Linking Strategy Ideas from SES
I was fascinated by the Linking Strategies Session at Search Engine Strategies, San Jose, on Wednesday morning, August 9, 2006. The panelists -- Eric Ward, Greg Boser, Debra Mastaler, and Mike Grehan -- substantially increased my understanding of live approaches to obtain links -- mainly non-reciprocal -- from a number of sources. Some of the topics discussed included link reclamation, holistic link building, blogs, RSS feeds, social networking sites, etc. The goal, of course, is to get high quality links that will ad value -- and PageRank -- to your website.
I was fascinated by the Linking Strategies Session at Search Engine Strategies, San Jose, on Wednesday morning, August 9, 2006. The panelists -- Eric Ward, Greg Boser, Debra Mastaler, and Mike Grehan -- substantially increased my understanding of live approaches to obtain links -- mainly non-reciprocal -- from a number of sources. Some of the topics discussed included link reclamation, holistic link building, blogs, RSS feeds, social networking sites, etc. The goal, of course, is to get high quality links that will ad value -- and PageRank -- to your website.
Eric Ward of EricWard.com talked about Link Reclamation -- how to recover links to your site in case your webmaster inadvertently changes all the URLs in a site update. He explained the importance of setting a 301 redirect. In the worst case when a domain changes, you might need to contact each linker requesting a change in the link.
Eric also discussed holistic link building, suggesting that you pursue links to all the types of content you have on your site. He noted that there are directories where you might pursue links that specialize in each of the following types of content: blogs, RSS feeds, audio and video on your site, podcasts, content designed just for kids or teachers, contests and sweepstakes, white papers, discussion boards, and webcams. He also encouraged looking for industry-specific and content-specific search engines, directories, and web guides.
Greg Boser from WebGuerrilla.com recommended using Yahoo! Site Explorer (siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/) to see what competitors are doing. He explained how developing a web tool on your site can bring a bonus in free links, especially from software directories, helping to separate you from your competitors. He used the example of MarketLeap's online SEO tools (www.marketleap.com/services/freetools/). When buying links, he suggested not using the very same link anchor text over and over again -- look more natural. Also only purchase links with a PageRank similar to the average sites in your space -- don't stand out to the search engines with links from high PageRank sites if others don't have them.
There was some discussion of the value of links from .edu and .org sites -- with the conclusion that the domain type probably wasn't so valuable as the age of the domain and status of the organization. Boser suggested making a donation to a charity or become a sponsor of a college or university and getting a link on their sponsor page for $200 or so. He saw blogging as one of the quickest ways to develop links and noted that the WordPress.com domain itself ranks well, home of popular blogging software.
There was some discussion of using subdomains for a blog site rather than a new domain. Boser suggested the value in a subdomain as a way of preserving the credibility of the brand and of the main URL, especially if it is well-known.
Boser also mentioned SearchStatus, a toolbar for Firefox and Mozilla browsers that for each site you visit gives you its Google PageRank, Google category, Alexa popularity ranking, Alexa incoming links, etc.
Panelist Debra Mastaler of Alliance-Link.com recommended the basic "base-line" linking strategies, including directories (both general and niche), RSS, articles, podcasts, blogs, and wikis, seeing the potential here of 60+ directories. Some that she suggested are Best of the Web ($49.95 annually) GoGuides.org ($69 one-time fee), BlogPulse, Podcasting News, Topix.net, Ezine@rticles, BlogStreet, DMOZ.com, 2RSS.com, Joeant, WiredSeniors, Podcast Alley, and pb Wiki. She said to avoid directories that host excessive ads. Others can be found with MarketLeap, PubSub, and Bot a Blog. Associations can be found at The Internet Public Library | Associations on the Net section.
She also recommended getting the free Back Link Analyzer from SEObook.com and join one of the virtual chambers of commerce for the link value.
Mastaler recommended creating a corporate blog to complement your main website. She sees corporate blogs and Wikis as a way to create a lot of content on your site to link to. The next step is to identify influential, active bloggers using the "popular" tab at Del.icio.us and contact them. They are more likely than others to spread the word if you can pique their interest. She noted that you can have URL links in the profile section of both MySpace.com and YouTube.com. Flickr, however, also allows URLs in the comments, which might help getting incoming links to a site.
Mike Grehan also served as a panelist with several comments on getting and retaining links.
