Many people wonder how to use social networking as part of their internet marketing campaign. As an SEO my fist question is always how can you use social networks to improve your ranking.
I was recently reading an seomoz.org post about how to use some major social media sites from an SEO standpoint in order to get do-follow links with great anchor text. Jennita talked about four sources for social media links.
One of the sites she used was Zillow.com. There are followed links on the profile pages, and I happen to be working with some Real Estate profesionals so this naturally intreaged me.
When looking at the profile page you will notice that the url anchor text is predefined as “Website” or “Blog.” Luckly for us you can create your own anchor text for followed links in the “About” section. Once I saw this I got excited Zillow.com after all has a PageRank of 7 and Domain mozRank of 6.96!
Take a look at the quality of the link on Zillow’s COO Spencer Rascoff’s profile.
Seo link juice
As soon as I saw this I ran out like the link whore I am and made myself a profile! I always make one for myself to test how it works before linking anything to one of my client’s sites.
OH NO IT’S NO FOLLOW!?
No followed links are highlighted.
I was a little confused so I contacted Kristin at Zillow Real Estate and asked her what I was doing wrong and I got some great information.
- When you sign up you have to agree to appear in the Zillow Pro Directory. Remember you dont have to be a real estate agent to be a Pro.
- It’s all about the give and take. You need to contribute to zillow to get followed. Zillow counts adding photos or asking or answering questions as a “Contribution.”
So I made a new account for my client doing it the right way and wahla!
Good Links!
Now that I have some great inbound links helping with the SERP’s im done right?
It’s called social media for a reason folks. Now its time to get social. I do alot more than just SEO that why we are the Denver Internet Marketing Specialists not the Denver SEO Specialists.
Zillow has a great Advice section, is a great way to network with professionals as well as consumers, especially in their Q&A section. The more advice you give the more likely someone is to find your clients profile and lead to more business.
They also have a great Forum and a wonderful Blog The blog has a lot of useful information and it does allow for followed links, so please dont’s spam them or they will probably change this.
Recap: I think in the end its all about the give and take. Zillow is trying to reward the users that make zillow a better place to be. Be an active user and contribute when you have something useful to contribute and zillow will not only send you the link love but be a great place to network!
Buying links has always been a sore spot with the Search Engines. Its not exactly 100% white hat SEO and I wouldn’t really recommend it but if your going to buy links there are some great places that can help you get natural links for a good price.
Link Building | Gary | 
December 30, 2009 3:42 pm | 
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