Thunder Booms! Search and Social Favorites for September 2, 2011

Yes, the "bad inbound links can get your site penalized" myth is alive well...or is it? Jason Lancaster posits his theory why it is a myth. His basic logic is that if it were possible, then anyone would be able to take down a competitor's website. Seems logical enough. He also references Google Webmaster Guidelines to support his argument. However, the fun really starts when SEO heavy weights like Greg Boser, Michael Gray and Rishi Lakhani chime in to disagree strongly with Jason's assessment. After reading the post, dig deeper into the comments to see the discussion between those who believe bad links can tank a site, and those who believe they can't. While neither party can provide data to support their claims, some highly respected SEOers provide anecdotal evidence and their own warnings about buying bad links. Check it out and see what you think.

 So your latest linkbait attempt failed to take off... What!? None of your linkbait campaigns succeed? Well clearly you've been doing something wrong & Ed Fry, Distilled Intern, can help you fix your troubled ways.  What it really boils down to is, a lack of planning & execution. Resulting in several broad scenarios: Limited Success, Competition Copying Your Work, Not Enough Resources, Overwhelmed & Chaotic.  By compiling information from asking around the Distilled office & referencing existing material Ed outlines some great practical ways to approach each of the scenarios, ensuring your next linkbait campaign wil be a success. 

This post by Dan Cristo is one of those "duh!" link building moments. Sometimes the most obvious wins are right under your nose and you don't even see it. In this case, we know that Tweets sent from a third-party application using Twitter's API link to the source beneath the tweet (Ex: 5 minutes ago via Hootsuite). We also know that there are hundreds upon thousands of websites that scrape or use widgets to syndicate tweets from Twitter on their pages. Sure, these links are temporal, and typically fall off the page after a matter of time. But, to Dan's point, these are crawlable links from unique root domains in different C-blocks. At a certain point, Google has to realize, hey people are using this app, this website must have something valuable there. If you read his post to the end, you'll notice his tip to use keywords in the application name that you register with Twitter. This tactic can't replace your quality PageRank-focused linkbuilding, but you'll definitely increase your crawl rate with Google and get on their radar as a site with some social buzz, which will probably show effects in the SERPs in one way or another.

If you're like me, you've read a bajillion posts about link-building. I always remember the general idea of the posts, but when it comes time to build links, I can't remember where I saw that prospecting tool or competitive analysis sleuthing strategy. Well thankfully, Distilled is here to save the day with their one-stop-shop link-building guide! It's seriously everything you need to know about creating shareable content, from brainstorming and research to design and sharing. Instead of trying to tackle this guide in one sitting, bookmark it and use it over and over again. It's going to help a lot around here, and I'm looking forward to learning a little bit each day!

Finding guest blogging opportunities can be an exhausting process. Before you go storming off into the unknown I suggest you take a look at Anthony Mangia’s guide to finding them by being smart. His tips range from the overly obvious to the “why didn’t I think of that?” First, Mangia says to leverage your personal contacts. If we’re friends someone, what is the harm in asking if we can provide them with some original content? If you have a personal blog, he says to proclaim to your readers that you are available to write for them. Tony also says to use Facebook to ask for opportunities, Twitter to search for them, and LinkedIn to show others in your professional community that you are willing to network for them. Another great suggestion is to approach guest blogging communities, forums, and blogger directories. These are things that I wouldn’t have thought of right away. It’s usually the stuff right in front of your nose that can be the most beneficial.