Musings and things that amuse us

While there are some Web publishers that truly ‘get’ the social Web, it seems that many others–specifically corporate and mainstream media bloggers–aren’t quite there yet.  And, they won’t get it until they understand its raison d’être.

Fundamentally, the Web and the Internet came about to enable linking.

The Internet began because people wanted to link computers. The Web began because Sir Tim Berners Lee wanted to be able to link documents. The social Web is based on linking to the ideas and thoughts of others.

So why do people still hesitate before linking to another site?

• Fear of people going elsewhere and not returning
• Fear of low engagement
• Fear of advertising revenue loss

But guess what? It turns out the fears are unfounded.

In a recent post, Scott Karp examines the Drudge Report, a news site completely made out of links and advertising, and explains how linking to others offers the highest engagement – go have a read.

Interestingly, the folk behind the Cluetrain Manifesto have been saying this for years.

Lesson: Link out and link lots!

Tip: Open new links in the same window; let the user be in control

Must Read: Cluetrain Manifesto

Image Credit: Furious George 81

According to Michael Gray, SEO and Social Media Consultant for Atlas Web Services, when it comes to link building, your first priority should be looking to get links from trusted, authoritative, and popular sites.

He likens it to high school “If the popular kids say nice thing about you, it’s better than the not so popular kids saying nice things about you. If the English teacher says you’re smart, it’s more important than the janitor saying the same thing.”

But, just how do you find these sites that you want links from? And how do you do you approach the link building process?

Determining Quality Directories

Directories are one of the core link building exercises every website should engage in according to Gray, and he recommends you begin with Yahoo, Best of the Web, and Business.com.

Additionally, look for directories that cover your niche, and then evaluate them for quality by looking at its statistics.

Good tools to use for analyzing directories are:

• Alexa
• Quantcast
• Hitwise
• Compete
• Attention Meter

Then consider these questions:

• Do any of the pages in your sector rank?
• Is the page indexed?
• What is the last cache date? (If it has been longer than three months, don’t bother with it.)
• How popular/visited is the site?

How to get links from authoritative sites

The best way to get the attention (and links) from authoritative sites is to create content specifically targeted to them. For instance, Engadget has a competition every year for the best cake design.

“If I was a baker, or game maker, I’d be making cakes every year and submitting them,” Gray explains. You’ve got to think a little smarter.

Look at the backlinks of your competition

By mining the back links of your competition for links from research sites, trade organizations, etc., you’ll get an idea of what the more authoritative sites are linking to.

Then, go to those sites and look for dead links. When you find a dead link, try to replicate or improve on the content, write your own article, publish it on the Web, and then let the author know about the broken link; of course, you can point out your new article at the same time.

Additionally, if you find an authoritative site that links to a piece of content that is related to your niche, why not recreate a similar article; one that improves on the original – perhaps with more detailed content – then let the author know about it.

TIP: Local sources; local governments, local resources, libraries are often overlooked opportunities

To get the most out of your blog feed:

• Publish full posts
• Include links in your feed
• Embed keyword rich links in your posts
• Embed keyword rich links in your footer
• Embed deep links
• Rotate your keywords every three or four months

Additionally, consider using RSS Footer (WordPress plugin). It makes it easy to add a line of content to the beginning or the end of each post in your feed, and allows you to display a link back to your blog.

Link Building Tips for Bloggers

• Deep link on your blog; link to posts you have written previously, not just to your home page
• Take up guest blogging opportunities
• Avoid blog competitions
• Get involved in social media
• Target different social media sites
• Spread your efforts over a period of time
• Create content for sites like Squidoo and Google’s Knol
• Use image sites like Flickr (only include pictures that rank)
• Use video sites like Youtube and MetaCafe
• YouTube Tip: Youtube always put their logo on the right side; put your logo on the left
• Don’t obsess about PageRank

This post contains content from Michael Gray’s presentation during the Link Building Basics session at Search Engine Strategies San Jose, 2008.

Additionally, I had the opportunity of speaking with Michael about link building for Tech Talk Radio. You can listen to our chat by downloading episode 194.

“I had a client [retailer] that archived their newsletter to a blog platform but cross linked anchor text to related products – hugely advantageous.”

Lee Odden, August 2008, SES San Jose

PJ Fusco defines link building as

“The ongoing activity of increasing the number of high quality inbound links to a document, in order to raise its visibility in search engines for targeted phrases.”

But just how do you go about building links?

According to Fusco, who spoke at Search Engine Strategies San Jose Wednesday, it all starts with analyzing your links to determine where they are coming from, using either free or fee based backlink analysis and anchor text tools.

The major search engines offer some of these tools freely. Yahoo’s Site Explorer is a “very handy tool if you’re just getting started, and remains one of the best ways to export to spreadsheets”. Google Webmaster Tools is a great way to see the links that Google sees, but Fusco warns “export can be a little wonky.”

When it comes to free link analysis tools, like with everything else, you get what you pay for.

Free Link Analysis Tools:

Search Status 1.25: A Firefox Plugin that “gives you a heck more than just quick studies of backlinks,”

SEO for Firefox: Displays PageRank, Google Cache Data, age, Delicious bookmarks, Compete.com details and more including a keyword research tool

Market Leap Popularity Checker: Useful for determining which “competitors links you want to raid,” assuming you already know who is linking to you.

Quintura: for when visualization is where you want to start

Kartoo

Hubfinder: You can almost always find authoritative links crowding around hub.

Paid Link Analysis Tools:

Advanced Link Manager: Great for anchor text link insight and backlink diversity data

iBusiness Promoter

LinkSurvey

Link Asisstant

Tip if you want to be a player, develop a tool

Once you’ve determined where you are getting links from (or where your competitors are getting links from), it becomes a matter of hard work and determination; creating link worthy content and getting it out on the Web.

Fortunately, during the same session, Jeff Quipp spoke about the myths and misconceptions surrounding link building – you really need to know these before you start – and Michael Gray showed us where to find sites on the Web that could potentially link to you. Subscribe to their blogs if you are interested in link building, SEO, social media and how it all fits together.

I’ve outlined Jeff’s presentation here, and will post a link to the podcast of a chat I had with Michael for Tech Talk Radio as soon as it goes to air in Australia.

If you know of any tools that are not included here, please let me know.

According to Jeff Quipp, there are 4 myths and seven mistakes people commonly make when they get involved in link building.

Myth 1: PageRank

Toolbar PageRank (little green bar) is a red herring – it’s not real. Real PageRank is only seen by Google. For instance, in Google a page with a PageRank of 3 is ranking number one for ‘ranges’ with 82+ million results. If PageRank really mattered, this page should be PR 8, or PR 9.

Jeff’s advice: Don’t take toolbar PageRank as a given.

Myth 2: Reciprocal Linking is Dead

It’s not dead. It’s a natural pattern when used in moderation. However, if 75%+ of your links are reciprocal or networked…warning!

Jeff’s advice: Reciprical linking is okay, but should not be the crutch of your link strategy.

Myth 3: PR Sculpting

PR sculpting is not the best use of your time. According to Vanessa Fox “It seems like a lot of effort for little pay off” and “external links matter so much more than internal links.”

Jeff’s advice: Set up your linking structure right up front in the main navigational structure – that’s when it counts.

Myth 4: More links = better

It’s about quality – not quantity. Think in terms of trust and authority; the more trusted and authoritative the inbound links, the more the site is trusted. This equals better rankings.

Jeff’s advice: If you can get links from the sources that Google likes, that is, that Google has never had problems with, you’ll get ranking.

Mistake 1: Not using text links

Text in links is very important, and has more than ten times the value of image links. Make sure you use targeted keywords in the anchor text.

Mistake number 2: Link Farms

Stay away from FFA’s (Free For All) links and the likes. Blatant manipulation leads to bad search engine karma, and you will be punished.

Mistake 3: Links to home page only

Sites with content get links to many pages and search engines know this. Too many links to a main page and too few to internal pages should send up warning flags.

Mistake 4: 302 redirects

Out of date pages and sites – don’t delete or 302 them, 301 redirect them and keep all the link juice those pages/sites accumulated. 302’s don’t direct link juice for maximum advantage

Mistake 5: NoFollow links

Not all inks are created equal. Many are designed not to pass link juice so when you’re building links, check the code for ‘NoFollow’.

Mistake 6: No valuable content

Valuable content invites natural link opportunities; the more content you have, the more long tail opportunities and site power you have. More deep links equal more authority and all pages rank better.

Mistake 7: Not socializing content

Socializing content means creating awareness of it. It also creates opportunities to get seen in other media and if your submission goes hot, it can create 100’s or even 1000’s of links.

Tip: Buying links

Some types of bought links are discounted, some are not, and punishment is possible. Avoid buying links for SEO purposes where possible, and when you do buy links, make sure you are buying them from reputable sites.

Try This:

Find 50 social media sites with dofollow links
Submit your [well written and valuable] post
Use great anchor text to link to your site

Voila! 50 + links for each blog post!

This post is from Jeff’s presentation on Link Building at Search Engine Strategies San Jose 2008.

To stay up to date with news from Jeff, read the Search Engine People Blog.

If you’re interested in link building, take a look at PJ Fusco’s list of link analysis tools, and stay tuned for Michael Gray’s list of best places on the Web to find links.