Here’s a video with Matt Cutts talking about what Google’s spam team is going to be focusing on for the rest of 2011. While they’re just finishing up the Panda update, I have been getting the hints that links will be viewed differently in the coming year. Matt does quickly mention that link quality is going to get another look, and frankly it’s about bloody time. I have a post coming out soonish on just how Google might look at links as I have a decent guess at it. Link spam works way too easily still, and paid links by large companies seem to go unnoticed in large amounts. A quick look at any financial keyword’s top 10 listings will prove that theory within a minute, easy. I’m glad to hear that some more change is coming, and I can imagine it’s going to cause all sorts of fun (ie Panda update) for webmasters around the world.
Google’s Spam Team’s Goals In 2011
Hootsuite Adds Social Analytics..We Likey!
We use nothing but Hootsuite here at Linkbuildr, and them being a local company makes it even sweeter. I love the web version which I use everyday, and the mobile version doesn’t fall too far behind. The software is a god send and the new social analytics features look like a helpful addition to the overall set of resources within this web app. The main attraction to these features is the ability to garner real time happenings during your social media campaigns. There are just over 30 new features that will let you make all sorts of crazy awesome reports, things your boss will love as well as your knowledge of any given campaign.
SEO Rage Comic
This was the first rage comic I’ve seen which jumps into the SEO industry, so why not share it here. I of course found this on SEO Reddit, surprise surprise right? This one is on the theme of a close to secure contract with a large restaurant firm, and it all goes wrong so quickly. Let this be a lesson to you large brands out there who send in ill-educated senior execs into meetings they shouldn’t be at.
LRT’s Competitive Landscape Analyzer
Cemper’s Link Research Tools are hands down the finest in the industry and while they’re already ahead of the curve, they come out with this. The Content Landscape Analyzer within LRT allows you to profile your competition within the top 10 results for your keywords. This tool sums up all the needed info to take them out like what the right FOLLOW/NOFOLLOW, Brand vs. Money Keyword link ratio, Page Rank profile, Authority & Trust backlink profile. This puts companies in the right mindset, allows them to lay down goals and build up their brand in the proper way. You’d be surprised how many people are just focused on building links to rank top 10…c’mon now, this isn’t 2003!
Link Building Reads For The Last Bit Of March
Since I’m due in meetings and what not, I thought I would do a quick round up post to all the latest and greatest posts on link building and other things. There’s always so much great content flying around on any given week, so it’s sad I can’t get to this more often. As always. I love it when you leave links to great articles I missed in the comments, so by all means go to town on that. This one will mark off a new linking format where I’ll try and encompass not only link building, but branding, marketing and news all together. If all your doing these days is link building, then may the Google gods have mercy on you!
Link Building Reads:
Picture courtesy of Benuski
– Original ideas for building content for links via Word Tracker
– Don’t Break The Cardinal Rule Of LinkBait via Linkspiel
– Building links to get to page one via Webmaster World
– How To Rank Nationally With Local Links via Search Engine Journal
– How To Make a Link Bait That Goes Viral via TechLunatic
– 51 Essential Link Building Tips via Econsultancy
– 40 SEO Strategies For Ecommerce Websites via Kaiser The Sage
Branding Strategies:
– Why Would You Follow A Celebrity on Twitter? via Brand Republic
– The Triumph of Coal Marketing via Seth Godin
– Strategic Copywriting via The Branding Blog
– Brand Naming: Don’t Be Afraid To Use Humor – via Branding Strategy Insider
– Should You Brand a #Hashtag? via Online Journalism Blog
– 5 Branding Secrets You Can Learn From Google via Rohit Bhargava
Social Media Marketing:
– How To Find Hidden SEO Opportunities on Twitter via Search Engine Journal
– Blogging is Dead via Scott Monty
– 50 LinkedIn Tips: Most of Which Are Awesome via Soshable
– The Seven Second Rule of Social Media via TooGoom
– 5 Tips For Building Promotions Around Events via Blue Glass
Link Building Freelancer Threatens A Client!
I was doing my morning help over at Google’s Webmaster Central and came across this somewhat scary post. I imagine many of you have hired a freelancer from one of “those” sites in the past, and I imagine most of you learned an important lesson. Those freelancers are mainly building junk/spam links, and it shouldn’t surprise you. While I imagine this happens more often that I’d like to know, there was some great info by a Google employee on the topic of spam links. To cap the post up for you first, this is what the site owner had to say;
I hired a freelancer to build links for my site, all white hat and above board. However when I came to check the links they were not very good quality and half of them were missing. After a dispute via Freelancer I agreed to pay half and he accepted that. Over the next couple of days he has sent me many emails saying that he would remove the links I paid for if I did not pay the rest of the cash for this month. I said that was not fair as I have paid for the links he has built. Now he has come back saying if I do not pay he will send 2000+ bad links to my site and wipe it from the search engines… I didn’t know what to do so I just paid him.
So here we have a sticky situation. Luckily for him, freelance link builders are cheap and he was able to bite the bullet. So I could stop there and we could all contemplate the thought of this happening to our business. First of all, don’t hire a freelancer from “one of those sites”, and stick with well known companies in the industry (cough cough). This is your business we’re talking about here, and no one should be held hostage for links!
So on to the next point of topic in this discussion. A lot of the people said don’t worry about it, those spam links can’t hurt you. This had me a little flabbergasted to say the least! Clearly, some of these consultants have never had a client with an anchor text filter penalty. I’ve heard this time and time again, that spam links cannot hurt you at all so don’t worry about it. I have never shared this thought, and we’ve dealt with so many inquiries from people with those exact penalties. Needless to say, I was pleased when a Google employee piped in on the conversation;
Google doesn’t penalize a site for having spammy links to the site unless we can tell that this was part of a link scheme.
–thejack (Google Employee)
So there you have it, a real world example of the dark side of marketing. This should also clear up any questions you had about getting hit by bad links. While it might be frustrating to see a competitor over take you in the short run, a quality marketing plan will prevail in the end.
15 Queen Anne Court Commercial Linkbait
A slight warning that this commercial is perhaps NSFW, but there isn’t any nudity…just close to it. I’m always keeping an eye on what’s blowing minds in the marketing world, and this commercial blew mine right off. The commercial is for an amazing real estate property(15 Queen Anne Court) in The Sovereign Island (Queensland), and I couldn’t think of a better way to get the word out. The luxury real estate market is a tough battlefield, but if you have the coin and the know-how to drop a bomb like this; then by all means doooooo iiiittt!
Viral marketing is an art, and sometimes that means you have to step on some peoples toes and get down right crazy. There are real estate agents talking about it, whether the form of marketing is too controversial or not for the real estate market. I think the real problem there lies in fact that us North American’s tend to get easily offended. So who’s this commercial really for? Without a doubt the young, rich and famous are going to be drooling over this luxury property. The rest of us will just end up dreaming, wishing and clicking that share with friends button. I’ll be checking back on this video and their website to see how well it performed later, so bookmark this post if you want to find out!
Google Place Pages Keynote @ SMX West
While I’m not seeing too many videos hit Youtube for SMX West, the few that have hit the digital streets have been enjoyable thus far. I just finished my morning medium roast at Starbucks here in my parents hometown, and during that I managed to take in this video by Brian Fitzgerald. Local search for local businesses is un-ignorable although we see that most businesses are doing just that, so hopefully this keynote by Brian gets you thinking and gets you using Google Places. Even for this small town called Tsawwassen I can see just how powerful being listed here would do for the local florist, or mortgage broker. Soak it in folks and start getting those local target leads that will do only great things for your business.
