This document outlines strategies for link building in 2010. It discusses the goals of link building like boosting rankings, improving domain authority, and driving traffic. It then covers the 8 main kinds of link building strategies like manual outreach, linkbait campaigns, and partnerships. Tools for competitive analysis and link evaluation are presented. Best practices for scalable link acquisition processes like checklists, training link builders, and building a link funnel are recommended. Shortcuts to take, like leveraging communities, and those to avoid, like manipulative strategies, are identified. The webinar aims to help match the right link building approaches with specific organizational goals.

1. SLIDE MASTER – COVERPAGELink Building Strategies for 2010
Rand Fishkin – December 2009

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Content in this Webinar
• The Goals of Link Building
• The 8 Kinds of Link Building
• Matching the Right Strategies w/ Diverse Goals
• Tools & Processes to Ease Link Acquisition
• Link Building Shortcuts to Take and to Avoid
• 40 Minute Live Q+A

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What Goals Can Link Building
Help Us Achieve?

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Bolster Individual Rankings

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Improve a Domain’s Ability to Rank Pages

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Achieve More Complete Indexation

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Drive Traffic & Branding Awareness

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Send Converting Traffic
Image Credit: websiteoptimization.com

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The 8 Basic Kinds of Link Building

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#1 - Manual Link Submissions/Requests

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#2 - Competitive Link Research/Acquisition

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#3 - Links via Embedded Content

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#4 - Linkbait & Viral Campaigns

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#5 - Content, Technology & API Licensing

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#6 - Partnerships, Exchanges & Trades

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#7 - Paid Links

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#8 - Link Reclamation

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Matching the Right Link Building Strategies
to Your Organization’s SEO Goals

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Links for Individual Rankings

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Links for Domain “Authority”

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Links for Indexation

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Links for Traffic & Branding

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Links for Conversion

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Using Tools & Processes to Ease the
Challenges of Link Building

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Tools for Competitive Link Research
• Yahoo! Site Explorer & Link Commands
• Linkscape + Link Intersect
• Top Pages
• Google Blog Search

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Yahoo! Site Explorer
Directionally indicative
within ~50%
Not necessarily followed & in
a somewhat random order

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Yahoo! Link Commands
Less “accurate” than
Site Explorer
Lots of cool, useful modifiers
available

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Yahoo! Link Commands
Full list available in PRO Guide to Advanced Search Operators:
www.seomoz.org/article/the-professionals-guide-to-advanced-search-operators

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Linkscape You want this tab!
Good for comparison
against other pages
and vs. PageRank
Highest correlation
with rankings success

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Linkscape
Important distinction –
some subdomains are
treated as entirely
different entities
Best predictor of domain’s
ability to rank pages
(watch for new “domain
authority” metric soon)

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Link Intersect
Link Intersect uses the same principle – sites
w/ links in common that don’t point to you.

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Top Pages
Find which pages are
earning links (your
own & competitors)
404s? Reclaim them!

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Google Blog Search
Results fluctuate 50-
1000% daily (pay them
little heed)
More useful to find
interesting/quality sites
that provide links

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Metrics for Evaluating a Link’s Value
• Numeric (Objective) Metrics
• Subjective Metrics
• Attainability and Effort

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Numeric Metrics for Link Valuation
• # of Linking Root Domains to URL
• # of Linking Root Domains to Domain
• Homepage PageRank vs. Domain mozRank
• URL PageRank vs. URL mozRank
• # of Links to the Page (Yahoo!, GG Blogsearch, Linkscape)
• Twitter mentions (Backtweets.com)

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Numeric Metrics (Backtweets)
Results count
(in a weird location)

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Subjective Metrics for Link Valuation
• Brand name reach/recognition
• Quality of other links on page/site (Bing - Linkfromdomain)
• Attainability and Effort
Jumping through Hoops (via WKA on Flickr)

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Scalable Link Acquisition Processes
• Written Process + Checklist
• Tools + Metrics for Quick Analysis
• Training & Incenting Link Builders
• Building & Refining a Link Acquisition Funnel

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Written Process/Checklist
Checklist (via adesigna on Flickr)
• Run through the link building process yourself
• Document every step thoroughly
• Pass it on to others (w/ some training time)

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Tools for Quick Analysis
Get usable metrics
quickly as you surf

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Tools for Quick Analysis

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Training & Incenting Link Builders
Training Camp (via Gil Searcy on Flickr)
• Do link building together
• Create consistent metrics
• Reward like a sales team
• Record reasons why links
didn’t happen (like objections
to sales) and work on these
(things like design quality,
affiliations, language, etc. will
come up)

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Building a Link Acquisition Funnel
Visit Link-Targeted Content
Grab Link Code
Link to the Site

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Link Building Shortcuts to Take
(and those to avoid)

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Get Your Community Building Links

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Direct Anchor Text & Target URLs
Auto-select-all for
easy copy to clipboard

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Recognize Helpful Links
Links to multiple high-
ranking competitors
Strong domain metrics
Strong URL metrics
Well-known brand

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ID Strategies Engines May Devalue

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ID Strategies Engines May Devalue

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Learn from the “Best-Linked” Sites & Pages

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Learn from the “Best-Linked” Sites & Pages

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Q+A
Use the chat window and direct question to “All Participants.”

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For more information, visit us at www.seomoz.org
All Content and Intellectual Property is under Copyright Protection, SEOmoz 1996-2008
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