Link Development Lisa Myers CEO, Verve Search

#SESLondon @LisaDMyers

How to generate relevant links

SEO TOOLS

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1.Target audience 2.Link Analysis & management 3.Link Prospecting 4.Creative & Implementation

#1 { target audience

AGE

GENDER

LOCATION

Put yourself in their “shoes”

• What are they thinking when trying to solve a problem/finding info?

• What would they search for?

• What sites would they visit? @LisaDMyer

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Social Influencers

• Identify social influencers within the industry/market you are link building to

• Which channels are they using; Twitter,

facebook, LinkedIn?

@LisaDMyer

#SESLondon

{ link analysis & management

#2

tools...

What to analyse: The Basics

• Anchor text • Depth of links (what pages are linked to) • Type of links (sources) • Authority & Strength of links

Analyse your own site & your competitors!

@LisaDMyer

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Use of Anchor Text

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Depth of Links

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Type of Links

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# Domains Linking

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Filtering

Link Building Management

Assigning Tasks

Assign link targets to the right people e.g. SEO, client, guest post writer etc

Set a task in competitor view

@LisaDMyer

#SESLondon

{ link prospecting

#3

Finding Relevant Sites

• Keyword + “article” • Keyword + “blog” • Keyword + “directory” Keyword inurl: “write for us” Keyword inurl:”guest posts” Keyword intitle: “write for us” and so on... @LisaDMyer

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Large Scale Link Prospecting

• Using scraper tool (like this Chrome extension http://goo.gl/c7erv )

• SEOmoz APIwww.seomoz.org/api (Pro Acc!) • Excel Spreadsheet http://justinbriggs.org/quick-link-prospectingwith-scraper-

extension

Follow: @JustinBriggs @LisaDMyer

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{ creative & development

#4

Types of Link Development

• Utilising Existing Relationships

• Link Building

• Link baiting

• Article/Content Marketing

@LisaDMyer

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Utilising Existing Relationships

Often it is the simplest idea that gives you the

most link juice! For example; - Would your partners, customers etc link to

you? - Which University did the CEO go to? @LisaDMyer

#SESLondon

Apple.com Links to domain= 35.8 MILLION! PR=9/10

link building

Link Building

• Directories • Blog & forum comments Usually low quality so work best as

fillers. Should NOT be Primary Link Dev Strategy

link baiting

A piece of digital content (article, video, infographic, etc) that specifically increases the chances for generating “organic links”

{

GREAT IDEA funny

interesting

competitions

intelligent

newsworthy

educational

provoking

Host the content!

• This type of link development requires you to host the content on the domain you are doing link dev for!!

• Creating a fab link bait or social media campaign that is not on your domain = lost link equity

@LisaDMyer

#SESLondon

Spread the Word

• Once you have created the “content”, you have to SPREAD THE WORD! This is where social media merges in....

• Use the already identified social influencers!

@LisaDMyer

#SESLondon

Your Website

INTEGRATE

Landing/ Campaign Page

Email Campaign

Offline (mail campaign)

real examples {link bait

City Inn {advent calendar

Result

• LOTS of links & Social Mentions • Generated the equivalent of 50% of their

average monthly traffic • Increased email database considerably • Twitter followers increased by 300%

SEO-Chicks.com #SEScrapmas #SEO2022

#1

article marketing

Give something back

Have something to trade, why should they be linking to you?

- Content (must be relevant!) - Discount/competition - Breaking news - Free “something” - YOUR USPs??!!

The Process • Do your research (list of sites, find out as

much about the site as you can) • Hunt down most appropriate contact • Tone of voice in email, although best to call! • Tailor your email to person • Be direct, don’t waffle. • Develop a relationship • Follow up • ALWAYS, ALWAYS be polite and personable!

Writing the content

• Spend time writing the article, it’s got to be good! Include stats, research or similar.

• Make sure the angle is appropriate for target site • Including keywords that you are targeting for

surrounding text • ANCHOR TEXT (ideally your main target

keyword) • Stay away from main keyword in HEADLINE

though, as you don’t want them to rank ABOVE you!

real examples {article marketing

Yale Door

• Needed links and relevant traffic from websites with similar or relevant content

Angle/Idea - Free “keyless lock” competition/give away - First 10 orders of the composite door get’s

free lock worth £200

@LisaDMyer

#SESLondon

Stuff.TV inks to domain= 378,071

Monthly visits circa.150,000 (UK) circa 240,000 (global) 74% male readers 67% of visitors between 25 – 44

Coolestgadgets.com Links to domain= 425,886 Monthly visits ca. 60,000 (UK) 72% male readers 60% of visitors between 25 – 44

Wired.com Links to domain= 7,79 MILLION PR= 8 Worldwide readership

Thank You! Email: lisa@vervesearch.com Web: www.vervesearch.com www.stateofsearch.com www.seo-chicks.com

#SESLondon @LisaDMyer

@LisaDMyer