Webinar presentation from SEOmoz on how to use Open Site Explorer and other tools for link building and web marketing

1. Link Building w/ Open Site Explorer Using tools + data to acquire amazing links Rand Fishkin, CEO + Co-founder, SEOmoz August 2011

2. Tools You’ll Need

3. Open Site Explorer http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html http://www.opensiteexplorer.org

4. Google http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html http://www.google.com (Not exactly hard to find  )

5. MozBar http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html You can download either/both here: http://www.seomoz.org/seo-toolbar

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

8. FollowerWonk http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html http://followerwonk.com/

9. LinkedIn http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html http://www.linkedin.com/search?trk=advsrch

10. Blogscape http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html http://www.seomoz.org/labs/blogscape

11. Google Reader http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html http://www.google.com/reader/view/

12. Standard Link Building Tactics

13. Competitive Link Analysis

14. Who Links to My Competitors? http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html I like using the filters of “followed+301,” “only external,” “pages on this root domain,” and “group by domain.”

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. What’s 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 “Online Shopping” I found a trend blog that covers technology and gadget sites. http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html

19. Directories, Link & Resource Lists

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 one’s 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  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, MozTrustisn’t as good a metric as it once was. However, it’s still useful to compare it to MozRank. If it’s 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 isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but a domain with that feature can be trouble – think of it as a red flag.

24. Which Resources Are Worth Effort? Who’s linking to this site? If you sort by “Domain Authority” in OSE, you can get a decent sense of whether there’s good, real, editorially-given, quality links pointing to a site, or if it’s using low-value tactics to rank. http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html

25. Is This a “Low Quality” 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

28. Blogs, Forums + Communities

29. Google “Discussion” Search It’s 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 “discussion” results)

30. Seeing Who Links to Those Communities is Often a Goldmine, Too!  http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html Make sure to choose communities that are solidly on your topic – broader forums/discussion sites have less relevant links for you to mine.

31. Google “Blog” 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 competitor’s 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 “Rank” in Blogscape is based on Domain MozRank metrics from Linkscape There’s 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 OSE’s 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 “profile” “user” “username” “bio” 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

38. Guest Content Opportunities

39. ID Opportunity w/ Metrics + Gut Feel Probably Awesome A Bit Questionable Awesome!

40. Look for Content Creator’s Names(if you know your field’s players)

41. Search Queries to Discover Guest Posting Opportunities There’s 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.

42. Social Connections for Links

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, ExOfficio’s 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 can’t sort by # of followers, you can filter in the left-sidebar to show only users with a certain follower count or higher  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 “keywords” can give the most relevant results, though it will often show you folks you’re not well-connected-to. http://www.linkedin.com/search/fpsearch?type=people&keywords=geek+gadgets

47. A Few Unique Tactics

48. 404’d Resources Find 404 or 301/2 pages on your competition’s 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. That’s why I love doing “best of” or “guide” 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. don’t – 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 Anyone’s Ideal Anchor Text Sources I like to use highly authoritative, well-known brands when doing these types of searches, because they’ll 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

56. Sample Excel Spreadsheet Awesome!

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.

58. Think Hard About What Your Link Profile Says About Your Site…

59. Don’t Look Like This:

60. Look Like This:

62. Blog: www.seomoz.org/blog

63. Email: rand@seomoz.orgDon’t Have PRO/OSE? Get It Below Free! http://www.seomoz.org/freetrial