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Slide 1: Link Building the Right Way Here's why it's worth it and how to do it. Laura and Adam Alter for the Austin SEM Meetup meetup.com/seo-austin @lauraa / laura@notebookforums.com adam@adamalter.com
Slide 2: What we will talk about tonight: Why link building is critical to ranking in Google. ⇨ Basic on-page SEO refresher. ⇨ Link building theories, myths and facts. ⇨ Real world ways to get links. ⇨
Slide 3: Relevance Rules Google returns web pages in the order of perceived relevance to a user's search query. Do you want to rank #1 for Austin Cat Therapy? Google had better see your page as the most relevant page on the Internet to that phrase. But how?
Slide 4: How does Google decide relevance? ⇨ Think like a bot! ⇨ On-page stuff (title, meta data, content, H tags, etc.) ⇨ keyword usage (proximity, placement, frequency) ⇨ ⇨ Incoming links (anchor text, linking domain quality) Domain age and history ⇨ You certainly can fudge some of this, but not other stuff, so do what you can to be relevant with what you have to work with.
Slide 5: Being #1 Matters According to the leaked AOL data... #1 position gets 42% of ALL clicks #2 position gets 12% #3 position gets 8.5% (and they go down from there...) If you aren't #1, you are missing out big time.
Slide 6: Rankings ONLY come once you have: - On-Page Optimization - Incoming Links (lots and lots)
Slide 7: On-Page SEO Overview Each page has a theme. Choose a keyword/key phrase and stick to it. ⇨ Use your phrase in each: ⇨ Title tag ⇨ Meta description ⇨ Content (bold, italics) ⇨ H tags ⇨ Image name and alt ⇨ ⇨ Do this methodically to each page on your site.
Slide 8: "But why do links matter so much?" Because links are the currency of the Internet.
Slide 9: Link Love Pages that are linked to by a lot of websites are probably worth reading. ⇨ Likewise, if a site that is linked to often links to another site, that site is probably worth reading. Chances are low that the linking site would send their visitors somewhere poor quality intentionally. ⇨ Inbound link anchor text is a great indicator of what's on a page to ⇨
Slide 10: Sources of Links Related websites ⇨ Directories ⇨ Blogs ⇨ Social networks ⇨ Press releases ⇨ Articles ⇨ Widgets ⇨ Wikis ⇨ Forums ⇨ News articles ⇨
Slide 11: "So where do I start?"
Slide 12: Phases of Linkbuilding ⇨ Research What would a "natural link profile" look like for your site? ⇨ Research competitors' links (more on that soon) ⇨ Compile list of 'targets' for links. ⇨ ⇨ How will you get your links? Link baiting, dir submissions, link requests, pay for posts/reviews, articles, write reviews of others, etc. ⇨ Many more to be given later. ⇨ ⇨ Follow-up, analyze, be patient.
Slide 13: To be successful at link building: ⇨ Use Excel to help manage data about sites and what your relationship is with them. ⇨ Note URL, name, contact info, how to get/you got a link, and if it's an important link, check randomly that it's still there. Always have a plan before you start! Don't shoot in the dark. Do linkbuilding daily. I know it's painful, but it makes a huge difference. ⇨ Understand that this is the BEST thing ⇨
Slide 14: "So how can I tell if a link is a *good* link?"
Slide 15: Attributes of a Good Link One-way ⇨ Links to an interior page ⇨ Anchor text should be relevant, but varied. ⇨ Link is ideally within content. ⇨ How many pages is it on? ⇨
Slide 16: Attributes of a good linking domain: Where does it rank for the terms you want? The higher the better.This can have a big impact on results. ⇨ Domain is aged and has a consistent history. ⇨ A relevant topic to your site. ⇨ The site has a design that provides a good user experience. ⇨ How many outgoing links on the page? ⇨
Slide 17: Linkbuilding Myths and Mysteries
Slide 18: #1: You shouldn't link to other sites because you will 'bleed' your PageRank. Verdict: Myth
Slide 19: "Bleeding" PageRank Often people fear linking out to other sites. No reason to fear this. Linking out brings links back. ⇨ PR is a score given based on incoming links. "Better" incoming links have more PR. As you gain PR, you have the ability to send out better links, too, but you won't lose any when you do. ⇨ Always link out when it benefits your users' experience. ⇨
Slide 20: #2: Don't get links from low PR sites. Verdict: Myth
Slide 21: Low PR Sites A natural linking profile contains sites of all different levels of PR. ⇨ A low PR site today could have high PR in a year. Likewise, a high PR site could have low PR in a year. ⇨ Forget PR. Make your decisions based on relevance, quality, placement, etc. ⇨ ⇨ So many things are subjective in SEM, so people tend to cling to PR since there is an assigned value.
Slide 22: #3: Never, ever buy links. Verdict: Proceed with Caution
Slide 23: Paid Links 101 A "paid link" is one bought with the intent to influence search engine rankings. Paying for a link to drive traffic alone is okay. ⇨ Individual sites could be penalized by removing their ability to pass rank, but a year ago Google confirmed they were manually reducing PR on select sites. ⇨ Know the problem and play smart. Avoid paid links if you aren't sure about ⇨
Slide 24: How can Google tell it's a paid link? Labels/content in proximity ("Advertisers" "Sponsors") ⇨ Information on the page about how to buy a link. ⇨ Relevance of nearby links/copy. ⇨ Paid agency code footprint. ⇨ Someone reports you. ⇨
Slide 25: Making paid links look free: Buy direct from the site owner. ⇨ Ask bloggers for reviews of your product. ⇨ Sponsor a site, event, or contest. ⇨ Donate to a site, event, or contest. ⇨ Create a contest where entries require a post or link back. ⇨
Slide 26: Researching for Links
Slide 27: How to research for links: ⇨ Google will only show a sampling of backlinks. For this reason, many use Yahoo! for a wider link profile view. ⇨ Yahoo shows no-followed links, so not all links 'count.' Don't take your competitors' backlinks as your link building blueprint. Start there, but you have to do better than they do. ⇨ Get comfortable with the different link operators you can use to reveal ⇨
Slide 28: "Who links to me? Who links to my competitors?" linkdomain:site.com
Slide 29: linkdomain: ⇨ You can easily remove sites from the list by adding: ⇨ ⇨ -removedsite.com You can remove, for example, the company offsite blog. That will show you all sites that are linking to them besides that one. If you see many duplicate listing for one domain, filter it out to see how many there really are. ⇨ Do the same search in Google with link:site.com.
Slide 30: "What .edu and .gov links do my competitors have?" linkdomain:site.com site:edu OR .gov
Slide 31: .edu and .gov Show all .edu or .gov sites that link to me or my competitors. ⇨ Often these sites have resource lists for students or the public where your competitors are listed. If you find this, you can contact them to be included as well. ⇨ .edu and .gov domains tend to have higher PR not necessarily because of their extension, but because they often ⇨
Slide 32: "Where are my competitors listed together, but I am not?" linkdomain:theirsite1.com linkdomain:theirsite2.com linkdomain:theirsite3.com -linkdomain:yoursite.com
Slide 33: Where the Competitors Are ⇨ If you can locate lists, blog posts, news articles, etc. where your competitors are listed, you may be able to be include as well. ⇨ These may be "trusted resources" or "preferred resources," or something similar. ⇨ You don't want to miss opportunities to be mentioned in places relevant enough to list your competitors.
Slide 34: "How can I find pages that might be relevant to mine?" linkdomain:competitor.com -competitor.com "keyword phrase"
Slide 35: Relevant Pages Use this to find sites that are linking to your competitors already, but you will also need to do basic keyword searches to find new sites. ⇨ Go through a handful of competitors and find discrepancies and patterns. This will better help you understand their linking profiles. ⇨ Use a spreadsheet to help you manage what you find for different phrases. ⇨
Slide 36: How do I find pages that might be relevant that have my keyword in the URL? linkdomain:competitor.com -competitor.com inurl:keyword
Slide 37: Final thoughts: Link building takes time and it's not worth rushing. ⇨ You absolutely won't achieve search engine results without links. How you get them is up to you. ⇨ Do no evil. If you want to rank in Google, you have to play by their rules. If you know you are breaking them, don't be upset if you drop in the SERPs. ⇨
Slide 38: Thanks for coming! Slideshow link will be emailed after the meetup along with a list of our best link building ideas.Laura and Adam Alter @lauraa or adam@adamalter.com