Web PieRat

OK, so this isn’t link stalking, it’s a battle over a box. Cats love boxes. Cricket controls the box, but Mittens is definitely interested in acquiring the box for his own uses. And because he’s aggressive, Mittens does indeed become king of the box.

Link stalking is much the same. It’s about determining which links your competitors have that you might fancy having yourself. Unlike Mittens, your reign will not usually be supreme — the typical successful result is that both you and your competitor now have similar links. If this is the only tactic in your link building arsenal, you’ll likely get closer to your competitors’ results but this alone will not beat your competitor. That’s not surprising since there is no single SEO tactic that will beat your competitor, but it’s worth repeating anyway.

Learn more about the link stalking by reading “Link Stalking with Link Diagnosis.”

Like this LOL? Vote it up at http://cheezburger.com/jillkocher/lolz/View/5447259648.

I guess SEO has gone completely mainstream: from outing articles in the New York Times to Dilbert’s cartoon take on black hat activities.

Yesterday’s strip has Dilbert’s boss intentionally asking for black hat SEO methods. In reality most management types don’t actually request for the black stuff by category, rather they request SEO tactics that they are unaware are discouraged by webmaster guidelines. SEO tectics such as buying links, doorway sites, cloaking, keyword and link stuffing, and other tactics all fall into this camp. Still, it’s far funnier this way.

So what happens? It’s unclear whether this result could be classified as banning or some form of bombing, but who cares. It’s funny!

PS: Scott Adams, if you’re listening, your Facebook Share button doesn’t share the image thumbnail, only the text and URL. At least on Chrome. Sad face.

Personal Note: You may know that I am the SEO Manager for Groupon, a competitor/co-opetioner with some of the sites mentioned here. I found this example reading group buying industry news, not in an effort to spread stories about other sites in Groupon’s space. I would have felt compelled to post this perfect example of good and bad commenting even if it had been a story completely unrelated to my employer’s industry simply because it is related to the SEO industry.

Comment spam is one of the lowest forms of “link building.” Yet people continue to do it because it’s easy, because they think it works and because they don’t understand that many comment sections aren’t crawlable even if the links are followed. But sometimes comment spammers get outed, like in the comments on this TechCrunch post about the partnership between BuyWithMe and SCVNGR. I grabbed a couple of screen shots in case the thread is deleted to illustrate this example (click them to enlarge).

What’s wrong with these comments? If they are from real people with real opinions, nothing. But the same users allegedly posted these comments on multiple posts on the TechCrunch, leaving links to UrbanSpoils on each. Other readers recognized the tactic and called him/them out on it. Personally, I can’t find any duplicate comments from these users, but I didn’t look very long either. The point remains: Comment spam at your peril — is the link inserted valuable enough to risk the scorn of the other readers and commenters? My answer is no. And in this case at least, certainly not. Here’s why:

• Disqus.com comments are fed into posts using JavaScript. The comment spam isn’t even crawlable in this instance (see cache). So if the goal was to seed links into posts to improve link popularity, #fail.
• If the intent was to gain click-through traffic from other readers, it’s possible that some clicks were achieved before the outing. Afterwards, I would doubt that many clicked, at least not with the intent to transact. But only the log files know for sure. Still, I call this a #fail.
• And lastly, even any positive brand recognition that positive comment mentions would have generated have very likely been more than negated by the tongue lashing from other commenters. So #fail.

Not all commenting is spam, of course. When you legitimately have something of value to add to a conversation and when you disclose your identity if you have a self-interest, then comment away. On the very same post, the co-founder of SayLocal comments, disclosing his identity and self-interest. You’ll note that no one flames his comment. It may be just as self-interested, but he has given us the ability to judge his comment honestly.

Share Web PieRat, Matey

With the help of Link Diagnosis, I’ve recently become intimate with link stalking. Erm, I mean, competitive backlink analysis. As my optimization hands are temporarily tied awaiting architectural and content management system revisions, external link building is the most useful way to bide my time. I was pleasantly surprised that Link Diagnosis had redesigned their service since the last time I visited them … a year ago September 2009. Sorry guys. This is for the rest of you who missed their grand transformation.

Their “new” interface is sleek, easy to read, easy to export, and comes with a handy link strength score. And it’s still free! The data is pulled from Yahoo’s BOSS API, and will continue to be functional even after the Bing merger. The report strips out internal links, leaving you with the stalkable external links to review at your leisure. In essence, it’s like running a query through Yahoo Site Explorer with the filters set to “except from this domain” and “entire site,” but the interface makes it fat more pleasant and efficient to use than YSE.

Installing Link Diagnosis

Unlike the former tool, Link Diagnosis now requires a FireFox plug in. You know the drill, click and install. The report will not run without it.

Initiating the Report

Just head to their homepage and enter any URL.

Click to view larger

Click on the “Filters” tab below the large input field for a drop down with the report options.

• You can turn PageRank gathering on or off. I prefer it on: It’s slower but I like to have as much data as possible.
• The “Site Settings” option allows you to limit the report to a single URL or run the whole domain. Unfortunately there’s no folder option. It would be nice to get results for pages in a single category. The single page option is good for the most valuable pages on the site. Each run maxes out at 1,001 pages (Yahoo’s API limit), so if you really want to sleuth out the most links you’ll want to run the homepage and the high level pages on the site as well as the full domain.
• The other 3 settings I don’t mess with. Tweaking the speed can get your IP temporarily blocked, essentially slowing down your data collection process more than just running the reports at normal speed. And as for the other 2, who doesn’t like “optimized” and “enhanced?”

The next step is pretty straight forward: Click START. While the app runs, they kindly show their progress via a running log of activities with a tally of the various types of links discovered.

Click to view larger

A couple of interesting things to note:

• The green “Continue Browsing” tab at the top opens another tab in FireFox for Link Diagnosis. You can surf on your merry way while your report runs in the other tab, or you can enter another URL to report on. Link Diagnosis cannot multitask to run multiple reports at once, but it will start the next automatically when the previous report has finished.
• The “Simple View” at bottom left just makes the viewing window smaller. Not sure what the value there is, since you can’t use the web page under the pop up app, but it’s there if you like that sort of thing.
• The “Extension Manager” at bottom right opens a new tab with a listing of the reports you’ve run during that session. The session seems to last until you restart FireFox. If you log in and save reports, you can view them anytime in the Extension Manager. You can also manage all the reports you’ve requested, delete reports that are waiting to run, and view reports that you ran earlier in your session. Here’s what it looks like:

Click to view larger

Saving & Exporting the Data

When the report finishes running, the results will load in the same tab. Or you can view them later from the Extension Manager. Either way, the report  has everything you could ask for:

Click to view larger

• The report header has a summary of the number and type of links found.
• Page URL: The URL linking to the requested domain/page
• PageRank: The toolbar PageRank of the URL linking to the requested domain/page
• Anchor: The anchor text used to link to the requested domain/page
• Link Type: Identifies whether the link was found on the linking page, and whether it was nofollowed.
• Outbound Links: The number of external links off the linking URL.
• Link Strength: A proprietary score that seems to be based on PageRank & the number of external links off the linking URL.
• Link History: Identifies whether the link is new or whether it has been included in this report previously. Only useful in saved reports. In new or unsaved reports the history will always say “new.”
• Links To: Only available in the exported CSV file, displays the exact URL linked to. Very useful when the report has been run on the whole domain.

The column headers in the online report allow for sorting, a nice feature for quick eyeballing.

To save the report past the current session, log in and click the green “Save” button at the head of the report. When logged in, you’ll be able to view the report in the Extension Manager until you delete it.

Clicking the “Share” button copies the unique URL of that report to your clipboard so that you can email it around without having to export it first. Here’s the sample report for Groupon.com I’ve been using for screenshots.

Exporting to CSV is simple. Just click on “Export” at the head of the report. Choose which CSVversion you want save as you would any file. Open it up in your spreadsheet program of choice and start stalking.

I prefer to merge the individual exports into a single large file for cross comparing competitors’ link profiles. By sorting on PageRank or Link Strength I can see which competitors have managed to grab unique juicy links from sources other competitor haven’t thought of. And by sorting alphabetically by linking URL I can see which competitors have links from common domains (a poor man’s Hubfinder).

At the end of the day, competitive link analysis is not an ace in the hole. Acquiring the same links competitors have just gets a site on the same backlink playing field as its competitors. Link stalking is just one small tactic in the overall SEO playbook. And Link Diagnosis makes it easier, for free.

Share Web PieRat, Matey

Tweet Me

The folks at Necco developed a sweet link bait campaign for Valentine’s Day to celebrate the introduction of new social messages like “TWEET ME” and “TEXT ME” — design your own Sweethearts conversation hearts.

This fun little bit of link bait gives you the power to say whatever you want in your candy heart conversation! Feeling romantic? Bitter? Sad? Witty? Sweet? No problem, say it with digital candy in public on Twitter or in private via e-mail.

Dear search geeks, here’s a sample Valentine for you and our favorite search engines. Try it yourself; the app is available free for the iPhone as well as at the campaign’s microsite.

From a link building standpoint, Sweethearts is putting a lot of effort into generating buzz for the app and the launch of the new candy messages on their Sweethearts Twitter profile and their Sweethearts Facebook profile. Nicely done, Sweethearts — good interaction with fans and frequent but not overly repetitive tweets and posts about the app and the launch.

The piece I see missing is consistent cross channel promotion. There’s a blog / Twitter contest that doesn’t mention the app and some strong news articles focused on the new candy messages that may or may not mention the app but don’t include links to it. So there’s a some promotion of the candy and the new messages happening, but it’s not being tied consistently together to also promote the link bait outside of Twitter and Facebook. In addition, there’s no mention of the app on the official Necco Sweethearts product page, or the games page, or the news page. The Necco homepage does have a large image feature and link, but that’s the sole mention as far as I can see.

The app is one piece of the launch’s promotional campaign, but it’s an inconsistently mentioned piece. From a link building standpoint, the app represents sweet link bait. But it needs promotion to succeed as link bait. Without promotion, link bait is like a tree falling in the woods. If no one sees it fall or stumbles over it later, it may as well not exist. Which means it won’t drive the quantity of links that it could with stronger promotion. Stronger ties with press relations, online marketing for the necco.com site, e-mail campaigns and other marketing channels would strengthen consistency of promotion for the app and naturally generate more links.

I only stumbled over the app as I was tweeting something else. I happened to notice the small suggested app link on my Twitter homepage and clicked it because I love Sweethearts. They were my favorite Valentine’s candy as a kid. The Twitter link is a boon, but it rotates with 15-20 other links. It’s not a persistent, visible presence to drive eyeballs or link juice to the app’s microsite.

Maybe the app wasn’t designed as a link building tactic. That seems likely since it has no links to pass link popularity in to any other Necco or Sweethearts web content or social profiles. I find that extremely surprising. The app developer gets a link, iTunes gets a link for the iPhone app store, but Sweethearts doesn’t link to its own site or profiles. OK, perhaps SEO and link building weren’t taken into account at the beginning. But since Necco has already spent the resources to dream up and develop the app, why not link back to the primary Necco site, promote the app more strongly with the promotion they’re already doing for the new messages launch, and get more buzz and link popularity for the campaign’s cost?

Share Web PieRat, Matey
Delicious	DIGG	Facebook	FriendFeed	Google	Linked In	MySpace
Reddit	Sphinn	Stumbleupon	Technorati	Twitter	Yahoo Buzz

Thanks for sharing.

I’m really looking forward to tracking the progress of two social media campaigns currently in progress, one complex and one simple.

Smart & Simple
American Greetings has launched a fun and easy Twitter Valentine’s Day campaign that asks followers to tweet a response to 14 daily questions and tag them with #LoveAG. Each day one winner will be chosen to receive $350 in gift cards.

Today’s question: “You’re a Grammy Award winner (like our beloved Taylor Swift) & you’re writing a love song-what’s the chorus?” Horrifying, humiliating, horrendous … but I admit I did submit my own awful chorus. Yesterday was “What does it feel like to fall in love?” Who knows what tomorrow will be, but I’ll be checking in to see.

That’s the entire campaign! Simple, engaging, brilliant! No content creation, no media development, no promotional costs. Just a good idea, $4,900 in gift cards, and the daily discipline and creativity for 14 days to tweet like crazy on the same topic without sounding bored or repetitive.

Could it be better? Even the best campaigns can be better in hindsight. The contest comes from the corporate branch of American Greetings (http://corporate.americangreetings.com, http://twitter.com/amgreetings). The consumer ecards and interactive site has a separate site and Twitter account (http://www.americangreetings.com, http://twitter.com/ag_ecards), which sadly is not participating in its corporate sister’s Valentine’s fun. In addition, I see no mention of the contest on either the corporate or www site, though there are plenty of other Valentine’s promotions. Why not include a homepage link with a fun visual, a blurb in the e-mail newsletter, a press release, shout it across affiliated Twitter profiles and the forgotten Facebook profile? Use the channels the company controls to get more impact for the campaign’s effort.

Going for the Gusto
On the other side of the spectrum, Volkswagen pulls out all the stops for their “Punch Dub” campaign that spans TV advertising, Twitter, Facebook, a YouTube Channel, a Posterous blog and their primary vw.com site. They’ve created a personality (Sluggy Patterson), an online game, video content, and more, all leading up to their spot on the Super Bowl. That’s a whole lot of promotion, friends. It’s sparkly, it’s now, it’s what cool is supposed to be.

The problem is (cringe) I just don’t care. This campaign feels like it’s talking at me, not engaging with me.

OK, so maybe I’m not the target demographic for VW’s Punch Dub. I’m female, I drive a Prius, I live in a rural town in Wisconsin, I probably won’t watch the Super Bowl. Sure, I like crotchety old guys with grizzled senses of humor as much as the next gal. And it’s neato that VW created this character around Slug Bug, a cherished childhood game that admittedly still creeps into my mind as I drive. But I don’t feel compelled to log in today to see what Sluggy has to say on his blog, or video, or tweets.

That said, I’m not exactly American Greetings’ target audience either. I might buy 6 traditional greeting cards a year and I hate ecards. Sorry, AG, I’m a Snapfish photo card girl.

So why does American Greetings’ simple campaign speak to me and VW’s fancy multi-channel campaign not? For me it’s the engaging factor. It’s the invitation to participate in the fun rather than sit at a brand’s feet and wait for it to speak at me. What do you think?

Share Web PieRat, Matey
Delicious	DIGG	Facebook	FriendFeed	Google	Linked In	MySpace
Reddit	Sphinn	Stumbleupon	Technorati	Twitter	Yahoo Buzz

Thanks for sharing.

Finally, the chicken and egg dilemma solved on a t-shirt

Tweet Me

Being the new kid on the web is hard. You need links to boost a site’s visibility, but it’s awfully hard to get links naturally without visibility in the search results. Sites can’t link to you if they don’t know you exist, right? It’s a little like the classic chicken & egg causality dilemma. But not really since if you don’t have a site you wouldn’t care about links anyway. Whatever.

The point is, link acquisition is hard work. Researching topically relevant sites and crafting the right approach for each takes time and creativity. Cutting corners leads to poorer conversion to links at best, and outright spam at worst.

BK's Subservient Chicken

On the surface, link bait seems like an easier way to build links. After all, you just have to think of something totally cool that could go viral. “Subservient chicken? Ha, I coulda thought of that.” OK, fine, dreaming up a great idea is a good start, but what about content creation and promotion. The “If you build it, he will come” theory only worked when the interwebs were very, very small. And not really then, either. Let’s assume the audience actually gets to the bait. Once they devour it, cross your fingers that it will cause enough of a reaction to convert to links.

Frankly, if link building was easy, everyone would do it. It would be easy to spam. Which means that it wouldn’t remain valuable for long in the search engines’ eyes. Which also means it would cease to be effective for SEO, and we’d all be talking about something else.

For now, links rule the roost. What’s your go-to link building tactic?

Share Web PieRat, Matey
Delicious	DIGG	Facebook	FriendFeed	Google	Linked In	MySpace
Reddit	Sphinn	Stumbleupon	Technorati	Twitter	Yahoo Buzz

     Thanks for sharing.