Things that we should be able to deduce from these 2 case studies:
- Backlinks are very important. (70% of SEO is backlinks)
- Backlinks drive à KW rankings. KW rankings drive à Search Traffic (these are the 3 key SEO Metrics).* see attached for more.
- Creating Backlinks is easy!
- Anchor Text (the keywords used in backlinks) Matters.
- If an HTML backlink (i.e. Download Sims 3) is not an option, an image backlink (with Alt=”Download Sims 3” which SEs can read, is a great 2nd option).
- Google’s algo reacts swiftly and decisively to changes in “link equity” to a page (backlinks entering a page – backlinks leaving a page = link equity)
- While it’s great to pull link equity from our vast network to a page we want to promote, this does not help our global link equity. That means, what we gain for one page, we’ve lost from others in ranking position and traffic. Therefore, we’ve got to have an “EXTERNAL” backlink strategy as well. (When RT takes that banner off all of their pages as in Case 1 above for example, and if there have been no external backlinks added to the page, it will fall back down the rankings.)
- The ‘highest traffic volume period” is still to come for both RT (summer 09) & D2D (June 1 09) releases ( 1 & 2 above). To have a new page rank well on a specific product launch date, a backlink strategy must start well before that launch date.
- Every time we link out to a External partner, we lose link equity. Every time we gain a link back from an External partner we gain link equity.
- We need to be almost neurotic J about containing and increasing link equity to our pages/site/network if we want traffic numbers to increase.
- There is another, HUGE!!! side- benefit of crating backlinks that needs to be mentioned… Referrals by Human Visitor (who click on the links – right?) So even if you tell me Search Traffic is only 35% of total traffic, I want to focus on getting people from other sites back to our site, not from Search Engines, I’d tell you the same thing: Backlinks are the main driver of referral traffic from other sites as well, and so really, accounts for as much as 80% or more of all traffic to the site:
- There are manual ways to acquire backlinks (as above shown) and ways which users can generate their own: User Generated Links (UGL). We need both.
- We need to provide a level of functionality on our pages that creates opportunities for users (AND ENCOURAGES THEM) to embed links on other pages/sites for us.
- Knowing what we know now (that we know how to get to #1 ranking for an annual release, or a new product release as shown above and the corresponding traffic that it creates), doesn’t it make sense to apply this across all our objet pages; all Game/Movie/Celeb names (our bread and butter keywords)?
- Finally, I will reiterate that the first step for a great backlink strategy is good keyword analysis/targeting for your site.
I hope this gives you an overview of what backlinks are, and why it’s so closely linked to our success as a company. I will also tell you that besides the branding aspect of a domain name and the content on the site, the value of a domain name if you were to sell it, is directly related to the number of backlinks pointing to it. By building backlinks to a domain, we are adding worth to it over time.
“Backlinks” are the new ‘black’ at IGN. It’s in style, in vogue, there should be a new game made about acquiring backlinks to a website….Please make it your mantra, put “backlinks” on the bumper of your car, chat, about it, text about it, scream it from a mountain top, mention it at your next cocktail party, when you call your mom, etc….
“What’s your backlink strategy?”
Lawrence Touitou brings you the best SEO optimization, tips and advice on his SEO blog: SEOWithoutBorders.org - a collection of some of the best, SEO best practices from the most prominent SEOs in the industry.
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