Here are the slides from my guest lecture at Georgetown University on link building and keyword selection.

1. Advanced Topics SEO: Link
Building & Keyword Selection
Georgetown University
Will Marlow
The Will Marlow Agency

2. 1. Link Building
2. Competitive Analysis
3. SEO Tools
4. Keyword Selection
5. Understanding The Gap Analysis
6. Measuring Results
Summary

3. SEO Prioritization
Best
Practices
Strategy

4. Early Best
Practices
• Fixing site tags
• Fixing internal links
• Basic sitemaps
Strategic
Issues
• Link building priorities
• Advanced keyword targeting
• Improving rank or additional targeting?
• Device targeting

5. Focus on Internal Website Pages
* Note: none of these landing
pages are the website’s
“homepage”

6.  Think of links as: “signals of authority"
 Dates back to “backrub” algorithm
 They count the “backlinks”
 And Google’s constant enemy is: spammers.
 Your focus is on: quality inbound links.
Introduction To Link Building

7.  Newspaper articles
 Independent blogs
 Curated lists
 Business associations
 Social media (?)
Where Do Links Come From?

8.  Multi-author blogs are better than single-author blogs
 Universities are generally better than businesses (.edus vs.
.coms)
 The Washington Post is better than City Biz List
 The national chamber of commerce is better than a local
chamber of commerce.
Judging Link Quality

9.  Open Site Explorer
 SEMRush
 SpyFu
 Other tools are good, but look for transparency.
Judging Link Quality: rely on tools

10. Transparency with OSE

11. Judging Link Quality – Open Site Explorer

12. Judging Link Quality – Open Site Explorer

13. Backlink Research: KW phrase “dentist falls church”

14. Backlink Research: Drilling Down to Authority

15. Backlink Research: Drilling Down to Authority
* Note PA & DA in order of
priority.

16. Backlink Research: Drilling Down to SPAM
* Note a spam score of “4” –
AVOID THIS ONE.

17. How To Fight Spam?

18. GWT / GSC Is Your Best Friend

19. GWT / GSC Is Your Best Friend

20. GWT / GSC Is Your Best Friend

21. GWT / GSC Is Your Best Friend

22. Googlebot sees your mobile version.

23. Googlebot sees your desktop version.

24.  Basic Link Building
 How to Prioritize Targeted Links
 How To Judge Link Quality
 How To Find and Disavow Spammy Links
 How To See How Google Views Your Mobile + Desktop Sites
Midpoint Recap

25.  Old-school link building is DONE.
 Up until 2012, this was how link building was handled.
 In 2012: we saw Penguin.
 This was Google’s first major attack on spammy links (link
farms, paid links, etc.)
Old-School Link Building

26.  So what is modern link building?
 A blend of PR + SEO.
 High quality content creation.
 High quality link attraction.
Next-Level Link Building

27. Next-Level Link Building: Case Study WPH

28. Next-Level Link Building: Case Study WPH

29. Next-Level Link Building: Case Study WPH

30. Next-Level Link Building: Case Study WPH

31. Next-Level Link Building: Case Study WPH

32. Next-Level Link Building: Case Study Blue Light Blue

33. Next-Level Link Building: Case Study Blue Light Blue

34. 1. Keyword Research (KR): The Google Keyword Planner
2. Keyword Selection (KS): Google Webmaster Tools
3. KR + KS = Gap Analysis
Keyword Research + Selection

35. Keyword Research + Selection

36. Keyword Research + Selection

37. Keyword Research + Selection

38. Keyword Research + Selection
Note “seasonality” data for
specific keywords.

39. Keyword Research + Selection
Note “seasonality” data for
specific keywords.

40. Keyword Research + Selection - RANKING

41. Keyword Research + Selection - RANKING

42. Keyword Research + Selection - RANKING

43. Keyword Research + Selection - RANKING

44. Keyword Research + Selection – Gap Analysis

45. Keyword Research + Selection – Gap Analysis

46. Keyword Research + Selection – Gap Analysis

47. Keyword Research + Selection – Gap Analysis

48. Evaluating Device Traffic + Performance

49. Evaluating Device Traffic + Performance

50. Evaluating Device Traffic + Performance

51. Evaluating Device Traffic + Performance