Do you want more links or more money?

mediaworks free webinar
effective outreach for your brand:
do you want more links or more
money?
craig bradshaw – head of
creative

introduction
www.mediaworks.co.uk

In the fast-paced world of digital marketing, it seems everybody
is clamouring for one thing: links.
But are they really the holy grail of rankings?

Google uses over 200 ranking factors to determine the Search
Engine Result Page (SERP) position a site should occupy.
As links are just one of these factors, you could be
spending too much time, money and effort on stockpiling
citations and mentions from third party sites.
In short, could these efforts be streamlined to improve your
digital strategy?

your
host …
Mediaworks | Game-Changing Content Marketing | Leeds Business Week www.mediaworks.co.uk
Craig Bradshaw
Head of Creative

Mediaworks | Game-Changing Content Marketing | Leeds Business Week www.mediaworks.co.uk
running
caffeine
photo-jacking
likes
:

this isn’t about one simple thing
you can do to get more links

it’s about encouraging you to
change the way you think about
how search engines work

and how you can be more
incisive with your outreach, and
better measure the economic
value of the work you’re doing
to earn links

Google has openly stated that they are a machine learning
company.
In the future, only a machine will know what it takes to rank well,
and it will never be able to explain it to you
Moreover, it will have multiple contingencies, will constantly be
evolving, and it will spot patterns and connections that we will never
think of connecting.

By focusing on SEO strategy purely on links, you may be ignoring a
plethora of non-link metrics that correlate with high vs. low
rankings.
And you never know when a machine will decide that links no
longer influence successful searches for users

case study
a genuine quote from the SEO Manager of a FTSE 100 company …

seo manager: I want 20 links from this next project.
me: we don’t think link volume numbers are a good indicator of the
success of a campaign.
me: what if we only built one link, but that link generated 1,000
visits and £50k worth of new business – would you still deem the
campaign a failure?
seo manager: yes. everyone knows seo is all about links.
me: …

The problem with this statement is that it confuses correlation and
causation
Correlation - when two or more things or events tend to occur at
about the same time and might be associated with each other
Causation – when two or more things are connected by a
cause/effect relationship

For example, in sick people, a runny nose and a sore throat correlate
to each other - they tend to show up in the same patients.
That doesn't mean runny noses cause sore throats, or that sore throats
cause runny noses, however.
Forgetting that leads to sloppy thinking – the same is true for links.

This is key because SEO has turned from an exercise, where we
essentially try and acquire/point links to a piece of content
Instead it has now evolved into something where we have to go out and
earn a wide range of ranking signals

In order to make this change, we need to think smarter about outreach
In order to earn ranking signals, we need to have an audience that will
help amplify your message; whether that’s:
• the content that you create
• the unique value that you provide
• your core service/ product
• the message about your brand

evidence of links fading

link volume alone has not been a reliable, correlative metric for
rankings for almost a decade

Position Ranking URL
Ext Links
(Domain)
Ref Domains
(Domain)
Ext Links
(URL)
Ref Domains
(URL)
1 http://www.silverbean.com/ 1,202 125 414 83
2 http://www.icrossing.co.uk/ 11,545 934 5,585 480
3 http://www.statusdigital.co.uk/ 8,595 47 8,593 46
4 http://www.jellyfish.co.uk/ 68,678 634 56,933 252
5 http://www.saberlightdigital.co.uk/ 7,869 20 7,867 18
6
http://daykinandstorey.co.uk/about/what-we-do/
we-do/
14,812 66 1 1
7 http://www.latitudegroup.com/ 17,632 525 15,312 332
8 https://www.mediaworks.co.uk/ 1,076 185 86 20
9 http://www.coastdigital.co.uk/ 237,059 460 173,648 260
10 http://www.koozai.com/ 46,121 1,660 13,282 588
rankings for “digital marketing agency” on google.co.uk, taken on 25th march 2015

the rankings for this keyword (and many others) shows numerous
examples where the pages with the highest link volumes are being
outranked by pages with lower link volumes at both domain and
page level.
there’s simply not enough of a correlation between link volume
alone and rankings for this keyword for a conclusion to be drawn on
what drives the ranking result.

so instead …

instead of focusing on traditional link building focus your efforts on
outreach that will address traditional marketing purposes, and try to
earn links through differentiation
such as …

links get traffic
links that get traffic

links aren’t the win!
instead of focusing on link acquisition, focus on earning
attention and trust, and look at ways to earn the link
afterwards
you are responsible for the website traffic of a real
business, not just for ‘building links’
invest in tactics that will serve multiple marketing
purposes and solve a searcher’s problem

595
sessions
5.05%
conversion rate

came from an unlinked brand mention!

wouldn’t have been able to claim the success without the
link!

links get traffic
pro tip

Use Demographics data in
Analytics to find interests of
people that visit your site, or
break down your site’s visitors
into different customer
profiles.
For example, if they are
interested in films, prospect
and outreach the key sites
that fit that particular
demographic.

Alternatively, you can also use
Facebook Graph Search to
find interests of people that
like a certain page, work for a
certain company etc.
Moz has a great guide here -
http://moz.com/blog/facebook-graph-search-
guide

595
sessions
£2.70
avg. suggested bid

and it only took us the time it took to send a polite request to a
journalist
relative cost of acquiring the same amount of traffic through
PPC
£1,606

links get money

although traffic might be up, you need to ask yourself, am I
making improvements in a way that means success for my
client?
If you’re earning links that drive conversions, these are the
results that convince companies to increase their spend on
SEO

26
conversions
8.72%
conversion rate

Only a Domain Authority 15 website!

Display Planner in Google
AdWords gives you valuable
insight into the places that
your target audience is likely to
visit, or sites that are
thematically relevant to the
keyword/categories you want
to target.
Hypothetically, if a placement
is a good source of
goals/conversions through
paid, it makes sense to try and
do targeted outreach to that
site too.

links that get money

being incisive is much better than throwing the kitchen
sink at link building
think about how to target people across the whole sales
funnel; from providing information to genuine purchase
intent

154
conversions
41.40%
conversion rate

Filter by organic traffic in the
Acquisition section of GA, and
then add ‘Landing Page’ as a
secondary dimension.
From here you can infer what
keywords/categories are
driving traffic to the site.
You can also make judgements
on what point a user is in the
conversion funnel based on the
content of these pages.

promote the top landing pages through outreach, based on
the stages of the funnel that you are wanting to target.

conclusion

the value of a link is not embedded in the link itself
the value of a link is derived from the knowledge used to
best segment that will amplify your message, and the
ability of the link to solve a customer’s problem

also known as …

traditional marketing!

@bradshawcg
@MediaworksUK

Princesway North
Team Valley Trading
Estate
Tyne & Wear
NE11 0NF
+44 (0)191 404 0100
info@mediaworks.co.uk

Do you want more links or more money?

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