Comments on: Optimising Your Site for Link Building

By: matt

matt — Tue, 15 May 2012 17:17:29 +0000

Having terrible content and poor design is a death wish when it comes to SEO.

By: Tanya Smith Lorenz

Tanya Smith Lorenz — Mon, 07 May 2012 17:38:33 +0000

Enjoyed your post Hannah (actually, enjoying the site – I just came across it for the first time, so I’m having a good time reading the posts with a cuppa!)
As someone who’s just recently started being more mindful of trying to do seo the right way – as well as giving my readers interesting content too, I’m glad you’ve reminded me that the visual appeal and overall trustworthyness of how a site looks matters!
Like one of the other commenters said – it can be a bit scary asking for feedback on your site – but worth it I’m sure. I’ll start with some tame peeps first perhaps!
Cheers

By: Daniel

Daniel — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 22:02:14 +0000

The article is very good and I learned many useful and interesting Nea who until now did not know. I follow your site often and loving much. Always there are many useful things for beginners.

By: Vasko

Vasko — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 11:18:55 +0000

Great post Hannah!
Two thumbs up for 4)
Brands should embrace more humanization efforts.

By: Christine

Christine — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 01:09:48 +0000

Love this blog. It did make me a little self conscious though, i went to make my website extra pretty now!!!!

By: Hannah Smith

Hannah Smith — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 13:44:44 +0000

@Ben – Agreed – although it’s not just SEOs who are guilty of that, right?

@Kyle – Not tried usertesting.com – thanks for the recommendation!

@Jon – thanks for sharing your experience – really great to hear others have seen positive results when making these sorts of changes to their sites.

By: Jon Cooper

Jon Cooper — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 00:44:27 +0000

The funny thing is that the first two couldn’t be more true.

Here’s a fun, tangible example. I started my blog in March of 2011, and up until January 2012, I didn’t get a single natural link (in this case, a link I didn’t actively pursue). Honestly, not one.

Then in early January I completely redesigned & relaunched my blog. I spent weeks on the design, and another week or two prepping some completely & totally awesome content.

After about 2 weeks, I got my first natural link, but after that, they started pouring in. I think somewhere in there is where #4 came into play. People got to know me after seeing my content & my design, and after that, links built themselves.

Not trying to be self promotional, just wanted to give a little testimonial to the fact that this stuff actually works. I know we’re in a link-happy community (there’s no denying it), so it’s hard to say you’ll get similar results, but even if you get just 2-3 natural links a month from doing these things, then trust me, it’s worth it.

Great post Hannah!!

By: Kyle Byers

Kyle Byers — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 16:19:33 +0000

Thanks for telling it like it is. I’ve never used Feedback Army, but it looks awesome. In my experience, usertesting.com has been pretty great for usability testing with video feedback… but it is more expensive, too.

By: Ben Spak

Ben Spak — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 08:07:13 +0000

Glad someone is finally calling SEOs out for poor design!