Backlink Monitoring: Keeping Track of Your Existing Links

When you've put a lot of effort in acquiring links to your website, you want to make sure these links aren't lost at any time.

When multiple links are removed or changed within a short timeframe this is a strong signal to search engines that these links could have been acquired unnaturally.

Since Penguin, Google has gotten a lot improved at finding all similar links. You might lose the value for all of them when only a couple is tagged as obviously unnatural.

Monitoring which links are removed and which links are unclear over time allows you to take action before Google does. So how do you efficiently keep track of your existing links?

Why Monitor Existing Links?

Sometimes you trade more than just the fine content on your website with a link partner. Although natural links should be seen as votes of confidence, sometimes a link is an agreed obligation for business partners, discounts, or other deals.

To see if they keep their end of the bargain it isn't sufficient to check on them once. Far too often links are removed after a couple of months.

Google spam detection is all regarding patterns in your link profile. Groups of similar links are seen as degrees of normal behavior and valued as such. When multiple links in a group start to behave less natural, the whole group will be affected negatively.

Automated Link Alerts

Checking 50 links once a month is the most you should be willing to do physically. When you need to monitor over 50 links you're dependent on automated tools that alert you when a link has been changed.

You can choose between a variety of solutions that run as a desktop application or as web-based service. When selecting the right service for you, make sure that it has a variety of options to send you alerts and keep in mind that the more frequently it re-checks links, the better.

What Changes are Important?

The most significant change to monitor is losing a link. You need to know if just the link has been removed or the whole page it was on. The latter often happens by accident, but the first requires aware action from your partner.

It's also important to find out when the particulars of a link are altered. Your link partner might add a nofollow or adds associate tracking to the link. All changes to link specifics including anchor text and landing page should be monitored.

Different Tools

If you aren't using expensive tools like Majestic SEO, which has “Lost Links” as just one of their options, there are a variety of alternatives that offer just backlink monitoring. Here are just a couple of solutions:

Majestic SEO

Pro: Allows you to dig deep within all your links and you don't have to pre-select which links to monitor.

Con: Doesn't have automatic alerts and doesn't report on changes, just on lost links within the last six months.

Link Assistant

Pro: Has a lot of extra features to keep track of all link deals.

Con: Runs from your local machine and is based on the unwanted practice of link trades.

Linkody

Pro: Reports on every change to your link in detail. Linkody re-checks daily and sends automated alerts. It combines a variety of methods of link discovery and can even report on early placement.

Con: Can only be used for backlink monitoring. Similar functionality is obtainable in complete services like Jetrank and Raven.

Acting on Changed/Lost Links

Once you take delivery of an alert, try to find out what the original deal with that partner was. Contact them as soon as possible to resurrect the link in time before Google flags it.

Although I'm a big fan of naturally acquired links, you need to guard those link-gems you accidentally or intentionally acquired. Backlink monitoring is one of those things too few of us do.

Google Penguin 2.0 Casualties: Why Sites Got Hit

It's now been one week as Google Penguin 2.0 went live. Google's Distinguished Engineer Matt Cutts promised the new generation of Penguin would go deeper, and it seems to have lived up to that promise.

Here are some early findings from sites hit by Penguin.

Does Google Penguin 2.0 Go Deeper on Spammy Links?

Last year after Google Penguin 1.0 launched, Glenn Gabe at G-Squared Interactive did an analysis of sites that lost traffic and rankings, and I covered in "Google Penguin Update: 5 Types of Link Issues Harming Some Affected Websites". Those link issues were:

Paid text links using precise match anchor text.

• Comment spam.
• Guest posts on questionable sites.
• Article marketing sites.
• Links from dangerous sites.

Gabe is back with a new Penguin analysis that confirms Google is now looking at more than links to the home page. He examined the content and link profiles of 13 sites that lost traffic and rankings after Google deployed Penguin 2.0 last week.

Once again, heavy usage of correct match anchor text (for so-called "money keywords") was the biggest culprit. All 13 of the websites Gabe looked at all had heavy use exact match anchor text links aimed at deeper pages (i.e., not just the home page), such as category and subcategory pages:

If you've followed Penguin, nothing here should be shocking. Just as Google Penguin targeted unnatural link profiles, so too does Google Penguin 2.0. The big difference now is that Penguin is taking a closer look at more than just the home page.

2 Google Penguin 2.0 Case Studies

Sistrix and Searchmetrics have both put out lists of sites of Penguin 2.0 "losers". As a general rule, we've stopped covering these lists as frequently the data can be misleading.

That said, Link Research Tools has taken a deep dive into a couple of the Penguin 2.0 casualties mentioned on those lists: HOME24.DE and cheapoair.com. Both saw huge search visibility drops (though it's not clear whether they have taken an equal traffic hit). Both of these outstanding case studies are certainly worth a read.

Essentially, both sites scream "spam!" to Google for a variety of reasons, but both had the same issue with "money keywords". These sites stuck out more than their competitors in a mixture of ways in their link profiles – for example, cheapoair.com had "66% Money Keywords while the total standard of the other 10 competitors at only 29%." Also note the lack of "brand" links:

Also problematic are links from sites infected with malware, and pages that are no longer indexed. Christoph Cemper also noted HOME24.DE had an issue with several unhealthy redirected domains, and raises a possible concern:

…penalties were said not to pass via 301 redirects in the past – did that change with Penguin 2.0? 301ing was used for a while to get rid of penalties, and … if that [changed] it would open up an entire new can of worms for negative SEO. Big time.

Summary

While these are early findings, they do present some confirmation on why sites got hit by Penguin 2.0. Gabe advises working to take away as many unnatural links as you can manually before disavowing the rest.

Cleaning up your profile likely won't be enough to recover from Penguin 2.0, however. This isn't a manual penalty, it's an algorithmic update. Still, there are a number of steps you can take to beef up your link profile and start showing Google stronger brand signals.

Only 37% of Marketers believe Their Facebook Advertising is successful [Study]

Social Media Examiner has released the 2013 Social Media Marketing Industry statement. Of all the questions they posed to marketers this year, the thing that stands out the most is not how many businesses are using social media, but how many aren't actually tracking how effective their social media marketing actually is.

Of those who participated in the survey, 97 percent said they were using social media for their businesses and 86 percent considered it to be an significant part of their marketing efforts.

Moving onto Facebook specially, it isn't surprising that 92 percent were using Facebook as part of their social media efforts and that 49 percent considered Facebook to be their most essential social media platform.

But what is surprising is the actuality that only 37 percent of marketers think their Facebook advertising is successful. That is a pretty astonishing number. Is this a metric that shows Facebook marketing isn't efficient, or is it really to do with the fact marketers aren't properly tracking those Facebook efforts into ROI?

The report also reveals that larger businesses were much more likely to agree that Facebook was effective, but this might also be from a number of factors, such as higher brand awareness overall and targeted traffic from their company brand site to their Facebook page. For smaller businesses and lesser-known brands, Facebook marketing might definitely seem to have a lesser impact without a well-known and familiar brand behind it.

Another interesting factor is the relationship among the amount of experience using social media and the amount of time spent marketers spend on their social media efforts. Fifty percent of those with less than 12 months experience with social media are spending 5 or fewer hours on social media, while for those who have been doing social media for at least two years, 70 percent of those are spending 6 or more hours on their social media efforts each week.

3 Strategies to be successful in Today's Mobile Marketplace

Since Google's announcement of improved campaigns, all eyes have been on mobile. Advertisers who have felt the pain of lower ROI are left wondering, "Are improved campaigns going to help me win in Google mobile – or are they designed to help Google win in mobile?"

Let's start by acknowledging that yes, mobile is growing like crazy. People are using these devices at an accelerating pace, and eMarketer has forecasted mobile advertising to be almost an $11 billion business by 2016, up from 315 percent from 2012.

Interestingly, a recent study by IAB reports that "mobile" doesn't mean "remote," as mobile activity happens most frequently in the home. This finding contrasts with the widely held assumption that mobile ads are most viewed by consumers "on the go."

But the IAB findings explain that the period of highest usage of mobile devices occurs during leisure activities at night, somewhat than during the "on the go" errand-running times of the day. That said, time of day and type of activity have implications for mobile performance.

An internal adMarketplace study recently showed that tablets converted 93 percent as efficiently as desktops while smartphones were only 49 percent as proficient. Other reports support this finding, including this one from independent research publication, Marketing Charts, which highlights low conversion rates on phones when compared to tablets and desktops during the holiday shopping season.

Reported revenues per click for each device reflect the disparity in performance on phones as well. The chart below shows us how far behind phone click volume is compared to tablets and desktops.

The good news is search ad providers are acting to give advertisers the tools to stay profitable despite this disparity in performance. Google's enhanced campaigns lets advertisers adjust phone bids as a percentage of their desktop/tablet bids in a single campaign; Bing Ads allows for separate targeting by device type at the campaign and ad group level.

Having this granular control over a rapidly expanding market is great, but it doesn't change the fact that you need to hold mobile to a different standard. As marketers, you're under pressure to guide mobile consumers down the conversion funnel and generate an immediate profit on your investment.

Consumers, however, don't feel the same pressure to convert instantly. Aside from creating mobile-friendly websites and targeting ads with mobile-friendly assets, you can't force mobile users to behave the same way as if they were at their desktop during the day.

So how do you win with mobile? Instead of holding mobile performance to the same standards as desktop and tablets, you should adopt an altered and more realistic set of KPIs. Here are three strategies to succeed in today's mobile marketplace:

1. Relax Your ROI Goals

If your aim is 5:1 for desktop and performance to date on mobile is 2:1, consider setting a target ROI of 3:1 for mobile instead.

With lower ROI expectations, you can continue to connect your target audience on this device and be more likely to achieve your goals given what you know about behavior by device type.

2. Analyze Engagement Metrics (e.g., Time on Site, Pageviews, Unique Visitors)

Invest more time and resources into mobile experience as you do with desktop. Find where users are looking, and more importantly where they aren't looking, to optimize their mobile experience.

While tracking conversions across devices can prove difficult, mobile advertising does get users deeper into the sales funnel. Remember, many of today's consumers conduct product research with their phone, and finalize purchases with their tablets or desktops at a later time.

So consider this a "higher funnel" activity, and consider allocating branding budgets – not strictly direct response budgets – to mobile devices.

3. Think about How You Use Your Own Devices

If you want to show a friend a funny video on YouTube, are you more likely to get together around your laptop or pass around your tablet? Do you tend to make more purchases on your mobile devices during your commute or when you get home to your laptop? My experience on both questions is the latter.

Once marketers and advertisers acknowledge that consumer behavior conforms to device capabilities, they can begin to adapt their expectations and hold mobile to a different standard.

Summary

As the current research shows, phones simply aren't being used as often for purchases. Mobile is a more efficient tool when used for brand awareness and research than direct response. Adapting your marketing strategies accordingly can decrease your likelihood of panicking when you compare mobile to desktop performance and missing out on this critical opportunity to promote your brand.

Broadening your expectations will allow you to stay in communication with your customers throughout the course of the day and enlarge the likelihood that they'll convert.

Until the day when mobile becomes the ultimate purchasing agent, advertisers should take mobile for what it is – a brilliant tool for brands to strengthen relationships with consumers.

The inopportune fact about SEO

Matt Cutts published a video with a very interesting topic lately. He discussed the question, if a legal and customer appreciated business can compete in gaining high rankings in the search engines with companies that concentrate in traffic acquisition. Can they?

As stated in the video, the Internet leveled the chances of big and small companies in the marketing field. It’s a playing field where anyone can compete, but the game is not leveled at all.

A role model company in search engine realism

Let’s imagine a young company and entrepreneur who try to gain the traffic they mainly deserve. They could say that they are the right in their industry. They are also well known by their customers, but in order to grow big, they are aware of the need to attract new customers. There are a variety of ways to attract clients online and search engines are measured as one of the first places they want to look for them. Gaining organic inbound traffic is treated as a necessary component of the online marketing mix.

The SEO landscape

The SEO landscape has shifted over time. Google’s Panda & Penguin updates made SEO professionals change their tactics and are going towards excellence. Buying links, participating in link exchange programs and generating backlinks from spammy content farms are not an approach anymore.

SEO still is a process where not only marketing, but also technical knowledge is required. For example:

organizing website’s structure and navigation

preparing a sitemap

preparing SEO friendly url’s

optimizing web pages’ titles and describing images

regulating instructions for web robots in robots.txt

backlinks management

These elements might sound obvious, but also could be a difficult part of optimization. As SEO has changed and it has become more content centric, still the technical aspects are significant as a necessary foundation.

Content marketing, commonly called as the new SEO is aimed to offer valuable information to users. People all over the world are actively seeking answers. The content, if properly crafted, could control the user and be the spark that would turn a user into a customer. The young company is aware that in the new algorithm changed search reality, producing quality content is a must. They put in their time and resources to produce content that’s original, engaging and creates value. They care about distribution; they offer coverage with social media and wait for the results.

Content and its impact on rankings

Creating superb and timeless content that lasts is a very difficult task. Most of the content produced, despite the fact that it’s important, is temporary. The results of this kind of content could be temporary, as well as the interest of user, since the provided information becomes outdated. Do you care what SEO looked like 2 years ago? What counts is here and now. Still, the impact of these kinds of activities is hardly noticeable when talking about rankings. In the top of SERPs, sometimes the spammy feel or unrelated, but topnotch optimized sites are visible in higher positions. Why is it so?

The gray SEO reality

SEO is a hard and constantly changing process. It’s becoming more diversified and demanding. There is a vast number of do’s and don’ts that companies should stick with, in order to get results. Although it’s going towards a more human approach, the SEO specialists still have a important advantage over business do-it-yourself competition.

Organic traffic isn’t free

Search engines are programs that crawl the web looking for information. They are using difficult algorithms to index and deliver us relevant results. Although their features and provided results are getting better and better, they are still programs. Thanks to this, they can be predictable.

There are a lot of indicators that tell the search engines that your content is the right one to show to the user, besides the relevancy. Even if the content is superb, that’s not enough. SEO professionals have experience, knowledge about factors and techniques to convince the search engine about the content’s importance. Therefore they are able to gain high rankings. That’s the cause why good content, confronted with professionalized SEO, often stays out of the SERPs.

You can guess that the high rankings in search engines aren’t free. If there is money, the SEO process that leads to making more income is becoming more professional too.

Why is it so hard for companies to breach into SERPs and get organic traffic?

When companies struggle to get the high position and get organic traffic, they compete in an uneven fight. Although the organic results aren’t paid, they have a cost. If it’s not money, it’s the time necessary to gain the knowledge and to develop valuable content. It also requires a strategy and lots of analytical preparation, aimed to distribute it and engage the audience. The technical requirements make it even more difficult. Building a brand online and competing with professionals who concentrate in driving traffic from search engines costs a lot of time and effort. It’s like taking part in a sports competition, where most of the contestants are pro’s and you’re just a rookie.

Final thoughts

SEO is demanding. For entrepreneurs who are trying to get new customers and build a brand online little can be done. Since Google is the global number one, we are thankful to play by its rules (and as a matter of fact, we let them set the standards). Bare in mind that SEO is a long term process, where rankings aren’t the ultimate goal. You have to do the research, create a plan, publish valuable content and distribute it via social media. Finally, you have to converse with the public.

If you’re going to be organized, you’re going to get inbound traffic and ultimately your efforts will earn you a place in the SERPs beyond your competition. It’s a steep and long road. If you feel discouraged about SEO, and I admit, that you could be, Google prepared a place on the side and on the top of the results page, for clients who want to get instant effects. For the rest of us, it’s either one way or the other you’ll have to pay for SEO, or get to know SEO and work your way up.

What can social media do for me in a PR crisis?

When that bad story first hits your computer screen, you can be excused for feeling just a little bit panicked. If you're like most companies, you aren't ready for a PR crisis. You might have some action plan in mothballs, but if it doesn't take in social media readiness, you're not prepared for a full-blown 21st century PR imbroglio. If you haven't thought through how social media transforms your PR crisis planning, it's time to do so now.

Social media can be perfect in crisis management for a few reasons. First, nothing beats the speed with which you can react. You don't have to remain for media to call. You can answer the story right where it starts, possibly quelling an issue before it gains too much negative momentum. On the other hand, social media demands that you react quickly, so one person's opportunity can be perceived as another's curse.

You also have the advantage of being unfiltered-no news media is interpreting or editing what you say. Your words, unfettered, can make the feeling directly on your audience. Your words also influence the mainstream media, so you get your cake and can eat it, too.

And your response can be individual, and therefore more believable, than the corporate-speak press releases we did in the old days. When Ford was criticized for taking legal action against a fan club, Ford's Scott Monty jumped into the discussion to let people know that Ford was listening, and quickly brought forward facts that the fan club was copying Ford trademarks without permission and turned belief around in just one day. Scott's credibility built from years in the community made that happen as much as anything else.

So, if you are not equipped for your next crisis, this is your big chance to get ready. You must build the credibility now, before the crisis, by participating on blogs, message boards, Twitter-wherever your audience hangs out. Then when the crisis hits, you'll have credible voices already in the right places-voices that will be listened to much more than a PR person you parachute in.

As you watch companies pilloried in social media each day for real and imagined transgressions, remember that some day it will be your turn. By preparing for that crisis moment, you'll be able to weather that crisis and emerged relatively unscathed. (I am not sure what it is, but I definitely don't ever want to be scathed.)

5 Things you need to be familiar About AdWords’ New Keyword Planner

Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool has been the normal for AdWords keyword research for over a decade, but there’s a new sheriff in town: the AdWords Keyword Planner. This new keyword tool combines the functionality of the existing Google Keyword Tool as well as AdWords Traffic Estimator into a single integrated workflow to help advertisers find new keywords for their PPC campaigns.

My understanding is that the new Keyword Planner will ultimately replace the Google Keyword Tool and Traffic Estimator, so if you currently use either of these tools in your search marketing efforts, be they organic or paid, here’s what you need to be familiar with about the new tool.

1. Keyword Planner Is a Playground for Keyword Discovery

AdWords Keyword Planner works like a standard keyword research tool but with more bells and whistles. Features include:

Keyword search options: You can look for new keywords to add to your campaigns based on the product or service you’re marketing, your landing page URL, your product category or all of the above.

Keyword statistics and performance estimates: Specify targeting options (such as country, language and search network) to get more precise estimates on PPC results for each keyword.

Keyword filters: You can narrow your keyword list based on criteria like average CPC and monthly search volume. You can also comprise or exclude keywords containing specific terms and exclude keywords that are already in your AdWords account.

Group view and list view: Keyword Planner can either show your keywords as a list, as in the old keyword tool, or you can also see them grouped into niches by relevance.

These new features make Keyword Planner more robust than the old Google Keyword Tool. Here’s what it looks like!

2. Keyword Planner is a PPC Campaign Creation Wizard That Maintains State

A key technical difference between Keyword Planner vs. the Google Keyword Tool is that it’s designed to be a “wizard” for creating AdWords campaigns. The Keyword Planner walks you throughout several steps including: 

• Choose how you desire to get your keywords.
• Pick keywords and/or keyword groupings to add into your “Keyword Plan”
• Get bid and budget estimates for the keywords you picked
• Export your data

 Thus, your “Keyword Plan” can be viewed as like having a keyword shopping cart. It maintains state so that you can take the keywords you picked in the keyword picking stage, and then do more work on it later in the traffic and bids estimation stage. This is better than having separate tools for doing Keyword Suggestion and Traffic Estimation because previously you had to export from one tool and import into the next – the new process flow is more seamless.

So, even if you leave the tool, then come back a day later, it remembers the keywords you picked from your last session, as shown here:

3. You Can generate Campaigns Based On Your Own Keyword List

If you already have a keyword list from another tool, previous research, your own analytics, etc., you can upload your custom list into the Keyword Planner interface and do all the same keyword researching tasks like organizing keywords, get estimates, filtering keywords (etc.) – all based on the list of keywords that you provided.

4. Keyword Planner Has a New Keyword Mash-Up Capability

Another new feature that wasn’t obtainable in the old Keyword Tool is the ability to mash up and multiply keyword lists. For example, let’s say you own a chain of car dealerships. You could mash up a list of keywords related to the cars you sell (Honda Accord, Honda CRV, etc.) with a list of all the town and city names near your dealerships to get a single joint list. You can then get estimates on those new keywords.

5. The New Keyword Planner is obtainable Now, But Only if You’re Lucky!

Like what you see? Check your AdWords account under the tools tab, and you may have access. Currently, Keyword Planner is in limited beta – I guess that it’s live in around 1% of AdWords accounts out there today. However, Google says they will be rolling out the tool to more accounts soon, so keep your eyes peeled.

While you’re waiting, if you’re into advanced long tail keyword research, keyword grouping and discovering keyword niches – be sure to check out my free Keyword Tool, Keyword Niche Finder and Keyword Grouping tools!

Google Talks Back: Conversational Search obtainable on New Version of Chrome

Google unveiled conversational search at Google I/O last week, and began rolling it out on the most recent version of Chrome this week.

Today, I chatted with Google to ask it burning questions like, "How many children does Madonna have?" and "What's the sense of life?" While Google doesn't relatively have the latter down just yet, it was able to comment on the matter, at least seemingly (try it and see).

The "OK Google search prompt we heard about at I/O isn't obtainable yet, so we still have that additional click in the process. To strike up a conversation with Google in the new version of Chrome, turn up the volume on your computer, click on the microphone, and ask away.

The feature is still working out bugs, and just like any search, using the in order available to it on the Web. Often, Google displays its answer to the question in the form of "cards" at the top of search results while it relays the information verbally.

Depending on the way you ask the question, the search results below the card change, just like a usual ol' typed query. Here are the results to the question, "Who are Madonna's kids?":

And here are the results to the question, "How many children does Madonna have?":

Also, Google might be lazy. When answering my Madonna question verbally, Google named two of the four children, and simply said "and others" for the rest.

Some reports show Google is able to understand and respond to a series of questions, even if nouns aren't used.

For example, if a client asks, "How many children does Madonna have?", and in a subsequent search, asks, "Where does she live?", Google should be able to reply both, understanding that Madonna is the subject of the latter question. I wasn't able to experience that in my searches.

Experimenting with searches reveals much. When editing this article, I had a question about punctuation, so I thought I'd ask Google. I asked, "Do you put a comma after a question mark?"

Google interpreted the words for punctuation into actual punctuation, and searched for the following, which didn't produce the results I was looking for:

I played with some local search questions, too, like: "Are there cupcakes in San Diego?", to which Google replied: "There are several listings for cupcakes near San Diego," and then showed me local search results.

Thanks, Google, for making searches a little sweeter.

Have you tried conversational search? Discovered anything interesting? Tell us about it!

Google's Search Market Share Drops as Bing Passes 17%

Google's search market share dropped somewhat once again, with Microsoft and Yahoo slightly edging up, according to comScore's April 2013 search engine rankings.

Google dropped 0.6 percent in April, dropping from March's 67.1 percent to 66.5 percent. However, this is precisely the same search percentage as in April 2012, so their overall search market share in the U.S. has remained stable.

Microsoft's Bing saw the biggest increase with a total search market share of 17.3 percent, making it a 0.4 percent increase in April 2013 over their search share in March 2013. By contrast, it is a very important increase from April 2012, where Microsoft had only 15.4 percent share.

Yahoo has continued a downward slide, despite Marissa Mayer taking over as Yahoo’s CEO and wanting to get Yahoo back in the search game. In April 2012, Yahoo had a 13.5 percent share, but they have dropped by 1.5 percent in the last year, as they are now sitting at 12 percent for April 2013.

While Google is still the huge powerhouse when it comes to search market share in the US, Microsoft / Bing is certainly making its presence known with a nearly 2 percent increase from this time last year. However, when comparing year to year, Yahoo and Microsoft are simply swapping market share between themselves, rather than making a dent in Google’s dominance, something Mayer, sees as a major problem.

Meanwhile, Ask's April search market share remained unchanged from March at 2.7 percent, but AOL's dropped from 1.6 percent to 1.4 percent in April.

Of the 20 billion searches conducted in April, Google led with 13.3 billion, followed by Bing at 3.5 billion, Yahoo at 2.4 billion, Ask at 539 million, and AOL with 290 million.

How to Be a Badass Link Builder

There's a lot of panic and turmoil right now in the world of link building, but there doesn't have to be – you just have to learn how to be a badass link builder.

SEO has changed. We can't rely on spam and automation to boost traffic and search rankings anymore. A few years ago, link builders never gave that kind of stuff a second thought – it's just how things worked.

The industry is unusual now, but the good news is that you can still be a badass link builder in the post-Penguin era. The better news is that you only require one tool to build the best links in the world: your brain.

We need to think like human beings because we affect other human beings with our work. The age of robots has ended.

Keeping that in mind, you can build some killer links that hold up to algorithm changes and make the Internet a enhanced place – you just have to be smart about it. Being a badass link builder requires hard work and even harder thinking, but you already have the tools to succeed.

2 Simple Steps

A badass link builder knows that the process of link building can be explained in just two steps:

Find a target site.

Get a link on that target site.

That's it. It's really that simple.

The essential thing is how you approach those two steps. If you go about them the wrong way, your links won't be counted, and they might even be penalized. What's worse is following those two steps in such a way that makes the Internet a worse place for the average reader or user.

Future algorithm updates will throw those links aside, but the damage that spammy links do to your brand will be much more painful. You have to do it the right way.

While reading these steps (and the rest of this article), keep this mind: a relevancy-first approach is the only sustainable link building strategy.

Finding the Target Site

Write down your keyword on a whiteboard or a large piece of paper, and then write down every term you can think of that relates to your keyword. For example, if your keyword was "audiophile headphones", you would also write down "DJ Gear", "portable music players" and "recording equipment."

Look at your terms. Which ones might have dedicated online communities? It's likely that all of those example terms are being blogged about.

Use Google to find target sites. Be creative. You might search [recording equipment “write for us”] or any difference. Find the relevant sites and put them in a spreadsheet.

Use the smell test! This is significant. Because you're going to represent yourself as a real human being and put in the time and effort, you want to make sure you're only listing sites that are curated by real people. Is there steady content on the site? How recently was it updated? Does the content use proper spelling and grammar? Are the display ads reputable? Is the site owner's contact info listed? You want to find sites made for humans. Even if the site's audience is small, it's still an audience. Link farms and spam blogs aren't going to help you, regardless of their PageRank or domain authority.

Getting the Link

Once you've found a site, come up with a concept. Would a simple link to your site be a resource for that page's audience? Can you contribute unique content? Find an angle. If your site isn't a resource, you need to offer unique content.

Find the webmaster or blog owner's name. Read their site. What do you like about it? Is there anything missing, especially something that you can offer? Get to know the site.

Write an email. Don't make a copy/paste form. Just write the webmaster a real message. Talk about what you liked, who you are, and your thoughts. Let them know you're a real human being. Form a relationship if you can.

Don't try to sneak crappy, irrelevant anchor text in your content. If the anchor text isn't a natural fit in the content itself, put a link in your author bio. Don't abuse the blog owner. Give them something useful.

Like a Human

Notice how much emphasis I placed on building links like a human being? There's nothing more significant in this business. Putting careful thought and hard work into each link ensures happy blog owners, happy audiences, high quality links, and long-term rankings.

The point of that whole keyword whiteboard exercise was relevancy. A link to your "audiophile headphones" page coming from a birdseed retailer is useless. It doesn't help everyone, and it's really just a slightly more advanced form of spam. For a badass link builder, relevancy has to come first.

If it doesn't make sense for a webmaster to link to your site, don't follow it. A link is a vote of confidence, and you need to be confident that the link is a good fit.

Also remember that you're asking for a link. You're either exchanging exclusive content or providing your site as a resource. You're always going to stand behind what you create, but the owner of the target site might not. That's OK! It's their site, not yours. Be polite and move on where you're not wanted.

It's also significant for a badass link builder to give other people some love. Link to others whenever it makes sense, cite your sources, and do the research. Once you create a link, you can always link back to that first post in a future post. That gives that first blog owner some serious link love. Treat them like you'd like to be treated.

Content for the Benefit of Humanity

Good content and related resources work toward the benefit of humanity. Spun articles and rehashed ideas don't help anyone, so avoid that entirely. They look bad for your brand and there's a good chance the link will either be penalized or simply not counted. They're also burdensome to regular Internet users.

It can be frustrating when people sound the “content is king” trumpet. Finding the perfect idea isn't an easy task, so it's best to look inward.

Write about your experiences and your thoughts. Do some original research and go down a rabbit hole.

You don't have to reinvent the wheel; you just need to share your unique perspective on why the wheel is important. People love reading stories and connecting with others, so give them that opportunity because that kind of content benefits humanity.

Let's look at an example. Your keyword is "audiophile headphones" and you're writing for a blog that focuses on recording equipment. You can cook up a great post about headphone mixes on old analog recording equipment. That community would love to read your thoughts and experiences on how to get the most out of your headphones on an old Tascam 4-Track recorder. It doesn't have to be rocket science as long as it comes from a real place.

The Takeaway

If you build links like an actual human being, then you're building links like a badass. You're making friends and your links are bulletproof.

There's only one catch to this method – its hard work. It takes time, energy, and brainpower.

You don't need hundreds of links, but building 10 or 20 of these high-quality links is no small task. Each one is worth it in the end, though, because you're increasing search rankings, increasing traffic and doing it the right way.

The path of a badass link builder is never easy, but it's always rewarding.

Google AdWords Express Gets a Facelift

Google’s AdWords Express is the newest Google property to receive a makeover. AdWords Express, designed to be an easy introduction to AdWords for local businesses, has been redesigned to make it easier for new users as well as to streamline the procedure.

Diving into Google AdWords for someone with little or no pay-per-click experience can be a bit overwhelming. AdWords Express was designed exclusively for those potential advertisers, to help them set up and manage their AdWords advertising, and the new changes to the process should make it even easier.

The dashboard has been redesigned to give advertisers quick and easy stats right there, without having to click through to get that information. It includes a summary of the number of clicks, the portion of the monthly budget including spend and budget remaining, as well as the number of views of their AdWords ads.

They have also made the procedure shorter setting up, reducing it to three-steps and designed to only take a few minutes to create an ad, select an audience, and setting a budget. They have also added real-time ad previews, so advertisers can see how their ad will appear right as they create it.

AdWords Express is a great way for advertisers to get their toes wet in the world of online advertising, and it is large to see Google continue to support this and to drive more advertisers to AdWords. It will also improve those local businesses that are setting up Google+ business pages and are considering doing AdWords as an addition of that.

How to establish YouTube Advertising in 9 Steps

Online video is huge – 100 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute! And video viewing doesn't appear to be slowing down any time soon.

If you're prepared to advertise on YouTube for the first time – with one of those ads that pop up before you watch your video – then this basics lead is for you.

Although there is a lot more complicated information that goes into getting the best ROI from YouTube ads, this nine-step guide is simply a beginner's guide on how to start building your YouTube presence.

1. Create a Google AdWords Account

Your first stop is Google AdWords. If you previously have an AdWords account, then go to adwords.google.com/video to create a new video ad campaign.

2. Link AdWords and YouTube

Make sure that Your AdWords and YouTube accounts are connected together. You can complete this step from the navigation menu by clicking “Linked YouTube accounts”.

3. General Settings

When choosing the general settings for your ad, set your preferred budget per day. It's better to start small and scale up as you get more recognizable with the account and what good objectives are.

The typical spend is around $.01 - $0.23. You won't pay Google unless the viewer watches your ads all the way through. There is also more customization that can be chosen for bidding for the advanced advertisers.

4. Set the Locations Where You Want Your Ad to Show Up

You can choose countries, regions, cities, ZIP codes, IP addresses, etc, going as broad or as exact as you would like. The more specific, the better qualified your viewers will be. If you're just trying to build brand awareness, then going a little broader might be helpful.

5. Upload Your Video

Next you will choose the video that you want to showcase and upload it to your account from YouTube. For more advice on how to format your video for the best success on search engines before you upload it, see "12 Valuable Tips for Video SEO Beginners".

6. Advanced Settings

In the “advanced settings” section, you can choose what days/time of the day you want your ads to show (if there is a exact time you want to showcase your ads because a prospect is more likely to be compelled by your product), and the start and end date for your new ads.

I would suggest shutting off your ads from 12 a.m. to 6 a.m., and scheduling your ads to run more during your prospects’ lunch and play hours when they are more likely to be on YouTube.

7. Device Targeting

Getting more in depth with “device targeting”, you can choose exact devices you want to target, whether it be mobile, desktop, laptop, tablets, etc.  Get on the devices that you would be using to search for your product.

Are your consumers on their mobile phones? Are you advertising for a mobile app? Then go mobile.

8. Select Age, Gender, Topics & More

Here you can select age, gender, and get exact on what topics you want to show up for. The more specific you are the better results you will get.

The more you go in depth into what categories, interests, words, websites, and phrases you want to show up for, the better targeted your audience will get. So be as specific as potential!

9. Choosing Keywords

When looking for specific keywords to aim that your potential consumers will be searching for on YouTube, use the Google Keyword Tool to find applicable terms and get as specific as possible. These terms come from Google's search engine, not from YouTube, but they will still be useful in weeding out some of the keywords that could cause your ad to be viewed by the wrong person.

The longer the keyword, the more specific it is, and the more pertinent it will be to your business in capturing the right viewers.