November 11, 2008

There are no free permanent links

by Brian Turner

We know that Google is a links driven search engine, therefore some form of link building as part of a wider marketing strategy can reap literal dividends.

So why is it so many people approach link building as something to be suspicious of, and aim to put the least budget into it?

It’s pretty mad really – a company invests thousands into their website, spends thousands per month on Adwords – then when it comes to integrating link building, they look to spend a couple of hundred pounds as a one-off payment.

And then they ask whether these links will be permanent or temporary.

There are a lot of misconceptions about link development work, especially when people are asking for cheap SEO without realising you get what you pay for, so I’ll try to address a few here:

1. There are no permanent links

It fundamentally misunderstands the internet in the first place – there is such a churn in terms of websites and webpages that content and its links routinely disappears from the internet.

When someone sets up link bait, perhaps a hundred bloggers will link to it. But after two years, the expectation is that many of these links will no longer exist – pages will be missing, websites abandoned, or even the blogger upped to a different service starting with new content.

So even the most natural links cannot be regarded as permanent.

2. There are no “free” links

Asking for “free” also undervalues what is actually involved in a link campaign.

I’m not going to advocate “buying links”, but I am going to state that building up relationships with publishers, working on viral content, and promoting such content across the web certainly isn’t free. The links that result may not have been paid for directly, but there was certainly a cost in terms of time, planning, and organisation.

Sure, someone could counter that links at DMOZ are free, but don’t hold you breath on getting a listing. And with Google dropping it’s own DMOZ clone, and DMOZ being whispered as for sale, it may be free but getting a link there and keeping it are another argument.

3. One-off link building

Anyone looking for a one-off link building campaign can’t be serious about competitive markets.

After all, no one is going to rank on the first page of a search engine for major keywords relating to finance, travel, consumer electronics, B2B services, etc, unless they have a very clear online marketing strategy – and a small one-time link building payment certainly doesn’t sound like a part of that.

It’s kind of like saying you want to compete in an Olympic sprint, but you only want to run a few steps. Amongst serious competition, it shows a lot of naivety.

Where to get good link builders

I guess one of the major problems is that there are so many sharks across all online industries, that finding a good link builder is hard if you know what you want. And those who don’t understand the internet or even search marketing strategy are going to be even more hesitant.

So you can kind of understand the reticence to some degree.

In which case, it’s all the more important that such companies visit industry conferences such as Search Engine Strategies and SMX. You’ll hear from different link developers on their tips and strategies, and even better, you’ll be hearing it from people with a good reputation in the industry.

My background was originally link development but I’m not going to promote myself here with it – instead, I’d recommend people visit the conferences, listen to best practices presentations, and chat with the link builders there to gauge different opinions on their specific technical challenges.

In which case, people like me will be only too happy to answer.

Discuss this in the Internet Business forums

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Posted in: Marketing