Link Building Basics for Businesses

Rachel McCombie

@RachelsWritings

Today’s talk will cover:

Why rank well in Google?1

How does Google know what websites to rank highly?

The characteristics of a great link profile3

White Hat versus Black Hat link building4

A word on Google’s infamous Panda update5

Top link building tips for you to take away!6

Rachel McCombie – @RachelsWritings2

2

Why rank well?

Most people click on the first few results

The higher you rank, the more traffic you will get and therefore the more business

Brand recognition – ranking highly for relevant terms conveys authority, trustworthiness and market dominance

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Higher Rankings

Off-siteOn-site

How does Google know which websites to rank?

Two main categories of ranking factor – on-site and off-site

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Keyword use in meta data and on the page

SEO-friendly site architecture

Volume, quality and relevance of links

Social signals

Relevance

Quality Quantity

The characteristics of a great link profile

A good link profile combines quality, quantity and relevance

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Links from sites that deal with similar areas to yours carry more weight Quantity isn’t the

be all and end all if the links are strong

Links from high quality sites carry more weight

White Hat versus Black Hat

White Hat Black Hat

Which link building practices put your website at risk?

White Hat link building is what the ‘good guys’ in SEO do

Involves building high quality links

Tries to trick Google Unethical/spammy Puts your website at risk of being

penalised or even deindexed Includes:

– Paying for links

– Article spinning

– Suddenly acquiring hundreds of thousands of links is a dead giveaway!

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A word about Google’s Panda Update

The Panda update devalued links from low-quality sites

It’s part of Google’s attempts to reduce internet spam

Rankings of many sites plummeted after Panda

This means link building needs to be higher quality

If you’ve done link building in the past, some of the links in your backlink profile may have been devalued

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Directories

Generally low-quality links but quick & easy, and some are still worth having

Directories Often get control over anchor text Easy to submit to and therefore a ‘quick win’ Even quicker win: use a cheap service such as Directory

Maximiser to get someone to do it for you

CSS Galleries Showcases good web design Links back to your site Quick win: use MeeCSS to submit quickly and easily, or pay

them a small fee to do it for you

Rachel McCombie – @RachelsWritings8

Article Directories

Quick win but use in moderation

Like directories, generally poor quality

Can submit the same content to more than one

You get a link with the anchor text you want from a page on a relevant topic

Quick win: use a service such as Copify to get some articles written on subjects relevant to your business. “How to” articles work well. Then copy and paste!

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Press Releases

Media exposure = links and more links

Allows you to get more mileage from existing content – fast

You get extra media exposure as well as links

Often picked up by news aggregator sites for extra links

Quick win: submit your existing press releases to a press release submission site such as PR Web.

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Write for other websites, raise your profile and get great links!

Guest blogging

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The process of guest blogging

How to get great links through guest blogging

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Write a great piece of content

Publish

Step 2

Step 1

Step 3

Write a blog post on an interesting topic related to your business The more original, topical and interesting, the better

Find the blogs you’d like to publish on – not all blogs accept guest posters Contact with a personal message to pitch your post

Include a link back to your site in your author bio Promote the blog post in social media channels

Identify influential bloggers in your field

Infographics

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Come up with a good concept relevant to your business The more original and interesting, the better

Design it (or pay a designer) Write a press release to promote it, linking back to you

Contact sites in relevant fields asking them if they want to feature the infographic Be sure to ask them to link back to you as the source

Submit to infographic directories for extra links Host it on your own site with an embed code linking back to you

Infographics – the process

Done properly, infographics can bring great links and traffic

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Step 4

Step 3

Step 2

Step 1

Some other great link building tactics

Link bait RSS Feeds

Even more great link building tactics for you to try

White papers Widgets Competitor backlinks

Host great content on your site

Watch the links come flooding in

Provocative, striking or shocking works best

Write a detailed PDF about a topic relevant to your business

Send it to relevant sites in return for a link

Presents you as an authority

Create something useful or fun that bloggers want to share

Link back to your site in the embed code

Run a report through Open Site Explorer to find your competitors’ backlinks

Replicate!

Submit your RSS feed to news aggregator sites such as alltop.com

You get a link for every new story you add

Link back to your site from video sharing sites such as YouTube, Vimeo etc

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Video content

Q & AAny questions?

Questions & Answers

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Thank you!

Rachel McCombieSEO, Copywriter and Editor

Email: rachel.mccombie@gmail.comWebsite: http://rachelswritings.com Twitter: @RachelsWritings

Contact

Rachel McCombie – @RachelsWritings17