Some people need help with their maps.

I’m a huge fan of Garrent French’s link building tool, the Link Prospector, so I was jazzed when he released the Broken Link Finder. I wanted to give an overview of why broken link building is important and how this tool can save you a ton of time and effort.

What is broken link building?

As the web grows, it changes: pages gets moved around, deleted, or simply neglected. The content is gone, but the links to these URLs remain. The result is a 404 “File Not Found” status, which is a pain for users but a link builder’s dream. Broken link building is the practice of asking a webmaster to change those links to point at relevant, replacement pages (that just so happen to be on your client’s site).

Think of it this way: say you’re a pizza connoisseur, so you pick up a map of the best pizza joints in town at your local pizza community resource center. You follow the map to one of the pizzerias, only to find that the place is closed, the building is permanently destroyed, or, worse, there’s a new establishment in its place that’s selling generic Viagra pills—either way, you’ll probably be disappointed.

Broken link building is like contacting the map maker and suggesting a different Italian restaurant to replace the delinquent one. The pizza cartographer updates the map, and the new establishment enjoys the benefits of leveraging resources and connections that were already in place.

Scalablility

Like any other SEO strategy, broken link building takes time. Using the Check My Links extension to discover dead links on resources pages can be tedious work. The enterprising minds at Citation Labs thought, “There must be a way to make this process scalable….”

Enter the Broken Link Finder. This tool does most of the heavy lifting for you by returning dead pages based on keywords you provide. Here’s an outline of how it works.

1. Create a campaign

Users familiar with Link Prospector will be comfortable with the interface of the new tool. I organize my campaigns by the types of linkable content I’m hoping to find, rather than by client or website.

2. Choose your keywords

Link Prospector allowed for a lot of trial and error for picking keywords to use for search queries; however, because the credit structure is different, your pocketbook will be in a world of hurt if you dump keywords in willy-nilly. Thankfully, they’ve provided a tool to help choose keywords that will yield the most results.

As you can see, it’s better to think broadly and more abstractly than you would for classic link building queries. It’s important to remember that you’re searching for opportunities for replacing dead content; these aren’t necessarily immediate wins.

3. Vet opportunities

After you add the keywords for the campaign, some sort of link wizardry happens and the tool produces a report.

What would have been hours of sleuthing and a significant amount of luck is just sitting there for the taking. You can filter the list to see URLs by the number of referring links or by the link opportunity’s “grade,” which is based on its relevance to your target keywords. They even provide a link to the cached version of the page from the Wayback Machine so you can see what content your page should offer!

4. Reserve and outreach

Once you find the pages you want to contact, you can reserve them. This removes the URL from the tool’s index and prevents link builders from moving in on your territory.

You can also “dive” URLs, which creates a separate campaign that generates new opportunities based on that specific page.

Of course, premium prospects carry a premium price tag. At $7.50 per credit, this tool gets expensive very quickly. It forces you to be calculated with your research and content strategy.

To link builders, however, the value should be clear. In the example above, the report produced a page with 303 dead links. It could’ve taken me hours to find the same number of quality opportunities that the tool found in 15 minutes. This is scalability—without sacrificing relevance or value.

The future of link building

What I like most about this tool is it gets us to think about what’s really important for SEO: content and user experience. Fixing links helps users avoid the dreaded 404 page, and if you can create great content to fill that gap, everybody wins.

Thinking in terms of what content could be helpful to our users is the only way link building can be successful in the future. The Broken Link Finder is a great tool to help us do just that.

Have you used the Broken Link Finder? What strategies do you use for broken link building? Let us know in the comments!

The post Tool Review: Broken Link Finder appeared first on Portent.

Beloved for its intuitive format and multi-dimensional reporting abilities, Google Analytics not only provides basic metrics like visits, time on site, bounce rates and conversions, it can also provide valuable insights for any web marketing manager looking to take their business’ online presence to the next level.

Below are three advanced tips that will help you unearth hidden optimization opportunities with Google Analytics.

Optimization #1 – Increase Conversions from Organic Search

You’re well-versed in the importance of content to organic search. You’ve done keyword research, tracked your rankings, and obsessed over getting more visits from your top non-branded terms. But that’s only part of the equation.

Once you’ve attracted visitors to your site, you need to ensure they’re getting the information they need. You can drive all the traffic you want, but the point is moot if visitors aren’t buying. To find the best conversion optimization opportunities from organic search, follow these seven simple steps:

1. Set your date range back 6-12 months and navigate to the organic search report (Traffic Sources > Sources > Search > Organic)
2. Next, exclude all branded traffic by clicking on the blue “advanced” link next to the search box in the center-right portion of the report screen. Choose “exclude” from the first dropdown, leave the second on “keyword,” and change the third to “Matching RegExp.” In the blank field enter the following formula, replacing “brand” with your brand name – (not|brand).
   
3. Now you have a list of all your top non-branded keywords. Next, select “landing page” as a secondary dimension using the dropdown of the same name.
   
4. Set the report to exclude any non-conversion related pages. Typically, this will include your blog, “about” pages, careers section, and other corporate information.
5. Go back to the “advanced” filter, as you did in step #2 above. This time, select “Add a dimension or metric,” and under “Dimensions,” select “Landing Page.” Add all the folders in the “exclude” filter that apply to the description in #4 (e.g. “/blog/,” “/about/,”)
6. Now that have all your top conversion-focused non-branded keywords and landing pages, you’ll want to narrow your focus even further, keying in on terms and pages that convert at a rate significantly lower than the site average. For example, if your site’s average conversion rate is 1%, filter for all terms/pages that convert at less than 0.5%
7. You should be left with a handful of pages with a decent amount of visits, but very few conversions. To determine your next steps, consider the following:
   1. Are visitors being taken to the right landing page?
      If your keyword is “red fuzzy mittens,” but visitors are being sent to the “red leather gloves” page, clearly conversions are going to be adversely affected. Have your team update onpage copy and meta data (e.g. title tags, headlines) to help the search engines assign a better landing page for this query.
   2. Does the landing page provide relevant information?
      OK, so the red fuzzy mittens page is ranking for “red fuzzy mittens,” but users still aren’t converting. Check the content and product descriptions. Is it informative? Does it fully describe the product? If the answer is no, get cracking on some new copy.
   3. Does the landing page have a clear call-to-action?
      Does your page have a conversion button in a prominent location? Or do you need to scroll down to find the “buy now” or “learn more” button? Test new layouts, move buttons higher, and watch your sales roll in.

Pro Tip: Don’t forget about Multi-Channel Funnels. My colleague, the Google Analytics superstar Michael Wiegand, has written a great post about the hidden opportunities that multi-channel funnel analysis can unearth.

Optimization #2 – Get the Links You Deserve

Linkbuilding from GA? Absolutely.

This one is so stinking easy you’ll kick yourself for not having explored it already. Assuming you have a healthy history of analytics data, set your date range in GA back at least 6 months. Next, navigate into the Referral report under Traffic Sources. Check out your top 50 referring sites. Chances are you’ll recognize most of them – social networks, email, key partners, etc. But what we’re interested in are the referral sources that are not there.

Depending on your industry and business model, there are a handful of links you can seek out. Take a look at the list below. Do sites in these categories show up in your referring sources report? If not, get out there and claim what’s yours.

Start with your business contact list; vendors who know and love you will gladly put up a link to your site. Then move on to the “colder” leads by reaching out to webmasters. It’s a perfect excuse to establish new relationships for future promotions and collaborations.

• B2B

• Current Clients
• Vendors / Partners
• Industry Associations
• Conferences
• Industry Blogs
• Consumer Goods / eCommerce

• Retail Partners
• Shopping Engines
• Shopping Malls (if you have brick & mortar)
• Prominent Industry / Category Blogs
• Fashion

• Fashion Blogs
• Shopping Malls (if you have brick & mortar)
• Fashion Publications
• Travel / Hospitality

• Travel Blogs
• Travel Associations
• Country & Municipality Tourism Offices
• Travel Partners / Vendors
• Legal

• Law / Attorney Directories
• Industry Associations
• Conferences
• Legal Blogs
• Law Schools (.edus!)
• Health Industry

• Hospital / Doctor Sites
• Medical / Nutrition Blogs
• Industry Associations
• Medical Journals
• Conferences
• Education

• School Sites (.edus!)
• Parenting / Education Blogs
• Industry Associations
• Conferences

Pro Tip: As you check out your referring sources, navigate to each and search the web for competing sites. For example, if you’re a fashion retailer, and you have links from a top blogger in your category, check out their blog roll. Do those blogs link to you? If not, reach out and establish a relationship. See how you can work together to your mutual benefit.

Optimization #3 – Get Content and Architecture Ideas from Site Search

Site search is one of the most useful places to get new content ideas. Ostensibly, if visitors are using the search box to find information, you should have content to match those queries. Site search data can also tell you a thing or two about your site’s architecture, and whether you’ve got the best navigation links to help folks find what they’re looking for.

If you don’t already have it set up, here’s a great post from our CEO, Ian Lurie, on installing Google Analytics site search. Assuming you’ve got that squared away, and have a few months worth of data to examine, go check out your report. Here’s an example of what Portent’s site search report looks like:

Note the two items boxed in red. These searches have a high Time after Search (average amount of time spent on site after the search is performed), indicating a high level of interest, and presumably, good content on site related to those searches.

Perhaps we can make it even easier for users to find information on these topics. For example, we might check to see if these terms are included in the main navigation. In this case, the answer is yes for “PPC,” but no for “careers.” The latter is included as a link in the footer, though we can always consider making it more prominent.

Taking a look at some other metrics, such as % Search Exits, we can determine if we’re providing users with the right information. Searches on “affiliate,” for example, have a high exit rate. In our case, however, we’re not too concerned because affiliate marketing is not a core part of Portent’s offerings. If it were, we’d want to get our marketing team going on new pages outlining our expertise in this area.

Share your Google Analytics conversion optimization and linkbuilding tips in the comments.

The post 3 Hidden Optimization Tips in Google Analytics appeared first on Portent.

The post Let go of the link building wire: My presentation appeared first on Portent.

These are the notes from my Mozcon 2012 presentation. I emphasize ‘notes’. There’s quite a bit of stream-of-consciousness going on here. If you want to see the presentation and supporting materials, instead, go to the bit.ly bundle, or check out the slides themselves, right here:

I think the folks at SEOMOZ are mad at me. See, they asked me to talk at MozCon this year, and I was really flattered. Speak at the premiere search marketing conference? Hell yes.

But then they gave me the topic:

“How to build links without doing anything”

Really? Seriously? What did I do? Build links. Without doing anything? Sure. Right after that I’m going to give my seminar on how to turn lead into gold.

The genius of it

Then I realized they were brilliant. Brilliant. They were telling me, “Ian, be the contrarian. It’s what you do best. Channel your inner New Jersey-ite and kick some link building ass.”

Well OK then.

So, I tried “How to build links without embarrassing yourself.” That was OK.

Then I finally got to:

Yep. Stop link building.

Your link building campaigns resemble my social life in the early 1990s: You think you’re a great catch.

You think you’re cool

But you’re not as sexy as you think.

You’re not as sexy as you think

And you’re trying way too hard.

Stop. It.

The Penguinopalypse

You really have to stop now, because the day we all dreaded—the end times we all wrote of in the ancient texts—the Penguinopalypse, has come. The End of All Things.

The Penguinopalypse

Google got sick of us embarrassing them and slammed the door on our itty-bitty, link-spamming fingers.

Link building has failed.

As a long-term strategy, link building has failed. You had a nice run for the last decade. But I’ve got bad news for you: 10 years is nothing. Big brands look at businesses that are all puffed up because they’ve made a profit for 5-10 years and pat them on the head, saying “Aw, so cute. Come back and talk to us when you’re 50.”

And I gotta get something off my chest. No one else in our industry is a big enough jerk to say it, so I will: I told you this would happen.

Yes, I did. For years. Google is smarter than us. We kept manipulating the rankings. Eventually this was bound to fail. Your business can’t grow based on a marketing strategy called “How to get easy links from Blogpost and Squidoo.”

There is no such thing as link building

The real reason link building failed? It never existed as a tactic. Not really. Link building is a result—an outcome—of good marketing.

We screwed up when we turned link building into something you do, as opposed to something that happens. That’s why Google loosed its penguins on us.

So no link building. This is about audience building. Audience. Building. Which means this is about content.

There is no such thing as content marketing

But this isn’t about content marketing, either. There’s no such thing as content marketing as a tactic. Like ‘link building’, content marketing is an outcome of good marketing.

The proof? When you talk about ‘content marketing’, your bosses and clients look at you like you’re insane. You’re using the wrong point of reference. Instead of calling it content marketing, call it marketable content. Content that helps grow a business. You’ll get a lot more support.

Marketable content works like this:

1. Build a great message.
2. Communicate it well with marketable content. That grows your audience.
3. Which grows your authority (including links and shares).
4. Which then grows your business.

Easy, right?

So why do so many people go out there, start throwing content around like chimps throwing poo, and then completely fail?

Because no one says what matters.

Say what matters

You want to build links? You want to produce marketable content? Say what matters. Let me say that again, in bigger print:

Say what matters to me now. Which probably isn’t your product or service. More likely, it’s some random thing that relates to your product or service only because I’m interested in both it and you.

One great example: Life Insurance. No one sells life insurance by saying “You are going to DIE man!!!” They sell it by offering ‘peace of mind’. Because peace of mind, which has very little to do with death, at least for me, matters now. That’s how you reach me.

Another example: I’m what folks refer to as a ‘squishy liberal’. Squishy, apparently, because I believe in such madness as health care, and education, and other silliness. But I drive a car that’s an environmental disaster, because I also like speedy cars. And I’ve tried target shooting a few times and really liked it.

That seems random, right? But what if this ‘randomness’ is actually normal? What if lots of squishy left-wingers like me also like the same randomness. Then it’s not so random any more, and you can reach a lot of people, just like me, by mixing sports cars with politics. Which, after I’ve endured four years of completely foul politics, may be your only shot at getting me to listen to you.

Say. What. Matters.

Which sounds great, but how exactly do we do that? Use the Idea Graph.

The Idea Graph

The idea graph is this universe of topics that relate to each other, not semantically but because people like them. It reveals all sorts of crazy stuff, like:

• People who watch the show Grimm also like the Beatles;
• SEO’s like to watch Hell On Wheels (the TV show);
• People who like Harry Potter also like organic produce.

There are all sorts of audience-building possibilities in this kind of knowledge. Selling organic produce? Maybe you should tie in with kids learning magic. Or make Monsanto look like he-who-must-not-be-named.

The point: Maybe vegetables don’t matter to me right now. Maybe I just got back from the store. Or I hate vegetables. But you have another shot at capturing my attention if you find something else that matters to me in the graph.

The idea graph is powerful stuff.

Take a peek

If you want to take a peek at the Idea Graph, use Facebook. I took a quick look at ‘Marketing’, which of course led me to ‘Search Engine Optimization’. But I can’t write about SEOevery day. Fortunately, there’s lots of other stuff I can talk about:

SEO and Hell on wheels? Why not.

I can probably come up with something fun about Hell On Wheels and tie it into SEO, right? By doing that, I have a better chance of saying something that matters to a reader who’s sick of SEO (or thought they were).

Get deeper into the data: The Portent IdeaGraph

Facebook is great, but it’s slow, and you may miss relationships because you forgot to type in a particular word. That’s because Facebook’s ad tool is designed for ads, not research.

We’re working on a different dataset that’s retooled just for research. Right now, it’s got about 10,000 topics, very loosely connected. We need a lot more data to make it really powerful, but there’s still insights to be gained. Plus, you can create pretty diagrams like this:

You can download a partial dataset here.

Open the spreadsheet. You can find stuff like this:

Basically: The sheet lists every topic in the graph and links to every other topic in the graph, if any. The third column shows the ‘distance’ between the source and target topic. The smaller the distance, the more likely that someone who likes one will like the other.

Give it a try. And, if you want this resource to get better and better, opt-in to the app that builds the graph here. We won’t do anything sneaky. We’ll just use your data to build out the graph.

Then you can use the data to say what matters.

This is pretty strategic stuff. Here’s an example to illustrate how you can apply all of this tactically:

Use the graph to grow your audience

Say I’m a college student. The last thing that matters to me, right now, is studying. Right? If you operate a site that helps students study, you have to pray I find you the week before finals, because that’s pretty much your only chance of reaching me.

Or, you can figure out what matters to me now. Like games! Games matter to me now! They’re fun!

Based on that, you could create a game and put it on your site, or your Facebook page, or whatever:

And thereby reach a far larger audience of students who don’t happen to be studying right now. Suddenly, we’re saying what matters.

This worked—it’s a real example. We got a few quality links and 20-30 shares. Sounds like peanuts, but that was a 2-day effort, and not one of those links is from blogspot. These are all quality links that you won’t end up deleting later.

The wrap-up

I’m not saying ‘link building is dead as a tactic’. I’m saying it never lived. Pre-Penguin, you could get away with all manner of troublemaking, manipulating the rankings by spamming links. Now, that’s over, and it’s time to acknowledge that link building is a result, not a tactic.

Content marketing is just as non-existent. Throw it out. Stop thinking in terms of link counts and pages written.

Instead, find ways to grow your audience through marketable content. And you can make your content more marketable by using the Idea Graph to figure out what matters to me now. Do that, and you’re maximizing the chance your campaigns will generate results.

The post Say what matters: My Mozcon 2012 presentation appeared first on Portent.