You’ll never build a natural link until you’re worth
talking about
Tim Grice – Head of Search
Keywords Rankings
Links Rankings
SEO
Why?
It worked
Google are stupid
Everybody does it
It was cheap
This categorically does not work anymore
Penalties
Manual Reviews
Trigger Review
Applied
But also because….. • Disavow Data
• Devaluation of other signals
• Network Discovery
• Webmasters are more inclined to report
Unnatural Links
Bad Strategy Penguin 2.0
Algorithms
2009 - Vince
“An algorithm that seemed to favour big brands, as it was thought users could trust brands more”
2010 – May Day
“Sites with large-scale thin content were devalued, all in attempt to give users better results”
2010 – Google Instant
“Faster results for users”
2010 – Social Signals
“Google & Bing confirm the incorporation of social signals as part of the algorithm, leveraging user data
from Facebook & Twitter”
2011 – Panda
“Affected 12% of search results, devaluing thin content, content farms, and websites that offered little
value to the user”
2012 – Search + Your World
“Further moves towards personalisation and the incorporation of Google + user data”
2012 – Venice
“Provided users with more localised results”
2013 – Hummingbird
“Attempts to understand keyword associations and user intent.”
SEO
What Google Think? Q:Want to use Google as a platform to sell?
A: Use Adwords, Shopping, Places.
Q:Want to add value, insight and contribute
to the conversation?
A: SEO is your friend.
“How do I get to the top of Google?” is the wrong question.
“How do I get so popular that Google have no choice but to
rank me?” is the right question.
On site guidelines will always be in place. • Canonical tags
• Schema
• Pagination
• Duplicate Content
• Site Architecture
• Etc……
…and will always be important.
But there is a reason Google doesn’t issue link strategy guidelines
Let’s talk
The current
CITATIONS
BUILD
CONVERSATIONS
NEWS
Sentiment
SOCIAL
Authority Relevance
Freshness
is listening to…
DESIGN
CONTENT
BLOG
Engagement
Satisfaction
Structure Quality
Tactics are fine but first address your thinking.
Some questions… • Who are your audience?
• What are they interested in?
• What online conversations are they having?
• What do they need answers to?
Become genuinely interested
• In your industry
• In your audience
• In your customers
• In problem solving
• In adding value
Interested in…
Focus on their interests
You begin asking the right questions. • What conversations are
people having?
• What are people missing?
• What do people find humorous?
• What would people find helpful?
• What do people find contentious
• What are people sharing?
Historic questions What links do our competitors have?
What anchor text is best for Google?
What is the ideal PageRank for a link?
Do Google prefer in content links?
Will Google penalise me for paid sidebar links?
Is a link at the top of the page better than the bottom?
Google want to know about
People
Let’s talk
Don’t pay for links….
Pay for a star
Oh, and did I mention Links?
Paid Media = Earned Links Use cheap paid media to kick start campaigns.
Contentious/Humorous content works best.
Have a sense of humour
Have an opinion
“If you don’t focus on people your link strategy will not stand the test of time”
Tim Grice Brand3
Link please
Focusing on your audience means you can forget about
your products.
Do your research and offer up your findings.
You
Feeds the
A Strategy that meets multiple objectives • Activates conversation around your business
• Puts in front of your target audience
• Encourages and increases brand search
• Generates shares and likes
• Allows you to truly engage people and build relationships
• Puts you in the ZMOT
Customers will use an average of 10 resources before making a decision to purchase
Summary • Put real effort into becoming the best result
• Take an interest in people
• Be worth talking about
• Talk in terms of your audience interests
• Add Value
#B3Seminar @Branded_3
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