Link Building The Key to Rankings Eric Enge CEO, Stone Temple Consulting

On Page SEO Summary Establish Relevance! Can’t compete for a term without it Critical to SEO But how do the search engines decide which relevant pages to show first in the results?

Links Are Like Votes in an Election

One Method For Valuing Links is PageRank

Role of Relevance Your Page (Used Ford Mustangs) Casino Gambling Online Prescriptions Car and Driver Magazine Ford vehicles.com Low Value High Value Anchor Text also plays a key role in establishing relevance!

The Concept of Authority A A A All Websites about Used Cars

Search Engines Do Not Count All Links Links they can’t read: – Encrypted JavaScript – In an iFrame Links on pages that they can’t crawl – Can’t find – Marked as NoCrawl in Robots.txt Links marked with NoFollow Attribute

Links Should be Citations Search engines do not want you to buy links Search engines do not want you to get all your links through link swaps These are compensated links, not citations So you must create a reason for people to link to you

Algorithmic Ranking Factors

The 8 Basic Kinds of Link Building

#1 – Manual Requests 1.Develop list of relevant sites 2.Research who to contact (and how) 3.Send an (or call) requesting a link Scalability Value Downsides: Hard to scale Use: For high value link build Will you link to us? Hmmm

#2 – Competitive Research 1.Use tools to see who links to your competition 2.Pursue top targets with manual link building 3.Research competitor link building strategies Scalability Value Downsides: Hard to scale Use: For high value link building. Get ideas from competition How did he get so big?

#3 – Distribute cool tools 1.Create a cool tool 2.Allow other web sites to include it on their site 3.Embed a link back to your site 3rd Party Site Cool Tool Link Back Your Site Scalability Value Downsides: Success is not certain Use: If you can create a unique and compelling tool

#4 – Linkbait and Viral Campaigns 1.Create unique, killer content that every- one wants to link to 2.Let market influ- encers know about it 3.Watch the links roll in Scalability Value Downsides: Success is not certain Use: If you can create truly compelling and unique content BlogMedia Social SiteHobbyist Viral Content

#5 – Content / Data Syndication 1.Create content others may want to place on their sites 2.Offer it to other sites 3.Require links back in return Scalability Value Downsides: Creating the syndicated content/data Use: If you have a rich array of unique content or data Your Content Or Data Site 1 Your Site 2 Site 3 Links Back

#6 – Link Reclamation 1.Get a list of 404 errors found by the search engines 2.Determine which ones are from bad external links 3.Request fix, or implement 301 redirect Scalability Value Downsides: Hard to scale Use: Always, it’s easy 404 Page Your Site Fixed Link Good Link Source Broken Link

Google Webmaster Tools 404 Report

Strategies to Avoid

#7 – Exchanges and Trades 1.Research relevant sites 2.Figure out how to contact them 3.Suggest trading links Scalability Value Downsides: Search engines can detect and discount links Use: Only with quality relevant sites Dude, wanna swap links? Hmmm

#8 – Buy the Links 1.Research relevant sites 2.Figure out how to contact them 3.Offer to buy a link Scalability Value Downsides: Search engines want to devalue these links Use: Never Hey Dude,Want some dough? Hmmm

Evaluating Link Value

Google Directory Pulls from DMOZ Ordered by Google’s PageRank.

Google Toolbar View PageRank of current page, once turned on. Available for: – Firefox – Internet Explorer

Toolbar PageRank Not the same as “Real” PageRank Logarithmic scale from 0 to 10 Assigned to web pages, not sites Still, a useful metric Culligan 0 ebay Google Amazon Disney Gap Relative number of pages with PR rating EFFORTEFFORT Sampling of Homepage PageRank Ratings Boston Store

How well does PR predict Ranking?

Quantitative Metrics # of Linking Root Domains to URL # of Linking Root Domains to Domain Homepage PageRank; Domain mozRank URL PageRank; URL mozRank mozTrust # of Links to the Page (Yahoo!, GG Blogsearch, Linkscape) Twitter mentions (Backtweets.com)

Subjective Metrics Brand name reach/recognition Quality of other links on page/site (Bing - Linkfromdomain) Attainability and Effort

Link Building Tools

Example Yahoo! Link Commands linkdomain:hulu.com –site:hulu.com – See links to hulu.com, but exclude links from hulu.com Linkdomain:hulu.com linkdomain:youtube.com – See who links to hulu.com AND youtube.com

Social Media Leveraging Social Media to Create Buzz and Links

Proceed with Care! Social communities do not like to be “used” People in the communities take action So do the social media properties themselves Play nice! Be a member of the community Contribute to the community And it will pay you back

Wikipedia If you can, obtain a profile page on Wikipedia – Links to your site do not pass link juice, but still valuable – Builds credibility with media and others Don’t go add it yourself! – Against Wikipedia guidelines – Become a contributor, add lots of value, make friends, establish credibility, then suggest it Must meet notability test Suggest relevant category tags Monitor your articles with a tool that s you when the article changes (trackengine, urlywarning).

Wikipedia Summary Wikipedia Scalability Value Downsides: Time investment Use: Only if notable Benefits: Builds Credibility Brings traffic Your Name This guy must be the real deal Play by the rules

Digg An article that makes the Digg home page: – Can get tens of thousands of visitors – Can get hundreds, or thousands of links Getting there is the hard part Create great content – Use Digg to research other articles on your topic area that have made it Target the audience (13 to 28 year old males) Befriend or hire a top Digger

Digg Strip away all commercial links from your article Friend popular Diggers. Better yet, get a popular Digger to submit your story. Craft a killer title using this formula from Muhammad Saleem: number + adjective + key phrase – E.g. “13 Most Chilling Haunted Hotels” or “16 Incredibly Unconventional Hotel Rooms”

Digg Summary 16 most… Scalability Value Downsides: Home Run Ball Use: If your site lends itself to the right type of content Benefits: Traffic Links Your Article Digg Home Page Tons of Visitors Tons of Links

YouTube Create great videos Post on YouTube If related to a current event, that’s a plus The videos on YouTube get most of the links Stack the odds by creating a microsite and making the microsite URL your username. – E.g. “willitblend.com” is BlendTec’s username Use as many tags as possible while still being accurate

YouTube Summary Create Great Video Scalability Value Downsides: Home run ball Use: If you have a killer concept for a video Benefits: Branding Traffic & Some Links You Tube

LinkedIn Add links to your website, and two other URLs and select “Other” so you can specify the anchor text. Include it in your public profile Add a LION (LinkedIn Open Networker) or two to your network. – Try to find a “promiscuous sneezer” – Use the TopLinked.com list. ( Add your address to your “professional headline” so folks 4+ degrees away don’t have to waste an InMail to contact you

LinkedIn Summary LinkedIn Profile LinkedIn Community Scalability Value Downsides: Labor intensive Use: To build high value contacts Benefits: Spread ideas Reach thought leaders Bypass spam filters

Facebook Update regularly Create a fan page or group or both Use fan pages to build long term relationships – Fan pages get indexed Use groups for quick discussions and viral activity Customize your fan page or group Update regularly!

Facebook Summary Traffic Your Site Facebook Community Scalability Value Downsides: Requires Commitment! Use: To build reputation, traffic and links Benefits: Branding, Traffic & Some Links Fan Page Group

Twitter Plan to contribute regularly Pick a good account name (memorable) Customize your background Create a microsite dedicated to Twitter Use hash tags for Twitter search Include URLs and references where appropriate Contribute regularly

Twitter Summary Traffic Twitter Account Your Site Twitter Community Scalability Value Downsides: Requires Commitment! Use: To build reputation, traffic and links Benefits: Branding, Traffic & Some Links

Blogs Start One Update regularly Interact with other bloggers. – Comment on their blogs – Get to know them – DON’T SPAM them Update regularly

Blog Summary Your Blog Blogoshpere Scalability Value Downsides: Requires Commitment! Use: For links and relationships Benefits: Links and Relationships Web Links

Put it all together The best link building plan for you is unique. To figure it out, you must: – Study the market – Find out what your competition is doing – Figure out where the best links for you can be found – Determine what it will take to get links from them – Support the campaign with content, tools, or whatever – Experiment, experiment, and then experiment again

Eric Enge (508)