Discover the Power of Linking: Link Building Basics

(08/12/2009)

2:35

Keri Morgret:

The network connection in the room isn't working so we are covering via cell phone.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 2:35 Keri Morgret

2:36

Keri Morgret:

Starting with brief history of www and Internet.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 2:36 Keri Morgret

2:39

Keri Morgret:

Components of link popularity. Link quantity, quality,

Wednesday August 12, 2009 2:39 Keri Morgret

2:41

Keri Morgret:

Also anchor text and page rank (google only)

Wednesday August 12, 2009 2:41 Keri Morgret

2:42

Keri Morgret:

Link relevance playing larger role.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 2:42 Keri Morgret

2:43

Keri Morgret:

Showing graphic to demonstrate link neighborhood

Wednesday August 12, 2009 2:43 Keri Morgret

2:44

Keri Morgret:

Focus your time and money on links from authority sites first.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 2:44 Keri Morgret

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Keri Morgret:

Get a good balance of links.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 2:45 Keri Morgret

2:47

Keri Morgret:

Avoid throwing up red flags. Don't acquire too fast. Don't use all the same anchor text. Don't use same tactic over and over.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 2:47 Keri Morgret

2:47	[Standby] The host is placing this Live Event into Standby Mode.

2:49

Keri Morgret:

Make links consistent (www vs non www)

Wednesday August 12, 2009 2:49 Keri Morgret

2:51

Keri Morgret:

Get involved in forums.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 2:51 Keri Morgret

2:52

Keri Morgret:

And we're back with internet, for the moment at least.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 2:52 Keri Morgret

2:53

Keri Morgret:

She recommends HubFinder, two other tools (didn't catch b ecause of hte problems with the internet)

Wednesday August 12, 2009 2:53 Keri Morgret

2:54

Keri Morgret:

Other linking tools: Link Diagnosis, MajesticSEO.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 2:54 Keri Morgret

2:55

Keri Morgret:

SearchStatus is a firefox extension that turns nofollow links pink. There are also greasemonkey scripts that can do the same thing.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 2:55 Keri Morgret

2:57

Keri Morgret:

Utility Linking Tool by SoloSEO. http://www.soloseo.com/tools/linkSearch.html

Wednesday August 12, 2009 2:57 Keri Morgret

2:57

Keri Morgret:

Looks for sites with your keywords, plus "utility" words like "add url" "add site" "add website" etc.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 2:57 Keri Morgret

2:59

Keri Morgret:

We're going to now focus on which tactics work best, what they are, and how to do them.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 2:59 Keri Morgret

3:00

Keri Morgret:

Link building strategies using content generation tactics work best long term

Wednesday August 12, 2009 3:00 Keri Morgret

3:01

Keri Morgret:

She's showing a list of link building tactics. LOTS of things here.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 3:01 Keri Morgret

3:03

Keri Morgret:

Passive linking. Ask people to link to you! Give them a t-shirt or something.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 3:03 Keri Morgret

3:03

Keri Morgret:

Use Google Webmaster Tools to find links to 404s, then contact origin site and ask for an update for links. Or find links that are going to 404 pages from your competitor and do the same thing.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 3:03 Keri Morgret

3:05

Keri Morgret:

What are algorithmic authority sites?
- Are content heavy
- Have been online 3+ years
- Influential / high profile industry sites
- Have numerous quality inbound links
- Rank well!

Wednesday August 12, 2009 3:05 Keri Morgret

3:06

Keri Morgret:

Hunting for algorithmic authorities
Sites rank (for the most part) because of their inbound link profiles.

If a site is ranking well it's because of the sites pointing to it.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 3:06 Keri Morgret

3:07

Keri Morgret:

You've identified the authorities, now what?

If it's Media, keep an eye on who writes about what, keep track of relevant people. Cheaper and better than paying for a media list.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 3:07 Keri Morgret

3:07

Keri Morgret:

If you sell a product and there's a power-reviewer on a site like Amazon, contact the reviewer and see if they'll review your product in a blog post on their site.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 3:07 Keri Morgret

3:08

Keri Morgret:

Find industry experts for product reviews, board seats, testimonials, article writing, spokesman. Associate your products with respected community figures. Key search term is expert witness directories.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 3:08 Keri Morgret

3:09

Keri Morgret:

Talking about regular directory submissions. dmoz, yahoo, business.com, aviva, best of the web, and a few others.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 3:09 Keri Morgret

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Keri Morgret:

These directories let you submit one website one time. These directories are editorially run, all are reviewed by a real human.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 3:10 Keri Morgret

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Keri Morgret:

Submit to directories and move on.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 3:10 Keri Morgret

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Keri Morgret:

People don't think about all of the different elements on their sites, like video, photos, job listings, downloads, coupons. Find niche directories that let you link to that type of content.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 3:11 Keri Morgret

3:13

Keri Morgret:

Link building with content. Two types: traditional and link bait.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 3:13 Keri Morgret

3:13

Keri Morgret:

Traditional and link bait:
1 create an article resource center on your site.
2. pull topics from customer service / your stats
3. keywords in title, 2x in body
4. include a bio with each article, even those on your site.
5. Write long version for your website, send out shorter versions
6. Issue press release announcing new content added.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 3:13 Keri Morgret

3:14

Keri Morgret:

Consider sharing your content by adding a creative commons license to your content.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 3:14 Keri Morgret

3:15

Keri Morgret:

Article Dropping. 1. Drop an article. 2. Swap content. 3. drop a link.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 3:15 Keri Morgret

3:16

Keri Morgret:

keyword + article, keyword + tutorial.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 3:16 Keri Morgret

3:17

Keri Morgret:

Where else to put content? General "how to" sites (eHow, WikiHow, Instructables, etc.), Specialty tutorial sites (NewBaby, AmateurGourmet), Video (Expert Village, Teacher Tube)

Wednesday August 12, 2009 3:17 Keri Morgret

3:17

Keri Morgret:

Guest blogging / E-zines. To find guest blogs, look for terms like "looking for writers" "submit an article" "contribute content" in addition to your keyword.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 3:17 Keri Morgret

3:19

Keri Morgret:

Three basic ways to attract media links:
1. Target key journalists
2. Issue press releases
3. Develop and promote your onsite media and information (article) resource.

You get a lot of feedback from the media people. They're competitive, if one person writes about something, it interests other people.

If you issue a press release, make sure you actually have news!

Wednesday August 12, 2009 3:19 Keri Morgret

3:21

Keri Morgret:

How to find media contacts:

Back link competitors, develop your own media database.

Mine social news and bookmarking sites like delicious, topix.

Set Google Alerts for "news" and add keywords (editor, journalist, reporter, blogger, etc.)

Look on Twitter. http://mediaontwitter.pbwiki.com

Wednesday August 12, 2009 3:21 Keri Morgret

3:23

Keri Morgret:

Cyberjournalist.net, blogcatalog, yahoo news, Bacon's media directories good places to look.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 3:23 Keri Morgret

3:24

Keri Morgret:

There are niche media services that are great.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 3:24 Keri Morgret

3:25

Keri Morgret:

In addition to Digg, Reddit, Mixx, StumbleUpon, try niche sites like Fetch (small biz), Pick Station (music), and more.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 3:25 Keri Morgret

3:26

Keri Morgret:

She doesn't make Digg front page, but instead goes after the reporters on the sites that made the front page.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 3:26 Keri Morgret

3:27

Keri Morgret:

Correction: she wasn't able to get to the front page by submitting on her own.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 3:27 Keri Morgret

3:27

Keri Morgret:

Build credibility and links. Join industry-related groups like the BBB, chamber of commerce, alumni associations, industry associations.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 3:27 Keri Morgret

3:27

Keri Morgret:

Good for both getting people to trust you, and for search engines to trust you.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 3:27 Keri Morgret

3:29

Keri Morgret:

People link to what they like and trust. Who trusts you?

Customers
Vendors
Association Members
Chamber of Commerce members.

Dollar off coupons, encouraging viral action, email-only contests.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 3:29 Keri Morgret

3:31

Keri Morgret:

Gives case study of a contest that she ran to build links. Join an industry association. Sent intro email. Month later, discount coupon, another month later offered bigger discount and contest, suggested links.

Got 52 links, sales from the links, established trust and authority. Great promotion and a fairly low budget.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 3:31 Keri Morgret

3:31

Keri Morgret:

Getting .edu and .gov links. Register with the State is the first step to approaching government entities.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 3:31 Keri Morgret

3:33

Keri Morgret:

.edu sites: job opportunity boards.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 3:33 Keri Morgret

3:35

Keri Morgret:

Roundup of link tactics

Less effective: blog commenting, reciprocals

Moderately effective: blog carnivals, buying old domains

Forum drops are moderately to very effective.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 3:35 Keri Morgret

3:36

Keri Morgret:

Not all of link juice is passed during a redirect, Search Engines won't tell us how much. They also said they might not always honor redirects, but she's never seen that case.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 3:36 Keri Morgret

3:39

Keri Morgret:

In conclusion:

Look at partner sites carefully, avoid those with excessive reciprocals and sponsored (site-wide) links.
Link slowly, add content at the same time.
Use several different linking tactics.
Spend resource on obtaining authority links
Focus on traditional content generation tactics
Notify the media when you've added sizable content
Find an alert service you like and use it
Use the social media sites to spread emotional content
Find your niche community and use it

Wednesday August 12, 2009 3:39 Keri Morgret

3:40

Keri Morgret:

Search engines frown on things that look too manipulated. Don't do all links with super-optimized anchor texts, doesn't look natural.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 3:40 Keri Morgret

3:41

Keri Morgret:

How fast is too fast for building links? Depends. It can be OK to have a large jump, IF things are in balance, like increased searches, media mentions, they understand things are cyclical, etc.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 3:41 Keri Morgret

3:43

Keri Morgret:

Missed the last question, as I got distracted by a WSJ blog article about the lack of a Google Dance this year.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 3:43 Keri Morgret

3:44

Keri Morgret:

What to farm out..you can outsource some of your research and identifying sites, media contacts, give them parameters, but then do the actual contacts yourself.

Wednesday August 12, 2009 3:44 Keri Morgret

3:47