A step by step guide to authority link building public relations campaigns. A presentation by Andy Barr from 10 Yetis. It was delivered at PRFest in Edinburgh in June 2018.

1. The importance of link-building
Donald Trump Mode: PRs are THE BEST link
builders

2. ME, ME, ME, 41, Capricorn

3. We all get authority link-building, yeah?
Dummy’s guide:
• Get web-links from “authority” websites back to your client’s website
• Helps your client’s website move up the rankings for its key terms
• SIMPLE AF!

4. Myths
• Google will penalise you for doing this – FAKE NEWS
• Content needs to relate back to what you do – FAKE NEWS (for
now)
• Google understands positive/negative sentiment – FAKE NEWS (for
now)
• Can’t get authority links for “nasty” sectors
– Payday loans, gambling sites, banking in general (lols)

5. Positive v Negative Sentiment Examples
• Protein World
• 145 “authority” links
• £2m in extra sales

6. Positive v Negative Example Two
• Cecil the Lion killer – dentist in US (PRICK)
• 170 links!
• His practice dominated local
search until he closed it

7. A link is a link, right? Wrong
• Google decides “authority”
– We use Moz.com scoring 0-100
• 4 types of link
– Follow (Gold)
– NoFollow (Silver)
– Affiliate (Poo)
– “Shit” (technical term) link: 0-10 DA
• Story shares, likes, comments influence the score!

8. It’s not all about the nationals though
• Game time – guess the domain authority!
• Higher or Lower!
• Prizes!

9. Daily Express
91

10. Huffington Post
91

11. The Lady
46

12. Daily Star
86

13. Edinburgh Evening News
89

14. Lad Bible
58

15. Scotsman
89

16. Daily Mail
94

17. BuzzFeed
93

18. What makes good link fodder?
• Widgets/Calculators
• Concept images
• Regional comparisons
• Reactives (old school works baby!)

19. Some examples – stand by
• http://www.SexCalculator.co.uk – 1k links
• Sleep Calculator 500+ links https://www.hillarys.co.uk/static/sleep-
calculator/
• Coffin of the future
• Drink Driver campaign (against it, OBVS)
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKd84cqM060

20. Coffin of the future! 50+ links

21. Secret content tips
• Create content that gives multiple bites of the cherry
– Launch, results, regional breakdown
• Pack the page
– N/L sign up
– Best selling products
– Links to key pages (passes through Google Juice (TM))
• What can you offer in return for a link?
– Shares from client pages/social accounts

22. Rules – we all need rules right
• Make linking the natural way to tell the story
• Use vanity URL e.g
– YourDomain.com/Amazing-widget-title
• Make the content embeddable
– But don’t offer it up straight away

23. Traditional PR baby!
• Go to wires first, PA, Solent, Caters, SWNS
• Daily Mail – crap for links, great for copy cat snowball
• SkyNews online = syndication similar to PA
• Get on the phones for link reclamation

24. Let’s workshop
• Who has an example idea we could plan for?