London Blog Club MeetupLisa Myers CEO, Verve Search

@LisaDMyers

SEO TOOLS

+

1.Target audience2.Link Analysis & Research3.Creative &

Implementation

#1{ target audience

AGE

GENDER

LOCATION ?

• What are they thinking when trying to solve a problem/finding info?

• What would they search for?

• What sites would they visit?

Social Influencers

• Identify social influencers within the industry/market you are link building to

• Which channels are they using; Twitter, facebook, LinkedIn?

• Use tools such as Klout to find social influencers in your sector

{ link analysis & research

#2

tools...

Who’s dat?

Who is your competitors in the SERPs?What links do they have? Types of

links (articles,blogs, forums etc) How many, quality

etc

What to analyse

• Anchor text• Depth of links (what pages are linked to)• Type of links (sources)• Authority & Strength of links

The following slides shows how to do this using www.linkdex.com (its free to set up an accountyou might as well try it)

Analysing Anchor Text

Depth of Links

Type of Links

Filtering

Loads of filtering possibilities• Site type e.g. blog, article, forum• Link anchor (exact and phrase match)• Domain extension• New or dropped in last 30 days (Velocity)• Keyword in title / URL or both of linking

page• Link target folder or page• Intersections/cross-over with other sites• No follow / No index• Image links / text link

{ creative & development

#3

Types of Link Development

• Link Reclamation• Utilising Existing Relationships • Link Building• Link baiting• Article/Content Marketing

Link Reclamation

• Make the most of the links you already have. Use a tool such as Linkdex to analyse current anchor text of links.

• How many of the links have your target keyword in the anchor text?

• If you can easily get some of them changed from saying “click here” to “your keyword” then DO IT!

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?

link building

Link Building

• Directories• Blog & forum comments

Usually low quality so work best as fillers.

Should NOT be Primary Link Dev Strategy

Finding Relevant Sites

• Keyword + “article”• Keyword + “blog” • Keyword + “directory”

link baiting

great digitalcontent

A piece of digital content (article,

video,infographic, etc) that specifically

increases

the chances for generating “organic links”

{

GREAT IDEAfunny

interesting

competitions

intelligent

newsworthy

educational

provoking

Host the content!

• This type of link development requires you to host the content on the domain you are doing link dev for!!

• Creating a fab link bait or social media campaign that is not on your domain = lost link equity

Spread the Word

• Once you have created the “content”, you have to SPREAD THE WORD! This is where social media merges in....

• Use the already identified social influencers!

Power of the People

Your Website

INTEGRATE

Landing/Campaign Page

Email Campaign

Offline (mail campaign)

real examples{link bait

City Inn {advent calendar

Result

• LOTS of links & Social Mentions• Generated the equivalent of 50% of

their average monthly traffic • Increased email database

considerably • Twitter followers increased by 300%

SEO-Chicks.com{#SEScrapmas

#1

SEO Wars

Generated <100 links withAnchor text “SEO Wars”+ buzz and recognition

Give-aways & Competitions

Best Practise & White Papers

Using a piece of contentto get a link can be very EFFECTIVE!

article marketing

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??!!

The Process

• Do your research (list of sites, find out as much about the site as you can)

• Hunt down most appropriate contact• Tone of voice in email, although best to call!• Tailor your email to person• Be direct, don’t waffle.• Develop a relationship• Follow up• ALWAYS, ALWAYS be polite and personable!

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{article marketing

Yale Door

• Needed links and relevant traffic from websites with similar or relevant content

Angle/Idea- Free “keyless lock” competition/give

away- First 10 orders of the composite door

get’s free lock worth £200

Stuff.TV

inks to domain= 378,071

Monthly visits circa.150,000 (UK)circa 240,000 (global)

74% male readers67% of visitors between 25 – 44

Coolestgadgets.com

Links to domain= 425,886Monthly visits ca. 60,000 (UK)

72% male readers60% of visitors between 25 – 44

Wired.com

Links to domain= 7,79 MILLIONPR= 8Worldwide readership

Result = Links & Traffic

Blog Monetisation

• Advertising/adsense• Banner advertising• Affiliate programs• Reviews/content/links• Knowledge: Whitepapers, ebooks, videos• Membership

Or Build it and SELL it!

Links I mentioned in my talk

www.linkdex.comwww.seomoz.orgwww.majesticseo.comwww.raventools.comhttp://yoast.com/wordpress/seo/ (SEO plug-in for Wordpress)http://econsultancy.com

Book I mentioned was The Lean Startup

@LisaDMyers

Thank You!

Email: lisa@vervesearch.comWeb: www.vervesearch.com

www.stateofsearch.com www.seo-chicks.com