6. Excel (or Google Spreadsheets) http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html http://docs.google.com or http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/
7. SEOmoz Free API Key http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html http://www.seomoz.org/api
14. Who Links to My Competitors? http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html I like using the filters of âfollowed+301,â âonly external,â âpages on this root domain,â and âgroup by domain.â
15. Who Links to Sites w/ Similar Content? Via Google Query Via MoreofIt Via AdPlanner Some good posts with other ideas on this: http://www.inspiredm.com/5-amazing-methods-to-find-similar-websites-based-on-your-preferences/ and http://www.searchenginejournal.com/find-related-sites/9086/ http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html
16. Whatâs Their Most Popular Content? I also like: http://www.google.com/search?q=inurl%3Acom+site%3Athinkgeek.com (basically a keyword-agnostic search on the domain) http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html
17. Who Links to Industry Hubs/Portals? The idea is to find sites that are generic enough to have a wide reach and influence, but relevant enough to allow for the discovery of link building opportunities. http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html
18. Relevant, Non-Commercial Hubs Sometimes Have Great Link Profiles Boo yah baby! For example, by browsing the links to this Wikipedia article on âOnline Shoppingâ I found a trend blog that covers technology and gadget sites. http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html
20. Directory/Resource Queries This blog post covers a lot of good ones: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/long-list-of-link-searches and this oneâs solid, too: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/link-building-search-queries-collection/7337/ http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html
21. Link Acquisition Assistant Also Works ď http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html You can find it here: http://www.seomoz.org/labs/link-finder/index.php
22. Which Resources Are Worth Effort? DmT > DmR? Unfortunately, due to low quality sites getting more high quality links, MozTrustisnât as good a metric as it once was. However, itâs still useful to compare it to MozRank. If itâs lower, that can be a bad sign. Much lower is almost always a very bad sign. http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html
23. Which Resources Are Worth Effort? Lots of links, but low domain diversity http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html A page with lots of links from a single external domain isnât necessarily a bad thing, but a domain with that feature can be trouble â think of it as a red flag.
24. Which Resources Are Worth Effort? Whoâs linking to this site? If you sort by âDomain Authorityâ in OSE, you can get a decent sense of whether thereâs good, real, editorially-given, quality links pointing to a site, or if itâs using low-value tactics to rank. http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html
25. Is This a âLow Qualityâ Directory? What would this team think? http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/another-look-under-hood-of-search.html
26. Does the Resource Pass Link Value? Running searches for the brand + directory name (or keywords therein) and for the anchor text of the link can give you some sense (though not precise) about whether the directory/site is counted by Google. http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html
27. How to Test Link-Passing Value(if you need to) http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html This blog post explains: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/determining-whether-a-page-site-passes-link-juice
29. Google âDiscussionâ Search Itâs not that you need to participate in these particular threads, but that you want to find the communities where these discussions may happen, join up and contribute authentically. http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html http://www.google.com/search?q=geek+gifts&tbm=dsc (the &tbm=dsc will show âdiscussionâ results)
30. Seeing Who Links to Those Communities is Often a Goldmine, Too! ď http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html Make sure to choose communities that are solidly on your topic â broader forums/discussion sites have less relevant links for you to mine.
31. Google âBlogâ Search http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html http://www.google.com/search?q=geek+gifts&tbm=blg (&tbm=blg gives the blog modifier)
32. Blogscape for Competitive Discovery Using http://www.seomoz.org/labs/blogscape you can see the sources that mention or link to a competitorâs site in the very recent past (Blogscape updates every 12 hours) http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html
33. Blogscape for Competitive Discovery The âRankâ in Blogscape is based on Domain MozRank metrics from Linkscape Thereâs often some juicy link sources in here, and if you can catch them fast, you can even request an update/addition to the story, or leave a relevant comment that might drive traffic or encourage a link. http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html
34. Google Reader for Feed Subscriber Count http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html Go to http://www.google.com/reader/view/#directory-page/1 and use the search function
35. Google Reader for Feed Subscriber Count Not only are the results themselves often worthwhile, but using OSEâs top pages and competitive link research functions on these sites can give you even more high quality link targets. http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html
36. Use Filters on Advanced Reports + Excel Analysis to ID Opportunities Once you have the CSV, you can filter in Excel for any pages that contain words like âprofileâ âuserâ âusernameâ âbioâ etc. These often lead to useful profiles on 3rd party sites (and you can get plenty creative here, too) http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html
37. Profile-Type Searches can Help Find Communities Where Your Competition's Participating Look at the metrics for the root domain, rather than the individual page. Your goal is to find strong sites, not necessarily strong pages. http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html
39. ID Opportunity w/ Metrics + Gut Feel Probably Awesome A Bit Questionable Awesome!
40. Look for Content Creatorâs Names(if you know your fieldâs players)
41. Search Queries to Discover Guest Posting Opportunities Thereâs dozens of variations on each of these, and they can provide a solid base to discover guest-posting opportunities in nearly any field. Make sure to think broadly (but not too blue-sky) with the keyword choice.
43. The Theory Behind Social Connections By starting a conversational dialogue over social media, a nascent relationship is formed. That can later transform into a request (like an RT or link) or an authentic sharing opportunity A great example is outdoor retailer, ExOfficioâs Twitter profile: http://twitter.com/#!/exofficio
44. Topic Searches on FollowerWonk Queries like http://followerwonk.com/bio/?q=geek+gadgets are great for discovering infuential, well-followed users who employ those words in their bio. You can also search by location or name and filter.
45. Topic Searches on FindPeopleOnPlus Although you canât sort by # of followers, you can filter in the left-sidebar to show only users with a certain follower count or higher ď http://www.findpeopleonplus.com/search?keywords=geek+gadgets
46. Topic Searches on LinkedIn Michele looks like an ideal connection for this topic! Using the dropdown to search by âkeywordsâ can give the most relevant results, though it will often show you folks youâre not well-connected-to. http://www.linkedin.com/search/fpsearch?type=people&keywords=geek+gadgets
48. 404âd Resources Find 404 or 301/2 pages on your competitionâs websites, rebuild those resources and contact the linking parties. These are often easy links to obtain.
49. 301/RelCanonicaling Overlapping Content If you have multiple pages with external links and authority targeting the same keywords, consider whether consolidating the information and having a single page is a better option. It can often be great for SEO.
50. Reruns of Content Successes 2007 article with nice links and a great topic⌠Seems ripe for an update! Not only can you take older ideas from others and re-create / update them, you can do it for your own successful content. Thatâs why I love doing âbest ofâ or âguideâ for a specific year, so it can be re-made later.
51. Twitter Followers -> Link Targets Export a list of your Twitter followers and see which of their bio sites link to you vs. donât â then target the highest DA non-linkers! The amazing Wil Reynolds describes this process in detail here: http://www.seerinteractive.com/blog/using-twitter-and-backlinks-to-build-links/2011/07/28/
52. Top X Lists of People/Companies/Blogs These types of posts ALWAYS earn great links, because bloggers, tweeters, companies, products and people LOVE to link to and promote things that make them look good.
53. Analyze Anyoneâs Ideal Anchor Text Sources I like to use highly authoritative, well-known brands when doing these types of searches, because theyâll often reveal very high quality sources where anchor text can be customized vs. low quality ones.
54. Get .Gov/.Edu/etc. w/ Advanced Reports Another great feature of the advanced reports section is the ability to select from specific TLDs
55. Building a Link Acquisition Target List and Prioritizing Action
57. Sorting + Executing Link building can be a slog, but tools, analysis and thoughtful planning make execution of the plan SO much easier and less painful.