Link Building Pro, based at seox.org, will automatically add a citation to the footer of any text copied from your website. Unlike other similar solutions, though, it specifically uses the meta keywords from the page as the anchor text – ensuring that the links use the precise keywords you’re optimizing for. And, here’s the best part, any text within the selection that matches the text of another link on the page will automatically be converted into that link. As a consequence, if this selection is then copied into the user’s site, you’ve not only gained one link of citation, but also as many links as logically apply to the text itself.

Of course, what makes this white hat is that it’s all voluntary. The user could easily remove the links if he chooses. But the default switches from being no citation or link to several, and as the default action is the easiest, it is also the one most often taken.

PS: Unfortunately, my previous script “Search and Share” interferes this script (doh!). For now, you’ll have to pick one or the other, but I’ve got big integration plans for the future!

Everyone’s seen social bookmarks, and yeah, they’re great. But even with them, your visitor has to specifically seek out promoting you. On the other hand, when you highlight and copy text from politico.com, it will automatically embed the URL.

Holy crap that’s cool!

Naturally, I wanted to do it too. But soon after beginning, I realized that there was still so much more to do. What is it that people wanted to do with the copied text? If the selection is long, perhaps it’s email or twitter. If it’s short (like a name or place), I’d bet it’s a search. My plugin takes Politico’s brilliant idea and gives it what Barry Bonds got.

To see the script in action, try highlighting any text on this page. For email or copy/paste credit, select 40+ characters of text. For specific search-worthy examples, try:

• Wiki: Machiavelli
• Google: World Trade Center, NY
• Facts (Wolfram): Hamburgers
• Amazon: 1984 by George Orwell
• Ebay: XBOX 360

For more information about this plugin, visit the official Search and Share page. If you like it, I’d really appreciate you bumping me up on the social network of your choice. Thanks for the love!

PS: In case you missed the links the first time around, you can download the standalone jQuery version here, and you can download the wordpress version here.

But there is a very common problem with over-zealous implementation of such SEO tactics without full consideration of their impact. Even SEOs who I have high regard for are victims of this vice. Have a look:

Notice how in each above case, the site represents its graphical logo as an unoptimized text link going back to the home page. And if you subscribe to the first link theory, (which as an astute reader, I’m sure you do), you’ll recognize that this renders any subsequently optimized link back to the homepage relatively (if not completely) limp.

ShoeMoney has it the worst of all, if you ask me. Why, praytell, is the h1 of EVERY page “Shoemoney – Skills To Pay The Bills”. This is only one step down from using the same title, or same description, which you’ll surely be alerted of if you use Google’s Webmaster Tools. And no offense to Gab, but SEOROI isn’t much better, depending on your perspective on the over-use of H1’s.

“Ok, Smartass” you’re probably thinking. “So you think I should go black hat and use cloaked optimized text?”

Well, I’d argue that if your text is descriptive of the graphic, it’s not black hat. But even if you disagree, that’s not your only option. You could also use the equally semantically valid “Alt Attribute” (it’s not a tag), which is designed to describe photos and the like to the blind. This old school method is clean as a whistle, allows you to label as you will (i.e., my: “Boston SEO Logo”), and doesn’t detract from your later carefully picked anchor text links.

So what’s the take away here? Don’t just blindly do what SEO Bloggers say (myself included). Always put yourself in the many shoes of a search engine spider, look at the source code (even if you don’t understand it all), and ask yourself of each element “what would I think of this?” You’ll probably be surprised with the result.

Side Note: In order to dispel any misconceptions right off the bat – I’m not opposed to text replacement. In fact, I think it’s brilliant for header (h1, h2, h3) replacement. Often times company branding dictates the use of a specific font – and this prevents SEO from getting in the way of that. So, if that’s what all you’re doing with it, well done and carry on!