1. Google in the Real World:
How Links Boost Your Rankings
Stephan Spencer
Co-Author of The Art of SEO; Author of Google
Power Search; Founder of Netconcepts

2. First Off... Who Am I?
• Author of Google Power Search &
Co-author of The Art of SEO
• Founder of SEO agency Netconcepts
• Sold Netconcepts to Covario in 2010
• Lived in New Zealand for 8 yrs, returned to US in
2007
• Invented GravityStream, a pay-for-performance SEO
technology (now Covario’s Organic Search Optimizer)
• Now a free agent, developing an SEO coaching
program which will launch soonish

5. Links & PageRank
 “Link popularity” affects search engine rankings
 Links are lPageRank – Links from “important”
sites have more impact on your Google rankings
(weighted link popularity).
 Google offers a window into your PageRank
– PageRank meter in the Google Toolbar
(toolbar.google.com) & 3rd party tools like SEO for
Firefox are all powered by Google’s Toolbar Server
 Bing/Yahoo has similar measure to PageRank
 Excellent alternative to PageRank score: mozRank
(SEOmoz’ Open Site Explorer)

6. PageRank 101 10 Google
Sampling of Homepage
PageRank Ratings
 Logarithmic scale from 0 to 10
 Assigned to web pages, not sites 9 Amazon
 Based on inbound links to pages
 Heavily weighted on link quality E
8 ebay
 Passed through internal & F
external links. F
 Higher PageRank may lead 7 O Disney
Googlebot to: R
– Crawl more frequently 6 T Gap
– Crawl faster
– Crawl deeper 5 Culligan
4 Boston
3 Store
Relative number of pages with PR rating
2
1
0

7. Logarithmic Nature of PageRank

8. The Best Links for SEO Are…
• Topically relevant
• One way (not reciprocated)
• Not in footer and not site-wide
• Earned by merit, rather than bought, bartered or
stolen
• Not crowded with many other links on the page
• On a highly trusted, authority site with a long
history and in a pristine link neighborhood

9. And They…
• Have descriptive anchor text but not the same
descriptive anchor text
• Appear to be passively obtained/organic
• Are not all found on the same IP block
• Are not all found on the same top level domain
(.com, .org, .edu, etc)

10. Building High Quality Links
• Develop great content
• Submit to authoritative, topical, & local
directories
• Work with your business partners
• Do competitive intelligence
• Link bait
• Tap into social media
• Blog
• Syndicate through RSS

11. Checking Link Popularity
• To a page vs. to a site
• Third party tools:
– OpenSiteExplorer.org
– MajesticSEO.com
– LinkResearchTools.com
• Google's link: operator displays only a sampling of backlinks.
– Note: the operator also works in Google Blog Search, and there it is much
more comprehensive
• Google Webmaster Central only provides backlink data for your
own site (if you're verified)

12. Checking PageRank
• Google Toolbar for IE or Firefox
– Download it from toolbar.google.com
• Third party tools that query Google's Toolbar
Server, pretending to be the Google Toolbar
– SEO for Firefox
– etc.
• Get historical PageRank scores SEOmoz Historical
PageRank Checker tool

13. Google Toolbar

14. Problems with the PageRank Meter
• Take the PageRank scores with a grain of salt
• PageRank scores are merely indicative
• Scores displayed in the PageRank meter are:
– Months old
– Imprecise
– Not the same as the PageRank as what is used in Google's
ranking algorithm
– Not representative of the home page PageRank when a
redirect is present
• An alternative to checking toolbar PageRank
– SEOmoz's mozRank and mozTrust (OpenSiteExplorer.org)

15. 15

16. Find Link Targets
• Review links of competitive sites, sites in your
keyword market
– Use the tools just mentioned and will mention later in
this session
– Check sites with high rankings for relevant keywords
– The fewer the number of links on their page, the
better
• Review links to your site; look for opportunities to
get the link text revised

17. Competitive Intelligence
• These tools aren't just good for finding link
targets
• They're invaluable for uncovering competitors'
dodgy practices
– E.g. Unraveling the mystery of Findgiftcards.com
commanding the #1 spot for “gift certificates”
• It's also just good to know where they're getting
the bulk of their PageRank from

18. Link Analysis & Research
• Very hard to do without the appropriate tools
• For example...
– LinkResearchTools.com
– OpenSiteExplorer.org
– MajesticSEO.com
– Raven (raven-seo-tools.com)
– Advanced Link Manager (advancedlinkmanager.com)
– Back Link Analyzer (tools.seobook.com/backlink-
analyzer/)

19. Link Intelligence –
OpenSiteExplorer.org

20. Link Intelligence –
OpenSiteExplorer.org

21. Link Intelligence –
OpenSiteExplorer.org

22. Link Intelligence –
MajesticSEO.com

23. Link Intelligence –
MajesticSEO.com

24. Link Intelligence –
LinkResearchTools.com

25. Link Intelligence –
LinkResearchTools.com

26. Link Intelligence –
LinkResearchTools.com

27. Link Intelligence –
LinkResearchTools.com

28. Link Baiting
• Offer a niche-specific blogroll, tool, How-To, or
compilation of news stories
• Post a scoop
• Expose a story as flawed or a fraud
• Be a contrarian about a story, product, or
prominent blogger's opinion
• Be humorous. Good topics include a bizzare pic of
your subject, “10 things I hate about…”, and “You
know you're a when…” Source: Performancing

29. Link Baiting
• Publish or commission some original research
• Creative-Commons-license photos you made of
an event you're blogging about
• Make available for free a theme, plugin or piece
of software
• Start a meme that others can replicate and that
links back to you (e.g. buttons/stickers/tools for
bloggers/webmasters to post on their
sites, contests, quizzes, surveys, etc.)
Source: Performancing

30. Memes
• A “meme” is a “copy me” instruction backed
up by threats and/or promises
– e.g. chain letters
– “5 things you didn’t know about me”
– “Which superhero are you?”

31. So… Get Creative!
• Give awards / recognition
– Badges with link text underneath
• Allow webmasters to republish your articles
– Require a link in your byline
• Publish unique content
– Podcasts (e.g. SteveSpangler.com)
– Screencasts (use TechSmith's Camtasia Studio)
– Wikis (e.g. SEOGlossary.com)

32. So… Get Creative!
• Run contests
– E.g. Design Shoemoney's business card, win business cards for life
• Offer useful tools for webmasters, such as…
– Hit counters
• E.g. NOT 123counters.com
– Weather stickers
• E.g. Wunderground.com, SuperPages.com
– RSS feeds
• Lottery winning numbers from SuperPages.com

36. Blogging for Links
• Search engines – and Google in particular – love blogs
• Inherently link-rich
– “Hat tips” – part of blog etiquette
– Blogrolls
– RSS feeds
– Trackbacks
– Comments
• Blogs are a great platform from which to launch linkbait campaigns
• The dark side of the blogosphere:
– Blog comment spam
– Splogs (spam blogs)

37. Don’t Forget RSS Feeds
• An unspammable content delivery channel to your
consumers AND to the linkerati, as well as…
• A powerful way to syndicate your content to other
web sites
– Propagate deep links that drive traffic and PageRank
– Careful! Some spammers lift your content from your RSS
feeds, strip out the links, and use as keyword-rich content
• “You should be fired if you do a marketing site
without an RSS feed.” - Robert Scoble

38. Don’t Forget RSS Feeds
• What will help subscribers keep their finger on
the pulse of your industry and compel
webmasters to disseminate to their visitors?
– News alerts, latest specials, clearance items,
upcoming events, new arrivals, new articles, new
tools & resources, search results, a book’s revision
history, top 10 best sellers, project management
activities, forum/listserv posts, recently added
downloads, …
– For blogs: latest posts, latest posts by category,
latest comments per post, …

39. Slashdot
headlines
syndicated
on
Nanodot.org
39

40. The top result
was thanks to
syndication via
RSS
40

41. Wikis
• Contribute to Wikipedia
– Build up your street cred (virtuous contribution history, user
profile) before doing anything at all self-serving. A link on a
high-profile article is worth gold, as it builds your credibility &
visibility with journalists and bloggers
• Contribute to other wikis
– e.g. the NewPR Wiki (thenewpr.com), the WordPress Codex
(http://codex.wordpress.org/Search_Engine_Optimization_for_
Wordpress), ShopWiki, Web 2.0 Expo conference wiki
• Create your own wiki (e.g. SEOGlossary.com)

43. Link Baiting – Viral Content
• Quizzes/Personality Tests:
– How Many Five Year Olds Can You Take On in a Fight
– Which Superhero Are You?
• Widgets:
– Swicki
– SeenOn.com Grey's
Anatomy

46. Link Baiting – Viral Content
• Microsites:
– Gizoogle.com
– CounterfeitMini.com
– MentosIntern.com
– AngryLeprechaun.com
– SEO Eye for the Google Guy (Queer Eye
spoof, makeover team optimizes Matt Cutts' blog)

47. 47

48. 48

49. 49

50. 50

51. Link Baiting – Utilities
• Write a WordPress plugin
– Netconcepts' “SEO Title Tag” plugin
(www.netconcepts.com/seo-title-tag-plugin) was the most
successful link bait we've ever done
– Netconcepts' “WordPress Quiz” plugin for personality tests
(www.netconcepts.com/wordpress-quiz-plugin/). Example site:
quizfanatic.com
• Write a Firefox extension
– Aaron's Walls' “SEO for Firefox”
• Release software as Open Source

52. “Seeding” Linkbait
• Leverage social media by seeding your linkbait
into social networks like
Facebook, YouTube, StumbleUpon, Digg, etc.
• Every social network / community has its own
unique opportunities, quirks and anomalies.
• Link baiting is most effective when you have
something viral to spread (such as a meme).
52

53. Viral Videos & YouTube
• Be creative but unpolished
– Eepybird’s Bellagio Fountain of Diet Coke + Mentos
– BlendTec’s “Will It Blend?”
– Heroes spoof commercial (“Zeroes”) – an NBC
creation
– John Cleese Backup Trauma webisode
– Intuit’s “Tax Rap” content
• Read this:
http://multichannelmerchant.com/ecommerce/o
ptimizing_videos_youtube/

55. 55

56. Leveraging Social Media
• Seed linkbait into social news (e.g. Digg) & social
bookmarking (e.g. Delicious) sites
• News articles, blog posts, photos, etc. identified
by enough “shout outs” by users
– Digg, Reddit, Newsvine, Mixx, Kirtsy, Techmeme,
Shoutwire, etc.
– StumbleUpon is a bit different. More like channel-
surfing on your TV
• Votes push the good stuff up to the front page
• Popurls.com is an aggregator of the most popular
stuff from many of these social sites

57. Leveraging Social Media
• Strip away all commercial links during the initial social
media swarm
• Friend popular users. Better yet, get a popular user
(power user) to submit your story.
– Consult the Top 100 list of Diggers
(http://socialblade.com/digg/topusers.html)
• Time your presence to go popular for daylight hours
• Craft a killer title using this formula from Muhammad
Saleem: number + adjective + key phrase
– E.g. “13 Most Chilling Haunted Hotels” or “16 Incredibly
Unconventional Hotel Rooms”

58. 58

59. Q&A
• What can you do tomorrow that will improve your
link popularity? Write down 3 things. Get ‘em done!
• Remember: you eat an elephant one bite at a time
• To contact me: stephan@stephanspencer.com
• To get a copy of this slide deck and an SEO Myths
whitepaper, email admin@stephanspencer.com