Proactive Link Building Tactics

Presented by: David WallaceCEO/Founder - SearchRank

@DavidWallace

Image Source: http://www.quicksprout.com

What Is the Best ProactiveLink Building Technique?

TO NOT BUILD THEM AT ALL!

@DavidWallace

Image Source: http://timbickers.com

Matt Cutts Spreading FUDA WebmasterWorld thread has some fears that I see are beginning to worry some publishers and webmasters - the fear of linking to external sources.

With Matt Cutts and the Google spam team pretty much saying you need to nofollow everything out there, well, with the exception of real editorial links (who is to decide what is editorial), webmasters are simply scared.

Search Engine RoundtableAug 14, 2013

@DavidWallace

Content: Creation & Marketing

Publishing content

that people

love will allow you to “earn” links, not

too mention

social signals

Image Source:http://www.smartinsights.com

Case Study: Infographic Journal

The Stats:

• Site turned 2 years old on 9/28• Have never done any link building• 0 posts to 3,500+• 7 to 10 posts published daily• 0 backlinks to 68,000• Current Alexa Rank of 32,730• 100,000+ monthly visitors

@DavidWallace

Case Study: Infographic Journal

How Do We Do It?

Each post is pushed to IJ’s social media sites - Facebook, Twitter, Google +, Pinterest & Tumblr.

Each post is pushed to personal social media sites - Facebook, Twitter, Google +, LinkedIn & Pinterest.

Infographics that are really good are submitted to StumbleUpon.

Use StumbleUpon’s “Paid Discovery” for really, really good ones.

Occasionally do manual outreach via Twitter and/or email.

On rare occasion do the “Boost Post” option on Facebook.

@DavidWallace

Content Ideas• Resourceful Posts (Articles, Lists, Hot-Tos)

• Guest Posts

• Memes (Ego Bait, Interviews, etc.)

• White Papers

• Webinars

• Images (funny, unique, animated)

• Videos

• Infographics (static, interactive, animated, video)

Make sure content originates on your site. You “own” the content and visitors are drawn back to your site.

@DavidWallace

Content Marketing 101• Share on Facebook; consider utilizing Facebook Ads or Promote option under post.

• Share on Twitter; consider utilizing Sponsored Tweets.• Share on Google + (both personal and company pages).

• Submit good content to StumbleUpon. Use Paid Discovery to draw more attention.

• Post to your Pinterest and Tumblr accounts. Link back to original.

• Send an optimized press release via online PR sites such as MarketWire & PRWeb.

• Reach out to “like-minded” bloggers to see if they will link-to or do write-up.• Utilize “guest blogging” to re-post video and infographics on prominent sites.

• Having a large network of followers (influential status) will help promotion efforts.

• If you lack influence, it might be wise to hire someone who does to share content.

• Infographics - include an “Embed Code!” (infographicjournal.com/embed-code-generator/)

@DavidWallace

Links With Social MediaUsing Social Media Profiles To Build Links

@DavidWallace

Links With Social Media

Links With Social MediaUsing Social Media Profiles To Build Links

• Set up as many social media profiles as you can• Fill in all information (i.e. real name, URL, location, bio, etc.)• Upload an avatar• Post/publish content where applicable• Get profile URLs indexed

“The Ultimate Social Media Profile Chart”

http://www.searchrank.com/social-media-profile-chart

@DavidWallace

http://knowem.com

What No Longer Works

• Paid Links

• Sponsored Blog Reviews

• Article Marketing (Spinning)

• Directories (except major and niche)

• Comments (did they ever work at all)

@DavidWallace

Google Penalties• Google is Not Fair!• Is it a “real” penalty or a “fake” one (FUD)• Use Backlinks Tool to analyze links (Ahrefs, Majestic SEO, Moz)• Identify site-wide links & links in footers and navigation• Identify links surrounded by “bad” neighbors• Reach out to webmasters asking them to “nofollow” or remove links.• In your outreach, DO NOT threaten “Disavow!”• No webmaster response – either remove linking page or change URL or Disavow• Document everything!

@DavidWallace

Image Source: http://sem-group.net

Ultimate Guide to Google Penalty Removalhttp://moz.com/ugc/ultimate-guide-to-google-penalty-removal

Key Takeaways• Don’t build links – earn them!

• Use creative content combined with strategic marketing to earn links and social signals.

• If you must manually build links, use social media profiles.

• Google Penalties: Don’t freak out, document everything and be nice!

@DavidWallace

Thank You!David Wallace

searchrank.com

infographicjournal.com

@DavidWallace

DavidWallace

SearchRank

SearchRank

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Download This Presentation at:

http://searchrank.com/pubconvegas2013