Through the Linking Glass How a Successful Campaign Can Bring Otherworldly Rankings Rebecca Kelley

Why Links? ● A link to your site = an editorial vote ● Links are more difficult to obtain than on-site factors; thus, search engines put more weight behind them ● Links pointing to pages on your site can increase the ranking of all pages on the domain ● Links can drive traffic!

Link Properties: What Can Search Engines See? ● Search engines can identify the following:  Where the link is pointing to  Location on a page  Anchor text  Relationships between domains  The age of a link and when it was given  Trends over time

Link Development Fundamentals ● Attract links naturally  Search-friendly site, fresh content ● Manual link building campaign  Acquire links from relevant sites ● Purchase links  Contact webmaster  Purchase through a link broker ● Viral marketing  Create link bait ● Social media marketing  Create social media profiles

Best Practices for Building Links ● Include proper anchor text in links pointing to your site ● Double-check that the page linking to you is spiderable ● “rel=nofollow” + javascript + “meta robots nofollow” = no link love for you ● Don't give up after one attempt. Be tenacious! Be creative! ● Look at who is linking to your competitors ● Think about lasting links. Would search engines want to give value to your link? (Come on, be honest now...) ● Keep track of your efforts!

Determining the Value of a Link ● Is the site linking to you considered to be trustworthy? .gov and.edu domains  News portals ● Is the site linking to you relevant to your site's industry? ● Where does the page linking to you rank in Google for:  Its own title tag  Competitive keywords ● Plug the URL into SEOmoz's Page Strength tool ( strength)

Pitfalls to Avoid ● Forgetting to 301 your pages when you change/move your site ● Splitting your site into multiple domains ● Falling for the “Get a crapload of links for X dollars!” guarantee ● Falling for the “We'll submit your site to a million search engines!” guarantee

Want to Learn More? Of Course You Do! Check out the SEOmoz blog ( for more link building and SEO tips.