Link building - What Is It Good For?
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The document discusses the importance of link building in digital marketing, emphasizing the need for high-quality links rather than just quantity. It highlights various strategies, such as sending free samples or hosting blogger events, that enhance brand exposure without being direct link-building efforts. The author also warns against lazy link-building tactics and stresses the significance of brand reputation over search rankings.
Link building - What Is It Good For?
- 1. Link Building What is it good for? March 2012 Annabel Hodges - @searchpanda
- 2. (Huh)
- 3. Ok I lied! But… • Are we getting the right kinds of links? • Should we always be focusing on links? • How and where should we be focusing our efforts? (And I did get that song in your head, right?)
- 4. Interval… who am I anyway? • I work at OMD • I now work almost exclusively on large brands and multinational sites but come from a small agency background • Budget often gets split between all types of marketing from above the line to PPC • And brands are often too restricted to have the freedom to experiment • This can make for interesting link building challenges
- 5. Build links but will they come? Ranking position Type of SERP Keyword research Conversion intention Link build Long-term link impact
- 6. Sometimes the products don’t dominate…
- 7. Or geography is more important than brand…
- 8. Rankings are not everything… Links are great. Number 1 position is awesome. High quality traffic is best.
- 10. Here’s a thought… • Send out free samples, don’t immediately request links – it’s PR not link building • Set up free ‘bloggers evening’ for top food blogs - it’s exposure not link building • Offer discounts/offers to those who contribute to updates of your product on review sites – it’s crowd sourcing not link building • Submit & optimise Google Places listing (works in conjunction with review sites) – it’s citations not link building
- 11. Build links but will they come? Ranking position Type of SERP Keyword research Conversion intention Link build Long-term link impact
- 12. High traffic doesn’t mean high conversion 1m searches/month in UK BUY? MAKE? SELL? READY MIX?
- 13. And let’s not forget…
- 14. But you can make the most of your conversion points
- 15. Here’s another thought… • Less can be more for both traffic and links. Setting niche achievable keyword targets could provide greater ROI than high traffic, high competition • Don’t abandon erroneous high ranking pages. They could bring in more than you expect. • Brand is usually more important than rank!
- 16. Build links but will they come? Ranking position Type of SERP Keyword research Conversion intention Link build Long-term link impact
- 17. Where can we get our links from?
- 18. Sometimes reality ain’t pretty
- 19. Copycat techniques are pretty obvious guys
- 21. Here’s a final thought… • It’s not hard to buy cheap, crappy links. • Paid for links may work in the short-term but will they damage your brand? • Lazy link building techniques will get found out. • Lazy link building/buying links won’t help build a brand. How about killing two birds with one stone?
- 22. Channel 4 Education Sites: A Case Study
- 24. Distributing the content far and wide
- 25. Building relationships and getting social
- 26. Building Resource Landing Pages for link building
- 27. Leads to SERPs domination for both students and teachers
- 29. Be less obvious
- 30. Give someone that warm and fuzzy feeling
- 31. Stay social
- 32. Play nice, link out “I wouldn’t recommend closing comments in an attempt to “hoard” your PageRank. In the same way that Google trusts sites less when they link to spammy sites or bad neighborhoods, parts of our system encourage links to good sites.” Matt Cutts
- 33. Questions? @searchpanda Annabel Hodges
Editor's Notes
- #23: SEO campaign for existing Channel 4 Education sites – targeting teachers Want to improve rankings for teacher resource related keywords Successful and search engine visible in teenage market Don’t want to scare those teenagers away but do want to make it clear these sites are also a teaching resource
- #25: Looking to add in more use of SEO and keywords – sometimes difficult due to templates of the sites
- #26: These are also starting to create valid links back to the main sites – which however cannot open show themselves as a teacher resource. So..Build a resources page with is not too heavily advertised but which can be link built directly to.
- #27: Link to the resources pages is generally quite hidden – not great for SEOLink building through content distributionAlso focus on pushing teachers directly into this pageEducate them what they can use the sites for.
- #28: A slow process due to the constraints of other sites but education resource sites starting to show up in SERPs.