Discover how search engines rely on link analysis as an important component for ranking web pages. You will also learn how to increase traffic to your site by building quality links in an appropriate manner.

1. KEY LINKBUILDING
STRATEGIES
Patrick Altoft
Director of Search

3. Links Are Important

4. Link Analysis
• Very important to carry out link analysis for your site
and your competitors before you start to build links
• Every site needs different links and you don’t know
what links you need until you have carried out the
analysis
• We offer free link analysis & link strategy suggestions
to anybody who emails us

5. Competition Link Profile Analysis
Client Anchor Text Distribution
Brand
Brand + Keyword Competitor 1 Anchor Text
Keyword
Distribution
Noise
Brand
Competitor 2 Anchor Text Brand + Keyword
Distribution Keyword
Noise
Brand
Brand + Keyword
Keyword
Noise

6. Competitor Analysis
Competitor 1 Anchor Text Variations
voucher codes
voucher codes UK
Competitor 2 Anchor Text
discount codes Variation
vouchercodes.co.uk
Voucher Codes
www.vouchercodes.co.uk
VoucherCodes
(img alt) [No Anchor Text]

7. Domain Authority
250
Linking Domain Authority
200
150
NVC
Vouchercodes
100 MyVoucherCodes
50
0
1
4
7
10
13
16
19
22
25
28
31
34
37
40
43
46
49
52
55
58
61
64
67
70
73
76
79
82
85
88
91
94
97
100

8. Different Types Of Links
Linkbait
Giveaways Paid Links
Link
Social
Types Guest
Links Content
Exchanging
Syndication
Links

9. Prospect List
• The easiest links to get are from people you already
know
o Customers
o Suppliers
o Friends
o Bloggers
• Email everybody you know asking whether you can
contribute some content to their site in return for a
link

10. Outreach
• Once you have emailed your initial list you need to
broaden your reach
• Find blogs in your sector, make friends with the
editors
• List sites and email lots of people offering content or
other incentives
o Pay for links (carefully)
o Give products away for reviews, competitions

11. Linkbait
• Linkbait is the art of creating a piece of content to
place on your website with the aim of attracting links
• It’s pretty hard to do and should only be done after
you have explored other easier options
• Sites are reluctant to link to commercial sites which
reduces the impact of your linkbait
• Links usually point to the linkbait page rather than
your commercial page
• Hard to control anchor text

12. Linkbait Is Not About Social Shares

13. Linkbait Has to Get Links

14. Link Penalties
• Bad links can hurt sites and the only way you can
recover is to remove the links and submit a re-
inclusion request
• The biggest risk is if you acquire links through a link
network
• If you outsource to an agency they should send you
a link report every month – you need to look through
this and see if you think the links are on good sites
• If the links look bad they probably are

15. Don’t get links from these people

16. Or these……

17. Example Strategy – Travel Site, Cumbria
• We shortlisted all tourist attractions & asked for links
on their “How to find us” or “Where to stay” pages
• We wrote about things to do in Cumbria and
mentioned the best tourist attractions in return
• Published travel guides to Cumbria on lots of travel
blogs
• Arranged for sites about mountain biking, walking etc
to add links to local accommodation for each
ride/walk

18. Example Strategy – Gadget Retailer
• Made friends with 100+ blogs and give away
products to review
• Arranged a scheme with bloggers where they link to
our clients product page when they write about a
new product
• Allow bloggers to use high quality images as long as
they add a link back to the source

19. Example Strategy – Financial Site
• Publish regular press releases commenting on
stories in the press and releasing statistics on
financial issues and products
• Our in-house journalists cover the story on lots of
relevant blogs

20. Example Strategy – High Street chain
• High Street chains offer a unique local opportunity
• We spoke to local newspapers across the UK and
published dozens of interesting stories about their
specific local business
• For example a newspaper in Manchester could talk
about how the Manchester branch of a particular
department store was running a promotion on a
certain product & link to the ecommerce page

21. Example Strategy – Flight Comparison Site
• Targeted tourist attractions with “how to find us”
pages and placed links to the “flights to xxx” page
• Published travel guides on blogs for each major city
in the UK with an airport
• Arranged for 100 tech blogs to review iPhone and
Android apps

22. Example Strategy – Bingo Site
• Targeted mummy blogs with infographics
• Arranged articles in local newspapers focussing on
local bingo trends

23. Questions?
• www.branded3.com
• patrick@branded3.com
• twitter.com/patrickaltoft
• www.blogstorm.co.uk