SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging Blogging, Social Media Marketing & Linkbait...the sort of people who have been doing “new” SEO, or whatever you want to call it, that’s social media optimization, link bait, things that are interesting to people and attract word of mouth and buzz, those sorts of sites naturally attract visitors, attract repeat visitors, attract back links, attract lots of discussion, those sorts of sites are going to benefit as the world goes forward. - Matt Cutts in an Interview from Friday, March 2 nd w/ Gord Hotchkiss

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging An Introduction to Blogging Technical Topics Blog Software & Features Optimizing the Blog Fun Topics Blog Content Strategies Blog Promotion & Marketing

Blog Software & Features How to Choose the Blog that’s Right for You. SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging Blog Software & Features

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging Software vs. Custom-Built Blogs Choose Blog Software  Easy Installation  Handles Basic Functions  Multiple Community Plugins to Customize Choose Custom-Build  Allows for unique content serving methods  Easiest to customize specs & GUI  Greatest flexibility for multiple uses

WYSWIG Editors Website Look & Feel Delayed Publishing Static Pages Navigation Options Archiving System Comment Options  Anonymous Comments  Moderated Comments  Threaded Comments  No Comments SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging Publishing Considerations

Serve the Users; Serve the Engines; Rule the World SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging Publishing Considerations

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging Domain Use & Hosting Bad:  company.blogspot.com  companyblog.com  blog.company.com Good:  company.com/blog/  company.com/blog.html Keep the blog as part of the site for maximum benefit “Web 2.0” Companies like these are inconsistent about domain use, reducing their linkjuice and ranking power

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging Keyword Research Step 1: Decide on a Topic Step 2: Write a Title Step 3: Run KW Research Step 4: Consider Re-writing title based on KW popularity Step 5: Write content to fit the title and your intent NOTE: Sometimes it pays to write catchy titles and ignore KW research – it's not necessary for every post

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging Title & Meta Tags in Blogs Blog titles should be reflected in the title tag Compare stats on blog posts that receive heavy search traffic and consider writing compelling meta descriptions Keep your brand name in your blog titles

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging Blog URLs Worst to Best: yourblog.com/post/entry.py?answer=42098&topic=8914 yourblog.com/post/entry.php?ID=42098 yourblog.com/post/entry/42098 yourblog.com/post/entry/writing_good_blog_titles.html yourblog.com/writing-good-blog-titles

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging Leveraging Comments Comments = Free Content For new blogs, turn off comments – wait until you're popular Reward frequent commenters Offer incentives for comments

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging RSS Feeds Sidebar Feed Options Full Text VS. Partial Snippets Feedburner – Track Feed Usage Action Tracking – Measure Signups Offer multiple feed options on the sidebar of your blog

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging Action Tracking Through Analytics Blog Actions to Track  Feed Subscriptions  Registration (to use comments, create a profile, etc.)  Newsletter signups  Ad clicks  Browse Rate (number of pages viewed per user on average)

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging Blog Content Strategies But, Rand… What am I Going to Write About?

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging Claiming a Unique Niche More Popular Topics - More Need for Differentiation Less Popular Topics - Broader Focus is Desirable Niche coverage allows for broadening, and general coverage allows for specificity – pursue both

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging Embedding More Than Text  Additional Content to include in blog posts Screenshots Photos Cartoons Logos Charts/Graphs Diagrams A few of the images recently on the SEOmoz blog

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging Multimedia Content Videos (Youtube, Metacafe) Interactive Elements (tools, search boxes, polls) Audio Podcasts Flash Animations

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging Deliver on Expectations  Create & Fulfill Expectations on: Post Frequency & Timing The Subject Matter of Posts News Events that Will be Covered Other Blogs Users Should Read Boundaries for Comments Frequency of Off-Topic Posts Level of Discourse & Language

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging Brand Your Blog Titling Blogs – Memorable, Descriptive Use your brand in press, on other sites, in interviews, presentations, networking, when you comment, etc. Don't shill, and be aware of who/what you promote

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging Blog Promotion & Marketing How to Bring Eyeballs to the Site

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging Community Participation Comment on Other Blogs Build Relationships with Other Bloggers Participate in Memes, Polls, Events, Promotions, etc. Make Your Blog Interactive - Let Users Suggest Topics & Ask Questions Some blog communties are highly structured, others, less so.

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging Blogging Q+A Topics  Blog Software & Features  Optimizing the Blog  Blog Content Strategies  Blog Promotion & Marketing More questions? Just ask

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging Social Media Marketing Rule the SERPs Control your Brand Get Link Love  Show the Community You're a Participant  Build Traffic from Alternate Sources  Influence Traditional Media

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging How Social Communities View SEO SEO = Perceived Spam In fact, SEO helps these communities to grow and spread by creating content and contributing An SEO must be mindful of the community and respect the establishment This Gentleman Pretty Much Sums it Up

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging Control Your Brand Before Others Do

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging Build Link Popularity

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging Rule the SERPs

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging Creating Successful Profiles Use your website's name or a single person's name from the website. Create robust profiles – use a consistent photo and take the time to create content at each site Comment at and build relationships with other site users – go for popular/well-linked-to pages on the site for your comments/interaction, as these will give you the most link weight

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging Sites to Target

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging Social Media Marketing Q+A Topics  How Social Communities View SEO  Controlling Your Brand  Building Link Popularity  Ruling the SERPs  Creating Successful Profiles  Sites to Target More questions? Just ask

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging An Introduction to Linkbaiting How to leverage the web's most powerful linkers into sending traffic, links & higher rankings to your site.

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging What is Linkbait & Why is it Valuable?

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging Meet the Linkerati

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging Linkerati Dominate Linking on the Web

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging How Does Linkbait Help You Rank?

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging How Does Linkbait Help You Rank?

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging Samples of Successful Linkbait Make Fun of College Students; Get Links. Worst College Mascots Article on Drivl.com Launched via Digg Sports 128,000 Pg Views 2,000+ Referring Domains #4 for “College Mascots” 200 New RSS Subs

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging Samples of Successful Linkbait Celebrity Nudity Awards on Drivl.com Launched via GorillaMask 100,000 Pg Views 400+ Referring Domains #5 for “Nudity” 250+ Searches/Day Naked Never Gets Old

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging Samples of Successful Linkbait 21 Tactics to Increase Blog Traffic Launched on SEOmoz 75,000 Pg Views 250+ Referring Domains #1 for “Increase Blog Traffic” 75+ Searches/Day Speaking Gig from Stanford

Drug Identification Chart Launched via Digg 100,000 Pg Views 300+ Referring Domains #1 for “Ilegal Drugs” 500+ Searches/Day SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging Samples of Successful Linkbait

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging Content Strategies Lists (best of, worst of) Lists of tips, how-tos, problems, benefits, resources Teaching resource (how to) Humor, Irony Controversy Interviews Breaking News Product Review Poll Results / Data Results Aesthetic Beauty Tools Comprehensive Reviews Great Insight Many, many more...

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging Linkbait Launching Portals CRITERIA: High Visibility Sends Big Traffic Right Demographics Potential to Go Viral

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging Digg.com 2mil+ Visits Daily Tech & Web Centric Votes Req'd 10-30K visits avg Links per

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging Reddit.com 500K Visits Daily Broad in Scope Votes Req'd 4-10K visits avg 600+ Links per

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging Netscape.com 250K Visits Daily News Centric Votes Req'd 4-8K visits avg 300+ Links per

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging Del.icio.us/Popular 1mil+ Visits Daily Developer Centric Votes Req'd 2-6K visits avg 250+ Links per

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging StumbleUpon Toolbar 3Mil+ Users All Subjects 70%+ Thumbs Up 500-5,000 visits (cont.) links

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging Popular Blogs & Sites (Editorial)

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging Rules for Linkbaiting Safely IP Tracking Geography Groups Profile Identification Spam Submissions

SES Munich 2007 | Linkbaiting, Social Search Marketing & Blogging Linkbaiting Q+A Topics  How Linkbait Can Help Websites Rank  Identifying the “Linkerati”  Link-Worthy Content  Linkbait Launch Portals  Linkbaiting Safely More questions? Just ask