life after link building
DESCRIPTION
Reboot your thinking about link building and start to focus on making better content.TRANSCRIPT
Life After Link Building
presented by Woj Kwasi
Reboot...
A New Approach to Marketing Your Site
Woj Kwasi
15 years experience • Web Development • SEO • Online Marketing
Head Honcho: Kwasi Studios
Kwasi Studios
Websites for Robots & Humans
Inbound Marketing & Content Strategy
Who Likes Link Building?
Got better things to do
with your budget?
Links Are Important
Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote by page A for page B.
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/40349?hl=en
Snowball Effect
Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily & help to make other pages "important."
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/40349?hl=en
Natural vs Unnatural
"...algorithms can distinguish natural links from unnatural links."
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/40349?hl=en
Natural Links
These links develop as part of the dynamic nature of the web when other sites find your content valuable & think it would be helpful for their visitors.
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/40349?hl=en
Unnatural Links
Unnatural links to your site are placed there specifically to make your site look more popular to search engines.
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/40349?hl=en
Google's Bottom Line
Only natural links are useful for the indexing & ranking of your site.
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/40349?hl=en
http://www.inboundmarketingagents.com/inbound-marketing-agents-blog/bid/276669/Guaranteed-SEO-Results-My-Totally-Made-Up-Interview-With-Matt-Cutts
BUT HOW DO I GET
NATURAL LINKS???
Don't Forget The SEO Pyramid Get all of these things right
http://moz.com/blog/whiteboard-friday-the-seo-fundamentals-pyramid
For Best Results…
…start with a strong base build upwards
http://moz.com/blog/whiteboard-friday-the-seo-fundamentals-pyramid
Today's Basic SEO Principles
Authors
Content
Links
Rankings
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sq7FHxkIQCw (c/o @dejanseo)
CREATE GREAT
CONTENT
GREAT AUTHORS
EARNS GREAT LINKS
GREAT CONTENT
CREATE GREAT
RANKINGS
GREAT LINKS
Don't Rely Soley on SEO Index search is no longer the dominant method used
Other Search Combined >= Indexed Search
These channels need to be part of your digital strategy
Inbound Marketing
Traditional methods of link building now need to include social media & other search channels
http://www.kunocreative.com/blog/bid/69900/2012-Will-Divide-SEO-Practitioners-Into-Two-Camps
So, IS Link Building Dead??
Just Consider a Different Approach
DO #RCS
Measure Beyond Rankings
Total Traffic &
Sources
Conversion Rate
Educate Your Clients
…AND THEN?
Create Awesome
Content
Google Mission Statement 1998 Google's mission is to organize the world's information,
making it universally accessible & useful.
Google Mission Statement 2013 Google's mission is to organize the world's information
& make it universally accessible & useful.
What's Changed 1998 to Now?
We're talking trillions of pages
Quick Delivery
Quality & Relevance
War Against Spam
Change your Focus NOW!
Earn Your Links
Focus on creating content
How Do I Create Content?
Start With Your Own Backyard
Check Your Inventory
Do a Content Audit
Do a Site Crawl
Export URLs into Excel
Include Real Titles
…META Descriptions
How easy or difficult is finding a page when navigating the site? • Scored from 1-5
(5 = easy to find)
Findability
Quality of the page? • Structure • Writing • Clarity • Tone
Usability
Simple or complex?
Written for its ideal audience?
Knowledge Level
What type of call to action is needed?
Is there one?
How effective is it?
Actionability
Who is the page is pitched at? Who should it be pitched at?
Audience determined by various personas.
Audience
Name, Title Age, Gender, Location, Family Life, Likes/Dislikes
Personas
http://marketingbeforefunding.com/2013/02/26/complete-guide-to-creating-a-customer-persona-for-your-startup/ Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jasontravis/
Michael, the MD of the
investment bank, mid 40s, wants the deal to run smoothly & for the clients to be happy and confident with their choice. He isn't likely to spend much time using the software at all. He is much more interested in face to face relationships and good news.
Meet Michael
Minimum Viable Persona
Is content accurate & up to date?
Accuracy
Any 1s, 2s, 3s & 4s ? Fix these first! Identify The Problem Areas
Improve User Experience
User Experience Drives Links
It‘s Time to… Get
Creative
A Lecture on Creativity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijtQP9nwrQA
To Get Into the Open Mode...
#1 SPACE Somewhere quiet Seal Yourself Off
#2 TIME For a specific duration - 1.5 hours
#3 TIME Persevere More pondering time
#4 Confidence Fear of making a mistake Openness to anything
#5 HUMOUR Laughter brings relaxation Gets us open faster
Play is distinct from “ordinary” life both as to locality & duration Johan Huizinga - Dutch Historian
Want Some
Samples?
Random Affinities
http://moz.com/blog/growing-your-audience-with-random-affinities
Two ideas + no obvious connection except audience = random affinity
- Ian Laurie
Visualise Data
http://www.birchstudio.com/blog/data-visualization/
http://www.birchstudio.com/blog/data-visualization/
Inbound Marketing Chart
Inbound Marketing Town!
Keyword Research?
Keyword Research? Content Idea Research!
Ubersuggest.org
People are Asking
Questions
…and They Want Answers!
Soovle.com
Use Social Media
...Carefully!
Dogs or Cats?
Target Multiple Personas
Who Doesn’t Enjoy a
GOOD Infographic
Or a Good Picture?
Get Interactive
http://www.slideshare.net/hawkt/an-event-apart-five-big-asasea-takeaways
Promote an Event with Slideshare
Make a Video
Dollar Shave Club
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUG9qYTJMsI
Tippexperience
http://www.youtube.com/user/tippexperience
Cater for ALL Platforms!
TEST Experiment
TEST!!
http://unbounce.com/landing-page-examples/36-landing-page-designs-critiqued-for-conversion/
http://unbounce.com/landing-page-examples/36-landing-page-designs-critiqued-for-conversion/
Thank You
@WojKwasi /KwasiStudios kwasistudios.com
Any questions?