10 Common Link Building Problems

Eric Enge, February 10, 20136 Comments

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For a long time many publishers viewed link building as a practice that stood on its own. The purpose was to get links to drive search rankings. It served no other marketing purpose at all.

This has led to large numbers of sites being hit by link penalties or new algorithms like Penguin. Successfully recovering from link related penalties requires a comprehensive approach to link removal. Part of that is understanding what types of links you need to remove.

What follows are 10 of the most common link problems that have resulted in link related penalties or lost rankings due to a Google algorithm update.

1. Article Directories

Article directories were hit in the initial Penguin release on April 24, 2012. If you are currently adding article directory links, then stop the program right away.

In addition, if you have some links that resulted from article directories, then work on getting them removed. If you can't get them removed, then use the Google Disavow Tool to request that they be ignored by Google.

For those who want to debate the merits of this tool, we have used it, and it works like a champ.

2. Low-Quality Directories

There isn't clear evidence that low-quality directories were explicitly punished in a Penguin release as yet, but it does not really matter. The right policy here is clear. Participate in the major directories: Yahoo Directory, DMOZ, Best of the Web, and Business.com.

After that, consider a very small number of directories specific to your vertical market. If you find yourself with 10 or more directory links, something is wrong. Directories are not a volume source of links.

3. Low Relevance Guest Posts

Guest posting on sites that you are truly proud of is a great idea. But this can be overdone too. For example, if the post is not relevant to your site, or the site is not relevant to your post, don't do it.

For your guest posting efforts, shoot for the highest possible targets you can. Would you brag about being posted on a particular target site to your customers? If not, then keep looking for a better target.

4. Low Relevance/Accuracy Infographics

This is a popular strategy many people use to promote their sites. Infographics are cool looking, and they can communicate certain types of information very effectively, which is why they are popular with users and publishers.

However, many people have fallen into cranking out infographics, focusing on volume, not quality. This is another one to stop.

Still need convincing? Here is what Google's Distinguished Engineer Matt Cutts had to say in my recent interview with him:

"I would not be surprised if at some point in the future we did not start to discount these infographic-type links to a degree."

I think that low quality infographics (for example, ones with inaccurate information) or low relevance infographics are a natural target for Google, thought these things may be hard for them to detect algorithically. However, infographics may get targeted a bit more broadly as Google has concerns about whether people accepting infographics really care about endorsing the page that they end up linking to.

Important footnote: Algorithmically detecting these types of links is obviously somewhat hard, but when you submit a reconsideration request a human gets involved. Sticks out like a sore thumb to them!

5. Paid Guest Posts

To me, paid guest posts are one of the more obvious ones, but a lot of people still do this. One big flag for this is a site that has a significant number of incoming links from posts that have rich anchor text embedded in the middle of the text.

If you do guest posting work for your clients, you should never pay for any posts. In addition, the links you get your clients should always be simple attribution links at the bottom of the post.

Aim for very high end (brand building caliber) targets. This is the type of branding and link building work a Googler would love.

6. Anchor Text

This one may upset some people. As I predicted in "SEO Revelations for 2013", I believe Google will take action (or more action) against sites that have too much rich anchor text in their backlink profile. You could argue that their EMD update was a step in that direction, but there is much more they can do here.

Some rich anchor text is fine, but when your Reebok ZigNano ProFury sneakers page has 25 links pointing to it, and all the anchor text says "Reebok ZigNano ProFury Sneakers" or some derivative of that it looks a bit manipulated, know what I mean? You might as well paint a bullseye on your back. Human reviewers looking at your reconsideration request will pick this out in a heartbeat.

7. Doorway Pages

An oldie but goodie! These are thin content pages/sites that exist only to capture search traffic and then to get people to go to another site (in this case the site with the penalty).

This is a practice that can a publisher banned all on it own. You need to dump these as fast as you can!

8. International Sites

I always chuckle when I see a site with lots of links from Polish sites where the page is written entirely in Polish and right in the middle somewhere is this rich anchor text phrases in English. Ouch. You might as well go to building 43 at Google wearing a sign with your URL on one side and the words "I am a spammer" on the other.

More broadly, ask yourself: does that international link have any relevance to your brand at all? If you market a product or service solely in the U.S., why would you have any international links? It just doesn't make sense.

9. Blog Carnivals

Stated with an optimistic eye, blog carnivals are communities where people share content, some editorial review is, or isn't, provided by the person running the carnival, and other publishers can then come find articles for publishing on their site.

Unfortunately, Google doesn't like blog carnivals. Like article directories, they have had way too many problems with them being used as link schemes. Best to stay away from these, and any other "marketplace" for content.

10. Poor Quality Content of Any Kind

You can argue about how this might be measured by a search engine. Here is a place where social media signals may add some real value as a signal.

Does your site, or articles you write, get social love? Or, do they get little attention at all? You could also look at the time on page type signals. Do people spend 2 minutes or more on the page, or do they stop by and run off right away?

The authorship initiative by Google is the start of an overt effort on their part to figure out who is publishing quality content. And, as I mentioned in my SEO Revelations article, they are already measuring and acting on time on site signals.

We don't necessarily make people remove these in the process of moving towards a reconsideration request, but we do press them hard to alter their strategy. Publishing content without regard to its quality is bad for your brand, and it will hurt your search rankings one way or another.

Some Overall Rules of Thumb

There are may other types of bad links we have encountered along the way, that I chose not to highlight above. The above list are the 10 most frequent scenarios we encounter and not an exhaustive list!

Here are a few more questions you should ask yourself to determine whether a link is good or not:

• Is an argument required for you to prove it's a good link? A good link should not be the subject of an argument. No argument is required with good links, when you see a good linkyou know it right away. Once you start debating whether it could be considered a good link, or justifying it, it isn't.
• Would you build the link if Google and Bing did not exist? Any good link is something that has value even without search engines.
• Does the nature of the link enhance your brand in front of your target customers? Would you show it to a target customer as evidence that you are a high-quality, trustworthy business?
• Did the person giving you the link intend it as a genuine endorsement? If not, Google wants to torch it, and so should you.

Summary

Link building should just be a form of branding and marketing. Reviewing your link profile and identifying the problems is a key part of the process. But, it is only the start. Once you get your penalty removed, you need to adapt your link building efforts to avoid doing these types of things again.

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Big Idea 2013: Charging More for Good Ideas than Bad Ones

Tim Williams

December 11, 2012

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In the marketing world, because the creative services business is still mired in the hourly billing model, it’s an unfortunate fact that bad ideas cost the same as good ideas. Advertising agencies count up their time and charge their clients the same for a game-changing campaign as for a poorly-crafted series of messages destined to be ignored.

It’s time to change that.

Looking to Hollywood, some of the biggest stars take the biggest risks when it comes to compensation by taking a percentage of the box-office earnings. A good film makes more than a bad film, and the leading actors get paid accordingly.

In the world of professional photography, a good photograph earns more than a bad photograph. Because the photographer owns the rights, the more the photo gets used, the more the photographer earns. The iconic Maxell photo showing a man in a chair “blown away” by the sound of Maxell audiotape is still earning royalties more than 25 years later.

Stuck in an outdated paradigm

Despite the fact that most of the professionals that advertising agencies draw upon to complete their work -- photographers, actors, musicians, voice talent, illustrators, etc. -- earn more for good work than bad work, most advertising agencies themselves are stuck in a pricing paradigm that doesn’t correlate at all to value.

It’s time for marketing communications firms to realize that they’re in the intellectual property business instead of the hourly rate business. An advertising campaign is a piece of intellectual property, just like a photograph, an illustration, or a software program. And most IP is sold based on usage. Adobe sells licenses to advertising agencies to use its Creative Suite of software. Agencies don’t pay Adobe by the hour, or based on the number of hours Adobe invested in creating the software. Ad agencies typically pay companies like Adobe and Microsoft a lot of money, because ad agencies use these types of software products a lot.

But then these same ad agencies charge their clients not based on the value of their work (how much it gets used) but rather based on the time it took to create it. It’s time for all parties in the marketing world to stop and realize that the value of an idea cannot be measured by a clock. This is the wrong measurement; like sticking a yardstick in an oven to determine the temperature. The value of an advertising idea can only be measured by the outcomes it creates in the marketplace.

Moving to an IP model

The best way for ad agencies to wrap their heads around the concept of intellectual property is to first separate the concepts of ideation, execution and usage. These are three different things. Currently agencies derive most of their revenues from execution, followed by ideation(although most agencies undervalue and undercharge for this). Most firms don’t even consider usage as a potential revenue source, even though this is how agencies pay most of the outside creative resources they themselves hire.

For example, the Advertising Photographers of America (APA) espouses a set of principles that establishes the day rate as just a minimal part of a photographer’s income (really just to cover basic expenses) and instead has its members charge for the usage of the image, in which the buyer pays:

• More if you use an image more than once
• More if you use it in more than one way
• More if you use it over a longer period of time

Ad agencies can price their work and services in a similar way by thinking in terms like these:

IDEATION (Developing the idea)

• Agency charges a modest concept fee, or no concept fee

EXECUTION (Executing the idea)

• Agency charges outside production costs only, or agency pays all costs

USAGE (Using the idea)

• Agency charges a per use fee

In this way, good ideas earn more than bad ideas because good ideas (ones that produce effective outcomes) will keep getting used by the marketer. And good ad agencies will earn more than bad ones.

As long as agencies stay on the hours-based “work-for-hire” treadmill, their earnings and profitability will stay on the downward course that started almost 40 years ago. Paying for usage instead of time is a better way for talented marketing problem solvers to be compensated for value created, and a better way for marketers to pay for value received.

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20121211100408-2042198-big-idea-2013-charging-more-for-good-ideas-than-bad-ones?trk=mp-details-rr-rmpost

10 Reasons Why Public Relations is a ‘Must-do’ for SEO in 2013

Ken McGaffin, December 31, 20120 Comments

•Text Link Ads is the premiere targeted traffic and link popularity ad firm.

Many people today recognize that search engine optimization (SEO) and public relations (PR) have much to offer each other.

The latest Google changes have put a real emphasis on high quality, unique content that is linked to by quality sites. And this is where real public relations – as opposed to crappy news release distribution – can play such a crucial role.

There are real opportunities for great business. What follows are 10 reasons why SEOs should really get to grips with PR in 2013, based on my conversations with the people who are making the two work together.

1. The PR Industry is Definitely ‘Getting it’

Most of us who have been in link building for a while have in the past experienced a certain degree of frostiness from the PR industry. But that is clearly changing and people are breaking out of silos.

Mike Cherenson is a former Chair and CEO of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and is EVP of Success Communications Group. He sees the importance of SEO and link building.

“Authentic and relevant link building, aimed at driving engagement, informing publics and building mutually beneficial relationships should be a part of every public relations and SEO effort," Cherenson said.

But not only should link building be a part of every public relations effort, public relations also has much to offer SEO.

“Public relations professionals are skilled storytellers and content generators and should be a part of every SEO effort," he said. "The future of SEO is not in the technology, it’s in the ability to tell stories that readers and Google will find interesting… and that’s public relations.”

And Cherenson understands the value of linking.

“Links need to provide value to the reader," he said. "Media will be more likely to link to content that is compelling and provides information that goes beyond the original reporting.”

Another PR professional is Ken Deutsch, EVP of JPA, a healthcare communications firm and a seasoned specialist in public affairs.

His company takes SEO and link building very seriously. But that’s still not the case throughout the industry.

“Many PR people stop at getting media coverage and think their job is done. They get a placement in the New York Times but they don’t follow up to make sure a link is put in. So they’re not taking advantage of the SEO side of the story.”

And while many media outlets provide links, there are some that don’t link out as a matter of policy.

That influences the targets he goes after, “because they don’t put links in, it’s not worth putting as much energy into getting placement there.”

2. There is a Tremendous Synergy Between SEO and PR

Putting it simply, SEO enhances a press release. Use popular keywords and the press release, never mind any stories it generates will continue to bring search engine traffic. And the editorial links the press release generates bring direct click-throughs and lead to higher rankings.

Public relations enhances SEO by focusing on what’s newsworthy, crafting a great story, finding editorial opportunities, getting coverage and building relationships with reporters and editors. And of course, they got the negotiation skills to ask for a link without really asking for a link.

“PR helps SEO directly by increasing branded traffic," said Lindsey Kirchoff, a Media and Speaker Relations specialist at HubSpot.com. "We always see a bump in branded traffic after a big campaign! Indirectly, PR helps SEO generate inbound links from quality sources that not only gets first-touch exposure to new audiences, but credibility in the eyes of search engines.

“SEO grounds PR with hard, measurable data. PR has always been notoriously difficult to pin down, but SEO adds hard numbers to the equation. I also think that SEO allows PR to be less isolated from the rest of the team – sometimes PR can feel like an island. SEO helps PR connect their work to the rest of the company's business goals.

“Finally, SEO establishes credibility for PR for keywords. You look much more credible to a news source if you come up high for the term they are reporting on!”

3. Editorial Links Bring a Big SEO Boost

Most PR links are extreme quality links, according to Jordan Brannon, the SEO guy at Coalition Technologies. Why? "Because getting them is not a free for all – you have to earn your media placements,” he said.

But the rewards are worth the effort.

“If you get 200 high quality editorial links, it’s worth more that 20,000 low quality links,” Brannon said.

However, most reporters work to a deadline and you have to be swift in your response to get in.

“Most editorial opportunities are time sensitive and you need to act quickly. That means you need to have the authority to reply on the client’s behalf," Brannon added. "And you have to have an email account on your client’s domain – it’s not good saying you’re a marketing agency.”

Will Marlow was formerly a Press Secretary for two congressmen before founding a company that specializes in search engine marketing. He knows that to get those all-important editorial links, sticking to deadlines is crucial.

“You need to understand that you’re dealing with someone who has a hard deadline. It’s like a train going by in the night and there’s one open boxcar that can take you wherever you want to go," Marlow said. "But jump too early and the reporter won’t write about you: jump too late and the reporter won’t write about you. You got to get it just right.”

And it’s not unusual to miss opportunities.

“If an SEO was learning from any PR guy, they would all have stories about how they missed opportunities because someone internally didn’t get back to them or didn’t give the reporter what they need," Marlow said. “If the reporter wants to talk to the CEO and the CEO is playing golf, then you’re not going to get the story. So you’ve got to collaborate with people within the company and make sure that the right people are available.”

4. There’s a Big Cascade Effect

Journalists will often quote, comment or enlarge upon other journalist’s work. Bloggers are also constantly citing other stories.

So if you get your story covered in one prominent media outlet, you’ll quickly see a cascade of similar stories and links spring up.

You’ll get links you never even asked for.

Miranda Miller wrote about How Google Rakes In Over $100 Million in Search Advertising Daily, based on research from Larry Kim of WordStream.

In writing that report, Kim was directly targeting the Wall Street Journal for a link – and succeeded. The story really benefited from the cascade effect and attracted coverage and links from literally hundreds of quality media outlets.

5. You Win Bragging Rights For Your Client

Clients just love to write “As featured in ..." on their website, whether its the Washington Post, Inc. Magazine, or whatever.

That builds consumer trust in their brand and makes it more likely they’ll buy.

And you also increase trust from other reporters. If you’ve already been quoted or covered by a respected publication, then other reporters will think you’re a safe bet to write about, too.

6. PR Skills Can be Learned – or at Least Understood – Easily

Kirchoff has this advice for SEOs who know little about PR:

“SEO experts should think of PR as a way to build strong referral links – something that should be on their radar already. If you have a PR expert in the office, start by taking them out to lunch and chatting. After all, PR is all about building relationships.”

But of course, learning about public relations will help you understand the process – but it might teach you that there’s a lot you don’t know. If that’s the case you might do better to partner with a PR resource.

7. It’s Easy to Partner With an Up and Coming PR Person

Mona Moore is an SEO who has teamed up with a small PR company, Hepner Communications, to pitch their services together.

“I think SEOs are always so focused on getting those links back to the client, we sometimes forget how important it is to nurture those long-term relationships necessary to continue working with specific media outlets,” Moore explained. “And PR reps are great at finding opportunities - but, they don't always take full advantage of those opportunities from an organic SEO standpoint. By working together, SEOs and PR people are able to maximize exposure to a higher level than either of those entities by itself.

Joel Gross, who works with Brannon at Coalition Technologies, describes himself as the SEO tech guy.

“I know how to build and code websites so that they are search engine friendly, and I understand that in order to achieve visibility and revenue for our clients we need to build high quality links and work in tandem with traditional and social media," Gross said. “I know what needs to be done, but Jordan is able to bring in the creative aspect and wow factor that is needed in order to gain the attention and keep it focused where it needs to be. He devises how we frame the content and package it for the consumer in the most digestible and memorable way.

“The best advice I’d give to an SEO would be to get to know your client’s people, their background and story, what’s unique about the company," Gross said. “And remember, this is news and human interest so your stories don’t always have to be selling product. You can have perfectly good story and link from a story on say, ‘work places that are pet friendly’!”

8. You’ll Build Media Contacts That You Can Use Time And Time Again

Contacts are essential both to PR people and to reporters.

“One mistake I made at the start was sending out too much poor stuff," Kim said. "Blasting out press releases is over-rated. What you need to do is get to know the reporters or bloggers you’re targeting.

“Read their articles every day, get a sense of what they’re interested in and only approach them with what you know they’ll be interested in,” Kim continued. “Start small and work your way up. Once you’ve built a relationship, they’ll start contacting you.”

He said he has found that PR is the fastest way to generate those backlinks on related industry websites, but you’ve got to go past distribution services and build your own contacts.

“We are diligent in keeping a database of related editors here," Kim said. "So we're sending press releases directly to the editors and not through a service. However, we also post the press releases to PRweb or PRnewswire to get the added Internet news site exposure (i.e., Yahoo News)."

Kim said those personal relationships increase the chances of coverage so much it’s "unreal."

"We now get lots of calls from editors who ask – is there an engineer over at such and such a company that we could talk to?" Kim said. “Now, when they see our press releases, they always read them. And they’re more likely to publish them because we’ve been helpful.

If you’re an SEO who new to PR, the best place to start is by reading the editorial guidelines of the publications you’re targeting, Kim advised. Then you know what they’re looking for and can pitch accordingly. Don’t pitch something they clearly don’t want.

And don’t forget editorial calendars – you can see months in advance what the publications are going to be covering.

9. It Strengthens and Extends Your Relationship With the Client

If you learn how to do proper public relations effectively or bring in a competent professional that you work well with, then you increase the respect your client has for your work. That can only strengthen your relationship and help ensure that they’ll stay with you.

10. It Opens up Additional Income Streams

It probably goes without saying that with the increasing interest in this area, it should offer some profitable and additional income streams to your agency.

There are tremendous publicity and quality links available through effective public relations. You’ll probably have failures to start with but if you keep at it, your skills will grow and you’ll get the benefits.

How do you cope with failures?

“I don’t believe in failures – it’s a matter of setting your expectations," Kim said. "You can’t start out and immediately get coverage on CNN. Far better to pick a local target and learn from it. Every time you do it, you have more experience. Say you approach 10 journalists and you get nothing but two reply and say I’m not interested because it’s not exactly what I do – you’ll get a better idea of what will work next time.”

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