This document provides a summary of a presentation on link building strategies. Some key points include:
- Link building is hard work but quality links from relevant sites can significantly impact search rankings. External links should come from authoritative sources in the niche.
- Google's algorithms like Hummingbird and Knowledge Graph have made exact match anchor text and irrelevant links less valuable over time. Relevance of content and links is now more important.
- Proper on-page optimization like internal linking can boost rankings. Interlinking key pages and using footer links appropriately is recommended.
- Some effective link building strategies include creating high-quality resources, guides and tutorials; mining existing links from competitors; reaching out to influencers and
2. 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
7. 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
8. Link Building Rules Haven’t Changed
Significantly over the Years
@ChuckPrice518
9. 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
10. 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
11. 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
12. 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
13. 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
14. 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
15. 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
16. 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
17. Organic Search is still, by far,
the single largest Traffic Source
@ChuckPrice518
18. What Would Google Do?
• If Google
Operated Web
Based Businesses,
what would their
sites look like?
• This isn't a
hypothetical
question...
@ChuckPrice518
20. 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
21. 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
24. 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
25. Not Immune to April
2012 Penguin Update
http://feinternational.com/website-penalty-indicator/
@ChuckPrice518
26. 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
28. 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
29. 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
30. 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
31. External Linking: It only takes a
few good links to move the SERPs
@ChuckPrice518
32. 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
34. 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
35. 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
36. 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
37. 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
38. 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
39. 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
40. 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
41. Link Magnet
Free 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
42. Link Magnet
Seasonal 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
43. 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
44. 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
45. 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
46. 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
47. 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
48. 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
49. Editorial Link Building
Using 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
50. 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
51. Influencer Outreach
Grab 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
52. Influencer Outreach
Egobait
• Appeal to
market
influencers by
writing a
flattering
commentary in
a blog post
• One they can't
resist linking
back to
@ChuckPrice518
53. Easy Peasey
But 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
56. 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
57. 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