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Lord of the Links

Earn your way to the Top

With Quality Links

About your Presenter

• Founder of Measurable SEO – A Digital Marketing Agency Specializing in Organic Search Rankings, Link Building & Google Penalty Recovery

• Regular Contributor to SearchEngineWatch.com

• Founder of the A-Town Rumble, a fundraiser to raise awareness and find a cure for type 1 diabetes.

@ChuckPrice518

Link Building is NOT Sexy

@ChuckPrice518

Link Building is NOT Fun

@ChuckPrice518

Link Building (done correctly) is HARD Work

@ChuckPrice518

2013 Moz Survey Search Engine Ranking Factors

@ChuckPrice518

And confirmed by Matt Cutts in his Feb 19, 2014 Video

“We have run experiments (without backlink factors) internally, and the quality looks much, much worse," Cutts said. "It turns out backlinks, even though there’s some noise and certainly a lot of spam, for the most part are still a really really big win in terms of quality for search results."

@ChuckPrice518

Link Building Rules Haven’t Changed Significantly over the Years

@ChuckPrice518

But the Algorithm Has

• Panda, first introduced in February 2011, was an algorithm update that used artificial intelligence in a more sophisticated and scalable way than previously possible

• Penguin, first introduced in April 2012, was an algorithm update that identified, devalued and penalized manipulative links and websites on a scale never before possible.

@ChuckPrice518

Resulting in the “Google Paradox”

According to Albert Einstein, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

The effect of certain types of content and links on Google SERPs proved to be the exception to this rule.

@ChuckPrice518

2011’s “Best” links MIGHT be the cause of 2014’s Penalty

• Some of the same backlinks that were once responsible for ascending to number one in the SERPs are now responsible for manual penalties.

• In other words, doing the same kind link building today, as in the past can and will, yield very different results

@ChuckPrice518

Knowledge Graph

The Knowledge Graph, forerunner to Hummingbird, was announced in May 2012

It's used by Google to deliver search results with semantic-search information gathered from a wide variety of sources

> 570 million objects & 18 billion facts

@ChuckPrice518

Relevancy Matters

It’s likely that knowledge graph is built into hummingbird, the current algorithm introduced in September 2013

Pre Hummingbird, a search for car covers could yield results split between an accessory to protect your car, tribute bands that cover the group “The Cars” and songs covered by The Cars.

@ChuckPrice518

This affects link value

• Suddenly, all of those auto parts links coming from fan sites dedicated to the band, The Cars, are now exposed for what they really are: unnatural and spammy

@ChuckPrice518

Things, not Strings

• The Knowledge Graph and Hummingbird enables you to search for things, people or places that Google knows about and instantly get information that’s relevant to your query.

• This is the first step towards building the next generation of search, which taps into the collective intelligence of the web and understands the world a bit more like people do

@ChuckPrice518

Link Building Implications

• Exact Match anchor text will continue to be devalued as a ranking Factor

• Relevance is the new PageRank in terms of link value

@ChuckPrice518

Organic Search is still, by far, the single largest Traffic Source

@ChuckPrice518

What Would Google Do?

• If Google Operated Web Based Businesses, what would their sites look like?

• This isn't a hypothetical question...

@ChuckPrice518

Navigate to GV.com for an Answer

@ChuckPrice518

Google Is investing something much more valuable than cash

“...every VC has a mentor network these days. We provide unparalleled (and real) access to Google’s massive network of employees and alumni”. Source: http://www.googleventures.com/hands-on

@ChuckPrice518

GV is a great resource for competitive and comparative analysis

• Let's say you have a website that specializes in: Custom Made Furniture, Home Décor, Custom Jewelry, Custom Home Renovations, Made in the USA

• Then you have something in common with Google Ventures: www.custommade.com

• 886,000 pages indexed

@ChuckPrice518

Internal Linking Structure

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Myth Buster: Detailed Footer Links are NOT SPAM

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According to Boston.com:

“Google Ventures sent in one of its research partners, Michael Margolis, a developer … after the makeover, Custom Made saw a 200 percent jump in the number of people logging in to start projects

@ChuckPrice518

Not Immune to April 2012 Penguin Update

http://feinternational.com/website-penalty-indicator/

@ChuckPrice518

Using Co-citation is Link Building on Steroids

•Link juice flows backwards as well as forward

•Good websites link to other good websites

•The words around your links matter

•Use Anchor Text for co-citation to signal Google about the page theme / topic

Source: Jayson DeMers

@ChuckPrice518

Co-Citaion Finder

@ChuckPrice518

On-Page / Interlinking Takeaways

• Internal links can have a BIG impact, as you control everything from location on the page to the anchor text.

• Use the Home page extensively. Google consistently rewards sites with extensive JS top Nav & big fat footers

• Identify your most powerful sub-pages

• Interlink power pages to your most important (target) pages

• Use Co-citation

• Use an interlinks plugin if you have a wordpress site

@ChuckPrice518

Link Schemes = Trouble

• Buying or selling links that pass PageRank

• Using automated programs or services to create links to your site

• Linking to a site for the sole purpose of getting a link back

• Building a link networking for the purpose of linking

• Large-scale article marketing or guest posting using keyword-rich anchor text

• Buying advertorials or articles that include links that pass PageRank

• Creating & Distributing Press releases with optimized anchor text

• Recently Removed from the Guidelines:

• “Linking to web spammers or unrelated sites with the intent to manipulate PageRank”

• Links that are inserted into articles with little coherence

According to the Webmaster Guidelines, the following are Link Schemes:

@ChuckPrice518

Focus External Link Building Efforts on

• Editorial links – links requiring human intervention and approval.

• Links that Are relevant – links on pages where the readers would have a genuine interest in your website, too

• Links on Trusted / Authority Websites. Steer clear of low quality “Made for Guest Posting” Blogs

@ChuckPrice518

External Linking: It only takes a few good links to move the SERPs

@ChuckPrice518

Quality Links

The best links are the ones that you would love to have, even if links had no role in search rankings.

No Follow Traffic Generators are GREAT Links!

@ChuckPrice518

Step One: Assess the current situation

@ChuckPrice518

Get Free Links from Google ~ sort of:)

•Reclaim Links that you already “own”

•Use GWT to discover broken links

•Go to GWT, click on your website, then “Crawl" then "Crawl Errors" in the left Nav. A list of urls and response codes will appear at the bottom of the page

•"Repair" the broken links by using a 301 redirect where appropriate@ChuckPrice518

Mining Competitor Backlinks

•Find REAL links to your competitors that are NOT linking to you.  

•Give site owners a compelling reason to link to your website.

•Ask for a link to an existing asset

•Create new content designed to appeal to specific prospect(s)

@ChuckPrice518

Reverse Engineering of competitors:A macro perspective

•Do they have a press release strategy?

•Are they submitting their site to REAL niche directories?

•Are they utilizing content marketing?

•Are they performing REAL Blogger outreach?

•Are they building partnerships or sponsoring events?

•Are they (GASP!) buying links?

Identify what your competitors are doing and emulate the “best of”...

@ChuckPrice518

Reverse Engineering of Assets

This approach is akin to reverse engineering backlinks

• Look for “Link Worthy” content ideas.

• Link Worthy ideas are often found on urls with lots of BackLinks from unique domains

•Could include great articles, info-graphics, etc

•Chances are, if this type of content attracted links for your competitor, it will be successful for you, too

@ChuckPrice518

Link Magnet: How to Guides & Tutorials

“How to” guides and tutorials are extremely popular and can attract tons of links ~ especially video tutorials.

It's no accident that YouTube hosts over 6.6 Million tutorials.

Don't let the cost or complexity deter you – the payback is too good to pass up

@ChuckPrice518

Link Magnet: Resources & Links Pages

Create content that:

•Is evergreen

•Can be continuously updated

•Can target industry head terms

•For a great example, look no further than Jason Acidre’s “SEO Strategies” Page ------------------

@ChuckPrice518

Link Magnet:Create a Glossary of Terms

• Search for “keyword niche glossary” and find what is out there. Create a master list from the glossaries that already exist, and consolidate these ideas.

• The longer the glossary is live, the more “authority” and backlinks it acquires. You may need to update it occasionally, but unlike many forms of linkbait, it never gets stale.

• Interlink the Glossary Terms to your target urls

@ChuckPrice518

Link MagnetFree Online Tools

• Everyone loves tools – especially when they are free and useful. Aaron Wall of SEOBook.com has leveraged his free tool suite into a link Juggernaut

• http://tools.seobook.com/

@ChuckPrice518

Link MagnetSeasonal Content

• Plan ahead and start your SEO early. Remember, you need to start the process months before the actual season

• “Seasonal” content will attract natural links for years to come, so keep it active

Seasonal + Data = Infographic

@ChuckPrice518

Link Magnet:Holiday & Event Content

• Winner in this category: Pumpkin Giving Birth: Posted to Facebook by Blessed Birth Doula Services. This is a great example of creative and linkworthy content for a difficult niche.

@ChuckPrice518

Link Magnet:Library of Free Images

There are tons of bloggers who are in need of free images , so having a private gallery of images related to your niche is guaranteed to attract links

@ChuckPrice518

Find Image Link Opportunities

TinEye is a reverse image search engine. You can use it to track down websites using your images. If you find an unlinked image, ask for a link

@ChuckPrice518

Link Magnet:Missing Content Reboot

• Aka Broken link building Find a broken link on a website and ask for a link to comparable content on your site as a replacement

• Highly Scalable – the web is filled with bad links. Tools like www.brokenlinkbuilding.com help to identify opportunities.

• High conversion rate – you are offering a compelling reason to link to your website and have helped to fix an error.@ChuckPrice518

Traffic Generator –Repurpose Existing Content

• Distribute content (targeting long-tail search terms) on user-generated content sites that have high search share and Trust

• Pages hosted on UGC sites like Youtube, Slideshare, Pinterest and Scribd (among others) have better search-ranking power, based on their Domain Authority - especially for long-tail keywords.@ChuckPrice518

Traffic Generator:Non-Spammy Q&A Link Building

Find online discussions that are highly relevant to what you are marketing (niche forums, Q&A sites like Yahoo Answers / Quora & blog comments). Post only relevant information (not overtly promotional). No EMAT Spam.

@ChuckPrice518

Editorial Link BuildingUsing Advance Search Queries

10000 Search Engine Queries for your Link Building Campaign

http://www.seotakeaways.com/10000-search-engine-queries-for-your-link-building-campaign/

Plus 9,990 more …

•Check the top results for Linking Opportunities

•Develop an outreach Strategy

@ChuckPrice518

Editorial Link Building Getting .edu & k12 Links

Scholarships can easily become link magnets for .k12 and .edu backlinks. Award a moderate scholarship in the $500 range and begin your outreach to every High School and College that may be interested. The scalability of this one is off the chart and the conversion rate is incredible. Not to mention that you are doing a good thing

@ChuckPrice518

Influencer OutreachGrab PR Opportunities

• ResponseSource

• HARO

• Look for PR opportunities related to your niche or website.

• By providing reporters with information to back up their articles, you are positioned as an expert in the field.

@ChuckPrice518

Influencer OutreachEgobait

• Appeal to market influencers by writing a flattering commentary in a blog post

• One they can't resist linking back to

@ChuckPrice518

Easy PeaseyBut still Valuable

• Links from the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and the Chamber of Commerce are great for both link building and Trust Building.

• Consider your membership fee as a cost of doing business. Not only do you benefit from some powerful links, but you're building trust and adding a new source of local traffic

Local Business Groups

@ChuckPrice518

My Competitors are Spamming Like Crazy!

What do I do?

@ChuckPrice518

@ChuckPrice518

You might ask yourself

External Link Building Dont’s

• Dofollow Blog Comments  - PENALTY MATERIAL

• Site wide links & blogrolls (generally low quality in terms of anchor text transference – used to be good for PR transference but not nearly as effective as it used to be) PENALTY MATERIAL

• Article submission & syndication services - PENALTY MATERIAL

• Directory Links - PENALTY MATERIAL

• Forum Signatures (generally low quality, dependant on page and forum, perhaps dependant on number of links too) PENALTY MATERIAL

• Widgets - PENALTY MATERIAL

• Unnatural Sitewide links - PENALTY MATERIAL

@ChuckPrice518

External Link Building Do’s

• Get links from authority websites in your niche.

• Review the tactics your competitors employ to earn GOOD links and think about how you can emulate them

• Join social networks, not for the links themselves, but to get your content noticed by the linkerati, to build your personal network, and to build your ‘Authorship’ signal

• It doesn’t hurt to get a link from a low or high Google Page Rank page. Today’s No-PR page might be a PR 5 page in reality, as Google Toolbar Pagerank is out of date.

• Don’t annoy folk with link begging emails without a good piece of content for them, and don’t bombard friends you make on social networks with your sales message.

• The more people abuse certain links, the faster they turn toxic. Don’t go with the herd.

@ChuckPrice518

Questions?

I would love to hear from you