SEO 101 for Online Merchants. Part 3: Backlinks

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SEO 101 for Online Merchants. Part 3: Backlinks

11 min listen

We have John Lincoln back for the third instalment of our SEO series and discuss backlinks and how to get Google to notice your site.

We break down press releases, guest blogging and social media links for the beginning merchant.

Listen to all episodes of the series:

Transcript

Jesse: Hey guys, Jesse Ness with the 黑料门 E-commerce show, here with鈥�

Richard: Richard Otey. Hi, Jess.

Jesse: Hey, Rich. We鈥檙e back again with old friend — John Lincoln, with Ignite Visibility. If you haven鈥檛 listened to our previous series, he was named the search engine marker of the year by Search Engine Land, and their company is the #1 ranked SEO company by clutch.co. Hey, John.

John: Hey, how you doing? Thanks for having me back!

Jesse: Good, yeah I鈥檓 doing great. So, we鈥檝e been doing a kind of an “SEO 101” series previously. We鈥檝e spoken about keyword research and optimizing your page with that keyword research. So, now we want to go into probably the hardest topic, in my opinion, of SEO. That鈥檚 backlinks and how to get them.

John: Yeah. Definitely.

Jesse: So, John, this is a tough one. Where do we get them?

Richard: Where鈥檚 someone鈥檚 start with this?

Jesse: Yeah!

John: So, first, you know, let鈥檚 define what it is, right. So, there鈥檚 a couple different things going on here, one &尘诲补蝉丑;鈥攖丑别谤别鈥檚 local listings and then those determine where you show up inside of Google Maps, right. So, that is that. So, if you want to show up in Google Maps it鈥檚 local listings, and then on the other side鈥�

Jesse: So, the “local listings” that鈥檚 like Google+ account design, do you still call it or what鈥檚鈥�

John: Yeah, so it鈥檚 Google My Business now.

Jesse: Google My Business, yeah.

John: So, if you want your Google My Business listing to rank, what you have to do is you have to get other directories online to list your name, address and your phone number. They call it NAP: name, address and phone number. In the more times they do that, in the more consistent it is, the better chance that you鈥檙e going to rank. So, if you Google, like, “digital marketing agency” in San Diego right now, you鈥檒l see that are Ignite Visibility page comes up inside a Google Maps and that鈥檚 because we have all of these local listings that have our correct name, address and phone number. It鈥檚 all consistent, as well as in a good kind of usage signals in Google for people looking for us and finding what they鈥檙e looking for. That鈥檚 part of it, that鈥檚 one thing to know.

Richard: And a quick question. People enter this e-commerce game and they鈥檙e trying to sell “all-over”. But I might hear in between the lines here that even though they鈥檙e trying to sell “all-over”, there鈥檚 a reason to start with these local listings and there鈥檚 a benefit, even if they don鈥檛 have a brick-and-mortar store locally in that town.

John: Yeah. Every e-commerce site should have some type of local presence. But, you know, I think only if you have a brick-and-mortar location though.

If you don鈥檛, then what happens is you set up the local listing and people start showing up at your door and they鈥檙e like “Hey, show me, you know, whatever you鈥檙e selling”, right. The mug or whatever. So, but generally it鈥檚 good, if you have a brick-and-mortar location a lot of e-commerce sites, they start with brick-and-mortar, than they go to e-commerce. They might know a little bit about these local listings.

There鈥檚 a lot of stuff around local, it鈥檚 a whole industry. But what you talked about is linking, and most most specifically, how to rank inside of the organic listings in Google. So, what that means is under the maps, there you have all the websites, that show up.

And to rank their it鈥檚 50% of the content on the page, and the other 50% is how many links you get. Now, those links, they need to be quality links and that鈥檚 the kicker. So, you can鈥檛 just get a link from anywhere, otherwise you get a penalty in Google, you get removed from Google. So, the more high-quality links you get, the better, and example of a high-quality mid-link might be a publication, writing something on you and then linking to your website inside of the text.

Jesse: Got it. So, a publication might be, like, a local newspaper.

John: Some business journal, locate something in your area. Could be a big site, like Forbes, that鈥檚 what everybody wants. But a lot of those big sites they have something called a “no-follow” on the links, not to make it too complicated, but there鈥檚 a difference. There鈥檚 a followed link and no-followed link. If there鈥檚 something in the HTML that says “no follow”, that link does not help you. If it鈥檚 followed and it鈥檚 just a clean link in the HTML then it really helps you rank better. That鈥檚 what you want, “followed” links from good sites.

Jesse: Got it. So, if I launch my business, get the Google My Business account setup, next step, in your opinion would be these local publications. Making you get them to write a story about you or even if you have to pay for a listing to list your business, something like that?

John: You know, if you鈥檙e brand new business, the best thing you can do is a press release, and let people know. Have a launch party, try to do something creative, try to get in the local news, do a little PR, have a story, what鈥檚 unique, what鈥檚 the story about your business, right. If you can tell a story about why you started it and what鈥檚 unique, and if it鈥檚 compelling, people are going to want to tell that story for you. Do a press release and reach out and you鈥檙e going to get links naturally.

You can reach out just by Googling and finding people who would write on these stories normally and pitching them. That鈥檚 really the best way to get links nowadays just for straight PR. There鈥檚 a couple cool tools, if you want to get more advanced, there鈥檚 one called Pitch Box or Outreach Ninja. That will let you kind of crawl the web and reach out to people sequentially. I would stay away from that, if I were you, just if you鈥檙e getting started, just try to do a little PR, get a press release done. That鈥檒l get you on the board. Build out those local listings in your social media profiles, because if you get a link from Instagram or Facebook, Google picks up on that stuff too. So those are kind of easiest ways to get started.

Jesse: Got it. So, the easy would be: the Google My Business and all the social media, so make sure you get all your social media.

John: That鈥檚 Step 1. Exactly.

Jesse: So, and social is like: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest if you have a visual product — get all those done, make sure they point to you. The press release, you know, what are your services? it will, you know, push your release out there, is there something that you recommend?

John: Yeah! So, first, when you鈥檙e setting up your social profiles, there鈥檚 a service out there, called KnowEm.com and it鈥檒l set up, like, anywhere from 30 to 500 social media profiles for you. Than you can kind of own all those, that can be a good way to start.

If you鈥檙e going to be doing local listings as well, you鈥檙e going to want to use Yext or Moz local. Moz Local is a little cheaper. That鈥檚 usually a good one to use.

And then if you鈥檙e going to do a press release, there鈥檚 a million different services out there. Some are really expensive and they鈥檙e all trying to upsell you to buy one, and 20 people call you, and they want to get you in there 20 grand package. It鈥檚 pretty much that way with all those releases actually. But that鈥檚 ok, that鈥檚 their business model.

For the press release, you can do it real quick and dirty one on PR.com. It鈥檚 an older one, but they鈥檝e got okay distribution. And then you could also do PRWeb.com. That鈥檚 pretty good too and you can just submit a release there, but I have a pretty big impact for you, get your ranking in Google.

If you鈥檙e a brand new site, you won鈥檛 even show up if somebody Googles your domain name, so the more press releases you can do, the better. For me, like, the best strategy is just some new kind of PR thing every month and doing a release. Something new PR every month and a release. If you do that over time, people just start linking to, you know, and then the next step is creating great content. And that could be a whole another episode in the future, but we can touch on that, if you like, but, you know, there鈥檚 a lot that goes into linking. I鈥檒l give you another trick too.

Another thing you can do is you can use it a tool like “SEMrush” or “Majestic”. Those are two great tools and then there鈥檚 Ahrefs as well. Majestic.com, semrush.com and ahrefs.com. You can go put in your competitors and you can see all the places that have linked to them. And then based off of that, you can go and look at the links, figure out how they got the links, and then you can go and create that same type of strategy for yourself. We call that “reverse engineering”, and that can be a really good way just to see “Okay, so if I want to rank number one for, you know, best motocross parts or something, where did they get all their links from?” You go out there, you do the same thing. Would help in knowing how to approach it, knowing how to create those. But that鈥檚 kind of, just a little bit more info on external linking for you.

Richard: Got it. Quick question for you, John. First, thanks for the high-level, and we know you could go a lot deeper, lot of this stuff. But, if someone was just starting out, they barely understand what you just said. They just have one friend, their fitness blogger or something like that. And they have other friends or other people in the industry they want to reach out to and just start with one link. What do you recommend somebody, how do they introduce themselves, how do they get the process started just the one on one, just getting started. “I don鈥檛 want to get bogged down and learning new software” or any of this stuff. Is there anything that you see, that鈥檚 worked to get someone else to open up to someone that鈥檚 new and be willing to give him a backlink?

John: Yeah, so here is the thing. What you鈥檙e talking about is kind of, like, may not be exactly, but there鈥檚 this thing called a “link exchange”. So, it鈥檚 like, if I give you a link, you give me a link and so on, and so forth. So, I used to be something that over the last, you know, 6 to 10 years people did everyday. Now that鈥檚 actually against Google鈥檚 guidelines. So, if they find out that you did that and they get you a penalty. Also, if somebody links to you too many times with the same term, you get a penalty. So, if I link to you too many times with the term, like, you know, best motocross parts, that you wouldn鈥檛 rank for that anymore. So, you know, for me it鈥檚 really just about putting out great content, doing great work and, you know, look. If you got on the back end and you鈥檝e got, you know, a hundred friends and you create an email list, and you say — “Hey, look! I just published his blog post, if you really like it I鈥檇 be honored if you linked to it”, that is okay. So, there鈥檚 nothing wrong with link asking and that鈥檚 fine.

Other things people do is like, you might create an infographic and then offer that to people, or just tell them about it and then they link to it as well. It鈥檚 really nowadays just about creating great content or having a great product and then promoting it. And just doing that continuously over time. And that is the best way to do, but just to that you were saying, this but just have a one-to-one thing what will happen is eventually Google will catch up to you and you get all the trouble for that. So, watch out for that one.

Richard: Yeah, I mean, more just reaching that one person at a time, but I know what you鈥檙e saying.

John: One in a time or couple at a time. Or telling friends about this awesome guy, that just published on the 2018 Motocross parts that you have to have and love it if you鈥檇 link to it. And email them a couple times and bugging them. Link begging is okay, so that鈥檚 the way to do it.

Jesse: Perfect, guys! So Link begging is okay, you heard it here. So, do whatever you have to do to get those first few things you need Google to find you and in order for Google to find you you have to have links to your site. So, go out there and get the press release, if you have to. Thank you, John.

John: Thank you, appreciate it!

Jesse: Hey, guys! Jesse Ness on the 黑料门 E-Commerce show, check out ecwid.com for more, or Ignite Visibility to hear more from John, thank you!