This session was moderated by Greg Niland. The panelists in this session are experts on linking and will take a critical look at linking strategies, including: outbound link optimization, outsourcing link building, old fashioned linking via directories, and hiring an in-house link developer.

Rae Hoffman – Delegating Link Development

Unless people are talking about it Outsourcing link development can take on a variety of forms (link exchange/triangular/one-way/link buying/mass blog/etc)., you won’t see much in the form of traffic. Where do you find them? She highly recommends referrals from friends or colleagues. Also look at sponsor lists from industry shows like PubCon. Last resort — jump in the water and see if you sink or swim.

Even with recommendations, research them! Check out references. Check their backlinks and buzz. Ask questions about how they work and what type of results they deliver. Ask lots of questions, but remember that no firm is going to give you their secret sauce. You are who you hire.

Hiring and training a link developer is not a light task. It’s best for companies or individuals with SEO backgrounds.

Interview link developers and find out how familiar they are with the Internet. “Can you name three search engines? Do you know what a blog is? Do you know what a link is?  What are your 3 favorite websites and why? Do you use IM? Do you know HTML? What email client do you use and why? What browser do you use and why?” Have them find you a Canon SD-200 dig camera that you can buy to see how good their search skills are. It’s easier to train someone inexperienced at marketing and proficient with the Internet than vice versa.

Create a link dev training manual that includes a list of different link types you want them to obtain. Fill it with details on how to find those links, as well as a glossary of terms and acronyms. Other information to include:

• How to find backlinks
• Commons myths
• Spreadsheet template
• Email template
• Clear listing of expectations (quotas)
• Links to access SEO tools

Possible elements to consider when evaluating performance:

• The number of links they build
• The number of links requested
• Type of links
• Quality of links
• Retention of acquired links
• And most importantly, your search engine rankings!

What it really comes down to is looking at your needs, your available options and deciding which avenue will be best for you. You need links to rank.

Joel Lesser — CEO — Linksmanager.com

This is Joel’s first time speaking at PubCon. Joel will be talking about link exchanges — that is the main thing his software does.

Reciprocal linking has got a bad reputation over the last few years. Full duplex linking schemes afford no editorial discretion on making links, which means problems for search engines. Avoid services that “guarantee” links and make you link to other sites.

Why do link exchanges? They provide qualified traffic independent of search engine returns due to site relevancy. It’s cost effective. Links are the currency of the web. Relevant links provide end users with useful info.

He has never seen anyone from the search engines state “Don’t exchange links.”

In summary: Keep link exchange volumes realistic. Maintain editorial discretion. Keep your content updated regularly, as this affects link reciprocation. Publish links even if you aren’t proactively looking for links — links beget links. Alternate publishing methods such as links within content, sidebars, linklets, linksblogs, etc. Provide a link request form to avoid link request email.

Don’t use scripts or services that make guarantees on obtaining links. Don’t send out link exchange requests that are longer than three sentences. Don’t require links to be placed on a page with X PageRank. Don’t ignore relevant requests just based on PR. Linking is the foundation of what makes the web the web.

Roger Monti — aka martinibuster — Alternative Link Building Strategies

For link buys, look for:

• Relevance
• No mention of PageRank
• No ads for non-relevant sites
• Year-long purchase

Roger prefers smaller magazines that aren’t highly developed. Another good place is job fairs — offer internships and they reward you with a link from their .edu sites (in person).

Good searches:

• “advertise with usa keyword — cpm
• Search: “rate card” — cpm advertising
• Allintitle: “sponsors” — cpm site:.org keyword

Buying Websites

Look for inactive websites. Good searches to conduct include:

• Search: “temporarily down for maintenance”
• Search: “site is offline”
• Underperforming websites

Site of the Month.

Look for archived links. This is idea if the site is dedicated to a niche. Good searches:

• Search: “site of the month” + keyword
• Site of the day and week, too

Newsletters

Lots of sites offer newsletters in every niche. Check to see if newsletters are archived — if it’s not archived, it’s not going to be good for a link. Good searches:

• Search: newsletter keyword sponsors
• Search: newsletter “advertising rates” keyword

Sponsorships

• Industry associations
• Charity groups
• Concentration on .org sites
• For example: Search: keyword sponsors site:.org

Competitor Backlinks

Research competitor backlinks in Yahoo (linkdomain:example.com site:.org).

Again, .edu job fairs are great for this. Cultivate leads with informational sites. Create inbound links with satellite sites. Take advantage of the power of blogging with thoughtful comments, trackbacks, blogrolls, even DMOZ listings.

Video

• YouTube — Look for sites linking back to this site (you get a link from that)
• Google video – direct URL when uploading a video; check out linkdomain:expertvillage.com -site:expertvillage.com and restrict to Google

Selling Software?

• Pad file
• Submit to software directories

Charity Site Design

• May be deprecated and might not pass PR (done a lot in the past). Could be good if it’s in your vertical.

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