WebmasterWorld PubCon 2006Link Building Campaigns

Company Overview

• Founded in 1994

• Full service interactive solutions provider- Marketing- Strategy- Creative Services- Web Site Development- Web Application Development- Search Engine Marketing- Web Analytics and Reporting

• Clients include TXU Corporation, Amerisource Bergen Specialty Group, Pilgrim’s Pride

Overview

• Your Website’s Content• Internal Linking• External Links - Linking in 2006 • Finding Links Checklist• Checklist for New Sites• Checklist for Older or Established

Sites• Link Dos• Link Don’ts• Links “Outside the Box"

Your Website’s Content

• Your website’s content is ultimately responsible for its ability or inability to get links

• Bad content or no content = no links

• Great content = the potential to get links

• You have tell everyone you have great content on your site

What is Great Content?

• Great content is anything that people will link to with an unsolicited link.

• Examples of great content:- Content that stirs emotion – if they love it or hate it they’ll link to it- Rich-media content that’s informative, humorous, or silly- Tutorials, niche dictionaries/glossaries, or other content like a blog or news related to your industry

• Other sites must have a reason to link to you. Give them a reason and they will link to you.

Internal Linking

• Take care of your internal linking first then deal with external links

• Search engine friendly – crawlable links with descriptive anchor text as appropriate

• All pages need at least one link from another page to stay in the index

• Don’t forget internal links to related topics, related products, hot product links are helpful (on topic)

• Links from other sites to your internal pages

External Links - Linking in 2006

• Read the recent WebmasterWorld thread titled “Link Development vs. Traffic Development and Staying with the Times” by sugarrae

http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum12/3047.htm

• Get on topic links • Buy links that will result in clicks (i.e. traffic) • Write "800 word" articles that add value • Write useful articles based on your keywords• Diversify your anchor text • Contribute to a select few communities online and

make yourself known • Create a blog

Finding Links Checklist

• Search using your keyword

"Suggest link" +"keyword“"Suggest a link" +"keyword“"Suggest site" + "keyword“"Suggest a site" + "keyword“"Suggest URL" +"keyword”"Suggest a URL" +"keyword" "Add link" +"keyword" "Suggest an URL" +"keyword“ "Add a link" +"keyword“"Add site" +"keyword“"Add a site" +"keyword" "Add URL" +"keyword" "Add a URL" +"keyword“"Add an URL" +"keyword" "Submit link" +"keyword“"Submit a link" +"keyword“"Submit site" +"keyword" "Submit a site" +"keyword" "Submit URL" +"keyword”"Submit a URL" +"keyword"

“Submit an URL" +"keyword“"favorite links" +"keyword" "cool sites" +"keyword" "cool places" +"keyword“reciprocal +"keyword" directory +"keyword" directorys +"keyword" directories +"keyword"exchange +"keyword" resources +"keyword“links +"keyword" "your location" +"add url" "your location" +links "your location" +"reciprocal links“"your location" +directory "your location" +"submit site“"recommended links" +"keyword“"your location" +"suggest a site"

Checklist for New Sites

• Web directories (always hand edited) yahoo, dmoz, botw, sbd.bcentral.com and industry niche

• Write/Distribute press release about site’s launch• Use PRWeb, Eric Ward’s URLwire, Businesswire• Buy a few text links (i.e., advertise)• Start a PPC campaign - doesn't help with links but will

get traffic and perhaps noticed in your niche• Add a blog to your site and get blog search engine

traffic, links from other bloggers in your niche• Write keyword rich useful articles in your niche topic• Interested in “black hat” techniques?• Buy expired domains of sites in your niche and set up

a 301 Permanent Redirect to your site• Buy your competitors' sites or domains and redirect

Checklist for Older or Established Sites

• Analyze internal linking structure• Analyze current links, both incoming and

outgoing and read the sugarrae link thread• Stop participating in link schemes,

reciprocals• Jumpstart your site with new links - website directory listings (only majors) - write and distribute press release - add a blog to site and/or more content - advertise on other industry sites - write and distribute useful articles

Link “Do”s

• Don't be afraid to link out to good content• Make sure your links are always in

context• Get free publicity - Jeff Crilley

(www.jeffcrilley.com)• Analyze links of competitors (be where

they are if possible)• Get your products and feeds listed and

noticed• If you’re a black hatter or “innovative”

then buy competitors sites or domains and set up 301 Permanent Redirects to your site

Link “Don’t”s

• No links on same IP address or class C block

• No new links = a stale site• Don’t get too many new links too quickly• No site-wide buys with same anchor text• Stay away from paid links on off-topic

sites• No link schemes and bad neighborhoods• No link networks• No orphan pages (pages without links)• No blog spam, log spam, guestbook

spam, forum spam--even though some still claim that they work, especially with MSN and Yahoo!

Links “Outside the Box"

• Be first with link equity = authority• Posting breaking news means links and link equity• Give out free tool like free web space, free stats,

free blog• Links are necessary for pages to remain in index• Off-site links to internal pages help boost rankings• If you're selling a classified ad item then post item

on Craig's List - always add link to your site that has additional photos and more information

• Give out free information, perhaps free industry dictionary or glossary or calculator

• Have content others don’t have (e.g., photos, content, the Smoking Gun site)

• Get to know the bloggers in your industry - feed them your news, press releases, other industry information

• Contribute to non-profits for a link

One More Point

• Link building is a long-term commitment

• There's no magic pill

• There isn’t one link that will make you famous

Thank You

Bill HartzerSearch Engine Marketing

ManagerMarketNet, Inc.

www.marketnet.combill.hartzer@marketnet.comph 972.739.1900