On Dutch Cowboys Eduard posted a picture today which speaks for itself. The website E-marketer researched Social Media and shopping behavior. They looked at the resources people use to get to their purchase. The most important resource: search. Off course .

As my loyal readers will know I am a fanatic blogger for Dutch Cowboys. And I also sometimes post a message on MobileCowboys and SearchCowboys…

Some ‘insiders’ know that my involvement with Dutch Cowboys is a little bit more than just blogging. I sometimes do some project management for the websites. And my involvement will only grow. I’m going to play a big part in the new version of SearchCowboys.

The current site will dissapear in this format. Instead we will develop a European SearchCowboys. An website written in English looking at search marketing with a focus on the European Market.

And I will play a big part in it… What kind of part? In any case the part of blogger and a little bit more.. I will get back on that in the coming weeks. For now I’m looking for your help. When I start blogging on www.searchcowboys.com I will need sources. I want to know what’s going on in the European Search Market. Continue Reading »

This month Google celebrates its ten year anniversary. Reason for many bloggers and media to stop and look back. And why not. Google has in the past decade, changed the way we all use the Internet.

For ten years, most of us almost daily open the white, quiet Google Homepage. The "original" Google homepage is still recognizable in today’s homepage, but in the course of the years more has changed than you might suspect. An overview. Continue Reading »

Through Dutch Cowboys I ran into another great describing picture from Elliance. You often hear that SEO (search engine optimization) is very expensive. And I too notice that clients are somewhat reluctant when it comes to starting with SEO. In the end is does pay out however. Especcially compared to advertising. Elliance shows that in this picture

This posting in Dutch

Everyone wants (many) links. Links are a signal of life on the web. Others referring to you is recognition of your work. And for many, even more important: links are important for your findability in search engines (especially Google). With a few good links you can get a significant boost in traffic.

So everyone is looking for links. There are a number of experts in this field worldwide. Some of them are from The Netherlands and Belgium. Dave Lorrez of the website E-tail.be knew how to bring some of these experts ‘virtually’ together and questions them about linkbuilding.

The result is a very interesting post (in Dutch) with many things you can learn for everyone who is interested in linkbuilding. The experts Peter van der Graaf, Roy Huiskes, Bart De Waele, Eduard Blaquière, Joost de Valk, Martijn Anschütz, Wiep Knol and Alain Sadon ten questions were raised about linkbuilding:

1. How & Where to find links to Dutch sites
2. Linkbuilding for traffic or purely technical (PageRank)
3. What about link buying: themes sponsors, etc
4. So what are ‘good’ links
5. Does the Google toolbar PageRank have any valu. Is the Dutch Social Media world an option?
7. The importance of internal links on your website
8. Siloing and the rel = "nofollow" tag
9. Can we expect changes in the near future
10. Favorite tool linkbuilding

The experts give a few important tips which I do not withhold from you:

You do not need to have thousands of links. "A few good sites, with the right anchor text often works much better than a mass of links." (Says Roy Huiskes)

Do not buy links. "I advise my customers not in any way to start paying for links with the purpose of scoring higher in search engines." (Says Alain Sadon)

Pagerank is much less important than sometimes suggested. "It hardly plays a role since it is an indicator that has no accurate picture." (Says Martijn Anschutz)

Make sure that a link is an added value for those who click on the link, in other words, care for relevant links. "A link is ‘good’ if it adds value to visitors to the web page link." (Says Eduard Blaquière)

Finally, they share some tips on tools:
SEO Link Analysis Firefox plugin
SEO for FireFox
SEO-Spyglass
Web Developer
Yahoo Site Explorer
Hub finder
Link Diagnosis

And of course, Google itself…

The article gives a good overview of what you have to take in account of when it comes to linkbuilding and is therefore an absolute must for anyone who wants to start linkbuilding. Unfortunately, even here the ‘golden tip’ isn’t given, but it is certainly useful. So start reading!