This document discusses link building best practices. It provides an overview of Jesse Seogeek's background and experience in search engine optimization. The document then discusses important metrics for evaluating link quality such as relevancy, traffic, and whether a site seems spammy. It also suggests using search operators to more efficiently find quality link prospects and generate links from local events and publications. The document recommends focusing on user impact as an important quality metric and provides additional reading on link building strategies.

2. About Me
● Director of Operations at TopHatRank
Search & Social Marketing
● Conference speaker: Pubcon, Rocks
Digital, SearchHOU, and State of
Search
● Featured Podcast Guest: Search Talk
Live, #SocialChat, Authority Labs, &
Link Research Tools
● Kerboo named their link quality
algorithm after me
@jesseseogeek

3. ● Common link building quality
metrics?
● How to prospect new links
● How to use search operators for link
building
● Thinking about links from a different
perspective
@jesseseogeek
Key Takeaways

5. What Makes a Quality Link?
● Relevancy - Is the link relevant to your site’s vertical
or service area?
● Quality - Is the link from a site that is considered
spammy in its practices?
● Traffic - Will the link bring qualified traffic to your site
and services?
@jesseseogeek
Link Quality Metrics

6. There’s more to
link building than
Domain Authority
@jesseseogeek
Link Quality Metrics

7. ● Does the site already rank well?
● Does it show signs of having a
previous penalty?
● Is the organization of the site
well known in the community?
● Does the site have a positive
overall keyword growth over
time?
@jesseseogeek
Link Quality Metrics

8. @jesseseogeek
Link Quality Metrics

9. Spammy links are
not worth it! Build
smart the first
time.@jesseseogeek
Link Quality Metrics

10. ● Determine your link building
goals
● Figure out what types of sites
can help you meet those goals
● Establish the audience that will
benefit most from following a
link to your site
● Form relationships to establish
healthy/quality link building
efforts
@jesseseogeek
Link Quality Metrics

12. ● Search operators can help
refine your searches to find
more qualified links.
● Using search operators can
help you save time while
prospecting.
● Search operators can give you
an idea on the indexability of
links.
@jesseseogeek
Using Search Operators

13. How To Use Search Operators
● Finding Specific Site Types - Example: if you are
looking for a site that lists sponsorships, use
“sponsor” or “sponsors” in your search.
● Site Types - Use inurl: if you are looking for sites that
are specifically .org, .edu, etc.
● Related Sites - Use related: to find sites that Google
thinks is similar to ones that you know are high
quality
● Moz Article by Dr. Pete - http://bit.ly/2H4IuFK
@jesseseogeek
Using Search Operators

15. Start Thinking
About User Impact
as a Quality Metric
@jesseseogeek
Ideas for Local Link Building

16. Generating User-Focused Links
● Sponsor Local Events - Look at events that your
site’s demographic might participate in
● Hold Events - Use schema markup and submit
events to local publications
● Sponsor Local Sports Teams - These are usually
paired with logo placement at events
● Write for Local Publications - Become a contributor
to local publications that share similar themes to your
sites
@jesseseogeek
Ideas for Local Link Building

17. Additional Reading
● The Ultimate Guide to Link Building - Eric Ward &
Garrett French
● The Art of SEO - Eric Enge & Stephan Spencer
● Throw Away Your Form Letters (or Five Principles
to Better Outreach Link Building) - Mike King
(iPullRank)
● The Rules of Link Building - Cyrus Shepard
@jesseseogeek
Additional Reading / Learning

18. Follow Me On Social
@jesseseogeek@TopHatRank
@jesseseogeek