This is a presentation for General Assembly's class on link-building for startups. It was presented on May 3rd, 2011.

1. LINK-BUILDING FOR
STARTUPS
Or: What the “business guy” can
do when the tech guy is busy
building something amazing.

2. WHY LINK-BUILDING?
• Skills required: can you type? Are you
sane? Do you have a cool story? Do you
have a highly variable amount of free
time?
• Core of PR, SEO.

3. A WORD ON ALGORITHMS
• Search engines look for:
– Authority
– Relevance
– “Brandedness”
– Timeliness
– Location
– + much much more.

4. IDENTIFY YOUR AUDIENCE(S!)
• Two constituencies: who buys and who
links.
• Popularity arbitrage.
• The “Boring” paradox.

5. GETTING BLOGGERS TO LIKE
YOU / LINK YOU
• Fundamental laziness (in a good way)
• Deference to experts
• …who are defined as “anyone who says
something interesting.”

6. GETTING JOURNALISTS TO LIKE
YOU
• Also fundamentally lazy (also in a good
way)
• Need more plausible deniability
• “…it is far safer to be feared than loved.”

7. GUEST-BLOGGING
• It’s cheesy, but it works.
• Commenter > emailer > guest-blogger >
repeat.

8. UNSUNG HEROES
• Your alma mater
• Professional organizations
• Brand mentions > links
• Partners
• Coworkers

9. FUN WITH Q&A SITES
• Be your own Demand Media.
• Lurk.
• Answer.
• Canonicalize.
• Repeat.

10. ISN’T SEO DEAD?
• In some cases, sure.
• Maturing industry.
• It’s a growth industry.
• Economics still favor the miserly
workaholic.

11. 3 EASY WAYS TO GET STARTED
• Copy Competitors:
– http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/
– http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/
– http://www.linkdiagnosis.com/
• Answer Questions
– http://answers.yahoo.com/ (search + RSS)
• Take Credit
– Google tools: “alerts” and “related”

12. CASE STUDIES, Q&A, ETC.
• Granite Countertops and Baseball
• “The Tax Rascal”
• Targeting the Pre-K market via Halo 2.
• Frenemies at the NYT and TC.
For More:
byrne@byrnehobart.com
digital-dd.com
@byrneseyeview
slidesha.re/ga-link-building