Eric Ward on the Hyperlink Hot Seat

Eric Ward is one of the most well-known names in linking. To learn more about his services, visit Net Post or URLwire.

1. I know you've done link building for a lot of high profile sites (such as Amazon.com). That aside, which of your past link building campaigns was the most fun for you?



A cable TV network had a web site with companion web content, and they ran an online contest, the "Three Stooges Year Supply of Pies" contest from American Movie Classics.  As a kid I loved the Stooges, but hadn't really researched them online. I dug into it was amazed to find fan pages, discussion lists, forum boards, etc. that Stoggtes fans had created.  And when I contacted them they were quite excited.  What's funny is that the links to the contest page I was able to obtain were 100% about people, not bots.  I never pursue links based on some hoped-for algorithmic ranking boost.

2. Do you think that there are aspects of link building that the average webmaster just doesn't "get"?



Most webmasters understand links, especially since they likely receive 1,000 spam link request a day. :)  But what I see them missing is an understanding of the power of editorial based links to drive topically interested people.  They are consumed with SEO and links.



3. Link building can sometimes get to be a tedious task. Do you ever feel like you need a break from it?



Only when I'm working.  Serisously, there are some projects that do make my eyes bleed. But then I get a fun one and the response is such that I smile again.

4. Tell us a bit about your upcoming link building seminar.



Plan is to do an intensive day-long linking workshop in Charlotte. I'm teaming up with Debra Mastaler for this. She is one of the most cerebral link builders I've even known, and also a really fine person, and between the two of us hopefully we can put a few people in the seats and help them learn to link, without too much pain and suffering.

5. Maybe in order to understand mankind, we have to look at the word itself: "Mankind". Basically, it's made up of two separate words - "mank" and "ind". What do you these words really mean?



That you'd better make sure to double check your anchor text.

Vary Your Links' Descriptions, Or Else

I think most good SEOs have been varying link descriptions for some time now. It's just another thing we can do to make our links look "natural". Admittedly I've never been one to use 100 descriptions when I get 100 links -- but I would try to use 5 or 10 variations, for instance.

This is one of those SEO methods that we say is forward-looking. I.e., in 2001 when a lot of people did this, you better believe it didn't matter. It really didn't. But as long as you're building links, why not build links that will probably still help in 5 years?

5 years later, it matters. I just came across this WMW thread , where Robert Charlton says:At SES, in the search engines' linking session, Matt Cutts was very explicit that Google looks at the uniqueness of descriptions when evaluating links. For a bunch of reasons outside the scope of this thread, I'm very much inclined to believe him.In other words: showing links with many duplicate descriptions is almost certainly evidence of aggressive link building, and it appears Google is filtering / devaluing those links. Note: MSN probably isn't. But they may in 2007 ;-)

Bottom line: if you aren't already, start varying your links' descriptions!

eComXpo is sweet... NOT!!

Well, eComXpo has finally begun. Truth be told, I'm pretty pumped about it, since it's so cool.

Wait, not 'cool', what's the word I'm looking for, oh, right, 'stupid'.

What eComXpo has taught me about good marketing

if your web site doesn't work in many browsers, it's cool!

charging people $100 to "paint" a virtual booth is a smart, creative marginal revenue stream

sending attendees 30 emails a day is good for branding, this will create an emotional connection between them and your company

if you want to impress people, use Flash!

Open letter to Seth Godin:Dear Seth,

eComXpo seems to have gotten some buzz this year, partly because you have been plugging it. Question: are you sure you want to associate yourself with these people?

Sincerely,

Andy HagansNo more blogging for now, I gotta get back to our booth.*The views expressed above are the personal opinions of Andy Hagans. They do not necessarily reflect the position of Text Link Ads Inc.

Stuntdubl on Directories

We (along with everyone else, it seems) have gone back and forth on directories in the past six months: acknowledging that links from many of them are not as useful as they used to be, while proposing that listings in those of higher quality are still a valid, helpful link building method. A few prominent figures have been proclaiming the "death" of all directories, but this is certainly exaggerated (and wrong). Stuntdubl gives a more balanced view in Mr. Ploppyâs Monday Tool List - Volume XXVI - Directory Tools.

I still like many directories. When theyâre not built for the SOLE purpose of manipulating PR, they can be a very good addition to a siteâs backlinks. I donât think the directory model will ever completely die, but it does have itâs flaws. As a final note, donât go over board with getting ALL the directories in one sitting.

There's a lot more there, go read it.

You Can't Buy Everything

Rand Fishkin over at SEOmoz has posted a cracking article on how to get links when money won't suffice.

What do you do when money doesn't appeal to your link targets. This happens to me all the time - sometimes because they're an educational institution, a non-profit or simply a webmaster who doesn't want to "compromise". If purchasing "advertising" links becomes impossible, there are some great ways around it that I've used successfully.

His ideas are link junkie required reading.

Legal Linking Goodness

I just finished writing a rather long post at Threadwatch about the legality of linking. If you're too lazy to read my rather encyclopedic rant, here is a two-point summary:

A hyperlink is basically a reference. A reference, whether in your kid's term paper or on your homepage, is (in and of itself) legal.Any reference, including a hyperlink, is bound by 'normal' laws which govern speech--e.g., you can't slander someone, you can't steal someone's content, etc.

For a concise breakdown of what the average webmaster needs to know, I suggest Linking Legalities...What You Need to Know by Eric Ward.

SEOBook: 'Legal Donations Accepted'

Unless you live under a rock, I'm sure you're aware of the (almost hilariousm, but not quite) Traffic Power lawsuit against Aaron Wall.

He is now accepting donations for his legal team.