I will present here some of the most used case scenarios, so that you can easily comprehend how to get the best out of this tool.

Use Case 1 – Pitching New Clients

Use Case 2 – Prospecting High Quality Links

Use Case 3 – Finding Link Problems

Use Case 4 – Finding Link Building Strategies used by Competitors

Use Case 5 – Report to your current Clients

Use Case 1 – Pitching New Clients

With SEO becoming more and more complex, it is getting harder and harder for your clients to understand all the new concepts that the industry is developing.  Your untrained SEO clients will most likely have problems in understanding concepts like low quality links, link profile distributions, SEO metrics etc. With the Visual Link Explorer you will be able to give them an interactive presentation on what a site’s links are looking. Having integrated full-screen capability you can easily put this on a video projector, or even give a live demo to your client, allowing him to easily visualize and understand the links pointing to his site.

Using the Visual Link Explorer is easy. Here are a few important guidelines that you need to know:

–       The blue dot is the Link

–       The grey dot is the Page

–       The central grey dot is the Main site, and all the Pages are connected to it.

–       Yellow Lines are common links that point to different pages on the site.

–       Each area of blue nodes connected to a grey node is a page on the site. We call this the Link Cluster for the Page.

–       The higher the distance between the blue and the grey dots the higher the quality of the link. The lower the distance … the lower the quality.

–       Each blue dot is clickable giving you instant link data (including a image snapshot of the link) – super time saver because you do not have to open another page and search for the link in the source code.

Taking the above in consideration you can now go full-screen (with the zooming activated in the Visual Link Explorer) and you will be able to give interactive presentations of the clients link profile and even better his competitors link profile. Your client will be able to understand links more easily now and the distribution of the links among the entire site.

Use Case 2 – Prospecting High Quality Links

One of the challenges in todays link building activities is how to find good sites to get links from. With the link explorer you will be able to visually differentiate low vs high quality links and tag them. Spotting a high quality link on a competitors link profile is as easy as finding the largest blue dot on the screen, clicking it , analyzing it and tagging it as a link prospect.

The Visual Link Explorer allows you to find high quality link prospect on your competitors’ link profiles.

Use Case 3 – Finding Linking Problems

With the latest trend in the Google updates, you need to be able to spot low quality links easily in your site’s link profile. This is more of an in-depth subject but using the Visual Link Explorer you are able to get an initial overview on how the links are distributed among the pages of the site based on different link profiles such as site type of link type, correlated with the quality of the link.

For more in-depth analysis of the link profile that allows you to spot unnatural links I recommend reading the following case study.

Use Case 4 – Finding Link Building Strategies used by Competitors

A sites’ link distribution can be looked from different angles. We may consider a sites links as being profiled by:

–       Link Metrics

–       The linking site type

–       The linking link type

–       The linking page content category

–       etc

All these profiles can be charted in different ways. The Visual Link Explorer, compared to any other visualization gives an airplane view on the backlinks of a site by combining the above profiles into an easy to digest format that gives the required depth for any SEO professional.

By using these profiles you can easily spot the link building strategies your competitors use.

The Link Site Type profiling tells you if they are getting links from blogging activities, forum discussions or maybe web directories. This is very valuable information that can be extracted from the visualization in seconds.

Going more in-depth the tool can tell you how your competitors attracted links by going at a more granular level and detecting blog comments, blog posts or footer links.

Being able to identify a competitors’ link building strategies so easily gives you the “edge” over them. You will be able to understand their tactics and maybe use some of those tactics for your own benefit.

Use Case 5 – Report to your current Clients

Your clients will love you for this visual representation. It is much easier to digest and it has that “eye-candy” appeal that you do not find in other SEO representations. It is the different thing that will make your reports stand apart from your competitors’.

Here you can find what other people are saying about the Visual Link Explorer:

What You Can Learn from Exploring Your Links Visually

Visualising the Link Graph, How Natural are you?

Cognitive SEO’s Visual Link Explorer: Cutting-Edge Link Graphs

Review Of Visual Link Explorer

The post 5 Unique Use Cases for the Visual Link Explorer appeared first on SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies.

Last week, we published an analysis of anchor text used by the top ranking websites for highly competitive keywords on Search Engine Journal. In today’s post, we’re going to take those same examples to see what types of links they are obtaining and how you can do the same for your website while minimizing the risk of being hit by Google Panda or Penguin.

Keyword: Online College

What types of links do websites ranking on the first page of search results for online college obtain? Here is a quick analysis of types of main types of links obtained by these domains.

• OnlineCollege.org: 85% links in blogs with 64% of links in a blog post or forum thread.
• Devry.edu: 38% links in blogs, 21% in web directories, 14% in news sites, and 9% in aritcle directories with 43% of links in a group of links and 39% in a short paragraph of text.
• Strayer.edu: 47% links in blogs and 22% in web directories with 53% links in a group of links and 32% in a short paragraph of text.

Keyword: Women’s Clothing

What types of links do websites ranking on the first page of search results for women’s clothing obtain? Here is a quick analysis of types of main types of links obtained by these domains.

• Kohls.com: 58% links in blogs and 19% in Ecommerce sites with 33% in a blog post or forum thread, 30% in a group of links, and 29% in a short paragraph of text.
• Overstock.com: 50% links in blogs and 19% in Ecommerce sites with 38% in a blog post or forum thread, 29% in a short paragraph of text, and 27% in a group of links.
• ColdwaterCreek.com: 44% links in blogs and 28% in Ecommerce sites with 41% in a blog post or forum thread, 28% in a group of links, and 22% in a short paragraph of text.

Keyword: Real Estate

What types of links do websites ranking on the first page of search results for real estate obtain? Here is a quick analysis of types of main types of links obtained by these domains.

• Realtor.com: 54% in blogs and 15% in Ecommerce sites with 35% in a group of links, 30% in a short paragraph of text, and 19% in a blog post or forum thread.
• RealEstate.com: 35% in blogs, 21% in web directories, and 14% in news sites with 47% in a short paragraph of text and 39% in a group of links.
• Zillow.com: 54% in blogs with 45% in a short paragraph of text, 25% in a group of links, and 24% in a blog post or forum thread.

Keyword: Mortgage

What types of links do websites ranking on the first page of search results for mortgage obtain? Here is a quick analysis of types of main types of links obtained by these domains.

• BankRate.com: 54% in blogs with 45% in a short paragraph of text, 25% in a group of links, and 24% in a blog post or forum thread.
• Zillow.com: 54% in blogs with 45% in a short paragraph of text, 25% in a group of links, and 24% in a blog post or forum thread.
• MortgageCalculator.com: 75% in blogs with 51% in a blog post or forum thread, 24% in a short paragarph of text, and 18% in a group of links.

Keyword: Life Insurance

What types of links do websites ranking on the first page of search results for life insurance obtain? Here is a quick analysis of types of main types of links obtained by these domains.

• Metlife.com: 50% in blogs and 19% in web directories with 42% in a short paragraph of text, 37% in a group of links, and 11% in a blog post or forum thread.
• Geico.com: 51% in blogs with 43% in a group of links, 20% in a short paragraph of text, 19% in an image, and 14% in a blog post or forum thread.
• Farmers.com: 46% in blogs and 25% in web directories with 52% in a group of links, 20% in an image, and 17% in a short paragraph of text.

Keyword: Payday Loan

What types of links do websites ranking on the first page of search results for payday loan obtain? Here is a quick analysis of types of main types of links obtained by these domains.

• PaydayOne.com: 85% in blogs with 62% in a blog post or forum thread, 17% in a short paraphgra of text, and 11% in a group of links.
• CashFairy.com: 98% in web directories with 76% in a group of links.
• 1min-PaydayLoan.com: 84% in blogs with 97% in a blog post or forum thread.

Keyword: DUI Lawyer

What types of links do websites ranking on the first page of search results for dui lawyer obtain? Here is a quick analysis of types of main types of links obtained by these domains.

• DUI-Lawyer.com: 75% in web directories with 57% in a group of links and 31% in a short paragraph of text.
• Avvo.com: 64% in blogs with 29% in a short paragraph of text, 24% in a blog post or forum thread, 23% in a group of links, and 14% in an image.
• TopgunDUI.com: 38% in blogs and 29% in web directories with 40% in a short paragraph of text, 38% in a group of links, and 13% in a blog post or forum thread.

Major Takeaway

While some domains are still maintaining the top spots in search results with a majority of links from web directories, the majority of these sites are obtaining links in blogs and news sites. You can also see from the charts that although the majority of links are spread out through two to three different link types, many of these industries are trying to build a diversified link portfolio through press releases, social networks, personal sites, wikis, and other website types.

Competing with Panda / Penguin Friendly Links

So if you or a client share a highly competitive keyword from similar industries as those listed above, how do you compete to get your website to the top spot without risking penalization by Google Panda, Penguin, or other algorithmic changes? Here are some ideas.

• Create quality guest posts for blogs with strong traffic and communities vs. creating basic articles for blogs with little to no traffic. You’ll usually get a link back to your website in the author bio or author bio page. Use sites like Technorati and Alltop to find great blogs on a variety of topics.
• Leave valuable comments on posts from blogs in your industry with strong traffic and communities vs. spamming blogs for links. Consider clicks as your only goal for links from blog comments.
• Want links from major news and media sites? Try Help a Reporter Out (HARO). You can sign up to get free daily emails where reporters are asking for input from people in specific industries. Offer up your expert advice and you might end up with a valuable link from a trusted media outlet.
• Participate in forums related to your industry and, if it is in good etiquette, include a link in your forum profile signature. Don’t post in forums unless you have something valuable to say.
• Look for high quality web directories that are preferably industry specific. Make sure that they do not have categories where they accept links to adult, casino, or pharmacy websites.
• Look for high quality article directories that have traffic from actual readers (notable by the number of comments / social shares per article) and not just marketers posting links. Industry-specific or related article directories would be a plus.
• Aim for variety in your link building. Don’t just rely on blogs, forums, web directories, and article directories. Social should be a major component of your strategy, regardless of whether the links are dofollow or nofollow.

What other link building strategies would you suggest if your competitors had similar backlink profiles as the websites above? Please share in the comments!

The post The Types of Links Obtained by Competitive Industries and How You Can Obtain Them appeared first on SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies.

Who Are Your Competitors

When working with a new client, they will supply a few pieces of information about their business including the keywords they would like to target and who their main competitors are. Of course, once their keywords are analyzed, the competitors the client thinks they have are usually not their true competitors in search.

As an example, let’s look at a client who owns local Italian restaurant. They would obviously be targeting the keywords Italian restaurant plus their city. When asked who their competitors are, they might list the Greek and Japanese restaurants across the street. But in search, neither of these “competitors” would be targeting Italian restaurant, hence they would not be client’s true competitors when it comes to search.

When it comes to competitor analysis for search, your competitors will always be the sites ranking for the keywords you are targeting. No other considerations should come into play.

To find out your competitors:

• Start with the main keywords you want to target in your search engine marketing campaign.
• Search those keywords in Google.
• List the top sites ranking for those keywords. If you’re currently ranking at number four, just look at the top three sites ahead of you. if you’re not even on the first page, you might want to consider looking at the sites in the top ten.
• Ignore sites like Wikipedia or other similar sites. People looking to purchase products or services will skip their listings anyway.

The Goal of Competitor Analysis

Your goal when doing competitor analysis should be to determine various search strategies that your competitors are doing to rank well. Then take all of those strategies, choose the best ones (and the ones that don’t violate Google Webmaster Guidelines), and apply them to your own search engine marketing campaign.

What you may find is that Competitor A is doing one thing well, Competitor B is doing something else well, and Competitor C is doing yet another thing well. By combining the good strategies from all three, you will have a much better chance of boosting your rankings.

What You Should Look For in Competitor Analysis for Search

Once you have determined who your main competitors in search are, your next goal is to analyze how they made it to the top of search results. Here are some areas to look at and tools to use.

On-Site SEO

First off, take a look at the competitor’s on-site SEO. You can do this quickly by using a free extension called SEO Site Tools for the Google Chrome browser.

When you’re viewing the competitor’s homepage and internal pages, click on the magnifying icon to see the following under the Page Elements section.

• SEO title, meta description, and meta keywords
• Anchor tags for internal links
• Bold and italicized text
• Image alt tags
• Header tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.)

This can give you a quick glance into how much keyword optimization is being done and how on the homepage and other pages that rank well in search for a particular keyword. You can also use this tool’s Suggestion section to see what it would suggest modifying on the competitor’s site so you can apply those tips to your own website.

Link Building

Link building is another area you will definitely want to analyze for each of your competitors. Using the inBound Link Analysis tool, you can see at a glance how you stack up to your competitors in the link building arena.

You can then deep dive into each competitor’s backlink profile to just about everything you need to know about their link building strategy including (but not limited to) the following.

• Anchor text in a text cloud format.
• Ratio of links to the homepage vs. deep links.
• Nofollow vs. dofollow links.
• Links in content.
• Sitewide links.
• Webpage type.
• Positioning of link on page.
• Website categories of link partners.

And finally, you can look through the detailed backlink profile itself and sort/filter by details including webpage type, mozAuthority, anchor text, PageRank, and many other metrics.

Again, remember that your goal is to get the best backlinks of your competitors. Consider looking in-depth at several competitor’s backlink profile, seeing the best links that each of them get, and attempt to attain the same types of links for your own website.

Paid Advertising

Last, but not least, find out of if your competitors are using paid search like AdWords. To do that, just go to SEMrush and enter the competitor’s domain. This tool will list the competitor’s organic keyword rankings as well as the keywords they are using for paid ads.

If you notice that a lot of the top competitors are using paid search, then you might want to consider it as well, at least until you have a good place in organic search rankings. Plus you might discover some other valuable keywords to target in the process.

Additional Things to Consider

While on-site SEO, link building, and paid search are the main strategies that help a website rank well, they are not the only ones. Be sure to also add in analysis of your competitor’s content strategy as well as social media to get a full picture of what your competitors are doing online. If you can take the best of their search, content, and social media marketing strategies and apply it to your own website, then you should be well on your way to achieving the rankings you want to beat your competitors!

The post Competitor Analysis – How to Define Your Competitors and What to Look For appeared first on SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies.