Published: Oct 11, 2007 - 01:12 pm
Story Found By: scubasewj 1584 Days ago
Category: Link Building
3 Comments
3 Comments
Search Engine Land produces SMX, the Search Marketing Expo conference series. SMX events deliver the most comprehensive educational and networking experiences - whether you're just starting in search marketing or you're a seasoned expert.
Join us at an upcoming SMX event:
Learn more about search marketing with our free online webcasts and webinars from our sister site, Search Marketing Now. Upcoming online events include:
Comments
Sorry, thats a bit fluffy, Loren!"Ask your link builder for their work history, past clients and possible references. Chances are they will supply them."Sure. And then expect these details emailed to Google for a manual review!! Link development is an under-the-radar process. Once you flaunt your clients, your history, your clients, you are inviting unnecessary risk on both your business model and existing clients."One way to judge the work of a link builder is by doing backlink checks to their own site. If they are good link builders, they should have good backlinks."Again, link developers who do this invite unnecessary risk. The dumbest thing I ever read in forums is that only the good SEO companies are able to rank for SEO terms. No, thats rubbish - only the companies chasing client acquisition hardest are trying to rank for SEO terms. Everyone else is looking after their clients first, not themselves."they may drop you in a heartbeat as a client."Higher level campaigns are usually contracted, and although not often explicitly mentioned, some form of exclusivity is usually assured. Ive turned down bigger paying clients because I have a smaller paying but long term and loyal client already in the same vertical.As for pointers on link ownership - the link developer needs some control over the links, and that often means proprietary sites. Theres little point putting every effort into viral marketing if you get no more than 20 crap blog links per traffic spike. Webpages are notoriously ephemeral, let alone websites as well, so the greater the control the better. As Loren mentioned, though, a mixture is best.Also - Loren - you didnt mention any of the features link developers have to seriously consider such as IP ranges, textual association, network theory, authority, of different types of link models.Still, I figure some decent pointers raised, but I had to be pendantic about a couple of pointers. :)
I would also suggest that you ask the link building consultant to provide weekly status reports. Ive had situations where a link building consultant was very unresponsive and never provided status updates. Also, its important to remember that if done correctly (and ethically), link building takes lots of research and time. If a consultant promises 100s of links in a short amount of time - run for the hills.
"Also, its important to remember that if done correctly (and ethically), link building takes lots of research and time."Lol, you can say that again.