**by Debra Mastaler**
Happy New Year and welcome to the first Link Week of 2010!
Eric, Julie, Garrett and I wanted to share our thoughts and
recommendations on what we think will "work" in regards to link
building in 2010. Last year was one of the most algorithmically
significant years our industry has seen in awhile and we have some
link building take-aways to share as a result. But before we look
ahead, let's take a quick look back at some of the issues and
announcements that impacted the world of link building last year.
Link building influences in 2009
2009 was an interesting year… Bing was born, Yahoo! lapsed into a
coma and Google gave us personalized
<http://searchengineland.com/google-now-personalizes-everyones-search-results-31195>
, real-time
<http://searchengineland.com/google-launches-real-time-search-31355>
and caffeinated <http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/021141.html>
search results. Social media went mainstream, "unfriend"
<http://blog.oup.com/2009/11/unfriend/>
became the word of the year, Twitter eclipsed Google as "the"
verb and everyone noticed Yelp for something more than food reviews.
There was lots of drama around pink links, we were shocked to find
site owners could no longer perform "PageRank sculpting" using the
nofollow tag
<http://searchengineland.com/pagerank-sculpting-is-dead-long-live-pagerank-sculpting-21102>
, and then shocked again to learn "sculpting with nofollow still
works
<http://www.seomoz.org/blog/pagerank-sculpting-with-nofollow-still-works>
"! There is no shortage of opinions out there. As always, the best
strategy is to try things for yourself and go from there.
People who pay attention saw "stingy" links
<http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/3938371.htm>
become the new authority, link wheels rolled out as the "service
du jour" and people finally stopped talking about paid links. Our
link building friends in the UK saw "bizarre search results
<http://searchengineland.com/the-curious-case-of-googles-bizarre-uk-search-results-22598>
" which made for some bizarre linking and mixing speed
<http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2009/11/13/google-page-speed-may-be-a-ranking-factor-in-2010>
and caffeine would normally not be advisable but in 2010 it's a must
or no flipping zippy
<http://searchengineland.com/site-speed-googles-next-ranking-factor-29793>
rank points for you.
Real estate on the organic side got crowded
<http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1W1GGLL_en&q=baseball+cards&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g-e1g-c1g2g-c2g1g-c2g1&tbo=1>
with local, image, video, shopping, news and more all fighting for
coveted space in the top results. While some struggle to find organic
search results
<http://www.seobook.com/excuse-me-where-did-googles-organic-search-results-go>
, we link builders see those varied SERPS as trends to take advantage
of and situations to learn from.
While 2009 is fresh in our minds, here are our thoughts, observations
and recommendations for link building success in 2010 from your four
Link Week writers. Ladies first!
Julie Joyce
1. As Google continues to crack down on paid links and devalue
easily-manipulated links (like blogrolls), I think that we'll see a
higher emphasis on getting links that bring traffic and not just
higher rankings. A good blog that's well-maintained and stands as an
authority in a niche has the power to send tons of relevant visitors
to a site through one simple in-content link.
2. I also think that we'll see marketers figure out better ways to
use social media to get links. Simply throwing a site's URL up on
Twitter isn't the way to do it, and many people are going to figure
out that engagement is what helps build links.
3. Along with this, I fully expect that emailed link requests will
continue to be effective, despite the fact that many people say this
method is dead. If we keep focusing on engagement, we should have no
problems getting someone to open up and respond to an email.
4. SEOs will have to prove their competence and do more to distance
themselves from the ever-increasing crop of so-called experts who
truly know very little and can cause tons of damage. Especially with
link builders, it's going to become even more important to show
results while still holding yourselves totally accountable for your
methods.
5. Image links and banner ads, when done well, do still have good
potential for delivering traffic, and I imagine that we'll see those
being used more.
Debra Mastaler
1. Traffic is the new PageRank, so the goal is to get as much from
varied sources as you can. Capture email addresses and use them in
your sales and link building efforts. Balance new content, new links
and inbound traffic when implementing a link campaign. Split your
campaigns into link popularity building and traffic generation
links—this will give you a diverse and natural looking back link
profile.
2. While Twitter is my new General Hospital, it's also my new
favorite search vehicle <http://search.twitter.com>
. Use Twitter to research for link leads as you would any search
engine. Use Twitter as a point of commonality when contacting people
for links; "I follow you on Twitter" is a wonderful icebreaker.
3. Be wary of fad link tactics, and keep in mind the key components
of link popularity and what makes a link valuable. Cookie cutter links
on similar sites won't pass the type of link popularity you need to
help your pages rank for the long-term.
4. Content development will continue to be crucial but where you
place content will be key. Article directories are still OK to use but
drive little in the way of link popularity or syndication. Developing
relationships with key bloggers, journalists and ezines will become
crucial. Look also to topical online communities and the answer sites
to find authorities to host your content.
5. Becoming the "authority" in your niche (especially for
competitive brands) will become paramount as the search noise on the
web/net escalates. One way to do this is to incorporate on and offline
advertising efforts. The more people see your brand online and
offline, the more they'll trust and link to it when asked.
Garrett French
1. Google's forthcoming caffeine update will drive the value of
"link sharing" and "link promotion" via Twitter, Facebook,
etc… Call it "real-time" link building.
2. 2010 will be the year of "link relationship management"
software, and more and more link building firms will shift away from
spreadsheets.
3. Yahoo Site Explorer (YSE) will die, driving MajesticSEO's link
profile data sales. Also I hope MajesticSEO can find a way to profit
from giving away a little bit more of that links-per-page data.
4. "Link building" becomes more deeply integrated into social
media and PR practices (at least on the content side…).
5. Competitor back link profiles and link building queries are
useful, but watch for tools that discover highest value, immediately
actionable link prospects from massive data sets.
Eric Ward
Link building will be recognized as a marketing tactic far beyond
organic search rank benefits. Link marketing, which is what us "old
school" nuts call it, will come back to the forefront, where it
should be. Site specific link marketing plans, where search rank
impact is just one part of the strategy, will rule once again. Call it
revenge of the old farts!
And there you have it! Keep the dial on Link Week
<http://searchengineland.com/library/link-week>
every Tuesday for more link building ideas in 2010. And if you have
any thoughts about trends in link building for the coming year, please
tell us about them in the comments section below.
Opinions expressed in the article are those of the author, and not
necessarily Search Engine Land.
Debra Mastaler <http://searchengineland.com/author/debra-mastaler/>
offers link training
<http://www.alliance-link.com/link-building-training.htm>
and custom link building campaigns through her Williamsburg Virginia
based firm Alliance-Link. She is also the author of the link building
blog <http://www.linkspiel.com>
The Link Spiel.
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