Effective Link Building

Justin Briggs, SEO Consultant, Distilled@JustinRBriggs

June 2011; PRO Webinar

Chat: http://bit.ly/seomozchat Twitter: #mozinar Questions? Use GoToWebinar panel

See all videos: http://www.distilled.net/store/boston2011/


See full post: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/what-makes-an-effective-link-builder

What Makes An Effective Link Builder

Sales Experience

Technical Skills

Sociable GeekInternet Culture

IngenuityAnalytical Skills

Hustle

Creativity

Stop getting links,

and start earning them?

meh.

A link builder can dominate large

brands by simply outworking them.


Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.- Abraham Lincoln

How do I compete?

Competition– National brands– Large marketing budgets– Free resources– Thousands of linking

domains

Client– Unknown brand– One in-house marketer– Ecommerce, no content– < 100 linking domains– No blog– No social media

Systematic Hustle


http://www.seomoz.org/blog/guide-to-competitive-backlink-analysis

#3 BrainstormApproaches

#2 Competitive Analysis

#1 Backlink & Competitive

Research#4 Actionable Ideas

In Theory

Real World

What do you need? What might be done?

Hustle For Links


Do what it takes

6 Months before, I told a coworker:

“I’m getting links on these pages”

Site wasn’t “good enough”

Spent six months building out blog,

content, and social media.


Figure out what they

link to.

Now BUILD IT!

Nice, email.


Does this work?

PA 48, DA 80

PA 48, DA 62


http://www.stumbleupon.com/ads/

Get your content out

StumbleUpon posted content to their Facebook and Twitter

Throwing mud at a wall is NOT a link

building strategy.

You need stellar, targeted content.

But sometimes content fails.

And it’s embarrassing.

Even if you failed,

you still need links.

So JFDI.


http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-build-links-with-infographics

Recover Failed Infographic• Skip the social, do manual outreach.• Incentivize the embed. • Guest post:

– The embed is the post.– Chop up the image and repurpose.– Additional research and write great post.


Creative Contact MiningJust a Stanford blog with guest

posts…There is no contact information.

Fail.


Take the time to find the emailThis will give you their

email.

The first infographic I created was

picked up by a BIG site, but they

messed it up.

I hunted for nearly two hours to find

their personal email address.

“You can’t outsource giving a shit.”- Tom Critchlow

They’re now the first person I email

when I’m promoting content.

They get me a lot of links.

Link Giver Psychology

By initiating a low risk relationship,

you increase the success of your

link request.

Incremental Commitment


Blogging Contest1. Make easy to enter (no link requirement).2. Gave them email address.3. They emailed in their post.4. Reply with link request.


Getting the Link

Hi <Their Name>

Thanks for your entry. I will pass it on to the judges.

Would you mind please placing the following code at the top or bottom of the post to let people know it’s an entry in the contest?

This post is an entry for the <a href="http://site.com/contest">{Name of the Blog Contest}</a> being hosted by <a href="http://site.com">Brand</a>.

Thanks!<Your Name>

85% placed the link!

I tested multiple templates. This one won.


Be Creative

I got a link like this.

Yes, seriously.


So do you think <removed> would help you survive against zombies? Even if not, I think it'd be epic to bust out in Spanish like Stewie on Family Guy while blowing the head off a zombie with a shotgun.

I saw on your Twitter that you like <removed>. If you'd be up for checking out our <removed> and reviewing how they can help you survive a zombie apocalypse, I'd love to send one out to you for free. You can pick from <removed>, but I'll leave that up to you.

An no, there is no special catch. I just think your blog is funny, and I can send out <removed> for review. And, well, I love zombies. :)

Let me know what you think about the review / post idea.

Thanks!Justin

Best Alternative to a

Negotiated Agreement


Can I have link?Yes No

Can I overcome reasons?

What else can I get?That’ll do.

Yes NoWin!

Improve Effectiveness


Increase Link ValuationTraditional Link Valuation

o Anchor texto Number of outbound linkso Position on pageo TrustRank / PageRanko Domain level metrics

Relative Link Valuation

o Compare to profileo Compare to previous linkso Value based off profile

naturalnesso Brand boosts link value

Lower quality, aggressively

anchored links had value boosted by

high value branded campaign.


Surprising Growth

Time

Rank

Use branded high value links to

increase value of high leverage,

lower value link building tactics.


Directories? Yes, still1. Check homepage cache date, eliminate stale sites.2. Check indexation of linked from page.3. Avoid high difference between mR and PR.4. Check listing order (newest, alphabetical, PR)5. Take the time to submit it right.

“You can’t outsource giving a shit.”- Tom Critchlow

Protip: Consider this relative to my last tip.

Ingenuity


http://www.seomoz.org/blog/replace-yahoo-linkdomain-with-google-custom-search-engine

Improve Prospecting with GCSE


http://www.distilled.net/blog/seo/building-your-own-scraper-for-link-analysis/

Scale Prospecting with Scrapers


http://www.distilled.net/excel-for-seo/

Quickly Identifying Site Type


Some of these aren’t very active today.


Find Fresh Linkers

Doesn’t give date search like normal.


http://www.distilled.net/blog/seo/finding-fresh-linkers-quick-linkfromdomain-hack/

Put date parameter from regular search in

linkfromdomain URL


http://www.distilled.net/blog/seo/how-to-build-agile-seo-tools-using-google-docs/


http://toutapp.com

Scale Outreach

Q+A

Justin Briggs, SEO Consultant, Distilled

• Twitter: @JustinRBriggs

• Blog: www.distilled.net

• Email: [email protected]

Don’t miss MozCon, July 27-29, 2011http://www.seomoz.org/mozcon

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