Why are they ranking higher than me? Some of the fundamentals of Off-site competitive research for link building

1. Why are they ranking higher
than me?
SEO competitor analysis.
Feb
2014
Kelvin
Newman
–
Founder
Rough
Agenda
@kelvinnewman

2. Rough Agenda...
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3. WARNING
!
Super
simplified
explanation
of
SEO
ahead
3

4. Technical
Stuff
+
Good
Links
=
Profit
4

5. Technical
Stuff
+
Good
Links
=
Profit
5

6. Technical
Stuff
+
Good
Links
=
Profit
6

7. GOOGLE
AREN’T
THE
ENEMY
THEY’RE
THE
SocialCrawlytics
REFEREE

12. Competitive Informed link
building
• The
most
successful
of
your
link
building
efforts
will
be
informed
by
understanding
what
has
worked
for
you
compeUtors.
– There
are
a
number
of
tools
and
techniques
available
to
beXer
understand
the
“context”
of
your
link
building.
• MajesUcSEO
• SEOmoz
OpenSite
Explorer
• SocialCrawlyUcs
• Tom
Anthony’s
Link
Profiler

13. Determining Who Your
competitors are
• InsUncUvely
you’ll
know
who
your
main
compeUtors
are
however
you
need
to
also
understand
the
compeUtors
who
are
link
building
effecUvely.
– There’s
several
approaches
to
finding
similar
sites
online.
• The
“related:domain.com”
advanced
search
query
• LinkedIn
Company
Insights
“People
Also
Viewed”
• Who
ranks?

14. MajesticSEO
• hXps://www.majesUcseo.com/

15. MajesticSEO
• MajesUcSEO
is
one
of
the
most
powerful
and
comprehensive
link
building
tools.
It
is
one
of
the
best
tool
and
understanding
the
‘when’
in
link
building.
– QuesUons
to
be
asking
yourself
when
using
the
tool.
• Any
URL’s
which
get
the
lion’s
share
of
links?
• Which
pieces
of
content
don’t
just
get
the
most
link
but
the
most
trusted
and
diverse
links.
• Are
there
academic
or
educaUonal
insUtuUons
which
are
parUcular
supporUve
of
your
sector.

16. MajesticSEO Findings...
• Using
Econsultancy
as
an
example
compeUtor
we
can
learn
the
following.
• Topics
about
avoiding
negaUve
tend
to
get
beXer
linked
that
posiUve.
• List
posts
tend
to
the
get
well
shared.
• Are
there
academic
or
educaUonal
insUtuUons
which
are
parUcular
supporUve
of
your
sector.
• Blog
posts
tend
to
aXract
more
links
than
reports
but
the
quality
of
the
links
are
much
higher.

17. SEOmoz OpenSiteExplorer
• hXp://www.opensiteexplorer.org/

18. OpenSiteExplorer
• OpenSiteExplorer
doesn’t
have
the
depth
of
index
or
funcUonality
of
MajesUcSEO
but
it
is
far
more
intuiUve
and
easy
to
master.
– QuesUons
to
be
asking
yourself
when
using
the
tool.
• Does
the
different
index
of
links
highlight
different
well
linked
content?
• Understand
the
most
trusted
linking
domains
to
see
who
links
oien
to
a
lot
of
different
content,
these
are
worthy
of
extensive
relaUonship
building.
• OpenSiteExplorer
is
much
beXer
at
communicaUng
how
different
sites
compare
on
metrics,
why
are
some
site
strong
in
some
areas

19. OpenSiteExplorer Findings
• One
of
the
best
features
of
OSE
is
how
easy
it
is
to
benchmark
yourself
as
agains
compeUtors.
– Using
Econsultancy,
Smart
Insights
&
Mashable
we
can
learn
the
following.
• The
raUo
between
followed
and
no-­‐followed
links
on
SI
and
M
are
similar,
E
has
a
much
lower
raUo
of
no
followed
links,
why
is
this?
and
what
can
we
learn
from
that?
• Outside
of
brand
name
anchor
text
Econsultancy
has
a
high
number
of
‘author
brand’
anchor
text
links,
is
this
a
deliberate
strategy?
• The
Nemlix
piece
is
well
regarded
by
OSE
despite
not
having
many
social
shares,
what’s
unique
about
this
piece?

20. Social Crawlytics
• hXp://socialcrawlyUcs.com/

21. SocialCrawlytics
• Understanding
which
pieces
of
content
are
mostly
widely
shared
on
your
and
compeUtor
sites
will
help
you
appreciate
what
works
and
what
doesn’t
in
your
niche.
– QuesUons
to
be
asking
yourself
when
using
the
tool.
• Is
there
a
parUcular
content
type
that’s
popular?
i.e.
infographics
v.s.
videos
v.s.
podcasts
etc.
• Does
sharing
on
one
network
vastly
out
number
another?
• What
are
the
underlying
‘needs’
the
popular
content
is
addressing?

22. SocialCrawlytics Findings
• It’s
widely
reported
that
social
share
do/could
influence
search
results.
We’ll
cover
how
and
why
later.
– InteresUng
findings
based
on
the
Econsultancy.
• The
Content
that
is
most
widely
socially
shared
doesn’t
always
‘match’
with
the
most
linked.
• TwiXer
and
LinkedIn
share
the
content
more
widely.
• Google+
really
seems
to
favour
content
about
Google
properUes.
• Lists
conUnue
to
dominate,
but
trend
lists,
• i.e.
13
thinks
in
2013
seem
to
get
widely
shared
but
less
widely
linked.

23. Tom Anthony’s Link Profiler
• hXp://www.seomoz.org/blog/link-­‐profile-­‐tool-­‐to-­‐discover-­‐
linking-­‐acUvity

24. Tom Anthony’s Link Profiler
• This
is
one
of
a
growing
number
of
shared
Google
docs
available
which
takes
out
much
of
the
heavy
liiing
of
link
analysis.
– It
requires
either
a
SEOmoz
API
or
to
manually
cut
and
paste
some
data
from
Open
Site
Explorer
– QuesUons
to
be
asking
yourself
when
using
the
tool.
• Is
there
a
compeUtor
in
the
space
that
is
‘unusual’
in
how
it’s
links
are
distributed?
• Even
if
there’s
a
good
general
fit
what
causes
the
anomalies?
• How
does
the
distribuUon
in
this
sector
differ
from
others?
is
their
normal
different?

25. Not
about
the
actual
links
but
the
themes

32. TRACK
DOWN
THE
TIPPING
POINT
LINKS

34. 34

35. Any Questions?
• Any
follow
quesUons
do
get
in
touch
– kelvin@roughagenda.com
– twiXer.com/kelvinnewman
– 07917
851
501