Internet Marketing - Matt Bailey [200]
Developing goals for your visitors is the place to start when analyzing the type of link-building campaign that will be best for your business. Not all businesses are the same, so your link-building efforts need to be planned based on desired outcome, available resources, and expectations.
Review and Hands-On
Identify the number of links coming in to your websites. Then, look at the sites that are linking to you, and find what pages they link to and the typical link text. Many tools are available for tracking and evaluating your links:
LinkDex (www.linkdex.com)
Advanced Link Manager (www.advancedlinkmanager.com)
BuzzStream (www.buzzstream.com/link-building)
Link Diagnosis (www.linkdiagnosis.com)
Majestic SEO (www.majesticseo.com)
Raven SEO (raven-seo-tools.com/features/link-manager/)
SEOMoz: Linkscape and Open Site Explorer (www.opensiteexplorer.org)
In addition to looking at your links, evaluate the links to your competitors’ websites. Compare the number, the link text, and the sources of those links to get an idea of additional link opportunities and the quality of links.
Evaluate your website with a block-level analysis. Print your home page and an internal page that is typical of the content. Draw a line around the block-level elements of the different navigation links (primary, secondary, product filters, content sections, footers, and any advertising).
Look at the content sections that are the most valuable, and see how you are using them. Evaluate how you are linking internally and externally and the link text you are using for each.
In your analytics, start to develop some reports that will show you the visitors you are getting from other websites. If you do not have goals or revenue tracking set up, don’t worry; I will cover that in Chapter 21. However, just an initial view of the visitor sources from links should provide an interesting view of who is linking to you and the type of visitors they are providing.
Evaluate how your link-building efforts mirror offline networking. Are you relying on the cold-calling approach? Are there relationships that you can develop or build within your industry where there are common ties?
How can you contribute better education or understanding in your industry? Is there different information or interpretation that you can bring that will start conversation and get you noticed? Sometimes holding back information (for fear of your competitors accessing it) will inhibit a good conversation where everyone can benefit. Consider that when information is shared, links usually follow.
Look through your own site and find areas of opportunity that can benefit from an internal link from one page to another. From a blog entry to a product page or from the FAQ page to the page that is associated with the answer, find areas within your own site that can benefit the visitor with a direct, internal link.
Next, determine which focus of link development might be better suited for your business. Browse through the stories that are on some of the social-news sites such as Digg.com, Reddit.com, and StumbleUpon.com. If there is a strong association that you can make with the type of content you provide and the content that does well in this format, start to develop content with the goal of gaining attention and gaining votes in this system.
If your business would do better taking the online PR route, begin by identifying the bloggers and online publications in your market, and familiarize yourself with their writings, opinions, and audience. The more you know and understand the people whom you approach with your ideas, the better you will be able to personalize your pitch and provide value.
Evaluate your own site traffic on the basis of acquisition and compare the trends. If you do not know how to do this, hang on! Chapters 20 and 21 will cover analytics. Analytics programs such as Google Analytics, Yahoo! Analytics, and many others will allow you to view