Love.com At A Glance

1 Comments
April 30  |  News  |   Ryan Clark

I wasn’t aware of Love.com until I read Aaron Wall’s post “Does Google Love.com Spam?” which lead me to peering into their backlink profile and more. Aaron is the man when it comes to pointing out the crazy things companies will do and AOL is redefining content scraping. Now most sites wouldn’t have lasted this long but when you’re AOL you have a little bit more sway that others. I don’t want to get into the ethics of it all, but instead take a peek at their backlink profile and how they’re abusing social media.

Love.com Backlinks:


So far they’re blistering along in the search engines with nearly 150,000 pages indexed in just Google. Aaron tweet’d that he’d give away some SEOBook prizes if anyone could guess the date this would start dropping, and honestly I’m not sure if this will happen quickly. Love.com is going to at least have a grace period mainly due to the age of their domain name, and when you see their backlink profile you’ll shit a brick. Before I even ran them through LinkVoodoo’s Backlink Analyzer I expected to see a lot of AOL owned sites providing most of the juice. Well as of today I’m seeing just over 1000 backlinks with 93% of them being dofollow which is quite rare in a backlink profile, but I was right in guessing most of them would be from an AOL owned site. Also as expected, since most of the sections are on their own subdomain a lot of the links are coming from those.This also means that 93% of the links are pointing to their root index.

So far this has been working out in their favor and I can see the pagerank is flowing around to a lot of the Love.com subdomains. So all in all despite the crazyness this site is going to bring out in the SEO world it is worth the behind the scenes look at how you can manipulate the search engines. I’ve attached the .csv file from out private beta version of the LinkVoodoo backlink analyzer in case you’re wondering how I’m getting reports. It will be out soon so don’t worry, we’re still testing and fixing some bugs so this report may not include all the backlinks but it will be damn close.

Download: Love.com Link Analysis

Love.com’s Twitter Usage:

Everyone is using Twitter these days and it didn’t take me long to see how Love.com was making use of it either. It’s a great way to get traffic, but they’re seemingly taking it to the next level. If you do a quick search for Love.com on Twitter you’ll see what’s going on here. Tons and tons of seperate Twitter accounts based on niche feeding in news from the site. It is too early to tell if this is working out great for them but it’s interesting none the less.

What do you folks think about this?

Love.com’s Alexa:

I know Alexa isn’t the best for measuring traffic volumes but it will do fine just to see how things are progressing so far. As you can see the Scraping + Domain Age + Link Profile is bringing in the traffic so far, but I can’t wait to see the results a few months from now. I think Aaron’s guessing game is a great idea and I think I’ll make my bid.

Tagged , , ,

Link Building With Your Pictures

13 Comments
April 28  |  Link Building  |   Ryan Clark

This post I was a little nervous about pushing to the public mainly because the potential for abuse, and we all know that most link building techniques do get abused quite badly. With that being said, I had recently worked with a photographer and the research I did for his campaign lead me to the data for this post. If you’re a photographer and are wanting to expand your business you’ll find this resource quite handy, and a great way to build up a relevant backlink profile in the process. So I hope these link building resources get used wisely and I don’t wanna see a bunch of people using other people’s pictures to go on a link building bonanza.

This client in particular had a good response from the search engines with these methods and is rapidly showing improvement within the serps. Another killer factor that makes this work and doesn’t piss off any of the sites is of course great content. If you’re going to be showing off your work you best make sure those photo’s are your best work because I saw a lot of his work get very popular on some of these sites. This photographer specialized in scenery shots within his state and had a nice stockpile of beautiful shots that managed to capture the attention of a lot of people.


I approached the campaign with a couple different angles in mind, one being a whole host of picture/photography sites that let you submit your work and get nice juicy links. Two being the use of a hosted gallery with an embed feature. I found a few different open source gallery scripts that worked great, and the only thing I had to do was some minor PHP coding to make sure a link back to his site was obtained when embedded.

Wallpapers:

Everyone loves a nice wallpaper for their desktop and we were able to make use of a whole host of juicy wallpaper sites out there. A lot of these sites will allow you to submit your work and receive a link back which is great. This is where the great content comes into play because if you have a good shot your wallpaper could become quite popular. I also connected with local bloggers in his area to let them know of his new wallpapers and we managed to snag a few great links, and the bloggers were more than happy to do so. Sometimes you have to get the word out about your content instead of relying it on going viral. I’m going to keep the list of wallpaper sites to a minimum but here are a few that allow you to get a link back for your work. A lot of the sites are not all too quality so they might not be worth the submit. There are a lot of these sites out there so use the Google commands to help weed them out easily.

Wallpaper Seek – Submit
Wallpaper Cube – Submit
Wallpaper4God – Submit
IndieWalls – Submit

Screensavers:

The same sort of work goes into screensaver sites as the wallpaper ones. If you have a bunch of great themed pictures you can create a cool screensaver and submit that around the web for exposure and links. I recommend going to any one of the free music websites with mp3 downloads and finding commercial free tunes to spruce up the screensaver, which will increase your approval odds. I know this method is spammed often and you have to watch out for low quality sites, so make sure you’re submitting your finest work. Again I’m only going to post a few here but you can use Google to find hundreds of these sites, so submit with caution.

DesktopScreensaver.com – Submit
FreeSaver.com – Submit
Saverpit.com – Submit
Screensaversplanet.com – Submit

Social Pictures Sites:

I knew before I started this client’s campaign that there were a lot of great social photo/picture sites out there and it lead me on quite the journey. For a photographer these sites are a goldmine for attracting not only links, but attention to your quality work. These sites though are where my concerns for mass spamming come into play, and I can’t stress enough the need to be ethical in your marketing efforts. Some of these sites you cannot obtain links from, but if you have great content it is worth the exposure especially if you have a watermark on your work.

Zoto is a great alternative to Flickr and features a very nice minimalistic design that makes browsing photos easy on the eyes. You can’t get any links from Zoto but it’s great for social media marketing and getting that exposure you’ll be needing.

Fotolog is another social picture site that is very active and has a whole bunch of features such as embedding, user profiles and a friend network. You can get nofollow links within your profile and in the picture description. So there’s no need to upload watermarked photos here because you can just link to your portfolio and attract some attention.

Photosig is a great little site that has been booming with activity lately and I found no shortage of amazing pictures. If you’re working and come to this site prepare to find yourself time warped 2 hours ahead because there is so much to look at. Aside from being able to host your galleries on here there is a very active forum and and a bunch of useful articles. I think my favorite part about this site is you get critical feedback from other photographer’s. Aside from all that you can get a couple dofollow links to your homepage or portfolio, so make sure you fill out your bio.

DeviantArt should be no stranger to any photographer or artist as it is one of the largest photo and art websites on the web. I love the site even though it looks like Myspace in regards to its awful design and content cluttering. Regardless it is a place you shouldn’t overlook especially when it’s free to sign up and post your work. It’s also a great place to network and get in touch with other photographer’s and your pictures can rank easier if you want to go after longtails. Last but not least, you can obtain dofollow links in your photos comments and on your profile page.

More Photography Social Sites:

  • http://smugmug.com/
  • http://www.buzznet.com/
  • http://www.webshots.com/
  • http://pixrat.ibibo.com/
  • http://www.shareapic.net/
  • http://jalbum.net/
  • http://www.zooomr.com/
  • http://www.imageloop.com/en/index.htm
  • http://www.iimmgg.com/
  • http://www.scrapblog.com/
  • http://weheartit.com
  • http://www.phanfare.com/
  • http://photosynth.net/
  • http://vi.sualize.us/
  • http://www.photoshop.com/
  • http://www.dumpr.net/
  • http://www.glogster.com/
  • http://www.dailybooth.com
  • http://www.photoshelter.com

Matt Cutts On Google’s Link: Command

8 Comments
March 25  |  Link Building, Link Building Tools, Link Building Videos  |   Ryan Clark

I always see a lot of people asking about the link: command in Google and why it doesn’t show all your backlinks. Matt Cutts talks about that as well as some other interesting tidbits, and why Google has chosen to take that route.

Tagged , , ,

Twitter SEO Benefits & Application

38 Comments
March 23  |  Link Building, Twitter Marketing  |   Ryan Clark

Everyone knows that your Twitter profile URL is nofollow and doesn’t pass on any of the link loving, but there are still ways to attract some nice links with your Twitter account. Some of the links obtained won’t be all that powerful right now, but the way Twitter and its apps have been growing, it’s worth it in the long run…kind of like RRSP’s or a Chia Pet. Also on the topic of Twitter and SEO, someone either on Sphinn, SEOmoz or some forum mentioned that Twitter Search results were ranking well in Google lately. This lead me to some other interesting finds and ideas on ranking for a large number of longtails.

There are a few Twitter user directories out there in the wild and they do have an added benefit towards your link building efforts. With the added benefit of snagging a dofollow link, you also get to grow your followers. Another perk about getting links built to your Twitter profile is that you can rank it higher in the serps. I’ve got an Ecommerce shop that I run in my free time and I’ve managed to rank my Twitter profile for one of the top keywords within the niche, and it drives sales.

Twibs.com is a new business directory for Twitter users and accounts, and I imagine this will grow like crazy. The site has been around since January and has been growing decently since then, nearing the 100,000 mark on Alexa. Within your Twib Business Listing, you get a dofollow link to both your Twitter profile, and your homepage or blog. You can push your Twibs page into the Google index yourself, or waiting should end in the same result. There are nearly 10,000 pages indexed from Twibs, so the spiders are doing their thing.

Tweeple.com used to be home to what now is Tweeplepages.com, and they’ve made a few changes since I’ve last looked. The main domain, Tweeple.com, is undergoing either a site redesign or a code overhaul because I’m noticing some functionality changes on the new site. On your Tweeple Page, you do get dofollow links back to your homepage or blog, but now the links are being masked. Still a great place to make new Twitter friends.

Tweetfind.com is a Twitter directory and search engine to find like minded people. The site also has a few extra features like Twitter news, statistics and interesting user profiles listed daily. You can add yourself for free, and if approved, you’ll be rewarded with a profile page that includes dofollow links to your Twitter Profile and homepage/blog. It’s too early to tell if this site will continue to grow, but chances are good and the traffic has been slowly moving up since its launch in January.

JustTweetIt.com brings an interesting approach to the Twitter directory scene but it’s worth the 2 minutes it takes to submit. It’s free to submit and each category has a list of tweeters within that niche along with a link to their profile, and to their homepage. The link to your Twitter profile is dofollow while the link to your homepage is not. No worries though, you’ll find that once you add yourself here, your followers will grow.

WeFollow.com is the newest Twitter directory by Digg’s Kevin Rose, but it’s mainly a list of the biggest players on the social media site. You can add your Twitter profile for free which doesn’t add any link benefits, but it might help your followers list rise. A lot of people bitched about that the site doesn’t promote find new users, but following people within your niche who can attract that many subscribers can’t be all that bad.

I’m sure this is just a start to the number of Twitter directory like sites will start popping up, so keep an eye out and feel free to list any I missed in the comments. Now let’s take a look at what’s going on with Twitter Search queriry results, and how you could possibly rank easily for some longtail keywords. Now I know this is going to be exploited by some annoying spammers, but if you’re competing in a certain niche, why not try and take a bigger piece of the traffic pie with your account? Obviously the more heavily searched for terms will be harder to work with, but I encourage you to run some of your own tests.

So word on the street Twitter search page results are showing up within the search results, and they’re even ranking for keywords. I took a quick peek to see if it were true and found some pretty interesting results. I’ll make it brief because I’m most likely making some of you either sleepy, or nauseous from all the blue color in this post.

I picked one random indexed search query that contained a keyword that would be easy to rank for, then another that would pose to be a little bit more difficult. So first up on the list is the search query “wickedwire“. This is where it currently ranks;

The second keyword was a lot more competitive yet the search result for it ranked way higher than I would have expected. You all know the world famous beer, or the world famous book of world records….”Guinness“. Let’s take a look at where the search query ranks for this;

Well the evidence is there, but the question that comes to my mind is…how long will Google allow this. I’m partial to this search listing showing up because it does give the user a link to a very recently updated look into Guinness. But then again, the way it shows up within Google’s results doesn’t seem all that SEO friendly. Do let me know what you folks think about this.

Related Blog Posts:

Twitter SEO – How to Optimize Your Website For Twitter Search – Winning The Web

Is Twitter The Next SEO Haven? – The Blog Herald

Twitter, SEO and Online Marketing: You’re Missing The Point – SEO Group

Twitter Tweaks Its Title Tags For Google Juice – Techcrunch

Twitter: Incredibly Valuable Or Utterly Useless As A Link Building Tool? – Eric Ward

Twitter Links Are a Source of External Links…Sometimes – YOUmoz

Twitter Dupe Content and Link Building Strategy – YOUmoz

Tagged , , , ,

Get 2 Months Free In The Webs Oldest Directory

5 Comments
March 23  |  Link Building  |   Ryan Clark

The Best of the Web Directory is one of the most vital directory links to obtain for any serious business. The BOTW Directory has been around since 1994, and provides a clean cut and high quality directory that passes on the juice. I’ve partnered up and made them my main sponsor because I’ve seen the good getting a listing in here brings. Right now you can get 2 months free with no money down or any obligation to buy in after 2 months. This gives you the pefect amount of time to see any effect on your rankings. I even encourage you to test this with a newer site and see how it helps, that way you know if it’s worth the purchase.

BOTW has expanded into more than just an old fashioned web directory, and branched out into areas that make the overall site much more complete. They have added in a blog directory over the years which is a great addition to the site, has a lot of pages indexed and will provide your blog with a strong link that will last a long time. They’ve recently also added in a local directory to the line up which is another weapon to help boost your geo targetted search campaign.

They also have an affiliate program which you can sign up for and get your listing even cheaper! If you have a webmaster related blog, or you’re an SEO company then you might want to start snagging the referrals for your clients. Everyone knows that obtaining links from sites that have been around for a long time are well worth it, so what are you waiting for?

Tagged , , ,

Podcast Link Building And Marketing Resources

4 Comments
March 22  |  Link Building  |   Ryan Clark

I know a few others have already posted on link building with your podcast, so I’ll try and present some new ideas as well go in depth into others. A lot of people have had great success with a podcast alone, but there is another obvious benefit, and that is the one way link.

I don’t really like the Odiogo method because you’re essentially cluttering the web with the same content, and no one really wants to listen to a digital voice either. If you do a podcast properly within a niche that you care about or already an authority in, then the listeners will flock to you. I used to do an audio podcast that was music related a few years ago and it lasted about 6 months. The one thing I learned was that it was hard to maintain updating on a regular basis.


If you do happen to be podcasting for your company, niche or blog then there’s no harm in building strong links while attracting more listeners. There have already been lists of places to submit your podcast for links so I’m going to cover a few less mentioned ones that have popped up in the past year, and as well some oldies but goodies.

Adding a podcast to your online web presence which adds more credibility and substance to your overall “web pie”. Adding media like this is a great way to jump ahead of other people within in your niche, and will no doubt help with your rankings. If you’d like to do more to become a strong web presence look into making your website mobile, or adding a forum which lets the world(and Google) know you mean business.

PodBean.com is one of the webs largest podcast directories that has been around for years thus packs a lot of link weight.Once you’ve signed up to PodBean, you can then setup your custom podcast page with your feed, some content and of course dofollow links within the profile. If you keep up a regular show schedule it will help immensely in getting your podcast page indexed and pass on the much needed link love.

BlogTalkRadio.com is a really cool site I frequent for personal pleasure, not just lurking around in the dark like most link builders. The site has been around for a couple of years now and has seen a lot of growth lately in traffic and users. You get your own profile here and they are of course indexed by the search engines, but you have to be an active podcaster for this to be worth your time. Your episode guides can also contain links to important things you mention in the show, and they’re dofollow.

PodcastPeople.com is new to me and I scoped it out hours before writing this post, which makes me one of those link builders lurking in the dark. This site offers a whole suite of amazing tools at your podcasting disposal. On top of getting a dofollow link within your profile, you get your own subdomain to go along with a very content rich podcast page. With your page you get a sweet audio player for your podcast, comments from users and of course archives. The site’s setup is allowing some great internal linking so the pagerank is being siphoned nicely.

MyPodcast.com has been around for a few years and is another great source to spread your podcast. The podcast pages are a little messy and remind me of Myspace, but regardless you can build up a strong page with your content. You can write essentially a blog post with each episode which can include dofollow links, and your sidebar has a place for links to your resources as well.

Podomatic.com has been listed in other people’s posts before but I’m going to mention it still because it is a great site to host your podcast on. There are a lot of active listeners that take part in the site which gives it a huge bump in my mind. Remember that there are tens of thousands of podcasts already, so you want to make sure your page stays indexed. Putting up that great content and getting user interaction will almost guarantee it. Each podcast post can have links in it as well your get a place in the sidebar to link with, and both are dofollow.

Podnova.com is one of the cleanest podcast hosting sites I’ve seen on the market and its of course 100% free. The site has very little advertising on both the site and your podcast page, leaving you with a lot of room to put good content down. The format follows the same route as most others and allows dofollow links within the episode content and within your show profile.

Blubrry.com was new to me and caught my eye with not only a cool name, but a very clean minimal design. Your users podcast page is very clean with just the goods, each podcast episode with a nifty easy access iphone feature, and a guestbook for users to leave some feedback. You cannot choose your anchor text but you can get a dofollow link back to the “podcast homepage”, and most of the active pages had a pagerank of 4 or higher!

Mevio.com is the last item on the list and used to be the giant podcast site Podshow.com. If you’ve never been here before I urge you to take an hour or two to browse some shows, because this is where high quality and podcasting come together. You get your own subdomain with your podcast account and one very sexy looking design. Mevio seems to be taking advantage of a nice internal linking structure on their own, so the pages seem to get crawled quite a bit. They have just about half a million pages indexed! Other than that, you can get a link back to your project homepage, and it is dofollow!

Thanks for reading the post and I hope you found it useful. There are dozens upon dozens of other great podcast hosting sites you can use for link building, but they’ve been covered before by other good bloggers. I’ll link to some other resources that should help fill in the gap and keep you busy for hours to come.

Podcast Link Building Resources:

Link Building With Podcasts – Collin Lahay

Tagged , , ,

Link Building With Startupindex.ca

2 Comments
March 21  |  Link Building  |   Ryan Clark

As a lot of you know I’ve been working on my startup lately and released the Business Startup Marketing Guide. I got a lot of emails from places I missed but kept to myself for a later post, but I did run across Startup Index which is for Canadian startups. I know a lot of you will be dissapointed with this and move on, but if you’re in Canada then they’re worth submitting to. I submitted LinkVoodoo but have yet to be accepted, but if one does, you get a nice little writeup and a dofollow link.

A good chunk of the Canadian startups featured on Startup Index have gone on to receive funding from investors, and you put yourself more into the spotlight with a listing. If you’re a investor and are scouting the scene, then you can also sign up as a consultant, or for your investing company.

Tagged , , ,

LinkVoodoo Video How To

2 Comments
March 6  |  Link Building Videos  |   Ryan Clark
Tagged , ,

  • The New Paid Link?



    Find out the results of a year of high volume content marketing on guests blogs taught us money still talks. Read the results!

  • Join Us On Facebook

  • Negative SEO Attack?


    Check out the anatomy of a "negative SEO" attack on our own site in our latest post. There's too much worry about these attacks happening, but I wouldn't worry too much about it. Come read what I think and just what to do if anything like this happens to your brand.

    Read It Now: View Article

  • Archives