Marshall Clark » SEO: Link Building

Sun Tzu’s Guide: Dominate Google in 5 Easy Steps

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 20:09:58 +0000

Competition for search engine rankings is modern warfare and to the victors go a wealth of traffic and hot babes. A first ranked spot on Google is a golden prize who’s worth is beyond estimate. To win this prize you must best all competitors and win the esteem of the mighty Google, under who’s divine gaze we mere mortals must prostrate ourselves in unworthy supplication.

To guide you into battle, first fortify your soul with masterful Sun Tzu’s “The Art of Link Development”

1. Know Your Enemy
Your enemy is wily in ways of warfare and has strong allies in link shops of Hyderabad. You must first learn strength of their link development if you hope to best them with your own. Use Yahoo’s SiteExplorer tool to reveal the full extend of their link development efforts before committing yourself to battle.

2. Learn From the Past
Those whom seek favor from divine Google should learn history of its mighty omniscience. Study the original PageRank patent application and the subsequent algorithmic updates embodied by HillTop, LocalRank, and TrustRank in order to glimpse a merest glimmer of mind of magnificent Google.

3. Assess the Battlefield
Battlefield is game board on which your contest will be played. Potential link partners present both an opportunity for attack as well as tool to be turned against you. Evaluate your potential link partners carefully and secure links from older websites wherever possible. There is no substitute for the wisdom (and the TrustRank) of older websites.

4. Strategic Attack
Begin your attack decisively, but take care to not appear overzealous in eyes of all-powerful Google. Link development strategies such as directory submissions are good way to develop easy links, but don’t do more than 10 submission each week or vengeful Google may smite you for your insolence. Avoid the temptation of the ‘link exchange’ for though it seems an easy path to divinity, it is an unclean harlot that will lead you to certain doom.

5. Attacking with Fire
For most worthy opponents, simple weapons will not suffice. For these enemies we must attack with Fire. Once you’ve exhausted easy link opportunities, use more advanced link development techniques such as article syndication, paid link ads, and presell pages to generate additional links. While time-consuming and expensive, these techniques will give you the edge needed to vanquish even most accomplished foe.

This guide is a mere introduction to Google link development. You are now smallest grasshopper, but in time you may grow into mighty tiger. This short guide was adapted from a larger five-part Guide to Link Development. For additional instruction and links to further reading resources please visit the full guide at MarshallClark.Net.

Guide to Link Building Pt.5

Sat, 28 Oct 2006 19:57:31 +0000

Link Development Strategies 2
Article Syndication
Article syndication involves distributing article content to generate inlinks to your website. These articles are typically developed in-house or through paid outside contract writers. In order to be effective these articles should have minimal marketing/branding language included.

Strategy: To begin with this strategy, focus on developing 10-20 informative 300-500 word articles on topics relating to your industry. Avoid using promotional language in these articles; the goal is to gain inlinks by posting these articles on outside websites and few webmasters are interested in posting content that blatantly promotes another website. These articles should be rich in useful content and should have only very light branding so as to maximize their informational appeal.

Each article should have an “About the Author” section with a link back to your website, but you may often include up to a half-dozen internal keyword-type links in the article content itself which link back to related articles on your main website. This is typically dependent on the preferences of the publishing site, but try to negotiate for as many internal content links as possible.

Due to Google restrictions on duplicate content, each article needs to be published on only one website in order to be effective. This means that if an article has already been published on your own website it’s no longer suitable for publication on an outside website. Similarly, each outside website syndicating content will require unique articles in order to be effective with this strategy.

Once you have a number of articles completed, its time for evaluating websites that may be interested in hosting your content. Look for websites that are consumer or industry-professional focused and use the steps listed in the above “Evaluation of Potential Link Sources” section to determine suitability. When contacting webmasters of these sites outline the benefits this free content can provide them (i.e. additional CPM revenue, search rankings on article content, content for users) and negotiate to include as many links back to your website from the article content as possible (up to maximum of six links total).

Paid Link Advertising
Paid link advertising is a somewhat controversial way to generate inlinks, and while it can be very effective, it needs to be approached with caution to in order to eliminate chances of negative results. Paid link advertising is a strategy for purchasing links on topically related websites as a way to improve results for link-based search engine ranking algorithms.

Strategy: Evaluation of your potential link sources is essential for effective paid link advertising. The situation is a bit of a catch 22, you’re looking for sites that will accept payment in return for a link to your site, however you only want links from sites that are very selective about who they link to. Sites that accept paid link ads from any website willing to pay a fee will inevitably end up linking to bad seed websites and will eventually have their ability to pass PageRank revoked by Google.

The ideal paid link source is a website that is specific to your industry but does not actively solicit paid advertising. These websites need to be approached with tact since a direct request for a paid link will typically not be successful with them. Best results typically come from building a relationship with the website first and only broaching the subject of advertising once rapport has been established. Clearly this adds considerably to the time and effort involved in obtaining these links, but this strategy is as much about building connections within your industry as it is improving search results.

When arranging a paid link advertisement several conditions much be met in order to obtain full benefits. The link to your website must be a direct link – it can’t be passed through any type of redirects or tracking scripts. This typically necessitates some form of flat rate pricing for the ad since the publishing website won’t be able to accurately verify the number of impressions needed for CPM type pricing. In order to be effective the ad will also need to be delivered every time the page is loaded – no ad rotation allowed.

The ad will need to be in place for at least six months in order to be effective and additional benefits will be seen the longer it remains in place – so you may consider negotiating a 6-12 month contract for each paid link ad.

As discussed in the ‘Directory Submissions’ section, you will want to include your target keywords in the anchor text of your inlinks wherever possible, but you must avoid repeating the same target phrases every time to avoid penalties. Develop at least six different anchor text sets for each paid link landing page URL and try to rotate between these when negotiating your paid link ads.

Summary
As you now probably recognize, link development is complex and the volume of knowledge required to excel at it is substantial. The information discussed above is just the tip of the iceberg – a basic summary of the main ranking algorithms and core optimization strategies. For a more complete understanding of the field you’ll need to familiarize yourself with some of the published articles and discussion forums posts on the subject. I’ve included a list of what I believe are the most accurate and valuable resources below. In my opinion these are the most advanced current opinions on link development available at the time this document was written (10/2006). Link development strategies change rapidly and old information rapidly loses value as search engine ranking algorithms continually update. When it comes time to branch out from these resources and begin your own research, always consider the source and the age of documents to insure you are getting accurate and timely information.

Basics
Link Building 101
Does This Link Pass PageRank?
Why That Site With 50 Backlinks Beats Your Site With 1000 Backlinks
Site Wide Links: Do They Help or Hurt?
Effectiveness of Link Popularity Decreasing?

Evaluation
A Technique For Selecting Sites For Link Requests
Tips for finding the best pages to get links from (Pt 1)
Tips for finding the best pages to get links from (Pt 2)
What’s Your Link Worth? Link Calculator from Text Link Ads

Strategy
How to Build One-Way Links
What Makes a Site Link-Worthy?
Proper Link Requests
101 Ways to Build Link Popularity in 2006
Writing Articles for Link Popularity
Link Building through Blogs
Link Baiting
Donating to Charities for Link Building

Tools
Yahoo SiteExplorer
SEO For Firefox
Page Strength Tool
Link Harvester Tool
Hub Finder Tool
TouchGraph Link Visualization Tool

Guide to Link Building Pt.4

Fri, 27 Oct 2006 19:56:47 +0000

Link Development Strategies 1
Google has made progress in removing manipulative means for improving rankings through link development. While webmasters previously had a number of opportunities to game the PageRank system, today success in link development is based mostly in maximizing online visibility and building online relationships within a given industry . The strategies we will be outlining below are the current best practices for improving search engine rankings through link development and are entirely ‘white hat’ – meaning they are limited to techniques that improve ranking without the risk of ranking penalties.

Reciprocal Link Exchanges
In the early 2000’s link exchanges were the #1 strategy for obtaining top Google rankings. Since that time however they have been largely deprecated by new link ranking algorithms and currently they provide little to no benefit. PageRank was originally designed as a way of measuring links as ‘votes’ for the linked website. Reciprocal link exchanges (where webmasters ‘trade’ links to one another’s sites) run counter to the purpose of PageRank and Google has found a number of ways to actively filter them from the index.

Strategy: Focus instead on obtaining ‘one-way’ links from sites by any means possible.

Directory Submissions
Submitting your website URL to online directories as a strategy to build PageRank saw its peak effectiveness in 2003-2004, however it can still deliver some benefit if incorporated as part of a broader link development campaign. You’ll need to carefully evaluate your directory choices before submission to avoid associating your URL with ‘bad seed’ type websites.

Two tools that are very useful for reviewing directories are the SEOMoz Page Strength Tool and the SEO for Firefox Plugin. The SEOMoz tool pulls together data from over a dozen sources to provide a single “Page Strength” score that gives a good indication of the value of a given page. Aim for directory pages that have a score of at least 3.5. The SEO for Firefox plugin provides a breakdown of similar information to that contained in the Page Strength tool, but displays the information directly in Google and Yahoo search engine result pages. This makes it very convenient for filtering through large numbers of potential topical directory or link request sources (search query = + directory).

Strategy: Once you’ve selected your list of good quality directories it’s time to submit the site. Quality directories typically charge a one-time fee of $10-$50 for submission, top-quality directories such as Yahoo and Business.com charge recurring fees as high as $299/year and $150/year respectively. Avoid free directory submissions unless they come from a reputable site with a very high Page Strength score (such as DMOZ.org) since these free directories are often filled with ‘bad seed’ type websites.

Directory submissions should be performed slowly over a long period of time, nothing says ‘link manipulation’ to Google like 200 new directory links appearing over a 2 day period. Limit yourself to 20-30 directory links maximum and spread these submissions over a 4-8 week period.

When submitting your website you’ll typically be asked to list the site name, description, and URL. Do NOT use the same site name and description for every directory you submit to – instead write out at least six variants of your name and description and try to rotate between these when completing directory submission forms. This gives your directory links a more natural appearance and reduces the risk of them being discounted by Google. Also as we mentioned before, try to spread out your directory submissions over as long a time frame as possible as this will likely improve their effectiveness with Google.

Online Press Releases
Publishing press releases online is a good strategy for building additional inlinks to a website. Online distributors such as PRWeb offer paid press release distribution services that are designed to build online visibility and can sometimes generate small amounts of PageRank as well.

Strategy: When writing the press release make sure to follow accepted journalism standards and make efforts to incorporate your target keywords (1031 exchange, qualified intermediary, etc) into the release copy and title wherever possible. Once the press release is complete submit it to PRWeb’s Expanded PRWeb & eMediawire Distribution (currently $169) to insure maximum distribution. A typical press release distributed in this manner should generate a few inbound links and modest direct traffic, but results can be significantly greater if the release gets picked up by a major media outlet.

Guide to Link Building Pt.3

Thu, 26 Oct 2006 19:54:08 +0000

Evaluating Potential Link Sources
Evaluating the quality of potential link sources is an essential skill for effective link development. Carefully pre-qualifying link sources maximizes cost-effectiveness of the campaign by contacting only the most highly qualified link sources, but just as importantly, it also helps insure that we’re not requesting links from sites that may be considered “bad neighborhoods” by Google.

Evaluating the Site

• What is the topic of the site?
Links from sites on related topics or industries are most effective. A link to a real estate site from a Real Estate or Investing site will provide benefit, a link from a Travel site will likely not.

• How long has the site been online?
Links from older websites provide considerable benefits. Use the ‘SEO for Firefox’ tool combined with a Google search for the website URL to determine site age.

• Does the site have existing outlinks?
If a site does not currently have outlinks to other sites it may be difficult to convince them to add yours. That said, you typically get the best results from sites that only link out to a few sites, provided that your site is one of those few of course.

• Are the site’s current outlinks pointing to pages that are on topic?
Make sure that any existing outlinks are to pages that are on topic. Pages that link off-topic (ex: Real Estate pages which link to ‘low cost hosting’ or ‘online casino’ pages) should be avoided at all costs as they are likely ‘bad neighborhoods’.

• Does the site engage in large-scale linking or link exchanges?
When looking for link sources, the ideal candidate site is an older, on-topic website that links to only a few external pages. Links from these websites provide maximum benefit with minimal risk of being associated with bad neighborhoods. Sites that operate large ‘links’ pages or run automated link exchanges will not provide good results and should be avoided. The exception to this rule are a few focused, industry-specific directory sites such as Reals.com – a Real Estate directory online since February 1998.

Evaluating the Page

• What is the importance of the page in the site hierarchy?
When evaluating the link value of a specific page pay attention to where the page exists in the hierarchy of the website. Links from a homepage tend to pass extra link value as the homepage is typically the page most often linked to by other webmasters. Following this same line of thought, a sub-page directly linked to from the homepage will pass greater value than a page two or more links deep into the site navigation.

• How many outlinks are on the page?
When evaluating a link for the possible PageRank benefit you’ll want to look at how many other external links are already on the page. The Google PageRank equation essentially distributes the PageRank score of a given page across all of the links leaving the page. If a page has 10 links out each link will receive 10% of the total PageRank points. If a page only has 4 links each will receive 25%. This is an oversimplification since it doesn’t take into account the damping factor and internal links, but you get the idea.

• Are the outlinks all ‘direct’ links? A key consideration where evaluating the page is the kind of external links used. Some larger sites and directories use internal redirection scripts when linking to outside pages. These scripts allow sites to track outbound click events, but they also block nearly all the benefits we’re looking to obtain from the link. For our purposes we need to get standard, direct, non Java-Scripted links. The easiest way to verify the link type on a page is to go directly to the source code and see what’s used. The new version of Firefox has a great “View Selection Source” option that allow you to view just the sauce code for a small section of a page. To use it just highlight a link on the browser page, right click, and select “View Selection Source”. What we’re looking for are standard links of the format Good Link.
Links that use JavaScript Bad Link#1 or internal redirects Bad Link#2 should be avoided as they are unlikely to pass PageRank.

• Where would your link be located on the page?
Link placement is thought to be a new factor in Google’s evaluation of link value. The idea is that inks placed in the main content area of a page are more likely to be ‘editorial’ type links, while links placed in the footer are may represent compensated or paid text link type advertisements. One savvy link development strategy which addresses this preference is the idea of content trades or syndication. Instead of directly negotiating for a link on an existing webpage, the link developer instead offers a free article on a topic of interest which includes links to your site in the body of the article text. This is an excellent strategy which we’ll go into more detail on later.

Guide to Link Building Pt.2

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 19:53:25 +0000

Overview of Link Based Ranking Algorithms
In this section we’ll give an overview of link-based ranking algorithms in order to provide some perspective for our future link development efforts.

PageRank
Prior to Google’s launch in late 1998, search engines relied on page content to rank webpages. Since this content was under the direct control of webmasters, website owners were able to easily influence rankings by modifying the content appearing on their sites. Google changed this landscape with the launch of their ‘PageRank’ ranking algorithm.

PageRank is unique in that it focuses on the one factor that is almost entirely outside the control of webmasters, the number of times that outside sites link to a given webpage. In September of 2001 Google was granted a patent for ‘PageRank’. The published patent document #6,285,999 – Method for node ranking in a linked database provides detailed insight into the original Google algorithm.

PR (A) = 1-d/N + d(PR(B)/L(B) + PR(C)/L(C)…)

PR (x) = PageRank of given page
L = number of outbound links on given page
d = damping factor
N = number of documents in index (set)

As we can see from the above equation, PageRank is calculated by taking the PageRank of the each of the inlinking pages, dividing this PageRank between the number of outbound links on each page, adding the fractional PageRank values together, and adjusting the total with a damping factor designed to add a small cost to every PageRank transaction (preventing unlimited, lossless PR cycling between pages).

The PageRank algorithm revolutionized search and launched Google to the top of the search engine world, however the algorithm as originally published contained a number of vulnerabilities that over time have eroded its usefulness. The original PageRank equation was essentially an iterative link tallying system that counted the number of links to a given page and granted additional priority to links that originated from pages that were themselves heavily linked.

PageRank does not evaluate the topic or authoritative status of inlinking pages, and this omission opens the door to a number of artificial link boosting strategies that influenced Google rankings from 1999-2001. During this time strategies such as free-for-all link pages, link exchanges, and the creation of artificial ‘link farms’ made up of hundreds of interlinked sites controlled by one webmaster, threatened the validity of Google’s results and led to the development of next generation PageRank filters’ and alternate link-based ranking algorithms. Today PageRank remains a central part of the Google ranking algorithm, but is now heavily modified in order to combat attempts at manipulation.

Hilltop
Hilltop was created by Krishna Bharath and George A. Mihaila of the University of Toronto in 1999 with the goal of building a link-based ranking method that was resistant to outside manipulation. As discussed in their paper Hilltop: A Search Engine based on Expert Documents, Hilltop differs from PageRank particularly in that it’s a topic-specific link algorithm. At the core of Hilltop is an initial set of ‘expert documents’, defined as pages on a given topic that link out to a large number of non-affiliated pages on related topics. Non-affiliated status in this case is determined by analysis of IP C-class and links between sites within the same C-class are discounted by Hilltop. Hilltop ranking results for a given webpage are based on both the number of these inlinks from expert documents as well as the anchor text of the links.

Hilltop improves on the original PageRank algorithm in two important ways. First, it incorporates the authoritative status of the linking page. This efficiently targets the effectiveness of link farms which incorporate large numbers of low authority spam sites. Second, it adds a valuable topic-specific aspect to the algorithm that rewards on-topic inks and discounts untargeted links. This effectively reduces the artificial benefit previously granted by free-for-all link pages and link exchange programs. While the Hilltop algorithm can still be gamed, successful strategies typically require creation of artificial expert documents, a process which is prohibitively costly for most webmasters.

Google was granted a patent on the Hilltop concept in February 2003 #6,526,440 – Ranking search results by reranking the results based on local inter-connectivity and is believed to be incorporating the Hilltop system into its current ranking algorithm in some form. Krishna Bharath is currently employed by Google.

TrustRank
TrustRank was developed by Zoltán Gyöngyi and Hector Garcia-Molina of Stanford University and Jan Pedersen of Yahoo as a way to combat artificial linking schemes. In August 2006, Google was granted a patent on the concept with #7096214 – System and method for supporting editorial opinion in the ranking of search results. TrustRank is similar to Hilltop in that it’s based around an initial set of expert documents, however instead of using an automated evaluation of authority (Hilltop), TrustRank instead relies on human experts to define a small ‘seed set’ of expert documents. This seed set is iteratively crawled to obtain primary linked pages, secondary linked pages, etc. The initial seed set is given a set number of points and by analyzing how these points filter down to the linked pages, TrustRank is able to calculate the importance of a given page.

TrustRank is interesting in that it can be used as both a positive and negative ranking factor. Good sites tend to link to good sites, bad sites tend to link to bad sites. By defining positive and negative seed sets, TrustRank can identify both sites that are likely to be valuable and those that are likely to be spam. This ability to define negative seed sets (bad seeds) and penalize sites that are linked from them is likely the source of Google’s recommendation in its Webmaster Guidelines which advises site owners to “avoid links to web spammers or bad neighborhoods on the web, as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links.

TrustRank raises the bar for link-based ranking algorithms since it requires webmasters to be very selective about where they obtain inlinks. According to TrustRank, massive untargeted link development campaigns may actually hurt a site’s rankings by increasing the odds of connecting to documents in a negative seed set. TrustRank also exaggerates the importance of links from positive authoritative sources, making inlinks from reputable on-topic sites such as media, trade organizations, and educational institutions significantly more valuable.

TrustRank functions as an excellent adjunct to PageRank and is thought to be incorporated in some form into the current Google ranking algorithm.

LocalRank
LocalRank is an addition to PageRank that was developed by Krishna Bharat at Google and filed as a continuation of the ‘Hilltop’ patent on January 30, 2003 #6725259 – Ranking search results by reranking the results based on local inter-connectivity. LocalRank is similar to TrustRank in that it relies on an initial set of topic-specific documents. LocalRank differs from TrustRank in that the selection of this initial set is fully automated and doesn’t require human intervention. LocalRank essentially takes a set of the top 1000 pages returned by a user’s search query and then reorders them according to how many times a given page is linked to from pages within this set.

LocalRank further raises the bar for link development by requiring highly ranked pages to be well-linked from pages on a specific query as opposed to just pages in an expert set or on a given topic. Webmasters should devote attention to obtaining links from sites that already rank well for their desired phrases in order to effectively target TrustRank.

Historical Data
On December 23, 2003 Google filed patent #20050071741 – Information Retrieval Based on Historical Data which while not specifically related to link-based ranking, has significantly changed the way in which links are attributed in the Google ranking algorithms. The document outlines a number of novel strategies for using collected historical data on websites to improve ranking accuracy and reduce spam. Historical data defines several items of interest including domain registration dates, document change frequency over time, inlink gain/loss over time, age of inlinks, overall link ‘freshness’, and link churn rate.

These criteria when combined with PageRank/Hilltop/TrustRank/LocalRank are extremely effective at eliminating most remaining link manipulation techniques since the combined algorithm not only reviews links for topical connections but also analyzes the behavior of these links over time. Short-term link development campaigns are revealed in historical data as a brief spike in new indexed links and are clearly indicative of non-natural link development. The new algorithm also allows Google to gradually mature the influence of new links over 6-12 month intervals, significantly increasing the cost and time-to-benefit of paid text link ad campaigns.

As with any algorithm, there are still opportunities here to maximize results. However, the historical data algo more than any other has forced webmasters to consider the long-term implications when planning link development. Best results are now obtained by executing link development slowly and consistently over the life of the site.

Guide to Link Building Pt.1

Tue, 24 Oct 2006 19:50:50 +0000

Introduction to Link Development
This document is intended to provide an introduction to search engine algorithms which incorporate linking data as part of their ranking practices. We’ll be looking at historical and current link-based ranking engines plus strategies for maximizing website traffic with these algorithms in order to improve our future link development efforts.

What is Link Development?
Link development is a set of promotion strategies designed to increase the number and quality of the inbound hyperlinks (‘inlinks’) pointing to a given webpage. We’ll be discussing specific strategies later in this document including details on evaluating potential link partners, how to request a one-way link, purchasing link ads, content development for links, link baiting, and more, but first let’s go over some background information on link-based ranking algorithms and link development as a marketing strategy.

Why is Link Development Important?
Link development is a valuable part of any online marketing strategy as it directly influences many aspects of a company’s online presence; including organic search engine rankings and keyword search traffic, referral visitors from links on related websites, and even authority status of the linked site.

Example: Real Estate Website#1 vs. Real Estate Website#2

Both sites offer highly popular real estate services. Website#2 provides a well-designed site that provides useful consumer education resources and tools. Website#1 has a dated design, a poor navigation system, and very little content on the domain.

Yet when we do a search for most popular related terms on Google, Website#1 is ranked #1 for the phrase while Website#2 is a distant #21. Why is the inferior site being ranked higher? For the answer we’ll need additional information from Yahoo’s new SiteExplorer tool.

SiteExplorer is an excellent tool for analyzing links pointing to a given website and can provide insight into why a certain site is ranking well in Google. Google used to provide similar functionality to SiteExplorer but intentionally disabled it in 2005, presumably because it undermined Google’s heavily link-based ranking algorithm. Entering searches for ‘link:www.domain.com’ at Google still return some results, but these results are only a fraction of the total and are often the least valuable links to the site in question.

On SiteExplorer, when we enter a query for Website#2 we get a response that shows 252 inlinks to the URL. This return shows the total number of links pointing directly to the root URL. To get an accurate picture of all the links pointing to the entire domain we’ll want to change the pull-down options on the Inlinks page to say “Show all inlinks ‘Except from this domain’ to ‘Entire site’”.

Using these options we get 555 inlinks to the entire Website#2 domain.

A similar search for Website#1 returns 11,077 inlinks.

Website#1 has over 20x the number of inlinks as Website#2 and this is providing #1 a significant advantage in link-based search engines such as Google. While it’s not necessary for #2 to gain 10k links to effectively compete (quality is much more important than quantity) it does point out the need for further link development if #2 is to be competitive for their most important search terms.

Quality not Quantity
At this point I should mention that although many top ranking sites have inlink numbers in the tens of thousands, large numbers of links are not necessarily required for top Google rankings. Factors such as the authoritative status of the linking site and how ‘on-topic’ the linking pages are can significantly influence the value that Google applies to the inlinks. A small collection of inlinks from topical authorities such as reputable online magazines, trade associations, and educational instituti