Advanced Link Building training in the UK – at Branded3
Since the introduction of the new Google algorithms, especially Penguin 2.1, the industry of people involved in SEO has boiled. Devastation caused by this change can’t be compared with anything else. Two last years were the time which you recall with a headache and bad words on your lips – manual Google penalties for external links plunged many companies – we also felt the threat, but we are still here, we live on and develop further. And precisely for this reason the time came to check new opportunities. The Link Building training held in Brighton on September 12, 2014 was supposed to ensure them.
Why this training? Because it is worth checking how link building field works in the foreign markets, think about it, analyze it and take something for ourselves and maybe even implement it at home.
Two times a year conferences and series of trainings in the field of SEO and Internet Marketing are held in Brighton, UK. Each time there are the best speakers who know the industry very well both in theory and in practice. So there are no random facts or lectures. Brighton offers a load of really great knowledge supported by life examples and showing the nuances of our industry. It focuses primarily on various updates introduced by Google and explaining why they are necessary and what they are made for. The algorithms are more and more intelligent – we have to comprehend, accept, understand and adapt to them. There is nothing else left for us if we want to sleep calmly at night. And this doesn’t apply just to us – the people associated with the SEO industry for a long time.
Many people working in the so called “classical marketing” come to the Brighton trainings. All activities are anyway related in some extent to Internet presence, so understanding the rules of this industry becomes a necessity. The combination of traditional marketing practices with the knowledge of SEO is the only way to create a link database which is valuable and can survive the test of time.
As for the training itself…
This is not just some insignificant SEO training. BrightonSEO is a great project, not only in England but throughout Europe. Polish trainings and conferences keep its pace but it is worth going there if only to see what the organization matter looks like and what way the lectures and trainings are conducted. Everything happens at Brighton Dome – a big concert building that can house several thousand people. It is located in the sea resort on the south of England, which at the time of BrightonSEO changes into a whirl of people. If you see all the big queues to the entrance, you can be sure that you’ve come to the right place.
The conference took place on September 12 and the day before there was a chance to participate in trainings on the specific matters. Their range was quite wide – from content marketing, through a course of local SEO, to courses on use of Excel in reporting SEO activities designed specifically for the seos. My choice was the Advanced Link Building and Effective Outreach Training Course – it is not written anywhere in 100% how to deal with link building after the introduction of new Google algorithms, which is why each new and fresh message can be useful.
Solutions to these problems in foreign markets are quite another thing, even a different world, incomparable to Polish conditions. We need a few more years to catch up with what’s happening eg .: in England. That’s why such trainings have a big advantage – we know which direction you need to develop.
As for the training itself – it was led by three specialists of Branded3 – Tom Armemante, Laura Crimmons and Stephen Kenwright. For 6 hours along with the participants they were trying to unravel the puzzle of how to make progress these days in building natural links so that they have an effective range and at the same time – which is obvious – aren’t eaten by the Penguin. What specific topics did they mention? Briefly, I can divide them into a few subparagraphs:
What does Google really want to achieve ?;
- Penalties imposed after the algorithm improvements – what are they, what for and why ?;
- What changes in building natural links should the Seos focus on ?;
- PR and Social Integration;
- A little info about the acquired links’ content;
- Helpful tools in link building;
- plus some technical issues in link building.
The training gave me a lot of interesting ideas and solutions, particularly in link building and PR. The Branded3 specialists proved that link building is definitely not dying. What was the best for me? Presenting the strategy of building a campaign step by step. In brief I’ll show you what it looked like according to the Branded3 representatives.
9 steps of a link building strategy
- Identification of the event/occasion
- Context research of the event
- Brainstorming ideas on how to place the customer in the center of this event
- Fixing the campaign and the amount of funds for it with the client
- Creation of the campaign prototype and identification of ways for increasing feedback
- Creating a list of media which will share our link
- Implementation of the campaign with a link sharing plan
- Monitoring reports from all the elements of the campaign
- Reporting our activities and the results to the client
This is what it should look like every day for a typical White Hat, it’s a shame that this theory has little chance of being put into practice in our market, mainly because of the low budget which customers spend on link building and online activities. It doesn’t also help that very simply we don’t have in Poland that many thematic and valuable sites to obtain natural and thematic links for our site and our link building campaigns.
After this training I can assure you that the English are crazy for it. They can spend a large part of the budget reserved for Adwords and contextual ads on generating traffic from publications so that they can catch on and spread organically from then on. For them the article has to be great in itself so that it can spread virally on the internet (we have to remember about ready html codes and social buttons necessary for quick share of the article in social media), have high number of visits and lead to going on our client’s site.
So, how do Link Builders report their work and what are they paid for in the UK?
I can say it this way – a measure of success in link building is various, but several factors that determine whether implemented strategy works are taken into account. I will fail my colleagues and write… no, they are not paid for positions in link building activities in the UK ? People there understand what local results, personalization of results, the Hummingbird and context queries are. Probably I have destroyed the worldview of some in the industry but unfortunately this is what’s awaiting.
Specialists from the UK will certainly put in their reports:
- the number of views and clicks on a link to the client’s site
- the average time spent on the article page
- percentage of new visitors
- the number of social media shares, e.g. on Twitter, Facebook or Google +
This is the official information gained during the training. It’s time for some facts learned behind the scenes during small talks and lunch breaks from participants and speakers ?
If Google gives your site a penalty and you have to take the trouble to ask for its removal, do not paste links to Google Docs in which you excuse yourself in the reconsideration request. Seriously. It’s no use. Googlers can’t open any attachments due to safety precautions. Google is not able to control its content – besides explanations the files may as well include threats or bribery offers.
English companies solve the problem of penalties a little differently. Usually, they immediately disclaim links to the entire domain not trying to remove them. The Branded3 company says it is 100% effective in removing the filters in their internal tools of evaluation. Deleted links from domains are thrown to disavow in order to show that the company has no intention in buying them again in the future. Therefore the penalties are removed from the domain rather quickly.
Link Builders abroad are usually … women. All of this thanks to their natural patience in searching for spots which you can obtain links from and contact eg. bloggers. Their advantages include persuasiveness and desire to achieve their goals – not one of us has already experienced that :-). If I’m not mistaken, there is one woman responsible for link building outreach – Anastasia Procher, at Bartosz Góralewicz’s Elephate company which has customers mainly outside Poland, and I must admit she is doing quite well;
It increasingly happens in the UK that there are links with the anchor to top newspapers with a large authority (BBC, Independent, New Guardian, etc.) in Google responses – which made me realize that in the case of manual actions the place of link origin is not important but its form and directives.
More valuable links are from regional/thematic sites than those with national coverage.
… there are more of these flavors but I will more likely pass them personally upon a beer somewhere ?
Summarizing:
I am really content with my participation in this training and the conference – some things were already well known to me but you can always catch something new and valuable. The main gained knowledge is that you look for link spots through people, their position and authority in the industry and not by the sites which have a lot of backlinks.
Who can I recommend “Advanced Link Building and Effective Outreach Training Course” to?
- people who want to develop in the link building field;
- people who don’t consider “Link Building” as link exchange systems, pretzels, multicodes, Xr or blogs with spinners;
- people who want to invest in their knowledge and will be able to pack it into a product and sell it to the customer;
- Seo companies involved in Link Building that have aspirations to a “global” level and want to make “themes” for other countries;
- those who know English at least at B2 level (I do and I was coping) and have a good hearing – the English speak very specifically.
And now good news for those who don’t like to or can’t leave the borders of our beautiful country. Just in November a special event will take place, because the Max Roy company managed to invite a link building pro from Florida, namely Jon Cooper, one of the most popular link builders in the US after Eric Ward.
Obviously I can’t miss such an opportunity so if anyone feels like meeting me, Joe Cooper and the Max Roy team at a salad and soft beer, I kindly invite you and see you on the November training in Warsaw.
I think I have written a little too much, so I will introduce you to Jon Cooper’s figure and his achievements in the next posts.
Jon Cooper SEO PRO: Creative Link Building and Content Marketing, How They Work Together?
http://searchmarketingweek.com/szkolenie-seo-pozycjonowanie-pro/
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