The latest SEO Industry news, notes, and chat.
Connect with the Author: Google+ | Twitter
Jim Boykin has been actively involved in SEO and Internet marketing since 1999. Jim's knowledge and experience have made him one of the most respected and referenced SEO's in the industry and his passion for innovation and growth has led his company, Internet Marketing Ninjas, to become one of the world's leading online marketing firms. Jim is also the former CEO of the leading Internet marketing community Threadwatch, the Cre8aSiteForums, the Developer Shed properties, and Webmaster World.
Jim Boykin is the founder and CEO of Internet Marketing Ninjas (formerly We Build Pages). Born and raised in Upstate NY, he has built a reputation as an expert and thought leader in the SEO industry. In the last few years Jim has been recognized by the Business Review as one the Top 40 Leaders Under 40, and listed as one of GSINC's Top 40 Most Influential People of Search in 2007. Jim has also been featured in local and national publications like Examiner.com and Forbes. He is a member of the American Marketing Association, the Better Business Bureau and the Saratoga Chamber of Commerce.
Jim's blog was nominated for a SEMMY in 2008 and was named as the “Best Link Building Blog” by Search Engine Journal in 2006 and 2007. Recently though, blogging has taken a back seat as he spends more time traveling and speaking on SEO.
Through the course of his career, Jim has presented at over 100 conferences in over 15 countries. His conference credits include SES, SMX, PubCon, Affiliate Summit, ExpOn, Hostingcon, and WebMasterWorld among others. He has also served as a PubCon Advisor and is a member of Internet Marketers of New York (IMNY). Jim's areas of expertise include, SEO, Tools, Link Building and The Panda Updates.
Jim first launched We Build Pages in 1999 as a one-man, web design company. However his natural inclination toward Search Engines led the business to develop into one of the world's most well-known link building agencies. In 2011, the business re-branded to become Internet Marketing Ninjas and began offering several new services and enhanced versions of existing services.
Now, with a staff of nearly 50 Ninjas, the CEO spends his time training, consulting, speaking with clients, and traveling the world speaking and networking. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Jim travelled the country working in National Parks, where he discovered a deep admiration for the natural beauty of the world. He also developed a love of talking to people and a profound appreciation for great customer service.
When Jim isn't staying at the office until 2:00am he enjoys spending time with his two sons and seeing live concerts. His eclectic musical tastes range from Barry Manilow to Iron Maiden. Jim also enjoys giving back to the community by getting actively involved in supporting local causes.
Internet Marketing Ninjas has also won the Business Reviews award for Best Places to Work in the Capital Region for 2011 and 2012.
WeBuildPages Review of WeBuildPages' link building services.
Michael Gray (Graywolf), Graywolf's SEO Blog
Aaron Wall (SEO Book) say's the following on WBP Alexa rating for webuildpages.com: I write a popular blog and book about search engine optimization. I spend most of my time tracking the latest news and have little time to work on client work. Having said that, I get a ton of leads from people wanting me to work on their site. I don't have enough time to do that though. Not wanting to risk the brand I worked so hard to build, it took me a while to find someone trustworthy enough to send leads at. At a recent SEO conference not 1 but 2 people came up to me and thanked me for referring them to Jim Boykin. It is pretty rare in the SEO field to get thanked in person by strangers that you only met via email, and that shows what a great job Jim does.
Aaron Wall of SEO Book and Threadwatch
I have known Jim Boykin for 5 years. His techniques during any given year are literally 5 years or more ahead of what anyone else is doing. I have also found him to be brilliant, reliable and generous. In the online world where we have all found many people to be untrustworthy, he is one guy who I really trust, and call my friend. FYI, Nobody asked me to write this. Much Love,
dk from Purpose Inc (& a San Diego Chiropractic)
I gained some insight into the practices of our industry's foremost link development consultants. I was able to see for myself that these guys are for real and they've done a good job of consolidating theory with evidence and thereupon manifesting best practices for link development.
Abhilash, SEO Blogger and Link Ninja
"I've known Jim for close to 10 years, and during that time I've seen him grow his company, attracting some of the best in the industry to come work with / for him. He has vast experience in the industry, and always keeps an audience engaged (he's typically swamped by attendees asking for his advice and thoughts during breaks at conferences) during his, heavily in-demand, presentations, where he delivers actionable strategies and tactics. Through my interactions with him, I've seen that he's a hard working visionary who gives back to the industry and who also encourages the industry to give back to local communities through sponsoring events for charities at conferences."
Simon Heseltine, VP of Search at CoStar Group, Inc.
"Jim has been a leading voice in the digital marketing industry for over a decade. His experience, wisdom and intelligent ideas are the basis for success. he has a genuine interest in supporting others and takes active steps to make the right things happen."
Duane Forrester, VP of Industry Insights with Yext
"Jim and the WeBuildPages are the best (and only) organic SEO firm to which I recommend people. Go with Jim if you want top rankings, otherwise, good luck!"
Andy Hagans, Andy Hagans Link Building
"Jim Boykin is a great example of a determined entrepreneur and a true "live and breathe" SEO. From the free tools to the conference photos on the WeBuildPages site and his excellent blog, Jim has been a generous supporter and advocate of the search marketing industry. He's also one of the few people that "get" SEO.
Lee Odden, President, TopRank Online Marketing and Online Marketing Blog
If you've ever heard Jim speak at a conference there's no doubt he's on the leading edge of the Search Marketing arena. He delivers top notch advice, ideas, and strategies, without needing to resort to trickery or selling "snake oil". He should be on every company's short list of people to talk to.
Michael Gray, Owner, Atlas Web Group Inc. and SEO Blogger Graywolf
Jim is one of the brightest minds in search marketing. He is always at the top of the industry with ideas to get clients top search rankings. I highly recommend him and have enjoyed working with him over the last 4 years.
Patrick Gavin, President, Text Link Ads Inc. and Blogger on Link Building Blog
Well known in the industry, long time link builder, and good guy.
Barry Schwartz, President, RustyBrick, Inc. and Search Engine Roundtable and Search Engine Watch.
Jim is one smart, reliable and very down-to-earth guy - although being hell busy (as you can imagine for such a top SEO) he always gets back to my e-mails in time, so working together was very smooth so far. I appreciate all his insights and posts on his weblog - having a beer or two with Jim exceeds what you would learn in a 15 days conference IMHO . This guy knows his stuff! kudos!
Christoph Cemper, Owner, CEMPER.COM
Jim and WeBuildPages are a firm I consistently refer people to for great link building and targeted SEO campaigns in a wide variety of markets. Always professional, always reliable and very friendly - great to work with all around.
Rand Fishkin of SEOMoz
As one of the most knowledgeable guys in the SEO community, Jim is an asset for your organization. Couple his knowledge with his ethical practices, attention to detail, creative thinking, and SEO tools, and Jim and the entire WBP team are a force to be reckoned with. We had very positive results with Jim and his team, and would highly recommend him for work in the online marketing industry.
Greg Hartnett, President, Best of the Web
Jim has exceptional dedication to his work and to the people that he works with. That unique work ethic becomes abundantly clear in the form of solid, consistent results. I thoroughly recommend Jim and his team to anyone seeking optimal performance for their website, since Jim's prodigious experience encompasses practically every facet of internet marketing.
Darrin J. Ward Founder, SEO Chat / Google Dance
Jim has a well earned reputation as an online marketing consultant. Aside from his personal ability he has successfully built his company to be one of the most sought-after agencies in the industry. I would have no hesitation in giving my full recommendation for Jim or the WBP team
Nick Wilsdon, Owner, e3internet
Jim is a well established member of the SEO community and is highly respected. He has offered his knowledge on numerous occasions and I would recommend him to anyone in need of bettering their search presence.
Truman J. Hedding , Vice President Search Marketing at Boulevards New Media
Today, I’m happy to announce the launch of our first paid tool from the Internet Marketing Ninjas tool division, Ninja Tools: The Featured Snippet Optimization Tool. Featured snippets have been exploding over the past few years: Last year, one study showed that about 30% of searches in Google were showing featured snippets at the top of the search results page. According to the data we’ve collected over the past two… [Read More…]
Internet Marketing Ninjas Club Band The other day I was thinking that in my over 17 years in business, I believe that our current Ninja team and our services are like the Beatles Sgt Peppers Album. So I thought that I’d put all our Ninja faces on this classic album cover. I kinda like it 🙂 I also rewrote the first 2 songs on that album…. Jim Boykin’s Internet Marketing… [Read More…]
“89% of sites that ranked 7 years ago are not ranking now. ” From Marcus Tober of SearchMetrics quoted from the Chicago SEJ Summit earlier this year. (see tweets) After I heard this, I had a private chat on Facebook with Marcus about this……he said: Behind the analysis is our massive 7 year historical Research Cloud I aggregated all domains that used to have at least one ranking in the… [Read More…]
Enjoy 3 Hilarious Videos with Hacksaw Jim Duggan and Jim Boykin taking on the Penguin and the Panda! This past weekend we had the honor of hosting WWE Hall of Famer, “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan, at our offices in Clifton Park. A few months ago Hacksaw had done a promotional video for one of our clients…and man was he awesome in that video! I could see additional future big potential for… [Read More…]
With Google Updates and SERPs changes, it’s getting harder and harder to achieve organic visibility. More and more huge brands take over short-tail competitive SERPs? What can sites with smaller budgets do? You need to become a brand Invest in creating a huge resource. Build something awesome at least monthly! Our digital assets team is brainstorming weekly so our clients get featured in publications like New York Times and Washington… [Read More…]
It’s a very frequent question: How do I get Google crawl more of my site pages? The basic answer is: There’s nothing extra you need to be doing except for creating useful content and building a clear website architecture which would be easy to understand to both search engines and users. How does Google discover websites and URLs? Google crawls the web by following the links. The crawl from page… [Read More…]
Content pages are important search engine traffic landing ages because that’s where a user can convert immediately. Unfortunately product page content is often thin, duplicate or database-generated (not unique). Product Page Content Tips Here are some tips on making your product page content better to both rank high in Google and convert well: Include more product photos (Encourage your buyers to send you the product pages for a discount) Include… [Read More…]
Everyone is discussing everyone online these days. Someone may be discussing your brand at this very moment and you’d better be there to engage! Online reviews are becoming more and more important: They influence buying decisions and your business growth! Some stats: Here are some online reviews stats from the travel industry: Average number of reviews for a hotel – 238 Percent of travelers who find user reviews important 81%… [Read More…]
Ever since Google has closed its Google Plus authorship program, you might have had “Authorship is dead” sentiment all over the place. The truth is, that was an absolutely different type of authorship than what we are going to talk today. Google Plus authorship has never been a ranking signal while mapping authors and figuring authorship and influence signals has been on Google’s agenda for ages. What is Authorship and… [Read More…]
To encourage our Digital Asset team who work hard to build the highest-value content and bring lots trust and brand signals to our clients, we are excited to invite two of them to “Jim and Ann show” and let them share their success stories. We hope that these impressive numbers and results will inspire you to create something awesome for your site! Here are some of the numbers we shared… [Read More…]
Title tag is the most important element of your web page: It helps you rank higher, it can improve your click through, it can catch an eye and get people share your page on social media. Title Tag Optimization Tips Google will only display ~70 characters (512 pixels) within search results. But it doesn’t mean that you can’t make it longer The best practice is to include your main keyword… [Read More…]
A couple of weeks ago the whole database of Ashley Madison, the well-known cheating website, got hacked and lots of its users’ personal data became public. Whether you were active on the site or just registered out of curiosity, your name may be in that database and that means it will eventually be published online in various forms and publications. It’s only the matter of time before one of these… [Read More…]
Welcome to our forth edition of weird (sometimes funny) lead stories we are getting at Internet Marketing Ninjas. Please check out three two previous ones: Acquire 300-400 Good-Quality Links Guaranteed Rankings + PR7 Links How Much Income Will I Get if I Rank in Top 5 Here’s today’s story: The Lead: We used to regularly show up mid-first-page for organic search results; now our site appears to be “blacklisted.” It… [Read More…]
