Business Management Consultant - Stuntdubl Search and Marketing Consulting

I’ve had a few occasions where I’ve been asked about the gent on my consulting contact image on my site.

The image is a not so subtle homage to the monkey looking for a banana in SG’s “Big Red Fez”. It’s a book I think anyone who does websites should read anytime several times. All sites should have a banana, and all site owners should read this book.

The guy looks a little upset so I thought I would elaborate, expain, and disclaim, that I do not advocate banana meltdowns like the gentleman with the banana is holding. Banana’s on webpages are definitely lucrative with so many monkeys(vid) running around. If you’ve read the book or heard the story, you probably already knew this.

Online Success:
Content + Links + Value + Banana.

Stock people on a website decreases your credibility. No, I haven’t done extensive studies on this, but I can spot stock photos of people from a mile off, and sites with it are much less likely to get my dollar than a site with a REAL picture of REAL people on it. Yes, I may be a little more saavy than your average web consumer…but how long do you think it will be until they catch up? Do you ALWAYS treat your customers like they’re idiots? Do you really think they believe you dress in a suit everyday and your skin is flawless?

It was a bit scary for me to put up a picture of myself on my site at first. Heck, it still is sometimes and there are times I’ve considered taking it down. What it ABSOLUTELY does, however, is keeps me honest and accountable for the goods or services that I sell. It puts MY ass on the line, because I know you could hunt me down if I sell you some sh*t. If you REALLY have a good product that you believe in, and a team you believe in…why not do the same?

Don’t believe me:

Who would you rather buy SEO services from: This sharp looking crew (good luck hiring them;) - or one of the thousands of faceless companies (didn’t want to pick an individual - you know 98% of you do it;)

Just looking through a few sites today (one that was a GOOD product with GOOD people and a stock photo of some random imaginary “stock people”), and felt like making a semi-random post. Yes, it’s nice to see smiling faces of people, but admit the lie you’re telling with a stock photo of half a dozen smiling well dressed super models with laptops. Admit your nose is a little crooked, bite the bullet, and put a little more faith in your product or service.

Don’t be a stock person! Would you buy from a site with stock people on it? Would you be more likely to buy from a site with REAL people on it?

I’m giving Feedburner a whirl, as it always seems like there is some cool functionality with it. I’m not sure if I got it all right or not yet, so if you see anything weird, please let me know.

Thanks to Michael for his tip about the feedburner wordpress plugin.

The new feed is: http://feeds.feedburner.com/stuntdubl in case you’re wondering.

The guys over at Text Link Ads got a cool new little tool called the Link Calculator to give you an estimate of what your links might be worth. More info on it over at the Link building blog. It’s pretty handy as a baseline tool…give it a whirl.

Getting links is hard work. It’s very difficult to solicit links with no value proposition. It’s difficult to develop a value proposition if you have no sense of what you’re negotiating for. This is one of the key reasons why understanding the value of links is such a critical component to an SEO campaign.

No one likes to hear that placing a value on a link is a “gut feel” skill, but it’s true. You need to repeat the process many times, and understand the shifts in the marketplace. It’s pretty easy to get paralysis by analysis when placing value on links, so I thought I’d do a post on a quick stripped down link value test. You’ll have to apply your own monetary guides to these scales, but these are key variables that I try to always consider quickly.

This should take you no more than five minutes to test these 6 quality indicators of text link value to search engine rankings.

6 Quality Indicators for Text Link Value

1. Keyword/Theme/Industry Worth
Tool - Overture bid tool is dead - sorry. Try determining this with adwords bid pricing.

Relative to:
SERP Value

2. Link Pop/Power/PR/ Googlejuice Link Popularity
Tool - Y site explorer - or handy yExplore FF extension

Relative to:
Click through value, traffic levels, 2nd tier IBLS (your IBLs IBL’s…their “network” if you prefer)

3. Outbound Links
Tool - Outbound link bookmarklet -
Installation - drag this to your browser toolbar.

Relative to:
Percentage of page outbound link value

4. Unique Linking Domains
Tool - Link Harvester

Relative to:
Overall trust link score

5. Placement
Tool - Use your head and look at this.
Links in the body are worth more than navigation or advertising links.

Relative to:

Overall trust link score, co-citation, proximity, anchor text usage

6. Age
Tool - Wayback Machine, or search status ff plugin which gives one click access to the wayback machine info.

Relative to:
Overall trust score

Understanding how to get links isn’t nearly as worthwhile as why you want to get links and the types, and developing semi-automated methodology.

Rand’s quick strength tool sounds like it shares some similar ideas

I had a recent e-mail conversation that I felt was worth publishing publicly (with permission of course), due to the frequency I receive this type of question. Link development is highly important, and quality link development is a valuable skill. That being said, it is still only a part of the overall process of getting a website top rankings. It is often among the most difficult part of ranking a website high because it doesn’t get planned for from the start of the project and has to be retrofitted later. Getting the links you need for the rankings you want entails understanding the value involved from the publisher’s side, and providing adequate incentives for them to link to you (cool stuff, good content, bartering, cash, etc.). Unfortunately, this is a pretty difficult thing to put a budget proposal in for unless you really understand the true value of the different types of links, and what they mean to the bottom line.

Another issue that often gets neglected by SEO’s is the management of client expectations. When you talk about doing SEO for their site, the client does not have the same fundamental understanding of what that will include for their site unless it is spelled out in pretty specific detail. It is very important to set realistic expectations, since many people have been able to achieve extremely high return on investment rates during the “SEO boom” of the last decade or so. Unfortunately the barrier to entry for new sites, and even existing sites continues to rise as larger corporations, ad agencies, and other entities with substantial financial backing start wising up to the fundamental principles of SEO. It’s always nice to double traffic, sales, or even revenue, but many clients still expect this to be the norm unless their expectations are set to more reasonable levels. It’s nice…but I wish I could say it ALWAYS happends and should be expected.

E-mail from reader:

I’ve been reading your blog posts; you are always referenced as an excellent link builder. So I have to pick your brains for a minute.

I think there’s something I’m missing…but I can’t put my finger on it.

Hello fellow seo,

Thanks for writing.

My big suggestion would be - think quality, not quantity. Chances are you
probably don’t NEED as many links as you think you do…of course, I don’t
know the whole situation, but most likely if you get 1/10 of what they have
in terms of volume, but trump the quality, you will out rank them.

When you get into the realm where you DO definitely need that many links,
the viral marketing route is the only way to go. You need to naturally
attract those links with ideas formed around linkbaiting.

Sounds like you are right on track man. You can’t manually build that many
links normally and have them be quality. The links that you don’t have to
ask for are generally the best ones.

In high dollar marketplaces, link begging just doesn’t cut it anymore
unfortunately. It sucks, but more and more of the industries will return to
the need for ad agencies and traditional media to be successful at SEO in
the next few years. The barrier to entry was lowered, but it is now back to
rising every day for new businesses on the web.

Best of luck with your project,

Todd

Continued…

I feel like Linking Sucks…because everybody’s doing it. So, if I were your client and I was competing for a competitive term like Bass Fishing (I read that you like to fish) and I needed 5,000 links. How many email requests would you need to send in a day ? 20-50-100or more? — I’m still stuck here in disbelief.

Thanks for the info and the responses. Congratulations on going solo by the way!!! Thanks again Todd.

Hey xxxxx,

You’re question is so good, I’m almost tempted to ask to answer it publicly on my site.

Actually, you’re pretty much answering your own question correctly, but the points you bring up are quite relevant.

>linking sucks
Yes, it absolutely does. It is hard, tedious work - but it is absolutely neccessary to address for rankings.

>bass fishing
I don’t think I’d ever encourage a client that wasn’t already in the top 1000 that they could rank for this. I would more likely encourage them to focus on three word variations for the next few years if the site was only a couple of years old (or perhaps even new). As unfair as it is, I often turn down new sites for work, and just provide them with some information, because of the steep learning curve, and the increasing barrier to entry for new business on the web.

>lot of work
Yes it is. I normally just train on HOW to do it. I’ve spent plenty of time doing it, and when I feel so inclined, I link build for my own sites. I think it is really about finding the right balance, and link mix to achieve the ultimate goal of higher rankings.

>Math
Again, I think it’s quality and not quantity. Trust trumps just about anything these days on G. One “advertorial” or “presell page” on the right trusted domain and you may not need ANY links;)

Build links smarter…not harder. Train your developers or yourself to find high VALUE links, and you will grow more quickly over time. The landscape may change, but if you’re always searching for the highest quality links and overall advertising value, you won’t have to redevelop your process near as often.

Other things to consider
- scraper site backlinks from sites who’ve been on top for a while
- natural link attraction by ranking for phrases
- natural links from good content (did i really just say that?)
- syndication and aggregation

Link building can be outsourced as well, provided the staff is trained to a decent level of quality. You’re on the right line of thinking…the barrier to entry has definitely been raised. Link begging is no longer a valid technique solely on it’s own. It’s using the knowledge and understanding of how and why links are valuable that ultimately helps to create an effective seo strategy now through a marketing mix of obtaining them for rankings.

Cheers,

Todd

Don’t make your users feel stupid. Make them laugh. Check your 404 page today and make sure it’s not the same old default techie drivel that sites lose users to every day. Preserve your web traffic with a few easy changes.

Just in case - what is a 404

Probably my single most “SEO pet peeve” is default 404 pages. Don’t ask me why, but it just bugs the hell out of me. Probably because it’s a really easy thing to do once someone tells you how, and it often gets neglected until someone points it out.

Don’t make your users feel stupid by serving them some uber-techie looking page…if anything, this is your chance to appear HUMAN and show that you make mistakes and you can fess up to them. 404’s are a great way for even the most stuffiest of corporate websites to display a little humor. It’s okay…EVERYONE serves 404’s sometimes…you’re not gonna get around them, so you might as well use them. Don’t be a contentious asshole…admit you made a mistake and have a bit of fun with it.

404’s aren’t really an “SEO thing” as much as they are a usability thing. More and more, however, I am realizing that I lump all things internet business and marketing into SEO, since search algorithms go much deeper than titles, h1’s, keywords, and a few links anymore.

I had to put this post off a little bit, after realizing my own 404 page was a lil’ foobar, and after a bit of digging through my hacked to bits version of wordpress, I fixed my 404 page.

Creating the ultimate 404 page

Recipe calls for:
-(1) Customized message to include: enough humor to elicit a response and prevent boredom, a few words of self deprecation and apology for the error, and written instructions on how to proceed.
-(1) search box
-(1) basic sitemap - directory style
-optional: Funny picture because it’s an error page and you can do that kinda stuff on the web no matter how “corporate” you are.

Cool examples of custom 404 pages:

• Web Professor 404
• 404 inspiration
• SurveySam 404
• Homestar runner 404
• In case you don’t like 404 traffic

Examples of terrible use of 404 page

• Geeks rock - clean it up guys
• Boingboing - blame the people who link to you?
• Even the ultra-brilliant Doc
• Mr. Battelle too
• Squidoo 200 doo-doo
• SEOspeedwagon bombs, but the mothership does it up right.
• Guy doesn’t even list his domain

I’m sure there are plenty of others I could pick on, but these were the ones that I checked out first. I’m not saying I’ve never been guilty of it myself…just that it is a very easy mistake to fix 9 out of 10 times, and that the default settings for 404’s generally suck. This is MUCH more disturbing when it happens on commercial websites

How to Create a Custom 404 on IIS

• Custom 404’s for IIS

How to Create a Custom 404 on Apache

• Custom 404 creation in .htaccess

Other notes on 404s

Always serve 404’s. Always have “customize 404’s” on your list of SEO to-do’s. You can create pretty custom pages for different types of 404 errors, but NEVER bypass the 404 process unless you have a very good reason. Serving 301’s, 302’s, and 200 codes instead of 404’s can create some serious issues, much more serious than just using the ugly default page not found responses.

Note to Yahoo Store Management and Yahoo store users

There is a 404 setting in yahoo store that is an absolutely TERRIBLE idea. It redirects all 404 traffic to the homepage with a 302 redirect. This can create some serious issues and should be avoided at all costs. I don’t believe it is a default setting, but it can really create some problems and should not be done this way. Use a sitemap with a brief 404 message at the top to let users know what’s going on.

If you work for yahoo stores, please beg for yahoo store page level permanent 301 redirects for us too.

Do you have favorite 404’s, examples of poor 404 use, or advice for creative uses of them?