Creating Authority and Link Development
I've come acros many websites that had potential for acquiring more inbound links and becoming larger than they already were if they'd only add a little more to differentiate themselves from whatever everyone else was doing. There are many sites that have a hidden potential for acquiring more links. A little bit of creativity goes a long way toward unlocking your site's potential for obtaining more links.
Is your site worthy of links?
One of the first things I consider when creating a link strategy is the “link-worthiness” of the site. Questions I ask are,
- What differentiates this site and makes it better than it’s competitors?
- How useful is the site?
- What features does the site offer that makes it unique?
Creating a sense that your site is valuable is integral to a link building strategy. This is key for the first goal of building links, giving people a reason to link to you. Just as you can’t ask for money and expect people to simply give it away, you can’t request free links without explaining why you are entitled to it.
The second goal of positioning your site for links is to reach a critical mass of online awareness via blogs, forums, website citations, and expert directories so that the site becomes one of the default go-to sites for linking when discussing your product or niche.
Site differentiation: The art of looking marvelous
To facilitate reaching that point, it’s important to understand the value your website brings to it’s site visitors. If your site does not offer value, then it’s time to think of creating value, or at least a sense of value, that will become your selling point when convincing a website manager to link to your site. A sense of value can be something as superficial as a great web design that flatters the site visitor (you are at a hip site because YOU are a hip person) or encourages trust. A site that encourages trust will be easier to link to than a site that is less professional. People make dating choices based on reasons as flimsy as appearances, and this carries forward to site design and it’s ability to attract links. A hot look, or a businesslike presentation will inspire trust and increase chances of obtaining links. You don’t necessarily have to be marvelous, often it’s enough just to LOOK marvelous. But obviously, the long-term proposition of reaching a point where links spontaneously generate will depend on your site actually being marvelous.
Site differentiation: Providing true value
There is nothing superficial about providing value. A site that provides value can leverage this as their selling point when requesting links. A value of substance can be anything from a free version of your software to the convenience of free shipping. Value can be free tools that provide a reason for the casual user to visit your site as well as providing a clear upgrade path when that user develops a need for a more comprehensive product. Features that allow users to do things, find things, create things are all ingredients to a site that offers value. These are your selling points to a site manager who is considering linking to your site. If all you have is a catalog of widgets, the site manager is not likely to link to your site. But even a widget merchant has an opportunity to provide value, a reason for someone to link to the site, and I will explain how.
One of the most obvious differentiators is content. It doesn’t matter if your niche is home mortgages, real estate, or hiking supplies, your content is going to help you obtain links. The best content takes the form of reviews, evaluation of materials and services, advice about legal terms, and all the concerns a prospective buyer may have prior to making a purchase.
If you doubt there is nothing that could be added to unlock your site’s potential for attracting more links, or you lack inspiration, visit your local Borders book store and browse the relevant book and magazine sections, or visit Amazon.com and query your pet keyword phrases. Very likely you will find scores if not hundreds of books all about your subject.
Get writing; give people a reason to visit, a reason to link to your site and the links will become easier to solicit, and strangers will begin linking to it without any encouragement beyond the value you provide.
And don’t limit your content simply to text. One of the hottest trends at the moment is video. High speed Internet surpassed dial-up this year as the dominant method for accessing content. In fact, Internet “viewing” is eating into television viewership. No wonder network and cable television are rolling out massive distribution of video content, with several major contenders (including Fox) joining forces in a challenge to YouTube for delivering. Even The NY Times presents video content in the form of movie reviews to be watched, and not read in the traditional manner.
Your site’s place at this table is in providing similar opportunities for site visitors to learn how your products fit their lifestyle or fulfill their expectations. If you need to conceptualize it, think of it like this: If you were to set up a booth at a mall or a county fair, how would you demonstrate your product? Another way to conceptualize it is by asking, “What is the best way for demonstrating how my product will enhance the life of the buyer or their property, or how can I use this medium for giving site visitors a way of test driving the product?
Quality content is something to link to
Every selling point relative to the product is appropriate subject matter for demonstration. It can be presented as one long presentation or it can be broken down into chunks. Yes, it’s an infomercial, but it’s a way to demonstrate your product in a manner that site visitors are coming to expect and appreciate. Giving them a way to preview the product is an excellent way of providing value with quality content. It’s something to link to.
So where does the link part come into the picture?
As a bonus, upload it to Google Video, YouTube and any other relevant outlet that accepts videos, add your link to the description, and you’ve found an instant audience for your video sales tool. People are visiting these sites in incredible numbers and if you have an informative video about an activity related to your product, and show how well your product works, it will get watched, you will get the link, and people will visit your site for more videos or to purchase your product.
This will work even for Real Estate. One of my favorite examples is a real estate agent who is videotaping homes she is selling, presenting a walk through of the home and a flattering narration of the features of the home. This beats the pants off those clunky panoramic view cams. One can present many homes, in essence provide an open house over the Internet. Once it catches on that you can type: real estate Oakland or Condos New York City into YouTube, it will be old news. Move in now and let people know about it. This particular real estate agent has gained bucket loads of media links from their PR effort. Their next step is to follow up with a blog campaign to spark discussion about their efforts. Which leads us into our next topic: Exploiting blogs and communities for links.
Encourage a community link: Active
The other method is to actually start a blog and begin reaching out to bloggers and commenting on their sites, getting added to blog rolls, and becoming a part of the community.
A corporate or business blog doesn’t have to be a place to dump your press releases. It can become a vital way to communicate with your clients in terms of providing education in the form of tips on how to use your software, achieve success with your product, solve problems common to consumers in your niche, as well as become a part of the community around the products your site promotes. There are countless blogs interested in virtually every niche, and becoming a part of that community involves finding and cultivating them.
Matt Cutts of Google (and Google in general) is a great example of a corporate outsider (he isn’t an SEO) discussing related issues, things of interest to the demographic he is trying to reach and building a community around the blog. Offering content of value is key.
As a homeowner, I am perpetually interested in topics surrounding increasing the value of my property and how to sell it for more. This would make a great real estate blog, and a way to increase your notoriety as the savvy real estate agent. Then here come the links as you cultivate those interested in your information.
I work for Best of the Web, but even if I didn't I'd say the same thing. BOTW Blog Directory is your best friend for finding quality blogs on virtually ANY topic. Whatever your topic, no matter how mundane, BOTW Blog Directory likely has it listed. Start your search there and mine those blogrolls. Comment and inject yourself into those communities. There are communities for virtually every interest, even Adult Blogs. Find them.
Hunting links
It’s not enough to know clever link queries and have killer link request templates. Without first cultivating a site worthy of obtaining thousands of one-way inbound links, the queries and the templates will be of little use.
Cultivating quality is the one area in which many websites falter, resulting in dependence on third tier strategies of limited efficacy such as exchanging links. While very carefully exchanging links can take you a certain distance, it’s not an appropriate strategy for every site, especially for high trust websites. There comes a point where the only viable strategy becomes creating opportunities by uncovering the potential inherent in your niche.
Once your site has unlocked it’s potential for becoming a link magnet it’s time to hunt down relevant links. There are literally thousands of sites that are open to linking to sites. Among them are the coveted dot edu and dot gov sites. While knowing how to find these targets is important, preparing your site for making them worthy of a link is more important. Once you have unlocked the potential within your site for becoming a link magnet, obtaining links can become as simple as asking.
Search Engine Commentary by martinibuster || Creating Authority and Link Development
