© 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts Blow Your Mind Link Building presented by Stephan Spencer, Founder & President, Netconcepts

© 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts High Value Link Targets  Pareto Principle (80/20 Rule)  Because of the logarithmic nature of PageRank, it’s a more reliable metric the higher the score  PR10s: usa.gov, nsf.gov, w3.org, real.com, energy.gov  Adobe has nine PR10 pages  PR9s: ercim.org, w3.org Members & Press pages  Want a longer list? me (no promises though!)

© 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts Was a PR10 until recently. Now PR9.

© 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts Build a Link Building Spider  Look for sites one-click away from Google  Look for sites with super high PageRank  With preference for sites that already give link love to patron/sponsor  Populate a database with all that site data  Want specifics? – announcement tomorrow in Give It Up session, including methodology and screenshots  Hint: It involves Google Directory

© 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts

Link Build Your Existing Links  Mine your existing backlinks for opportunities to revise the anchor text. Pull some favors with friends who link to you. It helps to be a blogger when reaching out to other bloggers.  Great tools for this: –InternetMarketingNinjas.com Backlink Anchor Text Analysis tool ( –SEOMoz’s Backlink Anchor Text Analysis tool ( analysis) –SEOBook’s Backlink Analyzer ( analyzer/)

© 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts

Networking in the Blogosphere  Comment on blogs that “dofollow” comment links –e.g. Mark Cuban’s Blogmaverick.com, Rimm-Kaufman Group’s  Submit to blog carnivals. Host one (requires that you have a blog). Start a new one. – building-secret-weapon  Be a contributor to a group blog (e.g. BusinessBlogConsulting.com, Shop.org Blog)  Be a guest blogger on someone else’s blog (e.g. TechGazing.com*, Problogger.net)*

© 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts Networking in the Blogosphere  Get involved via comments and build rapport before requesting a link. Find old inactive "free" hosted blogs (WordPress.com, Blogspot) with a relevant theme to and request their login credentials. Offer “consideration” in return. ($5? $50?) –Source: David Patterson  A Tip Jar indicates the blogger is desperate for cash and more apt to take payment for links.  Have the blogger install a WordPress plugin that injects links “naturally”?

© 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts Paid Links  Manufacturing “link authority” vs. focusing your existing link authority  Don’t try artificially creating link authority through paid links  Focus link authority thru a strategic few paid links  Source: LinkExperts $$$$$$

© 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts Redistribute Home Page Link Authority  Improves quality of Google SERPs for “Long Tail” non-brand search terms  “Sculpt” your backlinks to focus your link authority  Two levels of improvement: –Redistribute a % of your homepage’s inbound links to relevant sub-pages. Increase the PageRank which will amplify that page’s link authority for page’s keyword themes –Ask them to change the anchor text too to see further gains  Paid link? Yes, potentially, but editorially earned, so OK  Credit to Brian Klais for helping me generate & refine this concept

© 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts Conditionally 301 Inbound Affiliate Links  Be like Amazon –(Credit to Brian Klais for hypothesizing Amazon was doing this) –  This only works if you manage your own affiliate program. Most are outsourced and 302  (e.g. C.J.) –Examples of affiliate solutions that pass on the PageRank to the merchant: LinkConnector, DirectTrack  Also demand a naked link on their Legal Notices page –Under the guise of a disclosure statement stating that they are an affiliate of the merchant and that neither party is an agent, partner, joint venturer, franchisor, franchisee, employer or employee of the other

© 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts Status Code 200 for humans

© 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts for all bots. Muahaha!!

© 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts Networking in Meatspace  Build relationships with bloggers by networking with them at blogger conferences, unconferences and meetups  Register and attend conferences that link to their attendees (e.g. WordCamp, Lockergnome)  Contribute to conference wikis (where you’ve attended!)  Give free talks at libraries, campuses (e.g. Stanford TechBriefings)  Get involved with local Meetups and get your meetup.com member profile page linked from the meetup’s page, which will pass juice to your profile then on to your site  Invite W3C to speak. Get a link to your event on

© 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts Donate  To charities, nonprofits, professional organizations, environmental activists, schools, sports teams, etc.  Become a member of the organization  Cash or in-kind donations  Examples –Kohl’s supports the Eastern Pennsylvania Youth Soccer Association –OpenTracker donated their tool to International Dark Sky Association –Numerous corporations donate to the Red Cross and get links/mentions on –W3C membership (too bad the PR9 Members page no longer passes juice!). W3C Sponsors page neutered long ago too.

© 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts

Wikis  Contribute to Wikipedia –Build up your street cred (virtuous contribution history, user profile) before doing anything at all self-serving. A link on a high-profile article is worth gold, as it builds your credibility & visibility with journalists and bloggers  Contribute to other wikis e.g. the NewPR Wiki (thenewpr.com), the WordPress Codex ( ordpress)  Create your own wiki (e.g. SEOGlossary.com)

© 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts

Link Baiting – Viral Content  Videos: –Eepybird’s Bellagio Fountain of Diet Coke + Mentos –BlendTec’s “Will It Blend?” –Heroes spoof commercial (“Zeroes”) – an NBC creation –John Cleese Backup Trauma webisode –Intuit’s “Tax Rap” content –SolarDave’s SMX spoof with cut-out figures as the actors –“Hat Swap” spoof of “Wife Swap” reality show w/ SEOs

© 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts

Link Baiting – Viral Content  Quizzes/Personality Tests: –Which Superhero Are You? –Which SEO Superhero are you?  Widgets: –Swicki –SeenOn.com Grey’s Anatomy

© 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts Link Baiting – Viral Content  Microsites: –Gizoogle.com –CounterfeitMini.com –MentosIntern.com –AngryLeprechaun.com –SEO Eye for the Google Guy (Queer Eye spoof, makeover team optimizes Matt Cutts’ blog)

© 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts

Link Baiting – Utilities  Write a WordPress plugin –Personality Test, Gizoogle, Tip Jar w/ Reputation/feedback, Testimonials, Wikipedia, Linked In, MyBlogLog, “Introduce Yourself”, SEO Testing, DMCA Submitter, Popular Searches –Netconcepts’ “SEO Title Tag” plugin ( plugin) was the most successful link bait we’ve ever done –Netconcepts’ “WordPress Quiz” plugin for personality tests just released (netconcepts.com/wordpress-quiz-plugin/). Example site: quizfanatic.com  Write a Firefox extension –Aaron’s Walls’ “SEO for Firefox”  Release software as Open Source

© 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts Work Through an Intermediary  Build/buy a resource site that funnels PageRank to you. for example,  Take on clients with high PageRank, e.g. nonprofits

© 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts Stroke Egos  Wax poetic about products, services, authors, organizations, etc. Get links for free!  Get your testimonial onto their testimonial page or home page: – – – –  Gotta love the irony! Go, Google! –  Write about the W3C. Get a link on their PR9 Press page

© 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts Nice testimonial link on PR7 Centos.org. Too bad it’s ruined by the paid link ads

© 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts Hunt for Commonalities  Write a script to process Yahoo Site Explorer TSV files –Eliminate img src “links” and nofollowed links –Look for commonalities among datasets –Easiest to filter, sort when imported into a database  Thumbshots Ranking Tool  InternetMarketingNinjas.com’s “Common Co-Citation” tool and “You and Your Competitor’s Common Backlinks” tool  Aaron’s Wall’s Hubfinder ( finder/hubfinder.php)

© 2008 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts

Thanks!  This Powerpoint can be downloaded from  For three hours of screencasts on link building,  Questions after the show? me at