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You’ll never build a natural link until you’re worth

talking about

Tim Grice – Head of Search

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Keywords Rankings

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Links Rankings

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SEO

Google

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Why?

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It worked

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Google is stupid

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Everybody does it

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It was cheap

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This categorically does not work anymore

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Penalties

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Manual Reviews

Trigger Review

Applied

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But also because….. • Disavow Data

• Devaluation of other signals

• Network Discovery

• Webmasters are more inclined to report

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Unnatural Links

Bad Strategy Penguin 2.0

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Algorithms

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2009 - Vince

“An algorithm that seemed to favour big brands, as it was thought users could trust brands more”

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2010 – May Day

“Sites with large-scale thin content were devalued, all in attempt to give users better results”

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2010 – Google Instant

“Faster results for users”

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2010 – Social Signals

“Google & Bing confirm the incorporation of social signals as part of the algorithm, leveraging user data

from Facebook & Twitter”

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2011 – Panda

“Affected 12% of search results, devaluing thin content, content farms, and websites that offered little

value to the user”

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2012 – Search + Your World

“Further moves towards personalisation and the incorporation of Google + user data”

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2012 – Venice

“Provided users with more localised results”

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2013 – Hummingbird

“Attempts to understand keyword associations and user intent.”

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SEO

Google

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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.

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“How do I get to the top of Google?” is the wrong question.

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“How do I get so popular that Google has no choice but to rank

me?” is the right question.

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On site guidelines will always be in place. • Canonical tags

• Schema

• Pagination

• Duplicate Content

• Site Architecture

• Etc……

…and will always be important.

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But there is a reason Google doesn’t issue link strategy guidelines

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Let’s talk

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The current

CITATIONS

BUILD

CONVERSATIONS

NEWS

Sentiment

SOCIAL

Authority Relevance

Freshness

is listening to…

DESIGN

CONTENT

BLOG

Engagement

Satisfaction

Structure Quality

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Tactics are fine but first address your thinking.

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Some questions… • Who are your audience?

• What are they interested in?

• What online conversations are they having?

• What do they need answers to?

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Become genuinely interested

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• In your industry

• In your audience

• In your customers

• In problem solving

• In adding value

Interested in…

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Focus on their interests

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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?

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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?

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Google want to know about

People

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Let’s talk

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Don’t pay for links….

Pay for a star

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Oh, and did I mention Links?

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Paid Media = Earned Links Use cheap paid media to kick start campaigns.

Contentious/Humorous content works best.

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Have a sense of humour

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Have an opinion

“If you don’t focus on people your link strategy will not stand the test of time”

Tim Grice Branded3

Link please

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Focusing on your audience means you can forget about

your products.

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Do your research and offer up your findings.

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You

Feeds the

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A strategy that meets multiple objectives • Activates conversation around your business

• Puts you 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

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Customers will use an average of 10 resources before making a decision to purchase

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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

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Tim.Grice@branded3.com

@Tim_Grice

Thank You

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