Search Engine Marketing Blog: piloSEO

I have a problem. I really really like links. It’s getting out of control and I don’t know if I can be saved. As an SEO and X-List blogger I have an unnatural obsession towards links. I just can’t get enough. To most of my friends links are a utilitarian aspect of the Internet that allows them to access new content. To me links are that and so much more.

I am not normal

I realized how strange I am when I was talking to someone at work. They had written a blog post and linked to one of my posts. I thanked him for the link and he explained that he was going to ask me about it but figured that I would be fine with it. We went on to have a brief discussion about links in the midst of a few other co-workers. Now, everone I work with is steeped in search engine marketing knowledge but many are not necessarily SEO savvy. Said co-workers were looking at us like we were insane. That’s when it dawned on me that my rerverance of links is just plain weird and probably a bit creepy to the unitiated.  Oh well, at least I can admit that I am hopelessly addicted to links, even those wearing a condom.

Popularity: 16% [?]

Doing some research for a potential client lead me to a couple of interesting sites that are kicking ass in a very competitive space. These two sites are obviously owned by the same person and they offer almost identical information but they are both dominating for many of the same keywords in this competitive space. They are using an interesting tactic to gain backlinks while avoiding the potential pitfalls of straight up link exchanges. And it appears to be working because they own valuable SERP real estate for some extremely lucrative keywords.

Not really exchanging links

While they do have a link to us page they are not really trading links. Essentially they are offering something of value in exchange for a link to their site. In both cases they are offering SEO advice to anyone willing to link to them. I have included two screenshots, one from each site, that show exactly what they are doing. I do not want to give away the industry because it would be very easy to find out who they are but I can tell you that it is totally unrelated to SEO, SEM, or anything related to online marketing. Check out the screenshots below to see their un-reciprocal link scheme.

Site #1

Site #2

Interesting way around reciprocal linking while still using the same tactics

This is an interesting method to build links using tactics that evolved from the reciprocal linking orgy of the past. Both sites have a link to us page that are in a sense offering non-monetary compensation for a link. I don’t think this violates any guidelines but is really close to the edge. I don’t know that there is something to penalize here but I am sure that there could come a time when those links are no longer passing any value. For now they are working and although I would not attempt using this type of link building method it looks like it is quite lucrative.

Disclaimer: I am not posting this to out anyone (which is why I did not link to the sites or mention the industry) or to give advice for link building. I do not believe this is a viable long term strategy but it appears to be working right now.

Popularity: 22% [?]

Link Juice is not the only important consideration

When I first began building links for SEO purposes my only thought was how will this link help my sites rank better. While it is still a central consideration I have learned that just building links for link juice can limit overall Internet marketing success. I still want to find links that will pass value to my sites but now I look for sites that not only pass value but also enhance my sites reputation and authority in their niche. These links should also direct qualified visitors that may be more likely to buy.

As my link building techniques have evolved to consider these additional factors I have found that the links I get not only direct more qualified visitors, enhance the businesses reputation, but they also tend to end up being more beneficial in terms of passing link juice to the site. Finding link sites with a high PR or Alexa score is worthless exercise. It is much more productive to find sites that add value to the web and provide useful information to users who may be interested in your service. They may not have a lot of juice right away but as they get attention they will become more powerful.

Maximize Link Building Efforts

• Reach Out to the Leaders: Find out who the big players are in your niche and interact with them. Don’t be a spammer. Make useful comments on their blogs and when they discuss an issue related to what you are offering discuss what you are doing. Tone down the marketing angle and provide useful and interesting commentary. This even works for traditional newspapers that have not adopted Web 2.0 technology. Some of the best links I have procured have come from simply emailing writers for news publications who wrote articles related to the site on which I am working. The emails did not ask for a link or even a mention. By simply discussing the points of the article and offering my own ideas has lead to some writers researching the companies I am working for and writing a story with some juicy links. These links continue to provide link juice as well as regular visitors who are very interested in what the sites are selling.
• Link Out to Useful Resources: Linking out to high quality and relevant content makes your sites more useful to visitors and can help bring attention to your site. I know when I am checking my Analytics programs I like to check out the sites that send me visitors. If I find them to be useful I may throw them a link either in a blogroll or even writing an article or blog post about them with a link or two. These may or may not be reciprocal links but either way they are natural. Reciprocal links get a bad rap because they have been abused but natural reciprocal links like this are an inegral part of the World Wide Web. On top of that when other visitors find your site to be a useful resource they will link to you on their related sites and blogs.
• Be Active: Join relevant forums and social sites and interact. Make sure you include your sites URL in a signature and/or profile if it is allowed. These links generally do not pass value but they can attract interested visitors as well as quality links. You have to participate though. Help those asking for advice and discuss relevant topics about which you are knowledgeable. Other users and visitors will see you as a useful contributer and will look to you when they need your expertise. They may also link to you on their sites providing your site offers relevant and useful content on relevant subject matter.

There are many ways to get links that both pass value and generate quality traffic. Some niches are very link friendly while others are not. What works for the technology niche may not work for someone selling office chairs. It is a good idea to explore a variety of link building opportunities and figure out what works for you. Just remember that building links for traffic, authority, and link juice will be a much more successful endeavor than trying to build links just to increase your position in the SERPs.

Popularity: 18% [?]

A funny thing happened to me recently. I have a client who is in a market where the webmasters of the big sites are fairly SEO savvy but the many individuals with smaller sites are not. Like many bloggers and webmasters they do it because they love the subject material. It is not a commercial market but it is a HUGELY popular subject matter. So there are quite a few small but well designed sites with great content and some good link juice. This has created a strange situation at least for me.

Back to the topic at hand. Last week I was on one of the big social media sites for this market and found a great post from one of the other members there. I checked out a few more stories and decided to send a friend request. Now usually when I send friend requests the normal response is to either accept or decline and maybe send a short response. This person went crazy. The client I work for is a pretty big player in this market and the person I friended told me how honored she was to accept our request and raved about my clients site. She then asked if it would be OK if she added a link to our site. Of course I said yes, she has a great site with tons of great content and only a few links. Her next response was what surprised me the most. After I told her yes she said she was nervous about asking if SHE COULD LINK TO OUR SITE.

This opened my eyes to the fact that many bloggers outside of the SEO world and some highly competitive industries do not know the power of a link. She was honored that we would let her link to us. My past experience is usually the opposite. Because of this I have adopted a different link building strategy for this client that will leverage this different attitude.

It makes link building more difficult if using traditional methods because many bloggers are not going to add links on their own for fear that you don’t want it. On the other hand by changing my methods a bit it will make things easier because the bloggers want to link to but feel they need some sort of approval.

Now obviously link building strategies are going to differ from market to market. The key is to understand each market and adjust your linking strategy based on how the players in that market treat links. Some will treat links as a commodity for both traffic and link love while others may not understand the power of links and think of them as a way to make their site stand out (by linking to the big players). Figure out where your market is and build links accordingly.

Popularity: 13% [?]