The Role of Inbound Links
While on-page optimization is a good first step, you will ultimately get much more leverage by having links from other sites to yours. Inbound links used to just be a source of referral traffic. Now, they influence your search engine rankings as well.
Google was the first search engine to use links as a significant ranking factor. They viewed a link from one site to another as a ‘vote’ for the target site. The more votes you have, the more authoritative your site is considered.
Specifically, there are two main benefits gained through each link:
1. Better SEO authority of the linked to page and increase in authority of the site as a whole.
2. More relevancy of the page for the keywords that are used in the link’s anchor text.
Anchor text is the clickable text of a link. To give you an example, let’s say a page was linked to in the following ways:
Paralegal Program
Amarillo College American Bar Association Paralegal Program
The second link (often referred to as an ‘anchor text rich’ or an ‘anchor text specific’ link) is more likely to have a higher rank.
Note that not all links pass value. Website developers can add a ‘nofollow’ attribute to an outbound link in order to achieve this. Links from some popular sites such as Wikipedia and many social media sites like Twitter, for example, are all nofollow. The way to verify whether a link passes value is to check its HTML. This is achievable in different ways through different browsers but is generally doable.
It is often useful to know about the links your site currently has. This information can help you make decisions regarding whether to aim for more links that will build site authority or to focus on deep links with specific anchor text.
Researching your competitors’ links can also be valuable, particularly in identifying link opportunities or niches that could also be useful to your link building campaign.
Yahoo! provides a free tool that lists up to 1,000 of the links to any site. enter your domain name or a particular page, select the ‘Inlinks’ button, and change the settings to ‘Show links: except from this domain.’ Also select ‘to: entire site’ if you’d like to see links to the whole site rather than just a single page.
These links are not in any particular order, and the list will include links thatdo not pass any vaule as well as those that do.
Please note that inbound links are quickly becoming a broken metric. At the same time, social media is a heavy ranking factor for search engines. While inbound links still matter and are a decent factor for judging the authority of a website or page, social media provides search engines with key data points that they have long been lacking.
Video – What is Google+ and do I need it?
Student Banned from Commencement Because of Facebook Post
This article was originally posted on .eduGuru on May 11, 2011.
ABC11-WTVD Raleigh News reported that a current senior at Saint Augustine’s College, Roman Caple, was not permitted to walk at his graduation ceremony on May 1 because of a Facebook post.
The news station followed up with this video the following week, confirming that the student did not walk in graduation. The report also mentions that Caple has yet to receive any further communication from the college except for a letter citing a “negative use of social media” cost him the opportunity to participate in commencement activities.
A screenshot of the original Facebook post in question is posted here, but according to WRAL.com, College spokeswoman LaToya Sutton said in a press release that Caple made comments on the school’s Facebook page in an effort to disrupt a meeting on campus where Progress Energy representatives planned to speak with students. In a screenshot of the comment released by the college, Caple wrote the following Facebook post:
“Here it go! Students come correct, be prepared, and have supporting documents to back up your arguments bcuz (sic) SAC will come hard! That is all.”
On Saint Augustine’s College’s Facebook Page, there has been reaction to the story on both sides of the fence, but the majority of wall posts have been criticizing the school’s decision on the matter:
This situation brings up two glaring questions about the school’s decision and their official reaction to the story:
1. Is there a need for schools to have a Social Media Policy for students?
Rey Junco posted a great article discussing this topic.
2. How should the school have responded in this situation?
Could the school have responded differently in their decision to ban the student from commencement or in their reaction to the barrage of negative Facebook posts?
Facebook Questions: Ask a Question as a Page
Did you know you can ask Facebook Questions as a Page? This may be an incredibly useful tool for business or brands that want to poll their fans. Mashable gave some examples of how companies can use the Questions tool.
iPad 2 Announcement
There should be college marketing courses just called: Apple Marketing 101. The way Apple has marketed its products over the past decade is just amazing. Every Apple announcement is preceding with months of hype and rumors and usually the announcements don’t disappoint. Well, I guess I’m just adding to the rumor-mill here, but it is just too much fun.
Who cannot be interested in what is on the next iPad, dubbed iPad 2?
Speculation has it that the iPad 2 will have a much higher resolution, a camera, and a new high speed processor. Check out more information at IGN. Can’t wait till it actually comes out.
There Are No Technology Shortcuts to Good Education
Recently, Kentaro Toyamo, wrote a refreshing blog article titled, “There Are No Technology Shortcuts to Good Education.” This profound article balances respect for technology in the classroom with warnings to implementing it without good pedagogical foundation. Toyama comes from a very rich technology background (he was a computer scientist for over a decade) but has a great deal of wisdom as to how and if technology can truly enhance learning.
One of my favorite quotes from Toyama’s article is:
“Computers can help good schools do some things better, but they do nothing positive for underperforming schools. This means, very specifically, that efforts to fix broken schools with technology or to substitute for missing teachers with technology invariably fail.”
This article should truly be a discussion point in Teacher Education classrooms worldwide.
Google Interface for Higher Education Websites
The higher education website homepage is the initial chance to make an impression. A site visitor expects to see what they’re looking for the moment they arrive. Does a site visitor expect a Google homepage interface?
The higher education e-commerce website allows site visitors to pay for classes and to purchase books online. Does a site visitor expect an Amazon e-commerce website interface?
Thoughts?
Social Media Expert?
As you know, the LAST thing I ever want to be called is a “Social Media Expert” or “Social Media Marketing Coach.” Yech. That ain’t what I do and it ain’t who I am. Ain’t. Ain’t. Ain’t.
There, that feels better… now what I AM is a social media enthusiast. I love it and I think it’s a great tool.
Is it perfect for everyone? No.
Is it useful for some? Yes.
Is it vital for a few? Certainly.
So… to help you ramp up the effectiveness of your social media efforts, you need to know what to say and how to say it.
And most outreach “templates” that these social media tools offer you are pretty weak. Things like the standard LinkedIn connection invite, the Facebook friend connection, and others. No worries, you’re about to get hooked up.
LinkedIn:
Quick Marketing 101 review – Do people care about YOU or do they care about themselves? Yes – that’s right! 5 points. They don’t give a rat’s tushie about you and they care 100% about themselves.
Now look at the standard LinkedIn connection invite:
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I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.
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Hmmmm… how do you feel about being “added”? And who cares about “my professional network”? This is all wrong.
Here’s your new template – notice the switch in focus and benefit. Plus I added a new line with even more value. Finally, I prevented someone from clicking the “I don’t know them” button which LinkedIn penalizes you for:
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I’d like to put my professional network on LinkedIn at your disposal. After we connect, if there’s someone to whom you’d like a personal introduction, just let me know.
If you prefer not to connect at this time, please archive this message now. Thanks in advance.
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Facebook:
You can’t really go wrong here but I still have a useful connection “script” for you.
Let’s say you notice that through your Facebook “Suggestions” (currently on the right side of your home page immediately below the section labelled “Requests”), there are people listed with labels like “37 mutual friends,” “51 mutual friends” and so on.
You can connect with these folks, but chances are excellent that they might not know you from Adam – or Eve. Thus, you need a fun, approachable, and appealing script to drop in when you want to click on them to connect. After you click “Add as Friend” you’ll want to click the link in the dialog box that says “Add a personal message” and type:
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Vanessa – Wow! We have 37 mutual friends. We GOTTA connect simply so we can talk about all these people.
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Twitter:
First rule, don’t use automatic Direct Messaging (DM). People hate ‘em. I hate ‘em. Most savvy Twitter users hate ‘em too.
They’re used by spammers, affiliate marketers, and MLM salespeople. Just awful.
Not sure how to set that up? Good. You don’t need to know. Didn’t I just specifically ask you NOT to do it? No matter how “cool, valuable, friendly” you think they are – DON’T do it.
This next bit isn’t a script, it’s more of a practice. It’s called ENGAGEMENT. Rather than simply pumping out clever tweets and retweeting others, build relationships. My formula for social media success (as a social media enthusiast, remember!) is the 3 R’s formula:
Resources – Yes, certainly share your blog posts, your micro-ideas, and retweets of cool links and thoughts from others. Your first week on Twitter, this is fine if it’s all you do. The second week, though, you better get busy with…
Relationships – Build relationships with other users you follow, admire, or resonate with. Use public @ messages to connect with them, comment on their latest contributions, or thank them for an idea. Be detailed – so don’t just tweet “@johndoe Hey – Cool!” Instead tweet this: “@johndoe David, awesome ideas on your blog about those social media scripts. Thanks!!!”
Reciprocity – Once you get the Twitter thing going, you’ve built some good relationships and you’re seen as a valuable resource and contributor, it’s only natural that people will start to promote you with some reciprocal love. They’ll respond to your ideas, they’ll Retweet you, they’ll promote you in their #followfriday recommendations, and they’ll scratch your back as you scratch theirs.
Mobile Device Usage
The past decade has witnessed two revolutions in communication technology. The first — the Internet revolution — has changed everything in higher education. The second — the mobile phone revolution — has changed nothing. We’re vaguely aware that our students have mobile phones (just annoyed when they forget to turn them off in class), but it hasn’t occurred to us that the fact they have these devices might have anything to do with our effort to provide them with educational experiences and services.
HELLO? (as our students sometimes say when trying to communicate with someone who’s being particularly obtuse)
Mobile phone usage among our students has become virtually universal. Isn’t it time for us to stop ignoring and start taking advantage of this fact?
I decided to give everyone an insight into the mobile device usage for Amarillo College (actx.edu). These numbers show mobile devices that have accessed our homepage, not including all sub sites within our CMS. They also include the past 30 days, June 19th to July 19th, which is the summer semester and student enrollment is lower in the summer than any other semester. However, these numbers do represent how our students are accessing the Amarillo College home page using mobile devices. During this time, 7 percent of our unique visitors to the home page of our website used mobile devices.
As you can see the iPhone has most of the mobile traffic with Android trailing close behind. If you combine the iPhone and iPod usage it accounts for over 61 percent of all mobile web traffic to our site homepage during this time.
Noel-Levitz 2010 E-Expectations Report
Noel-Levitz just released their 2010 E-Expectations Report. The survey is of more than 1,000 high school seniors. It examines their attitudes and behaviors toward Web content, social networking, recruitment videos, and e-mail.
If you are not familiar with the report, here is a quote from their site:
An ongoing project to uncover the online expectations and behaviors of prospective students
What do students expect when they arrive at your campus Web site? What kinds of electronic communications will resonate with them? How can you create the kind of dialog that turns Web visitors into student inquiries?
The E-Expectations series has studied the expectations and behaviors of college-bound high school students, as well their parents, prospective graduate students, and current college students transferring to other campuses. This research project examines what students want to find on Web sites, as well as their attitudes toward communication mediums such as social networking, text messaging, cell phone calls, and instant messaging being used for recruitment.
I recommend everyone who works in higher ed read it and keep it in mind when doing any communication to prospective or current students.
