Below is live coverage of the Link Building: Why You’re Doing It Wrong panel from the SMX East 2011 conference.
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Barry Schwartz:
8:22:53 am
We start in 8 minutes.
Barry Schwartz:
8:22:59 am
Face it: even though link building is one of the most important things you can do to achieve search engine visibility, it’s also one of the most mind-numbingly boring SEO tasks. And the truth is, most link building “best practices” are either wrong or don’t work anymore. In this session, our panelists skewer some link building sacred truths and share techniques that actually work, rewarding you with more than a pounding headache.
Barry Schwartz:
8:23:06 am
Jenny Halasz, Director, Search Acquisition Strategy, Nine by Blue (@jennyhalasz) Byrne Hobart, Co-Founder & CEO, Digital Due Diligence (@byrneseyeview) Rae Hoffman-Dolan, CEO, Sugarrae SEO Firm (@sugarrae)
Barry Schwartz:
8:30:28 am
Modding Is Elisabeth
Barry Schwartz:
8:30:37 am
Brian:
8:33:22 am
What are some of todays best link building practices?
Barry Schwartz:
8:34:46 am
Here we go…
Barry Schwartz:
8:35:51 am
Jenny Halasz, Director, Search Acquisition Strategy, Nine by Blue (@jennyhalasz) is up now
Barry Schwartz:
8:36:00 am
Barry Schwartz:
8:37:55 am
Why do we care about links?
Barry Schwartz:
8:38:44 am
We care about link because of Google and PageRank
Barry Schwartz:
8:39:29 am
Then Nov 16, 2003, Florida hit
Barry Schwartz:
8:40:56 am
She cites Dan named topic sensitive pagerank, http://www.seoresearchlabs.com/googlereport.php
Barry Schwartz:
8:41:23 am
Then she goes through the Google Bombing, Nofollow, Link Sculpting, Link Bait and Paid Links between 2003 and 2009
Barry Schwartz:
8:42:51 am
Next logical step is social, Feb 2009, we do not use social signals b/c people would abuse it… Then a year later or so, they say they use it as a signal in rankings.
Barry Schwartz:
8:43:47 am
5 Common Misconceptions: – Link Bait – Viral Marketing – Link Sculpting – Cross Linking – Toolbar PageRank
Barry Schwartz:
8:46:13 am
Also, stop wasting your time with directory submissions..
Barry Schwartz:
8:46:45 am
Quality over Quantity – always
Barry Schwartz:
8:47:45 am
She offered her kid, a $10 bill vs 4 quarters and her hid took the 4 quarters. Same with links, take less links but better quality ones.
Barry Schwartz:
8:49:04 am
They recommend reading this re viral stuff http://searchengineland.com/hard-thoughts-about-seo-link-bait-92570
Barry Schwartz:
8:49:10 am
Rae Hoffman-Dolan, CEO, Sugarrae SEO Firm (@sugarrae)
Barry Schwartz:
8:49:16 am
Barry Schwartz:
8:50:26 am
She shows an example of a bad guest post. Essentially they send out a press release with tons of links in it and they wonder why no one posts it to their site… She shows an example. A guest post isn’t suppose to be an ad for your site.
Barry Schwartz:
8:50:39 am
You want your guest posts to slide one link to your site in that content, one link.
Barry Schwartz:
8:51:02 am
Bad guest posts won’t be accepted by good sites, they might be accepted by bad blogs.
Barry Schwartz:
8:51:20 am
No one will link to, social share, etc bad content.
Barry Schwartz:
8:53:05 am
Vertical Guest Posting, guest posting within the topics that are obvious to you.
Barry Schwartz:
8:54:09 am
But the best benefit is from horizontal guest posting, where you take a generic topic and interest it with yours. Maybe go to a travel blog, and write tips and then one of the tips is relevant to your niche site.
Barry Schwartz:
8:56:30 am
How do you find these places?
Barry Schwartz:
8:56:48 am
Search Strings: “Guest post” topic, “Guest poster” topic, etc…
Barry Schwartz:
8:57:03 am
Top List Sites: search for “list of [topic] blogs
Barry Schwartz:
8:58:44 am
How do you convince these blogs to let you guest post?
Barry Schwartz:
8:58:55 am
Check the existing writer guidelines before contacting
Barry Schwartz:
8:59:04 am
Send a person and individual emails
Barry Schwartz:
8:59:10 am
Use names whenever possible
Barry Schwartz:
8:59:18 am
Prove your’re not stupid or dumb
Barry Schwartz:
8:59:25 am
Ask a genuine question
Barry Schwartz:
8:59:33 am
Never assume they know who you are
Barry Schwartz:
8:59:45 am
Include a potential topic idea and example post
Barry Schwartz:
8:59:50 am
Never mention links
Barry Schwartz:
9:04:05 am
Bu do mention edits…
Barry Schwartz:
9:04:15 am
That is all from Rae
Barry Schwartz:
9:04:27 am
Guest blogging is her best and easiest way to build links
Barry Schwartz:
9:04:42 am
Next up Byrne Hobart, Co-Founder & CEO, Digital Due Diligence (@byrneseyeview)
Barry Schwartz:
9:04:53 am
Barry Schwartz:
9:06:21 am
He is now at Yahoo
Barry Schwartz:
9:06:33 am
This presentation was done before at Yahoo, so keep that in mind
Barry Schwartz:
9:06:45 am
Risky vs Reward ratio
Barry Schwartz:
9:07:08 am
If you have a brand new site, the risk is very limited
Barry Schwartz:
9:07:23 am
Whereas older sites have a lot to risk
Barry Schwartz:
9:07:33 am
So that is why some drug sites burn
Barry Schwartz:
9:08:33 am
Where they get links: TechCrunch, Mashabale, NY Times, Marginal Revolutions, Matt Yglesias, Andrew Sullivan and then other bloggers pick it up… .Offending people, leads to more traffic.
Barry Schwartz:
9:09:20 am
If you offend people, people will write about it, link to you and those count. But you might get hate mail, but whatever.
Barry Schwartz:
9:10:39 am
Case Study: Tax Rascal, they had to make tax stuff interesting… You do not need to make something interesting to get links. You just need to be the most interesting in that field. So that isn’t hard with tax blogging…
Barry Schwartz:
9:11:05 am
You do not have to stay on topic to make that topic interesting.
Barry Schwartz:
9:11:24 am
So on the tax blog,they talked about political debates on tax
Barry Schwartz:
9:12:33 am
Business Insider: they have screaming headlines all the time. They also report on rumors a lot.
Barry Schwartz:
9:13:22 am
He showed one of the blog posts on AIG and how they used a pic of two brides making out. People linked to the blog to say how horrible the site is.
Barry Schwartz:
9:14:04 am
Business Insider is still up to it. They even report about their own rumors.
Barry Schwartz:
9:15:08 am
This works best with data driven, subjective areas that are full of nerds (or bloggers)
Barry Schwartz:
9:15:49 am
Sports, politics, investing and gossip topics
Barry Schwartz:
9:16:41 am
It doesnt work in law, health care, B2B stuff and non cultish consumer products
Barry Schwartz:
9:18:24 am
It stops working when you have a risk, so you may have to tone things down a bit
Barry Schwartz:
9:20:13 am
Why outrage instead black hat? It is more fun, less competition, search engines are on your side and better for your career
Barry Schwartz:
9:21:05 am
Q&A time…
Barry Schwartz:
9:23:11 am
Risks are not long term marketing strategy, aid Jenny
Barry Schwartz:
9:24:41 am
My live blogging is done. There are two more sessions but I have to do some meetings. Hope you enjoyed.
