Dustin Woodard's 2013 SMX Advanced Legit Link Building session presentation digging into the psychology of pitching, gamification, user optimizaition, and other rarely discussed SEO link acquisition strategies.

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Rethink Link Acquisition

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About Dustin Woodard

3. 19991998 2000
20042002 2006
2008 2011 2013

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ReTHINK Link Acquisition

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Rethinking Links

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That’s What Google Said
“Build great content & you
will be rewarded with links”
~ Not an actual Google quote

7. No Need for Marketing or Sales?

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Black Friday Case Study
• SCENARIO:
– Blacklisted Domain
– Few links
– Poor content
– No budget
– Only 2 months to gain top rankings

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Black Friday Case Study
• STRATEGY:
– Getting back in the
index
– Content revamp
– Survey, Predictions,
PR/Blogger
Campaign

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Black Friday Case Study
• EXECUTION:
– Survey
– Package the data
– Outreach

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Black Friday Case Study
• RESULTS:
– Tons of coverage +
links
– #3 Ranking
– Big traffic & $$
– Post Black Friday
links further
strengthen site

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Making the Pitch

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Making the Pitch

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Making the Pitch
Your pitch

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Making the Pitch

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Making the Pitch

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Making the Pitch
Shift your frame:
– Not an SEO Company
– Links come from
anywhere, but you are
giving them an
opportunity to link to
amazing site or content

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Making the Pitch
• Be fast & novel
• Shift their frame:
– Give them a deadline
– Have them do you a favor
• Take it away:
– Have them justify themselves

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Further Optimization
SEO
SMO
Website User &
Community
Optimization
Conversion
Rate
Optimization
$$
User &
Community
Optimization
Conversion
Rate
Optimization

20. User Optimization:
Invest a piece of themselves

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User Optimization:
Share Button Placement
• Floating sharebar:
• 20% increase in social shares
• Pin It button placement:
15% increase
in pins
<div style='padding-bottom: 2px; line-height: 0px'><a
href='http://pinterest.com/pin/53691420530417789/' target='_blank'><img src='http://media-
cache-ec4.pinimg.com/550x/45/76/16/457616a0a6e7ea800f682a9db9d6e02b.jpg' border='0'
width='250' height ='250'/></a></div><div style='float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom:
0px;'><p style='font-size: 10px; color: #76838b;'>Source: <a style='text-decoration:
underline; font-size: 10px; color: #76838b;'
href='http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Bourbon-Mango-Pulled-
Pork/Detail.aspx'>allrecipes.com</a> via <a style='text-decoration: underline; font-
size: 10px; color: #76838b;' href='http://pinterest.com/athensdoll/'
target='_blank'>Catherine</a> on <a style='text-decoration: underline; color: #76838b;'
href='http://pinterest.com' target='_blank'>Pinterest</a></p></div>

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User Optimization: Data Collection
• Social Media Profiles:
• Twitter
• FB
• LinkedIn
• Tumblr
• Blog(s)

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User Optimization: Gamification
• Engagement
• Motivation
Gamification engages users & changes
behavior with the best ideas from games,
loyalty & behavioral economics

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Gamification
Indirect Link Acquisition:
Overall engagement
Repeat visits
Sign-ups
Direct Link Acquisition
Shares
Links
Embeds

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Gamification is not…

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Offline Gamification:

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Online Gamification:

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Intrinsic vs Extrinsic motivation
• Status
• Access
• Power
>• Money
• Stuff

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Gamification
Dopamine

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Gamification
Player Types: Achievers
• 10% of population
• Motivated by: winning, challenges, showing
off

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Gamification
Player Types: Explorers
• 10% of population
• View, find, rate, vote, curate, review

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Gamification
Player Types: Socializers
• 80% of population
• Comment, share, like,
discuss, meet up

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Gamification
• Player Types: Killers
• < 1% of population
• Harass, heckle, hack,
cheat

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Gamification: User Optimization
• NFL Example

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Gamification: User Optimization
• NFL Example: 800% increase in site
registrations

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Gamification Results
• Expect a 30% rise in
engagement statistics
• Expect off-the-chart rise
in community shares &
links

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Cause Marketing
• Film crowdsourcing experiment
• Host conference
• Get involved w/
charities or causes
Campaign Results:
285 Backers
$30,000 raised
~350 Backlinks

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Thank You For Your Time
That’s What Dustin Said
#TWDS