A few weeks ago, Aaron Wall and Geordie Carswell launched a new PPC Training and Community Forum. This is an excellent place to learn about PPC for both newbies (like me) and experienced paid search marketers. With 50 (!) training modules, a very helpful and knowledgeable community and 11 very useful PPC tools, PPC Blog’s training center has a lot to offer. Link builders can learn a lot from doing PPC (and vice versa), so I’d highly recommend you to check it out. Just read the PPC blog, and you’ll get a feeling of what quality you can expect.

To prove that it’s not for PPC marketers only, I’ll highlight one of the tools from PPC Blog’s arsenal that can be used during a link building campaign as well.

The Local Keyword Tool

One of PPC Blog’s tools is the Local Keyword Tool, which you can use to create a large set of locally targeted keywords. However, you can also use it to create search queries that help you find local link targets. Just enter the zipcode of the region that you’re targeting (it currently works for eight countries, but this number will get higher) and a radius, and the tool will generate a list with relevant locations.

Click to enlarge

After the list with zip codes, communities, counties, states, and state codes has shown up, you can enter two additional keyword groups. Try adding keywords relevant to your products or services (plumbing, flowers, lawyer) in the first one, and adding some additional keywords like resources, articles, listings or blog in the second one. The third column can be used for the locations.

Click to enlarge

There you go: a very long list with search queries that you can use to find new local link targets. Not bad for a PPC tool, huh?

PS – For those of you wondering, yes, I will be updating this page soon, hopefully later this month…

Update: Darren Shaw of Whitespark.ca informed me about his Local Citation Finder Tool that is released on August 5th. The output of the tool will look something like this, which can be very useful for local websites.

This is the very first guest post on Wiep.net, and it’s definitely an awesome one. Garrett French, co-founder of Ontolo, Inc., was so kind to write an article about how to conduct a linkability audit.

A URL’s linkability primarily exists in comparison to its competing URLs – those URLs with a demonstrated ability to rank. You determine your URLs’ competing URLs based on the pages ranking 1-10 (or 1-20, 1-30, 1-100 etc…) for the terms you want your URL to rank for (in other words, analyze the SERPs Dominators). We contend that you can extract meaningful, actionable linkability measurements based on comparisons of these ranking pages, and by comparing the pages that link directly to them. Note that linkability’s key metrics will shift from keyword to keyword, industry to industry, even between geographic locations. This means that generalized or standardized “linkability guidelines” may not help you to home in on what truly impacts linkability for your keywords.

(Note: To thank early adopters during the launch of their new Link Building Toolset, Ontolo is offering a 25% discount that ends today (April 27) at 9pm PST. They’ve let me know that they will never be offering a discount like this again, and that the pricing is good for all future upgrades, price changes, etc.)

Subjective Linkability Metrics: By-Hand Analysis

Your most important tool for measuring a URL’s linkability comes from Yahoo – the per-page inbound link count. SEOBook’s SEO Toolbar and SEO for Firefox best present this data and make it easily exportable. SEOMoz’s OpenSiteExplorer is getting better for this too and we’ve heard great things about Majestic’s bulk link checker which checks the backlinks (links, domains, IPs, class-Cs) and filters out sitewides. Though we lean as much as possible towards automated methods of analysis, there always comes a time when you have to put your eyeballs to the pixels and analyze things yourself. Remember, in all of this you’re looking for patterns amongst ranking pages similar to yours that have earned inbound links.

1) Look and Feel
Do your competing URLs with inbound links have a consistent or distinct look and feel? Some markets favor dingy, dated layouts and design – this indicates that the site has a history and that the site owners are not overly-concerned with impressing their visitors. Other markets see design that’s a year old and instantly click away. People who choose to link into the pages you’re competing with are an important part of your marketplace. If inbound linkers clearly favor a particular look and feel then consider making some adjustments.

2) Content Structure and Organization
Is your content structured for easy consumption? Do you notice any structural trends on the pages that have earned the most inbound links? H1 tags, short paragraphs, pull quotes – these types of structural enhancements, so long as they serve the viewer – may impact linkability in your space.

3) Authority of Content
Do your competing URLs contain clear demonstrations of authority? This could be outlinks to related content, quotes from experts (including site owner), badges/awards that show industry participation, a client list and more… See if the highly-linked competing URLs, in aggregate, make it clear to visitors that the page’s creator has authoritative knowledge.

4) Depth and Thoroughness of Content
This is more than word count – how completely does the copy on the page discuss the topic? Are there multiple bullet points and an almost laborious thoroughness that ensures that no one leaves the page uneducated? If the ranking pages your URL competes against look more like Wikipedia pages than sales pages you should consider revising and possibly expanding your content.

5) Existence/Quality of Conversation
Do your competing URLs contain conversation threads, customer reviews or even a rating system? This amount or even the tone or quality of conversation on your target URL could affect your page’s linkability.

6) Emotional Response
What emotions – if any – do your competing URLs evoke in visitors? If you’re unsure, check out the words used to describe the URL on inlinking pages. Through this sort of questioning you may come to discover some emotional angles for your content that consistently attracts links in your target market. Take a moment to read (or reread) The Psychology Behind Link Giving. Emotion is often what drives people to share content, whether by email, Twitter, Facebook or… links!

Seeking Inbound Link Trends and Patterns

Are there trends within the patterns of inbound links? Here are a number of items to investigate that could shed some light into why certain pages have more linkability than others.

1) Links From Particular Site Types
Perhaps a particular competing URL has earned several links from forums… If your marketplace includes a large number of active forums then it’s time for you to understand why forum members choose to link to some URLs and not others. Maybe a competing URL has a number of links from FaceBook or Twitter… or even Wikipedia. Understanding what made this URL attractive to participants at these sites will help you to improve your URL’s linkability. Perhaps you’ll find that a particular shopping comparison site links directly to your competitors’ pages – it may help your rankings to provide this site with a feed.

2) Inbound Link Text Patterns
Are there patterns within the link text to your competing URLs? If so, does the link text match how you describe the products or services on your page? Perhaps there’s a segment of potential linkers who don’t feel “targeted” by your URL’s copy because you’re not speaking their language.

3) Most Valuable Link Pages Pointing to Small Cluster of URLs
Some link prospect pages provide more value than others. You can identify these Most Valuable Links because they come from pages with high PageRank, high inbound link count, high traffic values, and high organic rankings of their own. If the most valuable linking pages target a small cluster of your competing URLs, it’s up to you to understand what these competing pages did to earn those important links.

4) Context Framing Inbound Link to the Competing URL
How does the inlinking page describe the link? What is the surrounding link text? If there are any adjectives, these may provide clues regarding linkability. The title of the page may also provide some insight into why your competing URL received a link.

Objective, Large-Scale Linkability Metrics: Machine Analysis

Here are a number of objective – i.e. machine-readable – metrics to help determine possible factors that impact a URL’s linkability within a given set of inbound links. In all cases below we’re looking for trends amongst the competing URLs that have inbound links (not overall domain links, just page links).

1) Target Keyword Density of Competing URLs
Is there any relationship between keyword density and whether or not it earns links? While it’s long been established that keyword density has little if anything to do with relevance, by comparing the keyword density of your top 20 competing URLs that have links you may uncover some opportunities for improvement… especially in title tags and H1 tags, which aid visitors by making clear declarations of a page’s subject. Further, it could be that overly-dense pages receive fewer links because they are “over-optimized…” it may be that you should ratchet back your keyword usage and focus more on the visitor.

2) Number of Words on the Page
It may be that the URLs that you’re competing with have more words on the page than yours. And then again possibly they have less. If there’s a trend – one way or the other – for the competing pages with links then you might want to add or reduce the amount of valuable information on the page. If you look across the top 30 URLs for 5 closely-related target keywords, the number of words on competing pages could become a meaningful linkability metric.

3) Embedded Media on the Page
Is there a linkability trend that favors images, video, podcasts or other embedded media? For some keywords, linking sites could favor those with more extensive, non-textual content. If this is the case for the competing URLs that earned links you should consider making changes to your target URLs.

4) Type of Site/Type of Page
Is the competing URL part of a social media site? Is it a blog post from a competitor, or even a press release? If you find that inbound linkers favor certain types of sites or types of pages for a given keyword group then you might consider attacking these keywords with different content.

5) Use of Overly-Salesy Language
If you brainstorm out a list of sales-related terms you can cross check the text of ranking pages to see how tolerant linkers are towards being pitched. This can be a quick test to see if you should target a keyword group with product/service sales copy or informational, how-to copy.

6) Length of Sentences, Length of Words, Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level
Do inbound linkers seem to have a preference for brevity? If so, you may find that the copy on your target URL is too loquacious or even pedantic for your linking audience. Then again, maybe you’re too concise. Looking at averages could shed some light on what linkers in this particular keyword space tend to prefer.

Linkability is determined differently in different verticals because the linkers are different. Knowing where to look for your industry’s linkability signals will help you critically evaluate your marketspace and determine a more realistic idea of what your audience of potential linkers looks at when they’re deciding whether or not to link.

About the Author: Garrett French is the co-founder of Ontolo, Inc., creators of the Ontolo Link Building Toolset which uses your target keywords to find and grade link prospects. The Link Building Toolset reduces link prospecting and qualification time, letting you focus on the most valuable part of link building: relationships.

Great content is the solid foundation of a good website, a positive user experience and (hopefully) some nice incoming links. This, in turn, usually leads to good rankings, a continuous stream of traffic, conversions, and -eventually- a fat bank account. Easy, right?

Well, what if you can’t come up with new ideas for good content? You can either start brainstorming for new ideas, or you can get to work straight away. A very effective way to combine this, is to create resource lists, and to add these to your website.

I have created resource lists (lists with a few links to other high quality, relevant web pages) for multiple websites in the past, and it’s been effective in every single one of these occasions. Resource lists not only add direct value to your website, but they can also help you to attract links and traffic.

Resource lists for a better user experience

For all of you who are still afraid of their website ‘leaking PageRank’, here’s an update: Linking out is not a bad thing! And again, in bold: Linking out is not a bad thing! Actually, linking out can be a very good thing. Especially in informational sections of your website, links to other websites can be great additions.

Believe it or not, but in most cases, your website is not your visitor’s end station. And when you can give the 97,3% of the visitors that does not buy something on your website a new place to go to, you still have made their user experience a little bit better than when you wouldn’t have provided those links.

Linking out also shows that you are not afraid of directing visitors to other interesting websites, and that you know your way around online, which both can increase your brand perception. Especially in niches where people aren’t used to it, but appreciate the added value. Some even go further by stating that linking out to authority websites may (indirectly) lead to better search engine rankings – I don’t believe this, but it shows how positive some people think about linking out and creating topical association.

Resource lists for content ideas

Forcing yourself to create one or more resource lists also is excellent for coming up with new content ideas.

When you are visiting dozens of websites, trying to find good content, you will learn what you like, and more importantly why. Although n=1, this can definitely give you more insight in why people will or will not link to specific content. Fully understanding this is key to success.

You will also find out what your industry is still missing in terms of good content, which -of course- can be created by you then. The same goes for good ideas that have been executed badly; improving those ideas is something that you owe to The Internet.

Resource lists for new links

Creating resource lists can also be a good link building tactic. First of all, it’s a great way to get noticed or to network. Linking out to someone, and perhaps sending him or her some traffic, may put yourself on that person’s radar. Especially when he or she is a blogger, as most bloggers are incurable stats junkies. Use this connection as an opening to get in touch with bloggers or webmasters you have always wanted to get links from.

You can also try to push it a little bit more. Simply letting the people you are linking to know where your resource list is can be enough sometimes.

My personal experience is that you can get an average email-to-link conversion rate of ~25% without even asking for a link. Just explain where and why you have linked to the person you’re contacting, and some will link back to your page almost instantly. Others may send you (positive) feedback, or mention that “If they ever can do something for you…”.

Something as simple as this can already do the trick:

Hi John,

When I was doing research for my own website, I came across yours (URL). I absolutely loved {page}, because of {reason} – in fact, I loved it so much that I linked to it at {URL}, and I thought you would like to know.

Please let me know if you want me to make any changes to the link, or if you prefer me to link to a different URL.

Kind regards,

Your Name
Email, URL, etc.

Of course, the ideal approach, as well as the average conversion rate may depend on your industry, brand and content quality, but 25% isn’t bad when getting new links isn’t even your main, or only goal.

What makes a good resource list?

I know it may be tempting, but I am *not* suggesting that you should instantly download a php directory script, or that adding 20+ resource pages with dozens of links to other websites to your site might be a good idea. After all, linking out to irrelevant, too many, bad or mediocre websites can harm your brand or reputation.

A good resource page offers extra value to your visitors, because the links on it are highly relevant to your website, and support the content of the page.

In fact, a resource list doesn’t even have to be a separate resource page. For example, you could add links to existing pages, develop an image directory, or you could try to create a dynamic blog sidebar – nearly anything is possible.

Well, there you go: need content ideas or links? Link out!

About a year ago, I made a selection of a few (in my opinion) indispensable link building tools. Except from a Majestic SEO redesign and some changes to the Link Diagnosis tool, I haven’t seen any big changes in the field of link building tools since then. Well, until this month…

Here’s three great new tools you can use during your link building campaigns.

Link Building Queries

The guys from Ontolo created Link Building Queries, a search query generating tool, mainly based on a massive list with link building queries.

After entering a keyword that’s related to your product or website, you can enter a linkable asset type, an opportunity type, and the type of content you’re after. When you hit ‘Generate link building queries’, Garrett French himself tries to come up with useful queries in the background, and spits them out lightning fast. And the output looks somewhat like this (depending on what you’ve selected, of course);

This tool can be very helpful when you’re looking for specific link targets.

Bulk link checker

Majestic SEO already had a handful of free tools, but they have added a lightning fast Bulk Link Checker to their arsenal this month. This tool will check the amount of linking pages and referring domains to up to 150 (!) URLs in just a split second. It uses Majestic’s own data, and also has the option to download the results in CSV.

I had to edit the results a little bit to make it fit on this page, but you can click it to see the real output. Or you could go and play with the tool…

Open Site Explorer

The third tool in this list was just released yesterday. The Open Site Explorer, an SEOmoz product, provides quite some insights in the link profile of a website. You can check the regular basic link data, but SEOmoz has also added a few very nice features.

One of these features is the opportunity to check which URLs 301-redirect to a certain domain, which makes bait-n-switch pages or redirected domains for SEO purposes easy to find.

(click to see the bigger picture)

Another interesting functionality is the option to compare two different domains. Just enter two URLs, hit enter, and you’ll see some pretty charts, accompanied by very interesting data.

(click the image to see the bigger picture, or click here to see the live data)

The Open Site Explorer is part of SEOmoz’ Pro membership, but you can still try it out for free for about a day or so. After that, the metrics, 10K links and the CSV download will be PRO-only.

All by all three great tools to add to your link building toolbox.

Just recently, I used crowdSPRING‘s creative community for designing the logo of a new project website. The process went according plan; there were a few good entries and I picked a winning logo. Quickly after that, I received the files I requested, and as soon as I left the designer a positive rating (in other words: when I still was in a very happy mood), I received an email:

Hi Wiep,

I wanted to send a personal note and thank you so much for using crowdSPRING. We’re thrilled to have you as a customer and hope that your experience was positive.

Please let me know if there’s anything we can do to help you or your company going forward. We’d also value any feedback you have on the crowdSPRING website or on your experience in general. We very much appreciate user’s thoughts: good, bad or in-between. And, last but not least, we greatly appreciate any way you might help us to spread the word – in fact, a simple blog entry about your experience is the best possible compliment you could ever give us. We promise to reciprocate any way we can…

Thanks again for being a part of our young community,

Best regards,

It’s a simple email, thanking me for the business we did, asking for feedback, and mentioning that spreading the word (for example a blog post) would be appreciated. It’s a short, honest and to-the-point email, and although it wasn’t in the style I was used from crowdSPring, this short blog post proves that it works.

Do you sell products online? Take a good look at the approach above, and ask yourself how you can implement something similar. It’s simple (it can even be automated), but can be very effective.

Recently, I installed the Broken Link Checker plugin for WordPress, to keep an eye on my outgoing links. You could also use Xenu Link Sleuth to do this, but having a plugin doing this regularly, and to see the broken links show up in your WP dashboard makes it much more actionable. And even better: cleaning up the broken links only takes a few minutes.

The first report of the Broken Link Checker listed 92 broken links, out of a total of nearly 2,000 links. When ran through this list manually, I noticed that most of the broken links were the result of a new URL structure and bad redirection. Because I wanted to keep most of the links intact (I linked to them in the past, so they should probably still be link worthy, right?), I tried to find the new URL of the 404-ing page first. If the search functionality of the site didn’t point me to the right page, I just dropped the link. Of the 92 broken links, I had to drop 49, which is more than half of them…

What I found most shocking, was that about 75% of all the broken links pointed to web savvy sites, including several SEO blogs. Making sure that you redirect all pages properly when you adjust your URL structure, and checking your 404 statistics regularly both seem pretty basic SEO skills to me.

With new (popular) plugins like this, and with smart folks chasing down other people’s 404s to build links, I’d strongly advise you to keep a close eye on your 404 statistics…