My talk at SMX Milan 2014 covering our most-commonly used SEO tools for linkauditing, -evaludation, -cleanup and -management.

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What’s In My SEO Toolbox?
LINK BUILDING EDITION: FIND, PROSPECT & AUDIT!
Bastian Grimm, VP Organic Search, Peak Ace AG | @basgr

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Presentation Download:
http://pa.ag/smxm-tools

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THE MOST IMPORTANT THING?
THE “RIGHT” TOOL FOR THE JOB AT HAND!

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Hey Bastian…
Where do I get all this link data from?
Which link databases do you use?

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Start with Google Webmaster Tools
GWT > Search Traffic > Links to your Site > Who links the most
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools

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Pro Tip: Do get this data regularly
Link data in GWT changes almost weekly, not completely - but at least partially!

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Use Majestic’s massive DB as well
https://majestic.com/
Probably the largest link source around, good coverage in Europe

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If you want a LOT of data, do exports!
The web interface only give‘s you a snapshot – not the full picture.

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And also get data from ahrefs.com
https://ahrefs.com/
Partially free (or $79 / mo.), web-based

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Extremely easy to use interface
Super-fast link discovery, beautiful interface, social data & link growth trends

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And whilst you‘re at it: Get Moz as well!
http://moz.com/products/api/keys
It‘s free, so why not just add their data as well?

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A lot of link data brings a lot of problems
You need to handle de-duplication & outdated results (HTTP status, dropped links) …
http://builtvisible.com/seogadget-for-excel/ & http://nielsbosma.se/projects/seotools/

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Well, if you’re working with large domains:
Good luck handling millions of links in Excel… it’ll crash, simple as that!

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Or let LinkResearchTools do this for you
Various API implementations as well as manual uploads (GWT) available
http://www.linkresearchtools.com/

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What about…
Successful link sources in social media?
How do you find heavily-shared ones for your
Content Marketing campaigns?

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Buzzsumo allows topical based-searches
Type in a keyword / topic and it gives you all the data you need!
http://buzzsumo.com/

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ahrefs.com has Social Shares as well
But you need to know the domain for this already, no topical searches though.

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How do you find…
…those broken links to “steal” competitor links
f.e. by providing a better resource?

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You have specific source domain in mind?
LRT > Link Juice Recovery Tool

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The result: A list of URLs to target
Also do this for your own domains as well and implement redirects respectively

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Or: Prefer doing this whilst Browsing?
Combine Chrome Plug-ins: Linkparser, Linkclump & Check My Links
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/

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Any trick to…
… audit a lot of URLs at once? Like I have 10.000
URLs and need URL-data for those?

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urlprofiler would be one solution
Data from Majestic, ahrefs and some others; Dektop-based crawler tool.
http://urlprofiler.com/

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You can even combine it with crawl-data
http://urlprofiler.com/blog/screaming-frog/
Combine results from ScreamingFrog with urlprofiler: Crawl & get page metrics!

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LRT, if you prefer a web-based service:
The LRT bulk tool is called the “Link Juice Tool” and handles up to 10k URLs.

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And how do you …
… find coverage of your brand (like mentions)
that do not already link back to you?

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Ever heard of Google Alerts?
I think it is EXTREMELY broken…!
https://www.google.com/alerts

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Use Talk Walker Alerts instead
http://www.talkwalker.com/en/alerts
It‘s just like G-Alerts, only it works and has more options to play with!

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Talking ‘bout alerts: How about link alerts?
LRT has the same for links, just input any domain to get regular updates!

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Bastian, tell me…
… what about “bad links”, how to find and get rid
of them without too much hassle?

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YOU NEED ALL THE DATA!
PLUS: ALL YOU GOT FROM PREVIOUS SEO WORK…

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Link Detox: Rule-based auditing
Automated pre-scoring for all inbound links based on a set of rules & algorithms

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Link Detox: Rule-based auditing
DTOX Risk breakdown and recommendations on what to audit first

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Also compare yourself to competitors:
CDTOX allows cross-checking your data with other sites in the industry!

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LinkRisk: Another link auditing tool to try!
I personally like having more then one opinion; so you maybe want to try both?
http://linkrisk.com/

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Done auditing? The real work starts now!
You need to reach out to a lot of site owners and ask for removal…

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Either do it through GMail / Outlook…
This is absolutely “the hard way”… and usually errors happen at some point!

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Ever heard of Yesware?
Super-detailed email tracking and analytics including opening rates, etc.
http://www.yesware.com//

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Combine this with Autopest!
Automating the follow-up process and never forget to re-send emails again!
https://www.autopest.com/

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Try Boomerang as an alternative!
As Autopest is still in BETA, try Boomerang instead.
http://www.boomeranggmail.com/

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Or: Combine LRT & PitchBox via API
Pitch Box massively scales up outreach productivity!
http://pitchbox.com/

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Once you’re done cleaning-up:
If it’s a manual action > File for reconsideration (here is our checklist):
 List all violations against Google‘s guidelines.
Explain that these have been fixed now.
 Who has been responsible? Agency, network, the in-house team,
etc. – take responsibility!
 Explain (briefly) which actions you took and also what you did /
put in place to make sure it‘ll not happen again!
 Include outreach / contacts with respective site owners
(G-Docs Spreadsheet)!
 Tell if you used the Disavow links tools if you did actually use it.
 „I‘m Sorry, I really did bad!“ – not going to happen again!
Make sure to ask for reconsideration!

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ITS NO ROCKET SCIENCE
PLEASE DON‘T USE TOOLS WITHOUT QUESTIONING THEM!

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WE ARE HIRING: pa.ag/ace-jobs
10+ Openings in PPC, SEO as well as Content & Online PR in Berlin, Germany!
http://pa.ag/ace-jobs

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Your turn! Questions?
 bg@peakace.de
 twitter.com/peakaceag
 facebook.com/peakaceag
 www.peakace.de
http://pa.ag/smxm-tools