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Monday, February 28, 2011

The Evolution of SEO Link Building: 7 Questions w/ Wiep Knol

1.How has the art of link building changed over the years?

Quite a lot, actually. Where it used to be a sprint race where only the quantity of the links mattered, link building has shifted to an endurance race over the years. Automation and paid link budgets are being replaced by networking and creativity. Of course, there will always be companies or web sites trying to cut some corners, but the recent JC Penney fiasco was yet another reminder that this can be very risky.

2. Why is link building so fundamentally important?

A good link building campaign not only results in links and better rankings, but also in relationships and direct traffic, so it adds value in several different ways. Links connect all parts of the Internet together, and you want to have as many of those connections as possible, to show that you’re (somewhat) in the center of the web, and not just a less-useful bystander.

3. What are your top five tips for small businesses and online marketers to generate links?

I think you mean besides the usual ‘create remarkable content’ or ‘submit your site to relevant directories’? Just having a search engine friendly marketing strategy is more than enough for most small businesses. This includes basic stuff like submitting your site to local resource lists, joining relevant organizations in your industry, or including links to your site in a press release. You can’t imagine how many companies (including PR agencies!) still forget to do this. Other ways to get links could be by launching an affiliate program, or looking for places to publish content, such as columns, interviews or guest articles. You’ll find plenty of link opportunities by just doing business, you just have to keep your eyes open.

4. On your blog, you mention the rising importance of content in generating links. Can you explain more?

One of the first questions I ask people who are looking for links, is “why should I link to you?” You can’t imagine how many people have difficulties answering this question, while it’s actually quite easy. Either you have an exceptionally good product, or you have an exceptionally good web site, or you’ll have to persuade (begging, buying, etc.) people into linking to you. The first and third option is quite time and/or budget consuming, and the first option is hard to influence for most people, which leaves you with the second one. And adding good content to a site is the easiest way to make it exceptional, and to make attracting links relatively easy.

5. What is the value of links beyond SEO?

Direct traffic and, maybe even more importantly, relationships. There’s much more to a link than just the -part, and it’s much easier to connect with other companies online, than it is to do offline. Establishing valuable partnerships with (semi-) related sites can be a very nice side effect.

6. Once you find another business to link with, what’s the best way to follow up? What are the best ways to link with one another?

This really depends on the industry, the web site, the type of link you want to get and the relationship you already have with the business you want to link with. In some cases just a short and simple email is sufficient, while you’ll have to put in a lot of extra work to secure some other link.

7. How do you measure the effective of your link building campaigns? What metrics do you look at, say within Google Analytics?

I keep a close eye on two things – the visibility in search engines and the ‘referring traffic’ section in Google Analytics. A link building campaign is really effective when the amount of referring sites increases at a much larger pace than the amount of outreach emails you send out. This means that you’re getting more natural links, and that’s the cheapest way to build authority.

Wiep Knol is the co-founder of Dutch link building agency Linkbuilding.nl, and blogs about link building at Wiep.net. He loves to approach link building in a creative way, and has shared his insights at several leading industry conferences and events, including SMX, Search Engine Strategies and SEOmoz / Distilled’s ProSEO.

1 comment:

  1. Great thoughts you got there, believe I may possibly try just some of it throughout my daily life

    Website Design and Development

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