Stop trying to get a link from everything and start adding something of value to anything and you’ll be way ahead in the online marketing game. <<<<<< quote for the day
The year was 2002 and in just the previous 12 months or so Google had become the global SEO obsession. Every update from shift to shineola was affectionately given a pet name like it was some webmasters first car. Mine was named Shasta. Shasta have gas, Shasta have oil, Shasta have tires, Shasta have lights, new seat covers, horn, turn signals, -----
All of sudden Yahoo’s directory listing stopped being the holy grail of traffic generators and now webmasters couldn’t click fast enough to download the Google toolbar and start tracking EVERYBODY’s PR. Handing over info you wouldn’t disclose to your mother about every site you worked on when and how seemed a cheap price to get to dance at the Google Linkers Ball.
I wasn’t the first guy to pimp link love but I did pretty much give birth to a cottage industry of link brokers, fantomaster.com. A few savvy serp jockeys had already been selling it, buying it, trading it and living off of it when a lawsuit was just a glimmer in the eye of this litigious linkdemon, but I became as blinded by the green bar as anyone and saw it as a way to raise desperately needed capital when I read a post on webmasterworld, ( http://www.webmasterworld.com), by fellow Old Fart SEO, Brett Tabke,(http://www.searchnengineland.com) assserting that a link from a PR 8 site was worth a quarter of a million bucks, http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2165111).
Yowza! That’s enough to make anyone a believer!
Back then, one link from a PR 9 brought your site to a PR8 within 2-4 weeks tops. A 6 gave you a 5 and an index page with a 5 gave almost all your interior pages a 4. Easy peasy. Algo busting wasn’t too tough because it wasn’t hard to figure out that in the serps, a 9 beat an 8 and an 8 beat a 7 and so forth. Man, the PR gold rush was on!
Well, it didn’t take long to see that the complexity bar had to be raised before every porn, pills and casino site had a PR 9. And rise it did. That coupled with the FUD being propagated and paid for by Google in various forms including, but not limited to, the legal bitch slapping given to yours truly, it did little else other than to increase demand. So I guess I can’t actually claim that I started the link brokering cottage industry. Google did a much better job of promoting the value in that industry than I ever did.
That was over 5 years ago. I was just a pup back then. Young, dumb and full of people willing to pay $800 for a single link from a PR8, (for some crazy reason, they’re still out there).
That was then, this is now.
When I’m hired by clients, they’re the boss. I never argue or even try to change their minds unless they specifically ask for my advice. I assume these are intelligent businessmen, (or they wouldn’t be calling me right?), and they know what they want. If a client pays me to secure a PR 8, then I do my best to secure a PR 8. However, due to my experience and my ability to articulate the intricacies of premium organic search engine placement, most clients simply want increased visibility and traffic and are happy to let me select the best way to achieve that.
Chasing and paying for links just because they have a high page rank is NOT the way to increase visibility in the organic results anymore. Well maybe I need to re-state that because links, virtually all links, do have some value. Maybe a more accurate statement would be,” chasing and paying for links just because they have a high page rank is NOT a smart investment of time or money”.
I’d like to offer a little collateral evidence for the purpose of illustration. While the evidence I offer here may be only circumstantial, it is certainly more substantiative than pure conjecture and mere opinion stated as fact which makes it considerably unique.
A PR 9 Link for Everyone with $1500 Cash
Back in 2002 one of the first PR9 sites to jump on the hey-we-can-make-a-boatload-of-money-fast-off-our-page-rank bandwagon was a site that to this day has some 2,700,000 inbound links. Link pimps lined up to gladly pay $1500 a month for every 3 -5 word text link they could peddle. Within 60 days, this site had over 300 completely, totally, glaringly obvious, take-anyone’s-money-who’ll-pay-us text links enhancing the quality of this popular site.
It ran the gamut of morally motivated editorial review from A to B. There were no links with any of the 7 words you can’t say on TV, (http://www.lyricsbox.com/george-carlin-lyrics-the-seven-words-you-can-never-say-on-tv-268qwb7.html), but outside of that, it looked like pretty much anyone with 1500 bucks passed this crews censoring policies.
I’m referring to a site anyone in this biz as long as I’ve been, (if there is such an animal), would recognize from WMW. I’m talking about Wunderground! http://www.wunderground.com
Today it sits at a lowly PR 5, (which pretty much illustrates the usefulness of todays’ toolbar PR with the 2,700,000 inbounds it has), which even after all the SEO bitching and bashing discussions seems to still be high enough to generate revenue from some 30+ ROS text links. These are of course much more relevant to the theme of checking global weather conditions than they used to be back then. Such as the plastic surgery ads because of course if you are going to the Bahamas you may wish to take some new tits with you. I can see that.
All the vacation and travel stuff makes sense too as does the internet service providers and the VoIP ad ------ I gueeeessssss they are targeting people who are preparing to travel to the Amazon and may want some new fangled mobile technologies to take with them as they paddle a log dugout into the rain forest. Sure I can see that.
But I struggled a little with the bankruptcy attorney ads and the tax preparation stuff until it dawned on me that someone may be wanting to skip the country without paying their taxes or ex-wife and while checking the weather predictions in Costa Rica why not give them an opportunity to check out some good deals on financial services. Yeah, that’s it. That’s the ticket. Targeted ads, yeah.
Well, it doesn’t work like it used to. Today, you can check all the text links off the page and struggle to find a PR 4 from the juice being squeezed out of the pr5 of the wunderlink. PLUS I took a few of those sites at random and they must all be getting good traffic from such targeted placement because I didn’t find a single one in the top 10 for a search for the anchor text of the links to justify paying for the link.
I didn’t check them all and you’re free to check for yourself but I checked enough that I’m convinced whether you are or not, that was then and this is now and it’s a whole new ballgame being played in the old link stadium today.
The dirt Guru, get to the dirt!
Nowadays, blog posts and authorities sites will rarely give links to ANYBODY because links are now internet gold. Emailing reciprocal link requests nets about one link from spam sites for every 30,000 emails, so what's a webmaster supposed to do? If directories have been devalued, article directories are busted and we can’t buy text links unless they have a no follow tag what's left?
The answer is so simple you are going to hate it. You are going to struggle hard to resist accepting that improved serp positions could be so easy. But it is.
I’m going to tell you now EXACTLY how I have trained my staff to get virtually any keyword target to move up fast and dramatically.
I wrote a blog post recently titled
Squeezing The Juice Out Of The Low-Hanging Fruit
In that post I said:
As long as a web page, any web page, is being spidered, given sufficient time and motivation, I can generate CONVERTING TRAFFIC to a target web page for ANY keyword or phrase with nothing more than search engine placement. WITHOUT PAYING FOR LINKS!
In that article I wrote that nothing I did you could not do as well. Mind you I did not say you will rank #1 for hosting or home based business. If that is what you think I said and you intend now to run out and get rich from ranking top 5 for hosting there is only one conclusion I can make with one of two possible outcomes.
Either you’re an idiot and you are going to get your ass kicked and lose a lot of money until you quit
OR
You’re an idiot and you are going to get your ass kicked and lose a lot of money until you learn what you’re doing.
I said I could generate converting traffic without paying for links and so can you!
Today I’m going to give you the secret which like most things SEO is really no secret at all. It's just work.
It involves nothing more than accepting two broad concepts, a simple procedure and a guiding philosophy.
Concept #1 – Personal Rank
Page Rank has long ago shifted more to trust rank and now we are seeing it shift to personal rank. What that means, in a very broad sense, is that a link from Mrs. Consumer on her favorite forum or among her circle of friends wherever she hangs out can move a specific url for a specific term faster and farther than a high PR link from an authority site for specific people searching for specific terms.
You still want those authority links because it is in the process of changing but authority links still carry a lot of weight. It’s just that they are getting so difficult to get that sometimes just getting them can attract suspicion. They are getting so difficult to get that getting them is in itself a little unnatural.
Try to think like a search engine for a moment. Why would a 7 year old authority site with a PR 7 give a link to a site that is less than a year old with a PR 2? Maybe it’s perfectly 2 legit 2 quit but maybe it’s worth taking a look. See what I mean?
So how do get Mrs. Consumer to give you that link? Well, I don’t mind telling you where I think the gold is but you’ll have to do your own digging. BUT, it is no more difficult than it was getting those links from an authority site last year and the year before.
Concept #2. - Eliminate the Toolbar
The little green bar means noting in terms of placements or in terms of establishing value for a website’s juice. Plus the fewer people you tell about where, when and how you get your links the better off YOU are.
I make sure that when my people start a linking campaign, (without specific instructions from the client and even then it is only a select few top people who undertake those tasks), I take extra steps to make sure that they do it without benefit of toolbar.
I realize this is a tough one but it really is important enough that you should try it at least on a few links. Remember the toolbar doesn’t tell you anything about context, bad neighborhoods or whether the target site has any placements. You’re used to looking for that kind of stuff without the toolbar anyway, or at least you should be unless you’re one of those people still willing to pay big money just to get a link from a PR 8.
Finally, to discount any page just because it has a PR 0 or even an N/A is a mistake. I look at probably a thousand searches/webpages a week and have for a LOT of years and I can guarantee you that a link on a page with a PR0 that makes sense for your link to be there, can move your page up in the organic results. If you are stressing out over whether this page is linked to a bad neighborhood or is passing PR, then you are not putting your time and efforts to the best use. For one thing, almost EVERY site has links to something somebody wouldn't like. I know, I've looked. And for another thing if the page looks and feels like spam crap then it doesn't make sense for your link to be there in the first place and you're already blowing it.
Procedure – Keyword Plus
We’ve come to the part you’re really going to hate. It is so simple it’s hard to accept that it works so well.
If you are like most people you’re just trying to get a break and run your business. You have read and followed so much advice from so many posts and threads and tweets and diggs and stumbles and crapnoratti that you have downloaded, uploaded, autogenerated submissions to 40,000 directories and paid for classified blasters, forum bombs, blog busters and joined networks, web rings, friends dingers, power pingers, traffic masters, marketing maidens, co-op builders, PR networks and friends helping friends until you have forgotten to just slow down and think for yourself.
All of that stuff has been done to death and if you’ve done it and you’re not getting any traffic, then do us all a huge favor and try something else for a change.
Go to any search engine you like and type in your keyword + directory
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=educational+toys+%2B+directory&btnG=Search
There is 464,000 pretty good shots at getting a link that will move your site up in the Serps for that term
(at least for some people)
or keyword + article submission
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=leather+furniture+%2B+article+submissions&btnG=Search
There is 151,000 pretty good places to look for a link
Or Keyword + forum
570,000 hot spots.
I could go on but I’m guessing you get the point.
I bet you’re saying DUH! We all know that Guru.
Ok, fine so you already knew that huh? If you were happy with your placements, you wouldn’t be reading Ask the SEO Guru blog now would you?
Kids you don’t have to believe me but I’m telling you the truth, stop trying to get a link from everything and start submitting something of value to anything and you’ll be way ahead of the game.
And now to the final piece of the entire puzzle. The Guiding Philosophy that brings it all together.
Guiding Philosophy – – Put Your Link Where it Makes the Most Sense for the Most People
When do other people WANT to accept your link request, publish your article, run your press release or accept your submission?
When it does something for them.
Either it makes them money, saves them time, provides added value to their visitors or they believe it makes them look good or smart or benevolent to their visitors, their peers, their friends, their relatives, to the search engines, award sites or just about anyone that can make them a buck or stroke their ego.
So, the absolute best chance you have of getting that link is to cover as many of those bases as possible at the same time. When you can satisfy some need, want or desire of the webmaster, the visitor to the hosting site and it makes the search engine look smart, BINGO. You just hit the SERP buster hat trick!
Hitting any one of the bulls’ eyes will usually do the trick. Hitting two out of three will bring you double the response from just hitting one and hitting the hat trick can bring close to 90% success.
Don’t take my word for it. Try it yourself and THEN tell me I’m wrong. The next time you get ready to hit the button on another 500 “personalized” emails all saying, “I’ve been to your site {insert url here}, stop and take just the first one and THINK about what you could say that would illustrate real value to THEM if they placed your link. If you find even one real benefit to them,(assuming they even open your email of course), you will start seeing about a one out of 4 success ratio as opposed to 1 out of 4000 {insert url here} emails .
Take the exact same approach when you submit to directories, or submit articles, or any other technique you choose to use to secure links. The site giving you the link wins, the visitor to the hosting site wins and the search engines win by looking smart. But the big winner is YOU!
You’ll get the most links by slowing down and thinking of ways to give the most value to the most people every time.
Related suggested reading.
Thanks to Ann Smarty of Search Engine Journal for the inspiration. She’s one smart cookie. Hey, I just got that one.
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/natural-seo-reciprocal-linking-and-interlinking/6533/
Stoney DeGeyter get the Guru's viote for blog post of the week! Good job SG preach on brother.
http://www.searchengineguide.com/stoney-degeyter/think-beyond-the-link-how-exposure-build.php
SEObook is always a safe bet but ironically enough, this just got posted yesterday.
http://www.seobook.com/personalized-free-professional-help
Debra Mastalers post here
http://community.seobook.com/link-building/538-tnx-net-whats-your-opinion.html
{you may have to be a member to read the community.seobook.com page. If you're not already a member you should come join us. It's well worth the investment because that's where we tell you the REALLY good stuff !}
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