Goats, Apples and Link Building
Ever play peek-a-boo with a toddler? It's cute how they hide behind their palms and act like we can't see them. SEOs play the same game, too. The other day someone asked what a Pre-Sell page is and I thought, it's a paid link, what's so hard about understanding that. But I couldn't blame them for asking.
Rib it
Pre-sell pages are supposed to be a link from an on-topic themed web page to another page. The idea is that a visitor from a pre-sell page is going to be "sold" on buying whatever it is they're clicking through to, thus the phrase "pre-sell". But we are all adults, we know this is really a themed paid link with a wink. The term Pre-Sell is a phrase to dress up a paid link . We know it. Google knows it. It's like putting lipstick on a frog and calling it a princess. It's not a princess. It's a frog. Who is being kidded here?
Department of run that by me again
Success is intoxicating. It keeps you doing things over and over, even if they are better off unscrutinized. What I have difficulty understanding is the lack of grace in accepting a well deserved penalization. I know some professionals who have been penalized and though it slowed them down, they more or less shrugged it off as the risk they took. But the whiners knew the risk, too. So is it simply a character defect when penalized webmasters publically poke Google with pitchforks?
My jaw dropped reading the comments over on the SEOmoz blog post about a penalization. Someone was penalized ostensibly for trading massive amounts of links. This person admitted that he understood a year ago that what he did contradicted Google's guidelines, and when he's penalized for it his response is "righteous" anger that not everyone was sharing his pain.
Here is a direct quote:
The SEO industry needs a day off
This industry needs a holiday where everyone takes a step back and counts all the risks they're taking, and I mean honestly assess if their sites can pass a hand check. Those who honestly understand and come to terms with their sites inability to pass a hand-check should find a goat with the biggest balls, cut them off, sacrifice them to their deity of choice and promise to move on and keep building if their sites get shot down during the year.
Avoid the Peek-a-Boo Syndrome. Honestly gauge your risk factor. If it's more than you can handle, you may want to consider developing a plan B and moving with it. Some people say that coming up with a fresh spin is difficult and there are only so many ways to slice an apple. Don't buy into that mindset.
There are infinite ways of slicing apples
For instance, not all web promotion is SEO. Some of the most successful websites on the Internet got there without the benefit of SEO. It's instructive to jump out of the SEO mindset and investigate successful non-SEO sites.
I read a piece in the Economist about the guy who invented Blogger. Here is an excerpt that demonstrates the kind of mindset you need to have to accomplish your link promotion, or any other promotion, in a way nobody else is yet doing:
Like my blog? Cast your vote for my blog as Best Link Building Blog of 2007.
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/vote-for-the-search-blogs-awards-of-2007/6153/
Rib it
Pre-sell pages are supposed to be a link from an on-topic themed web page to another page. The idea is that a visitor from a pre-sell page is going to be "sold" on buying whatever it is they're clicking through to, thus the phrase "pre-sell". But we are all adults, we know this is really a themed paid link with a wink. The term Pre-Sell is a phrase to dress up a paid link . We know it. Google knows it. It's like putting lipstick on a frog and calling it a princess. It's not a princess. It's a frog. Who is being kidded here?
Department of run that by me again
Success is intoxicating. It keeps you doing things over and over, even if they are better off unscrutinized. What I have difficulty understanding is the lack of grace in accepting a well deserved penalization. I know some professionals who have been penalized and though it slowed them down, they more or less shrugged it off as the risk they took. But the whiners knew the risk, too. So is it simply a character defect when penalized webmasters publically poke Google with pitchforks?
My jaw dropped reading the comments over on the SEOmoz blog post about a penalization. Someone was penalized ostensibly for trading massive amounts of links. This person admitted that he understood a year ago that what he did contradicted Google's guidelines, and when he's penalized for it his response is "righteous" anger that not everyone was sharing his pain.
Here is a direct quote:
I knew the reciprocal linking we were doing was over kill and done only to improve our rankings. I did not see any real benefit to my visitors... The problem I have is that a bunch of my competitors... are still getting away with it.He took the risk and was among the select to feel the pain. It doesn't matter if everyone else is getting away with it. This is one of the defects I'm getting at. Call it peer pressure or keeping up with the Joneses, or jumping off the cliff with the rest of the lemmings- it demonstrates a failure to think of new ways of doing things. It's not productive to emulate what everyone else is doing, especially if there is more risk than you are comfortable taking on.
The SEO industry needs a day off
This industry needs a holiday where everyone takes a step back and counts all the risks they're taking, and I mean honestly assess if their sites can pass a hand check. Those who honestly understand and come to terms with their sites inability to pass a hand-check should find a goat with the biggest balls, cut them off, sacrifice them to their deity of choice and promise to move on and keep building if their sites get shot down during the year.
Avoid the Peek-a-Boo Syndrome. Honestly gauge your risk factor. If it's more than you can handle, you may want to consider developing a plan B and moving with it. Some people say that coming up with a fresh spin is difficult and there are only so many ways to slice an apple. Don't buy into that mindset.
There are infinite ways of slicing apples
For instance, not all web promotion is SEO. Some of the most successful websites on the Internet got there without the benefit of SEO. It's instructive to jump out of the SEO mindset and investigate successful non-SEO sites.
I read a piece in the Economist about the guy who invented Blogger. Here is an excerpt that demonstrates the kind of mindset you need to have to accomplish your link promotion, or any other promotion, in a way nobody else is yet doing:
“what can we take away to create something new?” A decade ago, you could have started with Yahoo! and taken away all the clutter around the search box to get Google.You shouldn't have to hide behind your hands and cry peek-a-boo, it doesn't work. My strategy is to do things differently than what everyone else is doing because that represents a competitive advantage. You can do it too.
Like my blog? Cast your vote for my blog as Best Link Building Blog of 2007.
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/vote-for-the-search-blogs-awards-of-2007/6153/
Search Engine Commentary by martinibuster || Goats, Apples and Link Building
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