I saw the clip of this man Paul Potts on the Oprah show last week along with that adorable skateboarding English bulldog (The UK is hot with talent these days, did I mention I saw the Queen this summer? ) and thought WOW!!!
To try and equate the difficulties in link building with the hurdles this man has faced would be ridiculous so I'll simply say this:
One of the most fundamental shifts the Internet made to mainstream media and business was the ability to grant power to the little guy (and girl). We all appreciate how the web makes it possible for anyone to reach a large audience, literally overnight under the right circumstances. The topic I'd like to introduce this week is how this may be changing, in the SEM world at least, with paid search being an indicator.
The gist of the post is PPC focused but what Adam was saying resonated as I hear similiar comments about link building all the time. Unless you're one of the big boys, have unlimited funds or have been online for 10 years and are algorithmically grandfathered, it's tough for the little guy or the new gal to secure links from the kinds of "authority" sites that are going to help you gain exposure and higher rankings in short order.
Yes, (almost) any link is a good link but getting links from established "authority" type sites is what you really want and need for that upward push. With more and more sites coming online, with big companies investing huge dollars in their online venues and the search engines tightening their algorithmic belts, what does a little guy have to do to get some big links?
My answer? Be first. It's not always about being creative or controversial or having gobs of the right anchor text from the better sites. Sometimes, it's enough just to be first.
The implementation of universal search has opened the playing field for anyone to be first in their niche. It's not about size or how much money you can throw at keywords, it's all about creating the element and getting onboard. Develop and optimize video, audio and photo/image elements on your site and get them out there. Don't wait until your competitor does it, get the grandfathering process going now.
Once that interactive component is on your site and operating, jump into the various social media platforms and push it there too. There isn't a lot of cost involved to shoot a video or take a photo and there are even sites offering to turn your blog posts into podcasts for free.
Once you have the new elements on the site, do the basics and get it out there. Pitch reporters with the "hey look we're first to do this" hook, issue a press release, and send an annoucement to your customers and vendors. Heck - pitch the Oprah show. It will be a whole lot easier if you're already established on YouTube.
People root for the underdog and love to see them win, here's where being a little guy can work to your advantage. Play the angle, step up and be first!
I don't agree with the current Administrations policy on the war in Iraq but I respect the men and women in uniform fighting it. To all the servicemen and women past and present - Happy Veteran's Day.
And thank you. :)
So fair warning: I only want two kinds of email: those from people I know, and those from people who have taken the time to find out what I'm interested in and composed a note meant to appeal to that (I love those emails; indeed, that's why my email address is public). Everything else gets banned on first abuse. The following is just the last month's list of people and companies who have been added to my Outlook blocked list.
You create a new site and its content heavy,
With the right amount of pictures you believe it’s ready,
So you launch it trying to put money in da bank,
But when you search and try to find yourself, you can’t,
So you thank until your mind goes blank,
Got titles and headers but no page rank,
Sooner or later it will show if I wait,
In the meantime make sure my code validate,
And it do,Hmm, now what I’m supposed to do,
Add meta information and alt tags too,
Still don’t get listing,Something must be missing,
Brad and Chuck recommended doing link building,
So you start hunting down sites like a predator,
Doing back links on all your competitors,
Whoever linking to them need to link to me,
Is it free, do we swap, or do I pay a fee,
Well take it from us, before you take that step,
Some things about the site that you might want to check,
Did they use a link farm or some dirty tactics,
Could have a bad effect on your site that’s drastic,
Could’ve link baited, look at what they created,
Compare it to yours, is it even related,
Take the time, go inspect and see,
Take advantage of paid directories,
If you follow all the steps with a little bit of patience,
Get links from relevant sites that are favorites,
Update your content on the regular basis,
I’m confident you’ll make it to first page placement
Great video, I think I'll change my link builidng training outline now although I can't wear the hat. Nothing messes with THE HAIR. ;)
Found the video on Digg - will be interesting to watch how this does over there.
I've been wanting to do a post about directories for a while since they've been in the SEO news lately, had thought to post after the flap last month but decided to wait until the firestorm settled. I dislike knee jerk reactions and didn’t want to add to an already over saturated conversation.
But since the statute of limitations has run out on the topic of directories and with last week's PageRank debacle I thought hmmm... might be a good time to talk about directories still being a viable link source. Of course this will have to get through the current PageRank debates but I suspect enough of us are already tired of that one and will welcome reading about something different.
Directories are like any other business; some are well run and provide a good service while others don’t. My purpose for this post isn’t to point out the less-than-stellar general directories but to showcase directories I consider to be solid and explain why they’re still a viable option for link building. To do that, let’s step back a bit…..
In February of 1994, two Stanford University students started organizing lists of their favorite links to a website they called “Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web” . David Filo and Jerry Yang kept adding sites and pretty soon their lists had to be divided into categories and eventually sub categories to stay organized. The site was a hit both on campus and off and in the fall of 1994 the collection of links had a million hit day and almost 100 thousand unique visitors. From that, the Yahoo! Directory was born and so started the boom of commercial human-reviewed directories on the Internet.
Since then a lot of directories have come and gone but their main purpose of providing reviewed resources in a categorized fashion remains. They run the gambit from being personal to institutional lists of sites categorized by human subject experts. Most are commercial, a handful like the DMOZ are not. Websites submitted are placed in one or more categories based on their associated relevance and are usually divided into subject and geographical hierarchies. (I say "usually" because not all directories have geographical categories).
Submitted sites are allowed to provide a business description and in most cases, hyperlinked text. The single thread of commonality all directories share is this human review system. Spiders create databases, humans - directories.
In the early days of the Web/Net, directory editors went out looking to add great sites as a way to attract attention and a search following. It was a tremendous amount of work (and continues to be), but a popular way to search at the time. Gradually engines became more sophisticated and with the millions of sites coming online, the task of hand adding sites became almost impossible. Now, directory owners have to pay staffs to keep updating their properties and charge for submission as a way to cover payroll. Does paying to be listed somehow negate their purpose and objectivity?
I don’t think so. And apparantely neither does Google representative Matt Cutts:
I’ll try to give a few rules of thumb to think about when looking at a directory. When considering submitting to a directory, I’d ask questions like:- Does the directory reject urls? If every url passes a review, the directory gets closer to just a list of links or a free-for-all link site.- What is the quality of urls in the directory? Suppose a site rejects 25% of submissions, but the urls that are accepted/listed are still quite low-quality or spammy. That doesn’t speak well to the quality of the directory.- If there is a fee, what’s the purpose of the fee? For a high-quality directory, the fee is primarily for the time/effort for someone to do a genuine evaluation of a url or site.
The concept of merit based inclusion is what makes securing links in the better directories desirable. It’s reasoned that search engines bestow hub authority on these sites because human review is necessary before a site is included. And since human review is part of the co citation process search engines are programmed to reward, it stands to reason these types of sites would pass link popularity.I've publically said I thought there were about 25 or so general directories worth submitting to and with the exception of my friends at Aviva , they're all still online and kicking up some green. (Meaning money not PageRank, although some would argue it's one and the same. Hey, it's Halloween, so I'm in the spirit and stirring the pot baby ;)
If the directory hosts as many Adsense ads (or close) on sub-category pages, then I say pass. Adsense detracts from your submission.
Massive Links - Offering a 25% discount for all Link Spiel readers for unlimited number of sites until November 30, 2007. When submitting your site place this code: DEBRA-M at the end of the description of your site when filling out the form and make the full payment. When we process the submission we’ll refund 25% of your payment. If you have any questions please contact us using this form http://www.massivelinks.com/contact/ or contact us by phone. The number is on the contact form. You can view the different listings available here http://www.massivelinks.com/cgi-bin//addurl.cgi
LIMITED TIME FREEBIES ***********************
The first 5 people submitting comments on the Link Spiel with their name and email address and the phrase "hey Deb I want the freebie" will be given a free submission to the following directories: THIS PROMOTION HAS CLOSED.
Site-Sift and WebXperience and Webotopia
(Offer limited to first five non-spam replies in comments on the Link Spiel.) All five have been claimed.
Ok so that's it for today. It's been a rough Monday, I started the day badly when I realized I had sent Chris (Sherman) my rough draft for Search Engine Land's Link Week instead of the final post. Didn't seem to matter because Eric Lander (thanks BTW:) sphunn it and it went HOT without ANY BEGGING. ;)
So if you have a second, please head back to SEL and re-read my Link Week post, I promise it will make more sense.
10 Ways To Stop Procrastinating & Start A Link Building Campaign
1.
