This is a follow up to last year’s highly popular linking session. The panelists in this session are experts on linking and will take a critical look at linking strategies including outbound link optimization, outsourcing link building, old-fashioned linking via directories, and hiring an in-house link developer.
Moderator:
- Chris Tolles
Speakers:
- Jim Boykin, CEO, Webuildpages
- Rae Hoffman, Principal, Sugarrae Internet Consulting
- Roger Montti, Founder and Owner, martinibuster.com
- Greg Hartnett, President, Best of The Web
Kicking off the panel is Jim Boykin, CEO, Webuildpages who has a presentation.
What link building methods have changed?
- Link Trades
- Submitting to hundreds’s of directories
- 3 way linking
- Purchasing PageRank 8 and 9
- Link Brokers
- Linking sites together
- Paid blog reviews
Certain success methods. What always has worked?
It’s imperative for you to come up with unique and stellar content or have spell-binding images. Jim describes a day-to-day- kind of a technique.
- Day 1: Directories. Submit your site to good tried and tested ones and industry related ones.
- Day 2: Discuss about it in blogs.
- Day 3:
- Day 4-20: Write an article on linkbait, build free tools and widgets.
Disadvantages of linkbaiting:
hard to find links to pages you are targeting
hard to get links using phrases you’re targeting
Day 21 – 31: Study your computer’s links using free tools, WBP’s tools or by hand (yahoo)
How to check
linkdomain: comp1.com
linkdomain: comp2.com
linkdomain: comp3.com
linkdomain: yourdomain.com
Day 32 to 1000: Perform Google and Yahoo searches to get related & relevant web pages. Contact (via phone/e-mail) the owner of the site and request a link. Prove you are a human. Explain and sell them why they should link to your site.
What is the value of a link?
- How old is the site?
- Number and quality of backlinks?
- Quality of site? Number of .edu/.gov
- How interlinked to the main site is the page that the link is coming from?
- Are other sites linking to the page you are seeking a link to
- Who else does that page link to?
- Is the link park of the body
- Will the link be part of content
- What do you have to do to get it? do you have to build content?
- Who to link out to? – .edu, .gov’s and other webpages that does not rank above you
All in all, Jim stressed on submitting sites to good directories. Generate relationships by writing to people and proving you’re human and most important, telling webmaster HOW to link back to your site. He also relied heavily on research. To ensure that all the links you receive are relevant to your webpage.
Next up is Greg Hartnett, President, Best of The Web. His discussion is about link building via directories.
Q: Isn’t a directory just a paid link?
A: No way. As you have to
Pay for placement
If your transaction is successful, you will receive a link
submitting to directories
successful transaction results in a review
Q: Difference between good and bad directory?
A: Common sense
good directories have a history and reputation
include great resources
contain populated categories
such directories are user-centric
includes sites that have been added organically and not just submitted
Is it a labor of love? Does it feel good to you?
Q: What kind of traffic can one expect?
A: Digg effect. Meaning you will get
Minimal volume
Targeted
Converting
Q: Can a site be listed multiple times?
A: Sure.
– In some cases, one site can only have one listing
– Some directories allow deep links – if it makes sense then why not?
– Relevant content for the category
- CNN is listed 745 times in DMOZ
Q: Is the Yahoo Directory worth it?
A: Yes.
Q: Is the ODP corrupt?
A: Not as a company. A few of them do not show the overall value of the project (bribes, anti-competitive, and so on)
Q: Which are the most reliable and trustworthy directories?
A: Yahoo, DMOZ, BOTW, Business.com
Q: How can I get into DMOZ?
A: prayer?
Go thorugh the guidelines
Study and find out the most relevant category
Write good titles and describe your listing
Submit and move on, else
Become an editor
Q: How do I ensure my site gets listed if I go and pay for one of these review fees?
A: You cant
Q: Where can I submit my Blog?
A: Yahoo and Dmoz, BOTW has blog directory, Search Engine Journal “20 places to submit your blog”, Top Rank Blog “Top places to submit your RSS”
All in all, Hartnett stressed on how directories are not the same as paid links. Good directories also help in bringing relevant traffic. People who are in directories know what they are doing and are seeking specific entries.
Next up is Rae Hoffman, Principal of Sugarrae Internet Consulting.
Rae says that outsourcing link development takes on many forms. This has a long list. The glitch with outsourcing is that,a good firm can do a lot of good while a bad firm can do a lot of damage. If you are unaware of any, take a peek at the list of vendors who continually show up at conferences.
Look at the company’s own links. Is it all blabber or are they marketing themselves? You are who you hire. However, Rae isn’t big on outsourcing and prefers to do the job in-house. Train your link team as if they were marketing for themselves and receive traffic & links and not just e-mail
The best thing you can do is train them to be marketers, think for themselves and get traffic and links and not just send emails. Hoffman feels that in-house training is much better also you can monitor their work better and work closely until they get their own license.
Last speaker is Roger Montti, the Founder and Owner, of martinibuster.com. While working with a team, Roger asks everyone to cc each mail they send out. BOth teams, teh oen in the US and the other in India can do this both. Roger doesn’t feel comfortable giving total control to a team he has no idea about.
Advertising/Buying Links
Use banners as long as it serves as a link
Newsletters
Some get emailed while many of them remain archived and live on the site. Shell out cash for the email but keep the link
Paid Links
Roger’s a big fan of paid links. Asks for how anyone will receive anchor texts in any other way. Apparently, after asking your success rate will fall.
Blogs
Start by visiting a blog directory. Search for a blog which has a Google adSense unit about halfway down the site. This way it shows that you want to monetize the site. Contact them and see if they are open to ads. You can get site links for cheap.
Points to remember when buying a link:
- Relevance
- Do not mention PageRank
- No ads for non-relevant sites
- Year long purchase. 200$ looks better then saying $15 a month
Search Queries
- “advertise with us keyword -cpm
- Search: “rate card” -cpm advertisint”
- allintitle:”sponsors” -cpm site:.org keyword (this is done on Yahoo.com)
Buy websites
- Buy inactive sites
- Search “temporarily down for maintenance”
- Search allintitle: “site is offline”
- Buy under-performing websites
- To find a site that hasn’t been updated, do a copyright 2004
Things to look for:
- Archived links
- See if link is dedicated to a niche
- Search: “site of the monht” + keyword
- Site of the day and week, too
