One of the difficult things of trying to share ideas, or teach a concept to large group of people is the different levels everyone is at. What some people consider advanced others consider intermediate. The second problem is the larger and more diverse the audience, the more general and ambiguous the examples have to be.

Ask any advanced SEO to describe what they want in a link and you’re likely to get something like this …

“A keyword rich link from a well linked/important/popular page on a trusted and authoritative website, that is preferably topically relevant to your site”

The problem is that a definition like that has so many loosely defined concepts it’s borderline irrelevant to someone who doesn’t have some level of experience. The most ambiguously defined part of that statement is “trusted and authoritative website”, because there’s no real publicly available/agreed upon metric for trust and authority.

Enter the page rank conundrum. If I were to tell you I need you to work on getting me at least a dozen links from trusted websites in the next 30 days, how can you be sure you met my definition for trust? If I was to tell you get me a dozen links from websites with a page rank 4 or higher, it’s a much more clearly defined goal.

However page rank is no longer an accurate measurement of anything. Since google has admitted that they will adjust/manipulate page rank of sites they believe are selling links, and those adjustments will trickle down/out, page rank is really just for entertainment purposes.

We’re back to the problem of not being able to give a quick and easy metric to teach/show people what’s a trusted/authoritative website, and there’s no way for them to asses accurately. Lots of experts, myself included, use the NY Times or the Wall Street Journal as an example of trusted websites. While it’s true they are trusted, it’s a cop out answer. Since the only way you are going to get into those papers is do something newsworthy (like run over your neighbor with your parakeet behind the wheel of your hummer), or have a high paid PR person on your payroll, they are relatively unattainable.

The only real answer is research and gaining experience. Use lots of other metrics, alexa, compete, technorati, quantcast, hitwise, feed burner and page rank. Look for numbers/statistics that line up and correlate. Look at the blogs in that space, see who is getting the most citations/links. Getting a good grasp of the space is not something you can do accurately just by looking at the little green pixels in your tool bar, but until one comes up people will continue to use it as crutch, because it’s quick and easy, and nature abhors a vacuum.

Disclaimer
when I mention page rank in this article I am referring to published toolbar page rank. I am of the belief that there is an internal page ranks value that still matters. When you hear engineers say things like “page rank is still a factor in our algorthym” ask them if they are talking about published toolbar page rank, and then watch as they shuffle step and avoid answering the question entirely

Need SEO help with your website, look at my SEO Consulting Services

This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review.

Teaching Advanced Link Building and Why Pagerank Will Never Die

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The following is a Guest Post from Everett Sizemore.

The ethics of paid links aside (we all know how Michael Gray feels about that already) the best paid links don’t usually come from a network or broker, and aren’t generally thought of as ‘paid links’ in the first place – though they are. In fact, they don’t even come from someone who knows what a nofollow tag is, or why selling links is against Google’s guidelines. And regardless of the fact that they are paid, Google doesn’t seem to mind them so long as they are on-topic and coming from a reputable website. As the title suggests, this “link buy” comes in the form of sponsoring an event or website. The trick is to find sponsorship opportunities that are in your corner of the web (read: on-topic).


Here are five search queries to help you find such links:

Yahoo (links lead to real examples)
linkdomain:yourcompetitorsdomain.com sponsor
linkdomain:yourcompetitorsdomain.com sponsors

Google (links lead to real examples)
keyword inurl:sponsors
keyword inurl:sponsor
keyword intitle:sponsors

As always with link building, be on the look out for redirects, nofollow tags, etcetera… But you’d be surprised at how few PR7 and PR8 web pages out there list links to sponsors using normal hrefs.

I’m sure by now you get the point. Try switching “sponsor” with “advertise” and see if the site has advertising that doesn’t use redirects, tracking links or nofollow tags. You might be thinking that it is easy for Google to see if the word “sponsor” or “advertise” is in the URL, Title or even somewhere on the page – and you would be correct. However, I have not found this to have a negative effect on the quality of that link so long as it is on-topic and the link involves two reputable sites. I’ve studied competitor’s incoming links enough to know that some of them are competitive in the SERPS for certain keywords largely because of a few well-placed sponsorship logo-links with good Alt text pointing to the right page.

But why stop there? As many of you probably know already, the physical location of a website plays a role in your local rankings just as a topical site plays a role in your rankings for those topics in the traditional SERPS. If, for instance, I had a Denver home construction business, I would want to get links from Denver websites, and from construction websites – preferably both. How might some of these queries look?

First, let’s find some sponsorship opportunities on websites here in Denver, Colorado with some decent page rank and SEO-friendly links by using Google Maps (Denver, Colorado sponsors). You may notice that those results are less than stellar. That’s because Google assumes we’re looking for a ’sponsor’ businesses in their Google Local database. BUT, if you select “Show Search Options” and then “Show Mapped Web Pages“ and re-apply the search, you’ll see a number of opportunities, including this one: http://www.builtgreen.org/directory/sponsors.aspx . That’s a nice PR-4 page. I wonder how much one would have to donate in order to become a sponsor?

eCommerce Sites
If you have a product to sell, the best way to pay for links without actually “paying” for them is to send out samples. I’ll let you use your imagination here on finding the appropriate sites, but you might want to start by finding out who has reviewed your competitor’s products. And don’t just focus on small blogs. I’ve managed to get reviews in major national magazines and newspapers, as well as some of those annoying websites that you see ‘about‘ every topic in the search results. Even reporters and bloggers for major magazines like free stuff. The trick is to make contact first and not ask for the link. Nine times out of ten they’ll link to you anyway, so don’t push your luck by making it obvious what you’re after.

Socialize with Everett: http://twitter.com/balibones

Need SEO help with your website, look at my SEO Consulting Services

This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review.

Five Search Queries to Find Sponsorship Link Opportunities

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In case you haven’t seen it Stoney deGeyter over at Pole Position Marketing put up a Link Building Secrets guide today featuring tips from 12 people including your truly, so head on over and check it out.

Need SEO help with your website, look at my SEO Consulting Services

This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review.

Link Building Secrets

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When someone asks me to look at their backlinks there are two problems that continually popup, websites supported by lots of tiny weak links, or websites supported by one single overwhelming link. Neither case is pretty, and if your website is like the house pictured above it’s easy to see what a precarious position you’re putting yourself in.

First lets talk about link data, what types of data should you be looking at and how do you get it. Most pro/expert linkbuilders have their own set of in-house tools, and they aren’t for sale or rent. However as a newbie or intermediate SEO with a limited budget and resources you shouldn’t despair, there are options. Aaron Wall has a backlink analyzer he offers for free, Greg Boser has another free tool eSpion. There are numerous commercial applications, I like and still use SEO Spyglass (see my review of SEO Spy Glass) and since you’ll ask, yes I did pay for my copy, and no that’s not an aff link.

The types of information you’re going to want should included but not be limited to are:

• Domain link comes from
• URL link comes from
• Anchor text
• IP of domain
• Pagerank of domain
• Pagerank of Page
• Alexa Score of domain
• Title of Page
• Meta Descrption of Page
• Age of Domain
• Domain in DMOZ
• Domain in Yahoo Directory

As you can see gathering all this data by hand could take a tremendous amount of time, so it’s a perfect time for a mechanical grunt, to do the heavy lifting for you.

Once you’ve got all this data you want to analyze it, one of the easiest problems to spot, is the treetrunk problem. Imagine if your website was like a tree house sitting firmly nestled in the branches of a mighty oak. As strong as the oak may be, that doesn’t mean it’s going to last forever, and when it falls down it’s going to take your house/website with it.

Characteristics of this type of “treetrunk” problem can be:

• A majority of links that come from one domain
• A majority of links from one IP/C-Class
• A majority of links with identical anchor text/surrounding text
• A majority of the links coming to a single page

Now no website is ever supported entirely by another single website/IP/anchor text but when you start to have upwards of 50%, 60%, 70%, 80% or more it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out something is amiss, and this isn’t “natural linking pattern”. The same is true for your pages that are being linked to. Goofy linking policies aside, if 100% of your inbound links come only to your home page, you are in trouble.

The “house on stilts” flaw is almost as easy to spot. The primary characteristic of this condition is nothing but low quality inbound links. There may be a extreme diversity of anchor text, IP’s, and destination URL’s however, like a Buy One get One Free sale at Payless Shoes, the quality is often lacking. This type of linking pattern can have hundreds or even thousands of links from PR0-PR3 pages, from sites with poor alexa rankings, no quality directory support for the originating website, and domain ages of 2 years or less. Some of the causes for this condition can range from the MSSA penalty to a lack of sophistication or web savvy from the site owner/webmaster.

So what’s the solution?

You want to build as many quality links, from as many trusted sources as possible, with as much differentiating anchor text, to as many different pages, over a prolonged period of time. While concise that was probably about as helpful as Sams “How to Build a Nuclear Reactor in 24 Hours” book, so here are some slightly more instructional links:

• Creating Flagship Content – by Chris Garrett
• Link Building Strategies the Work – By Brian Clark
• 5 Link Building Experts & 11 Link Building Experts – interviews by Sugarrae
• How to Build Links to Crappy Website – by Martinibuster
• Ultimate Guide to Linkbaiting and SMM – by Andy Hagans
• Almost everything in Link Week – by Eric Ward
• Why that site with 50 backlinks beats yours – by Jim Boykin
• How Links Can Build Value & Profits by SEO Guy Aaron Wall
• Everything in the Link Building Category of the Semmy’s – organized by Matt McGee

One of the things that I think is important to take notice of is that almost everyone who’s a strong link builder is an advocate of high quality content/copy, I don’t think that’s by accident or purely coincidental either, links and content go hand in hand for any successful website.

Photo credit: Collin McMillan and skampy

Need SEO help with your website, look at my SEO Consulting Services

This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review.

Link Building and Development Mistakes – Treetrunks and Houses on Stilts

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When I try to combat the Google paid linking FUD one of the retorts I quite often get is “people shouldn’t be able to buy their way to the top”. I find this naive belief that business is egalitarian really very quaint.

Now I fully agree with Matt Cutts (bet you never thought I’d say that) that link baiting and viral marketing, are probably the best ways that you can get the most bang for your buck, or links for your work. However I know most of the people who are offering linkbaiting and viral marketing services right now, and almost every one of them is really busy. I also know that none of them are dirt cheap. So if you want to hire someone who’s experienced it’s still going to cost you.

So, what about the little guy? Do you think the local bike shop, skate store, yoga studio or karate school can afford to hire any of those linkbaiting consultants? Watch their face when you tell them the price. Well running a small business is always about bootstrapping and leveraging your own elbow grease, so maybe they can learn to do it for themselves.

Understanding how to write great copy that everyone will enjoy and that the linkerati will link to is a skill. It’s not something you can learn to do overnight. I can tell you in my experience getting local business owners to write plain boring information articles is about as easy herding cats on an ice skating rink while you are blindfolded. Telling them they now have to learn how to write link bait style articles and then figure out how to promote them, is like telling them they have to hop on one foot to the ice rink in China first. Let’s be honest many of these small business really can’t and don’t want to write, they opened a dance school because they liked to teach others how to dance, not run an editorial desk.

Having access to a bigger budget always has and always will be an advantage. It lets you buy things like print, TV or radio ads. A bigger budget means you get a better publicist with more connections who gets you more “free” publicity. A bigger budget lets you hire more experienced employees who will help you do better work and grow your business. Cutting off paid links isn’t about leveling the playing field for the little guy, in fact quite the opposite. Cutting off paid links is all about consolidating power, specifically at a company who’s headquarters are located in Mountain View California, and taking one more variable they can’t control out of the equation.

This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review.

It’s Not About Buying You’re Way to The Top

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One of the things I hear a lot is how do I do link bait for a boring industry like <insert industry here> . All you really need to do is think out of the box and go with a trend.

For example how about Ghost Riding the Whip

You could come up with whole slew of articles, what is it, talking to your teen about it, how much is causes in damages, how it can raise your insurance, the list is practically endless.

Tags: linkbait, seo, trends, ghost ride the whip, ghost riding the whip

This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review.

Ghost Riding the Whip – Insurance Linkbait

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In case you haven’t made your way over to Aaron’s Blog recently check out the 101 Link Building tips that he and Andy Hagans put out. It’s got some great tips that should required reading (and rereading) before you start thinking about linking.

This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review.

Link Building Tips from the Pros

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I get emails for link requests all the time. Two or three times an enterprising individual picked up the phone and left a voice mail for a link request. Today I got my first link request through a MySpace message …

This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review.

My Space Link Requests

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I’ve been busy tearing down, ripping apart, fixing, and rebuilding some of my own sites and some clients sites quite a bit lately. I’ve been neglecting my linkbuilding and decided it’s time to get back on track here are few tips you might find useful in helping you build some links.

The majority of my sites happen to be commercial in nature and unless you happen to be Amazon or Walmart you’re going to have a harder time getting links so you need to make it look like your a legitimate long term business, and not a fly-by-night thin affiliate.

Turn off or Tone Down the Ads
I know lots of people disagree with me on this and feel it’s some sort of bait and switch convincving someone your an informational site when in reality you’re an advertising site. I’ll leave them to debate the issue while I’m off building links. First turn off the Adsense, if you built your site the right way you have some way to disable it in your template or in your code. Secondly turn down the level of affiliate banner advertisements.You don’t need to eliminate them just try to look more like Main Steet than the Las Vegas Strip.

Use the Right Email
If you have more than 50 domains chances are you are forwarding all of your emails for all of your domains into a catch all account. When link building you need to get personal and go back (at least temporarily) to an individual account. You can get away with a GMail account in a pinch but it’s too big brotherish when link building for my tastes. I get much better response when using an email that’s from the domain I’m working with. You can use generic accounts like webmaster@example.com, contact@example.com, or info@example.com but I’ve found Joe@example.com, SusanSmith@example.com, and TJones@example.com get the best results.

Get Your Foot in The Door
You’re trying to establish a dialog, not blast out 10,000 “link exchanges are good for your Google page rank” type emails. I wouldn’t even mention that you are looking for a link until later on. Ask a question, point something out, or otherwise say something meaningful in your email, remember everyone is busy so be concise. Of course you will have had to actually look at the site and read a page or two, and remeber the person you are talking to may not be a check the email every 5 minutes type of person, so keep the pace a little slower.

Getting Past First Base
If you’ve gotten a response back from the person and things are going well, and “feel right” make your move asking for a link. Point out some relevant parts of your site (not your homepage) ask politely for a link. Don’t demand one, don’t write back in 2 weeks asking where your link is, or otherwise make a ding-nut of yourself. (see The Art of Writing a Good Link Request)

Moving Past Article Directories
Used properly article directories are still somewhat effective, however you need to start preparing for the day when they aren’t. I know lot’s of folks favor the blast them out over a bazillion article directories and see what sticks. I prefer cherry picking 8 or 10 who are of the right quality or in are in a specialized vertical market (look at me using big words and all). If you’re really going to work the article submission thing check out these tips from Tony Hill!

Trust by Association
As Todd recently noted Google’s Trust Knob is WAY too High. Now you can go find your mates and cry into your pint about it or you can roll up your sleeves and start working it. Find the places Google’s giving the love to like Criagslist subdomains and start spamming working it. Next start laying some of the foundation and building your own trust. Write to any colleges with pages on your subject and try to get a link to your stuff included.

Another way is to find people who are new and look like they are going to be trustworthy and get in with them on the ground floor. Just remeber choose the right Link Neighborhood.

Interviews
Give interviews, get links … get interviews, get links … interviews = links, any questions?

Related Information

• » The Art of Writing a Good Link Request – Stuntdubl – SEO Consultant
• Tony Hill’s Blog » A couple of article directory tips
• » The Trust Knob is WAY too High – Google Trustbox – Stuntdubl – SEO Consultant
• Picture of Link Neighborhoods – Jim Boykin’s Internet Marketing Blog

This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review.

Looking at Link Building Tips

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When you are looking for “polluted” areas on the web two that immediately leap to mind are travel and real estate. I don’t think that it should come as shock to anyone that searchers are starting looking places other than search engines for information.

Big portals like Travelocity and Orbitz will always get the lions share of the traffic, however there are other ways to get visitors if you look to get people a little earlier in the buying cycle. So how can you get start spamming using social bookmarking and community driven online tools to drive traffic to your websites? Here’s something I recently rediscovered 43Places.com. They are part of the whole “43people” and “43Things” community of sites. In fact once you create a profile on one you create a profile on all of them (check out mine Michael Gray). Here’s a review I made about my recent trip to Chicago. Notice that clean and groovy link back to my site? My review is really for illustrative purposes by I don’t think it’s spam. Notice the placement and wording of my link it’s “natural” enough to make you want to check it out without trying to look like I’m trying to sell you a timeshare.

If you’re looking to start using this technique here are a few tips I’d try:

• Have some pictures
• Be concise (from both attention holding and productivity point of view)
• Have more in depth information on the follow up page
• Don’t write like an infomercial

This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review.

Building Traffic to a Travel Website with 43Places

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