Here is a pretty common type of question people have about SEO and link-building…
Hey MrSEO, I have another question if I may... If you wanted to get good back links to a site what would be YOUR top three things that you would do...? I'm using videos with trafficGeyser and I'm getting frustrated that MarketSamurai is not picking them up as back links... Should I just stick to Linkvana and ditch Traffic Geyser?
First – some great tools got a mention in that question. So, in case you’re new to all this (or you’ve been living under a rock):
Market Samurai is the Swiss Army Knife of doing stuff online. If you do Internet Marketing you NEED Market Samurai – I use it almost every day and honestly don’t know what I’d do without it! It is worth keeping in mind though that Market Samurai is mostly automating checks you can do yourself manually through existing services like Google, Yahoo! and Bing. Market Samurai scrapes data from Google for keyword research and ranking reports, and Yahoo! SiteExplorer for backlink analysis.
Linkvana is a one-way link-building service based around a massive blog network (controlled by Linkvana). The blogs all have high page rank – generally PR-2 or above and essentially being a member of Linkvana gives you the ability to post your content (with your links embedded) to these blogs. It is worth noting that the nature of blog posts means that you get a nice high-PR “in context” link while your post is fresh (and on the front page which has high-PR), and then for a little bit longer while your post is still linked from the home page (through “Recent Posts” sidebar widget) – but the high volume nature of these blogs means that you will eventually slip from the front page altogether. At that point, your link is buried on a page deep in the site, which probably has very few inbound links and most probably a zero page-rank – so basically that link is worth less to you once it drops from the front page.
In other words, Linkvana links are particularly useful in the short term and worth having for building trust rank (lots of links to your site from different sites), but not a long-term answer and certainly not the only place you should be getting links. Link variety is important.
TrafficGeyser is a content distribution service that is most famous for it’s video “spinning” and distribution capabilities, but can also distribute other types of content. Like TubeMogul, one of the benefits of TrafficGeyser is that it enables you to upload your video once and distribute it to multiple sites (e.g. YouTube, Revver, Vimeo, etc.). Of course, you can also embed links in your video “description” back to your web site, effectively gaining you a backlink from sites like YouTube.
In addition to links, TrafficGeyser can help you get natural traffic if your videos are compelling (and have a call to action to come visit your site!)
OK – so to the question at hand…
Firstly, why isn’t Market Samurai picking up the Traffic Geyser links? First thing I’d check is that you are definitely CREATING the links properly with your video submissions… 
It is easy mistake for example to simply write out your site address as text (e.g. www.steveovens.com) instead of linking to your site (e.g. www.steveovens.com). Only links count!
More importantly though – remember that creating the link is a separate event from Google indexing the page that the link is on. And Yahoo! SiteExplorer indexing the page containing your link is a separate event again. (Remembering that Market Samurai is only showing you what is in Yahoo! SiteExplorer’s index). So it is entirely possible for Google to have indexed and credited you with a link that is helping your page to rank in the SERPs, but the link is not in Yahoo! yet – and therefore not showing up in Market Samurai.
The only links that can help your ranking in Google are links that are in Google’s index – i.e. Google has crawled the page that contains your link AFTER your link was placed on the page! (You can check the cached version of the page but that’s a topic for another day!).
The important thing is not whether your links show up in Market Samurai – it’s whether they are counting towards your ranking in the SERPs!
And the top three things I would do for good back links…?
There’s really only one thing I would do – simply GET MORE LINKS!
Some of the best advice I ever got was to “promote your site as though Google did not exist”. Think about that for a moment… How would you “get the word out” about your site if the search engines simply weren’t there…? You’d need to go where your target visitors hung out online (blogs, forums) and get your message in front of them.
The main reason we engage in Search Engine Optimization is because search engines are where our target visitors come from. Even with wildly successful social media sites like Facebook, when you analyze traffic sources for most sites, over 80% of traffic typically comes from search engines.
And it depends on where your site is at and what you’ve done already. If it’s brand new then you need to get it established before you go after high-PR links.
So, assuming I’d done all the “standard” SEO stuff – directory submissions, some article marketing and syndication, then Linkvana or a similar one-way linking service would probably be in the mix. Some Web 2.0 sites (www.squidoo.com, www.WetPaint.com, www.Weebly.com), linking back to your “money” site. Blog and forum comments are great for links as well as traffic. And by blog comments I mean relevant, quality, on-topic, contributing to the community posts as distinct from “I like your writing style. Please write more” crap. Video syndication is certainly a good idea – particularly if your topic lends itself to video promotion.
If you want to step it up a notch, look for an on-topic, high-traffic blog and offer to write a guest column (having your own blog and being an occasional contributor to the high-traffic blog will help here). Do a press release. Create some Link Bait (e.g. a “top 10 things I hate about…”).
Remember: Contribute to the community you’re a part of – don’t spam! Do all of this for traffic as well as links and you’ll soon start seeing great results!
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Steve,
I find your Linkvana explanation really useful. I was using their service for a while and I saw its amazing influence on ranking of some of my sites, however after some time I couldn’t find any high PR links from Linkvana blogs when I was checking it with Market Samurai.
So, it’s clear for me why:) Still i find Linkvana as one of those tools which I recommend to anyone, especially for its short term huge impact.
Greets
Justyna
Hi Steve, do you have any tips for people who have set up a web site but don’t have money for professional SEO people or even money to pay to add sites to directories. I paid to be added to a couple of very well known directories and they do not even appear to be linked to my site according to Google Analytics. Its a catch 22 situation for small sites like mine where I am not making any money and so don’t have money to pay for PPC. But because of the niche I am in ‘adult toys’ – there are not many opportunities to link to what I would call ‘quality’ sites. Most of the ‘adult’ sites I wouldn’t want to be even seen visiting never mind linking to. The reason I am in this niche is because I thought it the type of product people would feel happier buying over the internet but it really doesn’t seem to be the case at the moment. I don’t mind spending hours getting links and putting in the leg work to get links but I don’t want to waste my time linking to no hope sites just so I have some links at all. Do you think its worth my making a small film and submitting it to Youtube and then trying to link it back to my site?
Hi Collette,
Building an online business costs money or time or both. I don’t see this as a “catch 22″ – it’s just business. It’s the same online as offline.
Consider this – no-one expects to start a milk-bar or a newsagent or a pharmacy without spending money on rent, stock and yes – advertising. Online business is the same (just w-a-y cheaper, with far less downside risk and far bigger upside potential!)
If you don’t have money to test on Adwords to discover the keywords that CONVERT, you will waste a lot of effort ranking your site for non-performing keywords, only to discover you get loads of traffic and nobody buys anything. It’s like handing out “free beer” flyers at the local college for your maternity wear store. Loads of foot traffic. No money changes hands.
My experience is that “spending” money on Adwords SAVES you a fortune in lost opportunity. It gets you to the GOLD faster.
Advertising costs are higher and opportunities more limited in your market. You would have discovered that plenty of sites have terms and conditions that flat out preclude advertising on anything even vaguely related to the pills, porn and casino industries.
Plenty of SEO and Adwords firms (mine included) won’t work in those markets, because it’s simply not worth the hassle, or you’ve got to play “black hat” and risk all of your other clients coming under increased scrutiny. It’s like having a tax accountant who also advises on shady offshore tax havens – sure, YOU might be completely legit, but the tax office is still gonna put you under the microscope!
Does this mean you should “fold your tent” and go home?
Absolutely NOT! Whilst I’d certainly re-appraise whether you’re committed to be in this market / business – if you are, then you can make a successful business out of this – however start by thinking about who your target market is and whether SEO is even the most cost effective way to get in front of them…
Seems like a market that would lend itself to Facebook advertising – demographically targeted and cheaper than Adwords. I’d be trying that.
If you do stick with SEO – YouTube videos (assuming they are approved) with a link can help. Still time intensive though, and you want to make sure you’re targeting the right keywords.
Some other link techniques I would be trying in your position:
- Directories – except for a few biggies like Yahoo! and BOTW, directory links are rarely worth much. I put them in the mix however I use other methods.
- Press Releases
Free press releases will work, paid ones work better.
Keep the content newsworthy – “Buying ‘Adult Toys’ – Far Easier Online!” – and quote yourself as an expert.
- Article Marketing
Some article marketing sites may not accept “adult” content – in which case submit articles about general online shopping.
- Blog Commenting
You could try blog commenting, like you have done here. (I’m presuming yours is a legitimate question and not done simply for the link because you didn’t just write “great post. I’m bookmarking this one!” or some inane rubbish). You will find that many blog owners (like me) will still not link back to your site because of the market you’re in. Sorry!
And read Jay Abraham’s “How To Get Everything You Can Out Of Everything You Have” – eye-opening!
Hope this helps (and sorry if it sounded harsh in parts).
Steve