BLOG: Mitch Wilson, Austin TX Web & Multimedia Developer – Austin, TX

Learning about link building

Allow me to share an overview of what I learned at the SEO link building seminar, "Finding Your Most Valuable SEO Link Prospects, Faster and Easier with Ben Wills." This is my second seminar on link building. The first one was a couple of years ago and I did not get much out of it. This one was different. Speaking to a packed room, Ben Wills presented on tools and techniques for evaluation and getting quality links. What is a "quality link" you ask?

Quality Links

First off, just to be clear: we are talking about links on another site pointing to your site. We are not talking about links on your site in your Web pages. Sometimes that confuses people because a lot of SEO discussion is about improving your own links. Here we want to get links from other Web sites. A quality link will be on a popular Web page. It will bring your site traffic. And it will increase your page's Page Rank on Google.

Top 5 Ways to Measure a Link's Marketing Value

I have blatantly copied this list from the company Ben Wills work for, Ontolo. I am listing just the top 5, but the actual list is the top 16.

• The Link Prospect Page Ranks Top 20 in the SERPs
• Multiple Pages from the Same Domain Link to Top Ranking Sites
• PageRank of Domain/Target Pages
• Social Media Distribution
• Domain Traffic Estimates: SEMRush, Compete, Alexa etc…

Ok, so how can I find quality links

I found out about a couple of ways for finding and evaluating the quality of a page for link prospects.

• SeoQuake, a free Firefox Extension
• Google query modifiers help you search Google for quality link pages

Final Question: How do I get a link?

Getting a quality link has also been a bit of mystery to me, mostly because I have no budget and do not want to just spend lots of money, i.e., buy links. I thought that buying lots of links and learning by trial-and-error, something I could not afford, was the only way. It's not.

• Pay for links (the joke about paid links being like paid sex was hilarious ...)
• Email bloggers and ask for a link. Yes, email them. Make sure it's a personal email, not some automated attack on mankind. Ben's main message here: be nice and courteous and real, and bloggers will respond positively to your emails. Ah ...

Conclusion

This page is just an overview with a few details. I highly recommend attending any link building seminars by Ben Wills. I should also mention Meetup and Dave and Busters and Amy Gelfand. Meetup.com is a great online tool for finding local meetings on a wide range of topics, including Web marketing, Web development, etc. (My wife uses for a local Moms group.) I was suprised at what a great meeting place Dave and Busters turned out to be; I was skeptical but the meeting room was great. Amy Gelfand (Gelfand Design) has a deep interest in Web standards and SEO. I found out about the meeting from her on Facebook.