Link Development - Attracting & generating the right links Lisa Myers CEO,Verve Search @LisaDMyers #EdgeBristol About Lisa Myers • 11 years experience in Marketing, 7 in Search & Social • Speaker at Search Conferences Worldwide (SES, SMX, A4U etc) • Regular contributor to on and offline publications and author of several SEO Best Practise Guides including eConsultancy and B2B Marketing • Heavily involved in the global Search Community, founder of SEO-chicks.com and co-founder of European search blog StateofSearch Awards • “Search Personality of the Year” UK Search Awards 2011 + “Best SEO Campaign” for her agency Verve Search • Management Today “35 women under 35” list 2009 • “Best Use of Technology woman under 30” BlackBerry Woman & Technology Awards (2008) • “B2B Marketing Newcomer of the Year” (2007) @LisaDMyers #EdgeBristol some link history PageRank Google developed PageRank to measure importance of pages largely based on incoming linking structure and quantity @LisaDMyers #EdgeBristol {then came quality and relevancy} relevance + strength = quality Site 2 Site 1 /Page /Page Your Site Latent symantec indexing, surrounding content of a link.  Not just about page 1 linking to your site, but about the overall SITE and it’s relevancy  Also about Site 2 linking to SITE 1 In 2012 the algorithm is significantly more sophisticated, but..... FCUK SEO there are still weaknesses Like....Article Spinning • Where one article is used to create several versions, by replacing original words using synonyms and rewriting sentences • Where a single piece of writing is remade into multiple variants of the original by substituting words and sentence structure using similar words. @LisaDMyers #EdgeBristol Article spinning still works because the Search Engines aren’t there YET. .... @LisaDMyers #EdgeBristol INTENT “In the beginning there were Robots” .....then they evolved evidence? SEOmoz 2011 Study Correlation between social signals and higher rankings (this was pre G+) Source: SEOmoz.org Tasty Placement – Test 2012 Does Social Media boost organic rankings. 6 websites used in the test. http://goo.gl/wxwPd Source: TastyPlacement.com but... Boost in rankings from social shares is likely to be restrained by time. Is Google serious? + My WORLD Rel=author Google + + my World rel=author evidence how serious Google is about Social signals subtle hint Link Development + SEO TOOLS 1. Brainstorming 2. Link Analysis & management 3. Link Prospecting 4. Creative & Implementation #1 { brainstorming – let your mind wander Topics - Don’t Restrict Yourself A site selling clothes does NOT need to be restricted to fashion topics! @LisaDMyers #EdgeBristol Allow a Chain Reaction @LisaDMyers #EdgeBristol #2 { link analysis & management tools... What to analyse: The Basics • • • • • Anchor text Depth of links (what pages are linked to) Type of links (sources) Authority & Strength of links Backlinks history Analyse your own site & your competitors! # Domains Linking @LisaDMyers #EdgeBristol Type of Links @LisaDMyers #EdgeBristol Use of Anchor Text @LisaDMyers #EdgeBristol Depth of Links @LisaDMyers #EdgeBristol #3 { link prospecting - finding sites to target Competitors Links • By analysing competitors links you will be able to find sites that have already linked to someone in your industry • Targeting these are good to start with, BUT you obviously don’t want just exactly the same as what they have @LisaDMyers #EdgeBristol Finding Relevant Sites • Keyword + “article” • Keyword + “blog” • Keyword + “directory” Keyword inurl: “write for us” Keyword inurl:”guest posts” Keyword intitle: “write for us” and so on... Useful Tool Mangia Guest Post Tool http://www.mangiamarketing.com/free-link-buildingtools/guest-post-opportunity-finder/ Using Known Social Networks • Utilising forums and social networks in your industry to find relevant target sites • Bloggers are also often very social active on twitter, facebook, pintrest, instagram etc #4 { creative & development Types of Link Development • Utilising Existing Relationships • Link Building • Link baiting • Article/Content Marketing @LisaDMyers #EdgeBristol 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? @LisaDMyers #EdgeBristol Apple.com Links to domain= 35.8 MILLION! PR=9/10 link building Link Building • Directories • Blog & forum comments Usually low quality so work best as fillers. Should NOT be Primary Link Dev Strategy link baiting { A piece of digital content (article, video, infographic, etc) that specifically increases the chances for generating “organic links” intelligent provoking funny interesting GREAT IDEA competitions newsworthy educational real examples {link (and social) bait Infographics is great link bait! Content Outreach It’s all about the ANGLE! 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??!! Don’t always try source a home for an article already written. Find sites you WANT to get a link from and then write the article! Their tone of voice and style and type of article! @LisaDMyers #EdgeBristol 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 {content outreach creating content for influencers Thank You! Email: lisa@vervesearch.com Web: www.vervesearch.com @LisaDMyers