Have you ever been in a situation where you have a conversation with someone, walked away and then 20 minutes later thought  ”damn, I should have said”… <insert witty, super-snarky, something Tina Fey would say> comment?

I do, something like that happened to me this weekend.  I was irked at myself (again) for not having a better come back and while I was stewing thinking about the situation, my link building light bulb went off.

Can you use “follow-ups” or “come-backs” to generate links?  Most definitely, here’s a couple ideas:

1.  Have you seen a press conference where the reporter asks a question and then asks for a “follow-up” after hearing the answer?  Most of the time answers generate more questions and this second question is known as a follow-up.

You can use follow-up questions to develop more content which will attract more links.  For example, if you interview someone, do a second, follow-up interview with questions generated from his/her answers.  The interviewee is invested at this point and will help promote the second piece to continue the attention he/she has gotten from the first.

2.  Having a second interview means you probably have a lot of content; once both pieces are live, break them down topically and use the interviews as reference material.  Create a new article around each topic, link back into the original interviews to support what you’re saying and promote for links.  Your new articles will gain links and attention and so will the old – double win!

3.  Two-part interviews can be seen as news worthy, be sure to tie in the subject matter with a current event (if necessary) and issue a press release announcing the addition of the interview to your website/blog.

4.  If you have a blog, go through your comments and look for hot topics and negative Nelly’s.   A “negative Nelly” (for me) is someone who disagrees with your position and says so by leaving controversial or inflammatory comments.

Publish rebuttal pieces and upload, make sure you contact the people inspiring the post and let them know its been published.  Hopefully it will prompt the Nelly to blog about your content or comment again which should draw more attention and traffic back to your blog.  (Note:If you’re thin skinned, this might not be a tactic for you).

5.  Having opposing views on a subject makes good news in some cases, ping the journalists/bloggers in your niche and show them your content.  Let them know it’s OK to republish your part if they want to, let them follow up with the other guy.

You may lose the snark fest short-term but keep in mind a good follow-up or come-back can generate publicity, traffic and links making you the ultimate winner!

-

from: Link Spiel

For more link building information, ideas and the occasional rant, visit LinkSpiel .

I found this little card in the bottom of my strawberry container, it’s a promotional offer driving people to a website or asking them to call in and complete a survey in exchange for a $5 coupon by mail.  

For such a little card the promotion sure packed a huge marketing punch.  Is there a way to use something like this to build links, drive traffic and build brand trust?   You bet!

Little Package, Big Punch

I did not contact Driscolls to find out why they were running the  promotion but if I had to guess, it was done for product feedback.  Surveys are a goldmine as far as I’m concerned,  there is a lot you can do with the information and outreach potential they have. From a linking standpoint, surveys alone don’t generate much interest but the content you create from the survey can generate a ton!

If I was going to develop content from a survey, I’d break it down into three types:  media link bait, Infographics and industry reports.  Let’s look at each.

Media link bait

Can you answer ‘yes’ to the following questions?

•        Do you know at least four (4) journalists from four different news outlets in your industry?
•        Have you collected their stories to get a sense of their topics and writing styles?
•        Are you paying attention to where your competitors are being featured news wise?

If you can, great!  If you can’t, it’s homework time.   Most people think “press release” when we talk about  targeting the media and that’s fine for certain projects but if you want solid media links and to become the ‘go-to’ source for your industry, you need to identify influential media and how to get your content to them.

No two reporters are alike, some like being contacted, others don’t.  Most have “how to get in touch with me” type directions on their columns and blogs, read up on their preferences and follow through.  If all else fails, pick up the phone, call the publication and ask for their submission procedures.

The world is not always on fire or experiencing a market crash so sometimes, reporters go looking for news.  Survey results are great as factual support or as filler pieces, here’s a good example:

The fact Gen Y like hybrids is hardly news but outside the election and SOPA drama, there’s little to report on.  It’s why this piece made it to the home page of USA Today and BusinessWeek.  (at the time I wrote this)

Bottom line here — if you produce content backed by research and know where and whom to push it to, chances are it will be used and linked to.  People like facts.

Infographic link bait

I know I raised a couple eyebrows when they saw my infographic suggestion, I’ll be honest, I’m not a fan.  But other people are and the media (still) seems to be so I can’t ignore their potential for some industries.  (#willuseanythingforalink-whore)

Using your survey results you can create and pimp an infographic for educational, humorous or controversial attention.  How and what you develop really depends on the demographic using your products.  Even the strawberry industry promotes them:

Tip:  These type of niche infographics do especially well with trade publications.

Industry Reports

This is one of my favorite tactics, I use it on clients all the time and it always, always, always works.  Just ask Rae or Rand or anyone else that culls information from a number of credible sources and produces a research document for an industry, this technique link rocks!

When you write an industry report you need to expand your circle of expertise and pull in sources from outside your company.  Be sure to include a definition of your industry, bio’s of the people contributing, historical trends, and outlooks for the future.  Journalists and the people contributing like this and will link to it as a result.  Use your survey results to support trends, and/or a SWOT analysis so your company remains a focal point in the report.

Simple Actions, Powerful Marketing

A promotion like this doesn’t have to run offline, you can do the same thing for your online business by creating a promotion and launching it through confirmation emails, product announcements or any other type of email contact you make with established customers.

The key phrase here is “established customers”; I wouldn’t run a survey promotion off a website,  you can’t be sure the people filling out the survey have actually used your product.   Granted,  I can’t be sure the people providing feedback through the strawberry promotion used the product but chances are they have since the special offer can only be found on the bottom of a berry container.

Link building is, and always has been about building links and gaining  trust.  Think about new ways to use factual information and your efforts will pay off in new links, traffic and brand trust.

-

from: Link Spiel

For more link building information, ideas and the occasional rant, visit LinkSpiel .

I’ve been attending SEO and marketing conferences since 2002 and have amassed a huge pile of totes and backpacks as a result.

I use them all the time, mostly for groceries but I also haul around library books, gym clothes and gardening tools in them.  Not too long ago a woman stopped me in the grocery store and asked about the SEO totes I had piled in the front of my cart, she recognized one since she had attended the same show earlier in the year. Small world!

I know I’m not the only one using my conference totes and backpacks at home, my friends do the same:

Christine Churchill and daughter Kaitlin. Tote in Kaitlin's lap is from the first SES conference Christine attended in 1999.

I’ve seen Christine use her backpacks around her horses, she has them in the barn, in the horse trailer, in the shed, in her pickup and hanging from her saddle horn.  She makes good use of all the conference bags she hauls home!

Mat uses his conference backpacks to leave home:

Mat Siltala bought luggage to match his SMX backpack. OK, not really but they do match!

Simon needs multiple backpacks  to carry around his stuff:

Simon Heseltine, AOL Bagman

If you’re saying “Yo Debra, where’s the link building spiel here”, have no fear.  Besides having a little fun, I wanted to use my conference images to show how you can take a simple item or idea and use it to attract links.

Link To An Authority

While I used the images above as a giggle and intro this post, I picked the bags because of the companies they represent.  Each comes from a well known and authoritative SEO/SEM conference,  I linked to them for a couple of reasons:

• They help reinforce my credibility as a professional.  I have been speaking at SMX and SES for a long time and appreciate the fact they keep asking me back so I do whatever I can to help promote and support both shows. My totes post may be corny but the sentiment behind it is heartfelt both personally and algorithmically.  Sentiment analysis and the way it is being used to influence rank deserves another post but I’ll  leave you with a link for later reading.

• Boosts my relevance factor.  Linking to the authoritative conference sites will not directly influence my current ranking but it will help establish where I belong topically and tie my site into the link graph.

Use Images As Link Magnets   I am frequently asked to share “advanced” linking techniques and tacitcs, I always reply “there is no such thing as advanced link building.  I really feel that way but will say there are creative link marketing tactics that go beyond the basics and are discussed less frequently which makes them seem more advanced. Here’s a couple of tips to try:

• Optimize your images.  Get permission from the people behind the photos to use them, this is a big deal for both legal and marketing reasons.  Hover over the pictures on this post and you’ll see they are tagged with the names and hyperlinked.  This is just good SEO as well as being polite, Google Image is still the second largest search platform in their stable so I want to be sure my images have a solid chance of being found when searched on.

• Use Flickr.  I do this quite a bit with images taken from client’s ecommerce sites.  Build a channel, publish your reprint requirements and promote the Flickr channel to your users, through your niche forums and via press release.  You have a new channel, pimp it!  A free image source is always well received, point your releases to the trade journals in your industry for added punch.  There are several image sharing sites online,  be sure to spread the wealth.

• Make an image video.  If you don’t have the time or resources to create a video, use your images to make one.  Search on the term “image to video” and you will find lots of companies with software or services to do it for you.  Develop channels at all the video sites and promote as you would images.  Include a written transcript of each video and add them to your site so you benefit from the new content.

Look at everything with link building eyes, it will pay off in spades!

Hey before you leave… If you are headed to SMX West in February and SES New York in March, please come by the Linking Bootcamps and say hello. My sessions are not for the faint of heart, I roll hard and fast jamming a ton of tips, techniques, and tools in the hour I have.  You will walk away with a great outline of tactics to use.

Christine and I are moderating each other’s sessions at SMX again,  she does a wicked smart keyword research and copywriting for search session so be sure to come by!

Thanks and see you soon!

-

-

from: Link Spiel

For more link building information, ideas and the occasional rant, visit LinkSpiel .

The Content Marketing Institute in conjunction with Marketing Profs recently released a study showcasing what “worked” in 2011 in regards to B2B content marketing and what they project will work in 2012.

Two things in the report caught my eye:  the fact blogs showed a 45% increase and case studies showed a 32% increase in perceived effectiveness compared to last year’s report.

The change in percentages made me go back and read the report a second time and that’s when my linkey senses started tingling.  The fact blogs almost doubled in perceived value  and case studies increased by a third is telling IMO and great information to have as a link builder.

Why?  I have been known to say it’s not what you do that matters in linking, it’s where and I stand by that statement.  You can have the best information filled with keyword anchors but if you put that content in a crappy article directory or on a two-bit blog, you will get no algorithmic benefit, no traffic and no brand boost.  Heck, even if you have crap content sitting on those kind of sites you get no juice these days, Panda has taken care of that.   The report points out blogs are being used with increased frequency and that’s great information to have.

You also know what’s turning bloggers on in terms of accepting content.  An article titled

” The shopping habits of women over the age of 39“

sounds good and can be informative but market it as a case study and suddenly the information takes on a different light.

Think about it.  If you were a well-known (translation:  well or decently ranked) shopping blog or a news outlet looking for information on shopping habits, would you be more inclined to look at content labeled “article” or content labeled “case study” when researching for the story?  Take the actual article out of the equation for a moment, if you had to go by titles, which would you choose?

Goes without saying the content has to be kick-ass and a real case study or the Editor of the national news outlet and/or blog will never give you a second glance (might even burn you publicly) but that’s a subject for another post.  I know blasting the article directories and network blogs with content is still a viable linking tactic but I also know it’s getting much harder for those kinds of tactics to affect rank.  Add to it the ties Google is (supposedly) creating between G+ and rank and now it really is about what you say.  But don’t take my word for it, take a look at the report and note the uptick in white papers, print magazines, ebooks, it’s telling.  No where does it say short articles from the article directories showed an increase in use.

Everyone is running around yakking about “quality content” to the point its become a joke.  Well, fine, but keep in mind quality to you may not be quality to me so qualify it with a label and help make the content stick out.

So here’s something to consider when building links in 2012:  how you label your link-filled, quality content can affect where it’s hosted and who recommends it.  Having a case study sit in an article directory or a crap blog will do little for your rankings, having it on a national news site or well known blog however, will.   Try to incorporate a label in your anchors or the text around your link(s) so it’s associated with the content, like this:

Case Study:  The Shopping Habits of 39 Year Old (cough) Link Builder

Here are a handful of tips working for me:

• Tie your author bio to your Google profile as well as your website
• Link to internal pages of your site to support information in your case study/content.
• Don’t shy away from using keyword anchors,  just use them conversationally rather than making it obvious they were hyperlinked to produce juice
• Don’t rely on content generation to produce all your links.  Mix up your tactics, mix up your anchors.
• Point your anchors to pages within your site that have been optimized for those terms.  You’d be surprised how something so simple has a profound effect on your rankings.

Link building will be super competitive in 2012 and you’re going to need an edge to succeed.  Give it to yourself by developing and labeling the type of content marketers are looking for.

—————————————————-

Before I sign off, a personal note:

This is my last post for 2011, I can’t believe the holidays are around the corner and the New Year close behind.  I won’t be blogging until we come back in January but I will be posting all the cool marketing and link building tidbits I find (and I find a bunch of cool stuff!) to my Facebook and G+ account so come over and join the fun.

 I sincerely wish you and yours all the best in 2012.  Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

images courtesy Content Marketing Institute

-

from: Link Spiel

For more link building information, ideas and the occasional rant, visit LinkSpiel .

Recently, an SEO/friend asked me to help him with a back link analysis, he had been contacted by a very panicked former client who needed help. The two had worked together for a number of years before the client brought his SEO in-house so the SEO was familiar with the site and responsible (in part) for its ranking success.

About two years ago (my friend was gone by this time) the client decided to sell space on his site.  He had been solicited repeatedly by link brokers and finally gave in. He started with two text links in the footer and then added two more a couple months later.  The links were to sites in ancillary industries, they used creative keyword anchors and blended with the content. The client was being well paid for their placement so when nothing happened, he added four more for a total of eight text links in the footers.

Life was good, the client was ranking in the top five for most of his terms and he came through Panda unscathed. The fact he wasn’t hurt by Panda isn’t surprising, the site has been online since 2003 and is an e-commerce property with a very strong back link profile.

But change happens and earlier this summer the site took a nose dive. Scared, the client turned to his old SEO friend who in turn, called me for a second opinion. After carefully reviewing back links, his analytics, hosting information and a couple other things, we both agreed the footer links caused his fall.

Why?  For starters, he didn’t just fall a couple of spots, he was no where to be found. We’ll never know for sure but I suspect someone did a spam report after noticing the footer links and the site was pulled as a result. When that happens it’s usually because:

1. there’s been a change to the ranking algo, or
2. pages linking to you went away, or
3. your site had hosting issues and went offline, or
4. you’ve been whacked by a reviewer/spam report/dmca notice

His inbound links didn’t change, he wasn’t offline, we heard nothing about an algo change or a DMCA complaint so it had to be reviewer/spam report.   Once we knew what didn’t happen, we came to the conclusion the eight footer links were causing the problem.  We convinced the client to remove the links, let us submit a reconsideration request and launch an awareness campaign to keep the traffic coming.  We then sent him off to increase his Adwords spend and got to work.  About 45 days later, after much groveling and the promise of a first-born child, the site popped (way) back in the serps.  Whoo hoo.

Here’s two interesting things about this little situation:

First, when the SEO told the client we thought the footer links caused the problems, he didn’t buy into it right away. Those footer links were on his site for several years and never caused any problems, he couldn’t believe eight little links were the cause of his downfall.   The SEO and I had nothing concrete to base our assumptions but since we ruled out everything else and know how much the engines dislike paid links, figured they were the problem.  Of course after the reconsideration request sparked dialogue with the search engine, he came around but initially it was a tough sell and that really surprised me.

Second, links in the footer area pointing to unrelated websites not only look out of place, they are easy for your competitors to spot.  Whenever I hear about footer links I’m reminded of this video Google Engineer Matt Cutts made:

 …”we do reserve the right to treat links in footers a little bit differently. For example, if something is in a footer it might not carry the same editorial weight because someone might have set up a single link and it might be something that’s across the entire site whereas something that’s in an actual paragraph of text is a little more likely to be an editorial link. So we do reserve the right to treat those links differently in terms of how we consider them for relevance, how we consider them for reputation, how much we trust them, all those sorts of things.”

Personally I would never take chances with my bread and butter sites especially if they were ranking well.  The client site I talked about earlier?  His site never rebounded to the top five, it’s in the top 20 now which is a huge difference traffic and income wise. The change affected his bottom line and forced him to cut staff hours and design updates.

I’ve long associated reconsideration requests with jail and probation; you do the crime, you do the time and then you’re watched and monitored down the line.  Once a website/page is flagged and goes through the reconsideration process, it’s highly unlikely the page is just turned loose, I’m sure there is some algorithmic stigma attached which means you’re going to have to work harder and smarter for a very long time to get back on top and stay there.

Having to do reconsideration requests is a huge time suck and causes needless stress, don’t make it easy for your competitors and the algos to be link finks, avoid buying or selling footer links.

Image from zazzle.com

from: Link Spiel

For more link building information, ideas and the occasional rant, visit LinkSpiel .

Wow.  According to ComScore:

• 1 out of every 6 minutes spent online is spent on a social networking site
• 1 out of every 3 display ads appears on a social networking site
• ½ of the total U.S. Internet audience visits a social networking site in a given day
• The average Internet user views more than 2,000 display ads on social networking sites each month

Great data to support creating an advertising program to push link marketing campaigns.

Develop ads to drive people to your content/blog; once they are there, capture email addresses and ask for the link at the end of each article.

Offer incentives as a way to sweeten the “link to us deal” and include social media buttons so visitors can share what they find on your site.

From the looks of the ComScore data, Facebook is the place to advertise at the moment but don’t stop there.  Ask (survey/poll) your customers about their online surfiing habits and advertise on these sites as well.  They don’t all have to be ”Facebook” types, smaller more niched sites work and send targeted customers at a lower price.

Use popular advertising channels to push people to your site and hook them with a clever link marketing program once they are there!

Before you go….

Check out the new Alliance-Link company page on Facebook, I’m dropping SEO, marketing, public/media relations, advertising and cool stuff in general I like and find helpful on the FB page.   I surf all day and find some pretty amazing info so LIKE the page and check it out!!

And thanks to Jill and Mat for helping me get the Facebook page up and running. 

-

from: Link Spiel

For more link building information, ideas and the occasional rant, visit LinkSpiel .

Warning:  Some of the links in this post lead to material not suitable for children or office viewing.

Does she know the secret of link building with images

I saw a variation of this question posed on WebmasterWorld recently, a member asked:

If I don’t want to spend time creating and distributing content as a way to get links, what else can I do?”

The person asking the question didn’t want to guest blog, issue press releases or create any kind of written content, he/she reasoned good content didn’t have to be about words on a page. Interesting point-of-view given the content hungry world we live in, who isn’t trying to out-do their competitors with attention grabbing written content?

I laughed when I first read the thread and thought “he’s looking for an easy way out ” but after thinking about it, decided there could be something to his question. The person asking made it clear he wasn’t looking for creative suggestions, he wanted to know where he could buy links.  But the conversation got me thinking about what you could do if you wanted to find different and creative ways to build links.

People in the thread responded by suggesting he beg, buy, swap and get directory links, all solid tactics but not exactly creative or different.  I’m painfully aware of the consequences of laughing off any marketing opportunity so I decided to sit down and think about what I would do to attract links without using written content.   When I say without content I mean not using tactics the guy listed as non-grata…articles, blog posts or press releases.   Let’s see how many link building ideas/tactics I come up with that don’t use articles, blog posts or press releases and don’t involve begging, buying, swapping and directories as a primary link building tactic.

Image Links

They say a picture is worth a thousand words so I agree content doesn’t have to be in written form to attract links.  No one buys Playboy for the articles, visits Brooke Burke to hear her rave about her four kids or goes to Art.com to read the artist captions.  Those sites are online to sell products and use images to attract attention, links and your loyalty.  Even if your site sells inductor coils, someone, some where at some time is going to want a photo of them; make it super easy to find and use your images in exchange for a link.  Here a handful of things to consider…

1.  Create an onsite image resource center and add all your photos.  Include an “image free to use as long as links/caption left in place” statement along with copy and paste instructions.  Embed a link and include descriptive keywords(meaning hyperlink a keyword phrase and not your URL) in the photo caption you place under each image.  Optimize the page like any other on your site, bookmark the new resource on Delicious, tweet the URL, Facebook, G+1 and add to LinkedIn.

Depending on your niche you can get creative with this new resource,  consider adding images and videos from well known experts in your industry as a way to draw attention.   Draw on the way Rae and Rand put together their group interviews every year, you can do the same thing with images as a way to augment your resource and attract even more links!

If I was allowed to use a press release I’d issue one announcing the new image resource but since we’re not allowed here, I’ll hit social media hard and encourage my friends to do the same.

TIP:  To make an image into a hyperlink, replace the hyperlink text with HTML image code. Images can have a relative path (/images/sample-image.gif), or absolute path http://yoursite.com/images/sample-image.gif)

<a href=”http://www.yoursite.com”><img src=”http://yoursite.com/images/sample-image.gif”></a>

 

2.  When you find people hotlinking your images (use Tineye  or Google’s new image search for this) write and ask them to link to you in return for using the image.  If they don’t, suggest linking may be preferable to being slapped with a DMCA notice or you tweeting about their theft publicly.  If that fails or your image is on a splog/scraper site, consider watermarking your hotlinked image with your Logo and URL.  I’m not technically inclined enough to walk you through the “how to do this” so check out the detailed articles here.  You won’t get a direct link back but your URL will be visible in the hotlinked image.  (Have a little fun with them like I did here)

3.  Build out a Flickr account with “how to link in exchange for using an image” instructions, add that account to anything you publish as a way to advertise.   You can also add your resource to this monster list of free image directories.  Be sure to take advantage of the profiles behind some of the directories, they allow do-follow links and linking opportunities.

4.  Include a link to your image center in your email and forum signatures as a passive way to increase exposure. (Especially since we can’t use press releases in this little exercise)

Using Widgets For Links

5.  Create a link embedded widget using a service like Widgetbox, visitors can download it from your site or you can do an email campaign and offer it to your user base.

TIP:  Find in-service widgets by searching on snippets of their code.  Backlink the sites these widgets are sitting on to discover where they are being hosted.  Offer your widget to the same sites and similiar sites.

Image Contests

6.  Run a contest and ask visitors to submit images of your products in action.  Add to your online image resource center.  Tweet/add to Facebook/G+1 each new image added.

TIP:  Once you have a number of images and the contest is closed, run a caption contest for additional exposure.

Image Blogs

7.  Create a blog dedicated to displaying your images, content can include:

• Images submitted by contest participants
• Images submitted by employees/vendors/customers
• Images from your site (with descriptions)
• Images from industry experts/gurus/celebrities

Ask the experts/gurus/celebrities you’re showcasing to review your image resource on their blogs, let them write and spread the content!

Two  More Things…

8.  Always add a descriptive caption or insert link text/alt attributes to the images you add to your site.  This will help describe the contents of an image file and assist those using screen readers.

9.  If you are sending out press releases to announce image properties, use a social media press release over a traditional one.  If you’re not familiar with social media releases, search on the phrase “social media release” (without quotes) and look at services like  Pressitt and Pitch Engine.

So, Are Image Links Worth a Thousand Words?

I think they are, especially if you can implement the tactics I’ve outlined here.  I did have to resort to some “begging/asking” with the techniques I outlined but overall, I stuck to the rule of not buying, selling, or swapping links.  I didn’t write a single article or blog post (got others to do it for me) but I did cave and suggest a directory and press release.  Sorry but I live and breathe those things so going cold turkey is probably not in the cards for me.

I don’t think an image link carries as much algorithmic weight as a link embedded in content (doh!) but when used creatively can result in some high powered text links.  Using images as attraction points is more work than using content IMO, and depending on what you’re showcasing, they’re probably more expensive too but they will definitely attract attention.  Just remember images are appealing but you’ll need a very wide variety to appeal to a broad audience.

There’s a number of good blog posts out there on using images for links, check these out:

Link Title Attribute vs Image Alt Tags, Which is Better/SEOBook

How To Build Links With Images/WolfHowl

Getting Links and Content from Flickr/SEL

Bing Upsets Webmasters By Linking Directly to Image File/SERoundtable

3 Way to Use Google New Image Search To Build Links/SEOMoz

6 Benefits of Image Linking/LinkBuildingS’cool

Until next time, good linking!

-

from: Link Spiel

For more link building information, ideas and the occasional rant, visit LinkSpiel .

Joe took the kids to Camden Yards see the Orioles play the Blue Jays this evening (Orioles won 6 – 2) and I have the house to myself (whoo hoo!) so I’m playing catch-up with email and my reading. Found several interesting things I thought I’d share:

In March of this year Google quietly launched a marketing booklet in the United Kingdom called Think Quarterly, a publication whose aim is to create a “breathing space in a busy world.  A limited number of books were printed and mailed to 1500 Google UK advertisers and partners, the rest of the world was invited to view the new magazine at the companion website:  www.thinkquarterly.co.uk.

A few days before the site went live, a Twitter account was set up and started tweeting:

If you look through the Think Quarterly tweet stream you’ll see they were tweeting their little hearts out until mid-May and then things slowed down.

In July, Google announced the US version of Think Quarterly, (it wasn’t much of a post even though it was written by that smart Susan Wojcicki).  I thought it was interesting she didn’t mention the UK launch or the Australian and Brazilian versions.  (shrug)  The announcement also marked the last time the Think Quarterly Twitter account made a tweet:

Take a look at their online magazine, there’s no Twitter button.  I can’t find a screen shot of the UK edition with a Twitter button either, doesn’t mean it didn’t exist, just that I can’t find one and I went through hundreds of images and had friend in the UK do the same on his Google.  In fairness, the official Google blog does have a Twitter and Facebook option under their posts but they’re gray and obsure whereas the G+1 button stands out and sports pretty colors.

Is this the start of the great Google kickout or their way of ”suggesting” people try G+1?  How hard will Google push to save their bonuses?  Is this simply an effort to stay “Googly clean” and not mess up their stylish magazine with Twitter buttons?  Or is the magazine new and they’re still working on it?  Who knows.  It will be interesting to watch how many of their Twitter  and Facebook accounts slow down or stop, a quick look shows some of them dead right now.

Switching gears:

There’s a video by Googler Jen Howard,  Head of B2B/Local Markets where she talks about how people can win at the Zero Moment of Truth.  (<– more on that in a sec).  Starting at the one minute mark, Ms. Howard makes some interesting comments, here’s the first one:

Another key change in B2B is also the length of the query itself. We’re seeing searchers become much more sophisticated, up to the point where now seven-term queries are actually not uncommon at all. And in fact, two to three terms still tends to be where the majority of searches happen, but seven is actually equaling in that volume.  So being very specific and knowing exactly what your customers are looking for and making sure that you are represented on those types of terms is increasingly more important.

 

 

Bold mine.  I know her focus is B2B but I’m hoping the seven word trend is universal.  If it’s true, this makes sense and is good news for those of us who practice link marketing.  With the emphasis placed on relevance lately and the fact it’s difficult to blend one and two word anchors without noticeable repetition, adapting longer keyword strings into content is good for ranking and user experience.  Win-win!

Here’s the second point, starts at the 2:38 mark:

The final way to win at the zero moment of truth is really about being flexible. One of the things that we prioritize at Google is speed beats perfection. It’s not important to have your marketing plan perfect and completely established the moment that you begin your new year. In fact, it’s better to have different strategies that you’re employing that you can test, learn, and then iterate, so that way you can scale the successful solutions for your business in a better way

 

Again, bold mine. More times than not when we run custom campaigns, we hire bloggers in future time-zones who are working as we sleep and can jump on stories and articles before the rest of the East or West coast wakes up. By the time we get to the office at 8:30 a.m., Europe is almost getting ready to go home and a whole world has been working and blogging.  Ideas, news stories, opinion pieces… they may be written in different countries but the content and principles apply no matter where you live.

She also mentioned having different strategies, I couldn’t agree more.  If you had a store on Main Street, you wouldn’t run Yellow Page ads and nothing else, you’d employ a wide variety of advertising campaigns so you touch a wide variety of people.  It’s same online, you need to implement multiple and varied link building tactics so you leave no link opportunity unturned.

So what is this  Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT)??

It’s an ebook written by Google employee Jim Lecinsk and available for download here.  Google launched it about the time they launched G+1 so it didn’t get a lot of play which is too bad because it has some very good data in it.  Actually, really good data like these eye tracking charts showing the influence of search engine usage by category:

I love this kind of stuff

A couple of winning take-aways from ZMOT:

As Rishad Tobaccowala of VivaKi says:  ”Don’t call them search engines.  Call them connection engines”

“Connection engines” – smart and oh-so right! Used to be SEO focused on being first and being found,  now it’s sooo much more than that.  Another good take-away…

Our 2011 ZMOT study found that 37% of shoppers find online social sources to be an influential driver when making decisions.   The top online social activities among shoppers:

• Getting an online referral from a friend
• Becoming a friend or follower of a brand
• Reading blogs where the product was discussed
• Seeing the brand mentioned on a social networking site like Facebook

Each one of those points can also be also be an influential link building driver:

• Are you more apt to link to something after you’ve seen a fellow blogger/friend link to it?
• Are you more apt to link to a page if you’re enthusiastic about the subject/writer/potential it has to make you look good?
• Do you link to pages to reinforce a point you’re making?
• Do you link to something you find funny/sad because you noticed a lot of people Liked it on Facebook?

If any of these points inspire you to link out, you know they’re doing the same for others.  ZMOT isn’t a new or novel concept, but Jim Lecinsk has done a good job putting it all down in an easy-to-read-book filled with good data, statistics and case-studies from private industry.

Funny thing though, there’s no Twitter or FB button on the ZMOT landing page or the PDF!   Maybe it’s something simple like they don’t want to mess up their stylish web page with Twitter buttons, or, the site is too new, or, they’re still working on it… who knows.  (shrug)

Deja’ vu?

Until next time – good linking!

from: Link Spiel

For more link building information, ideas and the occasional rant, visit LinkSpiel .

When demand for a product or service shifts, marketing responses shift with them. Changing consumer preferences drive what solutions are offered, to whom and for how much so when I saw the following ads, I thought “what the hell is driving this?”

I am the first one to raise my hand and say link building can be tedious, difficult, time consuming and uber boring,  but scary?  I’ve never associated fear with the process of securing links.  I’m not sure why these ads are running (no one from the ad company responded to my email) but apparently someone feels there’s enough demand to warrant an ad campaign targeting people afraid to build links.

Hmmmm.  Afraid to build links…where is this “scary” mindset coming from?

Not too long ago there were some very high-profile outings by major media of mega brands like JCPenney and Overstock.  People lost their jobs, pages lost their rankings and general embarrassment ensued but… did those stories scare people into not wanting to build links on their own?

I wrote the ads off as amusing advertising angles and forgot about them until I was sent this link last week, it’s an outing of a SEO company by the 9To5Mac blog.  Seems the SEO company sent 9To5Mac a basic link request and 9To5Mac decided to use the exchange for attention-bait.  The SEO company asked 9To5 to hyperlink a phrase in one of their recent posts on behalf of a client, they didn’t offer any money for this action nor promised a reciprocal link.  As a matter of fact, the SEO was very clear to say changing the link would be helpful to them and nothing more.  Instead of ignoring the request or saying no, 9To5 Mac decided to publish the email in a blog post and draw parallels between what happened to them with what happened to JCPenney.

Ouch!  Trying to fan the paid link flames when there is no fire is ridiculous and serves no purpose.  I’m not afraid of any aspect of link building but I am afraid of people who spread misinformation for the purpose of creating buzz.

There are a lot of ways to build links, one of the more basic but sound tactics involves sending link building requests.  If you’re not familiar with how this works, here’s a quick outline:

1.  Webmaster A wants to build links, brand and traffic to her website so she identifies and “targets” a handful of sites in her industry who fit the profile.  Because she’s a smart webmaster, she goes after highly visible sites her customers frequent when they’re not buying from her or doing something more mundane like sleeping.   She makes sure those sites aren’t linking to crap and the majority of pages are in the index.  As an added bonus, she checks to see if they are active in social media and their offline community.

2.  Webmaster A also makes note of what the target site publishes and when, she reads their content and becomes familiar with it.  This is what makes Webmaster A so smart, she knows she has to convince the target site to give her a link so she learns everything she can about it.  She even sets a Google alert for her keyword terms so she’s instantly aware when the target site incorporates new content relevant to her interests.

3.  Satisfied the potential partner sites are leaders in her niche, Webmaster A drafts a well-written note to target Webmaster and asks if he would add her link.  She makes a case why her content would be an asset on the target site and how both sites will benefit by the action.

4.  The Webmaster on the target site receives the email and decides what he wants to do.  If the email is convincing and he feels there is value by adding Webmaster A’s link, he’ll make an editorial decision to add her link (content) to his website.

The key term in this process, or any link building tactic sanctioned by the engines is  “editorial decision“.   When a webmaster gives a link or adds content  freely based on it’s merit, that’s an editorial decision.  This is the same concept used by newspapers and magazines to run stories and features, if the piece doesn’t add value, the editor won’t include it.  Presenting content (a link) to someone and asking them to include it doesn’t negate the editorial decision, the editor still has to decide if there’s value before adding it.  There’s no harm, no foul in bringing your content to someone’s attention, that’s called good marketing.

For reference, here are the definitions of ” link schemes” from both Bing and Google (actually, Google has two, here’s the other).  Both are good resources to keep handy and reference if you’re unsure about anything you read in cyberspace.

There’s a fine line between marketing and manipulation, but in this case, outside the fact the SEO company did a lousy job with their initial link request, I don’t see where this remotely resembles what JCPenney did or can be considered a “no-no”.  Do you?

Requesting editorial links via email shouldn’t scare anyone, it’s a sound tactic used by many with great success.  Not only can you secure links but this type of link building can opens doors and stimulate additional promotions and special events between two companies.

Sometimes all you have to do is ask.    

-
 

-

from: Link Spiel

For more link building information, ideas and the occasional rant, visit LinkSpiel .

Need a new link building technique or resource?  Here’s a handful of old link building ideas tweaked and twisted to help you find new links.

1.  If you use directories in your linking efforts, replace the word “directory” with “document sharing site” and search on your keywords to find new submission sources.  Consider submitting your content in various formats in addition to print.

2.  Many of the document sharing sites (such as Scribd and Issuu) allow PDF’s to be submitted.  Be sure to add a “Retweet this” image/link in your PDF’s so this content can be promoted.  (The bigger the image, the better.  I like putting the image at the end of the document)

3.  Promote the PDF’s you drop in the document sharing sites with a Twitter programming tool such as FutureTweets.  I wouldn’t submit the same PDF over and over, keep in mind what the engines say about duplicate content when you’re implementing this tactic.

3.  Use a tool like Tweriod and TweetStat to monitor when your tweeting community is most active.  Plan your retweets during these peak time periods and push out your best content.  (don’t over do it though, too much is too much)

4.  Looking for new content ideas?  Use Twitter Search to find questions being asked.  Write content to answer and then implement step 3 to promote it.

Develop content from questions asked on Twitter and other social sites.

5.  Grow your twitter base by using tools like Followerwonk and WeFollow.  Both search people’s twitter bio’s for keywords.  Since keyword real estate on Twitter is at a minimum, people tend to fill their bio’s with terms they’re most interested in so it’s pretty easy to find evangelists.    BTW, this is a great job for a summer intern or one of your teenagers, my two are doing it in exchange for new iPhones  ;)

In an interview I did on SEOBook in 2007 I made this comment:

It’s probably easier to hit the Powerball than to figure out what ideas will spread and net links for a website.    I’ve been wrong my fair share of times, sometimes it’s more about being first than being creative.

 

I still believe that, as-a-matter-of-fact, I believe it more now than ever.  Getting content out quickly is one thing, there’s a myriad of tools to help you push tweets, send press releases etc.  But what can you use to find out what that “something new” is?   How do you know when to jump and create new content or know your competitor might be up to something and trying to get the jump on you?   There’s a couple of tools/ideas you can use:

6.  If you’re into blasting new  or “hot” content  as a way to attract links, (think price changes, political comments, search engine updates etc) being first to report the news makes all the difference.  There’s a web page tracking tool called Versionista.com that emails when   “target sites change their content” and provides a “side-by-side comparisons of before and after”. That is very cool if you’re looking to do controversial linkbait, report on price changes or hold a politician/blogger to what was said.   Break a story or piece of link bait and you’re the one they credit with a link.

7.  And for all those toads who use your content and forget to link to you?  Run your pages through a plagiarism checking tool like CopyScape or Plagiarisma after you launch your linkbait.   If they’re not linking to you – ask them to.

It’s never been about what you do, it’s always been about where.  Find fresh sources to use standard tactics and you’ll keep the links coming.   Remember, it’s not link building, it’s link marketing.

(Disclaimer:  I am not affiliated with any site mentioned here except SEOBook.  Image thanks to Rob MacDougall)

-

from: Link Spiel

For more link building information, ideas and the occasional rant, visit LinkSpiel .