off-site seo - searchfest 2012 - scott hendison
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Off-Site SEO
Presented by:
About Me• I began marketing online in 1999, after
accumulating nearly 4000 software titles in a new & used computer and software store
• In 2004 I formed Search Commander, Inc. and moved to full time SEO consulting
• In 2007, I started SEO Automatic, now with nearly 3000 members worldwide.
• I‘m one of the founding board members of SEMpdx, and I‘m honored to be speaking here.
About This Preso• My ideas on off-site SEO• My ideas on BH v. WH • Picking some low hanging fruit• Making more out of what you‘ve already got• A few automation tools that may cause some
of you to shun me and lose any respect you might have had, just for even mentioning .
Off-Site SEO is...• Social• Branding• Credibility• Google
– Authors = (you)– Publishers = (your business entity)
• And of course, links.
Social• If you‘re not somewhat socialized by now...• Social signals will continue to affect
rankings more and more (echo echo echo) • Google+, FB, Twitter, Linked-In & Pinterest*• Actually LET employees spend a little time • Corporations are people too – even the
supreme Court says so!
Branding IS Social• Create company profile pages too – just like
local “citations“, these are good too.
• You must get socialized as a company too, even if you‘re not active.
• Bare minimum is Google+, FB and Linked-In
• Use Knowem.com to mass check
Branding IS Social IS Credibility
• You have to be who you say you are, and you have ways to prove it.
• Join chambers of commerce, charities, neighbohood associations, any and all organizations that will have you.
• Think “local“ but think global too.• Put together a “swap file“ press kit or hire
a PR agency – (PR firms are the new SEO‘s)
Google• Google wants to be “the“ trusted authority
• They want to charge us for the priviledge
• Their goal is to make money on every single search. That‘s what businesses do.
• We are beta testers just like we are with MS
Google• “Brute Force is dead“
– Greg Boser, 2011 Pubcon Las Vegas
• All about trust – Goes Google trust you?
• Look at rich snippets (Schema.org)
• Look at the impact of rel=author & more on how the SERPS look for any given search
Look at the Microdata in SERPS
GoogleI think the visual effect of all this Microdata,
schema.org, rel=author stuff has made it obvious where we‘re heading...
How long before Google simply wants more profit?
What else will be “Google Trusted“?
Google is being sued by Buysafe.com over this (Funny how a search for “Google trusted“ doesn‘t show that on page 1, huh?)
Are SEOs next? Plumbers?This program is optional... for now?
Google Trusted Photographers
Portland is now one of 14 test cities for this Google Maps / Places (+?) program
NOT associated with that logo – yet?
Google Trusted Photographers
(Ours is here now - Thomas Hayden)
Get Trusted With Google• STOP trying to scam Google into thinking you‘re
something you‘re not. From domain name registrations to IP addresses, they know who you are.
• Create your company Google Plus page (Isn‘t Plus the new Places?) and implement Microdata by reading at Schema.org (wrong session)
• I‘m encouraging client employees to all get Google+ profiles and the company gets one too. Same as FB. (I‘ve always engouraged FB timewasting breaks too)
• I believe Google wants to be the world authority on... Trust – Credibility - Transparency – Verification
Off-Site SEO• Social• Branding• Credibility• Google
– Authors = (you)– Publishers = (your business entity)
• Aside from “trust“ you still need links, at least for now and the immediate future...
OK, that‘s enough of THAT!
Off Site SEO = LINKS• There are tons of different types of links, and I believe
that all of them still have some sore of value / use.• I classify links into 5 different categories, rated on a scale
of A to F.• A = Awesome, F= F***ing embarrassing, etc.• Clients want “A“ quality links of course, but seldom
deserve them, nor understand why.
• Clients want GOOD links
My “A“ link definitions• Tier one press / media• Top universities• National charities• Manufacturers• Distributors• National organizations• Industry authority sites • Why should they bother linking to you?
My “B“ link definitions• Like A list, but smaller or local• Local schools - Private schools• Smaller charities• Relevant respected organizations -
EPCC?• Industry authority sites• Influential author blogs & SM accounts
• Why should they link to you? Not paid links?
My “C“ link definitions• Crappy Links (aside from buying)
– Article directories*– Web 2.0 properties*– Bookmarking Sites*– RSS sites– Press release sites*– Social networks*– Forums*– Doc sharing sites, link wheels, and so on.
* There can even be decent ones!
My “D“ link definitions• Damn crappy links
– Blog networks – Wow, some are pretty bad– Tier 2 (and lower) web 2.0 sites– Tier 2 (and lower) article directories– Blog commenting*– Forum & other profiles– Link farms and schemes– Footer & sidebar links
• These and F links can get you emails like this...
My “F“ link definitions• Crap – There‘s tons of automation tools out
there, and most get abused by fools.– SE Nuke X– Magic Submitter – Article Marketing Robot– Ultimate Demon– EVO – Brute Force SEO– WP Robot & lots lots more
There‘s a crapload of crap for creating more crap, and only a fool would believe their claims.
So How Do You Get The Links?
Getting A and B links is easy if you...
• Do something remarkable• Give away the farm• Make national news• Cure a disease• Discover a new planet• Invent something• Create a brand new product or market• Easy if you produce something LINKWORTHY!
Unfortunately• Clients seldom invest in anything linkworthy
so SEO‘s get lazy and rely on C level links• Occasionally they stoop lower (surprise!)• Examine your competition• Determine what they‘re doing and how• It‘s not hard with tools like OSE and Majestic• Without paid subscriptions to advanced
research tools, you are doomed to fail. • So...
How Else Can You Get Links?
Low Hanging Fruit:Identify & Obtain Common
Backlinks• Those that link to other good ranking sites
should link to you, and often are easy ones.
• While not “advanced“ per se, this tactic is invariably overlooked whenever we look at new client sites.
• There are other tools for this, but we prefer Majestic SEO because it lets you check 10.
Identify & Obtain Common Backlinks
• Sort of like old Hubfinder from Aaron Wall• No reason to stop with the page one
competitors• You can do up to 9 domains at a time, so
can easily create a big list.• The process for obtaining links from these
sites is usually obvious, so it can be assigned to (nearly) anyone you like.
Majestic SEO Clique Hunter• Add your domain, and up to 9
competitors• Push a button, and see results• Easy bolded visual reference w/ export
you
Majestic SEO Clique Hunter
Majestic SEO Clique Hunter• Export the list• Sort by links to each domain• Remove sites that already link to you• Sort by # of links, then by Alexa Rank• You get a well sorted and prioritied list
in literally no time.
More Low Hanging Fruit• Fix your 404 inbound links for @#$!s
sake!
• Look at your stats, see where they‘re coming from, and put in 301‘s.
• WP Plugin - 404 Redirected – 301‘s to the closest relevant page
What about getting REAL good links?
Getting A and B links(This session has homework)
• 101 ways to Build Links Fast – Aaron Wall - SEOBook• Links & Traffic from Trending topics SEJ• The Reciprocity Method – Melanie Nathan SEP• Broken Linkbuilding - Wil Reynolds – SEER Interactive• Professionals Guide to Linkbuilding – SEOmoz• Content is How You Scale Linkbuilding - Todd McDonald RKG • Long Tail Linkbuilding – Explicitly.me• Viral Linkbait and Infographic Guide Ed Fry – Distilled• Linkbuilding Targets in Social Media – Jordan Kastelar SEL• Link Building w/ the Experts – Rae Hoffman-Dolan (4 yrs)
New Link Opportunity Tool Citation Labs
Garret French of Ontolo & Darren Shaw of Whitespark http://linkprospector.citationlabs.com/
SEO Hacker review / overview
My last tip for “Good Links“• When using the reciprocity method, take it a
step further.• When you find a good one, research ALL who
link to it, not just your target • Recreate the old content via archive.org
then notify the linkers of your replacement. Sweet! (but quite time consuming ;)
What else can you do?
Why not get existing links indexed?
Existing Backlinks• There are often crappy links to your site all
over the place even if you‘ve done nothing.• Scrapers, content stealers, aggregators,
RSS feeds, and more• Not to mention old linking pages that may
have dropped from the index• Why not get (and keep) them indexed?
Sources of backlinks • Old seo reports• Referral traffic in Analytics• Harvest your own pingbacks• Research tools -
– SEOMoz Open Site Explorer, Majestic SEO, or Link Research Tools (Majestic, OSE +14!)
Majestic SEO
Majestic SEO Fresh Index
Majestic SEO Historic Index
Fresh & Historic Index• SEMpdx “lost“ 77,000 links, from 2500
domains• Surely many of them are still there, so...
Why Not Help them Along?• Get them indexed!
• The links are already there, (and some of them might even deserve to be!)
• Lots of processes are out there - I‘ll show you some, and you can decide on your own if you can live with yourself by using ‘em.
Action Item:Get your URL lists in plain text
Get them Indexed• URL‘s can sorta be forced into the index
• Lists of URLs can be made into RSS feeds
• URLs can be submitted at ping sites
• URLs can be queried at tons of other sites
• URLs can be bookmarked & shared etc.
Get your URL lists in plain text
• Do a full report (excluding nothing) from Majestic SEO‘s HISTORIC index
• Compare and remove the URL‘s of your backlinks that are currently indexed – or not.
• Determine - or not - which of those URL‘s are still in existence (i.e. returns a 200)
What can you DO with lists of URLs?
I‘ll show you in a few minutes• First, realize there are some ethical decisions
that only you or your client can make• Just because you CAN do something doesn‘t
mean you should, but I believe you have to make the options known to the client.
• Imagine a client willing to burn a domain?• How any company does business is dictated
from the top down.
“Black Hat“• I am not a blackhat by anyones definition, and have not
done anything (since 2007 ;) that I‘m remotely ashamed of.
• I do push the envelope when necessary, and sometimes to some extremes our own domains only.
• Every competitive ranking situation is different and requires different tactics, and full transparency to the client is required for any sort of... decency.
• Every indivdual has their own moral compass & needs, and I absolutely love explaining it to clients.
• And then there‘s Google...
“Google is Not your Mother“• Google offers Webmaster “Guidelines“ • Guidelines are not laws• You cannot go to jail for most WMT violations• Google does not apply these guidelines fairly• Your job is to get results legally
• Know and understand your tolerance for risk
- Michael Gray (Graywolf) SMX Advanced 2007
Black vs White• Debate has raged since SEO began • Crusaders, zealots and whiners on both sides• Endless posts, discussions and threads, and
there are two from last year… • White Hat SEO is a Joke!• White Hat F@$#ing Works!
Black & White
• Read the post and the 119 comments• Controversial, and it many valid points• A little backtracking - written
humorously
Black & White• Rand responded with a great post – read
it • The diversity of comments/opinions is
great• He disputed each of Kris‘s points with
real sitiuations and actual examples (one was a client ;)
White Hat• My own definition of “black hat“ is pretty
specific – Illegal.• There are also plenty of lines I won‘t cross• There are many many many tactics that for
one reason or other, someone will object to and the line is often blurred.
• The world isn‘t black or white or even grey, it‘s a full spectrum rainbow.
White Hat• This advanced audience of adults knows
there are a gazzillion shades of right and wrong not just in SEO, but in all walks of life.
• Selling health insurance for almost a year, I was faced with DAILY moral dilemma$.
• You have to feed your family, but you have to be able to live with yourself too.
Read the post
Is this black hat?Really?
THIS is Black Hat!
ETFD.org #1 - Buy Viagra Online
Redirects to USATrustedMedstore.com
ETFD.org
ETFD.org
“Innocent“ Sites get forums installed!
• th
This is one of the many forums atand was likely done with the darkest of all software called Xrumer…
To me, THAT‘s Black hat!• So what can you do with the URL lists
of pages with links you want indexed?
• Get them indexed
• How?
• By any means you can live with...
Get them IndexedLists of URLs can be made into RSS feeds
WH Objection – Why do you need an RSS feed of URL‘s that you dont even own? Must be bad.
Get them IndexedThe RSS feeds can be submitted at literally
hundreds of sites...
WH Objection – If your pages were any good they‘d be indexed. Don‘t add to the noise.
Get them IndexedURLs can be queried at thousands of other
sites, like...
WH Objection: Ummm... You‘re using their server resources without paying?
Get them Indexed• URLs can be bookmarked & shared manually,
but there are software and services too.
• WH Objection: Automation is no substitute for legitimate time sucking manual labor
There is No Shortage of Evil Software
Tons of automation tools are out there, and most get abused by idiots.
– SE Nuke X– Magic Submitter – Article Marketing Robot– Ultimate Demon– EVO / a.k.a. Brute Force SEO
• A crapload of crap for creating more crap. Again, only a fool would believe their claims...
So, when we tried em...• We found some serous time saving tools for
account creations, profile creations, e-mail verifications, content drips and tons more.
• Just because something CAN be used for evil doesn‘t mean it‘s the only way to use it.
• You have t operate with a scalpel, not w/ a bansaw, and they are time consuming to learn.
• My favorite ‘evil tool‘ is called Scrapebox
Scrapebox I maintain that there ARE often legitimate uses
for this software... for example:• RSS Submissions• Pinging• Finding blogs that freely allow commenting• And, getting bulk server responses for URL
listsLet‘s take these one at a time...
Scrapebox RSS Submissions
Scrapebox does RSS submissions to RSS aggregators who do welcome these submissions, making that a perfectly legitimate use.
Objection: ”Submitting” your RSS feeds shouldn’t be necessary. It slows and clogs the internet.
Scrapebox Pinging
Scrapebox offers the abiility to “ping“ lists of URL‘s, Pinging is “telling“ various blog trackers from Yahoo to Technorati about any given url.
Typically this pinging takes place automatically (in WordPress to Pingomatic for example) and does help pages get indexed quicker.
Scrapebox helps scale that task efficientlyObjection: “WHAT are we ‘telling‘ them?“
Scrapebox Find Blogs that Don’t Care
Believe it or not, some sites take any and all comments, and auto approve them without review, backlinks and all.
Scrapebox can help you identify those sites and their value efficiently, so you can then assign someone intelligent to leave topically relevant non-spammy comments where appropriate.
Objection: It creates CRAP (i agree, due to fools)
Scrapebox Mass Server Response
Scrapebox will let you put in a list of URL‘s of unlimited size, and return server responses for each of them.
Again, this is nothing you couldn‘t or wouldn‘t do by hand under certain circumstances, so this is a totally white hat use of the tool
Wh objection: None?
Scrapebox Software like this is considered “black hat“ because has
been used by greedy fools, yet Google rewards them so they keep doing it
Any tool that uses proxies (anonomizing your IP) can often violate the TOS of some websites and even Isp‘s. Can you live with yourself?
How about Creating More C & D links?
• Still worth it? • Don‘t bother? • Do it if the competitors are? • What about “spinning“ content? • Is “spinning“ black hat? • What about all these blog networks?
How about Creating More C & D links
Experts disagree, especially on spinning!Imagine that...
How about Creating More C & D links?
• Good SEO‘s know this crap is a waste of time• Good SEO‘s should be building trust for the client and establishing a
long term strategy• Good SEO‘s should know when to be honest with a client, often
admitting that they need a PR firm far worse than they need an SEO. • Good SEO‘s can afford to wait years or perhaps decades for the “bad
stuff“ to stop working
How about Creating More C & D links
• Some of us though, do need links, and until Google stops counting them, we gotta eat.
• In pretty competitive markets, we‘re seeing certain tactics (fine, call them crap) still working, and you KNOW that‘s true.
• When shown to be successful, objectionable tactics are called everything from “short lived“ to “blackhat“and it‘s your job to explain it when you‘re expected to rank a site.
Take Aways • Learn about Schema.org and implement rel=googletrusted (I made that up – or
did I?)• Get common backlinks for low hanging fruit• Get A & B links – Read those posts, really• Research URL lists of all old backlinks• Get those backlinks indexed• Hire as many employees as you have to (WH)• Embrace automation (BH)• Get ranked (or OUTranked) while still managing to somehow live with yourself.
Thank You Contact me (Scott Hendison)
scott@searchcommander.com
Please Follow and Like me – I‘m insecure http://www.twitter.com/shendison
http://facebook.com/SearchCommander
Download:This presentation: - http://bit.ly/sf12offsiteseo
Oh wait, I have the first question:How does a WH compete against
this?
Thank You Contact me (Scott Hendison)
scott@searchcommander.com
Please Follow and Like me – I‘m insecure http://www.twitter.com/shendisonhttp://facebook.com/shendison
Download:This presentation: - http://bit.ly/sf12offsiteseo
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