Current
Posts
4/10/2008
Farewell
LinkMoses, Hello Link Building Q&A
It's time for LinkMoses to
leave the building. Less talk, more advice and concrete answers.
So go ahead, ask
me your link building questions. I'll answer and I wont sugar-coat
it.
Note:
The below links and articles can still be read, however LinkMoses is
now
Link Building Best
Practices - Q&A With Eric Ward
Located at http://www.ericward.com/bestpractices/
Questions, answers, and opinion on link building best practices, formed
over my time building links for thousands sites from 1994 to today...
Prior Articles:
4/3/2008
Link
Building Best Practices - Q&A From Eric Ward
Ask me. Go ahead, ask
me. I'll answer and I wont sugar-coat it. Read how
my new The
Link Building Best Practices Q&A works.
2/6/2008
When
Linking Experts Go Underground
by Eric
Ward
 For
years I've seen a free and flowing stream of information and advice about
how to build links, and as the engines have improved detection of the junk,
the better link builders continued to thrive while those who sold crappy
services to crappy content ran for cover. At least three of the most dependable
link building tactics started wobbling and in some cases failed completely
in 2007: article marketing/syndication, directory submission, and paid
links. It's not that these tactics aren't potentially still useful, but
rather that the approach you will have to use for each will have to be
modified, in some cases even abandoned...more
»
1/2008
No
Recession For Link Building
by Eric
Ward
Those
of you familiar with my work may know that one of the techniques I use
to keep up with the deluge of news, rumors, and baloney related to link
building is to scan a few hundred feeds, discussion lists, forums, newsletters,
etc. using Track Engine, Google Alerts, and even the good old fashioned
email inbox. I also run three monitors, one of which is a 24 inch beauty
where I keep my Google reader quite busy. At this moment it's showing 1,313
new posts across 200+ feeds. Of those posts, 23 have the word "recession"
in the title/headline. Much time is being devoted to the discussion of
how the recession of 2008 will affect the SEM industry...more
»
1/2008
Don't
Blame Google For Your Own Linking Failures
by Eric
Ward
Here's a pair of tough questions to kick Link Week for 2008 off with a
bang. In 2007, many long-practiced link building tactics stopped being
effective. Many link building companies and consultants sold the exact
tactics/services that are now useless. Why didn't you see this coming,
and if you did, why did you sell those services in the first place and
what services will you sell now? First, I'll go ahead and gloat. It's good
to be LinkMoses. Why? See for yourself. OK, done gloating...more
»
12/2007
Introduction
To Trusted Source Link Streams
by Eric
Ward
Whenever
I begin a link building and content publicity project, I start with research.
One of the areas I research is trusted sources. The type of trusted sources
I am referring to are those people that have already shown an interest
in the topic of the site I'm building links for and have created a link
resource list, located on an already trustworthy site. That was a mouthful,
so as an example, imagine you operate a web site devoted to blues music,
like The Blues Database. I have no affiliation with them and they are not
a client—I'm using them as an example only. ...more
»
10/22/2007
The
Worst Way To Ask For A Link
by Eric
Ward
Let's
take a quick trip back to Link Building 101. Have a look at the below email
that hit my inbox over the weekend. It may look friendly, unassuming, even
polite. I bet you have one just like it. I receive several of these every
day, and while they...more
»
10/22/2007
The
Worst Way To Ask For A Link
by Eric
Ward
Let's
take a quick trip back to Link Building 101. Have a look at the below email
that hit my inbox over the weekend. It may look friendly, unassuming, even
polite. I bet you have one just like it. I receive several of these every
day, and while they...more
»
10/22/2007
The
Worst Way To Ask For A Link
by Eric
Ward
Let's
take a quick trip back to Link Building 101. Have a look at the below email
that hit my inbox over the weekend. It may look friendly, unassuming, even
polite. I bet you have one just like it. I receive several of these every
day, and while they...more
»
10/15/2007
Fall
Cornucopia of Linking News
by Eric
Ward
Let's
take a quick trip back to Link Building 101. Have a look at the below email
that hit my inbox over the weekend. It may look friendly, unassuming, even
polite. I bet you have one just like it. I receive several of these every
day, and while they...more
»
10/8/2007
When
Link Building Is Pointless
by Eric
Ward
As
a link builder and content publicist, I rarely see a link building challenge
that cannot be overcome. Today there are many unique and legitimate ways
to attract and generate links that didn't exist ten years ago. There are
different styles and approaches to link building, all of which...more
»
9/24/2007
Attention
Shopping Sites! Generic Content Means Generic Links
by Eric
Ward
I
had the pleasure of participating on a Link Building Clinic at the Shop.org
conference in Las Vegas last week. This conference attracts a different
crowd than the SEO/SEM related shows in that practically every attendee
at a Shop.org show is running a web site that sells something. Now...more
»
8/27/2007
Spotting
Unnatural Linking Patterns
by Eric
Ward
Last
week's column Aggressively Seeking Links - How Much Is Too Much? sparked
several comments and questions. In the past, I've hesitated to revisit
previous columns, preferring to let them stand on their own, but this time
I'd like to make an exception to clarify some of the assertions I made.
In that column, I wrote...more
»
8/20/2007
Aggressively
Seeking Links: How Much Is Too Much?
by Eric
Ward
When
it comes to link building, how much is too much? How fast is too fast?
Neither of these questions would have been asked in 1997, because their
was no such thing as too fast or too much. But it isn't 1997 anymore is
it? And since link development now plays a prominent role in web success
and failure, these questions deserve answers...more
»
8/13/2007
Link
Building's Cult Of Reciprocity
by Eric
Ward
A
big part of my professional life is spent teaching and training corporate
clients how to become self sufficient at in-house link building and content
publicity. Those readers here who have heard me speak at conferences may
remember how strongly I have stated my position that to be effective over
the long term, you must take as much control as possible over your link
building activities, because outsourcing...more
»
7/30/2007
5
Deadly Sins Guaranteed To Kill Your Link Requests
by Eric
Ward
Here in the Link Week column,
we mostly discuss intermediate to advanced linking related subjects, but
I'm compelled to cover a very basic topic this week. Link requests. The
link builders are out in force this summer. The proof is in my inbox. Over
the two weeks since my last LinkWeek column, I've counted the number of
link requests I've received. The total? Forty-two...more
»
7/9/2007
Link
Analysis Beyond Search Rank
by Eric
Ward
Some
of the most fascinating and useful information can be found if you remove
search engines from your link analysis objectives. The challenge is knowing
what to look for...more
»
7/2/2007
Five
Things I Hate About Linking
by Eric
Ward
It's
summer. Hot, humid, sticky and itchy. The perfect time to rant. Especially
if you are a link seeking content publicist glued to a monitor while all
your clients have gone on vacation. So here are five things I hate about
linking, and I have more if you want them ...more
»
6/18/2007
Portrait
Of The Perfect Link Builder
by Eric
Ward
If
you had the chance to hire a full-time employee to engage in content publicity
and link building, what type of person would you look for? What sorts of
skills would you want? What personal traits would you value? As companies
realize that content publicity and link building must be a core part of
online marketing, rather than just the latest SEO fad, those same companies
are faced with the challenge that there's no consensus or body of research
to help them pinpoint the person with the perfect skill set to do that
job. By sheer accident I can shed some light on this challenge. What is
it about my particular background and experience that might help you find
the perfect link builder?..more
»
6/11/2007
Social
Link Manipulation
by Eric
Ward
The
term "Social Media" is used ad nauseum to describe an ever growing collection
of tools and services by which people share content, links, opinions, experience
and perspectives with each other. Keeping up with the latest Social Media
services and sites can make you dizzy. Wikipedia now lists 21
different types of social media related platforms, and there are over
25 different social bookmarking services alone. There are even services
to help satiate your multiple
bookmark needs, and here's a "Who's
Who in Social Search" outlining some of the various forms of social
media and tools. Hat-tip to Chris Sherman for it...more
»
6/5/2007
Linking
Mistakes To Avoid - Link Optimization and Short URLs
Updated by Eric
Ward
Link optimization is the process
of making your existing great content linkable at the URL level...more
»
4/2/2007
LinkMoses
Link Building Tip of the Week - Links by Association
by Eric
Ward
If you are a dues paying member
of a niche professional association (local or national), have you checked
to see if that association has a web site with members names or resources
(and web sites) listed and linked? Example: You run a fly fishing
shop in Chattanooga, and you have a modest web site (call it link bait.
Couldn't resist). See The Middle Tennessee Fly Fishers organization
resources page at http://www.mtff.org/resources.asp.
How about the Southeastern Council Federation of Fly Fishers at http://www.fffsec.org.
Not a member of either? Why not? No links for you!...more
»
3/27/2007
Link
Experts Tell All
by Eric
Ward
Rae Hoffman, aka Sugarrae
asked several well known link builders to do a group interview on link
development. See Five
Link Development Experts: A Group Interview. The results are surprisingly
candid and varied, yet share a common thread...more
»
3/26/2007
Getting
Link Love From Google Custom Search Engines. (off
site)
by Eric
Ward, for SearchEngineLand
I've written previously about
Google Custom Search Engines. These vertical Googlettes let anyone
create a search engine with results based on Google's index, with an added
layer of human editorial selection. Put more simply, you create a Google
CSE; you select the sites you want in it, and then you let anyone search
your CSE from your site. New Google CSEs appear almost daily. You can see
examples at Google here, and there's even a directory of them being maintained
here. Google CSEs offer a couple link building opportunities, one of which
might be described as affinity linking...read
complete column at SearchEngineLand.com
3/22/2007
Teeny
Weenie Bikini Linkbait
by Eric
Ward
I always get bummed when I
don't clearly state my position on a link building topic and it gets blown
out of proportion. I had the pleasure of being a guest on the SEO
Rockstars podcast last Friday, where among the topics discussed was
linkbait as a link building tactic. To be funny, I mentioned industrial
ball bearings. A listener (a well known SEO pro whom I respect ) thought
I implied linkbait was not possible for certain sites about certain topics...more
»
3/13/2007
Yahoo
Daily Wire Says Goodbye
by Eric
Ward
The Yahoo! Daily Wire, the
email newsletter that includes Yahoo Picks, New & Notable Sites, Full
Coverage and Daily Entertainment news has announced it will stop being
delivered via email sometime this month. Bummer. All is not lost, though.
Here's a workaround method you use to continue receiving them via email...more
»
3/5/2007
Google
Personalized Search, Google Bookmarks & Link Building.(off
site)
by Eric
Ward, for SearchEngineLand
There's been a bit of a panic
among some SEOs that the ramp up of Google Personalized Search Results
last month will mean the end of SEO. But aside from the impact personalized
search will have on SEO, personalized search also impacts link building
related activities. Some of that impact is major. Link spam will take a
huge hit, becoming (hopefully) even less effective than it is now. Topical
link building will become even more important, especially getting your
links onto pages where they have significant relevance. These types of
links also have a better chance of being seen by humans that care about
that content, and by extension, more likely to be bookmarked or shared...read
complete column at SearchEngineLand.com
2/6/2007
LinkMoses
On The New Google Link Analysis Tools
by Eric
Ward
One word: Finally.
Three more words: Why'd you stop? Many of you have heard me say at conference
that Google could easily create a new business just by providing more backlink
analysis tools. This week's announcement was a nice step in the right
direction...more
»
permalink
comments: off (why?)
1/29/2007
Are
You Linkbaiting The Right Audience-(off
site)
by Eric
Ward, for SearchEngineLand
There are several rarely discussed
fundamental flaws to practice of linkbaiting. The most obvious flaw is
that the most valuable IBLs (inbound links) for any given piece of content
are completely different. Most linkbait strategies I see ignore this fundamental
concept...read
column at SearchEngineLand.com
1/22/2007
Are
You In The Circle Of Link Trust?-(off
site)
by Eric
Ward, for SearchEngineLand
How do you define "link popularity?"
I talk daily with SEO/SEM firms, content creators, interactive agencies,
marketing firms, ad agencies, PR firms, and with other consultants. It's
amazing how varied people's beliefs are with regards to link popularity,
but as different as they are, all share a common purpose. Search ranking.
I rarely have a conversation related to link building or online publicity
where the topic of search rank does not come up...read
column at SearchEngineLand.com
1/15/2007
Know
Your Inbound Link Potential-(off
site)
by Eric
Ward, for SearchEngineLand
So what's your linking strategy
for 2007? I mean besides get as many as possible? Maybe you're adding link
bait? Or buying links? Or ramping up your link-loaded "press releases"
to six per month? Buying old sites and 301'ing them? Or maybe you
want to get to the Digg homepage? Reciprocals? Three ways? Ask your college
kid for a link from his .edu page? Outsource it all? Whatever your linking
strategy -- and there are many -- one thing has not changed a bit in the
14 years I've been in the link building and content publicity game. Every
web site has logical, natural and unique inbound link potential...read
column at SearchEngineLand.com
12/27/2006
What
My Four-Year-Old And a Bicycle Has to do With Link Building
My son Noah decided out of
the blue one day that he no longer wanted training wheels. So what
does this have to do with link building?...more
» permalink
comments: off (why?)
Most Popular Post
LinkMoses
Linking Commandments - part one
As thee provideth content in
the name of usefulness, it will be linked.
Previous Posts...
12/18/2006
Blog
Tag and Five Things You Don’t Know About Me
Curses! I got tagged
and now I have to share five things that nobody in our industry knows about
me. I'll get you for this Lee Odden...OK, where to start...1). When I was
in 4th grade I unscrewed the Christmas light bulbs off every house in our
neigborhood and hid them in my basement. My Dad found them and made me
go to each house and personally apologize...more
»
permalink
comments: off (why?)
12/14/2006
Social
Media Optimization Nots - 3 Rules
Lots of people have created
sets of rules for how best to use Social Media for marketing, branding,
and buzz building. But in reading over the many good natured attempts to
offer a set of voluntarily accepted SMO practices, I see very few that
get to the very heart of the social media issues public relations professionals
face...more
»
permalink
comments: off (why?)
11/15/2006
Link
Bait Strategy Plans from Eric Ward
I've sat by watching the
explosion of useless link bait, and I'm over it. I've
been helping clients with linking and link bait strategies since before
the term existed, so I have a more strategic perspective. I was involved
with concepting and promoting several of the most successful examples of
content (aka link bait) ever. Like Windows
Media Player, The Weather Channel's Weather
on your Site, AMCTV's
Monsterfest, Schering-Plough's
Hepatitis C Infocenter, and more recently the new Children's
Hospital Boston Virtual Stem Cell Laboratory. So allow
me to use my experience to determine what role link
baiting ought to play in your online marketing strategy...more
»
permalink
comments: off (why?)
11/11/2006
Artificial
Linking and Search Rankings
By now just about everyone
who depends on the Web for a livelihood is aware that links are a key part
of how all major search engines rank their results. Stated simply...more
»
permalink
comments: off
10/26/2006
Social
Link Spam and Cigarette Butts
Where one man’s spam is another
man’s headline news...
10/24/2006
Google's
New Custom Search Engine Service and Links
As I read about it, my link
building antenna started chirping...
10/10/2006
Has
the DMOZ Ship Sailed?
Curses upon their "become an
editor" gauntlet...
9/13/2006
LinkMoses
mentioned on Daily SearchCast
listen
here (mp3)
9/11/2006
.edu
Link Fallacies Explained
One of the bigger link building
hot topics is the impact that IBL (inbound links) originating from .edu
locations can have on your link popularity and search rankings. What most
people don't fully grasp is that the quality of IBL's from within the .edu
domain varies significantly. Read
it all
Previous
Posts
Link
Penalty Anxiety?
Some of you live in a state
of constant fear that your site is just moments away from being banned
or penalized by Google for some linking tactic you have done. Read
it all
Where
Is The Mother of All Links?
A librarian at a school in
the middle of South Dakota might just hold the key to your Web site's success.
Read
more
Link
Bait Kool-Aid?
People are getting so caught
up in their quest for viral, user-generated links that they will do anything.
Who cares if it has nothing to do with your long-term business success,
your site was on the Digg homepage yesterday! Read
more
Is
White Hat Linking a Myth?
At what point does a link-building
tactic make the leap from acceptable to not? When does white hat become
black hat? Or gray hat? Or pink? And who is to say what is acceptable and
what isn't? What works is what's acceptable, and vice-versa, right? Read
more
Are
You a Link Whore?
I received an RFP from a company
that ought to know better that wanted to know how much I'd charge to get
their site 500 one-way Pagerank 2 or better links. Another company
wanted to know how long it would take me to seed 1,000 blogs with a link
to their site in the blog comment field. And another wanted to know how
many links I could buy for their site for $25,000. Read
more
Power
to the People: Social Linking (at MarketingProfs.com)
Individual and group sharing
of bookmarks or cool sites is not a new thing, and has been around as long
as the Web has. Back then, I remember my excitement when more than a couple
new Web sites launched. Ahhh, back in the day...
For
the love of God please stop sending me link request emails...
One would think that since
my web site has been around forever, and since I'm a one-person shop and
my name is front and center on my homepage, and since I specialize in link
building, I shouldn't receive link request spam. One would think.
How
does Google collect and rank results?
Above is a quick primer on
how Google crawls and indexes the web, and then ranks search results, from
quality engineer Matt Cutts. Although designed for librarians, it's worth
a read by anyone who wants a good general overview.
The
Case for Topically Irrelevant High Pagerank Links
Sometime during the course
of building links to your site, you'll come across a site with a really
high Pagerank but which has absolutely nothing at all to do with your site.
No point in pursuing a link then, right? Yes, no, and maybe.
Linking's
Holy Grail: The Passively-Obtained Backlink
A passively-obtained backlink
is nothing more than a link to your site that you had nothing to do with
obtaining. You didn't know a thing about it. Didn't ask for
it, didn't pay for it, didn't swap for it. It just happened. The
search engines love passive links like this. Why? Because they can
trust them.
Looking
for Links In All The Wrong Places?
In their frenzy to build links
to curry favor with the engines, web site owners miss a far more important
audience using topical tools.
The
Yahoo Link That Can Make You A Star
Did you know there is another
link that Yahoo gives certain sites, at no cost, and sites that receive
this link receive tens of thousands of site visits.
Link
Popularity and Guestbook Links: Useful or Not?
The real question here is do
search engines know about this scam yet, or do they count guestbook links
as additional links for poplarity rankings?
What
Makes A Site Linkworthy?
What is the motivation for
one site owner to link to another site?
Build
A Free Link Clipping Alert Service (Parts I & 2)
you can build your own free
web link clipping service, which you can use to track anything from mentions
of your site in print, to spotting new links to your site.
Linking
Legalities...What You Need to Know
A
Technique For Selecting Sites For Link Requests
Potpourri
of Linking Facts and Fiction
Linkability
- Why Do Some Sites Have It While Others Don't?
Under
the Radar: Tracking Online Coverage
of
Your Site is Hit or Miss, But Mostly Miss
Using
Google to Identify High Quality Link Targets
Automated
Link Generators - Not Worth The Trouble
Linking
Mistakes To Avoid (Part 2): Removing Orphaned URLs
Linking
Mistakes To Avoid (Part 1): Link Optimization and Short URLs
http://www.ericward.com/articles/linkingmistakes1.html
How
to Make The Most Out Of Emailed Press Releases (update)
http://www.ericward.com/articles/072401.html
Taking
The Plunge in the Pay-Per-Click Link Pool
Now
Is The Time For A Portal Link Audit
Make
Friends With Competing Search Engine Links
Easy
Linkin'
Holistic
Link Potential: Beyond the Home Page
Linking
Stew
How
to Build a Free and Fast Link-Alert Service
A
Linking-Campaign Primer
Email
Links: The Good, the Bad, and the Gibberish
Linking
101: Back to Basics
The
Five Major Flaws of Link Popularity
Portal
Links: Where They Are and How to Get Them
Resuscitating
Dead Links
What
Makes A Site LinkWorthy? |
Eric
follows the right link building approach. He's interested in links that
are given based on merit,
LinkMoses
fromEric
Ward
|
View
LinkMoses reactions
Eric
Ward (aka LinkMoses) founded the Web's
first
service for announcing, linking,
and building buzz for Web sites, back in 1994. His client list is a
who's who of online brands. Ward is best known as the person behind the
linking campaigns for Amazon.com Books, Weather.com, The Link Exchange,
Rodney Dangerfield (Rodney.com), the AMA, and PBS.org. His services won
the
1995 Award For Internet Marketing Excellence, and he was selected
as one of the Web's 100 most influential people by Websight magazine
in 1997. Eric is a 4-star speaker at Jupiter's Search Engine Strategies
conferences, and publishes The
Ward Report: Link Building and Content Publicity Tactics. Eric has
written online marketing advice columns for MarketingProfs, ClickZ and
Ad Age magazine. He, his wife Melissa, and toddler
Noah and baby Abram live
in Knoxville, Tennessee.
