Kim Krause Berg on the Hyperlink Hot Seat

You may know Kim Krause Berg as the mind behind a variety of sites: Cre8asite Forums, Cre8pc Usability, SEO and Web Design blog, or The Usability Effect, where she offers her highly valuable consulting services.

1. Jakob Nielson: Over-hyped pundit or legitimate guru?



Definitely over-hyped guru. I don't understand why he's so disliked, but I do get why it's easy to poke fun at him.  I don't go for the "Thou must do this" commandments style he has but it works for millions of people the same way some religions do.  When he wrote his latest Top 10 List for blog design, panic ensued.  Even today, two weeks after that Alertbox piece came out, my usability feeds keep bringing up references to it.  He made people believe they were doing something wrong.  They went to work making their blogs meet his requirements, without questioning the validity of the logic as it may have applied to their situation.



I prefer to question things, test them to see if they work for me, and then test again to see if they meet the needs of end users, and then decide.  There are many usability design points that he recommends that do make sense, especially if you want to get the basics down.  However, some things that he says are considered Nielsen Gospel, like blue link colors and linking "home" from a homepage.  There's a sense of guilt or shame whenever someone defies his standards and experiments on their own.  I truly don't think even Jakob Nielsen wants to smother creativity, but he's often perceived as a party pooper.

2. In your opinion, do usability and SEO best practices sometimes conflict? Or do they always reinforce each other?



They definitely reinforce each other. I've seen the positive results of their union.



Another aspect that fits in comfortably with usability and SEO is accessibility.  Organic SEO, for example, emphasizes content as the foundation from which all good things are born.  A title tag that's optimized to make sense for search engines, also makes sense for people who bookmark the site.  Meta descriptions that are logical, and appear as smooth, well written site descriptions in search engines, also convert to traffic because the end user better understands what they will get if they click on the link from SERPS.



It's about confidence and trust. It's about customer satisfaction. It's about meeting end user needs.  SEO practices can do that when they're done properly.  Even so-called "black hat" SEM meets user needs if the technique results in delivering the best result for the person hunting for something in a highly competitive area.  The failure comes when a promoted site fails to deliver what it promised to.  This is a failure of a perceived marketed promise.  Just because that Viagra site managed to make the number one spot doesn't mean it converts and doesn't mean someone with a screen reader can use the site.  Without a blending of SEO, usability and accessiblity design and practices, somebody will lose out.  You really don't want that to be the person with the nice little credit card in their hand.

3. Dijon mustard: bold, delicious flavor or yesterday's news?



You're asking someone who once asked a Ruby Tuesday's waitress to risk losing her job by sneaking me out a big plastic container of their honey mustard sauce.  I begged her to tell me how they make it but she wouldn't turn over the secret recipe.  I asked to see a manager, to see if I could get them to order me a big container of it.  She did ask, but they said no.  That's when she snuck me some to take home.  My daughter thought I was very cool. For the next week, everything we ate was dunked into the stuff.

4. I found your post at Cre8asite Forums to be interesting food for thought. Most of us are in SEO to make money and to have a bit of fun along the way (and, possibly, to avoid the drudgery of a 'real' job). Without getting into a black hat vs. white hat debate, do you think an individual webmaster has an obligation to add 'value' to the Web?



An obligation, no. But you're asking somebody  who, by character, believes that everyone creates their own reality. There's no better teacher than the one that says you're responsible for your own life.  What you do with it is up to you, but no matter what you decide to do with it, it will have an impact on somebody else.  I think all SEO's deserve to be paid well, no matter what side of the color wheel they work from.  I started out as an SEO and I understand the work involved.  I understand that its a field that changes constantly and the skilled SEO's are those who work for clients by day and study search engine patents by night so that they're ready to make the next smart move for their clients.



I do feel, however, that the very competitive nature of search engines themselves has spawned the SEO underworld.  They are like strip clubs that pay police to keep on driving by, so that their patrons keep coming in.  It might be lucrative to play rough, and it may make business sense to pay for an unfairly gained advantage.  The Internet mimics life. That's what I was writing about, and what I wondered about when I asked in the forum if this is what we want and if not, is there something we can change?



What are we doing, really, when we put web sites on the Internet?



The way I see it, the Internet is this unique, lawless opportunity that fell into our laps.  We can talk to people we'll never meet in person. We can write about things we may never have thought we'd write about. We can earn money and watch TV at the same time.  Parents can work at home and actually see their children.  You can find your future mate.  You can cuss. You can rip people off and never have to look into their eyes while doing it.  There's a whole environment where integrity no longer matters to everybody.



I've been part of the Internet-life since 1995. I've played a part in what its doing.  At some point I began to question whether or not what I, and my peers are doing, has any real long-term value.  What the heck are we making for our kids?  Will they want it?  Yet, even though I asked the question and wanted to explore some ideas,  I don't want to lose the freedom we have to make these choices. In the end, there will be businesses developed that will help us deal with the messes we create. I just got to wondering when people will grow tired of creating them.  For example, first there was an online journal. They became blogs. Now there are hundreds of thousands of the them, which evolved into sites that scrape them for content for even more, but they're no longer readable.  Every time there's something new, there's also a way to exploit it and eventually it's no longer fun to do.



Where's the value in that?
                           
5. If you're robbing a bank and your pants fall down, I think it's okay to laugh and to let the hostages laugh too, because, come on, life is funny.



I just know this is about search engine marketing, usability and search engines, isn't it.  You're just as obsessed as I am.

And Don't Forget Best of the Web!

When I posted my directory recommendations before, I left out Best of the Web (based on its price, not its quality). Thanks to Brian Prince for sending me a heads-up on some things that make submitting there a lot more attractive:

I appreciate the suggestion of offering a directory submission option without a recurring fee, which we launched on BOTW in August.  You commented that you felt the price point is a bit high at $99.95 â but please understand that this is the âretailâ or standard price.  We offer a reseller program with recurring commissions of 25%, so anyone who signs up for the reseller plan can immediately get the one-time listing price discounted 25% to $74.95.  In addition, one of the BOTW traditions is to offer substantial monthly promotions (up to 50% off or two for one listings, etc) to all existing customers â so once you are a BOTW client, there are many ways to save on the directory costs of a submission.

Last but not least, I would like to reiterate that Best of the Web has a FREE Non-Commercial submission program (in constrast to most âotherâ directories) for webmasterâs marketing non-profit and non-commercial sites.  We feel that this is a big differentiator between us and other tier-two directories within the industry, and hopefully respected SEO gurus such as yourself also value this community effort.

I think their willingness to review non-profit sites for free is a good quality indicator, since it shows they are making an honest attempt to categorize the world's Web sites, not just make an easy buck.

Bottom line: consider BotW along with the others.

p.s. Another great thing about Best of the Web is its age -- it's been around forever and Google seems to heavily favor age and trust these days. Speaking of their non-commercial free submission policy, I'm going to go submit my pet project (s) there!

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.