Archive for the 'Link Building' Category

I will be playing in the SEO Poker Tournament on March 24th at 4:00 pm EST.

as SEO Black Hat states:

It Costs Nothing to Join!

The SEO poker tournament is basically free to enter. You don’t need any money in your full tilt poker account. There are no hidden costs. All you have to do is agree to link to the winner for year from your page rank 4 or higher site. If you have a Page Rank 6 site, that link can be one off the homepage like in your “about”, “contact”, or “fun stuff” page.

Extra $5000 thrown in for Free!

Find our more and how to join in right here.

.

Popularity: 29% [?]

This afternoon I was consulting with a new client and going over our strategies with him. This client is in an ultra-competitive keyword industry and he was showing me how 6 out of the top 10 sites are using a counter program to gather tons of backlinks….shit, these guys have hundreds of .edu’s even using this damn stat counter program thing….

Then tonight I get another email from another client who sits at #2 for thier biggest phrase, when the guy at #1 is doing some serious blog "spamming".

Now I know the old advice is "Yea, yea, just hold on….Google will catch that stuff and boink it out one day"….but we all know that "one day" might be tomorrow, might be next month…might be next year…or might be never.

I know the first client told me the "counter stat" links have held these ranking for over a year. He also told me he told google about it last year, but my Don’t show your sites to Matt song wasn’t out then so Google also told him "hey you, stop buying those huge links next the gambling sites on those PR8 sites too" (this was not me….but once it could have been)….Google never did touch the listing for the "counter spammers" anyways.

Heck, there’s all shades of gray in the SEO world and just because their shade of gray is grayer than mine doesn’t mean I’ve got anything against them…shit it’s working…and for some of these phrases, I can hardly blame them for doing something that gets them to #1 today (if they’re not worried about tomorrow….when even that day comes).

Heck, I also know that some people are probably bitching about my work saying "those bastards are buying links!….their day will come too!"….I just figure my stuff smells better than most others, and that my stuff will stick longer….shit, if google’s going to bonk someone I’d think they’d take these guys out long before they’d touch my stuff….I figure (and I try to keep my stuff under the radar….and not to obvious to google…"is that really a link buy??").

So my advice still stays at "hey, if you’re thinking long-term, don’t play those games".

That the advice you give too?

Popularity: 3% [?]

Links as Pennies and Old Ben Franklins

I was just listening to Chuck Price (Sales and Mgmt at WBP) on the phone with a prospective client. At one point he was explaining how it’s not all about the number of links that makes the difference, it’s the quality of those numbers that matters.

He used an analogy of something like this:

Links are like currency and coins. Not all coins are equal. 25 pennies (0.01 each) do not equal an old Ben Franklin ($100.00).

I about fell out of my seat laughing – it’s so true and that’s a great way to think about links!

I might add though….

"And a link that might be a penny to you, could be a $100.00 to someone else’s site, and vice versa."

-

Popularity: 6% [?]

A majority of the leads we get at from webuildpages.com are from "new" websites which are seeking higher rankings in Google.  I don’t believe that for most new sites that they’ll see their ROI with our services for several years (but if you’ve got an old site you’ll see results from our type of SEO work "fast").

This is based on my belief that a huge majority of sites will not get into the top 30 of Google for competitive phrases without having been online for at least 2 years.

Because of this I’ll almost always pass on taking on clients who have "new" websites and are seeking SEO services and expect top 10 rankings for competitive phrases within a year.  

So I’ve created this post as a link that I can send to people who contact us seeking our SEO Services for thier new website.

——–
Reasons I won’t work with most new sites:

In my first month of blogging I once said that I like ‘em old, and added:

..in 98% of the cases, you’re not going to see any "competitive" rankings for what I believe to be 6 months to a year and a half.  Keep in mind that if your website is less than a year old, chances are you’ll see almost no traffic from Google, no matter what you do.

I also gave some reasons including:

Natural Link Growth.
Older sites have the advantage of gaining links within a community over the course of years.  New sites, unless they are spectacular and "of news" will not be able to even start to look into "fitting into the community" for a year or more (part sandbox – part Mike’s Filthy Linking Rich ideas). Google tends to like old established sites and trusts them more often over new sites.

The key is (gaining) links over time.

The older the site the more "natural" the more probable that it has experienced some type of "natural link growth" and that it’s potential is far more than any sites started after the site in question.

I later did a post where I spoke about telling a prospective client that I don’t want to work with their new website. When someone asks me about doing SEO link building services for them I first ask:

"How old is your website", and then I cross it with this wbp backlink tool, or I’ll use the Cool SEO Tool. (to check their site againt the top 10 for phrases they’re targeting).

In October I also posted about Google Ranking Filters: Trust and Age Factors, where I stated:

If I were handed 2 sites, and I had to vote for which one has the best changes for highest ranking:

Choice 1 – site registered in Aug 2005 with 10K of great backlinks.

Choice 2 – site registed in August 1997 with 1k of great backlinks

I’d easily bet on Choice #2 beating the 2005 website – even if they both had great backlinks.

Find out why by reading that post.

I also spoke more on this in my post about historical importance of backlinks, which talks a bit about Google’s patent on this topic as well.

WeBuildPages (that’s me) also has a tool that shows the top 100 search results the the age of the domain (at time of writing the tool is broke, but should be working by monday).

——–

Do you agree or disagree?
Would you work with a new site if the client was expecting top 10 rankings for specific highly competitive phrase?
If so, what would your methods be, and do you really think you can crack the top 10 for a highly competitive phrase (and highly searched) in less than 1 year or even 2 years?

.

Popularity: 8% [?]

The past few days I’ve been working on writing the new We Build Pages Theme Song 2007 (Looks like it’ll be a Link Ninja Song).

But I got sidetracked just now and reworded the White and Nerdy Song. Know that I’m not the blackhat this song is refering to – it’s all just in fun:

Linking Dirty – by The Dark Ninja

They see me linking’
My Viagra spam
I know they’re all thinking I’m so Linkin’ Dirty
Think I’m just too blackhat and Dirty
Think I’m just too blackhat and Dirty
Can’t you see I’m blackhat and Dirty
Look at me, I’m Mr. blackhat Linkin’ Dirty
I wanna roll with
The the White Hats
But so far they all think I’m too blackhat and Dirty
Think I’m just too blackhat and Dirty
Think I’m just too blackhat and Dirty
I’m just too blackhat and Dirty
Really really Black hat and Dirty.

First in my class here at IIT
Got skills, I’m a champion at css you can’t even see
MC (Matt Cutts) is my least favorite Google – e
Show me your network, Yo! Those are my brokers oh um de
My sites might get banned or #1, how contrary
It’s a secret that rankings aren’t very stationary.
All of my porn sites are really cherry
Page and Brin’s in my library
My MySpace page is all totally spammed out
Got people beggin’ for my top ten spaces
Yo, I know pi’s good to eat in many places
I’m seeking ton’s of links but I still wear pagerank round my neck
I order all of my sandwiches online with mayonnaise
I’m a whiz at Future Pagerank – I play most every days
Once you see my sweet MFA content you’re gonna stay amazed
My fingers’ movin’ so fast I’ll set the SERPS ablaze
There’s no auto link software I haven’t run
At blog spam, well I’m number one
Do website guestbooks just for fun
I ain’t got a nofollow but I got a edu on the run
Link Ninjas is my favorite theme song
I could throw you trackbacks like a game of ping pong
I’ll ace any SEO quiz you bring on
I’m fluent in Cloaking as well as Klingon

They see me cash my
My Adsense
I know in my heart they think I’m Black and Dirty
Think I’m just too blackhat and Dirty
Think I’m just too blackhat and Dirty
Can’t you see I’m blackhat and Dirty
Look at me, I’m blackhat and Dirty
I’d like to roll with
The the whitehats
Although it’s apparent I’m too black and Dirty
Think I’m just too blackhat and Dirty
Think I’m just too blackhat and Dirty
I’m just too black and Dirty
How’d I get so blackhat and Dirty

I’ve been browsin’, inspectin’
the loopholes, you know I collect ‘em
The links in my network, I must protect ‘em
My affiliate income never leaves me bored
Phishing online with paypal and ebay and banking  media
I write theWikipedia
I Moderate ODP really well
I can get you in right now if you throw money in my well.
I got a business doing websites
When my friends need some cloaking, who do they call?
I do hidden text for ‘em all
Even made a MFA site with Whois of my dog
Yo, I got myself a link deal pack
From a third world country little sap.
Spend my nights trading links with other crap.
Pop, pop, up and see me
Gettin’ Sneaky
I’m Dirty in the extreme
And Darker than chocolate Ice cream
I Hate SEMPO, Bruce Clays Ethics, and Dougys Team

They see me linkin’
They laughin’
And rollin’ their eyes ‘cause I’m so blackhat and Dirty
Just because I’m blackhat and Dirty
Just because I’m blackhat and Dirty
All because I’m blackhat and Dirty
Holy cow, I’m blackhat and Dirty
I wanna bowl with
The White Hats
But, oh well, it’s obvious I’m blackhat and Dirty
Think I’m just too blackhat and Dirty
Think I’m just too blackhat and Dirty
I’m just too blackhat and Dirty
Look at me, I’m black and Dirty

Stay tuned for the New We Build Pages Song coming soon (with different lyrics and beat than the song above).
In case you never heard the old We Build Pages theme song, here’s a blast that just can’t seem to go away (MP3).

Popularity: 2% [?]

You could take this as a continuation of my last post about link bait.
See, even from the 4 articles that I referenced that night, a few of those made statements like:

Sheesh, rather you than me squire. I can’t think of anything more mind numbingly tedious, not to mention soul destroying, than sending out hundreds or thousands of link requests. Whether you do this by hand, or (heaven spare us) automatically, it’s just shit. Plain and simple.  NickW on Search Engine Land

Compared to some of the alternatives – begging for links – link baiting is a far more useful and productive strategy. Peter Da Vanzo

Link begging is mind numbingly tedious compared to fun of linkbait. Garrett French.

Bah! That’s what I say "BAH!"

And it’s just not only these articles that make statements like those above. Many of the recent articles I’ve been reading about link bait have statements such as these. I take offense to these type of statement because I, for one, enjoy building backlinks! Really! And I’d like to think that my team of Ninjas also enjoys the art of getting great links.

A lot of what I’ve been hearing is things like: "Google is too complicated for link building", or "link building is just too hard", or "who wants to build links"?

Let me address a few of these points:  

"Google is too complicated for link building"
 I’m sure most of my readers are pretty advanced link builders themselves, so I’m not going to get into what I think is important to link building (see Jim’s favorite posts on the bottom), so I’ll say that "Google is not too complicated for link building". When you can analyze theories, mixed with speculations (If I were google I’d ….), referenced with "here’s what’s happening based on what I see accross sites", and combined with what the "SEO "word"" is on the streets (forums, blogs, etc)…..hey ya know what, maybe link building IS rocket science…. I didn’t get into that debate last week, but YES, it is. When you’re dancing with hundreds of google phd’s, you sure are doing rocket science – because if you’re not, your dead or soon will be. But if you can see what’s "Food" and see into the future (they’re getting smarter), then you can excel at link building for rankings. If you know what is needed (and I take it most of my readers know what is needed), then it’s not too complicated – it just takes time and thought.

"Link building is just too hard"
Yea it’s hard. It takes time and goes slow. People don’t like that….we’re all guilty of "it’s never enough" when it comes to links….and the day that some big company head says "Can’t you just push some buttons, or outright purchase links on the streets and "be done with it"….that is the day your website just saw it’s death in the future.

Last week one of my ninjas set a weekly record for the most backlinks in a week. She got 39…but keep in mind, she’s got a lot of sites that need links so it’s easier for us to find nice link homes. If a ninja were able to get 10 links for any one site in a week I’d be impressed. Does that number scare you, think it’s too small? Don’t – if your ninjas are getting links the best way, they’re analyzing and writing and not pushing buttons. When you are a HUMAN ASKING FOR A DEAL, you’re talking time. Time to find sites (Human time), Time to compose an email (No Template), Time to deal back and forth a few times, time to create an ad, time to record the work….time time time…..but get a great link and watch your rankings jump faster than all your push button efforts combined.

If you’re got the time, it’s not too hard. It’s only too hard if link building is assigned to some poor guy who’s also in charge of lots of other stuff and is expected to get hundreds of links each month with a total of 10 hours of link building….Ha, yea right. 

 If you’ve got someone dedicated to link building doing it 40 hours per week, slow and steady. It doesn’t have to be hard if they don’t look for short cuts and aren’t expected to get an unrealistic amount of backlinks each month. Humans make deals, not machines.

"Who wants to build links?"
I do, that’s who. I actually get my kicks building backlinks and wish I could do it tons more than I do personally. It’s an art, some may even call it rocket science It’s a combination of SEO knowledge, Analysis, and The Art of the Deal, along with "The art of the ad".

Sure, if I were pushing buttons and analyzing useless data and not seeing rankings, and being told "You Need More!!!" than who would enjoy doing that?…not me.

It’s no fun being a link monkey, but it can be a fun challenge to be Link Ninja. Everyday I have someone here run to me with a great link they got…..it’s exciting to hear about getting an edu link that we asked for, or getting an ad on a page with over 1000 backlinks to that page, or getting a great presell page on an authority related site, etc, etc. It’s a Expert Game if you make it, it’s fun, it’s a challenge. We have 4 Ninja rooms here. Each room has 4 link ninjas, and one designer. The ninjas compete against everyone else (and post numbers on a board to compare against others) and teams compete for the Winning Ninja Room trophy. It’s a fun game around here. We’re not link begging, we’re creating win/win deals with other webmasters. -

—-

Now, don’t think I’m putting down link bait, because I’m not. I think link bait is a great SEO method, and has huge potential…but it’s not a replacement for getting specific links that you’ve asked for….and ya know what, it can be a challenge, and it can be fun, and most of all, it can be very effective.

Is there anyone else out there that enjoys the thrill of seeking and obtaining backlinks via the Art of Asking?

Popularity: 9% [?]

It seems like everywhere I go recently I’m being hit in the face with LinkBait Articles, so I’ll join the crowd, but I’ll be brief.

Just today these articles were published:  

•  NickW on Linkbait 2007 on Searc Engine Land  today
• (and Peter Da Vanzo’s Response on the v7n Blog tonight)
• The Yahoo Publisher Network blog blogged about Leveraging link bait tonight.
• Problogger tonight also gives us some nice links to more link bait articles tonight.
• Garrett French also talked on linkbait tonight.

I had just started a very long post giving pros and cons, but I just don’t have the time to go into everything….but I’ll just do a short ramble.

I honestly believe a Link Ninja can beat a Link Baiter in the rankings, here’s some reasons why.

A Link Ninja can get focused link text. A link baiter is at the mercy of the person who links. (It can be really hard to rank for anything unless you’ve got some focus on getting text links with specific targeted phrases).

A Link Ninja can also get a site into the neighborhood that it needs to be in. A link Baiter often gets links from tech sites and blogs….but often not from the sites in the neighborhood.

A Link Ninja can have some control over co-citation (some day I’ll talk more about this).

A Link Ninja can get on older trusted pages from authority sites that might not be seeking to add more, unless a ninja influences them.  A Link Baiter often gets links from tech sites and blogs….but like I said, often not from the sites in the neighborhood.

A Link Ninja can control what pages get the link…and can get links to specific pages , homepage, product pages, etc….A link Baiter gets a link to a great content page mostly….but it’s not usually the page the site owner really wants to rank for anything.

Now I’ll give you, a mid level Ninja can do both, after all, true SEO is a combo of links and text, and the better of each you have, the better you’ll rank.  The better the content, the easier it is to get backlinks (via asking, or not).  (yes, we offer linkbait  content creation at WBP).

I can totally agree that the best backlinks in the world (and often easiest to get) are those that came because of great content (or call it Link Bait)….but without some Focused and Precise Link Building, you might not get to where you want to be.

Do you believe it?

—–

PS, I’m going to be out for at least a day, so if I don’t respond for a day or if your comment is held in moderation, don’t worry, I’ll be back.

Popularity: 6% [?]