Awesome link building tactics and ideas

Ari Nahmani and Tom Harari shared their link building ideas at SMX Israel.

Ari Nahmani

New age link building. 15 minutes, 100 slides. So this will be quick. [Slides are here]

I’m usually not nervous, but this time my wife is here.

The web is no longer the great equalizer.

Once upon a time a decent web site and a few links and you could do well.

Then people started doing tricky link building things and that became the only way to compete.

Stop working with BS companies.

We’re moving from SEO tactics to holistic inbound practices.

You can’t just take a website that isn’t a real business and rank.

Do RCS: Real company shit (from Wil Reynolds).

We need to start thinking like the brands do, but you don’t have to be a big brand. Think campaigns.

A small woodworking shop offered leftover wood to local schools. They got press and links. You don’t have to be a major brand to do that.

Stop doing article marketing spam and directory spam. Paid link farms. And guest blogging at scale. Stop.

Real marketing isn’t set it and forget it. neither is SEO. You need to hustle.

There are three parts to awesome link building: Organic seeding, paid acceleration and automation.

Organic seeding

You have either time or money.

Stumble Upon. Build yourself up as an authority on Stumble Upon, then you can push your stuff on it.

Other curation sites you should look at: Zite, Poshfeed, Swayy.

SlideShare: Repurpose your infographics, list posts, and other content. Optimize tile, description.

BuzzFeed: How many of you have read posts there in the last week? A lot. How many of you have published there. Just 3. And 2 of them are from Kahena (Ari’s company)

Write a good list, where some great content of yours is relevant to embed as 1 of the numbers.

Paid acceleration

If you have money you can accelerate on the seeding side with Outbrain and Taboola.

You can get a lot of impressions for $100. You can also use these to optimize for titles.

Zemanta. Paid SEO friendly links

Retargeting

Facebook advertising: Don’t hit Boost Post. Choose the post you want to publish and demographically target. Fans, friends of fans. Target journalists. Broadcast journalism, communication: journalism, specific publications.

Image Raider: See who is using your image.

Also from Wil Reynolds. Search Twitter “for a story”, “for a piece” “interview” to find journalists that might want your information.

How do I automate?

twools

IFTTT (If this then that)

pipes: Aggregates RSS feeds

zapier: like IFTTT

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Next up:

Tom Harari

Director of digital strategy at iAcquire

The Wolf of Link Street [Slides are here]

Link building is a fool’s game

We have enough tactics

Build relationships

Take the time to research VIPs

TWTRLAND. Drill down by location, gender, age. Skills, topics.  See amplication / reach / relevance

Find popular posts. Look at bit.ly to see who is sharing it.

Deep dive with FollowerWonk.

Great content isn’t good enough.

Basic pillars to get started: Unique angle to old story, shares new info, passes the so what test

Switch from Me to You

Provide value first. Reciprocity. Focus on benefit to them before asking for anything.

Rand Fishkin’s whiteboard Friday this past week was on this.

Don’t anticipate anything in return.

Noah Kagan – When you ask selfishly, the other person will respond selfishly or not at all.

Act like you belong. Don’t be nervous. Establish rapport & credibility. Sharp, enthusiastic, expert in your field.

Get an intro from someone you both know

Keep it short. Unlike Ari [heh]

Important people are busy. Get to the point.

Think like a newspaper editor. Write the email. Save it. Get back to it. Chop it down.

The Obama campaign found the subject line that worked the best was Hey

Make it easy to say Yes

Don’t make them think. Lay out clear next steps.

Write the Tweet or Intro for the person you’re asking the favor from. Make their lives easier

I look at Ramie Sethi. I don’t read link builders.

“Don’t make the busy person do the work for you”

Involve them in the process

If you can get their feedback or help it’s easier to ask them later to share

Think hard about why they might say no

You’ll be surprised at the kinds of friends you can make in a year.

Also from SMX Israel 2014:

• Best of SMX Israel
• Opening keynote: 2013 highlights, what to expect in 2014
• Awesome content strategies
• Predictive search (my session!)
• Optimizing for mobile
• SEOs give up their most awesome tips
• John Mueller’s closing keynote