LINK BUILDING IN THE coNTENT markETINg Era content marketing …linksphinx.com/files/MediaWhiz-report-Modern-Link-Building.pdf · Successful Link Building in the Content Marketing

LINK BUILDINGIN THE coNTENT

markETINgEra

“content marketing is one of the best ways to balance your

website’s link profile.”Marc Purtell, Director of SEO

How do you create quality content for your brand?

How do you build a natural link profile?

How do you scale your content marketing efforts?

EMAIL [email protected] | CALL 888.966.9449 | VISIT www.mediaWhizSEo.com | FOLLOW @mediaWhizInc

MediaWhiz POV:

Successful Link Building in the Content Marketing Era Achieve a balanced link profile through content marketingby marc purtell, director of seo, mediawhiz

ExEcuTIvE SummaryCompanies that publish quality content are soaring past their competitors in the search results. Instead of building links to conversion-focused pages, they are building links to articles, blog posts and even case studies. While this strategy may seem difficult and even counterintuitive, the rewards are stunning for those who pull it off.

google has become increasingly sophisticated at identifying and penalizing unnatural link profiles. Not too long ago sites could rank well from only building links to pages that make money, but this strategy is rarely effective today. In the most competitive markets, the top sites have much more natural-looking link profiles. anchor text is varied, links are more evenly distributed across the site, and quality content is the ultimate way to earn natural links and increase trust from the search engines.

Despite this new landscape, many SEos are continuing to use old, outdated strategies. gradually they are seeing new sites rise in the search results and grab the lucrative positions that they once controlled. This new breed of site often has a more subtle and nuanced link profile, camouflaging the threat that it brings. It’s not uncommon for SEos to only react when they are finally beaten, and then they must spend time catching up.

When websites set out to build links, most of them follow a remarkably similar strategy. They will first identify the keywords they wish to target, create pages around these keywords and then focus obsessively on building links to these pages. While some sites may start a blog or author an occasional article, most pay little attention to creating high-quality content.

This white paper explains why this outdated approach is counterproductive and establishes a clear path forward. ultimately, you will learn how to create quality content, achieve a balanced link profile and scale your efforts to a robust network of links.

mailto:sales%40mediawhiz.com?subject=

http://www.mediawhizseo.com

https://twitter.com/MediaWhizInc

MODERN LINK BUILDING


Case study: Conversion rate experts

conversion rate experts (cre) describes itself as “an international consultancy that scientifically optimizes the profitability of online businesses.” founded in 2006, it has gone on to capture marquee clients such as apple, google, facebook, sony and Vodafone.

an analysis of the cre site shows something remarkable. there is no sign of the usual link-building practices, and yet the site ranks no. 1 on google for terms such as “landing page experts,” “conversion optimization experts,” “best online marketing books” and, of course, “conversion rate experts.” the company’s top pages, ranked by the number of backlinks, clearly tell the story:

Page Description Page Type Number of Links

Home page 2212

split-testing 101 article 985

redirect to "split-testing 101" article 842

which multivariate? comparison guide 581

15 tools that reveal why peopleabandon your website

article 533

How we made $1 million for seomoz case study 527

redirect to "15 tools" article 463

the point is that all of these pages, other than the home page, contain compelling content. they’re not money pages, and they’re not chasing keywords. other sites have linked to these pages because they’re useful, not because they want anything in return.

cre’s link anchor text tells a similar story. the top-five anchors, which account for 71% of cre’s inbound links, are simply variants on the site name — which again appears completely natural.

Anchor Text Root Domains Links

conversion rate experts 261 1395

http://www.conversion-rate-experts.com/ 21 45

conversion-rate-experts.com 20 48

http://www.conversion-rate-experts.com 18 30

www.conversion-rate-experts.com 12 55




http://www.conversion-rate-experts.com/



cre has a natural link profile — a mix of links to its homepage, to useful non-commercial content and to interesting case studies. it strikes a balance, and is rewarded as a result. cre has built up trust with google for its domain, and is able to pass that link juice around its entire site.

the danger of the Money page approaCh

when you focus exclusively on building links to money pages, the problem is that it’s extremely easy for search engines to detect what you are doing. take a look at one of cre’s competitors, a consultancy offering conversion rate optimization and related services. it appears on the sixth page of results for a keyword where cre ranks no. 1. Here are its top pages:

Page Description Page Type Number of Links

Home page 967

internet marketing optimization conversion 173

web conversion optimization conversion 46

link building conversion 15

search engine optimization conversion 6

seo website design conversion 2






it doesn’t take google’s finest minds to spot the difference — aside from the homepage, every other page is a money page, and you know instantly that an seo was on the job. there are many ways that google engineers could pick out this type of unnatural profile, including looking at adwords competition for the targeted keywords, or the average quality of sites that link out using particular anchor text. the key thing is that the manipulation is blatant — natural links gravitate toward compelling content, and not commercially oriented pages.

how to Build a natural link profile

Here are some essential things to do when building a natural link profile:

step 1: analyze your link profile

use a tool like open site explorer to analyze your link profile. you should see a broad mix of anchor text and your top pages shouldn’t simply be a list of your top commercial pages.

top pages: your homepage should usually have the most links, but afterward you should see a good mix of page types. articles, ebooks and even support pages can all easily garner more links than commercial pages. for a site with a natural link profile, expect to see something like this:

Overview Page Type

Home page

controversial article that gained widespread media attention article

a 20-page ebook that explains how to use your product ebook

a conversion-focused page where visitors can buy one of your products directly

conversion

a behind-the-scenes look at how your product is really made article

a list of the top 100 bloggers and journalists in your industry article




http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/



anchor text: most credible sites don’t have any keywords showing up in their top-five. if your company name is widget innovations, your most popular anchors might look something like this:

Overview

widget innovations

widget innovations

(img) [no anchor text]

http://www.widgetinnovations.com

www.widgetinnovations.com

a list of the top 100 bloggers and journalists in your industry

as you go further down the list, you should start to see some examples of keyword-focused anchor text. but these should be interspersed with branded terms, links from images and links containing url strings.

once you have analyzed your own site, the next step is to analyze your competitors. look at how their links are distributed across their site and the type of anchor text that is most popular.

when you are checking out your competitors’ most popular pages, think about whether there are any content ideas you could replicate. you should also get some ideas of the types of anchor text that are typically gained from natural linking.

step 2: identify your audience

to build natural links, you first need to decide who you want to target. you need to think not just about the types of people who should read your content, but also about the types of websites that might link to you.

let’s imagine you have a software product that is aimed at law firms. you should write content that is targeted primarily at lawyers, and you should try to get links from law firms, legal blogs and the legal media.

at the same time, you should look for other communities that you can latch onto. as a software company, there is a huge and vibrant community of tech bloggers for you to consider. talk about your technology stack or how you fixed a problem in rails, and you could easily attract tens or hundreds of links.






maybe you could also directly target software developers by releasing an open-source product. you’ll build your credibility in the software industry, create a whole new source of links for your website, and you might even get some direct sales in the process. after all, some of these software developers might work for law firms.

step 3: Create high-Quality, engaging Content

Image source: http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2012/snow-fall/#/?part=tunnel-creek

write content that is fascinating, witty or authoritative. if you can’t do this in-house, find a company that can. while you should still build links to the content manually, it should be good enough to attract links on its own.

when you are going to invest a lot of time and effort into a piece of content, it’s usually best to make it evergreen. write about an industry conference, and you might get traffic and links for a few weeks. write “the ultimate guide to electronic discovery” and you might get links for years and years to come.

instead of worrying about sheer quantity, it’s far better to scale back your ambitions but make each piece of content truly worthwhile. Have the page custom designed, commission illustrations or develop impressive graphs and charts. the more work you do, the more links you’re likely to get.

when the new york times published its groundbreaking article, “snow fall: the avalanche at tunnel creek,” it broke from its typical page template and designed everything to fit the narrative of the piece. mailchimp did the same for its 2012 annual report, giving its users a truly immersive experience. customized design work isn’t necessary, but it’s one way to show the work that went into the piece.




http://nyti.ms/Vcp9Bx

http://nyti.ms/Vcp9Bx

http://mailchimp.com/2012/



when you are coming up with content ideas, it’s worth thinking about the terms that the content could rank for. write a post on a popular topic, and it’s more likely to get search traffic. it’s also more likely to be discovered by bloggers and journalists and acquire links on its own.

step 4: Make your Content work for you

Image source: http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3752/8986542872_c6d771be88_c.jpg

over time, good content will earn links, as bloggers, journalists and others discover the content and share it. as the link volume increases, this process will continue to accelerate on its own. keep in mind, everyone who comes looking for your guide is a readymade target for further content, so try to capture email addresses, rss subscribers and encourage social engagement.

at first, you must build links to the content yourself and promote your content via a variety of channels. as you build up your base of email and rss subscribers, your job will become much easier.

when you build links to your content, don’t worry about how people link to you. some might use the url as the anchor text, and others might even misspell your company name. these are all traits found in natural link profiles, and are more likely to benefit than hurt you. regardless of anchor text or the target page, quality links will improve the trustworthiness of your domain and improve your stature in the engines.

when you truly invest in content, you must remember to consider the architecture of your site. a common mistake is to forget to include links to conversion-focused pages within your blog template. this makes it harder for link juice to be spread to your most important pages — the pages that ultimately need to rank well.






step 5: prepare to scale

your first piece of content has started to gain a good set of backlinks, and it’s time to scale.

begin the process by developing an editorial calendar. if your blog runs on wordpress, you could install the editorial calendar plugin. otherwise, you could download this helpful excel editorial calendar. the format of the calendar is unimportant. what matters is that you set out a firm publishing schedule and stick to it. try to space out your big, important pieces. this gives you plenty of time to spend on marketing and link building, and it ensures your audience doesn’t become too overwhelmed with content.




http://wordpress.org/plugins/editorial-calendar/

http://optimizebook.com/posts/download-optimize-templates/

http://optimizebook.com/posts/download-optimize-templates/



Image source: http://optimizebook.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/editorial-plan-optimize12.png

each new piece of content gives you the opportunity to reach a new audience, and to diversify and expand your link profile. each time you launch an important piece of content, use link building to give it a push. then, watch the link profile grow naturally.

as your content efforts expand, you should start to build a solid picture of the methods and strategies that work best. perhaps you will find it easier to gain traction with one subset of your audience, or you will see incredible search traffic from pieces about a specific topic.

when you come across a successful strategy, give it increased prominence in your editorial calendar. at the same time, don’t give up on methods that have yet to work effectively. instead, constantly iterate until you find something that works. over time, you must continue to acquire new links from new sites, and this is only possible through expanding beyond your most comfortable niches.






ConClusion

companies should create quality content and then focus link-building efforts around the content they create. over time, the content will begin to garner links as bloggers and journalists come across it. for every piece of content you invest in, you create an opportunity to build natural, organic links in the long term. you will also gain links from credible, authoritative sites that would never link to one of your commercial pages.

while building keyword-rich backlinks to money pages is a widely used approach, it’s not the most effective strategy. the approach is very easily identified and discounted by google, and it means you never achieve natural links from the most elusive of link targets.

as you build links to quality content, you will gain domain-level trust that will make it much easier to rank in google. you will also gain much more link juice, which can then be directed toward your commercially focused pages. ultimately, your rankings will grow and your business will be positioned for the future of search.

Contact

Marc purtell

director, seo

mediawhiz

+1 954.423.0336

[email protected]

about Mediawhiz

mediawhiz is north america’s leading performance media company. working across web, social media and mobile platforms, mediawhiz offers advertisers, networks and publishers a range of online marketing and customer acquisition solutions, including an award-winning affiliate network, display ad network, email, mobile advertising solutions, search and social marketing, and seo products and services.

mediawhiz is part of matomy media group, a global performance marketing company.




mailto:mpurtell%40mediawhiz.com?subject=

Documents

LINK BUILDING IN THE coNTENT markETINg Era content marketing …linksphinx.com/files/MediaWhiz-report-Modern-Link-Building.pdf · Successful Link Building in the Content Marketing