I'm a fan of the Internal Link Building plugin that Gabriel Goldenberg released a while back. A little work with Excel combined with the plugin's import feature can turn hundreds of keywords into links in one fell swoop. That's my kind of SEO!

After using the plugin on multiple sites I came up with some additional features that I wish the plugin had. Well, now it has them:

1. Limit the number of keywords that are turned into links on any given post. This'll keep a post from looking too spammy to your users.
2. Broadening the matching functionality so that words in between the keywords you specify will be ignored. This will help increase the number of matches while also increasing the variability of the anchor text used in the links.
3. Allow for words before and after the keywords you specified to be included in the link. Another way to increase the variability of the anchor text.

Along with the above new features, the latest version of the plugin has been updated to:

• Not cross punctuation such as periods and exclamation points when turning keywords into links. Without this you'd get some funky looking links.
• Be compatible with WordPress 2.9.1.
• Not leave unnecessary data in the WordPress database when you save a post.

You can download the latest plugin from its home on SEO ROI.

If you find any bugs, let me know! I'm also curious in any interesting features you'd like added.

It's SEO experiment time. This one is inspired by a recent webinar from the SEO Braintrust folks and, of course, something I saw on a client's site. In the webinar, Leslie Rhode reminded me of discussions way back when regarding first link priority. The topic isn't new as many before this webinar, including Matt Cutts, have commented on it. But what I've yet to see is anyone test how image links are handled (Michael VanDeMar makes a recommendation though). So that's what I'm doing here today... Basically repeating previous tests except the first link is an image.

First Link:

Second Link:

dsflkuioiuwe

I'll put the results into an amendment to this post so stay tuned.

Update 2009-12-29
Just checked the SERPs. Neither link appears to be having any effect. I'll check again in a week or so.

Update 2010-01-07
Checked the SERPs again. No change i.e. neither link is having any effect. I didn't expect results to take this long. Oh well.

Update 2010-01-12
Thanks to Zoe and Andy for pointing out that the SERPs are now including additional results. It looks like the text link (second) is passing anchor text while the image link (first) isn't. I think I'll wait for another week to see if things "stick".

Despite recent proclamations that the recession has hit bottom and we're now in recovery mode, the reality is that we should always be looking for ways to improve our efficiency. This is especially true in SEO, where a number of traps too often cause marketers to stumble into wasting time, money, or both.

Avoiding these traps, and making the most of your resources, means becoming a smarter marketer. But becoming a smarter marketer doesn't require expensive tools or intricate solutions; instead, there are simple, easily implementable changes you can make to improve both your strategy and execution.

Check out the rest of my article at KeywordDriven.com -- smarter SEO is only a few steps away!

When I first launched this site I picked a domain that closely matched the company I was working at without being so close as to infringe on trademarks and such. My goal back then was to help my employer launch a blog to complement their corporate site. Mistake #1.

I came across an article on CNN yesterday about link building. As with many SEO-related articles on mainstream news sites, it didn't go beyond what I've already read. But I do enjoy reading these articles as a measure of what is considered mainstream. The gist of the article is that many people are exchanging and buying links. And if you take the word of those interviewed, both activities yield positive results. I suspect this article is going to result in a flurry of e-mails to webmasters. Joy.

Alright I'm giving in. I can't help but write a piece about the recent announcement from Matt Cutts regarding

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A while back John Andrews wrote a post about