Link Building How-Tos, Weekly Roundup: 2011.06.03
This week, we bring to you some great posts that may seem contrary to our own messaging here at Ontolo. Michael Martinez's post this week could be interpreted as speaking against the kind of link building research that we support and help you to achieve. Of course, it all depends on how you use the tools provided to you. Are you using them to execute common link building strategies, or are you using research and automation to improve your ability to build valuable relationships?
In addition to Michael Martinez's post, Rand offers a stroke of insight into what's worked well for him in many aspects of his life and the business of SEOmoz: building and leveraging relationships rather than slogging through the traditional link building process.
Link Building Must Reads
How to Get Testimonials (and Links) with Free Stuff
From the very earliest stages of product development it's important to gather people together and get them shouting about your product. As this word spreads more people will talk about you online and more links will occur as a result. So how do you get these people talking (and linking)? With free stuff!
- Mike Essex
Why SEO Link Building Strategies Look More Pathetic Than Ever
Some people just don't get it. Search engine optimization is not, never has been, and most likely never will be about, primarily about, mostly about, or “just” about link building. Links are far more important to the unimaginative, inefficient, lazy search engine optimization specialists who don't understand what it means to actually optimize for search than they are to search engines.
- Michael Martinez
Head Smacking Tip #20: Don't Ask Sites for Links. Find People and Connect.
If you've ever done this (for the first 2 years of my SEO career, it's practically all I did), you know how much it sucks. Conversion rates are low. Time/link is high. The ROI is there, but it's a painful, boring, awkward slog. I've got some good news. There's a better way.
- Rand Fishkin
Notable Link Building Posts
Actionable Link Building Strategies
Today I wanted to talk about some actionable link building techniques that you can go away and start using straight away. I appreciate how difficult it can be to implement some of the link building techniques we talk about here, so I wanted to cover some which many of you should be able to use straight away.
- Paddy Moogan
How to Get Links by Creating Content People Actually Want to Link To
... it's actually the content creation part of link building that takes most of the time and effort these days. Whole teams work on infographics, widgets or other content-driven link baiting campaigns. ... Before you actually get links, or rather before you create the content to get links to, you have to ask yourself a few questions.
- Tad Chef
Creating a Link Building Dashboard
If you are actively building links as part of your SEO efforts, you are probably tracking your metrics, but are your metrics helping you? You should be actively watching KPI's to ensure your link building is heading in the right direction. This begs two questions two questions: What KPI's do I track and how do you record these metrics so that they are actionable?
- Geoff Kenyon
Interview with Julie Joyce – The Link Specialist
This is my honor and privilege to share the interview with the lady who has been an inspiration to the most of the search marketers, especially the link builders. She owns the link building agency ‘Link Fish Media' and writes a lot about link building on her SEO blog...
- Moosa Hemani
Why PageRank Isn't A Useful Metric For International Link Building
...I propose to dive deeper into how geo-targeting affects PageRank and why many need to adjust their thinking when thinking about generating international links.
- Andy Atkins-Krüger
3 Effective Ways To Jumpstart Your Link Building
For a lot of people, link building is a drag. It's like going to the dentist or writing that tax check every quarter… you don't really want to do it but you know you have to. It's that drag factor that makes a lot of people look for short cuts and easy methods to hurry the process along and get maximum bang for the shortest buck. ... Here are a handful of the more foundational yet highly effective tactics anyone can use to jump-start linking efforts.
- Debra Mastaler
What The Link Value Economy Hath Wrought
It's often said that paid links have created a false economy. As someone who has admittedly purchased links and contributed to that, I would definitely have to agree. I've caught loads of heck for buying links and there have been recent high-profile slaps for sites caught buying links, but what isn't often discussed is the role of the greedy webmaster in all of this.
- Julie Joyce
