BlueGlass LA – Links Matter: How to measure and attain them with Rand Fishkin & Dave Snyder

Strategic Link Analysis for SEO
Rand Fishkin

Certain links will accomplish goals, other will not. If the content doesn’t get storied permanently in the index it won’t rank.

Match Goals to Competitive Analysis. What do I need to rank #1 in the search results?

Execute a Link Acquisition Campaign Centered on the Missing Metrics.

Create Content/Profiles on Powerful Sites

Lots of links from very few domains or multiple domains make a difference. Save yourself tons of work by doing good research.

Linky Goodness
Dave Snyder

The key to domination on the web is….Links! Links are the core concept of the Internet. They are the way people found and shared content even before the invention of search engines. With the emergence of Google’s original PageRank concept, links became even more popular.

HOW DO I GET LINKS?! Spam? Blog? How?

1. Monetary Response
   1. Go buy links
2. Emotional Response
   1. Create content that will invoke someone to link to it

Monetary response is simple. People love money and will do disgusting things for it.

Emotional response is different. Emotions to target at anger, fear, sadness, disgust, surprise, anticipation, acceptance and joy.

The psychology of link bait joy: A case study.

Action is the desire to build a link. Feelings, you want to create the desire to take the action. Thoughts you need to create content that touches your audience on a personal level. Initiation point create content that creates the feelings and thoughts you laid out.

From emotion to acquisition

Step 1: Mine Data

• What are people linking to in your vertical? (Linkscape)
• How are they linking? (Linkscape)
• What topics are people emotional about right now? (Google/Twitter Trends)
• How have people historically interacted with content? (Linkscape)

Step 2: Create Your Reason for Linking

• What emotion do you want to evoke?
• How can you shape this into content that not only gets traction but also will evoke the emotion that responds in the link?

Step 3: Craft Outreach Strategy from Data

• Create an outreach list
• Look at the social venues that have lead to links in the past
• Make lasting relationships within your vertical that can be quickly and easily leveraged based on trends

Step 4: Outreach

• Position your outreach to match the emotional response you intend to receive
• Post QA on acquisition
• Quantify and inventory the links

Step 5: Data Collection and Categorization

Look at outreach metrics like open rates on emails, acceptance rates, etc.

Step 6: Rinse & Repeat

Question to ask when deciding on chasing a link:

Will this link increase my traffic and share my content with the correct audience?