Hi, I’m not Jim. I’d like to introduce myself. You can call me QualityGal.
Oh sure, that’s not what’s written on my birth certificate or marriage license, but it’s so much more fun than my “real name.” I almost feel like I should wear a cape and have a nemesis, but I have a feeling that my co-workers, the link ninjas, would look at me funny if I did.
This is my first week here at We Build Pages, so I’m still learning the ropes. To give you a little background, I just got out of an independent contractor relationship with a large company that must-not-be-named. Because of my iron-clad NDA, I can’t tell you anything about it.
None of what I do for Jim even remotely violates my NDA – though I did fret about it for about five minutes before we ironed out the details – but the super secret super spy work I did has gotten me into the right mindset for what I’m doing now. Even seemingly unrelated jobs I’ve done in the past seem to have come together to give me the perfect storm of experience I need to join the world of SEO and content building.
My Mission, Should I Choose to Accept It
Jim has given me a plethora of SEO blog links to read up on, since I’m new to the SEO world. In the process of wading through it all, from SEO Chicks to Vanessa Fox Nude to Sphinn, I feel like I’m in over my head!
Your Mission, Should You Choose to Accept It
I’m reading a lot. But even if I read all day long, there’s bound to be some really good stuff that I miss.
So I need your help! (Parents, try not to hear Dora the Explorer’s voice saying that phrase. That’s all I can hear in my head now that I’ve typed it.)
Let’s pretend I can only read three blog posts to help get my feet wet in SEOland. Which three blog posts should I read?
Leave me a comment with your picks for the top three SEO blog posts out there. Yes, even if you’ve written them. I’ll post my favorites sometime next week.
For now, I’m out of here. QualityGal needs to spend some quality time with her family over the long weekend. Happy Fourth of July!
– QualityGal
9 Responses
FYI, QualityGal isn’t a link ninja, she has her own role. Her main role revolves around “content”. I’ve been feeding her info mostly in areas of linkbait…but as you know…I’m more a link ninja than a baiter…so any help from folks on recommendations on linkbait/ content creation reading would be great.
I really feel that QualityGal’s past 2 years of experience rating webpages make her perfectly qualified for this role within our company.
She’s already starting to rate….er, I mean, evaluate our content, and improve our content to ensure it matches the users intent as well as ensuring we have quality content.
Can ya help us out by sharing your favorite linkbait bookmarks, or other articles you think are great reads?
I’ll have her subscribe to these blogs as well:
SEOMoz – http://www.seomoz.org/blog
CornwallSEO – http://www.cornwallseo.com/search/
Dosh Dosh – http://www.doshdosh.com/
Who are others you recommend she learn from?
highly recommended resources:
copyblogger.com
seobook.com
bruceclay.com
seomoz.org
linkbait specific articles:
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/brainstorming-linkbait-a-four-step-approach
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/every-site-is-linkbait-linkerati-worthy
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/creating-content-that-appeals-to-a-linksavvy-audience
Good resources (apart from the ones already mentioned)
– http://www.10e20.com/blog/
– http://blog.junta42.com/content_marketing_blog/
– http://blog.guerrillacomm.com/
– Your personal favorite (not SEO related) blog or website
The last one is for taking a break, getting inspiration and to see what type of content works (and why) and what type of content doesn’t (and why).
Well I think this guide I wrote is OK:
http://www.blogstorm.co.uk/linkbait-beginners-guide/
Here is a link building specific post I just wrote:
http://www.insidedesign.info/blog/2008/07/05/death-to-the-link-brokers/
Also, I enjoy reading Michael Gray:
http://www.wolf-howl.com/
We all start somewhere QualityGal so let me share with you some of the resources I have found most valuable:
First please read this post: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/long-list-of-link-searches
This is a good tool that automatically does what Rand is talking about: http://www.soloseo.com/tools/linkSearch.html
Here is a good link to check on your links and competitors links: http://www.linkpopularity.com/
and this is one of the better anchor text checkers: http://www.backlinkwatch.com/index.php
Hope it helps.
Thomas
Thomas,
We’ve got some tools that do a lot of what those do.
I’m not sure about Rands post on SEOMoz from 2006 though
( http://www.seomoz.org/blog/long-list-of-link-searches )
There’s some I agree with, but some I don’t…not sure how Rand feels about these today…but here’s my thoughts.
The Obvious:
I totally agree, search the Obvious, you’d be amazed sometimes.
Advanced Operators:
Rand lists these:
allintitle:snowboard equipment
allinanchor:snowboard equipment
allinurl:snowboard equipment
allintext:snowboard equipment
allintitle yes, allinanchor yes, allinurl….um…have a feeling you won’t get much there (‘cept stores)…allintext….hum…never used that one…I figure if it shows up in a SERP, it’s got it in the text 99.99% of the time…
how about the most obvious advanced search operator (use yahoo):
linkdomain:yourcompetitor.com -linkdomain:yoursite.com
Alternative Search Sources:
…yup…he lists some nice ones there…
Directory Search Terms:
Personally, I don’t really think this has much use in 2008. Sure there’s less than 5 “major directories” that have any value….and “minor directories” are often tossed with the bathwater since there was so much link trade directory spam stuff.
Blog and Forum Searches:
Forums…eh, what real value is there as far a link juice that reaches your site if you’re posting for link value?
Blogs…oh man…
I wouldn’t dig too deep if your looking for blog links…you could dig yourself right into Hell.
Everyone around the office knows I’ve never been a fan of links from blogs (that aren’t natural…. and recently I’ve hated them a lot more than I normally do….blog links now have to pass many many more quality aspects before we’ll even think of contacting a blogger about anything.
Blogs have many drawbacks. If the person who owns the blog start selling links to people, over time that site gets added to multiple people/networks/databases, etc…and then you can be drawn into something you never intended to get in (a network).
Also you have to keep in mind that just because a blog is related, does not mean it’s a good link….these people selling links are spreading a disease that is like food to a hive of SEO Bees…once someone finds food/the blog who will sell links, the SEO’s go back to the hive and tell their friends…and some of these friends keep lists, and they tell their friends, and before you know it, the blog is getting paid left and right, sometimes over and over again, sometimes by the same guys…and then guess what….if you’re tied in with that…you can go down with that network.
The sad thing is that’s what’s being created out there with so many blogs. The ole MFA (Made For Adsense) blogs got turned into MFSL (Made for SEO Links) Blogs.
These can creates networks over time if they are used in that way..and one day….if you’re lucky, only the link value will be gone…if you’re not lucky you could drag your self right down with it.
Sure….there’s people who buy a bunch of blog links, some percentage of that “counts”, they move up…then the post gets burried in the sites internal link structure over time, and the rankings fall as the posts get aged. SO then they do it again…and again, they rise, then they sink….and if they keep doing this month after month, they’re going to map themselves into a network that they might not want to be in. It can be a dangerious path to start down.
sorry for the rant there…where was I?…oh yea Rands 2006 list…next was “Submit-Type Searches”.
Submit-Type Searches:
hum….I’d recommend that today as much as I’d recommend submitting your site to 2000 search engines. You’ll have the same effect.
Link Pages are dead, footprints also kill these that will show up for “add url, submit url, add site, etc phrases”, I’d estimate that 97% of what you’d find with these searches would be worthless,
Sure there’s alway someone who comes up to me with the “I submitted my site to 2000 directories last month, or I submitted my site to 100 blogs last month, or I did 2000 recip/one-way/3-way links last month, and then tell me that it’s working great for them today….and if they dip in rankings, they do it again, and if they keep doing it…they might not like the end result.
SOrry for the big rant….it was actually a much longer rant prior, but I lost it all once, and this is my short version off the top of my head…..Sorry also for taking the topic off topic of “content” QualityGal…I’m off my soap box.
I love this rant, as I feel much the same way. I could totally see a weekly post called: “Jim’s Rant for this Week”
🙂
Below is a compilation of link bait articles I did in December.
http://www.metroseo.com/2007/12/17/10-best-link-bait-articles/
Good luck, Quality Gal.
Comments are closed.