screw link building - it is called relationship building - on a budget

New York | March 25–28New York | March 25–28

Screw Link Building – It is called Relationship Building On a BudgetPresenter Jo Turnbull

#SESNY#SESNY

New York| March 25–28, 2013 | #SESNY

The Beginning of SEO Jo

• Worked client side

• Moved agency September 2009

• i-level then MEC

• Organizer Search London

• Freelance

• Blogger at State of Search

• Business Director at iProspect Sydney, Australia

All from Relationship Building

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Case Studies

• Will use 3 case studies to demonstrate the importance of relationship building over link building:

1) Search London

2) SEO Jo Blogs

3) Client case studies

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Why build a relationship vs a link?

• Low cost for you/client

• Long term

• Beneficial to you and the client

• Quality link building is about relationship building

• Stay current with shifting market dynamics

• Don’t be left behind – Google updates

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How to build relationships

• Honest and open

• Attend events

• Take the long term view

• Do something different – stand out

• Ask why?

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Case Study 1. Search London• Search London, took over ownership October 2010 when

organizer stepped down – 200 members

• Goal - to grow the event – not just for links

• Wanted to know more people in search

• Was it going to be a success or not?

• How do I get people to attend?

• Lots of competition – London

• Links not as important as Relationship Building

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1. Search London – Why?

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January 2012

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January 2013

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Search London - members

•Jan 2012 – 592 members

•5 meetups 2012

•January 2013 – 1100 members

•Increase 86%

•As of March 2013 – 1230 members

All of this through Relationship Building

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Search London - How• Strong domain - www.meetup.com - attracts new members• Good speakers – don’t be afraid to ask

– Finlay Clark from Google first meetup January 2011– Lisa Myers – CEO and Founder of Verve Search– Paddy Moogan – Author of Linkbuildingbook.com– Kelvin Newman – Brighton SEO– Judith Lewis – Head of Search at Beyond, Blogger at SEOChicks– Richard Baxter – CEO and Founder of SEOGadget

• Catchy titles each presentation– Search in 2011– Link building post panda– Schema markup– The value of SEO and social

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Search London - How

• Guest post – SEOGadget

• Interact with others at the event

• Don’t spam people– send an email announcing event, reminder and post event

• Central venue– Easy to get to, easy to find, not weather dependant

• Use Twitter #SearchLondon and encourage others– Updates, remaining tickets left

• Film presentations for later

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Search London - Results

• New Search London website (BETA)– www.searchconferences.com

– Will feature meetups in Sydney

• Google’s Pierre Far asked to speak at the meetup

• First day time event – Google Campus March 20th

• Now Search London has nearly 1,230 members in 2 years (from 200 October 2010)

• Search London organizing team

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So what? Could I have built this from links?

• Invited to guest post – Linkdex, Blueglass

• Client confidence

• Personal brand has increased in industry

• People want to sponsor the event

• Latest conference in front of entrepreneurs

• More links to SEO Jo Blogs and referrals

• Cost = $60 every 6 months and cost venue hire through sponsorship

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Case Studies


1) Search London

2) SEO Jo Blogs3) Client case studies

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Case Study 2. SEO Jo Blogs - 2012• Work freelance in Perth, Australia• Ran 5 meetups• Attended 2 Brighton SEOs• SMX London and SMX NYC• LinkLove• SearchLove• UK Search Awards

All of this from Relationship Building

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How to get started

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Be Honest and Approachable• Don’t be afraid of using your contacts

• Find a good blog in your field

• Use Rapportive to find email address – plugin for gmail

• Use Followerwonk

• Follow people on Twitter and @tweet them

• Engage in the community – be sociable and share tweets

• Is there a public Facebook group?

• Personalize the email

• Short version of the email (no one likes long emails)

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Attend relevant events

• Many events eg meetup.com, trade shows, new product launches

• Travel bloggers/food bloggers/mommy bloggers • Approach with interest in the event• Speak to other bloggers• Speak to the press

Could you build these relationships just from link building?

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Attend Relevant meetups

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Think about the long term

• Don’t just be looking for that one link• It is ok to have more than one guest per different blog• Become a regular contributor• Great blog – State of Search, SEOmoz, Search Engine Land• Encourage others to guest post on your site• Interview others on your site - Search Predictions 2013

Could you have the same results from link building?

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Do something different• Make sure you stand out

• Wanted to be a blogger for State of Search

• Already many UK based bloggers

• Wanted to combine travel and work

• First State of Search Euro Roadshow

• US Roadshow

• Soon to be Australia Roadshow

• Result = Blogger for State of Search

• Cost = No additional outside of pre-planned travel

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Results

• Now regular blogger State of Search – European Best Search Blog 2012

• Post on Brighton SEO was one of the top 3 read posts September 2012.

• Met 16 SEOs all over Europe

• Met 6 SEOs from the US

• Invited to attend the UK Search Awards

• Job in Sydney iProspect, Australia

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Traffic to SEOJoBlogs.com saw a peak in traffic on the day of the event.Could this have been achieved without establishing those relationships?


Case Studies


1) Search London

2) SEO Jo Blogs

3) Client case studies

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Case Study 3. Vacation rentals• Holiday apartments in Europe

• The client has a blog that has not been updated

• Sole KPI – increase in rankings

• Only off site work allowed

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Do something different – for your clients• Engaged in blogger outreach

• Reciprocal blogging

• Relationship with the bloggers

• Good blogs via meetups/search events

• Updated the client blog weekly with photos of new cities visited

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Results• Increase in number of referring sites to client’s site

• More natural link profile

• Increase in rankings for key terms – one from 10 to 5 in 6 weeks

• Brought forward fresh way of thinking

• Now the agency is engaging in blogger outreach

• Built up relationship with blog sites

• Formed travel site Globaltravelhunter.com

• Cost =$ 300

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• Take every opportunity

• Client moved to new location in a new shopping mall

• “Melville Jewellers” in Western Australia

• www.melvillejewellers.com.au

• Decided to have “official launch party”

• Leaflets, advertisement in local paper

• Prize draw – collect customer details

• Result = doubled sales for the day

• Cost = $1,000 promotion

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Case Study 3. Retail client

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Do something different – for your clients

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• Loyal customer 13 years wins star prize

• Continue to receive increased number of customers

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Building relationships takes effort

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Work on what you can do for your clients• Brainstorm ideas for content

• Buzz monitoring tools – buzz numbers, Brandwatch, Radian6

• What are people saying about the brand?– Positive, negative, neutral

• Topsy (what is trending)

• Google Instant Search – don’t click enter

• Google Insights/Trends

• Be prepared to address negative mentions

• The BodyForm Rant of Truth in response to negative comment from “Richard”

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Find good blogs

• List of travel blogs

• Advanced search queries– travel blogs inurl:guest-post

– travel blogs “write for us”

• Check out the blogs on the 10th page and work backwards

• Engage with blog communities– MyBlogGuest

– BloggerLinkUp

– Make contacts with who you know already

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How to check the blogs are genuine

• Social media profiles established

• Contact us page

• Do they have Google Authorship?

• Look to see if there other sites on same IP address

• Send a test email – do they respond?

• SEOmoz – PA and DA, number of backlinks

• Searchmetrics – how visible are they in the SERPs and how long?

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Personalize email• Find the contact’s name and address it in the email• Mention if there has been communication before

– Did they follow you back on Twitter?

– Did your colleague introduce you both?

• Compliment them on the blog• Explain why you want to write • Suggest a couple of topics • Get their buy in

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Interaction with the clients

• Agree on the content theme with client

• Adhere to brand guidelines and sign off post title

• Share the blogs with the client

• Personalize the emails

• Why should these bloggers want your content?

• Remember – stick to a budget

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When the post is live

• Tweet

• Don’t be afraid to promote

• Share internally

• Share with friends

• Stay in touch with the blogger

• Share the blogger’s posts interesting for you

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Long term• Don’t just look for the sponsored post

• Build up relationship with the blog owner

• Check out the past posts on the blog

• Can the blogger help run a competition?– Look for comments on competition

– Who enters the competition? - more potential bloggers

• Don’t give up

• Email follow up, no more than twice

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Do something different – Competition

• Prize = visit 25 world wide destinations in 6 months

• All expenses paid

• Winner blogs

• Paid US $50,000 after 6 month period

• Applications close on 31st March

• http://www.mydestination.com/bbb/competition

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Do something different – Sponsor an event• London Bloggers Meetup – over 1,200 members

• January 2010 O2 stopped being the only UK operator to offer the iPhone

• iPhone on Vodafone UK

• Great opportunity to win free iPhone

• 75 Bloggers + attended

• Vodafone ranked number 2 after O2

• Cost = bar tab in London ($2,500) + iPhone

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Summary

1) Honest and approachable

2) Attend events

3) Take the long term view with a business/client

4) Do something different

5) Why would they want to work with you?

•Building the relationship between the client and the blogger

•Stick to a budget

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Thank you - NYCAsk the Turn“bull” some questions

[email protected]

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screw link building - it is called relationship building - on a budget

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