nofollow tag and I will show better condoms for safe linklove.

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In the series: 5 things you didn’t know …. I got tagged by Joost de Valk.

So here are five things:

1. You probably don’t know that I’ve been in SEO for ten years now and I used to try everything that was forbidden by search engines and online legislation.
   In those days none of the illegal practices could be detected by algorithms and SEO was easy. After my Blackhat days I turned lighter and at the moment I’m white for customers and grey for some other projects.
2. I love SEO, but I love marketing even more.
   Knowing how to influence people is one of my main interests. I love to see good viral campaigns and how people react to them. I plan to study psychology in the following year, because that’s where it all starts.
3. Did you know I have a son named Coen?
   Coen is 2,5 years old and the main reason I like to work as little as possible. Every hour I can spend with him and my wife makes me the happiest man alive.
4. You probably don’t know about my plans to take over the world either.
   I always liked pinky and the brain and got inspired by his megalomanic desires. As long as I can do it in 40 hours a week, I’m going to take over the SEO world.
5. I bet you don’t know I’m having troubles finding SEO people that haven’t already been tagged.
   I will update this post as I find more tagable SEO’s, but now there’s only one.

So here’s my tag to the next people in line:

• Mathieu Burgerhout
  He’s kinda my protege and I hope he gets to be an even better SEO than me.
• Saku
  By day an accountant, by night an SEO superhero.
• Ulco Wierenga
  Dutch SEO blogger. Click on the link to see how crazy Dutch looks to you.
• Robert Cabri
  A programmer that does a lot of SEO work.
• SEO-expert.nlA Dutch seo with too much banners on his website.

Viral marketing is a buzz word by itself. Every marketing client has heard the word and wants their piece of it. Even marketeers that never tried to infuence the masses are venturing into the unknown.

In viral or buzz marketing you try to motivate people to talk about you. But is this form of PR a safe way to promote you brand?

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In a discussion on the blog of Aaron Wall I was asked “Who would you rather have promoting you? A barber or a professor?” The answer seems simple, anyone would say “The professor!”, but is that the right answer?

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