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When working for clients (or starting fresh on your own site) one of the best things you can do at the beginning of a link building campaign is pull in a few quick wins. Too many people have been burned by shady SEO practitioners in the past, or link builders who just didn't deliver.
My motto for launching a campaign is always "start at the start." You see, it's pretty easy (and tempting) to immediately dive deep into a campaign and go after big campaign wins.
Big wins are great. Everyone loves them - clients, leadership, the team. Everyone's happy. The problem is, big campaign wins are hard work, and certainly don't happen overnight. They require perseverance, patience, resources, and sometimes a little luck.
So, before (or even while) we go after those big wins, I take the time to work through my list of potential quick win opportunities - searching for quality links - in order to build trust, enthusiasm, and motivation.
The Quick Wins List:
- 404 Pages and Link Reclamation
- Competitor Analysis
- Fresh Web Explorer/Google Alerts
- Local Link Building
- Past/Current Relationships
Note: Each step will be covered in separate installments of this Link Building 101 series.
404 Pages and Link Reclamation
Websites change over time – it's a fact of life. Products come, products go, information is updated, URLs are modified, resources are reworked; pages are edited, shifted, and moved.
While a lot of this sounds like on-page SEO, it affects off-page SEO as well – specifically links.
If you've secured hard-earned links and then update that page's URL, change subfolders, or even change the information on the page, you've just affected that link, typically by losing it.
Oftentimes page migration involves a 301 redirect, so visitors will be passed along to the new page. This passes link equity as well, although some is unfortunately lost.
However, if there's no redirect in place, and there are inbound links pointing to the old URL, that's link equity lost. So, when picking up a new client, I like to ensure there aren't any dead/404 pages with external links pointed at them.
Salvaging even a few quality links here can be a fairly significant win – especially right off the bat, when you're establishing trust and confidence.
Let's take a look at a couple different methods to find 404'd pages that potentially have inbound links.
1. Webmaster Tools
Getting Webmaster Tool access is the most straightforward (and free) method of finding pages returning a 404. Beyond finding 404s, you should have Webmaster Tool access for general SEO purposes. So, you should be working to get access regardless.
Once you've set up (or received) Webmaster Tool access, you can quickly check 404 errors by going into the crawl errors section:
Also note that you can navigate with the menu on the left, by clicking on Crawl>Crawl Errors:
This will display a list of URLs with issues on your website. You'll want to focus in on the URLs returning 404s:
You should take care to clean up these broken URLs as soon as possible. While you do that you should also run these URLs through a backlink analysis tool to determine whether there are links pointing at these lost/dead pages.
Tools that will do this:
Which tool you use mostly comes down to a matter of preference. For this post I'll be referencing Moz's Open Site Explorer and Majestic SEO.
To run an individual URL/page, you simply go to the home page of any of these tools and input the specified URL into the search bar.
Here's what running an individual page/URL looks like in OSE:
And in Majestic:
Putting your 404 URLs in here will show you if any pages are linking to your 404'd pages, and allow you to navigate to the linking pages to analyze the link(s).
From here, you'll want to set about recovering any links pointing at broken pages. But before we get into that, let's take a look at another method to discover 404 pages that have links: Open Site Explorer from Moz.
2. Open Site Explorer from Moz
Open Site Explorer is also capable of reporting inbound links pointing at broken pages.
OSE isn't as prolific a crawler as Google, however. Google just has so many more resources invested into crawling the web – so OSE might not find the same amount of 404s as Google Webmaster Tools. However, it's always great to have a second data source, so definitely check with OSE, especially if you already have a paid account.
So, how do you find the inbound links pointing to 404 pages with Open Site Explorer?
Head over to OSE and enter your domain's URL into the search bar. Then, switch to the Top Pages tab:
Now, download your Top Pages as a CSV:
Once you have the CSV with a complete list of your Top Pages, you'll want to filter by HTTP Status:
Head over to Data and then click on the filter tab to filter the data:
Here's a link to common HTTP Status codes. What you're looking for is anything reporting a 404, and possibly 302s (302s are supposed to be temporary redirects – they aren't designed to pass link equity, so any links going to a page that has been 302'd are essentially wasted).
Now, choose 404s, 302s, and No Data. Note that column F is the number of domains linking to your website. Your sheet should now look like this:
So, any 404s with multiple domains linking to it should be worth checking out (just throw the URL – column A – back into OSE to find the linking sites/pages).
And that's all you need to find your 404s with OSE.
Now let's head into the actual process of link reclamation (reclaiming links pointing at dead/incorrect pages).
Link Quality Analysis
Any sites linking to your 404 pages should be first examined for authority and quality before reclaiming the link. A few factors you should look at:
- Relevance of the website.
- Relevance of the page.
- PR or DA of the home page.
- PR or PA of the page.
- The content quality of the page.
- The placement of the link.
- The anchor text used.
- Other links on the page.
- Other pages on the site.
That should give you a sense of the overall quality of the site, the page, and the link. All are important elements of overall link quality, and shouldn't be excluded. If the link isn't relevant to the site, or even the page, then the link probably isn't quality.
Eventually when you examine enough links you will develop a link sense, often referred to as the smell test – because you know when a link stinks.
So, if the link is worth saving? Two options:
- Create a 301 redirect for the 404'd page to a relevant page on your site.
- Contact the linking site's webmaster and let them know the page has moved and ask if they could update the link.
Typically, the first option is the best, unless you only want to reclaim a single link as opposed to every link pointing to the page. You lose a little bit of link equity (the power of the link) using a 301 redirect, but you don't have to annoy and rely upon a webmaster, who might just pull down the link altogether.
Recap
- Webmaster Tools is best (and free) for finding 404s, although OSE works as well.
- Use backlink explorers to test pages returning a 404 for inbound links.
- Manually check any links found pointing to dead pages for relevance and quality.
- Use a 301 redirect to a relevant page to recapture link equity (most common) or ask the linking site's webmaster to fix the link.
Original Article Post by
Jon Ball @
Search Engine Watch
Search engines – webmasters and search engine optimization (SEO) professionals follow their guidelines for the highest possible rankings on them; paid search marketers pay to be featured on them; and users turn to them when they're searching for answers, information, or entertainment.
Search Engine Watch has been covering search engines since June 1997 and has watched the industry evolve to its current state. Over time, many search engines have come and gone, as users have spoken with their keyboards (and literally with their voices – thanks to voice search technology).
In recent years, search market share has remained mostly unchanged – for much of the world, it's Google followed by every other search engine (in the U.S. the "Big 5" search engines consist of Google, Bing, Yahoo, Ask.com and AOL, which combine for hundreds of billions of searches every month). Meanwhile, many of the players have consolidated or have become footnotes in history.
What follows is an overview of today's major global search engines, with some history and explanation of why each one is important to webmasters, marketers, and users. We'll then review some of the top directories.
Major Search Engines
Google
Started in 1998 as a university project by Stanford University students Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Google is now the dominant search engine by no small margin and that didn't evolve slowly.
In fact, in June of 1999 Netscape Search was updated and AOL/Netscape search began to be powered by Google bringing their search volume to approximately 3 million per day; huge for the time.
On June 26, 2000 Yahoo Selected Google to provide its organic search results (replacing Inktomi) with its impressive index of more than 25 million pages; again, huge for the time.
Google has since become synonymous with the word "search" and as most of us know, is often used in place of the word. Don't know the answer? Google it!
The continued strength of Google as a search provider is based on a large number of factors and won't be debated here, save to say, they have successfully provided the results people are looking for in a manner those searchers either enjoy or are comfortable enough with not to switch to a different provider.
Google continues to tweak their search algorithm multiple times per month and adjust the layout of their results to test for improved visitor experience and advertising revenue.
The majority of Google's revenue is derived from their AdWords and AdSense programs. In fact, advertising accounts for more than 95 percent of Google's earnings. If there is a weakness in the Google model this is it; they need to tweak their layout and results to promote the paid avenues of their offerings. This gives advantages to other engines who may have revenue generation strategies outside of search.
Bing
Bing was launched in May 2009 as a fundamental upgrade from Microsoft's previous efforts into search, MSN Search.
Since the launch of Bing, Microsoft's share of the search marketplace has more than doubled. Add to that the deal between Microsoft and Yahoo for Bing to power Yahoo's organic results and Bing powers over 25 percent of search.
With the Microsoft/Yahoo alliance also came the affect that Yahoo's paid search platform would be used to power both Yahoo and Bing's paid results. While this may not seem like a big deal on the surface, it is actually huge.
Where once business owners and marketers had to consider whether it was worth the hassle of managing both a Bing paid campaign (for the significantly lower traffic they yield over Google) and also make the same call on managing a Yahoo paid campaign – the two now are manageable in one convenient location, significantly reducing the time it takes to setup and manage.
This of course makes the cost for these campaigns less expensive and when you combine that with Bing's increased market-share then they're in a position to take some of the ad dollars from Google (or at least, gain some for themselves).
Yahoo
Yahoo is an interesting search engine and one which, until recently, I had a very hard time taking seriously.
Once upon a time Yahoo was a major leader in the search field but has been in decline, making bad decision after bad decision, announcing layoff round after layoff round and making what can only be described as one of the worst business decisions in history when they turned down a takeover from Microsoft valued at $33/share. Yahoo shares dove after that and have never been anywhere close since.
From that point, until 2012, it seemed that every piece of news from Yahoo was bad news, until July 16 when the announcement came that they had snagged Marissa Meyer from Google to become CEO. This was the first move they'd made in a long time and had people wondering if this might just be the breath of fresh air and change of direction that the company needed.
From reviews of all hires and selling key properties such as Alibaba to putting their own search technology back on the forefront; Yahoo has maintained its position as one of the top three search engines, despite not producing their own organic results.
Other Major Search Engines Around the Globe
Google dominates the U.S. and most of the world – but not everywhere. Yahoo and Bing have had about the same luck (zero) making a dent in Google's search market share on other continents, but a couple of search engines in other countries have managed to stay ahead of the Mountain View, California-based search engine. If you're from these countries or interested in marketing to them – pay attention.
Baidu
In China, Baidu is the major player with more than three of every four searches conducted on their engine.
To say Baidu blends organic with paid search is misleading, they use a hybrid approach wherein they have pay for performance (P4P) results (users bid to have their websites place at the top of what would appear to be the organic results).
In addition, Baidu offers PPC which, similar to AdWords, is displayed at the top or right of the standard results. One could argue that the existence of the PPC-like results further confuses the users clicking on the standard results area into believing they are organically generated.
While some investors consider Baidu to be overvalued as a stock, their earnings are consistently high. For companies looking to market into China, understanding Baidu is crucial.
Yandex
Yandex is the primary and most popular of all Russian-language search engines with significant market dominance in Russia.
On October 1, 2012, Yandex launched their own browser and mobile app to keep their position secure against Google, their only real competitor in the space.
Yandex's advantage in Russian seems to be based on an algorithm that performs much better in understanding the unique syntax used and integrating that into the consideration of what type of results the user is likely looking for (for example – is the search string a question or simply keyword entry).
Directories
Directories are an interesting topic. Do they carry weight? Can they hurt your rankings? Should you even bother? The answer here is yes, yes, and yes.
This section will mainly focus on general directories, but the end of this section does include a few tips on how to find niche directories (or even other general directories) and how to determine if they are worth getting a listing on.
Yahoo
The Yahoo Directory was started in 1994 under the name "Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web" but in 1996 became Yahoo. At the time Yahoo was primarily a directory with search functionality and (interestingly) neither SEO nor Internet Marketing were even categories at the time.
Through the late 1990s Yahoo pushed to become a web portal and in 2000 even signed a deal with Google that would see Google power Yahoo's search functionality. Their focus at the time was to acquire users through acquisitions such as GeoCities (RIP), bringing more people into their portal and keeping them there. Unfortunately Yahoo! didn't have the same user loyalty that Apple does and the walled-garden approached failed as users Googled their way out of the Yahoo network of sites (ironically right on Yahoo's own properties).
All this said however, they still provide a solid directory (back to their roots). The cost is a non-refundable $299 review fee.
BOTW
Best Of The Web may be my favorite of the general directories due in no small part to the fact that they allow for a permanent listing. The directory was founded in 1994 as a listing of the best of the web (seems to be the year of directories) and actually gave out a series of awards (take a peek, it's interesting to see what types of things won back then). That lasted until 1998 at which time the site lay dormant until purchased in 2002 at which time it became a general web directory.
BOTW is a human edited directory. They will decline your listing if they don't like the site. A submission is $150 annually or $300 for a permanent listing.
DMOZ
No list of directories would be complete without DMOZ. DMOZ was founded in June 1998 as Gnuhoo. It was purchased by Netscape in October of the same year at which time it became The Open Directory Project. By April 2000 it had surpassed the Yahoo Directory in number of URLs in it's index and currently sits at about 5.2 million.
For those in the industry long enough to remember, DMOZ suffered a catastrophic failure in October of 2006 at which time they had to display a backup version of their directory. This wasn't remedied until December and new sites couldn't be suggested until January. This is he time when it seemingly became increasingly difficult to get a listing in DMOZ as any editors seemed to have found new things to do with their time.
It is still possible to get a listing in DMOZ. For the 10 minutes it takes, it's well worth the time and it's free to submit. (Tip: try to submit to a category that has an editor.)
Business.com
Business.com was started in 1999 as a search engine for business and corporations. They came close to bankruptcy during the dot-com bubble bursting but after major layoffs and restructuring they became profitable once more in 2003.
Business.com is focused on business-to-business resources (so take that into consideration when thinking about submitting. The cost is $299 per year and all submissions are reviewed manually.
As with Yahoo and BOTW, the fee is non-refundable if your site isn't accepted. You're paying for the review, not the link.
Honorable Mentions
Moving past the major players, there are also a number of other good general directories. These directories have all survived many updates including the Penguin and Panda rounds.
Remember, though, link building is about balance. You don't want to submit to a bunch of directories and consider your job done. A better strategy would be to bookmark this page, submit to a few and as you're building more links using different strategies, add a directory or two mixed in with the rest.
- JoeAnt – $39.99 one-time fee.
- Jayde – Submission is free.
- Ezilon – $69 annual fee of $199 permanent.
- Alive – $75 annual fee or $225 permanent.
- 01 Web Directory – Free submission option or $49 one-time for a guaranteed 3-day response time.
- Aviva – $50 annually or $150 permanent.
- SunStream – $29 annually or $49 permanent.
- Wow Directory – $43 for a permanent listing.'
- GoGuides – $69 one time.
Again, this list only contains consistently solid general directories.
Directory Guidelines
You'll want to also look at niche directories (which may well hold more weight than any of the general directories above), but you need to be careful. There are many horrible directories out there.
Here are a few directory guidelines to follow that universally apply:
- Is the submission a guaranteed placement? If a directory will list you automatically (with or without a fee) then it's not an editorial link and either doesn't carry weight or likely won't in the near future. It should be avoided.
- Do they require a link back? If they do (even for their free listings when a paid is available), it probably should be avoided.
- Is their PageRank 3 or below? Yes, it's an old metric, but is still helpful to gauge general site health. A directory with a PageRank of 3 or less will, at best, pass virtually no weight; at worst, it'll cause you problems. Generally, you should only look at PageRank 3 directories in the case of niche directories; with general directories, don't even consider anything less than a 4.
- Common sense. Ah, the toughest one because our brains can trick us into seeing what we want to see. When you look at a directory (or any other link source for that matter) you have to ask yourself, "does it make sense that this link should pass weight to my site?" If you can honestly say "yes" to this then it's likely a good link.
A Final Warning
The saying "don't put all your eggs in one basket" comes into play here. Once again, directories can provide good and relevant links to your site (and hey, even some traffic) but a solid link profile contains variety.
Never put all your energies into one single link source. If you find a lot of great niche directories, put them all on a list and add a couple each month while you're engaged in other strategies to help remind Google that you're not a one-trick pony. You have good content liked by directory editors, bloggers, social media netizens, and others.
Original Article Post by
Dave Davies @
Search Engine Watch
Google's most recent update to their defintions of link schemes sent shockwaves through the SEO and online PR world; a real downer to link building strategists.
It's true: the world's largest search engine called links in press releases "unnatural" and is mandating nofollowing them. What does this mean to organizations using press release to gain digital visibility in search and social?
For brands publishing a press release or an article on your site and distributing it through a paid wire service, such as PR Newswire, Business Wire, Marketwire or through an article site, you must first make sure to nofollow the links if those links are "optimized anchor text."
Is This a Big SEO Deal? Yes. No. Maybe.
Google has been slowly squeezing the SEO life out of press releases for a while now.
"In 2006 online press releases were amazing for SEO. In 2013? Not so much," said Joe Laratro, SEO expert and PubCon lead moderator "Online press releases have had very little value in terms of links and content over the past few years – I would say it had been steadily declining. However, I still thought it was a good part of a large organic link building strategy until the new guideline changes."
But what about the anchor text links in past press releases? Will the ghost of Google past haunt companies with surprising penalties in the future? Will brands have to back track to older press releases to protect themselves.
"The real concern for the SEO industry right now should be backdated enforcement. If this is now considered a 'penalizable' tactic, how are companies that have been using this tactic for over a decade going to deal with the old content and links?" Laratro asked. "How quickly can the online newswires update their systems to support the rel nofollow? In my opinion this will have a fairly large effect on the online paid newswire release business."
Many more SEO industry experts agree. The clean up work with old press release content that's been spinning links across the web for years is a big SEO issue.
"There are press releases archived across the web that you will have no control over – how do you clean that up?" asked Bruce Clay, president of Bruce Clay Inc.
"Even if press release distribution companies do something to address their archives, like noindexing old pages (and this is a big if), you're still looking at the larger problem of pruning links on the many sites that have republished those press releases."
Don't Optimize Links, Do... What?
Organizations are now left wondering what they can do with press releases past, present, and future.
"If a client has real newsworthy content, an online press release is worth doing, but I would be very careful with the links at the moment, at least until the rel=nofollow options are live," Laratro said. "Companies should still include one or two links in order to get the reader over to the website or blog. This may cause a shift back to more traditional types of PR work – not necessarily a bad thing."
The Ghost of Press Release Past
The first press release was written in 1906 by Ivy Lee and actually published verbatim in the New York Times. It wasn't until the mid-1990s that wire services began releasing news direct to consumers vis the Internet. Since then, journalists have relied on press releases to help track company news and come up with story angles and sources.
Today the digital press release reaches beyond the journalist and carries company news direct to customers, prospects, bloggers, and more. The press release lifeline streams through the veins of search engines and flows into social media.
Google might have killed the link juice, but press releases are still alive and kicking according to media experts.
"While most of the companies using PR Newswire (and our competitors) are doing so to build awareness of their messages, garner media pick up and to deliver their messaging straight to their target audiences, there is a contingent that are issuing press releases for the sole purpose of generating inbound links, and this is the practice Google is discouraging," said Sarah Skerik, vice president, content marketing, PR Newswire//MultiVu. "This is not an indictment of PR."
The Digital Path of a Press Release: It's About Content Discovery
Press releases are more than a simple SEO tool. Press release content helps reach journalists, influencers, and consumers.
The AP, Dow Jones, Reuters, Bloomberg, and thousands of other major newsrooms worldwide have feeds of press releases piped directly into their editorial systems. And almost 8,000 websites, including some of the world's largest news sites, publish stories as a result of wire services such as PR Newswire.
Let's not forget the social media intersection of press releases. They help fuel the content fire and drive social interaction, sharing, and engagement – and are the launching pad for company news. Taking a drive off main street, press releases are part of the Wall Street creed, meeting financial disclosure.
In 140 characters or less: Press releases drive broad discovery of your news message in search and social.
"None of this has anything to do with link building and SEO," Skerik said. "We believe the value press release distribution provides is in discovery, not links. Driving messages deep into audiences and generating authentic reads, clicks and visibility among relevant audiences and social shares – that's where press releases add value."
Hybrid search industry vet Greg Jarboe, president and founder of SEO-PR, specializes in both PR and SEO and zeroed in on the fact that the PR industry still hasn't fully embraced the concept of public relations optimization, so they might not realize the missing link.
"This is a big SEO deal," Jarboe said. "And it would also be a big deal for PR, if more public relations people were optimizing their press releases. But most of them still aren't."
Less than 15 percent of press releases in corporate newsrooms and posted on the wire services are optimized for search, according to a PressFeed Online Newsroom Survey.
12 Things You Can Do With Digital Press Releases
- Adding links still helps drive traffic to a website. "Driving traffic is one of the primary objectives of website SEO, according to the SEMPO State of Search Report, published by Econsultancy. It can be one of the important objectives of press release SEO, too," Jarboe said.
- Improve the user experience.
- Increase visibility in search and social.
- Use press releases as inroads to more information and details on a blog or website.
- Spark a story idea and attract a journalist or blogger to do a larger story that might gain a natural link.
- Educate and inform your audience.
- Build relationships.
- Report company news or industry data.
- Use images and video to increase pageviews and attention.
- Embed video and multimedia.
- Create an infographic version of press release tell your story.
- Broaden your distribution and use social networks to report news – both paid and organic.
5 Things You Can't Do With Press Releases
- Generate inbound links.
- Add link juice to your SEO campaign.
- Use press releases as part of your link building strategy.
- Optimized anchor text links, Google now says this equates to unnatural links.
- Keyword stuffing.
Summary
Google may have taken away the anchor text links in press releases (and guest posts and articles), but there is still room for press release optimization opportunities like in any other digital content using:
- Optimized keywords.
- Headlines.
- Title.
- Description.
- Hashtags.
- Photos.
- Videos.
- Social media messaging.
Gaming the system is yesterday's news. Today's press releases still work the natural, social, and mobile way of tomorrow.
Image Credit: PR Newswire
Article Post @
Search Engine Watch
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