Link Building Bootcamp

March 3, 2015

Link Building Bootcamp

Debra Mastaler Alliance-Link.com

Link Building Trainer

@DebraMastaler

searchmarketingexpo.com

@DebraMastaler #SMX #12D

The Agenda

Algorithms

&

Link Popularity

Unnatural Links

Penalties &

Disavow

Link Building Tactics

Insights For 2015



Algorithms &

Link Popularity

Algorithms

&

Link Popularity



Which Engine Is Used The Most? Google dominates in USA



North America 87%

Brazil 98%

Europe 94%

India

97%

Australia

93%

South America Brazil (Google 98%)

Australia 93%

Europe England (89%),France (95%), Germany (93%)Spain (96%), Italy (95%)

Asia China (Baidu) Russia (Yandex), Japan (Yahoo!) India (Google 97%), Thailand (Google 99%)

North America

Canada (Google 88%) USA (Google 78%) Mexico (Google 95%)

Google Used World-Wide We live in a Google centric universe.



How Are Pages Ranked?

Page Level Links

Page Level (Title, tags, content)

Social Media Metrics

Location Personalization

Mobile Ready

Paid

Organic

Domain Level Links Query Data (long clicks, short clicks)

Over 200+ factors contribute



Link Popularity

Link popularity measures the quality and quantity of links pointing to a webpage. Considered an off-page factor. Engines weigh off-page factors more heavily than on-page. Slang: Link Juice, Link Love, Link Pop, Link Equity

There are four components of link popularity…



Link Popularity

Quantity Quality

Relevance Anchor

Text

Four components and a lot of moving parts



The number of links pointing to a webpage from different websites/pages.

Link Quantity

Your site



X

X C

X

A X

X

My Website

Link Quality Determined by the authority of the host sites and the sites linking to them

B X

X X



Link Quality All three engines have a formula to measure and compute quality

TrustRank

NetRank

PageRank ™



The power of PageRank™

What Makes A Quality Page

Quality pages have unique characteristics, they show

expertise | authority | trust

Latest changes to Google algorithm focuses on rewarding

quality links

quality authorship

quality content

Not updating



Relevance Establishes your topical and/or geographic dominance

Baby

Strollers

Diamond

rings

Costa Rica

Vacation

Rentals

Viagra



Relevance Linking out and being linked to establishes connections

From Google…”In the same way Google trusts sites less when they link to spammy sites…parts of our system encourage links to good sites.” .

Link to sites that are “good” and relevant

https://www.mattcutts.com/blog/pagerank-sculpting/



Anchor text is the clickable part of the link you see

My daughter and my money go to The University of Virginia

My son spends a lot of money buying college text books.

Visit us at www.poor-parents.org for more information.

Anchor text is a query ranking factor

From Google: “anchor text influences the queries your website ranks for in the search results”.

From Bing: “anchor text helps define the theme of a linked page”.

An endorsement of what is to come Anchor Text

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2007/03/get-more-complete-picture-about-how.html

http://blogs.bing.com/webmaster/2010/05/14/is-your-site-ranking-rank-do-a-site-review-part-2-sem-101/



Partial Match 15%

Change up your anchors, use variations

Anchor Text

Related Terms/ Long Tail Keywords 5%

Brand/Company Name 55%

URL 15%

Generic 5%

Exact Match Phrase 5%

Mastaler Book Store

KW: college text books



Anchor Text It is best to…

Make your anchor

text part of the

conversation.



Your Goal When Building Links:

Thematically (and/or good!) related pages

Appropriate anchors on

Quality pages using

Secure a lot of links from

Quantity

Quality

Anchor Text

Relevance



Links That Rain On Your Parade

Unnatural Links



And now it’s not.

It Was So, So Easy…



Google would like you to avoid

Unnatural Links

X X X X X X X

Paid Links.

Low quality

directories and

bookmarking sites.

Footer links and links

embedded in

templates.

Reciprocal linking on

a large scale.

Press releases using

optimized anchor

text

Keyword rich anchors

embedded in widgets

and badges.

Forum links using

optimized anchors

Large scale guest

posting using

keyword rich anchor

text links.

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356?hl=en



Unnatural Links Avoid these flags and footprints

• Do not acquire a lot of the same links quickly

• Avoid using same anchors over and over

• Avoid linking with low quality pages

• Avoid placing links in navigation and sponsored areas

• Avoid pages/sites hosting excessive reciprocals and template links

• Avoid sites with excessive Adsense

• Don’t make directory links a large part of your portfolio

• Avoid sites with no Contact or About Us info



Think Before You Link Questions to ask

1. Is the page hosting your link in the index?

2. Been cached lately?

3. Do they use nofollow attributes?

4. Does the website participate in social media?

5. Does the webpage rank for relevant keywords

6. Is the website tied to a network?

7. Is the content relevant to my site?

8. Search “complaint” + URL?



You are

Outta Here! (sometimes)

Penalties &

Disavow



Google Penalty Or Algorithm Update?

Image courtesy @kikolani

If your site

isn’t appearing

or

has slipped quite a bit

you either have a manual penalty

or

have been affected by

changes to an algorithm

.

Not hard to figure out but bad either way

https://twitter.com/kikolani

https://twitter.com/kikolani



Manual Action Notice Google love notes in your WMT… not so sweet.

*WMT = Google Webmaster Tools



Manual Actions Two Types, site-wide and partial

Unnatural links pointing to your site

Hacked site

User generated spam in your blog/forum

Thin content with no value

Cloaking/spammy redirects

Hidden text/keyword stuffing



Reconsideration For Manual Penalty

A good reconsideration request does three things:

1. Explains the exact quality issue on your site.

2. Describes the steps you’ve taken to fix the issue.

3. Documents the outcome of your efforts.

Asking Google to review your site after manual penalty (also called “request review”)



How do you determine which search engine update affected you?

https://www.rankranger.com/google-algorithm-updates http://moz.com/google-algorithm-change

Google Algorithm Updates History

Check Google Analytics

Rankings Drop Due To Change In Algorithm

https://www.rankranger.com/google-algorithm-updates






http://moz.com/google-algorithm-change








Rankings Drop Due To Algorithm or Manual Penalty Bottom line?

Can you fix it?

Yes you can!

Should you fix it?

Definitely.

Analyze your website’s backlinks and identify what caused your

rankings drop.

Once you identify the links, try to remove them, and disavow the ones

you cannot delete.

Be proactive

Don’t wait for a slap down.



STEP

01 STEP

02 STEP

03 STEP

04 STEP

05

Pull Backlinks

Use links from WMT

and at least one

commercial tool.

Audit Backlinks

List unnatural links in

spreadsheet

Contact Info

Use a tool like

URLProfiler to pull

email from list of

unnatural links

Reach Out

Ask to remove

Repeat after 10 days

List no responses

(provide details!)

Disavow

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sit amet, consectetur

adipiscing elit.

Curabitur elementum

posuere pretium.

Two very important points:

1. Uploading a new file will replace those previously uploaded.

2. It takes Google some time to process the information you’ve uploaded, (weeks!), these links will continue to be shown in the WMT inbound links.

Disavow Cleaning up and disavowing links



I highly recommend you avoid using a link removal company

that does not fully disclose who they are on their website.

Word Of Caution

Link Building

Tactics

Tactics



Remember this one simple fact as you build links:

It is less about what you do and more about where.



Questions To Ask Before You Link And some tools to help

Does the page rank well?

RankRanger

AuthorityLabs

Does the site have a varied backlink portfolio

RavenTools

SEOBook Tool Set

OSE

Inbound links use a wide variety of anchors?

Majestic

Ahrefs

BacklinkWatch (free)

Cache date recent?

CachedPages (free)

Lots of social signals from several networks?

Sendible

Buzzsumo

Content relevant to yours? Buzzstream



Link Building Tactics

Link Building Ideas

Reclaiming Broken Links

Un-Linked Mentions

Credibility Links

Citation Building

Resource Pages

Image Gifting

Guest Blogging

Content Sourcing

Image Galleries

Product Reviews

Curator Mining

Repurposing Content

Content Marketing

Tactics

Foundational Tactics



Foundational Links: Absolutely necessary

• Help position you as a brand expert and credible source

• Help identify you in an ever-growing link graph

• Tend not to change

• Inexpensive to acquire

• Stimulate clicks. Links get you ranked but clicks show you deserve to be there.



Reclaiming Broken Links Tools: Citation Labs | Ontolo Tools | Check My Links (Chrome plug-in)

Find broken links

Contact webmaster

Offer link to your content



Unlinked Mentions TalkWalker | RankTank

Find unlinked mentions of your brand

Contact webmaster

Ask for hyperlink

Not a brand?

Use the tool to find potential contact sources



Credibility Links Establish trust, sets expertise

Establish trust signals

• Chamber of Commerce

• Industry Associations

• Better Business Bureau

• Wikipedia*



Find local sources using your keywords and listing businesses.

WhiteSpark Searching By Hand (or Scrapebox)

Citation Building = Mentions Of A Business By Name, Address & Telephone Number.

1. Find #1 site ranking for your keywords

2. Copy their name, address and telephone number

3. Paste into engine using quotes, hit search

4. Website showing are potential sites you can add your information to.

5. Repeat with top five results

Use your competitors to find sources

Tools: WhiteSpark | Scrapebox



Resource Pages

Your keyword inurl:links

Your keyword inurl:resources

“useful links” your keyword

“helpful links” your keyword

Tool: SoloSEO (no charge)

use ‘recommended” function.

Find opportunities on academic and government outlets

http://www.soloseo.com/tools/linkSearch.html



Image Gifting Giving the gift of an image to an article that needs it

• Search for blog posts and magazine articles using your

keywords.

• Offer photo at no charge

• You MUST own the photo!



Before we move into Content Marketing for links, remember:

It is less about what you do and more about where.



Still OK to do!

Guest Blogging From Google:

• Don’t over use keyword anchors in blog posts or your author bio

• Don’t partner with blog networks

• Don’t write short, stupid blog posts

• Don’t partner with blogs not using social media to promote content (especially G+)

• Use Google to search “keyword” + blog. You’ll find blogs and they’ve done the work for you.



Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged.

How to get your foot in the door

Guest Blogging

How do I get influential bloggers to accept my guest post or take me on as a columnist?

Mutual friend/associate introduction

Point of commonality

Showcase past writing

Flaunt your Twitter, Facebook, G+ followers

Offer “fun” images



Also known as a .gif”

Images Good, Cinemagraphs Better

• Fun images help sell content

• Creates memorable content

• Stimulates linking!

-------------------------------------------------

Make your own http://makeagif.com/

-------------------------------------------------

Backlink topical gif’s found in directories:

http://giphy.com/search/gif-directory

http://makeagif.com/





Image Galleries Take a picture, they will come



Content Sourcing Blogs not only outlets for content, find authors and you will find sources

Author + Keyword

Writer + Keyword

Guide + Keyword

Columnist + Keyword

Contributor + Keyword

Editor + Keyword

Freelance writer+ Keyword

Tools: https://drive.google.com/templates



MOBILE & TABLET


Highly sought after written and video content

Product Reviews You Create

• Written reviews with images are most frequently linked to

• Keep best reviews on your site, promote from there

• Issue press release for substantial reviews

• Target social networks for distribution

• Bundle reviews into ebooks with email paywall



Use what other people have written to gain links

Product Reviews By Others

1. Search for older reviews

2. Back link, look for sources

3. Offer your “newer” review as a source, or

4. Write a comparison piece



Get your content added to curation outlets Use to find new sources

Curator Mining

Paper.li “paper.li + keyword”

Rebel Mouse “rebelmouse + kw”

FlipBoard “flipboard + kw”

Delicious (must be signed in)

Kw: accounting software



Recycling content in different forms reaches wider audience, attracts links, avoids duplicate content issues

Repurposing Content

In-depth article with images. Evergreen piece.

Product Review

1 3 4

Create presentation on each section, add to SlideShare.

Presentation Create video using presentations, upload to YouTube and Vivemo

Video

Each blog post covers a section of the review.

Multiple Blog Posts Create infographic using steps in product review

Infographic

Film a how-to webinar using product review as outline, email paywall

Webinar Create multiple podcasts from blog posts. Add to iTunes and podcast directories.

Podcast Extended G+ posts, Tweet series, posts on FB

Social Media Snippets



For 2015

Insights For 2015

Insights




Good tips

Lightning Round

APPLICATION

• Contests, sponsorships, scholarships, etc – all good ideas but one-off, time sensitive tactics.

• Follow key media on Twitter, engage.

• Fax press releases directly to media, forget the press release submission outlets.

• Find an SEO forum/community and start listening/sharing.

• Use TalkWalker.com instead of Google Alerts.




Good tips -2

Lightning Round

APPLICATION

• Interviews work well with local media outlets (unless you are a celebrity)

• Use infographic directories as back-linking sources

http://infographic-directory.com/ http://infographicjournal.com/

• Boost your efforts by co-creating content with an “influencer”

• Write links in the top half of your content as a call to action, you want people to click!! (Remember: links help you rank but clicks show you deserve to be there!)

http://infographic-directory.com/





http://infographicjournal.com/






Key Insights For 2015

APPLICATION

• Keep the key components of link popularity in mind when building links.

• Don’t scrimp on a copywriter.

• Invest in SEO/link tools after using free trials

• Create evergreen content that has been personalized for your target audience.

• Add email capture to everything, look into “content for a tweet”.

• Remember: Google wants pages that impact a person’s health and wealth to be high quality.

Make your pages high quality. Partner with like-minded websites.



For customized link building training and blueprints, visit

www.alliance-link.com or email [email protected] Debra Mastaler

Quality means doing it right when no one is looking. ~Henry Ford

http://www.alliance-link.com/







mailto:[email protected]





Link Building Bootcamp

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Transcript of Link Building Bootcamp