Beyond LinkbaitingLisa MyersDirector, Verve Search

About Lisa Myers

• Director & Founder, Verve Search (Search Consultancy – SEO, PPC & Online PR/Social Media)

• Speaker at Search Conferences (SES, SMX, Search Marketing World, B2B Search Events, IAB & Chinwag)

• Regular contributor to on and offline publications (UK, US & Europe)• Heavily involved in the global Search Community, founded

SEO-chicks.com and blogs for European search blog searchcowboys.com

Awards• Management Today “35 women under 35” list 2009• “Best Use of Technology woman under 30”

BlackBerry Woman & Technology Awards (2008)• “B2B Marketing Newcomer of the Year” (2007)

Changes in SE algorithms

• Incoming links are judged more strictly, big crack down on paid links

• Relevancy of content around links increased

• Authority of domain increased

• Semantic relationship between sites as well as pages

Link Development Strategies

Link Development

Content Syndication

Social Media Link baiting

Press Releases

Relationship building

Site SeedingEvents &

Offline Activity

Link Baiting

Great content

What it is

• Creating a piece of content (can be any type of digital content) that specifically increases the chances for “organic links”

• Once you have created the content, you have to SPREAD THE WORD! This is where social media merges in....

Absolutely Completely Must Be

Good creative/idea!

All the digging, sphinning, buzz building,

social networking and seeding in the world

will NOT work if the idea is rubbish!!

Idea/Creative = Dogs Bullocks

Host the content!

• This type of link development requires you to host the content on the domain you are doing link dev for!!

• Creating a fab link bait or social media campaign that is not on your domain = lost link equity

Power of “being nice”

Communicating with buzz builders/linkerati; - Bloggers- Tweet peeps- Hard core networkers

• Talk don’t tell!

• Make it relevant, find an angle that makes it a “must have” for them!

Internet Users

Social Media UsersLinkerati

The linkerati is not stupid

Linkerati

Using Twitter

• Developing relationship via twitter, will indirectly help link generation

• Twitter users are more likely to have their own websites/blogs

• Twitter Alert (brand, descriptive keyword etc) Tweetbeep.com

• Use hash tags #A4Uexpo

Contentlinkation

• Using a piece of content to get a link can be very effective.

BUT it needs to be relevant to the people you contact. Don’t waste their time, and yours!

The Process

• Do your research

• Hunt down most appropriate contact

• Tone of voice in email

• Be direct, don’t waffle.

• Tailor your email to person

• Develop a relationship

• Follow up

• ALWAYS, ALWAYS be polite and personable!

Give something back

Have something to trade, why should they

be linking to you?- Content (must be relevant!)- Discount/competition- Breaking news- Free A4U passes ;p

Real Examples

• Hotel client. Created a piece of content about different ways of making a hotel “different”

• Mattress company. Piece of content about importance of sleeping whilst pregnant.

• Invoice Factoring Company. Piece of content about solving company cash flow problem

Press Releases

• If the idea is good ENOUGH using press release distribution sites can be beneficial to distribute your content

• BUT don’t waste your money by using just press releases as a link development strategy = rubbish!

@lisadmyers

Thank You!

Email: lisa@vervesearch.comWeb: www.vervesearch.com

www.seo-chicks.comwww.searchcowboys.com