Archive for Link Strategies articles

Introducing Open Site Explorer

Feb 12010

published by Hannah in Back Links | Link Strategies | SEO | SEO Tools with 5 comments

I attended SEOmoz’s Open Site Explorer (OSE) webinar last Thursday, January 28, and learned some things on how to make the most of the new link analysis tool.

If you’ve been using Linkscape you’re probably pretty happy with the functionalities that the service brings. At first glance it might seem that another link analysis tool would just be redundant and, for the most part, that is actually true. However there are some things that Open Site Explorer can give that Linkscape doesn’t really do and vice versa. In the future though Rand said that OSE and Linkscape will probably become integrated with one becoming the premium version.

One of the major difference is the number of links available per report: shows up to 10,000 links in OSE and 3,000 links in Linkscape. Note though that unless you are a SEOmoz Pro member you will only be shown details of 5 links in OSE and none in Linkscape. However, you do see the other important metrics such as overall page authority, domain authority, number of linking root domains, and total number of links including those that are “no followed”. These data are things you need to know where you stand in your link building effort, but it’s really the other data that gives you more actionable items.

According to Rand some of the things you can do with the data given by OSE include finding the following:

302 pages - What you can do is turn them into 301s
404 pages - You have to options for these pages: either put content in those pages or redirect them.
Inbound links with low quality anchor text - Contact the owner of the linking page and ask them to change the anchor text to something you prefer.
Links to competitors’ error pages - Don’t forget to analyze your competitors’ links. Do the same thing as #3 but make sure you explain to the person you are contacting to link to YOUR page, explain how linking to an error page can hurt them, and give your preferred anchor text. This isn’t really unethical since the link was pointing to an empty error page anyway.
Links to old/poor pages - Redirect these links to newer pages that offer fresh and/or more relevant content.

One other thing that Rand suggested that stood out for me was in answer to a question by one of the participants. (Sorry I wasn’t able to take note of the person’s name. If you attended the same webinar and know, do let me know.) The question was: How can we use OSE to determine what to charge our clients?

Rand suggested that you simply check out the domain and page authority of your client’s page as well as the number of links. Then you check out your client’s competitors’ pages and compare the data, after which you can do a guestimate of how much effort you need to put into link building as well as how long it will take to creep up on the competitors in search rankings.

Popularity: 15%

The Possible Problem with the Search Box

Oct 72008

published by Hannah in Accessibility | Link Strategies | SEO | SEO Mistakes with 2 comments

The great thing about internet users is that browsing/surfing behaviors evolve rapidly as they learn to do things the more efficient way. One of the things that users now depend heavily on is the search box. Search is no longer confined to Google and more and more websites now offer internal search to make it [...]

Link Building - Why It’s Gotten Harder

May 142008

published by Gary in Back Links | Blogging | Link Strategies | Organic SEO | SEO with 11 comments

In a previous post of mine I stated that “organic link building is making more and more sense“. A statement I definitely believe but a statement with lots of things going on behind it. Nowadays if you look at your own link building campaign efforts and compare it to the amount of effort you needed [...]

Spam Scare: What to Do

May 12008

published by Hannah in Back Links | Link Strategies | SEO | SEO Mistakes | SEO Tips with 3 comments

What would you do if you suddenly get a massive amount of inbound links and find out its all spam?
If you know anything about SEO you know that we all loooove inbound links however we don’t want a whole slew of irrelevant links from who knows where. Of course if you are into paid links [...]

The Domain Age Factor in Links

Apr 272008

published by Gary in Back Links | Link Strategies | SEO with 4 comments

We all know that the age of a domain affects search ranking. Because of this many websites have resorted in buying old domain names in order to benefit from the aging. This is not a bad thing at all especially if the domain bought is relevant to the site’s theme and the new site being [...]

Link Love: Why I Love Giving It Away

Apr 172008

published by Hannah in Link Strategies | Organic SEO | Rep. Management | SEO with 6 comments

Since we’ve been on the topic of gifts and freebies let’s talk about giving away links. One of the things we all love to get are inbound links but do you pass the link love?
Linking to other sites is actually very good practice and has multiple benefits affecting differing aspects such as the site’s SEO, [...]

.EDU and .GOV Links

Mar 192008

published by Hannah in Link Strategies | SEO with 5 comments

.EDU and .GOV links are usually prizes in the SEO world because they pass on very good link juice. Here are a few ideas on how to get these types of links.

Advertise or be a sponsor - Look for university and government sites that accept sponsors. You will be doling out cash but then it [...]

Popularity: 33%

Continue reading “.EDU and .GOV Links”

More (Useful) Content for More Links

Mar 122008

published by Hannah in Link Strategies | SEO with 1 comment

We all know that one of the main reasons why websites add blogs to their site is to be able to provide fresh content and thus hopefully get more traffic and links. If you do not have the time to update a blog regularly though or you find that adding a blog to your site [...]

Link Exchange Guidelines

Mar 52008

published by Hannah in Link Strategies | SEO | SEO Tips with 8 comments

I have already stated my position on buying/selling links but realised that I didn’t mention anything about exchanging links. In my opinion exchanging links with another website is a sound strategy but only if you follow the guidelines listed below.

Do not deal in excessive link exchanges - Google looks at this as another link scheme [...]

Why Buying Links is NOT a Good SEO Practice

Feb 262008

published by Hannah in Link Strategies | SEO | SEO Mistakes | SEO Tips with 11 comments

Link building is not as easy as some SEOs make it sound. The truth is that many SEOs that promise thousands of links in several days get these links by buying links. Buying links will get you a good amount of links way faster than organically building up the number of inbound links to your [...]