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

Casino Car and

Gambling Driver
Magazine
Low Your Page High
Value Value
(Used Ford
Online Mustangs) Ford
vehicles
Prescriptions
.com

Anchor Text also plays a key role in establishing

relevance!
The Concept of Authority
All Websites about Used Cars

A A

A
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
Will you link to
us? Hmmm
1. Develop list of
relevant sites
2. Research who to
contact (and how) Scalability
3. Send an email (or Value
call) requesting a Downsides: Hard to scale
link Use: For high value link build
 #2 – Competitive Research
How did he
1. Use tools to see get so big?
who links to your
competition
2. Pursue top targets
with manual link Scalability
building Value
Downsides: Hard to scale
3. Research Use: For high value link
competitor link building. Get ideas from
building strategies competition
 #3 – Distribute cool tools
Cool
Tool 3rd Party Site
1. Create a cool tool
Link
2. Allow other web Your Site Back
sites to include it on
their site Scalability
3. Embed a link back Value
to your site Downsides: Success is not
certain
Use: If you can create a
unique and compelling tool
 #4 – Linkbait and Viral Campaigns
1. Create unique, killer Blog Media
Viral
content that every- Content
one wants to link to
Social Site Hobbyist
2. Let market influ-
Scalability
encers know about it
Value
3. Watch the links roll in Downsides: Success is not
certain
Use: If you can create truly
compelling and unique
content
 #5 – Content / Data Syndication
Your Site
Content 1
1. Create content Or Data Site
others may want to 2
Your Links
place on their sites Site Back
Site
3
2. Offer it to other
Scalability
sites
Value
3. Require links back Downsides: Creating the
in return syndicated content/data
Use: If you have a rich array of
unique content or data
 #6 – Link Reclamation
404 Broke
n
1. Get a list of 404 Page Link
Good
errors found by the Fixed Link
search engines Your Link Source
Site
2. Determine which
ones are from bad Scalability
external links Value
3. Request fix, or Downsides: Hard to scale
implement 301 Use: Always, it’s easy
redirect
Google Webmaster Tools 404 Report
Strategies to Avoid
 #7 – Exchanges and Trades
Dude, wanna
swap links? Hmmm
1. Research relevant
sites
2. Figure out how to
contact them Scalability
3. Suggest trading Value
links Downsides: Search engines
can detect and discount links
Use: Only with quality
relevant sites
 #8 – Buy the Links
Hey Dude,Want
some dough?
Hmmm
1. Research relevant
sites
2. Figure out how to
contact them Scalability
3. Offer to buy a link Value
Downsides: Search engines
want to devalue these links
Use: Never
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
10 Google

Sampling
Sampling of
of Homepage
Homepage
PageRank
PageRank Ratings
Ratings
• Not the same as 9 Amazon
“Real” PageRank
• Logarithmic scale 8 E ebay

from 0 to 10 F
7 F Disney
• Assigned to web O
pages, not sites 6
R
Gap

• Still, a useful 5 T Culligan

metric 4 Boston
Store
3 Relative
2 Relative number
number of
of pages
pages with
with PR
PR rating
rating
1
0
How well does PR predict Ranking?

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-science-of-ranking-correlations
 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 emails you
when the article changes (trackengine, urlywarning).
 Wikipedia Summary
This guy
must be the
real deal
Wikipedia

Your Name
Play by the rules
Benefits: Builds Credibility Scalability
Brings traffic Value
Downsides: Time investment
Use: Only if notable
 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
Digg Tons of
16 most… Visitors
Home
Page Tons of Links
Your Article
Benefits: Traffic Scalability
Links Value
Downsides: Home Run Ball
Use: If your site lends itself to
the right type of content
 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

You
Tube
Create Great Video
Benefits: Branding Scalability
Traffic & Some Links Value
Downsides: Home run ball
Use: If you have a killer
concept for a video
 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. (http://www.toplinked.com/top50.html)
• Add your email address to your “professional headline” so folks 4+
degrees away don’t have to waste an InMail to contact you
 LinkedIn Summary

LinkedIn LinkedIn
Profile Community

Benefits: Spread ideas Scalability

Reach thought leaders Value
Bypass spam filters Downsides: Labor intensive
Use: To build high value
contacts
 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
Fan Facebook Your
Page Community Site
Group

Benefits: Branding, Scalability

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

Benefits: Branding, Scalability

Traffic & Some Links Value
Downsides: Requires
Commitment!
Use: To build reputation,
traffic and 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
Blogoshpere
Your
Blog Links Web

Benefits: Links and Scalability

Relationships Value
Downsides: Requires
Commitment!
Use: For links and
relationships
 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
eenge@stonetemple.com

(508) 485-7751
@stonetemple