Utility Linking

What is utility linking? It's the process of looking for specialty directories or related websites by searching on established phrases like "submit URL" or "add a site" plus your keywords.

The good people at SoloSEO created a tool that does a lot of the work for you. Insert a keyword, pick an engine and go to town looking for sites to add your link to.

http://www.soloseo.com/tools/linkSearch.html?keyword=

It's time consuming but you'll get a handful of links out of it.

He's Right, He's Interesting and Lots of Good Blogs

Someone in SEOLand crossed the line and lost their mind, acted stupid and wrote something putrid. Get a life, get a grip, shut your mouth, shut your lip. We're tired of crap and people like you, go back to your rock and sink out of view.

And what Andy said. Mike - like I told you earlier this week, it was one of the better ones!!

Sitting in the Miami airport waiting (and waiting and waiting) for my flight home from SES, I saw that Aaron was quoted in this month's Business 2.0! Page 52. Whoo hoo! I showed the article to the lady sitting next to me and said proudly - "look, this is a friend of mine". She smiled politely and went back to her newspaper. I'm such a dweeb.

If you're not familiar with Seth Finkelstein - well too bad because he is a great, thought provoking read every time. Totally different but totally relevant to what's going on in Internet Land today. His recent post on Britannica's Blog is a prime example.

On a lighter note, Lee Odden compiled a list of search marketing blogs for the Web Digest, owned by Larry Chase whom I got to meet and talk to at SES NY. Here's the list of blogs Lee provided:

John Battelle's Searchblog http://battellemedia.com/

Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/

Search Engine Land http://searchengineland.com/

Search Engine Watch Blog http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/

Search Engine Roundtable http://www.seroundtable.com/

Bruce Clay Blog http://www.bruceclay.com/blog/

SEO Book.com http://www.seobook.com/

Search Engine Journal http://www.searchenginejournal.com/

Advertising http://www.pronetadvertising.com/

Biznology Blog http://www.mikemoran.com/biznology/blog/

Search Engine Guide Blog ttp://www.searchengineguide.com/searchenginenews.html

SEO by the SEA http://www.seobythesea.com/

Search Marketing Gurus http://www.searchmarketinggurus.com/

LOL - glad he didn't include my blog, can you imagine what he'd have to say about IT?

That's it, have a great day.

Mirror Mirror On The Wall......

My friend and colleague Liana Evans of Search Marketing Gurus recently interviewed me as part of her Women of Search series. Here's how my little spiel turned out:

I first met Deb online in the High-Rankings forum, and even before meeting her in person, I knew she was a great person to get to know. Perhaps I'm a bit biased, but, I think she's likely the top expert on the subject of linking and how it affects your search marketing efforts. I know that's a bit of a big statement, but she not only speaks and trains at SES conferences, but she volunteers at High Rankings as a moderator. There's never been a time where Deb's information and advice has steered me wrong.

Deb's the president of her own company, Alliance Link, and also has her own blog called the Link Spiel. Along with training and speaking at SES, Deb also speaks at Jill Whalen's High Rankings conferences and fills in once a month on the Linking column with Eric Ward at Search Engine Land. So now, lets get to the questions!

Q: How did you get into the Search Marketing Industry?

A: By way of a directory link! Between late 1997 to early 1999 I had a directory of organic co-ops, farms, and food stores after searching online for a central resource and not finding one. Email aside, I had no experience online much less with search engines or SEO so I used the standard marketing and public relations techniques I knew and was comfortable with. I bartered links for email lists, ad space, created cross promotions and would issue a press release each time I had a new customer or created a new section of the site. I started to rank really well for just about any ‘organic’ phrase so I was happy but still clueless as to what was making that happen. It wasn’t until the business owners in my directory started asking me to help them rank that I realized I was doing something right. That’s when I started researching online marketing and found a newsletter called Rank Write which was written by Jill Whalen and Heather Lloyd Martin.

I still have the original email I sent to Jill and her answer to me. Every once in a while I pull them out and remember fondly the simple days when it was all about keyword density, meta tags and any inbound link. Jill patiently explained what I was doing and the effects it had on my site and from those conversations Alliance-Link was born. I eventually let the directory go and ventured into SEOLand and link building. It’s been a fun ride so far and I have no regrets save one – I wish I had never let the directory go for all the ‘link’ reasons you can imagine!

Q: Most successful industry accomplishment?

A: I’ve been very fortunate to have a number of wonderful opportunities come my way and I appreciate each one beyond words. I’m especially grateful to Danny Sullivan and Chris Sherman for making me part of the SES conference series and part of their Search Engine Land blog team.

It was an honor to have been asked to be the initial Link Building Moderator at the HighRankings Forum and to be part of the Incisive Media SES Training Program. I will always be grateful to Peter DaVanzo for being the first person to ask me for an interview and to Jennifer Laycock for being the first to reprint one of my blog posts.

Q: Why do you like/love this industry?

A: For several reasons. I like being part of an industry that has front row seats to the changes taking place in our society via the Internet. I’ve watched as MySpace burst onto the scene and became part of our daily vernacular, how Google morphed from a search engine to a verb and how local search has just about made the yellow pages obsolete.

And it goes without saying that I love a great number of the people I’ve met along the way and consider myself lucky to call them friend.

Q: What aggravates you most about this industry?

A: (laughs)– guess I should have seen that question coming…. Well, two things aggravate me - people who plagiarize content and people who preach SEO/link building but don’t practice it.

Just because someone has a website and “optimizes” it doesn’t make him an authority on the subject of SEO and/or linking. And yet we tolerate a number of people in our industry as *experts* who have this type of background. I work on a variety of sites and never experience the same outcome for any of them, so why do we embrace people who make blanket statements about cause and effect when all they have is one site to base their observations on?

Q: What’s the next big thing you see happening in this industry?

A: More and more integration of Web 2.0 type concepts and technology into corporate America’s online sales and communication activities. We’re starting to see it but once the blue-chip companies integrate the technology and show consumers it’s fast, easy and fun to use, it willl morph forward.

The other thing I see happening is the refinement of mobile search. You can search from your phone now but it’s not pretty and it’s not efficient. Wouldn’t it be cool to speak a search command into your phone and produce a listing of businesses? I’d have a field day with shoe stores wherever I traveled!

Or how about rating a restaurant right after leaving it instead of waiting to get home and power up the laptop? Point and click will be replaced by speak and click and we’ll all own more shoes.

Q: Do you feel Search Marketing and Search Marketers get have a bad rep, from outsiders of the industry?

A: I’m sure we do but then there are people who don’t like the Pope, Gandhi and Elvis as well so it’s best to keep all that in perspective when we talk about what people think.

Q: Why do you blog?

A: I blog to practice my writing skills which suck. And not because I use eloquent words like *suck* but because I don’t have the ability to put down on paper what I hear in my head.

I try to blog on a regular basis but life and work get in the way. And yes, I am planning to take The Link Spiel off Blogger and give it a big girl blog right after I redesign my pitiful website which at the rate I’m going will be in 2010.

Q: What’s a typical day like for you at your company?

A: Depends if I’m at home working or on the road. I have a number of clients in the Richmond/Wash DC area on retainer so I’ll visit with them several times a month and I do a lot of off-site training. I’m a chatty Cathy by nature so the visiting and the feedback is a lot of fun for me.

On the other hand, I love my jammies too so I’m glad I can have both types of work days.

Q: Who’s your favorite blogger to read?

A: Hands down Rohit Bhargava. Closely followed by SEO By The Sea, BoingBoing, Micropersuasion, Constantin Basturea, Eric and Justilien. Oh and Gawker, Gray Hat News and Mike Grehan for fun and good photos.

Q: Right now, how many women bloggers do you read?

A: Let’s see, eight on a regular basis. Yours, Christine’s, Dazzlin' Donna's, Amanda, Kim, and Jennifer. I also like to read Lisa Barone at BC's and anything by Esther Dyson.

And now of course for the juicy stuff!

Q: Favorite Memory for an SES Conference?

A: Google Dance 2004. I got to spend time with Paul Gardi.

Q: You have been in the industry for quite a while, surely you can tell the audience if you’ve ever seen Bruce Clay in tights and a cape?

A: Nope, but I have seen him in purple silk _____ !!

Q: Sexy SEO’s, which would top your list? Oilman, Web Guerilla or Dave “Fookin’” Naylor?

A: Ooooo be still my beating heart! Well... Todd can talk over Greg which makes him my hero and I hear he drives a big truck so big sex appeal points to Todd. However, I’d need to know if he has chest hair before he takes home the prize. So…

Even thought I don’t know Mr. Naylor the fact he’s earned a middle name like "‘Fookin" is promising. I already know he doesn’t have chest hair since I’ve seen his streaking video so I need to find out he drives a big truck or SUV. That leaves….

My panel-mate MonkeyBoy. Anyone who says it would be an honor to be bitch slapped by me and openly compliments his wife is definitely OK in my book. However…..

Truth be told I’d run them all over for Paul Gardi.

LOL - Deb has a wonderful way with words! Thanks Deb for letting us get to know you!

-----------------------------------

It was my pleasure Liana, thank you!

SEO Training

If you ever get tired of being an SEO and don't want to change the monogram on your towels you can always become an SEO.....

Shut My Link Mouth

Greetings from Breckenridge Colorado! Nope, didn't move out of Williamsburg, I'm here with the family combining a business and vacation trip!

We had some down time today after our big white-water rafting trip on the Arkansas River so I went through email and played catch-up reading. (note - apologies to everyone who's written or commented in the last 3 weeks, I will answer) .

As I was reading through a number of the SMX wrap-up blog posts, I was struck by something Tamar Weinberg from SEORoundtable reported on from the You& With Matt Cutts session:

Question: Speaking of link schemes, I came across an ad looking for a SEO manager and they were looking for "expertise in buying links." What would you say about this?

Matt: When people advertise for that, you have no idea how many people write to Google and say they are offended. We get those job descriptions forwarded to us. I wouldn't be surprised that we have something like this in the Webmaster Console in the future, just like we had the Spam Report form (which we had since November of 2001). We try to approach things algorithmically and also take people into account. We consider buying links to be outside of our guidelines and we might take strong actions on that in the future. If people want to ignore that, we as a search engine might take action on that because we want a high-quality index.

First off, this comment from a Google Engineer should stop the persistent question always being asked at search conferences on whether (or not) clients should link to their SEO's. I always thought it was a silly question to start with but now we have some scary stuff to quote which should put an end to it once and for all.

Second - as soon as I get home I'm hanging link garlic on my front door to keep the slaying squealers at bay. No more talking about paid links from this link witch, (as in Glenda the Good) and any mention or use of the word "paid" is coming off my site.

Third - I hope there is some exemption in place for any old post or web page out there hosting something I've written on paid links, I shouldn't be dinged for something I've done in the past. I was younger and thinner then, goodness knows I shouldn't be held responsible.

So for all you SEO's out there with form-filling-time-on-your-hands, I've seen the light. You can take your wooden stakes away from my website and go home.

Busted By The Wikipedia Police

In a recent post on Search Engine Land's Link Week I got a less-than-enthusiastic comment/rebuttal from a Wiki supporter after I suggested looking to the Wikipedia as a link resource.

Here’s the comment I got:

Deb, please have a look at Wikipedia's conflict of interest guideline. I believe that webmasters should be able to do whatever they want with their own sites, but when they visit somebody else's Web 2.0 site, they need to follow house rules. Breaking the rules when you are a guest in somebody else's house is rude.

Link building is great, but you need to keep reputation management in mind. Wikipedia's rules strongly discourage self-serving edits. If you get caught, you and your client could suffer public embarrassment. We all know how well Wikipedia pages rank. Before taking this risk, I recommend reading this essay.

That comment was made in response to what I said here:

I also recommend you take the time to submit to the Open Directory Project, pay for a Yahoo! Directory listing (especially if the site is new) and look for submission opportunities at Wikipedia. Yes I know the Wikipedia uses nofollow on their links rendering them virtually useless from a link popularity standpoint, but—the traffic you'd get from those links is worth it. If you can find an opportunity to add your site where it will make a useful contribution, do it.

Bold is mine. At first I was surprised given the Wikipedia disclaimer in my post - “add your site where it will make a useful contribution” but, after thinking about it, looking through Wikipedia and the link the poster provided, I decided to step back and try to see things from his perspective instead of being automatically defensive. To do that I knew I had to spend a good bit of time reading through Wikipedia with more of an editors mind than a link builder.

Which shouldn’t have been hard for me since I spent many years as a DMOZ editor. But the two entities are very different so I found that didn’t help much in the end.

To get started, I clicked the conflict of interest link the poster provided and read through the page, then subsequent pages and even more pages after that. After all the reading and link skipping I came away with two conclusions: There isn’t a page in the guidelines and the site itself that doesn’t warn (in some fashion) about spamming. Every page mentions it so unless you’re a total idiot, that should be clear .

Second, after it was all read and done, I still don’t agree with the logic behind the posters comments -or- understand how my comments could be construed as a conflict of interest. Even the conflict of interest guidelinepage I was pointed to had an exception " Merely participating in or having professional expertise in a subject is not, by itself, a conflict of interest"

So I ask sincerely- where’s the correlation between “useful contribution” and conflict of interest? And where is this "don't submit your/client's information clause"? Would a public library turn down a book I authored simply because I wrote it?

I say "sincerely" because based on what I read, the guidelines provide a lot of positive encouragement and suggest editors approach the submission process with an assumption of good faith. The idea of submitting with a neutral point of view comes up over and over as does the issue of respect and consensus. All positive and constructive guidelines, and all related to my suggestion of making a “useful contribution”.

So why is it not right to add a site you own/are passionate about or add to a discussion and cite a resource you are associated with? Not everyone is trying to game Wikipedia. I can’t speak for others or what’s happened in the past but I do feel suggesting that someone is being rude or could suffer public embarrassment by contributing usefully totally goes against what they talk about here in common sense: “Being too wrapped up in rules can cause you to lose perspective”.

I totally get the idea they need rules and guidelines, any publically edited encyclopedia would but - to tell the public they can't contribute affiliated material because it's a conflict of interest just seems - well - undemocratic to me. The public reading the info doesn't know who submitted it, nor do they care. They just want good information. Can the Wikipedia honestly say they have all the quality information on subjects listed? Probably not. If you publically put a dampner on the idea you can't submit good information because you're the author or tied to the materials , there's a chance you'll never get quality information. Now who suffers?

One last thing.

I stand by what I recommended in my post today, getting links from credible sources such as the DMOZ, Yahoo! Directory and Wikipedia work to build your foundational link and business reputation. With the Wikipedia's all around visibility that just makes business and community sense. If you have good content that the world would benefit by knowing about, find the right category and participate by offering your information.

Don't spam and

Read the guidelines before you submit anywhere.

Hopefully I've covered all the disclaimers needed this time!

Artificial Playboy Links

Artificial world meets artificial world.

Seems like the perfect fit doesn't it?


Naturally!

Being TattleTails & Paid Links

Over on SearchMarketingGurus Liana posted the results of an informal survey she took from a handful of SEO's on paid links.

Can't say I was surprised at any of the responses save one -but- was surprised at the number of questions and "what if" scenarios the group posed in return.

Typically questions are asked when situations aren't clear or full information presented so I hope Google and the other engines takes this into consideration the next time they drop an important issue like this one in their official or unofficial blogs.

I Saw The Queen! I Saw The Queen!

After pulling the kids out of school




and waiting over four hours in the rain, we saw the Queen!!!

I never thought I'd hear myself say something like
this but - I really liked her hat. It was a gorgeous
shade of hot pink.

We also saw the back of Sandra Day O'Connor's head.

I know, I know - these aren't the greatest photos but -
as the Queen drew closer people pushed up against
the barracades where we were standing and
I kept getting bumped. Note to self: Get photography
tips from Mike .

Alright - back to link building posts.

The Queen Is Coming! The Queen Is Coming!

Tomarrow marks the summer long kick-off of America's 400th Annivesary Celebration of Jamestown with a visit from Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip.

Moderate chaos is everywhere as local officials prepare for their arrival. I say moderate because we tend to get a lot of dignitaries, politicans, and celebrities here, not to mention several million 'regular' visitors each year. Historic Williamsburg is a rite of passage for family vacations and student field trips, I can't tell you how many times I've heard "oh I went there with my parents as a kid" or "took a bus trip there with my 5th grade class" when I tell people where I live.

Anyway - this isn't the Queens first visit to Jamestown, she was here exactly 50 years ago to open the original Jamestown Festival Park. Over on the official Jamestown 2007 website people who had seen her in 1957 were encouraged to share memories and photographs. It's an interesting step back in time when Polaroids were high-tech and people dressed up to travel:

I really enjoyed the Queens visit. They had a scrapbook made up without the photos. They took prearranged photos of her with a Polaroid camera, put them in the album and presented it to her at the end of the tour in the fort. She was amazed. I was picked up with others to go out to the Governor’s Palace at night where the Queen was to have dinner. We were lined up at the rear of the Palace where the Queen walked between us and under our raised pikes to a cart for cocktails. The Lord Mayor of London came by us, shook our hands and gave the sergeant a five-dollar bill and said to buy them a bottle. He knew we where in the Army. I could not believe he did that. Then after telling the Queen they arranged for us to have ten minutes at the bar after they went inside. Unbelievable. Hey you can’t make this stuff up. We never did find out what the Sergeant did with the five bucks.

I'm pretty sure today's Lord Mayor of London won't be handing out $5 bills for 'refreshments'. (Might have to be more like $20 if he did).

Seems the custom of class trips started way back when...

In 1957, I was 12 years old and in the sixth grade at John Marshall Elementary School in Portsmouth, VA. Our teacher, Miss Evelyn Brooks, was very much interested in the 350th anniversary. She made us listen to and memorize a little song about the "three small ships." I can still say the names--the Godspeed, the Discovery and the Susan Constant. She also took our class on a field trip to Jamestown. While there in the Gift Shop, I bought two souvenirs. One was a funny little decorative pot which said on it, "Captin John Smith, his jug," and the other was a wooden crucifix. I still have both.

One more...

My mother and father took me to the ceremonies in 1957 at the Festival Park in which the Queen participated. I remember my Dad hoisting me on to his shoulders so that I could see Her Majesty. He told me it was important for me to see her because the Queen was a living link to our past history both here in Virginia and in England and that it was a very unique moment in time. I remember she was so elegant and petite.

A group of girlfriends and I are planning to pull our kids out of school early tomarrow and head down to Colonial Williamsburg to catch a glimpse of the Queen. With Elvis dead this is probably the best shot I'll have at seeing royalty up close so we're going.

If you have a chance to visit Williamsburg - do. Busch is debuting a new roller coaster, Jamestown has their anniversary and Casa Mastaler should have a new pool. It's going to be a great summer!