SMX Advanced 2008 Show Recap – Blow Your Mind Link Building

Greg Boser, Moderator

Speakers:

Jay Young, Owner of Link Fish Media

Stephan Spencer, President and Founder of Netconcepts

Roger Montti, Founder of Martinibuster.com

Todd Friesen, aka Oilman and VP of Search Strategies for Range Online Media.

◊◊◊Roger Montti, Founder & Owner, MartiniBuster.com

Roger spoke about .edus being the most “white hat links”. No one gets banned for them but remember:

·Not a magic bullet

·They pass “hand checks”

·More or less free

·Not generally in bad neighborhoods

Reasons they may not be useful

·Pages might not have authoritative content

·Link Fest Pages

·No inbound links

·Non-expert pages

Tips in Yahoo Link Commands:

• linkdomain:example.com site:.edu “bookmarks”
• linkdomain:example.com site:.edu “links”
• linkdomain:example.com site:.edu “favorite sites”
• linkdomain:example.com site:.edu “your product or service”

More examples:

• linkdomain:example.com site:.edu sponsors
• linkdomain:example.com site:.edu donors
• linkdomain:example.com site:.org sponsors
• linkdomain:example.com site:.org benefactors

Other modifiers include:

• Hotlinks
• Bookmarks
• Links
• Directory
• Resources

◊Jay Young, Owner, Link Fish Media, Inc.

Brass Balls, Big Bucks, No Fear

Places to get links:

·Directories

·Best of the Web

·Yahoo Directory

·DMOZ

·Joe Ant

·Blog Catalog

Non-Profit Sponsorships

·Arguably editorial

·Tax Deductable

·Good Neighborhood

·Helps a cause that you believe in

·Join SEOcialist

1.Digg

2.Reddit

3.StumbleUpon

·Brokers

oBig name text link brokers

oBlog advertisers

oSmaller Brokers 2,000-10,000 Sites

oSpecialty Brokers

oArmature Brokers (DP forums, 20 or 30 sites)

·Link Bait

oCall “Rand at SEOmoz”

·Buy Them

oVital for the success of a competitive campaign

oBe as relevant as possible

oBe as natural as possible

oVary your anchor text

oUse Co-citation (link out to Wikis, etc.)

oThe link will get busted but you won’t so the site passing the link may be hurt but not you

·The Dark Side

oComment Spam (do it manually)

oTrackback Spam

oReciprocal Links -with no links page

oThree Ways

oLink Farms (don’t spend a lot of money here)

·Outside the box

oWidgets

oTemplate

oTemplate Sponsorship

oContest: FREE iPhone!!

oContent Trades Trade Articles for links

·Tips

• • Hire Bartenders
  • Avoid buying links from forums
  • Avoid any site with hidden links
  • Use moderation and common sense
  • If the competition is too clean, mess it up a little (BUY THEM A LOT OF CRAPPY LINKS AND POINT IT TO THEM)

Don’t Fear Matt Cutts

◊◊◊◊Stephan Spencer, Founder and President, Netconcepts

(Has a ton of interesting PowerPoint presentations)

High Value Link Targets

• 80/20 rule
• B/c of the logarithmic nature of PR, its a more reliable metric the higher the score
• PR10s: usa.gov, nsf.gov, w3.org, real.com, energy.gov
• Adobe has 9 PR10 pages
• ERCIM is a PR10, now PR9
• Email him for a longer list

Build a link spider

• Look for sites with one-click away from Google
• Look for sites with super high PR
• With preferences for site that already give link love to sponsors
• Populate a database with all that site data
• Want specifics, go to Give it up tomorrow (re: Google Directory)

Link Build Your Existing Links:

• Use tools to mine your current back links
  • Internet Marketing Ninjas
  • SEOmoz tool

Networking in the Blogosphere:

·Comment on blogs that DoFollow

·Submit to blog carnivals

·Be a contributor to a group blog

·Be a guest blogger on someone else’s blog

·Get involved in comments and built rapport before requesting a link. Find old inactive free hosted blogs

·A tip jar indicated the blogger is desperate for cash

·Have a blogger install a WordPress plug-in that injects links naturally

Paid Links:

·Manufacturing link authority vs. focusing your existing link authority

·Don’t try to artificially create link authority through paid links

Redistributing Home Page Links

·Improve quality of Google SERPs for Ling Tail non-brand search terms

·Sculpt Page Rank

·Two Levels of Improvement:

oRedistribute a percent of your home pages inbound links to relevant sub pages

oAsk them to change the anchor text too see further gains

·Paid link? Yes, potentially, but editorially earned, so OK

Conditionally 301 Inbound Affiliate Links:

·Be like Amazon, more info at here

·This only works if you manage your own affiliate program.

·Also demand a naked link on their legal notice page

Networking in Meatspace

·Build relationships with bloggers by networking at conferences, etc.

·Register and attend conferences that link to their attendees

·Contribute to conference wikis

·Give free talks at libraries and campuses

·Get involved with local meet ups

·Invite W3C to speak and get a link to your event on w3.org/WAI

Wikis:

·Contribute to Wikipedia

·Contribute to other wikis, NewPR Wiki, WordPress Codex

·Create your own wiki (SEOGlossary.com)

Link Baiting – Viral Content

·Videos (he gave samples)

·Quizzes/Personality Tests

·Widgets

·Microsites (counter counterfeit commission)

Utilities

·WordPress Plug-ins

·Firefox Extension

·Release software as open source

Stroke Egos

Yahoo

linkdomain: drudgereport.com stanford.edu “bookmarks”

Linkdomain: example.edu “bookmarks”

Linkdomain: example.edu “Links”

Linkdomain: example.edu “favorite sites”

Linkdomain: example.edu “your product or service”

Chritable opportunities

Wordcamp conferances25.00 with link

As always Connections is happy to answer questions and assist you in any way we can to get your e-business up and running over the competition. Contact us atservice@ConnectionsIS.com.