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Here in Lilburn, GA we often get weather extremes. From hot, humid, summers to icy cold winters and everything in-between. Weather changes can be annoying enough when you are simply outside, but when your garage door is affected, it adds a whole new dimension to the problem. Imagine trying to leave for work or to take the kids to school when your home’s garage door refuses to open. We use our automatic garage doors so much that we expect them to operate at full capacity all year long. Here at Lilburn Garage Door Repair we tend to get higher call volume during cold weather as frigid temperatures can send garage door performance to plummeting lows. Fortunately, there are a few things that you can do on your end to mitigate the problem and quite often, you can avoid a garage door repair service call altogether! Step one – breathe deep! That’s right; do whatever it takes to get and stay calm. Panicking or getting frustrated only makes the problem worse. Like we stated above, you can often avoid having to call a local Lilburn, GA garage door repair technician by simply checking a few things listed below. Often, problems can seem worse than they really are and this certainly includes garage door issues due to cold weather. When your door first fails to open or close, you might assume that you have a big repair bill ahead of you. You might even worry about possible injury to you or to a member of your family including pets. The fact is, cold weather CAN affect your garage door in many ways and more often than not, this can translate into a poor or shoddy performance. It’s the simple things… First of all, be sure to check the battery in your opener remote. It may be drained OR it might just be cold. Many times, the battery will work just fine when it warms up. In any case, be sure to have it tested. You can do this yourself at home if you have a tester. If you don’t; fear not; there’s a free and simple way to get it done. Just take your remote battery to the nearest Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Lowe’s or Target store and they will be happy to test it for you. Sure, they want to sell you a new one but you are under no obligation to buy one. Also, if you have changed your remote battery several times or dropped your remote, the inside terminals may be a little loose. Sometimes, the cold weather can actually expand them a tiny bit especially if left overnight in a cold garage or in a car parked outside in the driveway. Simply squeeze the terminals a bit to get them to hold the battery more snugly and you should be good to go. Safety sensors Another reason your garage door may not work as it should, is your photo electric safety sensors. This device was designed to prevent your garage door, which weighs several hundred pounds, from directly hitting anything beneath it. This can include car, pets, children or even you! Your sensors transmit a beam to each other, and when that beam gets interrupted by something that gets in the way, the garage door either goes back up or it won’t move at all. There’s a simple test to see if your sensors are working. Inside your garage is the wall switch. Hold it down and see if your garage door closes. This action overrides the safety component and if it still doesn’t close, then your safety eyes need alignment or a lens cleaning. In case you are wondering what sensor alignment has to do with cold weather, it is this. Frigid temperatures here in Lilburn, GA can make your metal sensor casings expand and contract and this small action is often enough to throw off the much needed alignment. Check your garage door tracks Colder weather can make the grease build-up inside your tracks harden and this action alone is often enough to stop the movement of your garage door as it needs smooth movement within your tracks for optimal performance. The grease can also combine with oil, dirt, pet hair, leaves and other debris to form a blockage that can stop your garage door from working as it should. A quick inspection of your tracks should tell you whether they are is blockage or not. If so, a simple and quick cleaning with an old toothbrush should be enough to clear the passage. Don’t lubricate though; just clean using a dry brush. Cold garage door springs Our Lilburn, GA cold weather can also affect extension and torsion springs as well as our garage door rollers. Off and on cold weather spells can shorten the life span of these much needed garage door components and cause them to perform poorly or not at all. You may have a damaged spring in which case, we highly recommend that you don’t attempt repair on your own! Working on springs, especially extension springs is very dangerous and you should definitely call a local garage door repair technician at first chance. What you CAN do, is to run a simple test to see how your springs are working. Simply pull the emergency release on your garage door (the red knob at the end of the cord) and try manually opening and closing your garage door. If movement is choppy or difficult, you have one or possibly two damaged springs. Cold weather tips You can apply basic lubrication service to your garage door springs and rollers. This will certainly help during cold spells. If your springs are already damaged, this won’t help, but if not, it should prolong their life cycle and promote better performance. Simply spray your springs, rollers, hinges and tracks with a silicone based lubricant or a lithium spray. No need to go overboard; just lightly spray every few days or so for maximum benefit. Article source here: GARAGE DOOR ISSUES IN COLD WEATHER via Tumblr GARAGE DOOR ISSUES IN COLD WEATHER If your garage door goes on the blink, there are a good number of reasons you could be having difficulties. Some are easy, and some are problematic. Here are some typical possibilities and solutions. Basic Issues Does the door go down all the way, yet open again? It’s likely the open-and-shut limit settings of your garage door opener are failing. The settings instruct the garage door opener on how far the garage door should move before it’s closed. If set too high, the door will touch the ground before the opener thinks it ought to, presuming the door’s touching something in its path. If so, it will reverse to stop from smashing it. Read the operator’s manual to find out how to set the open-and-shut limits. Does your garage door opener run for several seconds, but then turn off? If your garage door still doesn’t move, this will happen when the door’s closed and the motor tries yet fails to lift the garage door. Try this:
What if your garage door just won’t close? The photo eye sensors could be out of alignment. Your garage door has a photo eye on each side, and between them is an invisible beam, which, when it’s broken, keeps the door from closing. Inspect to see if they’re grimy or misaligned. Depending upon which style and brand of sensor you have, if the light’s blinking, there’s something wrong. (Or, if you have sensors with red and green lights, the red one usually means it’s malfunctioning.) Another possibility of the sensors not working might be the wiring. Check the connections from the sensors to check whether the wires are coming loose or hindered by corrosion. Another issue may be that there’s a short in the wiring someplace, which can sometimes be caused by a staple used during installation; vibrations over the years can eventually cause a disconnect. The wires can also get stretched, resulting in a disconnection. Does your garage door open and shut randomly? If your garage door opens or closes by itself, that’s a safety risk. But don’t fret. Try this:
Does your garage door opener run, yet still doesn’t move? In case of a power failure, your garage door opener has a disconnect switch that makes it possible for you to open or close your garage door manually. This switch, usually attached to a knob or rope, can get unhooked inadvertently. What to do:
Your transmitter batteries may be low. Perhaps, simplest of all, you just need to replace the batteries, and the garage door will open. Complex Issues Does the garage door close only part of the way, but open again? A garage door has a reversing mechanism to keep it from crushing any object in its path. The reversing instruction can be activated by objects on the ground blocking the door’s path ~ such as a garbage can, bicycle, or box. There may also be a build-up of debris on the tracks ~ grime, dirt, a tiny object, and so forth ~ preventing the rollers from moving forward. This problem calls for an expert. Your garage door track could be out of alignment. This is definitely serious. The metal track of your garage door must remain aligned properly, or it won’t budge. Check for bends in the rails, or gaps between the rail and the rollers. As years go by, the garage door’s weight can compound these issues, so don’t procrastinate. Your door might soon become dangerous, so hire a professional. Does your garage door still not go up one bit? Your garage door spring needs attention. Your garage door may have one or two torsion springs, and one or both might be broken. If so, the door will malfunction, or not even open at all. Professional attention is required. Does your garage door slam shut with a bang? It’s probably a broken tension spring, which counters the door’s weight. Or, the cables connected to the tension spring are possibly broken. Either can be hazardous, and necessitates a garage door professional. Prevent Future Issues Establish a routine garage door maintenance schedule to extend the garage door’s life. If your garage doubles as a game room or shop, you’ll certainly want an insulated door, and keep it in tiptop condition. Lubricate your garage door springs, hinges, and rollers ~ at least annually, before winter comes. Without lubrication, ultimately the springs will rust and the coils will bind. Use a reputable brand, and it won’t dry out. A light coating is all you need. Once per month, examine your garage door system’s components.
Every other year, clean your garage door to prolong its life.
Schedule an annual inspection with a local garage door repair service company. Pulleys, springs, wires, and cables require professional attention. DO NOT adjust your garage door yourself! A garage door spring can cause severe injury, and even death. The cables, drums, and bottom brackets sometimes requires adjustment. Hire a trustworthy garage door repair company. For example, if you live in Lilburn, Georgia, consider hiring a legitimate local company such as Lilburn Garage Door Repair. Article source here: CAN’T GET YOUR GARAGE DOOR CLOSED OR OPEN? HERE’S WHAT TO DO! via Blogger CAN’T GET YOUR GARAGE DOOR CLOSED OR OPEN? HERE’S WHAT TO DO! If your garage door goes on the blink, there are a good number of reasons you could be having difficulties. Some are easy, and some are problematic. Here are some typical possibilities and solutions. Basic Issues Does the door go down all the way, yet open again? It’s likely the open-and-shut limit settings of your garage door opener are failing. The settings instruct the garage door opener on how far the garage door should move before it’s closed. If set too high, the door will touch the ground before the opener thinks it ought to, presuming the door’s touching something in its path. If so, it will reverse to stop from smashing it. Read the operator’s manual to find out how to set the open-and-shut limits. Does your garage door opener run for several seconds, but then turn off? If your garage door still doesn’t move, this will happen when the door’s closed and the motor tries yet fails to lift the garage door. Try this:
What if your garage door just won’t close? The photo eye sensors could be out of alignment. Your garage door has a photo eye on each side, and between them is an invisible beam, which, when it’s broken, keeps the door from closing. Inspect to see if they’re grimy or misaligned. Depending upon which style and brand of sensor you have, if the light’s blinking, there’s something wrong. (Or, if you have sensors with red and green lights, the red one usually means it’s malfunctioning.) Another possibility of the sensors not working might be the wiring. Check the connections from the sensors to check whether the wires are coming loose or hindered by corrosion. Another issue may be that there’s a short in the wiring someplace, which can sometimes be caused by a staple used during installation; vibrations over the years can eventually cause a disconnect. The wires can also get stretched, resulting in a disconnection. Does your garage door open and shut randomly? If your garage door opens or closes by itself, that’s a safety risk. But don’t fret. Try this:
Does your garage door opener run, yet still doesn’t move? In case of a power failure, your garage door opener has a disconnect switch that makes it possible for you to open or close your garage door manually. This switch, usually attached to a knob or rope, can get unhooked inadvertently. What to do:
Your transmitter batteries may be low. Perhaps, simplest of all, you just need to replace the batteries, and the garage door will open. Complex Issues Does the garage door close only part of the way, but open again? A garage door has a reversing mechanism to keep it from crushing any object in its path. The reversing instruction can be activated by objects on the ground blocking the door’s path ~ such as a garbage can, bicycle, or box. There may also be a build-up of debris on the tracks ~ grime, dirt, a tiny object, and so forth ~ preventing the rollers from moving forward. This problem calls for an expert. Your garage door track could be out of alignment. This is definitely serious. The metal track of your garage door must remain aligned properly, or it won’t budge. Check for bends in the rails, or gaps between the rail and the rollers. As years go by, the garage door’s weight can compound these issues, so don’t procrastinate. Your door might soon become dangerous, so hire a professional. Does your garage door still not go up one bit? Your garage door spring needs attention. Your garage door may have one or two torsion springs, and one or both might be broken. If so, the door will malfunction, or not even open at all. Professional attention is required. Does your garage door slam shut with a bang? It’s probably a broken tension spring, which counters the door’s weight. Or, the cables connected to the tension spring are possibly broken. Either can be hazardous, and necessitates a garage door professional. Prevent Future Issues Establish a routine garage door maintenance schedule to extend the garage door’s life. If your garage doubles as a game room or shop, you’ll certainly want an insulated door, and keep it in tiptop condition. Lubricate your garage door springs, hinges, and rollers ~ at least annually, before winter comes. Without lubrication, ultimately the springs will rust and the coils will bind. Use a reputable brand, and it won’t dry out. A light coating is all you need. Once per month, examine your garage door system’s components.
Every other year, clean your garage door to prolong its life.
Schedule an annual inspection with a local garage door repair service company. Pulleys, springs, wires, and cables require professional attention. DO NOT adjust your garage door yourself! A garage door spring can cause severe injury, and even death. The cables, drums, and bottom brackets sometimes requires adjustment. Hire a trustworthy garage door repair company. For example, if you live in Lilburn, Georgia, consider hiring a legitimate local company such as Lilburn Garage Door Repair. Article source here: CAN’T GET YOUR GARAGE DOOR CLOSED OR OPEN? HERE’S WHAT TO DO! via Tumblr CAN’T GET YOUR GARAGE DOOR CLOSED OR OPEN? HERE’S WHAT TO DO! LILBURN GARAGE DOOR REPAIR: HOW TO FIND A GOOD GARAGE DOOR SERVICE When you are in need of household service, it can be hard to know who to trust. You don’t want to just pick a random name out of the phone book. However, if you have never required technician services before you can feel like you are moving around in the dark. When it comes to your garage door, the service company you choose needs to have the required expertise to get the job done. The company should also be professional and personable, and provide quick and budget friendly service. So what are some things to look for in a good garage door service? Keep reading for some tips that can help make your decision easier. Ask lots of questions When you are calling around to various companies, ask lots of questions. You are about to spend your hard earned money, so be as inquisitive as you would like. Do some research first, and see if the technician is knowledgeable. See if they are willing to give you some advice over the phone. This is also a good way to judge their commitment to providing great customer service. They should have experience Any company you choose should have experience in the industry. How long have they been in business? What type of background do they have in working with garage doors? Does the company have experience in your geographical area? This is important because environmental factors can lead to different issues with your garage door. Ask if they have experience working with top industry brands. Some brands they should have experience with are:
If your brand is not listed, ask them if they are familiar with the manufacturer of your garage door and opener. You want to make sure whoever you hire has worked with your system in the past. Positive reviews Does the company have positive reviews and feedback? Do a quick search and find out what people are saying about the company. Check the company’s website – is there a testimonial section? Read through and see what kind of positive reviews they have posted. The company should also be able to provide you with references of work they have completed in your area. Check these references thoroughly. You can also ask friends and neighbors if they have had garage work done in the past. Ask who they have worked with and how they liked the job and the experience. Word of mouth is always a great tool to get a glimpse into the quality of service a company offers. People will be happy to share their positive (and negative!) experiences with you, and you can learn from what they have already been through before spending a dime. Are they up on codes and regulations Any business providing repair services in your community should be up to date and well conversed in the codes, rules and regulations pertaining to their business. As a homeowner, you are putting trust in them to be the knowledgeable professionals. You don’t want to be left with a fine or hefty repair bill because the company you hired did not provide work that is up to code. One question to ask prospective repair services is if they are aware of local building codes in your area. Contractors should also be certified in safety practices. Any company you choose should be following licensing standards and safety regulations. You want your repair experience to safe and worry free. Are they insured? The business you hire should have proper insurance coverage. Garage door repair work can be dangerous, and you want to make sure the repair service you hire is carrying the proper coverage to cover themselves as a business as well as their employees. It is always a good practice to ask if the business and employees are insured. Some businesses will even go so far as to provide you a copy of their Certificate of Insurance if asked. If the business says they do not have insurance, then avoid them at all costs. You do not want to be held liable for any issues that may arise. If a company is not responsible enough to carry the proper insurance to cover themselves and their employees, the level of service they would provide you the consumer is questionable. Service guarantees? The world is becoming increasingly competitive. As such, most companies offer some type of service guarantee to put their customers at ease. When looking for a company, see if they offer any guarantees. Do they say your satisfaction is guaranteed? Are they willing to stand behind the products they sell and the services they provide? If so, that is added peace of mind for you. The company should also offer a warranty on the parts they sell. Will they provide a free consultation or free quote? Another thing to look for is their hours of operation. Are they willing to offer 24/7 emergency service? Most garage door service companies are willing to accommodate your schedule and will provide emergency service in serious situations. Professional The company should be personable yet professional at all times. They are the trusted experts in this field. They should be able to explain what they will be doing and why. They should also be able to offer tips to increase the longevity of your garage door. It is easy to decipher whether the person you are speaking with is knowledgeable in their field. Likewise, the company you hire should respect your time. The last thing you want to deal with is a service repair company that is late, doesn’t complete the job correctly, or leaves a mess all over your property. The service person should also explain what went wrong with your garage door, and if possible provide tips on how to avoid the same thing happening in future. In some cases, your garage door issues may be due to age or wear and tear. If that is the case and parts have been replaced, ask the technician if there is a warranty on the new parts, and how long they are expected to last before needing to be replaced again. If you follow the above tips, you should be able to separate the reputable companies from the rest. If you are in Lilburn, GA the company to call for help is Lilburn Garage Door Repair. We have been servicing the Lilburn, GA area for some time, and have many positive customer reviews to show for it. Give us a call for a free consultation.
Article source here: HOW TO FIND A GOOD GARAGE DOOR SERVICE via Blogger HOW TO FIND A GOOD GARAGE DOOR SERVICE LILBURN GARAGE DOOR REPAIR: HOW TO FIND A GOOD GARAGE DOOR SERVICE When you are in need of household service, it can be hard to know who to trust. You don’t want to just pick a random name out of the phone book. However, if you have never required technician services before you can feel like you are moving around in the dark. When it comes to your garage door, the service company you choose needs to have the required expertise to get the job done. The company should also be professional and personable, and provide quick and budget friendly service. So what are some things to look for in a good garage door service? Keep reading for some tips that can help make your decision easier. Ask lots of questions When you are calling around to various companies, ask lots of questions. You are about to spend your hard earned money, so be as inquisitive as you would like. Do some research first, and see if the technician is knowledgeable. See if they are willing to give you some advice over the phone. This is also a good way to judge their commitment to providing great customer service. They should have experience Any company you choose should have experience in the industry. How long have they been in business? What type of background do they have in working with garage doors? Does the company have experience in your geographical area? This is important because environmental factors can lead to different issues with your garage door. Ask if they have experience working with top industry brands. Some brands they should have experience with are:
If your brand is not listed, ask them if they are familiar with the manufacturer of your garage door and opener. You want to make sure whoever you hire has worked with your system in the past. Positive reviews Does the company have positive reviews and feedback? Do a quick search and find out what people are saying about the company. Check the company’s website – is there a testimonial section? Read through and see what kind of positive reviews they have posted. The company should also be able to provide you with references of work they have completed in your area. Check these references thoroughly. You can also ask friends and neighbors if they have had garage work done in the past. Ask who they have worked with and how they liked the job and the experience. Word of mouth is always a great tool to get a glimpse into the quality of service a company offers. People will be happy to share their positive (and negative!) experiences with you, and you can learn from what they have already been through before spending a dime. Are they up on codes and regulations Any business providing repair services in your community should be up to date and well conversed in the codes, rules and regulations pertaining to their business. As a homeowner, you are putting trust in them to be the knowledgeable professionals. You don’t want to be left with a fine or hefty repair bill because the company you hired did not provide work that is up to code. One question to ask prospective repair services is if they are aware of local building codes in your area. Contractors should also be certified in safety practices. Any company you choose should be following licensing standards and safety regulations. You want your repair experience to safe and worry free. Are they insured? The business you hire should have proper insurance coverage. Garage door repair work can be dangerous, and you want to make sure the repair service you hire is carrying the proper coverage to cover themselves as a business as well as their employees. It is always a good practice to ask if the business and employees are insured. Some businesses will even go so far as to provide you a copy of their Certificate of Insurance if asked. If the business says they do not have insurance, then avoid them at all costs. You do not want to be held liable for any issues that may arise. If a company is not responsible enough to carry the proper insurance to cover themselves and their employees, the level of service they would provide you the consumer is questionable. Service guarantees? The world is becoming increasingly competitive. As such, most companies offer some type of service guarantee to put their customers at ease. When looking for a company, see if they offer any guarantees. Do they say your satisfaction is guaranteed? Are they willing to stand behind the products they sell and the services they provide? If so, that is added peace of mind for you. The company should also offer a warranty on the parts they sell. Will they provide a free consultation or free quote? Another thing to look for is their hours of operation. Are they willing to offer 24/7 emergency service? Most garage door service companies are willing to accommodate your schedule and will provide emergency service in serious situations. Professional The company should be personable yet professional at all times. They are the trusted experts in this field. They should be able to explain what they will be doing and why. They should also be able to offer tips to increase the longevity of your garage door. It is easy to decipher whether the person you are speaking with is knowledgeable in their field. Likewise, the company you hire should respect your time. The last thing you want to deal with is a service repair company that is late, doesn’t complete the job correctly, or leaves a mess all over your property. The service person should also explain what went wrong with your garage door, and if possible provide tips on how to avoid the same thing happening in future. In some cases, your garage door issues may be due to age or wear and tear. If that is the case and parts have been replaced, ask the technician if there is a warranty on the new parts, and how long they are expected to last before needing to be replaced again. If you follow the above tips, you should be able to separate the reputable companies from the rest. If you are in Lilburn, GA the company to call for help is Lilburn Garage Door Repair. We have been servicing the Lilburn, GA area for some time, and have many positive customer reviews to show for it. Give us a call for a free consultation.
Article source here: HOW TO FIND A GOOD GARAGE DOOR SERVICE via Tumblr HOW TO FIND A GOOD GARAGE DOOR SERVICE Posted by mark-johnstone A few weeks ago, a post was published entitled The SEO Myth of Going Viral. It referenced 8 pieces of content across 4 different sites that went viral and, most importantly for SEO, gained hundreds of linking root domains. I was the creative director on a lot of those campaigns while working as the VP of Creative at Distilled. Today, I’d like to add some important context and detail to the original post. I actually agree with much of what it said. However, it’s based on the assumption that one big viral piece of content would result in a visible jump in rankings across the domain within about 3 months of the content being released. There are a few challenges with this as a basis for measuring success. I wouldn’t advise setting your hopes on one big viral hit boosting your rankings across the domain. Not by itself. However, if that viral hit is part of ongoing link building efforts in which you build lots of links to lots of pieces of content, you can begin to see an upwards trend. “Trend” is the important word here. If you’re looking for a dramatic step or jump as a direct result of one piece of viral content, this could cause you to overlook a positive trend in the right direction, and even tempt you to conclude that this form of content-based link building doesn’t work. With regards to this type of link building and its impact on domain-wide rankings, I’d like to focus on the follow 4 points:
What successful link building really looks likeSimply Business was held up in the SEO myth post as an example of this kind of link building not working. I would argue the opposite, holding it up as an example of it working. So how can this be? I believe it stems from a misunderstanding of what success looks like. The post highlighted three of the most successful pieces of content Distilled created for Simply Business. However, focusing on those three pieces of content doesn’t provide the full picture. We didn’t make just three pieces of content; we made twenty-one. Here are the results of those pieces: That’s links from 1466 domains built to 19 pieces of content over a period of 3 years. The myth in question is as follows:
Though this wasn’t the hypothesis explicitly stated at the start of the post, it was later clarified in a comment. However, that’s not necessarily how this works. An accurate description of what works would be:
To hold up, the myth required a directly attributable jump in rankings and organic traffic within approximately 3 months of the release of each piece of content. So where was the bump? The anticipated reward for all those links? No. The movement we’re looking for is here: Not a jump, but a general trend. Up and to the right. Below is a SEMRush graph from the original post, showing estimated organic traffic to the Simply Business site: At first glance, the graph between 2012 and 2014 might look unremarkable, but that’s because the four large spikes on the right-hand side push the rest of the chart down, creating a flattening effect. There’s actually a 170% rise in traffic from June 2012 to June 2014. To see that more clearly, here’s the same data (up to June 2014) on a different scale: Paints quite a different picture, don’t you think? Okay, but what did this do for the company? Did they see an increase in rankings for valuable terms, or just terms related to the content itself? Over the duration of these link building campaigns, Simply Business saw their most important keywords (“professional indemnity insurance” and “public liability insurance”) move from positions 3 to 1 and 3 to 2, respectively. While writing this post, I contacted Jasper Martens, former Head of Marketing and Communications at Simply Business, now VP of Marketing at PensionBee. Jasper told me:
That translates to money. A serious amount of it! Simply Business also saw ranking improvements for other commercial terms, too. Here’s a small sample: Note: This data was taken from a third-party tool, Sistrix. Data from third-party tools, as used both in this post and the original post, should be taken with a grain of salt. They don’t provide a totally accurate picture, but they can give you some indication of the direction of movement. I notice Simply Business still ranks #1 today for some of their top commercial keywords, such as “professional indemnity insurance.” That’s pretty incredible in a market filled with some seriously big players, household UK names with familiar TV ads and much bigger budgets. Why success looks like it doesI remember the first time I was responsible for a piece of content going viral. The social shares, traffic, and links were rolling in. This was it! Link building nirvana! I was sitting back waiting for the rankings, organic traffic, and revenue to follow. That day didn’t come. I was gutted. I felt robbed! I’ve come to terms with it now. But at the time, it was a blow. I assume most SEOs know it doesn’t work that way. But maybe they don’t. Maybe there’s an assumption that one big burst in links will result in a jump in rankings, as discussed in the original post. That’s the myth it was seeking to dispel. I get it. I’ve been there, too. It doesn’t necessarily work that way. And, actually, it makes sense that it doesn’t.
The Google algorithm is an incredibly complex equation. It’s tempting to think that you put links in and you get rankings out, and a big jump in one will correspond to a big jump in the other. But the math involved is far more complicated than that. It’s not that linear. Other factors to considerLink building alone won’t improve your rankings. There are a number of other influential factors at play. At a high level, these include:
I’m not going to go into great detail here, but I wanted to mention that you need to consider these factors and more when reviewing the impact of link building on a site’s rankings. Below is the graph from SearchMetrics for Concert Hotels, also via the original post. This is another site to which Distilled built a high volume of links. As you can possibly tell from the large drop before Distilled started working with Concert Hotels, the site was suffering from an algorithmic penalty. We proceeded under the hypothesis that building high-quality links, alongside other on-site activity, would be important in the site’s recovery. However, after three or four large link building successes without any corresponding uplift, we recommended to the client that we stop building links and shift all resources to focus on other activities. As you’ll see at the end of the chart, there appears to be some positive movement happening. If and when the site fully recovers, we’ll never be able to tell exactly what contribution, if any, link building made to the site’s eventual rankings. You can’t take the above as proof that link building doesn’t work. You have to consider the other factors that might be affecting a site’s performance. How can we improve our approach?As I mentioned at the start of this post, I actually agree with a lot of the points raised in the original post. In particular, there were some strong points made about the topical relevance of the content you create and the way in which the content sits within the site architecture. Ideally, the content you create to gain links would be:
This can be a challenge, though, especially in certain industries, and you might not hit the sweet spot every time. But let’s look at them in turn. Topical relevanceIf you can create a piece of content that gains links and is closely relevant to your product and what you do for customers, that’s great. That’s the ideal. To give you an example of this, Distilled created a career aptitude test for Rasmussen, a career-focused college in America. This page earned links from 156 linking root domains (according to the Majestic Historic Index), and the site continues to rank well and drive relevant search traffic to the site. Another example would be Moz’s own Search Engine Ranking Factors. Building lots of links to that page will certainly drive relevant and valuable traffic to the Moz site, as well as contributing to the overall strength of the domain. However, your content doesn’t have to be about your product, as long as it’s relevant to your audience. In the case of Simply Business, the core audience (small business owners) doesn’t care about insurance as much as it cares about growing its businesses. That’s why we created several guides to small business marketing, which also gained lots of links. As Jasper Martens explains:
Integrating the content into the site architectureDistilled often places content outside the main architecture of the site. I’ll accept this isn’t optimal, but just for context, let me explain the reasons behind it:
While it worked for Simply Business, it would make sense, where you can, to pull these things into the normal site architecture to help distribute link equity further. Content that’s valuable in its own right (even if it weren’t for links and SEO)Google is always changing. What’s working now and what’s worked in the past won’t necessarily continue to be the case. The most future-proof way you can build links to your site is via activity that’s valuable in its own right — activities like PR, branding, and growing your audience online. So where do we go from here?Link building via content marketing campaigns can still make a positive impact to domain-wide rankings. However, it’s important to enter any link building campaign with realistic expectations. The results might not be as direct and immediate as you might hope. You need to be in it for the long haul, and build links to a number of pieces of content over time before you’ll really see results. When looking for results, focus on overall trends, not month-to-month movements. Remember that link building alone won’t solve your SEO. You need to make sure you take other on-site, technical, and algorithmic factors into consideration. It’s always worth refining the way you’re building links. The closer the topics are aligned with your product or core audience’s interests, the more the content is integrated into your site’s architecture, and the more the content you’re creating is valuable for reasons beyond SEO, the better. It’s not easy to manage that every time, but if you can, you’ll be in a good position to sustainably build links and improve your site’s rankings over time. Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don’t have time to hunt down but want to read! What Link Building Success Really Looks Like posted first on your-t1-blog-url via Blogger What Link Building Success Really Looks Like Posted by mark-johnstone A few weeks ago, a post was published entitled The SEO Myth of Going Viral. It referenced 8 pieces of content across 4 different sites that went viral and, most importantly for SEO, gained hundreds of linking root domains. I was the creative director on a lot of those campaigns while working as the VP of Creative at Distilled. Today, I’d like to add some important context and detail to the original post. I actually agree with much of what it said. However, it’s based on the assumption that one big viral piece of content would result in a visible jump in rankings across the domain within about 3 months of the content being released. There are a few challenges with this as a basis for measuring success. I wouldn’t advise setting your hopes on one big viral hit boosting your rankings across the domain. Not by itself. However, if that viral hit is part of ongoing link building efforts in which you build lots of links to lots of pieces of content, you can begin to see an upwards trend. “Trend” is the important word here. If you’re looking for a dramatic step or jump as a direct result of one piece of viral content, this could cause you to overlook a positive trend in the right direction, and even tempt you to conclude that this form of content-based link building doesn’t work. With regards to this type of link building and its impact on domain-wide rankings, I’d like to focus on the follow 4 points:
What successful link building really looks likeSimply Business was held up in the SEO myth post as an example of this kind of link building not working. I would argue the opposite, holding it up as an example of it working. So how can this be? I believe it stems from a misunderstanding of what success looks like. The post highlighted three of the most successful pieces of content Distilled created for Simply Business. However, focusing on those three pieces of content doesn’t provide the full picture. We didn’t make just three pieces of content; we made twenty-one. Here are the results of those pieces: That’s links from 1466 domains built to 19 pieces of content over a period of 3 years. The myth in question is as follows:
Though this wasn’t the hypothesis explicitly stated at the start of the post, it was later clarified in a comment. However, that’s not necessarily how this works. An accurate description of what works would be:
To hold up, the myth required a directly attributable jump in rankings and organic traffic within approximately 3 months of the release of each piece of content. So where was the bump? The anticipated reward for all those links? No. The movement we’re looking for is here: Not a jump, but a general trend. Up and to the right. Below is a SEMRush graph from the original post, showing estimated organic traffic to the Simply Business site: At first glance, the graph between 2012 and 2014 might look unremarkable, but that’s because the four large spikes on the right-hand side push the rest of the chart down, creating a flattening effect. There’s actually a 170% rise in traffic from June 2012 to June 2014. To see that more clearly, here’s the same data (up to June 2014) on a different scale: Paints quite a different picture, don’t you think? Okay, but what did this do for the company? Did they see an increase in rankings for valuable terms, or just terms related to the content itself? Over the duration of these link building campaigns, Simply Business saw their most important keywords (“professional indemnity insurance” and “public liability insurance”) move from positions 3 to 1 and 3 to 2, respectively. While writing this post, I contacted Jasper Martens, former Head of Marketing and Communications at Simply Business, now VP of Marketing at PensionBee. Jasper told me:
That translates to money. A serious amount of it! Simply Business also saw ranking improvements for other commercial terms, too. Here’s a small sample: Note: This data was taken from a third-party tool, Sistrix. Data from third-party tools, as used both in this post and the original post, should be taken with a grain of salt. They don’t provide a totally accurate picture, but they can give you some indication of the direction of movement. I notice Simply Business still ranks #1 today for some of their top commercial keywords, such as “professional indemnity insurance.” That’s pretty incredible in a market filled with some seriously big players, household UK names with familiar TV ads and much bigger budgets. Why success looks like it doesI remember the first time I was responsible for a piece of content going viral. The social shares, traffic, and links were rolling in. This was it! Link building nirvana! I was sitting back waiting for the rankings, organic traffic, and revenue to follow. That day didn’t come. I was gutted. I felt robbed! I’ve come to terms with it now. But at the time, it was a blow. I assume most SEOs know it doesn’t work that way. But maybe they don’t. Maybe there’s an assumption that one big burst in links will result in a jump in rankings, as discussed in the original post. That’s the myth it was seeking to dispel. I get it. I’ve been there, too. It doesn’t necessarily work that way. And, actually, it makes sense that it doesn’t.
The Google algorithm is an incredibly complex equation. It’s tempting to think that you put links in and you get rankings out, and a big jump in one will correspond to a big jump in the other. But the math involved is far more complicated than that. It’s not that linear. Other factors to considerLink building alone won’t improve your rankings. There are a number of other influential factors at play. At a high level, these include:
I’m not going to go into great detail here, but I wanted to mention that you need to consider these factors and more when reviewing the impact of link building on a site’s rankings. Below is the graph from SearchMetrics for Concert Hotels, also via the original post. This is another site to which Distilled built a high volume of links. As you can possibly tell from the large drop before Distilled started working with Concert Hotels, the site was suffering from an algorithmic penalty. We proceeded under the hypothesis that building high-quality links, alongside other on-site activity, would be important in the site’s recovery. However, after three or four large link building successes without any corresponding uplift, we recommended to the client that we stop building links and shift all resources to focus on other activities. As you’ll see at the end of the chart, there appears to be some positive movement happening. If and when the site fully recovers, we’ll never be able to tell exactly what contribution, if any, link building made to the site’s eventual rankings. You can’t take the above as proof that link building doesn’t work. You have to consider the other factors that might be affecting a site’s performance. How can we improve our approach?As I mentioned at the start of this post, I actually agree with a lot of the points raised in the original post. In particular, there were some strong points made about the topical relevance of the content you create and the way in which the content sits within the site architecture. Ideally, the content you create to gain links would be:
This can be a challenge, though, especially in certain industries, and you might not hit the sweet spot every time. But let’s look at them in turn. Topical relevanceIf you can create a piece of content that gains links and is closely relevant to your product and what you do for customers, that’s great. That’s the ideal. To give you an example of this, Distilled created a career aptitude test for Rasmussen, a career-focused college in America. This page earned links from 156 linking root domains (according to the Majestic Historic Index), and the site continues to rank well and drive relevant search traffic to the site. Another example would be Moz’s own Search Engine Ranking Factors. Building lots of links to that page will certainly drive relevant and valuable traffic to the Moz site, as well as contributing to the overall strength of the domain. However, your content doesn’t have to be about your product, as long as it’s relevant to your audience. In the case of Simply Business, the core audience (small business owners) doesn’t care about insurance as much as it cares about growing its businesses. That’s why we created several guides to small business marketing, which also gained lots of links. As Jasper Martens explains:
Integrating the content into the site architectureDistilled often places content outside the main architecture of the site. I’ll accept this isn’t optimal, but just for context, let me explain the reasons behind it:
While it worked for Simply Business, it would make sense, where you can, to pull these things into the normal site architecture to help distribute link equity further. Content that’s valuable in its own right (even if it weren’t for links and SEO)Google is always changing. What’s working now and what’s worked in the past won’t necessarily continue to be the case. The most future-proof way you can build links to your site is via activity that’s valuable in its own right — activities like PR, branding, and growing your audience online. So where do we go from here?Link building via content marketing campaigns can still make a positive impact to domain-wide rankings. However, it’s important to enter any link building campaign with realistic expectations. The results might not be as direct and immediate as you might hope. You need to be in it for the long haul, and build links to a number of pieces of content over time before you’ll really see results. When looking for results, focus on overall trends, not month-to-month movements. Remember that link building alone won’t solve your SEO. You need to make sure you take other on-site, technical, and algorithmic factors into consideration. It’s always worth refining the way you’re building links. The closer the topics are aligned with your product or core audience’s interests, the more the content is integrated into your site’s architecture, and the more the content you’re creating is valuable for reasons beyond SEO, the better. It’s not easy to manage that every time, but if you can, you’ll be in a good position to sustainably build links and improve your site’s rankings over time. Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don’t have time to hunt down but want to read! Article source here: What Link Building Success Really Looks Like via Blogger What Link Building Success Really Looks Like Posted by mark-johnstone A few weeks ago, a post was published entitled The SEO Myth of Going Viral. It referenced 8 pieces of content across 4 different sites that went viral and, most importantly for SEO, gained hundreds of linking root domains. I was the creative director on a lot of those campaigns while working as the VP of Creative at Distilled. Today, I’d like to add some important context and detail to the original post. I actually agree with much of what it said. However, it’s based on the assumption that one big viral piece of content would result in a visible jump in rankings across the domain within about 3 months of the content being released. There are a few challenges with this as a basis for measuring success. I wouldn’t advise setting your hopes on one big viral hit boosting your rankings across the domain. Not by itself. However, if that viral hit is part of ongoing link building efforts in which you build lots of links to lots of pieces of content, you can begin to see an upwards trend. “Trend” is the important word here. If you’re looking for a dramatic step or jump as a direct result of one piece of viral content, this could cause you to overlook a positive trend in the right direction, and even tempt you to conclude that this form of content-based link building doesn’t work. With regards to this type of link building and its impact on domain-wide rankings, I’d like to focus on the follow 4 points:
What successful link building really looks likeSimply Business was held up in the SEO myth post as an example of this kind of link building not working. I would argue the opposite, holding it up as an example of it working. So how can this be? I believe it stems from a misunderstanding of what success looks like. The post highlighted three of the most successful pieces of content Distilled created for Simply Business. However, focusing on those three pieces of content doesn’t provide the full picture. We didn’t make just three pieces of content; we made twenty-one. Here are the results of those pieces: That’s links from 1466 domains built to 19 pieces of content over a period of 3 years. The myth in question is as follows:
Though this wasn’t the hypothesis explicitly stated at the start of the post, it was later clarified in a comment. However, that’s not necessarily how this works. An accurate description of what works would be:
To hold up, the myth required a directly attributable jump in rankings and organic traffic within approximately 3 months of the release of each piece of content. So where was the bump? The anticipated reward for all those links? No. The movement we’re looking for is here: Not a jump, but a general trend. Up and to the right. Below is a SEMRush graph from the original post, showing estimated organic traffic to the Simply Business site: At first glance, the graph between 2012 and 2014 might look unremarkable, but that’s because the four large spikes on the right-hand side push the rest of the chart down, creating a flattening effect. There’s actually a 170% rise in traffic from June 2012 to June 2014. To see that more clearly, here’s the same data (up to June 2014) on a different scale: Paints quite a different picture, don’t you think? Okay, but what did this do for the company? Did they see an increase in rankings for valuable terms, or just terms related to the content itself? Over the duration of these link building campaigns, Simply Business saw their most important keywords (“professional indemnity insurance” and “public liability insurance”) move from positions 3 to 1 and 3 to 2, respectively. While writing this post, I contacted Jasper Martens, former Head of Marketing and Communications at Simply Business, now VP of Marketing at PensionBee. Jasper told me:
That translates to money. A serious amount of it! Simply Business also saw ranking improvements for other commercial terms, too. Here’s a small sample: Note: This data was taken from a third-party tool, Sistrix. Data from third-party tools, as used both in this post and the original post, should be taken with a grain of salt. They don’t provide a totally accurate picture, but they can give you some indication of the direction of movement. I notice Simply Business still ranks #1 today for some of their top commercial keywords, such as “professional indemnity insurance.” That’s pretty incredible in a market filled with some seriously big players, household UK names with familiar TV ads and much bigger budgets. Why success looks like it doesI remember the first time I was responsible for a piece of content going viral. The social shares, traffic, and links were rolling in. This was it! Link building nirvana! I was sitting back waiting for the rankings, organic traffic, and revenue to follow. That day didn’t come. I was gutted. I felt robbed! I’ve come to terms with it now. But at the time, it was a blow. I assume most SEOs know it doesn’t work that way. But maybe they don’t. Maybe there’s an assumption that one big burst in links will result in a jump in rankings, as discussed in the original post. That’s the myth it was seeking to dispel. I get it. I’ve been there, too. It doesn’t necessarily work that way. And, actually, it makes sense that it doesn’t.
The Google algorithm is an incredibly complex equation. It’s tempting to think that you put links in and you get rankings out, and a big jump in one will correspond to a big jump in the other. But the math involved is far more complicated than that. It’s not that linear. Other factors to considerLink building alone won’t improve your rankings. There are a number of other influential factors at play. At a high level, these include:
I’m not going to go into great detail here, but I wanted to mention that you need to consider these factors and more when reviewing the impact of link building on a site’s rankings. Below is the graph from SearchMetrics for Concert Hotels, also via the original post. This is another site to which Distilled built a high volume of links. As you can possibly tell from the large drop before Distilled started working with Concert Hotels, the site was suffering from an algorithmic penalty. We proceeded under the hypothesis that building high-quality links, alongside other on-site activity, would be important in the site’s recovery. However, after three or four large link building successes without any corresponding uplift, we recommended to the client that we stop building links and shift all resources to focus on other activities. As you’ll see at the end of the chart, there appears to be some positive movement happening. If and when the site fully recovers, we’ll never be able to tell exactly what contribution, if any, link building made to the site’s eventual rankings. You can’t take the above as proof that link building doesn’t work. You have to consider the other factors that might be affecting a site’s performance. How can we improve our approach?As I mentioned at the start of this post, I actually agree with a lot of the points raised in the original post. In particular, there were some strong points made about the topical relevance of the content you create and the way in which the content sits within the site architecture. Ideally, the content you create to gain links would be:
This can be a challenge, though, especially in certain industries, and you might not hit the sweet spot every time. But let’s look at them in turn. Topical relevanceIf you can create a piece of content that gains links and is closely relevant to your product and what you do for customers, that’s great. That’s the ideal. To give you an example of this, Distilled created a career aptitude test for Rasmussen, a career-focused college in America. This page earned links from 156 linking root domains (according to the Majestic Historic Index), and the site continues to rank well and drive relevant search traffic to the site. Another example would be Moz’s own Search Engine Ranking Factors. Building lots of links to that page will certainly drive relevant and valuable traffic to the Moz site, as well as contributing to the overall strength of the domain. However, your content doesn’t have to be about your product, as long as it’s relevant to your audience. In the case of Simply Business, the core audience (small business owners) doesn’t care about insurance as much as it cares about growing its businesses. That’s why we created several guides to small business marketing, which also gained lots of links. As Jasper Martens explains:
Integrating the content into the site architectureDistilled often places content outside the main architecture of the site. I’ll accept this isn’t optimal, but just for context, let me explain the reasons behind it:
While it worked for Simply Business, it would make sense, where you can, to pull these things into the normal site architecture to help distribute link equity further. Content that’s valuable in its own right (even if it weren’t for links and SEO)Google is always changing. What’s working now and what’s worked in the past won’t necessarily continue to be the case. The most future-proof way you can build links to your site is via activity that’s valuable in its own right — activities like PR, branding, and growing your audience online. So where do we go from here?Link building via content marketing campaigns can still make a positive impact to domain-wide rankings. However, it’s important to enter any link building campaign with realistic expectations. The results might not be as direct and immediate as you might hope. You need to be in it for the long haul, and build links to a number of pieces of content over time before you’ll really see results. When looking for results, focus on overall trends, not month-to-month movements. Remember that link building alone won’t solve your SEO. You need to make sure you take other on-site, technical, and algorithmic factors into consideration. It’s always worth refining the way you’re building links. The closer the topics are aligned with your product or core audience’s interests, the more the content is integrated into your site’s architecture, and the more the content you’re creating is valuable for reasons beyond SEO, the better. It’s not easy to manage that every time, but if you can, you’ll be in a good position to sustainably build links and improve your site’s rankings over time. Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don’t have time to hunt down but want to read! Article source here: What Link Building Success Really Looks Like via Blogger What Link Building Success Really Looks Like Posted by mark-johnstone A few weeks ago, a post was published entitled The SEO Myth of Going Viral. It referenced 8 pieces of content across 4 different sites that went viral and, most importantly for SEO, gained hundreds of linking root domains. I was the creative director on a lot of those campaigns while working as the VP of Creative at Distilled. Today, I’d like to add some important context and detail to the original post. I actually agree with much of what it said. However, it’s based on the assumption that one big viral piece of content would result in a visible jump in rankings across the domain within about 3 months of the content being released. There are a few challenges with this as a basis for measuring success. I wouldn’t advise setting your hopes on one big viral hit boosting your rankings across the domain. Not by itself. However, if that viral hit is part of ongoing link building efforts in which you build lots of links to lots of pieces of content, you can begin to see an upwards trend. “Trend” is the important word here. If you’re looking for a dramatic step or jump as a direct result of one piece of viral content, this could cause you to overlook a positive trend in the right direction, and even tempt you to conclude that this form of content-based link building doesn’t work. With regards to this type of link building and its impact on domain-wide rankings, I’d like to focus on the follow 4 points:
What successful link building really looks likeSimply Business was held up in the SEO myth post as an example of this kind of link building not working. I would argue the opposite, holding it up as an example of it working. So how can this be? I believe it stems from a misunderstanding of what success looks like. The post highlighted three of the most successful pieces of content Distilled created for Simply Business. However, focusing on those three pieces of content doesn’t provide the full picture. We didn’t make just three pieces of content; we made twenty-one. Here are the results of those pieces: That’s links from 1466 domains built to 19 pieces of content over a period of 3 years. The myth in question is as follows:
Though this wasn’t the hypothesis explicitly stated at the start of the post, it was later clarified in a comment. However, that’s not necessarily how this works. An accurate description of what works would be:
To hold up, the myth required a directly attributable jump in rankings and organic traffic within approximately 3 months of the release of each piece of content. So where was the bump? The anticipated reward for all those links? No. The movement we’re looking for is here: Not a jump, but a general trend. Up and to the right. Below is a SEMRush graph from the original post, showing estimated organic traffic to the Simply Business site: At first glance, the graph between 2012 and 2014 might look unremarkable, but that’s because the four large spikes on the right-hand side push the rest of the chart down, creating a flattening effect. There’s actually a 170% rise in traffic from June 2012 to June 2014. To see that more clearly, here’s the same data (up to June 2014) on a different scale: Paints quite a different picture, don’t you think? Okay, but what did this do for the company? Did they see an increase in rankings for valuable terms, or just terms related to the content itself? Over the duration of these link building campaigns, Simply Business saw their most important keywords (“professional indemnity insurance” and “public liability insurance”) move from positions 3 to 1 and 3 to 2, respectively. While writing this post, I contacted Jasper Martens, former Head of Marketing and Communications at Simply Business, now VP of Marketing at PensionBee. Jasper told me:
That translates to money. A serious amount of it! Simply Business also saw ranking improvements for other commercial terms, too. Here’s a small sample: Note: This data was taken from a third-party tool, Sistrix. Data from third-party tools, as used both in this post and the original post, should be taken with a grain of salt. They don’t provide a totally accurate picture, but they can give you some indication of the direction of movement. I notice Simply Business still ranks #1 today for some of their top commercial keywords, such as “professional indemnity insurance.” That’s pretty incredible in a market filled with some seriously big players, household UK names with familiar TV ads and much bigger budgets. Why success looks like it doesI remember the first time I was responsible for a piece of content going viral. The social shares, traffic, and links were rolling in. This was it! Link building nirvana! I was sitting back waiting for the rankings, organic traffic, and revenue to follow. That day didn’t come. I was gutted. I felt robbed! I’ve come to terms with it now. But at the time, it was a blow. I assume most SEOs know it doesn’t work that way. But maybe they don’t. Maybe there’s an assumption that one big burst in links will result in a jump in rankings, as discussed in the original post. That’s the myth it was seeking to dispel. I get it. I’ve been there, too. It doesn’t necessarily work that way. And, actually, it makes sense that it doesn’t.
The Google algorithm is an incredibly complex equation. It’s tempting to think that you put links in and you get rankings out, and a big jump in one will correspond to a big jump in the other. But the math involved is far more complicated than that. It’s not that linear. Other factors to considerLink building alone won’t improve your rankings. There are a number of other influential factors at play. At a high level, these include:
I’m not going to go into great detail here, but I wanted to mention that you need to consider these factors and more when reviewing the impact of link building on a site’s rankings. Below is the graph from SearchMetrics for Concert Hotels, also via the original post. This is another site to which Distilled built a high volume of links. As you can possibly tell from the large drop before Distilled started working with Concert Hotels, the site was suffering from an algorithmic penalty. We proceeded under the hypothesis that building high-quality links, alongside other on-site activity, would be important in the site’s recovery. However, after three or four large link building successes without any corresponding uplift, we recommended to the client that we stop building links and shift all resources to focus on other activities. As you’ll see at the end of the chart, there appears to be some positive movement happening. If and when the site fully recovers, we’ll never be able to tell exactly what contribution, if any, link building made to the site’s eventual rankings. You can’t take the above as proof that link building doesn’t work. You have to consider the other factors that might be affecting a site’s performance. How can we improve our approach?As I mentioned at the start of this post, I actually agree with a lot of the points raised in the original post. In particular, there were some strong points made about the topical relevance of the content you create and the way in which the content sits within the site architecture. Ideally, the content you create to gain links would be:
This can be a challenge, though, especially in certain industries, and you might not hit the sweet spot every time. But let’s look at them in turn. Topical relevanceIf you can create a piece of content that gains links and is closely relevant to your product and what you do for customers, that’s great. That’s the ideal. To give you an example of this, Distilled created a career aptitude test for Rasmussen, a career-focused college in America. This page earned links from 156 linking root domains (according to the Majestic Historic Index), and the site continues to rank well and drive relevant search traffic to the site. Another example would be Moz’s own Search Engine Ranking Factors. Building lots of links to that page will certainly drive relevant and valuable traffic to the Moz site, as well as contributing to the overall strength of the domain. However, your content doesn’t have to be about your product, as long as it’s relevant to your audience. In the case of Simply Business, the core audience (small business owners) doesn’t care about insurance as much as it cares about growing its businesses. That’s why we created several guides to small business marketing, which also gained lots of links. As Jasper Martens explains:
Integrating the content into the site architectureDistilled often places content outside the main architecture of the site. I’ll accept this isn’t optimal, but just for context, let me explain the reasons behind it:
While it worked for Simply Business, it would make sense, where you can, to pull these things into the normal site architecture to help distribute link equity further. Content that’s valuable in its own right (even if it weren’t for links and SEO)Google is always changing. What’s working now and what’s worked in the past won’t necessarily continue to be the case. The most future-proof way you can build links to your site is via activity that’s valuable in its own right — activities like PR, branding, and growing your audience online. So where do we go from here?Link building via content marketing campaigns can still make a positive impact to domain-wide rankings. However, it’s important to enter any link building campaign with realistic expectations. The results might not be as direct and immediate as you might hope. You need to be in it for the long haul, and build links to a number of pieces of content over time before you’ll really see results. When looking for results, focus on overall trends, not month-to-month movements. Remember that link building alone won’t solve your SEO. You need to make sure you take other on-site, technical, and algorithmic factors into consideration. It’s always worth refining the way you’re building links. The closer the topics are aligned with your product or core audience’s interests, the more the content is integrated into your site’s architecture, and the more the content you’re creating is valuable for reasons beyond SEO, the better. It’s not easy to manage that every time, but if you can, you’ll be in a good position to sustainably build links and improve your site’s rankings over time. Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don’t have time to hunt down but want to read! What Link Building Success Really Looks Like posted first on your-t1-blog-url via Blogger What Link Building Success Really Looks Like |
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