Link Development - Attracting & generating the right links Lisa Myers

Link Development
- Attracting & generating the right links
Lisa Myers
CEO,Verve Search
@LisaDMyers
#EdgeBristol
About Lisa Myers
•
11 years experience in Marketing, 7 in Search & Social
•
Speaker at Search Conferences Worldwide (SES, SMX, A4U etc)
•
Regular contributor to on and offline publications and author of several SEO Best
Practise Guides including eConsultancy and B2B Marketing
•
Heavily involved in the global Search Community, founder of
SEO-chicks.com and co-founder of European search blog StateofSearch
Awards
• “Search Personality of the Year” UK Search Awards 2011 + “Best SEO
Campaign” for her agency Verve Search
• 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)
@LisaDMyers
#EdgeBristol
some link history
PageRank
Google developed PageRank to measure
importance of pages largely based on incoming
linking structure and quantity
@LisaDMyers
#EdgeBristol
{then came quality and
relevancy}
relevance + strength = quality
Site 2
Site 1
/Page
/Page
Your Site
Latent symantec indexing, surrounding content of
a link.
 Not just about page 1 linking to your site,
but about the overall SITE and it’s relevancy
 Also about Site 2 linking to SITE 1
In 2012 the algorithm is
significantly more sophisticated,
but.....
FCUK
SEO
there are still weaknesses
Like....Article Spinning
• Where one article is used to create several
versions, by replacing original words using
synonyms and rewriting sentences
• Where a single piece of writing is remade into
multiple variants of the original by substituting
words and sentence structure using similar
words.
@LisaDMyers
#EdgeBristol
Article spinning still works because the
Search Engines aren’t there YET. ....
@LisaDMyers
#EdgeBristol
INTENT
“In the beginning there were Robots”
.....then they evolved
evidence?
SEOmoz 2011 Study
Correlation between social signals and
higher rankings (this was pre G+)
Source: SEOmoz.org
Tasty Placement – Test 2012
Does Social Media boost
organic rankings. 6 websites
used in the test.
http://goo.gl/wxwPd
Source: TastyPlacement.com
but...
Boost in rankings from social shares is likely
to be restrained by time.
Is Google serious?
+ My WORLD
Rel=author
Google +
+ my World
rel=author
evidence
how serious
Google is about
Social signals
subtle hint
Link Development
+
SEO TOOLS
1. Brainstorming
2. Link Analysis & management
3. Link Prospecting
4. Creative & Implementation
#1
{ brainstorming – let your
mind wander
Topics - Don’t Restrict Yourself
A site selling clothes does NOT need to be
restricted to fashion topics!
@LisaDMyers
#EdgeBristol
Allow a Chain Reaction
@LisaDMyers
#EdgeBristol
#2
{ link analysis & management
tools...
What to analyse: The Basics
•
•
•
•
•
Anchor text
Depth of links (what pages are linked to)
Type of links (sources)
Authority & Strength of links
Backlinks history
Analyse your own site & your competitors!
# Domains Linking
@LisaDMyers
#EdgeBristol
Type of Links
@LisaDMyers
#EdgeBristol
Use of Anchor Text
@LisaDMyers
#EdgeBristol
Depth of Links
@LisaDMyers
#EdgeBristol
#3
{ link prospecting
- finding sites to target
Competitors Links
• By analysing competitors links you will be able
to find sites that have already linked to
someone in your industry
• Targeting these are good to start with, BUT
you obviously don’t want just exactly the same
as what they have
@LisaDMyers
#EdgeBristol
Finding Relevant Sites
• Keyword + “article”
• Keyword + “blog”
• Keyword + “directory”
Keyword inurl: “write for us”
Keyword inurl:”guest posts”
Keyword intitle: “write for us”
and so on...
Useful Tool
Mangia Guest Post Tool
http://www.mangiamarketing.com/free-link-buildingtools/guest-post-opportunity-finder/
Using Known Social Networks
• Utilising forums and social networks in your
industry to find relevant target sites
• Bloggers are also often very social active on
twitter, facebook, pintrest, instagram etc
#4
{ creative & development
Types of Link Development
• Utilising Existing Relationships
• Link Building
• Link baiting
• Article/Content Marketing
@LisaDMyers
#EdgeBristol
Utilising Existing Relationships
Often it is the simplest idea that gives you the
most link juice!
For example;
- Would your partners, customers etc link to
you?
- Which University did the CEO go to?
@LisaDMyers
#EdgeBristol
Apple.com
Links to domain= 35.8 MILLION!
PR=9/10
link building
Link Building
• Directories
• Blog & forum comments
Usually low quality so work best as fillers.
Should NOT be Primary Link Dev Strategy
link baiting
{
A piece of digital content (article, video,
infographic, etc) that specifically increases
the chances for generating “organic links”
intelligent
provoking
funny
interesting
GREAT IDEA
competitions
newsworthy
educational
real examples
{link (and social) bait
Infographics is great link bait!
Content Outreach
It’s all about the ANGLE!
Give something back
Have something to trade, why should they
be linking to you?
-
Content (must be relevant!)
Discount/competition
Breaking news
Free “something”
YOUR USPs??!!
Don’t always try source a home for an article
already written.
Find sites you WANT to get a link from and
then write the article!
Their tone of voice and style and type of article!
@LisaDMyers
#EdgeBristol
Writing the content
• Spend time writing the article, it’s got to be good!
Include stats, research or similar.
• Make sure the angle is appropriate for target site
• Including keywords that you are targeting for
surrounding text
• ANCHOR TEXT (ideally your main target
keyword)
• Stay away from main keyword in HEADLINE
though, as you don’t want them to rank ABOVE
you!
real examples
{content outreach
creating content for
influencers
Thank You!
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.vervesearch.com
@LisaDMyers