LINK BUILDING TOOLS AND

TACTICS

Jon Quinton, Senior SEO Consultant, SEOgadget

WHAT IF LINKS DIDN’T MATTER?

THINK LIKE A BRAND…

WORRY ABOUT THE LINKS LATER

Business Goals

SWOT

Competition Analysis

PEST

Audience Profiling

Marketing Plan

PR

@jonquinton1

As SEO’s we’re extremely good at tracking and measuring everything.

So why do we sometimes find the above difficult?

TRANSLATED INTO SEO…

Conversions

Link Analysis

Competition Analysis

Social Profiling

Content Strategy

Blogger Outreach

Keyword Research

@jonquinton1

Translated into SEO, many of the tasks we already do fit the mould perfectly

if approached from the right angle.

DEFINE YOUR AUDIENCE

STEP ONE: GO BACK TO BUSINESS GOALS

Business

Target Market

History

Attitude

Messaging Style

USPs

Branding

@jonquinton1

Kick off your link building projects thinking about USPs, brand messaging and what style

you may want to project.

EXISTING CUSTOMERS OR NEW?

@jonquinton1

Deciding to target new or existing customers will have an influence on your strategy.

COMMON SOCIAL INTERESTS

@jonquinton1

Finding common interests is a great way to discover new content ideas.

USER DEMOGRAPHICS

Does this influence your

content?

@jonquinton1

Looking into audience demographics should have an influence on the content you produce.

BUT WHAT EXACTLY ARE THEY SHARING?

WHAT DO THEY SHARE?

http://www.tweetarchivist.com

@jonquinton1

Tweet Archivist allows you to download tweets and user data surrounding a particular topic.

@jonquinton1

You can then use SEOTools for Excel to extract the full URL

EXTRACT THE DOMAIN

@jonquinton1

This then leads you to a point where you can easily see the most shared

domains within any given topic.

=IFERROR(MID([@URL],8,FIND("/",[@URL],8)-8),MID([@URL],8,LEN([@URL])))

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

@jonquinton1

Guess where I’m going to want to get some content?!

TIP – LEARN TO MAKE PIVOT CHARTS

@jonquinton1

DISCOVERING OPPORTUNITIES

Finance

Gadgets

Travel

Occasions

Media

Food and Drink

Apps

Reviews

Consoles Holiday Christmas

Birthdays

Tips for Students

Money Saving

The battle of mobile

app stores: which is

the best?

Review of the most popular handsets

e.g iPhone5 VS Samsung S3, which is

better overall? What has the best

features? Will phone graphics eventually

surpass game consoles? Are

mobiles the future of gaming

Best phone apps to keep you

safe whilst travelling. Must have phones for

Christmas 2013.

The mobile phone is now 27

years old, they started as

car phones but how have

they evolved?

Best phone deals for the

student on a budget.

Money saving phone

apps, e.g skype, eBay,

ATM hunter

Phones

Wackiest phone handsets

e.g solid gold phone

Film

Photography

Most memorable pay

phone scenes from

movies.

Mobile phones with the best

cameras.

Mobile apps for

house hunters e.g

“the dictionary of

real estate terms”

app

Become a bartender through the use of

apps – learn how to mix cocktails using

various guides. On your phone E.g

mixology Fashion

Luxury brands that have

released their own phones

e.g Prada phone and The

Hugo Boss phone

Apps for foodies – “time

to roast” calculates the

exact cooking time for

your sunday roast.

Home

Parenting

Mobile tracking apps for parents,

have things gone too far?

Mobile apps for home

Improvement e.g

iHandy – a spirit

measure app

Mobile phone add on

photographic lenses - who

knew you could use fish eye

and wide angle lenses on

your phone?

A look at the

superfast 4G

network rolled out

just in time for

Christmas

A more controversial article

idea: Apples on going dispute

about copyright with Samsung

Green

What Is the greenest phone on the

market?/ The growth of the “green”

phone – 400 million expected to be

shipped by 2017

Defintion: green phone = 50

percent recycled content and made

without certain hazardous

chemicals

MOBILE PHONES

@jonquinton1 1

6

11

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21

26

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

35000

40000

45000

Keep your eyes open for ideas when conducting keyword research.

FIGURE OUT WHAT THE COMPETITION ISN’T DOING

What’s Missing?

@jonquinton1

@jonquinton1

Would you share this or link to it??

Live Q&A, video content, incredible images – all serve the user with the best experience

@jonquinton1

http://www.theverge.com/2012/3/14/2870533/ipad-review

338 Linking Root Domains

1,100 Likes

1260 Tweets

WHAT ARE PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT?

Hmm…

@jonquinton1

Don’t let unfamiliar topics put you off.

It’s easy enough to get a feel for what’s going on.

GATHER A LIST OF EXISTING CONTENT

http://christianpf.com/make-a-personal-budget/

@jonquinton1

Always look to see what other people have done in the past.

SCALE THIS PART OF THE PROCESS BY SCRAPING

@jonquinton1

Using Google Docs as a scraper is a brilliant and easy way to speed this process up.

https://www.seerinteractive.com/blog/google-scraper-in-google-docs-update

FIND THE MAGIC SOURCE URL Facebook Likes

http://www.simplesavings.com.au/ 431

http://www.veteransunited.com/money/ 400

http://quicken.intuit.com/ 348

http://money.howstuffworks.com/personal-finance/budgeting/10-tips-for-staying-on-budget.htm 339

http://www.parents.com/blogs/thrifty-frugal-mom/2012/05/03/must-read/4-things-i-do-to-keep-our-grocery-budget-at-200mo-for-a-family-of-four/291

http://www.sevencherubs.com/2012/04/large-family-budgeting-tips.html 195

http://financialplan.about.com/od/budgetingyourmoney/ht/createbudget.htm 176

http://financialplan.about.com/cs/personalfinance/a/TopTenMoneyTips.htm 172

http://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/slideshows/10-smart-ways-to-improve-your-budget 111

http://www.fool.com/personal-finance/saving/budgeting-for-lazy-people.aspx 84

http://financialplan.about.com/ 84

http://money.howstuffworks.com/personal-finance/budgeting/5-money-saving-tips-everyone-forgets.htm 77

http://money.howstuffworks.com/personal-finance/budgeting/10-budget-basics-for-parents.htm 64

http://www.redbookmag.com/money-career/tips-advice/live-your-dream/year-without-spending 59

http://money.howstuffworks.com/personal-finance/budgeting/5-tips-living-comfortably-on-tight-budget.htm 53

http://www.betterbudgeting.com/budgetformsfree.htm 52

http://www.prevention.com/food/smart-shopping/budget-family-meals 48

http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DNYyExGc6mfQ 43

http://learn.bankofamerica.com/articles/money-management/building-a-budget.html 35

http://www.moneymanagementtips.com/budgeting.htm 34

http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2012/08/13/tips-for-college-grads-creating-their-first-real-world-budget/34

http://www.readyforzero.com/resources/budgeting-tips/ 34

http://www.alwaysfrugal.com/household_budget.html 33

=FacebookLikes = TwitterCount

What are these guys doing

so well?

@jonquinton1

Pull through social metrics to find out what’s been successful.

Can you spot any patterns to learn from?

DON'T FORGET THE BASICS

@jonquinton1

There are so many tools available – don’t forget the simple things

like looking for rising searches.

BECOME YOUR AUDIENCE

USE RSS FEEDS

@jonquinton1

Use Quora RSS feeds to stay on top of relevant topics.

Find out what people are asking.

http://www.quora.com/

GET INVOLVED!

@jonquinton1

We’re so good at networking and connecting ourselves,

can we use this skill for link building?

REMEMBER THE FORUMS WE LOOKED AT?

@jonquinton1

Using forums to start conversation – not to dump a load of signature links.

http://www.netvibes.com

TOOLS RECAP

• SEOTools Excel - http://nielsbosma.se/projects/seotools/

• Followerwonk - https://followerwonk.com/

• Tweet Archivist - http://www.tweetarchivist.com

• Google Docs – (scraping) - http://docs.google.com

• Netvibes.com - http://www.netvibes.com

• Google Trends - http://www.google.com/trends/

• Yahoo Clues - http://clues.yahoo.com/

@jonquinton1

PULLING TOGETHER YOUR MARKETING PLAN

Contact on launch

Phase Two: On topic

guest posts

Phase Three: Promote

design work

Twitter List – Jumping

on opportunities

Having a solid contact base at the core of any campaign is crucial for success.

It’s also a great way to stay inspired when you need to give things another push.

FINDING INFLUENCERS

@jonquinton1

First you need to find the people that can make or break your project.

Followerwonk is a great way to do this.

GATHER ALL THE DETAILS YOU CAN FIND

@jonquinton1

Always go the extra mile. If contact details are not immediately obvious,

Spending five minutes digging around is often all you need.

WHO WANTS SOME FREE STUFF?

Find the smaller guys; if

you’ve built something

amazing – offer it out for free

@jonquinton1

What can you offer people? Offer them something they’d be stupid to refuse.

ACHIEVE INTERNAL BUY IN

Launch

PR

Newsletters Homepage

Space

Confirmation Emails

@jonquinton1

As an agency side SEO, gaining internal buy in from the client is a huge factor

that can make all the difference.

WHEN TO LAUNCH?

@jonquinton1

Knowing when to launch a piece of content can mean the difference

between a few tweets and hundreds.

Prime Time!

OUR PROCCESS

Link Analysis Research

Ideas Define

Audience Create

Content

Achieve Buy In

Outreach Become Your

Audience Launch

@jonquinton1

JUST ONE MORE THING…

CLEANING UP FOR LINKS

Nice!!

@jonquinton1

You want as many people talking about, and re-using your content as possible.

IMAGE SEARCH

@jonquinton1

Find these mentions by searching for quotes and images.

Reverse image search on your brands logo works really well!

FIND BRAND MENTIONS

“yourdomain.com" -site:yourdomain.com -inanchor:yourbrand -inurl:yourdomain -intitle:yourdomain.com

@jonquinton1

If you’re feeling brave, try the search operator above for mentions of your

domain that don’t return a link.

Jon Quinton, SEOgadget

@jonquinton1

jon@seogadget.co.uk

THANK YOU!