Viral marketing for links

Link building was once the most tedious, labor intensive processes of search engine optimization. It's funny because inbound links also happen to be one of the more important aspects to your search engine rankings. Fortunately, it's not so tedious anymore. Thanks to the social web, link building through buzz marketing is now possible.

With link building, quality trumps quantity. But let me be first to tell you that a large quantity of quality links is best :). The highest quality links you can get are natural links, which is a link that is given without any incentive. It means that a web publisher or author choses to link to you on his or her own free will, without you having to pay or ask for that link. They come 'naturally'. These links are usually found placed inside relevant content such as articles, news stories, and blog posts.

Before the whole 'web 2.0' phenom came around, link building consisted of reciprocal link exchanges, purchasing paid link advertisements including directory listings, and optimized press releases. It's a different story now, those link strategies are dead and optimizing viral marketing is in.

The reason why these links are of such high quality is because they can't be spammed. Anyone can trade or pay for links. With natural links, it's up to the web community to decide what's good and bad.

The social web, which consists of blogging, social news sites, bookmarking sites, and other community based sites is a blessing. Link building has now become less of a chore. Not only that, it is even easier to build more relevant links. It's still not just a walk in the park though, it's just not as labor intensive. Now it takes more out-of-the-box creativity. With the right idea and proper execution it is possible to build thousands of natural inbound links in a matter of days. A couple of years ago, it would take months of working around the clock to build quality links of this magnitude.

The SEO industry has coined this new phrase 'Linkbait'. Personally, I don't really care for that term. To me it sounds a little bit slimy, I don't like that fact that it's associated with 'baiting' someone into linking to you. It's just a form of buzz marketing, which has been around for years. Now it's just possible to use the Internet as a medium for it. The important things is to have a product that is good enough to generate enough buzz.

The SEO industry is adapting and mixing in other forms of marketing, there's a few of us that are keeping up and the rest are being left behind. In with the new, out with the old.

Enjoy the post? Here are some more that may interest you.

SES

Trackbacks (0)

There are no trackbacks for this post yet.

Reader Comments (3)

greg, June 13, 2006

While some of the points you make are pretty decent, your argument has many flaws.

You assert that "The highest quality links you can get are natural links, which is a link that is given without any incentive." Not necessarily. A link from a high visibility, authority, on topic site is the money link. How you get there is another point. Natural links are important to keep the engines guessing. If all of your links are paid for, you are in trouble. Mix in a good dose of natural links, and you should be groovy. I am all for building links the "right" way, but disinformation isn't going to help anybody.

You seem to encourage webmasters to ignore pre-2.0 search marketing practices. A wiser strategy would surely be to build upon everything we learned from "old school" SEO, and incorporate the social networking aspects of 2.0 to formulate an evolved online marketing plan. Your statement that "those link strategies are dead and optimizing viral marketing is in" is almost irresponsible.

In your closing paragraph you state "there's a few of us that are keeping up and the rest are being left behind" - I'm curious to know who is in each camp? Who are the current leaders, and those that are getting left behind?

If your entire marketing strategy is build it, and they will come, then I think you are the one that will surely be left behind.

Cameron Olthuis, June 13, 2006

Greg, first of all thanks for your comment. You raise some good points, however, I think you've misunderstood this post completely.

Ok, so we both agree that a link from an authority, on topic site is best. Where we seem to disagree is how you get there. I'll still backup my point that natural links are superior. The reason being that if a link shows up inside the natural body of content there is more weight placed on that link.

I'm not advocating against paid links. In the right places for the right client they can still work. I just don't think that's neccasary anymore. Why do I need to spend thousands of dollars on paid links every month when I can produce better results in a days work. I'd also mention that all the major engines have come out and said that paid links are a no-no, they will penalize for them. Now I know that you can easily keep it under wraps but that's not the point of this post. Of course you can also use the no-follow but it no longer becomes sem, even though some links do drive good traffic.

There's no need to mix it up if I can get all natural links, one could argue that this is one reason why blogs and a lot of the new 2.0 sites are killing it in the engines.

I'm not encouraging webmasters to ignore traditional search engine marketing practices at all, just link building. There is definitely still a lot old school seo needed, but that's another post for another day. This post is simply about building links.

My marketing strategy is not build and they will come. I'm not sure how you came to conclusion but that is not what I am saying.

greg, June 13, 2006

Hi Cameron. I fear that I may have came across as if I am anti-viral marketing, or a non-believer in the power of 2.0 social networking. I definitely am not.

I share your enthusiasm and interest in the possibilities of using social aspects of the web for link building. I think site owners and bloggers can really get some nice links, and great traffic from 2.0 destinations like digg or flickr. I think all bloggers and site owners should show complete dedication to building the best content they possibly can. I have long been an advocate of garnering links through a policy quality content, and an equally vocal opponent of the "beg for links" philosophies.

However, stating that "those link strategies are dead" would lead a reader to believe that they should abandon the link building strategies of yore. Indeed there is a place for optimized press releases, directory submissions, and paid advertisements. Once again, I would argue that the best strategy would incorporate each element of link building style - they need not be mutually exclusive.