Search Engine Marketing Blog

For the person on the desert island that hasn’t yet heard about the most recent PR update and how it’s supposedly due to Google penalising link sellers and buyers here’s a few links to interesting posts:

Forbes article that’s a few days old but interesting “background” reading (hey, it’s a fast paced industry!)

Andy Beard’s detailed look at the directories affected - good cause he tracks the directories’ PR over time

ShoeMoney’s short but sweet post - please follow the links to find out what NOT to do

Some Musings from Search Engine Journal - I love the quote, “PageRank is not a Marketing Metric”. Perfect!

10 ways to cheat at link building. Quick, easy tips to get you and your new site going.

1. Directories - quick, easy, fast submissions. Usually free, sometimes a small fee. Links are usually set up in a timely fashion. Find suitable directories at the Open Directory.

2. Buy a Yahoo directory link.

3. Ask people you know - personal friends, family members, your kid’s school, your golf club, people you met on holiday - anyone you know who owns, or knows someone who owns, a site.

4. Arrange with your business partners to do a Partners page - you normally refer them to customers so why not refer them on your site and get them to refer you by linking to you.

5. Ask satisfied business customers for an endorsement. You add their testimonial on your site with a link to theirs and they add you as a preferred supplier on their site with a link to yours.

6. Don’t have a news page, have a blog instead. Just for having a blog you qualify for links a normal site can’t get - there’s a whole Dmoz section devoted to weblogs not to mention all the blog specific directories. Use the blog for posting news, press releases, product recalls, job openings, sponsorships, and so on. If you post something that’s actually interesting to someone you’ll get links without having to ask. Blogging software is like a free, easy to install content management system that can be administered by just about anyone who can type and you don’t have to give them access to the rest of your site.

7. Put up a “Link to Me” sign on your site with code for a professional looking button that people can simply cut and paste into their own site’s code.

8. Offer a “Listed On” or award button link for any site that qualifies. Believe it or not sites are still willing to stick an award or “Listed On” button link on their site.

9. Every time you do a press release make sure it carries your website address and is distributed to the online press release services.

10. Let other sites use your content providing they link back to your site. White papers, studies, surveys, research, product recall notices, tips, articles, jokes, anything that you post on your site that other sites may wish to use. Stick a politely worded permission note on the bottom of the content page letting other site owners know they are welcome to use the material - all you ask is that they credit the content to you using a direct link.

Ok, so there is no completely lazy way of getting links. Didn’t your Daddy ever tell you that anything worth doing is worth doing well?

Be number 1 on Google for a term the author is looking to write about.

I’m not kidding. Everyone, despite knowing better, uses Google as a reference tool. The number of authoritative websites that reference our sites without us ever having asked is amazing. The only reason they do so is because they do a search on Google for a topic they are writing about and there’s our little site minding its own business.

Obviously, having a professional and “correct” design seals the deal. Even if you’re number 1 for “ancient Egyptian artifacts” you’re not going to be referenced unless your site looks the part.

So the formula for gaining authoritative links without ever asking is:

Great content on a very specific subject X the right design

I have to stress here that the design is very, very important. It doesn’t have to be swish, flash, swirling or otherwise gorgeous - it does however have to be exactly what the searcher would expect a site on that topic to look like. But that’s a whole different post.

Have the right design, get to the top and get referenced!

I just got this link request to my hotmail account. Assuming it was for www.semguide.com I opened it only to find it was actually a link request to hotmail.com. The idiots hadn’t even bothered to sort out their automation and instead of asking for a link on semguide.com they simply pulled the domain my email address was on, in this case hotmail. Oh, and notice the lovely misspellings and odd grammar.

HORRID LINK REQUEST EMAIL BEGINS

Subject : Link Proposition

Hi

Hope you are doing fine.

This email comes in as a link conjuction proposition which might interest you as your website ( http://www.hotmail.com ) is related to oour industry vertical or its niche.

If you feel that confederating with our website would be a profitable option for you to pursue, please go ahead and place our link on your website ( http://www.hotmail.com ) using any of the following information:

Option 1:
http://www.removed
Title: Website Development
Description: REMOVED.

Option2:
http://www.removed
Title: Web Development
Description: REMOVED

Option3:
http://www.removed
Title: PHP Development
Description: REMOVED

Option4:
http://www.removed
Title: ColdFusion Development
Description: REMOVED

Kindly place our link and let me know the location.

Look forward to hear from you with a positive response.

Kind Regards

Name removed
http://www.removed

Note: Please accept my apologies if I have offended you by sending a link request email. If you do not wish to receive any emails from me, please let me know.

END OF HORRID LINK REQUEST EMAIL

Apologies accepted but there is no way you’re getting a reply from me.

Seriously people, don’t be so lazy! If you want a link, take the time to write the email yourself!