Finding sites that appreciate (or dislike) your content enough to link to it is not as easy as you think; in fact, it's so important that some SEO's might want to consider adding the practice for clients. Some already have with the rise of reputation management providers like StepRep or Trackur.
There are of course no shortage of SEO tools for Web professionals to faciliate the process of finding inbound links to a website. Their value in relation to their cost for many however is a completely different story. WhoLinksToMe.com, a new web-based link analysis tool did catch my attention this morning, and while it may not be the most robust way of identifying inbound links (and probably won't match the accuracy of running manual checks) it is an interesting solution that offers individuals and organizations with a chance to get more closely involved in the conversations that impact their reputation and brand and potentially improve their return on SEO investment.
Unlike other link analysis services, WhoLinksToMe.com covers a "broader online footprint" according to the company in near real time. Users can navigate through a web-based list of inbound links to their site and identify the most popular terms associated with the site and its brand. These anchor text reports could prove exceedingly useful in optimization of a current site and even individual pages in an ongoing SEO campaign.
"We are at a crossroads of what an online campaign should encompass. SEO, social media, reputation management, server architecture and web design are all emerging marketplaces. These technologies are inter-dependent, yet are often at odds with each other," says Ryan Russell, Founder and CEO of Star Nine Marketing, Inc. "When departmental walls are broken down and best practices are put into place, amazing wins in the marketplace occur."
The downside of the service is that you'll need to keep a verification link, file or meta tag on your site at all times.
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