Put on Your Marketing Hat: Strategic SEO Link Building That Works
You can spend hundreds of hours hunting down ways to build links. How does that help your company at the end of the day? Link building can turn into a wild online goose chase AND you waste a lot of time and energy in the process.
It’s time to put on your marketing hat and think about SEO link building from a strategic point of view. Go beyond just the basic elements of SEO and think about the bigger picture with your marketing goals.
It’s All About Unique Content
Strategic SEO link building centers around CONTENT – not just any content – but unique, quality content that provides valuable information to your readers.
Why is this important? Unique content is one of the easiest ways to build credibility within your niche. It makes you a viable resource to readers. As a result, they will link to your site because they trust you and look to you as an expert.
Focus on Marketing Tactics
Strategic SEO link building focuses on a marketing and public relations perspective: HOW will you get users to link to your site? Think about your audience, branding and remember to keep messaging consistent.
You can use all the fancy “mechanical” SEO tricks but you can’t solely rely on that to increase search engine ranking. For SEO link building to be successful, your strategy needs the best of both worlds. Here are a few tricks that can help you along the way with link building.
Marketing:
• Think about ALL the “off-line” promotional opportunities your company encounters. Special events are a great way to build links. Do you sponsor the annual celebrity chef food event each year? Ask the charitable organization to link your site as part of your sponsorship/advertisement to their website. Charitable organizations will cross-promote links on their sites as “thank yous” to their sponsors.
• Utilize your local resources, colleagues, clients and contacts. Do you belong to trade associations, the Chamber of Commerce, or service organizations? These organizations usually have websites and online newsletters. Ask for a direct link.
• Include links in your online press releases and promotional materials such as annual reports and case studies. Use job listing and event sites. Optimize keywords in these listings. Always ask for a DIRECT link to your site so users can find out more information about the event and your company.
Public Relations/Media Relations:
• Whenever you email journalists or bloggers media pitches, always include a link. If you find out that you will be featured in an online story (especially if you are interviewed directly), ask the writer to include a link to your company’s website and/or blog.
• Train company representatives (presidents, marketing directors, etc.) in SEO-specific media relations. Use consistent keyword phrasing in media messaging. If your story is published online, keywords will be picked up in search engines and linked back to your site.
• Because your link is tied with credible online media sources, your search rankings increase and your company receives MORE publicity! A win-win marketing success!
This is a Guest Post by Zeke Camusio who is a serial entrepreneur, Internet Marketing expert and founder of The Outsourcing Company, an Internet Marketing agency with offices in Aspen, CO and New York. Let’s Do It!, his blog, is read by thousands of people all over the world.
