Why In House link building sucks
by Brian Turner
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I’ve been reading various discussions online about how good it is to get link building done in house.
I’ve got to come out and say that why I know there are some good in-house link builders, I also know there are an awful lot that suck.
I guess it’s like outsourced link building, really. :)
The problem is that simply taking “link building” in house does not equal a good link building campaign.
Link building is a creative process.
Therefore it doesn’t matter whether link building is done in-house or outsourced, you absolutely need to ensure you are employing creative people who understand link theory and can apply it in a creative and lateral manner.
Many in-house link builders suck because:
1. They have never built a website, so fundamentally misunderstand all the issues surrounding building and developing and promoting a website
2. They usually do not have multiple websites to act as controls for data collection
3. They can be too easily limited by stakeholder interests and accounting limits which force them to take short-term corner-cutting options
4. They don’t read patents, and instead just resort to link buying
5. They fundamentally misunderstand link values
6. They cannot adapt to changing conditions
7. They cannot apply multiple strategies
8. They lack creativity and lateral thinking
In fact, many SEO companies and so-called “link development companies” suffer from many of the above as well.
That’s why it’s all the more reason that whatever team you use - in-house or out-sourced - that you have a clear idea of what you need achieving, and how you will measure that success - and ensure that whomever you have working on your links knows exactly what they are talking about.
A quick aside as well - even big corporations can benefit massively with link building. While they may not suffer from a dearth of links, what they usually chronically lack are keyword links that will allow them to rank for commercial useful positions that generates significant lead generation traffic.
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Inhouse is more controalable, out sourced companies will only deliver the bit they understand.
Best option is to manage a variety of outsourced companies, but track them hard.
Doug
Lol! From your reputation, Doug, your in-house team is being run by someone who gets SEO, therefore the right decisions are likely being made. :)
It’s the in-house teams run by people who don’t properly get SEO who are likely underperforming. Not many of these go to SEO Roadshow. :)
Any tips for an outsourcing newbie? I’m not a big company or anything; however I don’t really want to do the grunt work of link building. I’d prefer to outsource that - but I want to be involved enough to get a quality output… any companies you can recommend or any other tips? Cheers.
Jonathan, I think the main thing is to understand links yourself - and what sort of links and link strategies you would want implementing, and then look for recommended companies who may be offer what you present to them as required.
The biggest tip is probably to avoid India. :)
Thanks Brian!
I’m considering hiring a full time person right now from agents of value (Philippines), and I was going to give them a very very thorough grid of what to do, how to do it and what I expect to see for results. I was thinking of getting them to do forum posts, blog comments, blogging, directory submissions (list provided by me), article submissions
(articles from me), press release submissions (also from me), find & setup reciprocal links within tightly specified verticals, develop & maintain pages on Facebook, Squidoo, Hubpages and Myspace along with a few other things.
In addition, I will probably try to work on some one way links myself, but if I can get all the above for $625 or so a month do you think that is worth it? My site is currently fairly new, but I’d like to see it rank well by the end of the year, without pouring too much $$ into it.
Another question - my most active competitor REALLY likes buying blog links - is there a good way to combat this?
To be absolutely honest, my experience of Asia is that “forum posting ” and “blog commenting” effectively turns out to be really bad spamming. Also, Asia is the king of worthless directories - all quantity, no quality. I think it’s seriously important for anyone looking to take on link building that they really understand links themselves, and take the time to formulate strategies, but also how those strategies should unfold.
I would also caution absolutely everyone on outsourcing on price - you need to be outsourcing the same level of quality at a cheaper price - but too many people outsource on price alone, so they completely miss the quality aspect and the outsourcing becomes junk that can cost further time and money to correct.
If you need more info on appraising links, would definitely recommend joining Aaron Wall’s SEOBook.com community - a great place to learn.
2c. :)
Thanks Brian. As I was looking into agents of value further yesterday I realized that the quality of English I was going to be getting wasn’t going to represent my business in the way I wanted. (Even though it is cheap as borscht!) On top of that there are the issues you’ve mentioned.
I think I’ll head over to SEOBook and check it out. I’ve been there before, but never really immersed myself in the community aspect.
Thanks for the advice.
No probs - Aaron’s material still remains the major selling point behind SEObook.com - I think he is one of the most clued-up marketers in the US. So he certainly offers plenty of good grounding in his subscription service, which luckily doesn’t treat SEO as an isolated channel, but instead one of many rivulets in the marketing delta. Hope that helps. :)
It does take a while to understand the whole scenario, the best way is to learn from personal experience. Once you think you’ve cracked it, something changes.
“4. They don’t read patents, and instead just resort to link buying”
Lol - I tried.. it’s one thing reading them, but unless you can decipher and put into practise it’s very difficult to understand them.