Jul 28, 2015
Benj ArriolaWork
Global SEO Architect/ SEO VPInternet Marketing Inc.
SpeakerSMX, Pubcon, IRCE, OMS, eMA, EmMeCon, SEMCon, MORCon, and more!
ExperienceSEO: 11 yearsWeb Design & Development: Since 1997Before 1997
ChemistIndustry / LaboratoryProfessor
IT Instructor
CompetitorWinner of several SEO contest winning cash and a brand new car in the 2007 SEO World Championship
It’s my first time in Sydney!
Link Building Vs. Content MarketingWhat some SEOs are saying:
Link building is out. It’s dead, content marketing is in.Content marketing has nothing to do with link building.Link building still works! With or without content marketing.Link building is content marketing. Content marketing is link building.
The Main Reason Why We Are Talking About This
Your links look like some
spammy SEO guy made it.
I’m bored reading your
mediocre content.
Are Links Still Important?Links are like votes of:
CredibilityTrustAuthority
But links should be natural
As long as they are natural,they are generally good. They are definitely still important.
GoalsLink Building
Gain more linksGain good quality linksGain natural linksScale the Process
Content MarketingSocial Shares
Gain Links
BrandEngagementLoyaltyPopularity / UbiquityGenerates Demand
ConversionsSalesRevenue / Profits
Which Is A Part Of Which?Goals
Content MarketingGaining links is just one of the goals of content marketing.
There are many other goals of content marketing, not just links.
TacticsLink Building
Content marketing is just one of the ways to gain links going to a webpage.
There are many other tactics for gaining links outside of content marketing.
The Role Of Links In Great Content
Usability
SearchSocialContent
Good Quality Content = Good for
Penguin and Panda, and
Good for Users
Good Quality Content =
Compelling to share, viral, share
bait, link bait
Good Quality Content = Good link bait, natural
links. Increase ranking.
More about this tomorrow:
Creative Content Marketing: From Strategy to Execution
10:45 – 11:30am
Good Content
Natural Links
The Panda And Penguin Solutions Work Together
You know your content is good
when people talk about it & pass it around.
Good natural links are gained when people pass your
good content around.
Oversimplified Action Item:
Prevent your site from being affected by Panda & Penguin by:(1) coming up with great content & (2) doing a social promotion.
Backlink Factor Metrics
Quantity Quality
Quantity Quality
Backlink Factor MetricsQuantity
Google Webmaster ToolsBing Webmaster ToolsSearch Engine “link:” commandMajesticMoz OpenSiteExploreraHrefsSistrixLink Research ToolsSEMRush
Unmeasurable Dimension: Relevancy
Quality (Power)Google PageRank# of Backlinks of the BacklinkTotal Backlinks of the DomainKeyword FocusedMajestic Citation FlowFollow or No FollowHosting CountrySite Wide vs. Single PageCemper PowerTM
Quality (Authority & Trust)TrustRankGoogle IndexedSEOMoz Page AuthoritySEOMoz Domain AuthorityMajestic Trust FlowIP DiversityAnchor Text DiversityDeep LinkingDomain AgeDomain Name Extensions
.gov/.edu/.orgccTLD
Cemper TrustTMThe Challenge
You can change
You can't change
You can in-fluence
Potential Link Sources
Evolution Of Link Building
Late 90’s, early 2000’s 2000’s to Pre-Panda & Penguin
Post-Panda & Penguin
You can change
You can't change
You can in-fluence
Potential Link Sources
You can change
You can't change
You can in-fluence
Potential Link Sources
Bad Good
You have strong control. You make it relevant.
You have little control. Hopefully it is relevant.
“Influence others to link” makes link building part of earned media.To earn trust, credibility & authority, needs quality content.
You can change
You can't change
You can in-fluence
Potential Link Sources
Late 90’s, early 2000’s 2000’s to Pre-Panda & Penguin
You can change
You can't change
You can in-fluence
Potential Link Sources
You have strong control. You make it relevant.
Evolution Of Link Building
Post-Panda & Penguin
You can change
You can't change
You can in-fluence
Potential Link Sources
Bad GoodThe links with the largest benefit is a smaller subset of
all sites you influence.
Very Relevant
You have little control. Hopefully it is relevant.
Obsolete Link Building PracticesEarly days of link building (~ late 90’s)
Link farmsDoorway pages, multiple websitesUnmoderated pages: forums, guestbooks.
Link Building Improvements(~2000-2005)
Submissions: Directories, Articles for relevancy.Content: Blog Networks for better relevancy.Interactions: More natural postings on Blog Comments, Forums and Wiki EntriesThemes/Template, Tools/WidgetsLink Buying, Link ExchangeRSS Syndication
Pre-Penguin Days (~2006-2010)
Blogging NetworksGuest BloggingPress ReleasesPaid Links (Including .edu links)Link WheelsAutomated Article Spinning & Posting
Link Building TodayContent Marketingaka Inbound Marketing, Viral Marketing, Link Baiting, Buzz Marketing, Earned Media Marketing
Quality ContentPromotion
Obsolete Link Building PracticesEarly days of link building (~ late 90’s)
Link farmsDoorway pages, multiple websitesUnmoderated pages: forums, guestbooks.
Link Building Improvements(~2000-2005)
Submissions: Directories, Articles for relevancy.Content: Blog Networks for better relevancy.Interactions: More natural postings on Blog Comments, Forums and Wiki EntriesThemes/Template, Tools/WidgetsLink Buying, Link ExchangeRSS Syndication
Pre-Penguin Days (~2006-2010)
Blogging NetworksGuest BloggingPress ReleasesPaid Links (Including .edu links)Link WheelsAutomated Article Spinning & Posting
Link Building TodayContent Marketingaka Inbound Marketing, Viral Marketing, Link Baiting, Buzz Marketing, Earned Media Marketing
Quality ContentPromotion
This is a large blog network: Autoblog, games.com, winamp, Huffpost Money, Huffinton Post, Huffpost Celebrity, Huffpost Politics, Huff post TV. Stylelist, AOL, Techcrunch, Engadget, MMAFighting.com, SB Nation, and tons more.
• They are all good quality.• All can stand on their own.• All were not just created for links.• They all get a good amount of natural
links themselves.
Obsolete Link Building PracticesEarly days of link building (~ late 90’s)
Link farmsDoorway pages, multiple websitesUnmoderated pages: forums, guestbooks.
Link Building Improvements(~2000-2005)
Submissions: Directories, Articles for relevancy.Content: Blog Networks for better relevancy.Interactions: More natural postings on Blog Comments, Forums and Wiki EntriesThemes/Template, Tools/WidgetsLink Buying, Link ExchangeRSS Syndication
Pre-Penguin Days (~2006-2010)
Blogging NetworksGuest BloggingPress ReleasesPaid Links (Including .edu links)Link WheelsAutomated Article Spinning & Posting
Link Building TodayContent Marketingaka Inbound Marketing, Viral Marketing, Link Baiting, Buzz Marketing, Earned Media Marketing
Quality ContentPromotion
Matt Cutt’s told us to stick a fork in guest blogging. But taking a look at the authors on Huffpost, Mashable, Buzzfeed, some of the authors are pitched contributors. They are essentially guest blog posters.
• The post is good quality.• The site is a good quality site,
authoritative and credible.• The sites were not just created for
links, and the post was not created solely for links.
Obsolete Link Building PracticesEarly days of link building (~ late 90’s)
Link farmsDoorway pages, multiple websitesUnmoderated pages: forums, guestbooks.
Link Building Improvements(~2000-2005)
Submissions: Directories, Articles for relevancy.Content: Blog Networks for better relevancy.Interactions: More natural postings on Blog Comments, Forums and Wiki EntriesThemes/Template, Tools/WidgetsLink Buying, Link ExchangeRSS Syndication
Pre-Penguin Days (~2006-2010)
Blogging NetworksGuest BloggingPress ReleasesPaid Links (Including .edu links)Link WheelsAutomated Article Spinning & Posting
Link Building TodayContent Marketingaka Inbound Marketing, Viral Marketing, Link Baiting, Buzz Marketing, Earned Media Marketing
Quality ContentPromotion
Matt Cutt’s once said, links from news sites should be treated like nofollow links.
Additionally, news articles are all duplicate content.
But news articles can also get on high traffic sites with a lot of visitors.
• Make the articles newsworthy for better distribution.
• Do not just go after the link to get a link. Go after the promotion of a content piece on your website that may gain new natural links.
Content Marketing EvolutionDidn’t change that muchCopywriters, PR writers, newspaper writers, have been doing this for years.
The only thing that changed was SEO people are trying to do it more and more these days.
Content marketing may also be loosely known as:
Link baitingInbound MarketingBuzz MarketingViral MarketingEarned Media Marketing
Content Marketing is not justPR DistributionMat ReleaseArticle DistributionGuest Blogging
Content Marketing Is Not Just Writing An Article
Ideation Creation Promotion
Many forms of content marketingBlog Post, Infographics, Kinetic Typography, Explainer Videos, Interactive Pages, Online Tools, eBooks, Slideshares, Whitepapers and more!Or in any combination of the above.
More about this tomorrow:
Creative Content Marketing: From Strategy to Execution
10:45 – 11:30am
Is There Link Building That Is Not Content Marketing?
Tactics that may still work if done correctly
Blogging NetworksGuest PostPress ReleasesPartners, Dealers, Distributors, Affiliates, Memberships, DonationsForumsBlog CommentsQ & AWiki EntriesNiche Directories
IntentThe intent is not to get a link.The intent is to reach your targeted audience.
Shares the same interestPassionate in the topicHas a strong followingIs an authority on the topic
Is There Content Marketing That Is Not Link Building?
What we measure in content marketing
If you are doingcontent marketing for links alone, you might be doing it wrong.
Conversions
Traffic
Links
Engagement
Social Activity
Bad Old Links Made Years Ago
Remove Disavow
Some Say: That’s BS! My Spammy Methods Still Work!
Early days of link building (~ late 90’s)Link farmsDoorway pages, multiple websitesUnmoderated pages: forums, guestbooks.
Link Building Improvements(~2000-2005)
Submissions: Directories, Articles for relevancy.Content: Blog Networks for better relevancy.Interactions: More natural postings on Blog Comments, Forums and Wiki EntriesThemes/Template, Tools/WidgetsLink Buying, Link ExchangeRSS Syndication
Pre-Penguin Days (~2006-2010)
Blogging NetworksGuest BloggingPress ReleasesPaid Links (Including .edu links)Link WheelsAutomated Article Spinning & Posting
Link Building TodayContent Marketingaka Inbound Marketing, Viral Marketing, Link Baiting, Buzz Marketing, Earned Media Marketing
Quality ContentPromotion
Spammy old link building methodsmay still appear to work when:
Spammy IndustryEven if your links are bad, all your competitors are bad, Google still has to choose who becomes #1 based on all the other ranking factors.
Very Non-Competitive IndustryYou are in an industry that almost no one targets at all.
You Actually Have Very Good LinksYou have may good natural links and they are over-powering the bad links, but you think it is the spammy ones that are helping you.
You are Measuring Success WrongYou think you are doing good, but you are really doing bad, but is just looking at the wrong things.
How do I make that awesome content?
??
ThanksQuestion?
My Main TakeawaysContent Marketing
Involves ideation, creation and promotion.Create great awesome content that users would link to naturally.The goals of content marketing is not to get links alone, but also gain some traffic, engagement , conversions.
Link BuildingMany methods in the past don’t work anymore.Some may still do, if done properly, where the intent is to reach your target audience and promotion your content than interacting just to get a link.