Is There Video Instruction on How To Use SEOMoz and Open Site Explorer?

[sunilmuse]

Hi I have just signed up to use this software and would like to know how to use it properly. Is there a video tutorial on how to get the most out of the tools?

I want to get the competition's backlinks but for some reason it's not openiing the page. I also want to know how the backlinks are assessed to find the real quality ones that I can link to. How are the backlinks assesed and what standards are used to asses backlink quality?

Thank you

Sunil.

[KeriMorgret]

Hi Gerd,

We also have some more information at http://www.seomoz.org/help/ose-overview. Some of Rand's presentation does have video working for it, and we'll take a look to see what happened with the first part. Thanks for letting us know!

[MediatouchWerbeagentur]

Hey Rand,

sry but the link above is not working...means i just get the audio...no picture.

[sunilmuse]

Hey Rand,

Thank you for these videos, they are a useful introductuion for a complete beginner like me.

I would like to apply the metrics and the 3 questions mentioned in the 2nd video to a competitor's top backlinking pages in OSE.

I am researching the no. 1 google competition site in the paint sprayer niche and found this backlink URL in the top position in OSE:

http://www.uofaemergency.org/   (PA:44  DA:45)

On closer inspection, the backlink doesn't appear on this home page as it says on OSE but on another page of that domain with a PA of just 1.

Despite the high homepage PA and DA, the blog is completely irrelevant to my niche and seems to be on random subjects. In addition, the content in which the target keyword appears is totally nonsensical.

Does this mean that a backlink from this blog would do more harm than good or would it still be ok to get a backlink from there?

The 2nd backlink is from this URL:

http://hughesglobal.com/2011/06 (PA:40 DA:41)

Again, this is a site that is unrelated to the niche and the target anchor text keyword appears in useless, nonsensical content.

Should I get backlinks from these first 2 sites as the competion have done?

OR

Should I only be focusing on blogs which are relevant to my niche or can I also use more general blogs which cover a wide range of random, irrelevant topics? Many of the backlinks for the number 1 site in google seem to be from irrelevant blogs.

Lastly, is it best to get editorially endorsed links which actually help to drive quality traffic to my own site rather than just having random links in irrelevant content as the competiton seems to?

The purpose of these questions is to help me to assess which backlinks I need to build and which ones to avoid so that I can start my link building campaign and improve my rankings.

Many thanks.

Sunil.

[randfish]

We've got a bunch of good stuff around that question:

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/which-link-metrics-should-i-use-part-1-of-2-whiteboard-friday

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/which-link-metrics-should-i-use-part-2-of-2-whiteboard-friday

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/17-ways-search-engines-judge-the-value-of-a-link

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/10-illustrations-on-search-engines-valuation-of-links

In terms of minimum scores for a link to be worthwhile - I don't really think of it that way. I use metrics to help inform whether a site that looks authentic/trustworthy is worth the effort or whether they might have some suspicious issues (e.g. are they selling links, buying links, getting penalized, regarded as low quality, etc).

The webinar I linked to above also covered this issue in-depth.

[sunilmuse]

How do I identify good links in OSE?...and how do I know if it's a poor link, what are the variables?

The links for my competitor's site start at PA 45 and go down to 17. Is there a minimum Page or Domain authority that we need to stick to?

[randfish]

Easy and high authority don't often go well together - that's why link building is hard

In the presentation, I tried to cover as clearly and directly as possible how to identify good vs. poor link targets. However, if you're having difficulty there, you might try http://www.seomoz.org/blog/category/4 which has hundreds of articles on specific link building tactics and processes.

[sunilmuse]

Hi Rand,

I'm finding the presentation quite confusing and unclear as it's difficult to read the values you're referring to on the slide.

I have located some competitor's backlinks using OSE and many are in content links in totally nonsensical articles on high authority pages and domains. How come these irrelavant, low quality articles are allowed on these supposedly high authority sites? I do not understand the process required to get these in content links.

I would like to get easy links which have high authority. What would you class as easy to get high authority links? How do I locate these in OSE and how do I get them?

Thanks.

Sunil.

[randfish]

Sunil - your timing couldn't be better! I just did a webinar on exactly this topic: http://www.seomoz.org/webinars/using-open-site-explorer-to-uncover-new-marketing-opportunities

Enjoy

[MichaelWeisbaum]

There's also a video link right under the search button in OSE that says "See How It Works".  That should do the trick.

[Malarowski]

Hey,

There is a intro webinar available on how to use SEOmoz right here: http://www.seomoz.org/webinars/seomoz-pro-tool-overview

If you need any more instruction or have specific questions, this webinar runs every Friday, so you could join then and ask all you want.

Mike