I found this little card in the bottom of my strawberry container, it’s a promotional offer driving people to a website or asking them to call in and complete a survey in exchange for a $5 coupon by mail.  

For such a little card the promotion sure packed a huge marketing punch.  Is there a way to use something like this to build links, drive traffic and build brand trust?   You bet!

Little Package, Big Punch

I did not contact Driscolls to find out why they were running the  promotion but if I had to guess, it was done for product feedback.  Surveys are a goldmine as far as I’m concerned,  there is a lot you can do with the information and outreach potential they have. From a linking standpoint, surveys alone don’t generate much interest but the content you create from the survey can generate a ton!

If I was going to develop content from a survey, I’d break it down into three types:  media link bait, Infographics and industry reports.  Let’s look at each.

Media link bait

Can you answer ‘yes’ to the following questions?

•        Do you know at least four (4) journalists from four different news outlets in your industry?
•        Have you collected their stories to get a sense of their topics and writing styles?
•        Are you paying attention to where your competitors are being featured news wise?

If you can, great!  If you can’t, it’s homework time.   Most people think “press release” when we talk about  targeting the media and that’s fine for certain projects but if you want solid media links and to become the ‘go-to’ source for your industry, you need to identify influential media and how to get your content to them.

No two reporters are alike, some like being contacted, others don’t.  Most have “how to get in touch with me” type directions on their columns and blogs, read up on their preferences and follow through.  If all else fails, pick up the phone, call the publication and ask for their submission procedures.

The world is not always on fire or experiencing a market crash so sometimes, reporters go looking for news.  Survey results are great as factual support or as filler pieces, here’s a good example:

The fact Gen Y like hybrids is hardly news but outside the election and SOPA drama, there’s little to report on.  It’s why this piece made it to the home page of USA Today and BusinessWeek.  (at the time I wrote this)

Bottom line here — if you produce content backed by research and know where and whom to push it to, chances are it will be used and linked to.  People like facts.

Infographic link bait

I know I raised a couple eyebrows when they saw my infographic suggestion, I’ll be honest, I’m not a fan.  But other people are and the media (still) seems to be so I can’t ignore their potential for some industries.  (#willuseanythingforalink-whore)

Using your survey results you can create and pimp an infographic for educational, humorous or controversial attention.  How and what you develop really depends on the demographic using your products.  Even the strawberry industry promotes them:

Tip:  These type of niche infographics do especially well with trade publications.

Industry Reports

This is one of my favorite tactics, I use it on clients all the time and it always, always, always works.  Just ask Rae or Rand or anyone else that culls information from a number of credible sources and produces a research document for an industry, this technique link rocks!

When you write an industry report you need to expand your circle of expertise and pull in sources from outside your company.  Be sure to include a definition of your industry, bio’s of the people contributing, historical trends, and outlooks for the future.  Journalists and the people contributing like this and will link to it as a result.  Use your survey results to support trends, and/or a SWOT analysis so your company remains a focal point in the report.

Simple Actions, Powerful Marketing

A promotion like this doesn’t have to run offline, you can do the same thing for your online business by creating a promotion and launching it through confirmation emails, product announcements or any other type of email contact you make with established customers.

The key phrase here is “established customers”; I wouldn’t run a survey promotion off a website,  you can’t be sure the people filling out the survey have actually used your product.   Granted,  I can’t be sure the people providing feedback through the strawberry promotion used the product but chances are they have since the special offer can only be found on the bottom of a berry container.

Link building is, and always has been about building links and gaining  trust.  Think about new ways to use factual information and your efforts will pay off in new links, traffic and brand trust.

-

from: Link Spiel

For more link building information, ideas and the occasional rant, visit LinkSpiel .

I’ve been attending SEO and marketing conferences since 2002 and have amassed a huge pile of totes and backpacks as a result.

I use them all the time, mostly for groceries but I also haul around library books, gym clothes and gardening tools in them.  Not too long ago a woman stopped me in the grocery store and asked about the SEO totes I had piled in the front of my cart, she recognized one since she had attended the same show earlier in the year. Small world!

I know I’m not the only one using my conference totes and backpacks at home, my friends do the same:

Christine Churchill and daughter Kaitlin. Tote in Kaitlin's lap is from the first SES conference Christine attended in 1999.

I’ve seen Christine use her backpacks around her horses, she has them in the barn, in the horse trailer, in the shed, in her pickup and hanging from her saddle horn.  She makes good use of all the conference bags she hauls home!

Mat uses his conference backpacks to leave home:

Mat Siltala bought luggage to match his SMX backpack. OK, not really but they do match!

Simon needs multiple backpacks  to carry around his stuff:

Simon Heseltine, AOL Bagman

If you’re saying “Yo Debra, where’s the link building spiel here”, have no fear.  Besides having a little fun, I wanted to use my conference images to show how you can take a simple item or idea and use it to attract links.

Link To An Authority

While I used the images above as a giggle and intro this post, I picked the bags because of the companies they represent.  Each comes from a well known and authoritative SEO/SEM conference,  I linked to them for a couple of reasons:

• They help reinforce my credibility as a professional.  I have been speaking at SMX and SES for a long time and appreciate the fact they keep asking me back so I do whatever I can to help promote and support both shows. My totes post may be corny but the sentiment behind it is heartfelt both personally and algorithmically.  Sentiment analysis and the way it is being used to influence rank deserves another post but I’ll  leave you with a link for later reading.

• Boosts my relevance factor.  Linking to the authoritative conference sites will not directly influence my current ranking but it will help establish where I belong topically and tie my site into the link graph.

Use Images As Link Magnets   I am frequently asked to share “advanced” linking techniques and tacitcs, I always reply “there is no such thing as advanced link building.  I really feel that way but will say there are creative link marketing tactics that go beyond the basics and are discussed less frequently which makes them seem more advanced. Here’s a couple of tips to try:

• Optimize your images.  Get permission from the people behind the photos to use them, this is a big deal for both legal and marketing reasons.  Hover over the pictures on this post and you’ll see they are tagged with the names and hyperlinked.  This is just good SEO as well as being polite, Google Image is still the second largest search platform in their stable so I want to be sure my images have a solid chance of being found when searched on.

• Use Flickr.  I do this quite a bit with images taken from client’s ecommerce sites.  Build a channel, publish your reprint requirements and promote the Flickr channel to your users, through your niche forums and via press release.  You have a new channel, pimp it!  A free image source is always well received, point your releases to the trade journals in your industry for added punch.  There are several image sharing sites online,  be sure to spread the wealth.

• Make an image video.  If you don’t have the time or resources to create a video, use your images to make one.  Search on the term “image to video” and you will find lots of companies with software or services to do it for you.  Develop channels at all the video sites and promote as you would images.  Include a written transcript of each video and add them to your site so you benefit from the new content.

Look at everything with link building eyes, it will pay off in spades!

Hey before you leave… If you are headed to SMX West in February and SES New York in March, please come by the Linking Bootcamps and say hello. My sessions are not for the faint of heart, I roll hard and fast jamming a ton of tips, techniques, and tools in the hour I have.  You will walk away with a great outline of tactics to use.

Christine and I are moderating each other’s sessions at SMX again,  she does a wicked smart keyword research and copywriting for search session so be sure to come by!

Thanks and see you soon!

-

-

from: Link Spiel

For more link building information, ideas and the occasional rant, visit LinkSpiel .

The Content Marketing Institute in conjunction with Marketing Profs recently released a study showcasing what “worked” in 2011 in regards to B2B content marketing and what they project will work in 2012.

Two things in the report caught my eye:  the fact blogs showed a 45% increase and case studies showed a 32% increase in perceived effectiveness compared to last year’s report.

The change in percentages made me go back and read the report a second time and that’s when my linkey senses started tingling.  The fact blogs almost doubled in perceived value  and case studies increased by a third is telling IMO and great information to have as a link builder.

Why?  I have been known to say it’s not what you do that matters in linking, it’s where and I stand by that statement.  You can have the best information filled with keyword anchors but if you put that content in a crappy article directory or on a two-bit blog, you will get no algorithmic benefit, no traffic and no brand boost.  Heck, even if you have crap content sitting on those kind of sites you get no juice these days, Panda has taken care of that.   The report points out blogs are being used with increased frequency and that’s great information to have.

You also know what’s turning bloggers on in terms of accepting content.  An article titled

” The shopping habits of women over the age of 39“

sounds good and can be informative but market it as a case study and suddenly the information takes on a different light.

Think about it.  If you were a well-known (translation:  well or decently ranked) shopping blog or a news outlet looking for information on shopping habits, would you be more inclined to look at content labeled “article” or content labeled “case study” when researching for the story?  Take the actual article out of the equation for a moment, if you had to go by titles, which would you choose?

Goes without saying the content has to be kick-ass and a real case study or the Editor of the national news outlet and/or blog will never give you a second glance (might even burn you publicly) but that’s a subject for another post.  I know blasting the article directories and network blogs with content is still a viable linking tactic but I also know it’s getting much harder for those kinds of tactics to affect rank.  Add to it the ties Google is (supposedly) creating between G+ and rank and now it really is about what you say.  But don’t take my word for it, take a look at the report and note the uptick in white papers, print magazines, ebooks, it’s telling.  No where does it say short articles from the article directories showed an increase in use.

Everyone is running around yakking about “quality content” to the point its become a joke.  Well, fine, but keep in mind quality to you may not be quality to me so qualify it with a label and help make the content stick out.

So here’s something to consider when building links in 2012:  how you label your link-filled, quality content can affect where it’s hosted and who recommends it.  Having a case study sit in an article directory or a crap blog will do little for your rankings, having it on a national news site or well known blog however, will.   Try to incorporate a label in your anchors or the text around your link(s) so it’s associated with the content, like this:

Case Study:  The Shopping Habits of 39 Year Old (cough) Link Builder

Here are a handful of tips working for me:

• Tie your author bio to your Google profile as well as your website
• Link to internal pages of your site to support information in your case study/content.
• Don’t shy away from using keyword anchors,  just use them conversationally rather than making it obvious they were hyperlinked to produce juice
• Don’t rely on content generation to produce all your links.  Mix up your tactics, mix up your anchors.
• Point your anchors to pages within your site that have been optimized for those terms.  You’d be surprised how something so simple has a profound effect on your rankings.

Link building will be super competitive in 2012 and you’re going to need an edge to succeed.  Give it to yourself by developing and labeling the type of content marketers are looking for.

—————————————————-

Before I sign off, a personal note:

This is my last post for 2011, I can’t believe the holidays are around the corner and the New Year close behind.  I won’t be blogging until we come back in January but I will be posting all the cool marketing and link building tidbits I find (and I find a bunch of cool stuff!) to my Facebook and G+ account so come over and join the fun.

 I sincerely wish you and yours all the best in 2012.  Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

images courtesy Content Marketing Institute

-

from: Link Spiel

For more link building information, ideas and the occasional rant, visit LinkSpiel .

In the spirit of the holidays, our directory friends in the US and UK  have offered readers of the Link Spiel limited time discounts and submission specials to their directories!

Enjoy the directory discounts and spread the word! :)

Alive Directory (www.alivedirectory.com)

Discount amount – 20% off all listing types
Promotional code -  LS20
Promotion ends – January 31, 2012
General comments –  Promo code valid on all listing types

————————-

Avia Directory  (www.avivadirectory.com)
Discount Amount – $20 off annual and permanent listings
Promotion code – holidays11
Promotion Ends – Closed

————————-

Best Of The Web (www.botw.org)

Discount amount -  15% off all listing types
Promotional code -  BOTW15
Promotion ends -  March 1, 2012
General comments -  Promo code is good for everything including the UK Directory, blog directory and BOTW Local

————————-

Biz-Dir Business Directory (www.bizdirbusinessdirectory.co.uk/)

Discount amount – 50% off
Promotional code – bizsave for regular listing
Promotional code – dirsave for featured listing
Promotion ends – Closed

————————-

CanLinks  (www.canlinks.net)

Discount amount – 25% on regular and feature listings
Promotional code – LSP25
Promotion ends – Closed

————————-

DirJournal  (www.dirjournal.com)

Discount amount – 20% off all listing types
Promotional code – LS20
Promotion ends – January 31, 2012
General comments -  Promo code valid on all listing types

————————-

Ezilon (www.ezilon.com)

Discount amount – 30% off
Promotional code – s1z8v
Promotion ends – January 27, 2012
General comments – Visit their helpdesk under “Contacts” for assistance with submitting sites

————————-

Family Friendly Sites (www.familyfriendlysites.com)

Discount amount – 20% Permanent listing
Promotional code – follow directions under General comments
Promotion ends – Closed

————————-

GreenStalk (www.greenstalk.com)

Discount amount – $20 off lifetime listing
Promotional code – green
Promotion ends – March 1, 2012
General Comments – Discount good on lifetime listing

————————-

MasterMoz (www.mastermoz.com)

Discount amount – $20.00
Promotional code – spiel2011
Promotion ends – Closed

————————-

RaveGambling (www.ravegambling.com)

Discount amount – bogo  (buy one get one)
Promotional code – RGLS2011
Promotion ends – Closed

————————-

Rubber Stamped (www.rubberstamped.org)

Discount amount – bogo  (buy one get one)
Promotional code – n/a
Promotion ends – Closed

————————-

Sezza (www.sezza.com)

Discount amount – $10 off lifetime listing
Promotional code – sezza
Promotion ends – March 31, 2012
General comments – Discount off a lifetime listing

————————-

Web-Beacon (www.web-beacon.com)

Discount amount – bogo  (buy one get one)
Promotional code – WBD241
Promotion ends – June 1, 2012
General comments – When paying for the first submission via Paypal, add the discount code and URL of your second site to the box on the Paypal page.

————————-

Web World Index (www.webworldindex.com)

Discount amount – 25% premium listing
Promotional code – LinkSpiel
Promotion ends – March 31, 2012
General comments –  To receive the 25% discount use the 2CheckOut option on the payment page -> http://www.webworldindex.com/ads.html  This option allows you to enter the coupon code ‘LinkSpiel‘. After you enter the coupon code click on the ’Update Cart’ button.

If you have questions about any of the promotions listed here, please contact the directory.  Keep an eye on this page for updates, additions and promotion ending dates!

Before you leave, a favor?  If you have a minute I would appreciate if you’d Like my new Facebook page (thanks to Chris Gilchrist at HitReach for designing it ) and add my new G+ page to your circles. I always “circle” back.

-

from: Link Spiel

For more link building information, ideas and the occasional rant, visit LinkSpiel .

Recently, an SEO/friend asked me to help him with a back link analysis, he had been contacted by a very panicked former client who needed help. The two had worked together for a number of years before the client brought his SEO in-house so the SEO was familiar with the site and responsible (in part) for its ranking success.

About two years ago (my friend was gone by this time) the client decided to sell space on his site.  He had been solicited repeatedly by link brokers and finally gave in. He started with two text links in the footer and then added two more a couple months later.  The links were to sites in ancillary industries, they used creative keyword anchors and blended with the content. The client was being well paid for their placement so when nothing happened, he added four more for a total of eight text links in the footers.

Life was good, the client was ranking in the top five for most of his terms and he came through Panda unscathed. The fact he wasn’t hurt by Panda isn’t surprising, the site has been online since 2003 and is an e-commerce property with a very strong back link profile.

But change happens and earlier this summer the site took a nose dive. Scared, the client turned to his old SEO friend who in turn, called me for a second opinion. After carefully reviewing back links, his analytics, hosting information and a couple other things, we both agreed the footer links caused his fall.

Why?  For starters, he didn’t just fall a couple of spots, he was no where to be found. We’ll never know for sure but I suspect someone did a spam report after noticing the footer links and the site was pulled as a result. When that happens it’s usually because:

1. there’s been a change to the ranking algo, or
2. pages linking to you went away, or
3. your site had hosting issues and went offline, or
4. you’ve been whacked by a reviewer/spam report/dmca notice

His inbound links didn’t change, he wasn’t offline, we heard nothing about an algo change or a DMCA complaint so it had to be reviewer/spam report.   Once we knew what didn’t happen, we came to the conclusion the eight footer links were causing the problem.  We convinced the client to remove the links, let us submit a reconsideration request and launch an awareness campaign to keep the traffic coming.  We then sent him off to increase his Adwords spend and got to work.  About 45 days later, after much groveling and the promise of a first-born child, the site popped (way) back in the serps.  Whoo hoo.

Here’s two interesting things about this little situation:

First, when the SEO told the client we thought the footer links caused the problems, he didn’t buy into it right away. Those footer links were on his site for several years and never caused any problems, he couldn’t believe eight little links were the cause of his downfall.   The SEO and I had nothing concrete to base our assumptions but since we ruled out everything else and know how much the engines dislike paid links, figured they were the problem.  Of course after the reconsideration request sparked dialogue with the search engine, he came around but initially it was a tough sell and that really surprised me.

Second, links in the footer area pointing to unrelated websites not only look out of place, they are easy for your competitors to spot.  Whenever I hear about footer links I’m reminded of this video Google Engineer Matt Cutts made:

 …”we do reserve the right to treat links in footers a little bit differently. For example, if something is in a footer it might not carry the same editorial weight because someone might have set up a single link and it might be something that’s across the entire site whereas something that’s in an actual paragraph of text is a little more likely to be an editorial link. So we do reserve the right to treat those links differently in terms of how we consider them for relevance, how we consider them for reputation, how much we trust them, all those sorts of things.”

Personally I would never take chances with my bread and butter sites especially if they were ranking well.  The client site I talked about earlier?  His site never rebounded to the top five, it’s in the top 20 now which is a huge difference traffic and income wise. The change affected his bottom line and forced him to cut staff hours and design updates.

I’ve long associated reconsideration requests with jail and probation; you do the crime, you do the time and then you’re watched and monitored down the line.  Once a website/page is flagged and goes through the reconsideration process, it’s highly unlikely the page is just turned loose, I’m sure there is some algorithmic stigma attached which means you’re going to have to work harder and smarter for a very long time to get back on top and stay there.

Having to do reconsideration requests is a huge time suck and causes needless stress, don’t make it easy for your competitors and the algos to be link finks, avoid buying or selling footer links.

Image from zazzle.com

from: Link Spiel

For more link building information, ideas and the occasional rant, visit LinkSpiel .

Wow.  According to ComScore:

• 1 out of every 6 minutes spent online is spent on a social networking site
• 1 out of every 3 display ads appears on a social networking site
• ½ of the total U.S. Internet audience visits a social networking site in a given day
• The average Internet user views more than 2,000 display ads on social networking sites each month

Great data to support creating an advertising program to push link marketing campaigns.

Develop ads to drive people to your content/blog; once they are there, capture email addresses and ask for the link at the end of each article.

Offer incentives as a way to sweeten the “link to us deal” and include social media buttons so visitors can share what they find on your site.

From the looks of the ComScore data, Facebook is the place to advertise at the moment but don’t stop there.  Ask (survey/poll) your customers about their online surfiing habits and advertise on these sites as well.  They don’t all have to be ”Facebook” types, smaller more niched sites work and send targeted customers at a lower price.

Use popular advertising channels to push people to your site and hook them with a clever link marketing program once they are there!

Before you go….

Check out the new Alliance-Link company page on Facebook, I’m dropping SEO, marketing, public/media relations, advertising and cool stuff in general I like and find helpful on the FB page.   I surf all day and find some pretty amazing info so LIKE the page and check it out!!

And thanks to Jill and Mat for helping me get the Facebook page up and running. 

-

from: Link Spiel

For more link building information, ideas and the occasional rant, visit LinkSpiel .

I found an  interesting article on SEW,  Business Wire Wins Press Release SEO Patent .  For a long time I used Business Wire (BW) almost exclusively when launching client press releases, I’ll be curious to see how they use this patent grant in their marketing.

While I was poking around the BW site, I noticed this featured press release:

Ball State University Senior Wins Lunch With Warren Buffett in Business Wire’s
50th Anniversary College Video Contest

The luncheon is over but the release is pure gold as a learning tool.  We talk a lot about using contests in link building and since this is a great one to learn from, (and a national brand so no points lost for outing) I thought I’d highlight a number of things I found impressive and provide a couple of suggestions you can use with your next contest bait.  From the press release:

1. Business Wire today announced the winner of its 50^th Anniversary “Future of Public Relations and Communications” College Video Contest, 21-year-old Jenna Marie James, a senior majoring in telecommunications at Ball State University. James will fly to New York City to meet Warren Buffett…As part of its 50^th Anniversary celebration, Business Wire asked full-time college students to submit short videos answering the question “What is the Future of Public Relations and Communications?”

Bold mine.  Notice they use the 50th anniversary as a way to introduce the contest, doing so sets the contest apart and draws additional attention to their anniversary.  Smart hook, consider wrapping your contest around a significant date or event the next time you run one.

BW is owned by Berkshire Hathaway which is run by Warren Buffet so no surprise he’s involved but the point he is involved sweetens the contestant/participation pool.   Since most of us don’t have a Warren Buffett on our payrolls, consider doing a co-promotional contest instead.  Find someone in your niche who has a name and/or brand to use as your hook.  For example, if was going to run a contest for Alliance-Link, I could reach out to Aaron Wall, Jill Whalen or Danny Sullivan and ask one of them to be my Warren Buffett.  :)  (Why yes, my nose tan just got a little deeper) 

If you don’t have a Warren or Aaron in your life or don’t know who’s a “name” in your niche, use an expert directory to locate a person and consider buying some expertise.  Go to them and buy an hour (or more) of their time and substitute a luncheon for an hour telephone call.

2.  The winner was selected by a judging committee which included Business Wire Chairman and CEO Cathy Baron Tamraz and company executives from around the globe, based on originality, creativity and appropriateness to theme.

 

Bold mine. This is really smart on a number of levels.  First, a panel of judges from around the world makes this a global event, which means it will attract attention from news sources around the world.  A release can be done announcing each of the judges and their participation and then again once the winner is selected.  That’s two releases for just the judges which gives each of the judges exposure as well as the event. If you have a panel of six judges, that can add up to a number of releases and additional attention.

Second, you can encourage your judges to blog about the event, add it to their Facebook pages, tweet it and/or announce it through newsletters or email lists they own.  Again, more exposure for the event, more links and more social media mentions.

3.  As part of its 50^th Anniversary celebration, Business Wire asked full-time college students to submit short videos answering the question “What is the Future of Public Relations and Communications?”

Business Week pushed their video links and pimped the videos they got from contestants to FACEBOOK  not YouTube!  Business Wire has a YouTube presence (doh) but this particular event was sent to Facebook over YouTube.   That alone is extremely interesting to me on a lot of levels but I’ll save why for another time.

The initial video done to announce the contest (done by a Business Week female staffer) is simple, short and used graphics as well as voice overs.  That was loaded to both YouTube and Facebook.  I have no way to tell how many times it was viewed on FB but I bet more than YT for the simple fact all the press releases I found talking about the contest linked to the Facebook page hosting the vids.

4.  In July, the Business Wire College Video Contest entries were narrowed down to ten finalists, whose videos were posted to the Business Wire Facebook page. Viewers were encouraged to ‘like’ and comment on their favorite video, as well as show their support on Twitter using unique hashtags assigned to each finalist. The finalist videos drew more than 1,500 ‘likes’ and comments.

Bold mine.  Just to show you how releases can/are picked up:  The release sent announcing the ten finalists shows 22 unique results in Google, about a third being .edu sites.  USATOday also picked it up as well as Ameritrade blog.  Nice.  I don’t know if individual releases for each finalist were sent and I didn’t spend the time to look but I bet they were.  Which means more links.

In the release announcing the ten finalists it said they assigned hashtags to each contestant.  What’s interesting here is they didn’t comment on the success of those hashtags like they did the “likes” and comments.  Maybe they felt it was overkill to say something but when you can’t say anything good about an outcome, it’s best to say nothing.

The fact they mentioned the hastags was interesting and got me to wondering how they promoted this on Twitter so I went digging,  look at the #hashmarks they used for the promotion

They used #pr #millennials  has their hashtags.   Personally I would have used #contest instead of #pr  but hey, I don’t work for Berkshire Hathaway so there’s probably a long and researched reason behind why they used it.

If they HAD used the #contest hashmark/term, they would have been able to zero in on the people retweeting their contest content.  Why track a hashmark?  Easy way to find people retweeting topics they have an interest in.  Once the list is culled, you can follow each person and pay/offer them to retweet (RT) an upcoming promotion.  Having a targeted twitter squad is a good idea when you want to push future promotions quickly and effectively .
OK, last point as this is getting long:

At the bottom of the press release, right after the bio box, there are a handful of “helpful” links.  One of them is a link to their Photos/Multimedia Gallery where images are available for free.  Here’s where we know the folks at Berkshire aren’t SEO’s; none of the images are embedded with hyperlinks and the captions don’t link back to a page on their website.  Good idea to offer the image gallery in the press release, better idea to SEO the images

Great cause here, good promotion and good publicity to learn from.   Hope there’s something here you can use.

-

from: Link Spiel

For more link building information, ideas and the occasional rant, visit LinkSpiel .

A while back I attended a meeting of a business group I belong to, we meet three times a year to talk about on and offline marketing trends.

Three of us in the group own SEO firms, the other members are marketing directors, public relations officers and sales managers from large and small companies scattered throughout Virginia.

Everyone has a specific expertise they bring to table, we use our get-togethers to share that expertise as well as other marketing ideas and insights.

While the group “gets” SEO and understands the importance of a strong online presence, not all are “experts” or even well versed.  When we have meetings devoted to online marketing they are well attended and get lively since the three SEO companies leading the discussion don’t all share a similar colored hat. This particular meeting was devoted to discussing what’s new in SEO/SEM  as well as recent events (Panda updates, G+1, etc) so almost all of our 35 members were there.  A lot of information was shared but the one topic that sparked the most debate (of course) centered around link building and what people were doing to attract links.

The group talked mainly about the success they were having with content related tactics, the use of microsites and other things.  A couple people shared their success stories using reciprocal links, press releases and directories which surprised me since you don’t hear a lot of chatter about these methods anymore.   I thought is was interesting some of the more marketing savvy people in the group admitted to using older, less sexy tactics as a way to attract links.  Were they just being lazy or was there an angle here I wasn’t aware of?

As I drove home I started thinking about our discussions.  There’s nothing wrong with the old tactics, they work just fine but like a lot of things, become stale and boring unless updated and used.  Was there a way to take an old tactic and pair it with something new like microsites?  Was it possible to take a much maligned technique like reciprocal linking and give it a little boost?  Does article marketing still work?   Yes, yes and I think it does.  Here’s a couple of ways you can update old favorites for new links.

Article Marketing

Overview:  Article marketing is a great way to distribute link embedded content, you control the content, the keyword anchors and where they point.

Standard way:   Write an article (or ten) on a specific topic and distribute each to various outlets.  Each article is a one-time opportunity, can be promoted via social media and reprinted with permission.  They are usually 400 – 500 words long but are not known for winning a Pulitzer.

Bump:  Write an article (or ten) on a specific subject but write them to be part of an on-going series. Each article should be written so it builds momentum and pushes a reader to the next piece. At the end of the series, bundle the articles into an ebook and place on your site/others for download.  If you want to give the ebook away, look at Scribd plus these ebook directories as distribution points.  If you’re planning to charge a fee, check out this article and the list of businesses who will help you publish your ebook.

Once the book is up, issue a press release announcing it’s sale/availability and where to find it.  Point the link in the release to the internal page of your site hosting the book and/or the sales landing page. Press releases are a great way to point links to internal pages.

eBooks make great podcast content and podcasts make great link bait!.  Use a tool like Audacity (more here) to create the podcast and then upload to a list of podcast directories and iTunes. There’s no link popularity to be gained from  iTunes but the exposure is awesome which can lead to links.

Last thing about ebooks… once you publish an e/book, you are an author.  Congratulations!  This means you can add yourself to the expert directories (there are many and mostly dofollow) which will go a long way to boosting your credibility and reputation.  (Search on “expert directories” to find sources).

Reciprocal Linking

The power behind reciprocal linking isn’t in the number of link partners you acquire, it’s in the control you have over the anchor text used and where it points.

Standard way:  Sometimes the only way to get a link is give one but  between legal, competitive and the fear of Google God, this little tactic has taken a back seat to the more popular content generation techniques.  Don’t go overboard if you use it, Google has gone from saying “don’t link  excessively” to “don’t link randomly” so keep it to a minimum and only partner with the very best like-minded sites.  If you’re interested in learning how to secure links from brands using recip links, read on.

Bump:  Getting links from well ranked sites has always been tricky, well ranked usually means brands and brands won’t link with competitors.  Here’s an angle to get around that obstacle.

If you have microsites (or can develop one/some) using them as your reciprocal linking base may eliminate legal and competitive issues for many.  Go after sites you want links from and/or those who wouldn’t link with you in the past because they viewed you as a competitor.  Offer space on your microsites in exchange for a link on theirs. Since your microsites refer traffic and link to your main site, you will benefit from the exposure and link popularity.  Here’s a little story to help explain the process:

Site A is a well known site, it’s a national brand who’s been around a long time.  Search on almost any travel related keyword and the site pops up.

You own Site B, also a travel site and while it’s a good one, you are not a brand.   Site A knows you’re a small fry but still won’t link to you;  small or not they view you as a competitor.   You’ve tried to woo them for a couple years but they won’t  swap, sell or host your link embedded content in exchange for the same.  You grew tired of trying, dubbed them Buttheads and moved on.

One day you decide to develop a new microsite as a way to expand your brand and build on a couple of profitable keywords.   Your new microsite is about travel insurance which happens to be a topic Site A doesn’t sell or talk about.  Even though you’ve written Site A off as Buttheads, you decide to try again and see if they’ll host a link to your killer new insurance content.  You know you only have one shot with these guys so you decide to go all out and offer Site A a link on your homepage if they agree to a swap.

< Narrator interruption >

Years ago when I was doing a lot of reciprocal linking, I’d get brands to agree to swap if we hosted an advertisement on our clients home page so this part of the story is based on experience.  I found most brands cared less about link popularity and craved exposure so they usually agreed to my terms. (which was to place our text link on one of their internal category pages in exchange for an image ad on our main page).

From this link builders point of view, the only way giving up real estate on your home page is a good idea is if the brand’s internal page hosting your link ranks well for a number of your keyword terms.  It’s fine if the page is simply indexed or ranking for a different set of keywords but if it ranks well for your keyword phrases?  MAKE THE SWAP!

If the page isn’t indexed or doesn’t rank well for any terms you’re associated with, I would not pursue it. Brands already have an advantage over smaller and newer sites, no sense in sending more link juice or traffic if there is no return for you.

<Resume story>

Site A decides an advertisement on the main page of a little but up-and-coming travel insurance site wouldn’t hurt them so they decide to make the trade. We stop referring to Site A as Buttheads and start calling them ‘partner” which sounds infinitely better and does wonders for our online reputation.

While the brand placed an ad on the home page of a contextually relevant site the real winner here is the new travel insurance site because…

1.  It got a keyword rich anchor text link embedded in a paragraph of content on the resource page of national brand (Site A)

2.  That link is pointing to the home page of the travel insurance site.

3.  Site A’s resource page is ten years old and ranks between 2 – 5 for a couple of travel terms

4.  Site A’s resource page shows a decent amount of green fairy dust.

5.  It  feels good to use a brand for a change instead of always bending over for them ;)

The next time I do a little linking, I’m dusting off my old “swap with me” link templates and hunting for brands.  So much for the old standards being less sexy, who’s your momma now?

from: Link Spiel

For more link building information, ideas and the occasional rant, visit LinkSpiel .

Warning:  Some of the links in this post lead to material not suitable for children or office viewing.

Does she know the secret of link building with images

I saw a variation of this question posed on WebmasterWorld recently, a member asked:

If I don’t want to spend time creating and distributing content as a way to get links, what else can I do?”

The person asking the question didn’t want to guest blog, issue press releases or create any kind of written content, he/she reasoned good content didn’t have to be about words on a page. Interesting point-of-view given the content hungry world we live in, who isn’t trying to out-do their competitors with attention grabbing written content?

I laughed when I first read the thread and thought “he’s looking for an easy way out ” but after thinking about it, decided there could be something to his question. The person asking made it clear he wasn’t looking for creative suggestions, he wanted to know where he could buy links.  But the conversation got me thinking about what you could do if you wanted to find different and creative ways to build links.

People in the thread responded by suggesting he beg, buy, swap and get directory links, all solid tactics but not exactly creative or different.  I’m painfully aware of the consequences of laughing off any marketing opportunity so I decided to sit down and think about what I would do to attract links without using written content.   When I say without content I mean not using tactics the guy listed as non-grata…articles, blog posts or press releases.   Let’s see how many link building ideas/tactics I come up with that don’t use articles, blog posts or press releases and don’t involve begging, buying, swapping and directories as a primary link building tactic.

Image Links

They say a picture is worth a thousand words so I agree content doesn’t have to be in written form to attract links.  No one buys Playboy for the articles, visits Brooke Burke to hear her rave about her four kids or goes to Art.com to read the artist captions.  Those sites are online to sell products and use images to attract attention, links and your loyalty.  Even if your site sells inductor coils, someone, some where at some time is going to want a photo of them; make it super easy to find and use your images in exchange for a link.  Here a handful of things to consider…

1.  Create an onsite image resource center and add all your photos.  Include an “image free to use as long as links/caption left in place” statement along with copy and paste instructions.  Embed a link and include descriptive keywords(meaning hyperlink a keyword phrase and not your URL) in the photo caption you place under each image.  Optimize the page like any other on your site, bookmark the new resource on Delicious, tweet the URL, Facebook, G+1 and add to LinkedIn.

Depending on your niche you can get creative with this new resource,  consider adding images and videos from well known experts in your industry as a way to draw attention.   Draw on the way Rae and Rand put together their group interviews every year, you can do the same thing with images as a way to augment your resource and attract even more links!

If I was allowed to use a press release I’d issue one announcing the new image resource but since we’re not allowed here, I’ll hit social media hard and encourage my friends to do the same.

TIP:  To make an image into a hyperlink, replace the hyperlink text with HTML image code. Images can have a relative path (/images/sample-image.gif), or absolute path http://yoursite.com/images/sample-image.gif)

<a href=”http://www.yoursite.com”><img src=”http://yoursite.com/images/sample-image.gif”></a>

 

2.  When you find people hotlinking your images (use Tineye  or Google’s new image search for this) write and ask them to link to you in return for using the image.  If they don’t, suggest linking may be preferable to being slapped with a DMCA notice or you tweeting about their theft publicly.  If that fails or your image is on a splog/scraper site, consider watermarking your hotlinked image with your Logo and URL.  I’m not technically inclined enough to walk you through the “how to do this” so check out the detailed articles here.  You won’t get a direct link back but your URL will be visible in the hotlinked image.  (Have a little fun with them like I did here)

3.  Build out a Flickr account with “how to link in exchange for using an image” instructions, add that account to anything you publish as a way to advertise.   You can also add your resource to this monster list of free image directories.  Be sure to take advantage of the profiles behind some of the directories, they allow do-follow links and linking opportunities.

4.  Include a link to your image center in your email and forum signatures as a passive way to increase exposure. (Especially since we can’t use press releases in this little exercise)

Using Widgets For Links

5.  Create a link embedded widget using a service like Widgetbox, visitors can download it from your site or you can do an email campaign and offer it to your user base.

TIP:  Find in-service widgets by searching on snippets of their code.  Backlink the sites these widgets are sitting on to discover where they are being hosted.  Offer your widget to the same sites and similiar sites.

Image Contests

6.  Run a contest and ask visitors to submit images of your products in action.  Add to your online image resource center.  Tweet/add to Facebook/G+1 each new image added.

TIP:  Once you have a number of images and the contest is closed, run a caption contest for additional exposure.

Image Blogs

7.  Create a blog dedicated to displaying your images, content can include:

• Images submitted by contest participants
• Images submitted by employees/vendors/customers
• Images from your site (with descriptions)
• Images from industry experts/gurus/celebrities

Ask the experts/gurus/celebrities you’re showcasing to review your image resource on their blogs, let them write and spread the content!

Two  More Things…

8.  Always add a descriptive caption or insert link text/alt attributes to the images you add to your site.  This will help describe the contents of an image file and assist those using screen readers.

9.  If you are sending out press releases to announce image properties, use a social media press release over a traditional one.  If you’re not familiar with social media releases, search on the phrase “social media release” (without quotes) and look at services like  Pressitt and Pitch Engine.

So, Are Image Links Worth a Thousand Words?

I think they are, especially if you can implement the tactics I’ve outlined here.  I did have to resort to some “begging/asking” with the techniques I outlined but overall, I stuck to the rule of not buying, selling, or swapping links.  I didn’t write a single article or blog post (got others to do it for me) but I did cave and suggest a directory and press release.  Sorry but I live and breathe those things so going cold turkey is probably not in the cards for me.

I don’t think an image link carries as much algorithmic weight as a link embedded in content (doh!) but when used creatively can result in some high powered text links.  Using images as attraction points is more work than using content IMO, and depending on what you’re showcasing, they’re probably more expensive too but they will definitely attract attention.  Just remember images are appealing but you’ll need a very wide variety to appeal to a broad audience.

There’s a number of good blog posts out there on using images for links, check these out:

Link Title Attribute vs Image Alt Tags, Which is Better/SEOBook

How To Build Links With Images/WolfHowl

Getting Links and Content from Flickr/SEL

Bing Upsets Webmasters By Linking Directly to Image File/SERoundtable

3 Way to Use Google New Image Search To Build Links/SEOMoz

6 Benefits of Image Linking/LinkBuildingS’cool

Until next time, good linking!

-

from: Link Spiel

For more link building information, ideas and the occasional rant, visit LinkSpiel .

If you’re a small business (or any size really) and want a couple of ideas how you can use Facebook to build links, this might help. 

 I’ve been doing a lot of reading on Facebook marketing lately, there’s a ton of good information out there but I keep coming back to a couple sites:

All Facebook  – if it’s about Facebook, you’ll find it here.  This article on getting 40,000 FB Fans is a good one http://www.allfacebook.com/how-we-got-to-40310-facebook-fans-in-4-days-2010-06  There’s a lot of golden nuggets showing how they got the fans in four days, worth a read.

Inside Facebook  – Another “all about FB” type site, this one publishes a lot of good statistical info like this report on how brands increased their FB ad spends by 1900% over the last year.    Here’s an excerpt I thought was interesting:

The report shows that Facebook Pages have become so important to brand presence on Facebook that brands are aggressively increasing spend on fan acquisitions. It also demonstrates building a fan base produces clear return on investment by lowering the cost of attaining sales and additional fans.

If you’re a small business owner, don’t shy away from using Facebook (or other social sites) because you think it’s too much time and money to get involved.  It really isn’t, you just have to rescale and rethink how to use the information being published!  Consider this:

1.  Big brands have the resource (money and people) to invest in many different types of marketing programs, watching what they do can save you time and money with your marketing programs.

2.  Big brands can pay for studies and reports, they’ll reprint what they find as media bait and for chest thumping.

3.  Industry associations and watch-dog groups fight for airtime and eyeballs, by publishing studies and running blogs like the two above, they attract attention and new members.

I’m not sure it’s wise to use any one advertising or marketing strategy exclusively but right now, even with the hoopla around G+1, Facebook isn’t going anywhere, it’s huge and has been embraced by people of all ages.  That alone makes it a marketing goldmine and one you want to get involved with.  How?  What can a small business owner do to increase their fan base?

For starters, use the “take advantage of big business” idea and apply it to your industry.  Even if you’re not a franchise, there’s a franchise for almost everything now-a-days, the companies selling them and supporting the franchise industry are very aggressive.  Here’s a perfect example of an outlet you can use:  FranchiseHelp.com .  They recently published an article on Facebook rankings per franchise that was a goldmine, here’s an excerpt of what the (free) report contained:  Franchise Facebook Rankings for April 2011  

Franchise Facebook Rankings, we dive in much deeper, drilling into a rich social media data set that reveals a fuller picture of franchises’ Facebook activity and effectiveness. Going beyond basic Fan / Like counts (still an important measure of a franchise’s social media audience / reach), we assess franchises’ ability to grow their social media audience, their activity on the Facebook platform, and their track record of generating engagement with their audience through that activity.

Sounds like they’re done a lot of work for you.  No one is going to hold your hand and give you all the answers, you’ll have to think and pull information out of the report to use, but it’s in there.

A second, no-cost thing you can do is remind your customers you have a Facebook page and ask them to visit.  Rocket science eh?

When I was out last week with the kids, I noticed this sign at Peterson’s Ice Cream Shop in Clifton.

This is a tiny store in the even smaller town of Clifton, Virginia, population: 216. 

Facebook likes:  453. 

Cost them anything to do this?  Just chalk.

If this helping their bottom line?  Looks like it, check out the latest promotion they’re running and the response:

Small business advertising.  Cost nothing.  Will result in sales.  Win win win for Peterson’s!

Now, do you think the ice cream enthusiatists would support Peterson’s website with a link if they were asked? If they have sites and blogs, I’m thinking yes based on the positive comments I see on their Facebook page.  Again, no cost involved, will result in sales, win win Peterson’s!

Here’s another idea, it’s more low-key but can impact your Google Places and Facebook pages tremendously:

This is from my son’s orthodontist, he’s a great guy and has fully embraced social media since his biggest clientele (tweens/teens) lives on social media.  Smart man.  He sends the letter home to appeal to the parents (who still like paper) and includes his social media buttons and prints everything he gives the kids (toothbrushes, retainer kits, etc) with his Facebook and You Tube URL’s.  Now he’s a smart and cool dude.

Once you have an active Facebook page, it’s pretty easy to develop contests, promotions, and call-to-action programs all designed to attract links.  Take note of how the brands also push press releases to advertise their Facebook promotions, they’re treating them just like they would any other promotion.  Create, promote and engage, the links will come.

Until next time, good linking!

from: Link Spiel

For more link building information, ideas and the occasional rant, visit LinkSpiel .