3.4.5. Other Options?... Avoid At All Costs

The Net is a funny place do to business, partly because it’s an immature medium. So you will read a lot of bad advice. You will come across a lot of bad products, some of which will actually hurt you or even get you banned.

Their language can be so persuasive and misleading that, before you know it, you’ve linked to a “link farm” or joined an FFA (Free-For-All linking sites). And bingo... the engines hate that. You’re penalized -- zero “engine credibility.” (If we were talking about “Street Cred,” you’d be Howdy Doody.)

This booklet cannot cover all the ridiculous advice you could ever read. We’ve shed light on the good, delivered the optimal 80-20 process within the larger “big picture,” and now we are trying to keep you out of the clutches of the vultures and the just plain dumb. But first, a key tip...

The most successful SBI! owners focus 100% on SBI! and go about their business. They tortoise ahead, relentlessly towards success. I can’t give you better advice -- do not allow yourself to get distracted. Follow the advice in this book, ignore all else, and you will do fine. That is the surest way to stay out of trouble.

Even if you do not own SBI! (and you should), every excellent, honest, 80-20, high-yield method of building a link program is included right here. However, just in case you are exposed to other “new ideas” or “proven winners” or other irresistible ideas about link exchanging, please remember...

Evaluate the information from the common sense WIN-WIN-WIN philosophy outlined in this booklet. It will stand you in good stead when evaluating link “strategies” (that term itself implies the manipulation of engines). Remember, if you make a mistake, you can seriously hurt your reputation at the engines.

So how do you evaluate the slew of ideas, advice, get-traffic-quick schemes?

Use the “reality” principle to decide if it makes sense. Combine that with Content  Traffic  PREselling  Monetization and the understanding of how a good inbound link program starts the snowball rolling. After that, Content, Content, and Content build all the off-page criteria powerfully and for the long-term.

So where do you think the long-term money is?

Right... “Content ”

With those concepts arming us, let’s evaluate a variety of linking strategies and options...

What about those link popularity enhancement programs?

Terrible...

These services “artificially” boost your popularity by having all the participants in the service linking to one another. In exchange for your participation (service is usually free), you must maintain a link on your site, as well as upload a new batch of pages to your link directory each month. If you don’t, you’re dropped from the program.

Most of the original ones have disappeared because these services are now seen for what they are -- Search Engine spam, AKA “link farms.” Remember... anything designed purely to beat an algorithm, and that is free, and that is so easy to do, will soon be blasted out of the waters by the engines. Why? Because they violate the “Golden Rule”...

Do not manipulate the SE results for your own benefit.

I’ll widen the definition of the term, “link farms,” to mean any automated process that is designed to generate tons of links on the “I’ll link to yours if you link to mine” basis. They’re big, fast, easy... and the engines hate them.

Naturally, the engines know how to identify them. And if you link to a site through any kind of proposition like this, you’ll hurt yourself.

And guess what? If you read the clever copy of these “services,” the newer, more subtle ones don’t call themselves “link farms”!

Avoid them like the plague. ‘Nuff said.

Bottom line -- keep it real. There are no “strategies” -- just do what you would normally do. Get good links in, ones that make sense for your site.

What about the “interlink your site” strategy?

Let’s say that you read advice to interlink your sites (assuming that you have more than one). OK, you have three sites. Should you interlink them? Think about the answer, using the the “reality” principle...

What would you normally do? Let’s say that you have three sites...

• one on the Caribbean island of Anguilla
• one on tortoise-breeding
• one about online marketing.

These have no business linking to each other. At best, the engines will ignore the links. At worst, they’ll be able to “whois” the fact that all the sites belong to the same person, for example. Uh-oh.

On the other hand, if all three sites are about different aspects of Anguilla, and you want to link for natural reasons, you won’t get hurt. Overdo it, thinking somehow that it confers magical linking power, and you’ll be disappointed... possibly hurt.

Bottom line -- keep it real. There are no “strategies” -- just do what you would normally do. Get good links in, ones that make sense for your site.

What about software like Arelis and Zeus?

If you are a hard-core SEOer who has totally lost sight of reality, these are for you. They have a long learning curve. You can easily cross the line into spam territory. And you’ll spend tens of hours tweaking and playing and... ummm, not building your business. If you enjoy being on the 20 side of the 80-20 coin, these are for you.

For everyone else? You’ll be much better off building all your off-page criteria naturally and powerfully through Content  Traffic  PREselling  Monetization.

Bottom line -- wrong side of the 80-20.

Should you hire one of the many link management services?

If your business can justify the cost, it is possible to completely outsource the creation and management of your link-building program. While this option offers an appealing solution to the drudgery of link-building, inbound links are just one of many off-page criteria. You can’t outsource them all, nor do you need to.

And you are the one who is best suited for this job. You are the best judge of quality in your industry. Since you know your business inside and out, only you can tell whether a related site really knows its stuff or not. And only you know whether or not a related business is a competitor.

While a reputable link-building firm can save you time, you will need to double-check all work. Realistically, most small businesses do not need to go to such extremes.

Bottom line -- 80-20 says such services are unnecessary/too expensive.

Should you buy in-pointing text links (AKA “text link ads”)?

I’m sorry to say that for a regular monthly fee you can have a link to your site placed on a related site. These links are usually priced according to the PageRank and Alexa score of the hosting Web site.

The monthly cost for a link on a PR7 site starts at about $100. Links from sites with a PR of 4-5 costs between $40-60/month. Before you go running to the bank, let’s discuss the downsides associated with this practice...

1) Text Links are very expensive. 2nd tier directories will provide you with a lifetime link for less than the monthly cost associated with a link from a PR4-5.

2) How do you think the engines would react to this? At best, they’ll consider it advertising and ignore it. But would it surprise you if I told you that Google is blocking the PR value of sites that actively sell links for the purpose of artificially inflating link popularity? It shouldn’t be a surprise.

My recommendation? Keep it real. Avoid. There are not “strategies” -- just do what you would normally do. Get good links in, ones that make sense for your site.

What’s that?

Yes, I guess I am repeating myself.

Now, if you are not a Site Build It! owner (still?), and if you are technically inclined or can find someone who is...

MYLW:  <<3.4.4. Value Exchanging  3.4.5. Other Options...  3.4.6. Linking Software>>