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April 29th, 2009 | 
Author: SEO is a fast changing industry and keeping up with the latest SEO news and techniques is paramount to a successfull SEO career. Thankfully, the internet has provided the means to stay on top of the industry through various technologies including RSS feeds, email lists and now…Twitter! Below is a list of 10 of the best SEO consultants to follow on Twitter:
1- Bruce Clay is a professional search engine optimization consultant. He was interviewed by Wired Magazine in their 2004 feature “The Complete Guide to Googlemania!” and cited by USA Today in their article “Gunning for search engines” from August 20, 2003 . His website is referenced to by NARA – ALIC – User’s Guide to the Internet at The National Archives as resource for “Web Site Promotion Tactics and Tools” .
2- Barbara “WebMama” Coll is a search engine specialist a pioneer of search engine marketing (SEM), and an internationally recognized leader in search engine optimization (SEO). Coll founded WebMama.com Inc. in September 1996, and in 2003 Coll established the global, non-profit Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO). She is also a veteran (6 years) speaker at the Search engine strategies conferences and is a past member of the advisory board of the Internet marketing conference Ad:tech.
3- Vanessa Fox (born 1972) is a search engine optimization expert, writer and consultant best known for her work creating Google Webmaster Central and as a Google spokesperson. Google Webmaster Central is a set of tools, educational materials, and community to advise webmasters on on how to have their sites listed in Google, and to help solve problems they might have with the way Google indexes their pages. Vanessa is a prominent technology blogger, and a frequent speaker at industry events.
4- Jeremy “ShoeMoney” Schoemaker (born May 31, 1974) is a web entrepreneur, founder of ShoeMoney Media, and co-founder of the AuctionAds service. In March 2007, Schoemaker and his business partner David Dellanave launched AuctionAds, an eBay affiliate marketing service that serves eBay auction ads on contextually relevant sites. The service won an eBay Star Developer Award (it was named the “eBay Most Innovative Application – Buyer”) at the eBay Developers Conference. In July 2007, performance marketing company MediaWhiz purchased Schoemaker’s majority ownership in AuctionAds ShoeMoney won the SEOLogs.com-sponsored SEO contest that ran from January 1, 2006 to March 1, 2006, and carried the term “redscowl bluesingsky.” He donated the prize money to the number 2 winner.
5- Barry Schwartz (born 1980) is a blogger and reporter who writes about search engines and search engine marketing. As of January 2007, Schwartz is the editor of Search Engine Roundtable, an online news site covering the search engines and search engine marketing. He also is the CEO of RustyBrick, Inc., a New York based web development company, and a news editor at Search Engine Land, a search engine news site founded by Danny Sullivan (technologist). Previously, Schwartz was a news editor at Search Engine Watch. He also moderates online and offline panels at Search Engine Watch, Cre8asite Forums and WebmasterWorld’s PubCon.[2] Schwartz hosts the Search Pulse podcast on WebmasterRadio.FM.
6- Danny Sullivan is the editor-in-chief of Search Engine Land, a blog that covers news and information about search engines, and search marketing.
Search Engine Land is owned by Third Door Media, of which Danny Sullivan is partner and chief content officer. Third Door Media also owns and operates other search related companies, including Search Marketing Now, which provides webcasts and webinars, both live and on demand, about web marketing; and Search Marketing Expo, a search engine marketing conference.
7- Brett Tabke is an American programmer and SEO professional. He is the founder of WebmasterWorld, an online search engine and internet marketing forum that often receives over 1 million pageviews per day.
Tabke started working with computers at a young age, developing software for Commodore home computers. He then worked for companies like Epyx and Berkeley Softworks (later renamed to GeoWorks, and makers of the GEOS operating system). In 1984 Tabke started his first BBS using a 300 baud modem on a dialup line. In 1996 he made the transition to internet and web technologies.
8- Aaron Matthew Wall (born 1979) is a Oakland, California-based blogger and search engine optimization expert who writes the popular blog SEOBook. He is a frequent speaker at the Search Engine Strategies and PubCon conferences. In 2005 Wall was sued by Traffic Power for defamation and publication of trade secrets, and the case was closely watched because it addressed the legal question of who’s liable for comments posted on websites and blogs The case was dismissed for lack of personal jurisdiction, and Traffic Power failed to appeal within the allowed time.
9- Jill Whalen is a search engine optimization (SEO) consultant, speaker and writer. Whalen is CEO of High Rankings, and co-founder of Search Engine Marketing New England (SEMNE). She is a regular speaker at Search Engine Strategies Conferences. High Rankings includes a top-rated SEO discussion forum.
10- Matt Cutts Although not an official SEO consultant, Matt works for the Search Quality group in Google, specializing in search engine optimization issues. He is well known in the SEO community for enforcing the Google Webmaster Guidelines and cracking down on link spam. Cutts also advises the public on how to get better website visibility in Google.
* Information on the top SEOs to follow on Twitter was provided by the Wikipedia
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Once upon a time, Directories were the backbone of the internet. Actually, Yahoo started it’s life out as a small human edited directory attempting to organise the millions of websites out their into logical categories. Then Google came along!
Another prominent directory on the net is DMOZ aka the Open Directory Project (ODP) is an open source initiative hailing itself as the largest Human edited Directory on the Net.
The ODP data is used by thousands of other niche directories around the net including Google’s own directory which uses ODP data as it’s source.
Here is a list of my favourite directories on the net:
1. DMOZ www.dmoz.org has 5.8 million inbound link (IBLs). DMOZ is a free directory established in 1999 with a pagerank of 8.
2. Yahoo Directory http://dir.yahoo.com was established in 1995, has 5.1 Million IBLs and a pagerank of seven. The Yahoo Directory charges $299 per year for a review.
3. Business.com www.business.comwas established in 1998 has 113,000 IBLs and a pagerank of seven. Business.com charge $299/yr for a review.
4. Librarians Internet Index www.lii.orgwas established in 1998, has 475,000 IBLs and a pagerank of seven. LII is a free directory.
5. Starting Point www.stpt.comwas established in 1994, has 121,000 IBLs and a pagerank of four. Starting Point charges $99/yr for a review.
6. Ezilon www.ezilon.comwas established in 2002, has 123,745 IBLs and a pagerank of six. Ezilon charges $69 for inclusion.
7. Best of the Web www.botw.org was established in 1996 has 2,369 IBLs and a pagerank of seven. Best of the Web costs $250.
8. Gimpsy www.gimpsy.com/was established in 2001 has 1,169 IBLs and a pagerank of five. Gimpsy charges $49 for inclusion.
9. GoGuides www.goguides.org/ was established in 2001, has 1,110 IBLs and a pagerank of eight. Go Guides charges $40 for inclusion.
10. Chiff www.chiff.comwas established in 1998 has 4,892 IBLs and a pagerank of 5. Chiff charges $60.
Linkbaiting (aka viral marketing) is the process of creating content designed to attract loads of natural links from all around the web. Most linkbait ideas are simple and some are not intended as you’ll see in this list. The reason they become linkbait material is that they are fresh and someone managed to think them up before anyone else did.
Without further ado, here is my list of the top 10 linkbaits that I think have worked really well and managed to achieve great baclink results.
1- Zillow House Price Estimator Tool
Zillo.com created a tool that allows you to “Zestimate”, an approximation of your home’s market value. It appears in a little pop-up superimposed on a photographic map of your neighborhood. According to a CNN article about the tool “The number might make you smile; it could make you angry”. Either way, you will link to it!
Result: over 800 links including the one from CNN.com!
2- Top 10 watched videos on YouTube
A simple list of the top 10 most watched videos on YouTube. Simple huh? Well as I said before, most linkbait ideas are, you just need to be the first to think them up!
Result: Over 900 links.
The idea behind this linkbait is simple. The Guardian newspaper created a football widget designed to allow users to “analyse player performance the way top managers do for free”. In a nutshell, it allows you to create your own chalk boards and send them to your mates or post online.
Result: Over 3,000 links.
Keyword discovery is one of the premiere keyword research tools in the SEM industry. The owners of the product decided to offer a free version of the tool for anyone to use and as a result, managed to garner thousands of highly relevant links back to their site as a result of this.
Result: Over 5,000 links.
5- Beginner’s Guide to Search Engine Optimization
Not sure if this was intended as a linkbait technique but it is a classic example of a website (great one btw) that specialises in a niche (SEO) and has written many best practice douments including this one that other websites want to link to.
Result: Over 11,000 links.
6- Lonelygirl15
This piece of linkbait is probably what brought on the phrase “Hoax marketing”. lonelygirl15 was an interactive web-based video series on YouTube which began in June 2006, and ended on August 1, 2008. The show focused on the life of a fictional teenage girl named Bree wirh the YouTube username “lonelygirl15″, the show did not reveal its ficticious nature and people linked to it because they thought it was real. Read more about this linkbait phenomena
Result: Over 12,000 links.
The owner of this site traded his way up from “one red paperclip” all the way to a house. While the linkbait idea is genius, not sure many could replicate it!
Result: Approximately 25,000 links.
The owner of this website not only happened to create a linkbait masterpiece but also managed to make a million dollars along the way. The idea was simple (most linkbaits are). Create a page with one million pixels and sell ach pixel to advertisers for $1. Genius!
Result: Over 40,000 links.
9) Elf Yourself (by OfficeMax)
OFfice max created a gadget that lets you, well, “Elf yourself”. Very simple idea but it was a smashhit! Every Christmas season, you can log onto the site and using a very simple tool, upload a picture of yourself that is superimposed over an animation of a dancing elf! Fantastic!
Result: Over 116,000 links.
And, my favourite one of all, and one that inspired generations of SEO to be creative with link building, the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Now this was not intended to be as a linkbait technique but I’ve placed it in this list because I needed to make a point. The Adobe website is one of the most linked to sites on the web becasue they’ve created a product that requires a link back from any site that installs their product telling users to install Adobe flash if they do not have it. Unfortunately for them, they’ve used the words “click here” in the anchor text hence why the Adobe site ranks #1 for the keywords “click here”
Result: Over 20,000,000 links!
The above linkbait examples are the ones that inspired me. I’m sure there are many other ones out there that deserve praise and more will be created in the future, hoepfully yours will be one of them! If you know of any other great linkbait ideas please share…