My fellow SEO Chick Anita, otherwise known as PPCQueen, suggested that I list out a few bits of linking etiquette since we’re all being overwhelmed with linking as an SEO strategy. After doing some searching and finding mostly the same thing being said everywhere, here are a few basic tips that might help.

1. Keep internal links opening in the same window. Set external links to open in a new window. Now, this topic was fairly hotly debated on a few forums, with most people preferring the method I have listed. Most people do expect an external link to open in a new window but since this seems to irritate some people, let’s open it up for discussion so we can see what our readers prefer.

2. Use your nofollows wisely. If you are linking to an external site and you don’t want to give your seal of approval to them, but you do want your users to go there for whatever reason, consider a nofollow. Just keep in mind that we all want a little link love.

3. If you have multiple blogs and you want to point your readers on one blog to a post on one of your other blogs, do so. Don’t fall into the habit of cross-linking your sites just to get some link points though. If it’s relevant, do it. Otherwise, think about it carefully and determine what you’re trying to gain.

These are just a few pointers when linking…we’d all love to hear more about this from our readers so please let us know if you have any good etiquette tips. If you’ve met any of the SEO Chicks, I am sure you’ll agree that etiquette is something we feel strongly about, particularly when drinking in public.

On Tuesday night, after a really fantastic SMX conference and before an equally fantastic SEOMoz party, I went to see Midnight Movies, a band that I’d never heard of. They opened for The Raveonettes, one of my current favorites. If you haven’t heard of these bands, check them out online because they put on the most amazing show I’ve seen. If you like girl drummers, especially really good-looking ones, you missed an amazing show.

Since this isn’t a “Julie loves music and is so hip it’s sad” blog, I really will make a point. The whole show made me really think about links. That is, when I was not stuffing down molten chocolate cake and swilling red wine.

Hopefully everyone understands the power of a well-placed link, but usually I think about links as a way to give credence to another site, simply because that has been my main use for them with the clients I have worked with. However, I really thought about the traffic potential last night when I was listening to this amazing opening act and wondering how I could help get people to hear them. I had no idea they existed until last night and I have the potential to send traffic to their site simply by placing a link in a blog.

Naturally that means you all should CLICK ON THE DAMN LINK and check them out.

Many people have said how tedious they find the art of link building, and I certainly am not a big fan of spending time doing it but it really is an amazingly quick way to get traffic for a site. I don’t care if the band’s site is good, or if it’s optimized at all or if I can find it by searching for something like “best indie bands from the US” because I can create a portal to it and get users there, with a lovely and lowly little link which I hope to God you’re going to click on because I don’t know if you have seen my SEO Chicks Viking counterpart around at the conference but if you have, I think you know that she isn’t really someone to mess with and even though she blew off the concert and left me with the very charming group of Ciaran, Ekky, EvilGreenMonkey, and Jay, I still love her.

The Google Dance party was excellent, even if it wasn’t free drinks all night. It was like being at a school disco. Hilarious. Allot of drunk SEOs, here are a selection of photos from the evening.

Dinner with Rand Fishkin, Geraldine and a bunch of Googlers

Susan from Google and Geraldine (Mysteryguest)

Lisa & Julie

634 Googler, Ecky and Rob

Guillaume & Rhea Drysdale

Googlers, Lisa & Dustin Woodard from WebConnoiseur

Carolyn Shelby from Cshel

Scott Polk & Lisa

Matthew Inman from SEOmoz and Dustin Woodard

Danny Sullivan having some “game” time

Matt, Scott & Rebecca from SEOmoz

Scott & Rebecca - Asleep?

Matt’s had enough, “bugger off Viking”..

Jay Young - “ET phone home..”

I’m sitting in a session at SMX at the moment, but I just have to post a few of the pictures from last nights Google Dance party. You see it turns out that Rand Fishkin from SEOmoz really wants to be a SEO Chick. Hunka hunka burninlove…

Rand you rock!

Julie Joyce & Shimrit both SEO-Chicks

Ciaran Norris from Eyefall (my shopping buddy..), Andy Mihalop & Anthony Davies from Reed Business Information

Lisa Barone & Susan from Bruceclay.com

Myself and Ecky - happy drinkers =)

Rebecca Kelley & Jane Copland SEOmoz and Me - are we on the same medication?

Scott & Jane from SEOmoz - Married couple?


Rand Fishkin SEOmoz and Geraldine - genuine nice people

Jeff & Matt from SEOmoz, sultry looks from the SEOmoz boys

Lisa Ditlefsen - once again steels food from Danny Sullivan (will she ever have a conversation with him?)

The end of the line - Jay Young, Julie Joyce and Ciaran Norris in some random Irish Bar

Just got back from the SMX Networking Bash, it was a really good night, and MSN sure put their hand in their pocket. Free drinks all night and loads of give aways, sweet! A lot of dodgy looking cocktails (blue cosmopolitan?? Works for me). I think actually most people that are going to the conference tomorrow turned up for this networking event, very well organised piss up.

I Met a bunch of really nice people I hadn’t met before. Rhea Drysdale, she was such a sweetheart, and really knows her SEO stuff. We had a great conversation about how annoying it is when all people care about is being #1 on Google, hello..Conversions. Great to meet like-minded SEO chicks. And as I’m a chick, and we always talk to other chicks in the toilet (dudes that’s totally normal), I met a really cool girl called Carolyn Shelby in the loo (restrooms for you American readers..) Also finally got to meet Jane Copeland from SEOmoz in person, she is such a sweetie, and pretty darn smart too. And of course Rebecca Kelley, also from SEOmoz, who totally rocks. Rebecca is in fact going to join the SEO-Chicks blogging team, which we are really pleased about!

I will post all the photos from the party tomorrow.

So far Seattle rocks, the weather is fantastic, the people are super friendly and it’s plenty of stuff to see.

Arrived in Seattle yesterday evening, 9 hours flight, no sleep but super excited, myself, Ciaran, Ecky and Rob Kerry were on the same flight, so loads of chats and “high fives”. Every time the flight attendant announced anything we all did high fives, very funny for us BUT probably quiet annoying for everyone else, we were like children (no sleeping does make you a little hysterical).

Got to the hotel, which is just lush, and I was strictly told by Ecky that there is no sleeping allowed before midnight (as the jet-lag would just get worse). And seeing as I’m a newbie at travelling abroad for conferences I just listened, little did I know how stupidly drunk and silly you get on a jet-lagged head. It was very amusing though, as non of us were making any sense. SEO Chick, Julie Joyce and her hubby, Jay Young, finally arrived at the hotel just before midnight (as their flight was delayed by 9 hours, suddenly our jet-lag didn’t seem that bad). Poor guys had to make sense of 4 drunk English(ish) people..and they were totally sober =)

Got a good nights sleep though, Ekcys strict rules about no sleep totally worked as I felt great this morning. Byegones Jet Lag! Sweet! So today we have been shopping like mad, it turns out that Ciaran is the best shopping buddy every. He’s practically a girl =) Spent a ridiculous of time in Urban Outfitters, came out and said to Rob: “don’t let me go into another shop”, 1 min later Ciaran comes out of the shop and says “just don’t let me go into another shop”…ha ha…

Tonight we are going to the SMX Networking Bash (sponsored by MSN), should be great. Looking forward to it =) I’ll be sure to take loads of photos and post them tomorrow! So check back tomorrow for the party gossip.

I spent my last year of college heavily entrenched in ethnography, a use of which I will now demonstrate for your reading pleasure. For those of you who know nothing about anthropology or sociology, ethnography is simply a method of studying a group of people by becoming an insider. Obviously this has uses in many fields, but I think it has a particular significance in search engine marketing. You can’t really market (at least not very well) to a group that you know nothing about. Punk rockers aren’t going to buy sweatshirts with dancing cats on them (at least I hope to God they aren’t) so if you’re selling the aforementioned horrific sweatshirts with dancing cats on them, which usually just depress everyone, don’t set up ads for keywords like “punk rock apparel” or else I will have to track you down.

Link baiting also needs a little investigative work, if it’s going to work to your advantage. When you’re trying to bait, think about the type of people you want to attract, the people who will convert and help you reach whatever goal you have for the site. In doing this blog, we obviously want traffic from people who like search engine marketing and want to read about it. We’re not overly interested in getting my mom to check the site daily, since she has no freaking idea what I do and she would only use this blog for evil. OK sorry…I’m calm now. Anyway, Siphus Flibbertigibbet (his name has been changed to protect him in case we actually use his idea at some point) suggested that, in order to generate some traffic to the site, the SEO Chicks get in bikinis and wash cars. After I immediately ran out to buy a new bikini, I decided to discuss this idea with Lisa, who suggested Siphus wear the bikini and wash the car. I then suggested evilgreenmonkey wear the bikini and wash the car. See how it works? Which would you rather see, the SEO Chicks doing this or evilgreenmonkey? Don’t worry about hurting his feelings. This kind of thing IS link bait. It might seem trashy or offensive to some, but think about the trashy and offensive guys in this industry. OK I AM KIDDING! Totally kidding.

Think about things you tend to laugh at. Speaking for myself (like I’d speak for anyone else), I enjoy seeing a food cart get overturned in a chase scene. Even though I see it coming every damn time, I laugh like a moron when it happens. I also enjoy it when a criminal runs through a crowd and knocks people down. That kind of thing would almost make me buy a sweatshirt with a dancing cat on it, especially if Johnny Rotten was rubbing it. Doing this gets you into the mindset of figuring out what is going to get someone’s attention. We have all seen amazing examples of link baiting, even some that don’t involve gladiators which just plain sucks to be honest, so think about what makes them so attractive (the link baits, not the damn gladiators) and learn from that. Don’t go into the game without taking the time to figure out who it is that you want to attract. Otherwise you are wasting your time, and wasting everyone else’s. Kind of like how I’ve just wasted yours really…