This is a toolbox post. A post written to give our webinar participants an opportunity to dive deeper into the content we presented. This toolbox post is supporting our recent webinar entitled: “Strategic Link Building: Is this love that I’m feeling”.
The method Google and Bing uses to determine website authority has shifted from quantity to quality of links. Good link building methods have been long debated. Search industry debate continues to tackle which tactics are outdated or conflict with search engine quality intent. First we’ll look at the history and importance of links.
History of Link Building
Thanks to Google’s Panda and Penguin updates, the way we approach link building had to change. The shift focused from acquisition to user experience.
Let’s compare THEN and NOW:
| Then | Now |
| Link Exchange | Cross Promotion |
| E-mail Links Requests | Social Sharing |
| Paid Links | Organic Link Earning |
| Directory Submissions | Curated Lists/Portals |
| Article Submissions | Guest post on highly valued and relevant websites |
| Blog Comments | Authentic community participation |
| Broken Link Building | Mine competitor content & do it better |
| Link Networks/Farms | Grow social network of influencers |
Here are a few resources that will help you dig deeper into this topic:
http://moz.com/blog/link-building-has-changed
http://visual.ly/history-link-building-seo
Content Strategy
Link Building Tactics
Blog Articles
Create relevant, industry related content posted on domain, ideally on your blog located at www.domain.com/blog.
Some Resources for generating ideas with content to create:
- GoFish
- FAQFox
- Quora
- Google Trends along with Google Correlate
InfoGraphics
Turn data into a visualization with infographics. It’s quality content that should be easy to share. Provide an embed code for others to use within their blog post or website for reference (they get new content, you get added exposure). Siege Media offers an embed code generator that is elegant and easy to use.
By promoting via social media or existing mailing lists will get traffic and potential referrals to your website. There are plenty of websites for submitting your InfoGraphic, including Visua.ly and Reddit. For a comprehensive list, check out Moz’s list of InfoGraphic Websites and tips.
Egobait
One of the most effective tactics to build links and authority. You might try a “roundups”. That’s where you survey a selection of industry authorities. For example, top X number lists. Also try interviewing an industry expert. By using these types of “egobait” will encourage them to reference your content to they’re large audience.
Videos
Videos can almost triple the average number of linking domains. It’s a fact. Boost traffic and link building prowess by combining video and text.
Industry Reports
Supply data to your visitors, get seen. Sponsor industry information via analysts and this is a sure-fire way to generate links to your site as a reference. These can be in the form of videos, InfoGraphics or content posts.
In-Depth Guides
Providing a guide implies expertise. A great example of this is Moz’s Beginner’s Guide to SEO. SEO is a very large topic that can’t be covered in a single blog post and has multiple topics.
Link Building Technology
Look for plug-ins for your CMS, such as WordPress to assist with accelerating social media tags and sharing, such as Yoast’s WordPress SEO Plug-in and allow for customized values that are specific to Facebook, Twitter and Google+
Open Graph & Twitter Cards
Each social media platform will look for custom values within Open Graph tags and Twitter Cards. At a minimum, the META tags to use are:
For a full list and documentation, check out the following resources:
- Moz Social Meta Tags for Social: http://moz.com/blog/meta-data-templates-123
- Open Graph Documentation: http://ogp.me/
- Facebook Open Graph Example Tags: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/sharing/best-practices#tags
- Twitter Card: https://twitter.com/cards/types/summary
Social Media Sharing
With the appropriate social media tags in place, allowing visitors to easily share your content by using social sharing options such as those available using AddThis. Additionally, by having a custom bit.ly or ow.ly domain, this will help with promoting your brand and/or company name.
What’s next?
I hope this list of resources was helpful to you! If you’re interested in learning more be sure to register for a recording of our webinar.
Join the conversation!
What do you do to help build quality links back to your site? Share your tactics!
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