Posts Tagged ‘link building’
August 13th, 2010 by Richard Zwicky
Are SEO’s and PPC experts more effective at driving referral traffic to a web site from Twitter than SMM specialists? That could be the conclusion based on data I’ve collected from a series of polls, so far.
A few weeks ago I started running some lists on this blog. My goal was to thank so many great contributors for posting relevant and useful information which would be useful to anyone engaged in online marketing. Some people are established, and well known. There were five lists SEO, PPC, SMM, Links, and Cross-Channel (meaning they fit in 2+ categories).
I’ve known many of these people for years, since before I started Eightfold Logic. I used a vote driven format, because I know polls always draw attention, but also because I thought their might be some interesting data to report. After a couple of system crashes, I’ve finally completed compiling the data and expect to begin publishing the results next week.
While I’ll publish the detailed lists later, I wanted to share out some interesting summary data in the meantime, and get your thoughts and input on a surprising result. Perhaps most interestingly to me: why is it that tweets by SMM specialists in support of the list of Social Marketers generated the lowest click through rates?
This first chart shows how many unique individuals posted, or reposted, a link on Twitter promoting each channel’s list. As you can see, the greatest volume of unique activity was for the Cross Channel and SEO lists. This total is not the number of tweets, but rather the number of unique individual who tweeted about the lists, and used Bit.ly for url shortening purposes. I selected just the bit.ly tweets as it’s simple to track.
This is where it gets interesting. Despite the unique activity levels for the SMM and PPC lists, the Social Marketer’s self-promotions drew the lowest average number of referrals per tweet. Could it be that SEO’s and PPC’s are the most effective Tweeters?
I’d love to hear your comments and thoughts as to why this is.
As for the raw numbers for these graphs:
|
SEO |
PPC |
SMM |
Links |
Cross Channel |
| # of names on poll |
29 |
26 |
24 |
32 |
42 |
| # of unique Twitter posters (who used Bit.ly) |
42 |
24 |
22 |
27 |
49 |
| Average # of referrals per tweet |
13.7 |
13.5 |
5.9 |
12.0 |
10.1 |
Details of each list’s results next week.
Thanks to everyone who participated!
Richard - @rzwicky
Tags: link building, linking strategies, links, marketers, metrics, ppc, referral traffic, search, search engine market, Search Engines, Search Metrics, search referrals, search traffic, SEM, SEO, SEO Link Building, SES, Social Link Building Marketplace, social marketing
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
July 31st, 2010 by Anthony Young
Is Google Planning to Kill SEO?
Bravo to Econsultancy for winning link-baiter of the week with this story. Econsultancy claims that “If a recent patent comes to fruition, it seems the big G may have plans to undo all your hard work in favour of their own know-how.” Back in 2004, Google filed a patent, which was recently granted, for something called ‘Enhanced Document Browser with Auto-generated Linkage.’ It seemed to me a rather broad description with multiple applications so I followed the link to the USPTO website to read the abstract.
The abstract states: “Additional documents are automatically located that are relevant to an original document, such as a document being read by a user, and also potentially relevant to personal information of the user. The additional documents may be located based on descriptive information that includes personal information of the user and content information of the document being read. The additional documents, or links to the additional documents, may be incorporated into the document being read. In some implementations, the additional documents may be presented in-line with the document being read, such as through an in-link link or text snippet. The user can thus be efficiently presented with additional information that is relevant to the original document being read.”
Huh? Kill SEO? My less histrionic interpretation would bet on Google implementing this in a way that would show users an overlay of related personalized content and information similar to what Google Maps does with local business information today. Or Google Adsense… Then again, that’s one possibility and only one personal interpretation. Remember, just because the patent was recently granted doesn’t mean Google hasn’t already implemented the technology described therein.
Near the end of the article the writer says: “On the other hand, it {could be} a dynamically generated, personalized link builder that works based on personal user preference, surely the Holy Grail of SEO.” Ahhh, so the shoe drops. Maybe SEO will live to see another day…
So what have we learned? This is a great example of how link-baiting can quickly build a large number of inbound links to your site (although I’m unsure of the success of this particular story). Just take care not to take too much liberty with the plot line.
Google Dynamic Linking
David Harry from SEO Dojo offers a more reasoned analysis of the newly awarded patent to Google on dynamically generated links.
Phase One Link Building Strategies
Greg Shuey writes an encouraging article for budding link builders on where to find that low-hanging fruit. He outlines five easy steps that range from internal linking of resources to directories and link reclamation (404 pages).
4 Ways Link Builders Should Use Twitter
Interesting article on using Twitter as an alternative to traditional link building activities. Not only can social media sites like Twitter help you find link building opportunities but also help identify hot trends and what’s going on in your particular niche in the online world. With a large enough following and the potential of retweets, site owners can garner significant traffic from links on Twitter even though they are nofollow.
Tags: link building, Linker, linking strategies, natural links, SEO Link Building, social links
Posted in Inbound Marketing, Link Strategies, Linker, Uncategorized, link building | 4 Comments »
July 18th, 2010 by Anthony Young
An Inside Look at Competitors Backlinks with Open Site Explorer
Competitive analysis is one of the first steps undertaken when embarking on any new seo link building campaign. Of course, segmenting your own linkgraph and understanding how you stack up against the competition is also a vital component to any strategy. This article provides valuable tips and insight on how to get the most out of Open Site Explorer when evaluating your competitors back links (as well as your own). There’s also great information on nine commonly used link building strategies and how you can apply them to your own efforts.
The Death of Natural Linking
A loud and growing chorus of voices in the SEO industry of late have been debating the efficacy of Google’s claim that if you build great content then attracting natural links will happen automatically. Serious webmasters understand that developing great content is still a necessary component to a successful business. However, obtaining natural links has become a multi-faceted problem that goes beyond simply building great content. Eric Enge advises site owners to invest in a mix of link building and social media as he believes social citations will carry more weight in the future.
Evaluating the Lifetime Value of a Link
How can webmasters maximize the value of a link building campaign? Assessing whether or not a potential link will stick around and continue to pass value (well into the future) is another important variable to consider when maintaining your inbound link graph. Link building is a notoriously time-consuming part of SEO and coupled with the high churn rate of new sites replacing old sites, the web is in a constant state of renewal. Identifying potential links with longevity will maximize the value of resources invested into building links according to Ross Hudgens.
Tags: link building, linking strategies, SEO Link Building, Social Link Building Marketplace, social links
Posted in Link Strategies, Linker, link building | No Comments »
July 15th, 2010 by Richard Zwicky
When contemplating link-building strategies you need to take the user experience into account. They should look at your citations (links) as references to substantiating or relevant documents. Search engines will use these signals to define your site. Consider the user experience when focusing on building contextually relevant links for your business, and you will be rewarded with higher amounts of relevant direct referrals and relevant search engine placement.
There’s been some excellent articles recently focused on this issue, including changes in natural linking by Eric Enge, Editorial Citation by Rand Fishkin and natural link building strategies by Michael Gray.
Michael’s analysis was interesting in that he took Google’s guidelines at face value, created great content, and spent only 10% of his time building links manually. After six months of blogging, Google represented just over 0.5% of his referral traffic. That’s a pathetic amount, considering how popular the posts were in StumbleUpon, Digg, and other social networks. In fact, when he analyzed his traffic, he discovered that the blog didn’t perform in the top 100 for even the simplest keywords. The exception was one post for which Michael did a little link building. Apart from this limited effort, certain posts which received over 30,000 views from social marketing generated almost no natural inbound links.
Now, Michael isn’t advocating that content doesn’t matter. It does, as it engages readers and entices them to return. His article restates a point everyone in the industry has been making for years: If you build it, they don’t just come, or in this case, the links don’t just happen, and the engines won’t just refer anyone your way. As Ian Lurie wrote: “content alone is not going to boost you into the top 10 for any even remotely relevant phrase”
Of particular interest to me in juxtaposition to the pieces by Ian and Michael were the articles by Eric Enge and Rand Fishkin. Rand hypothesizes that 20% of the web’s links exist to influence the search engines. That’s a lot of noise, but that also means 80% are not there just to influence search engines. Eric makes the point that 80% leaves lots of meat to work with and links are still a big factor, but he also estimates that you need to spend 30% of marketing energy into social media, which is interesting in the context of Michael’s lack of success with organic link building from social networks.
There’s an interesting question in Eric’s article, which every site operator should ask themselves: “If you aren’t good enough to be worth linking to, then what do you have anyway?” The answer is of course, you need to build better content. But, a hint to the broader correct answer can actually be found in the title of Rand’s article: Editorial Citation.
Rand notes this in his reference to three periods of linking: 1) early web; links were editorial like footnotes and citations, helping people navigate the web; 2) The engines incorporate web page links as a value metric in ranking algorithms (Google / Alltheweb/ Teoma); 3) non-webpage citations. Google’s recent patent publication which was reviewed by Eric Ward, supports this last point - see Eric’s point #5.
However, another point in the patent leads us in towards additional context: user interaction with links may determine their value, and may go a long way to resolving the dichotomy between the points these articles circle, but also may point search marketers towards clues around link building strategies going forward.
Links from different areas of the document will have different value, and will pass different amounts of link juice flow. Obviously, a link from one site to the next where the link is located in the main body content and is relevant to both the origin and destination will end up scoring higher than an irrelevant link, or links within footers, template side navs and the like. Which really is the point: links as citations are the oldest form of linking, and still carry the most value.
Tags: link building, links, Marketing, natural links, search, SEO
Posted in Google, Link Strategies, Linker, Search Engines, Search Metrics, link building | 1 Comment »
July 10th, 2010 by Anthony Young
Case Study: I Listened to Google and Failed
Graywolf’’s SEO Blog has a great article on why natural link building no longer seems to work despite Google’s insistence that if you write great content then you will attract great links. “If you build it, they will come” never really worked, which is why marketers constantly strive to build links, not just content. Most find the passive method of link development no longer valid as social bookmarking sites barely proffer consistent quality links over time to maintain competitiveness in the Google index for key terms. And folks just don’t link out like they used to for fear of leaking PR juice to external sites.
Where Is Your Link Army Hiding?
There’s a Trojan Horse in your link graph you may not be aware of… as inbound links age their power and authority deteriorates over time. Webmasters must remain committed to the link building process to maintain competitiveness in an increasingly crowded online world. But where do you find fresh, high quality links? Gabriella Sannino provides some basic advice on where to look for links relevant to your web property.
Link Building with the Experts – 2010 Edition
Rae Hoffman’s (aka sugarrae) second installment of link development interviews with some of the best minds in link building and SEO. This is a long interview (but well worth the time to read) with multiple link development questions posed to 11 top SEO experts.
Tags: link building, Linker, linking strategies, SEO Link Building, Social Link Building Marketplace
Posted in Linker | No Comments »
July 6th, 2010 by Richard Zwicky
Ten days ago, after a long period of development followed by extensive testing during our Beta period, Linker has been launched to the public for anyone to sign up.
In the early days of the Internet, before the search engines came along, navigation was driven by links which allowed people to jump from one place (document) to another. People used hyperlinks as authors use footnotes in reference texts. The purpose of the links were to provide citations, and to advise readers of other valuable resources which they ought to consult.
When the Internet began to become popular with the masses, marketers started using links as a means of traffic acquisition. I did this type of link building as far back in the mid 1990’s “Before Google” for my own businesses. This marketing trend was actually followed by, not preceded by the search engines recognizing the value of links, and embedding a weighting value for links into their algorithms. Of course, at first the search engine did things differently, valuing any old link as a positive score. When this link recognition system was discovered as a performance score value in search results, it was unsurprising that some marketers saw the opportunity and took advantage of it. What is surprising is how far away from the fundamental reasons for link building the noise in the marketplace has taken this strategy, especially in light of how strongly the search engines have driven away from volume. Their mantra could be qualified as back to the future in regards to link values.
The reality is high value links matter. Period. A high quality link is one which readers will find of value. Generally, these links are found within the body content of a document and the link points out to content on another page or site which is relevant to your content. Your link is adding perspective for your readers, and also helping build both your sites’ authority in the search results.
Finding great resources to link to is not easy however. There’s so much content, how do you know which are the best resources, and the ones which are the most relevant to you and your readers? Just as importantly, how do you get in contact with representatives of the right sites which are the appropriate matches for yours? This was the challenge I used to face as an online marketer, and the manual process I was explaining internally when we came up with the idea behind Linker.
I’ll be starting a series of posts shortly around the philosophy behind the Linker product, and how it came to be. The reality is, no one likes to get all those spammy “link to me” emails that flood our email inboxes. They really are useless Junk. Links from, or to these low value, low relevance domains won’t add to your site’s user experience, or add any value to your business in terms of visibility in the search engines. That said, everyone with any online marketing knowledge recognizes that link building is a formidable tool in any good marketing campaign. The point everyone needs to focus on is that good quality, relevant link-building improves the user experience of your web site, and at the same time also drives traffic via search engines and direct referrals. Addressing this need is why we built Linker, a context and relevance driven introduction system which people have labeled a dating service for online marketers.
Tags: Google, history, link, link building, linking strategies, links, marketers, Marketing, online marketing, search, search engine results, search marketing, search referrals, SEM, SEO
Posted in Linker, Search Engines | No Comments »
Observations from the Receiving End - Surprising Results in Poll Lists
August 4th, 2010 by Richard Zwicky
It’s been quite interesting watching the response to the lists about online marketers that I started published two weeks ago. . There have been over 3,000 voter submissions in the last week. That’s a lot more than I ever expected. Additionally, I’ve received many text messages, voicemails, DM’s, blog comments, and emails with suggestions of who else could be included on the lists; I appreciate all these notes.
Some people also chose to send me their own names for inclusion. One person appears to have submitted their name for inclusion ~50 times! Fortunately for you, I’m not publishing your name, but if you’re reading this, you know who you are. You’re claiming to be an Internet Marketer of some skill: Do you honestly not know that it’s easy to determine if traffic repeatedly originates from the same places or computers?
Other than the notes from a couple of manic individuals repeatedly suggesting themselves, lots of people sent me some great suggestions. I’ve been trying to follow-up on them by reading things by and about these contributors. There are some valuable resources I’m discovering, or re-discovering. Thank-you! Some of the useful suggestions are found in the blog comments of the appropriate posts.
The suggestions I’ve received go to the point of the series. It’s not been about who gets the most votes, but, that said, I will publish lists thereof. The attention seeking has been for all these valuable contributors whom I wanted to recognize via this forum. Some of the people on the lists are already well known, and justifiably so. Others are not well known yet, but they provide great information about different facets of online marketing, and should be a resource that anyone with any level of interest in the space can turn to for insights.
I do appreciate all the attention that these lists have generated, and hope that people will share the results widely – that only goes to accomplish the goal of providing these people recognition.
As for the voting; it’s been really interesting to see whose inputs are heavily valued, despite their not being common industry names. It’s also been extremely interesting to observe which channels have been driving the most traffic via social media, and other sources, as well as observing which channel’s traffic has the best user behavior once they visit the site. I’ll likely have a few posts coming out reporting on user behavior trends. Quite interesting really! For instance, as it stands right now, the day of the social media experts tweets drove the lowest RT and clickthrough activity per post or mention. Perhaps that’ll change before the lists close…
Finally, there have been two individuals who received no votes. (Bet you want to know who, eh?) I was shocked at who they were, and presume it’s because their communities did not overlap as heavily with the search or social marketplace community represented here. Hopefully they’ll learn about these lists before I close them.
In the meantime, if you haven’t checked out the lists of great contributors (or voted), please do so now at:
Search Engine Optimization Professionals
Pay-Per-Click Marketing Experts
Social Media Marketing Specialists
Link Building Masters
Amazing Cross-Channel Online Marketing Contributors
I’ll hopefully start publishing results next week.
Richard / @rzwicky
Tags: link building, linking strategies, links, marketer, marketers, Marketing, metrics, ppc, search, SEM, SEO, SEO Link Building, Social Link Building Marketplace, social marketing
Posted in Commentary, Inbound Marketing, Link Strategies, Marketing, Poll, SEO, SMM, link building, ppc, social marketing | No Comments »