Ask ten SEOs what you have to do to get more links, and 9 will tell you to ‘build great content’. In stead of taking this answer for granted, it’s even better to ask yourself why this is true.

In fact, everybody is willing to link to your website, article, page, post or whatever; you just have to persuade them into linking to you. The only problem here is that not everybody can be persuaded with the same arguments. However, there are 6 effective principles of persuasion (developed by Robert Cialdini, explained on both Fuelnet and Advisor Today) that you can use to influence your link popularity in a positive way.

1. Reciprocation

The concept: “I’m obligated to give back to you what you first give to me.” But there’s more to reciprocation than just swapping links. Offering something else, such as a service, a discount, a product or advertising space can work like a charm. Even pointing out an error, typo or other mistake on a website can be used as a ‘trading material’. A return link or money aren’t the only trading options you’ve got, use your imagination and creativity!

Example of use: “When I wanted to visit link X on your website, I noticed that the page where it refers to no longer exists. Perhaps <your URL> would be a good replacement for this link?”

2. Commitment and consistency

If someone has linked to you before, they’re probably do it again. You don’t have to ‘prove’ yourself anymore, you’ve already passed that barrier. Getting a second link (to a different URL) is much more easier now, so a higher success rate is guaranteed.

Example of use: “You’ve linked to our website before here-and-here. Perhaps you might enjoy our latest article, so-and-so, as well?“

3. Social proof

People are like sheep; they need leaders to follow. Preferably leaders they can trust. To quote Fuelnet “The two situations where this principle is most powerful are similarity, when someone wants to follow the lead of others; and uncertainty, when someone is unsure of what to do. Laugh tracks on comedy shows exist for this very reason.” Testimonials and other references are similar examples.

Example of use: “Like you’ve probably already read at BBC.co.uk (link) and CNN.com (link), we published an article about…”

4. Liking

Networking really pays off. I’m pretty sure that most of your friends and family don’t have the online authority that can help you to reach the top of the SERPs, so this is just another reason why chatting with folks from your industry is a positive thing.

Also, complimenting others with their website can help, but this approach got killed when almost every single spammer started their link request with ‘You have great website!’.

Example of use: “Hey buddy, did you see my latest article about so-and-so? ;)”

5. Authority

When brand XYZ launches a new product, attention will be hard to get. When Apple launches a new product, they’ll get lots of attention without even having to put effort into it. Whether it’s an iPhone or iCrap, it doesn’t matter. With an authority level like Apple’s, everything is news and linkworthy.

Also, when you’re promoting a big brand, it’s much easier to get something done. Requesting a link to Apple.com is far more easy than asking if someone can link to XYZ.com.

Example of use: “Brand X, world wide market leader, just released their new product Y. Read more about it at <URL>.”

6. Scarcity

This is where the good content comes in. Good content is hard to find, that’s why lots of people are willing to link to you if you can offer this. If you can provide something interesting that no one else has, you can expect the links pouring in.

Example of use: “We’ve released world breaking research results, which you can find here-and-here.”

Of course, using these principles of persuasion alone aren’t enough. It’s just like the 9 out of 10 SEO’s said; you need good content, but this simply isn’t enough. It’s the appropriate mix of all different factors like content, approach, research and persuasion that brings in the links.

…yes, so what is link building actually? Lee Odden wrote an interesting post about link building vs. content promotion. In this post, he explains why he thinks that ‘unsolicited link acquisition based on content’, perhaps with a little bit of “traditional” link building, will lead to search engine traffic. He is absolutely right, but it won’t lead to optimal search engine traffic.

Link Building isn’t the same as content marketing, just like link baiting isn’t exactly the same as viral marketing. Link Building (or link marketing, as I prefer to call it) is the place where SEO and content marketing meet. You can achieve great results with just good SEO and you can get awesome results with just good content marketing, but if you add link marketing to your strategy, you’ll be able to perform even better.

Link Building is… Getting that perfect anchor text
The content you wrote is perfectly aimed at your target audience. It even is targeted at the bloggers and journalists you’re trying to reach. That’s content marketing.
You even considered writing a title for your post or article that has one or maybe even two keywords in it you’re going after. Lots of journalists will copy that title, which results in good keyword rich anchor texts. That’s search engine optimized content marketing.
Contacting the authorities in your niche that linked to your article, but failed to use a descriptive anchor text (or maybe even failed to use an anchor text), however, that’s link building.

Link Building is… Reaching that specific web site that makes a difference
Every niche has its own authority web site, or maybe even several authorities. You know, those authorities that don’t get updated a lot or just don’t link out much, but have been around since ’95 and haven’t been doing anything but building trust. Link building is reaching those websites, whether it’s with an extremely targeted piece of content or with a simple link request.

Link Building is… Reaching that specific web site that you normally wouldn’t
A content marketing strategy usually tends to be targeted at either your target audience, at linkerati that are able to reach your target audience, or both. Link Building is figuring out ways to reach an audience that you normally wouldn’t reach, in order to get a competitive advantage.

Link Building is… Being better than Wikipedia
Lots of people who write new pages (especially when they start a new blog or web site), will search for relevant pages they can link to. In 99% of the cases, they’ll at least link to the best, most prominent and most complete sources. This often is Wikipedia, so all you have to do is to be better (more complete, more comprehensive, funnier, better designed, etc) than Wikipedia. That’s content marketing. But getting (and keeping) your URL into the Wikipedia you’re trying to beat, that’s link building.

Link Building is… Leaving your URL everywhere
Hey, you’re marketing your website. Be proud of your website, it’s your business! Show your baby to anyone, don’t be afraid to mention your URL. Link baiting can provide awesome results, but I agree with Jim that link baiting isn’t enough. You’ll need tactics like this if you want to make the difference.

Link Building is… That extra oompf.
It may look like I’m splitting hairs here, because all things described in this post sure have a lot of overlap, but I really am not. This post isn’t even near complete, but the small differences that I mentioned can already cause the small difference between ranking 4th and topping the rankings.

Just my $0,02…

Ok, this will be the last post that contains the word viagra for at least a month. I promise. But after reading and answering Marty’s comment earlier today, I noticed something funny.

About a year ago, I tried to see if it’s possible to get Matt Cutts’ blog ranked for a viagra related keyword. Within a few days after adding a link with ‘buy cheap viagra online’ as the anchor text, Matt’s blog ranked third for that phrase.

Of course, within a two days Matt dropped several places and after a day or four, he “somehow” disappeared from the first 200 results. After these drops, I removed the link from my blogroll, but Sebastian didn’t. When I re-checked the rankings today, I noticed that Matt was back in the SERPs. He even ranks first, for crying out loud! Probably (I know this isn’t a solid test) because Sebastian’s link and page have aged now.

Apparently, in stead of spamming, you should start an anti-webspam blog if you want to rank for viagra related keywords :)

This is the third and last part of the guide to building link targeted content. Part one was titled Researching for Inspiration & Brainstorming for Ideas and part two discussed Creating Content & Preparation. All posts are available as a combined, single post or as pdf (14 pages of black text on white background, I promise…), as per request.

Awesome piece of content? Check! Solid preparation? Check! Well, let’s move on then!

The Launch

If your aim is slightly off, or when not all engines light up at the same time, the launch will still proceed, but the target will be missed. No matter how good your missile is. As soon as you hit the launch button, there is no way back.

Launch controller, by Vernk

Timing is important

The timing is an important factor during every launch. However, there is no ‘ideal’ time during the day for hitting the launch button. Although there are some excellent studies on what time might be best to submit your stories to Digg, this still depends on factors like the language of your website, the countries where most of your link targets live, the subject of your content and the market segment you’re targeting. For example, an official newsworthy press release can be more successful in the morning, while an entertaining blog post might work better in the evening. Testing helps to determine what might work best in your situation.

Submitting ain’t that easy

When you submit (or let someone else submit) your piece of content to social media sites, such as Digg, there are several things that can either make or break your submission. The title of the submission, the description, the category where you submit the story to and the visibility of the submitter all play part in the process of reaching the front page. The only problem here is that you need to pass every possible pitfall without falling, one single miss will result in an overall FAIL. Both Marshall Kirkpatrick and David Wallace have written excellent posts about how to submit your story properly.

Pitching pitfalls

Besides hitting the front pages of several social media websites, you also want to reach as many a-list bloggers in your niche as possible. Some of these bloggers might find your content through your social media efforts, but a good pitch to the right bloggers and journalists will result in additional coverage and links as well. Hopefully, after reading part one, you’ve gathered the contact information of several influencing, relevant webmasters and bloggers. When you’re contacting these people, be personal, interested and honest. There are several things you really have to avoid and several things you really have to consider while contacting bloggers, but in my opinion, it bears down to those three factors.

Use your network wisely

A good network is one of the most important tools of a successful marketer. In stead of doing everything by yourself, you can ask friends, relatives or even friends of friends to do stuff for you or to help you out with something. In stead of being alone, you can have a huge team of specialists working together on your piece of content, if you manage to use your network the right way. Imagine yourself what a master of headlines, a social media power user and an expert in the field of your choice can accomplish together. At first, you might think that spending several hours a week helping out other people, or chatting, Twittering, discussing and emailing with them is a waste of time, but this can really pay off in the long run. A good network is worth quite a few bucks…

Monitoring

Like I said before, as soon as you hit the launch button, there’s no way back. It is, however, still possible to adjust the path slightly or to avoid obstacles that suddenly appear. In order to do this, you have to monitor everything, because you’ll have to react quickly.

An ambulance pulse monitor, by Vitiis

Be on top of your stats

Your website statistics can provide excellent data of where your content gets picked up. Use this data to monitor your new backlinks, the traffic every link sends and the average time spent on your site per referrer. You might want to check out websites that send lots of traffic or sites that provide visitors who click through more often, to see what the post or link looks like. If necessary, contact the owner of the site, for example to provide additional info, to request a slightly different anchor text or just to send him or her a thank you note.

Join discussions

Besides bloggers and journalists, you might see several others discuss your brand, product or content as well, for example in blog comments or forum threads. If you only have the slightest idea that it’s a legit website, don’t hesitate to join these discussions. By leaving additional information (or dropping a link to a relevant web page or site), answering questions or -again- just by simply thanking others for the attention and/ or compliments, you’ll show commitment. And commitment builds brands.

Besides your website statistics, there are several other tools that you can use to track these discussions. Google Alerts and Technorati will lead you to the majority of the pages where your piece of content gets mentioned.

After care

The launch was successful and the traffic seems to be over its peak. Now is the time to turn the campaign into a real success, by directing the link juice, expanding your network and planning the follow-up.

Even more beauty awaits after the storm, by ladyinpurple

Directing the link juice

The main goal of link targeted content is -obviously- attracting links. Once you’ve obtained multiple links, whether it’s 5 or 50,000 links, it’s quite important to use the power of these links optimally. Attracting links is one thing, but leveraging the juice of these links the right way looks like a whole different ball game for some.

For example, the brilliant (Dutch) Hema viral campaign for Hema gathered nearly 30,000 links. The only problem is that there isn’t a single link on that page that can pour link juice over the rest of the website…

There are several things that you can do to avoid situations like this, and to let your entire website enjoy the taste of link juice;

• Use in-content links to other important pages on your website. Adding these links to the content page, after the first traffic- and link peak is over, works perfectly fine.
• Slap a nofollow tag on links to pages that aren’t that important, or remove some navigational links on your link bait page.
• Afterwards alterings. Make small changes to the page you’ve promoted, such as a slightly improved title or by adding a few relevant keywords and/ or links.
• 301-redirect the page to a different URL as soon as the traffic slows down. I personally wouldn’t recommend 301-ing in most situations, though. And I’m certainly not the only one (exact same example, btw).

Maintain your new network

You’ve attracted lots of links, both your RSS subscriber number and the amount of Twitter followers have skyrocketed, you’ve participated in several interesting discussions, left numerous comments on other blogs and collected a few email addresses of influential linkerati. Say hello to your new, expanded network. If you can maintain your entire network with care, you’ll make the process launching another piece of content in the future much, much easier.

Follow up

In stead of preparing a single piece of content, make sure to have several more great posts, articles, videos or other material waiting in the queue to get published. It’s much easier to attract additional links when you’re still enjoying your first flow of attention, than when possible linkers have already moved on. The linkerati you managed to get in touch with will also be more likely to link to another one of your pages, when your website’s name is still fresh in their memory. A good follow up strategy builds you a more solid name, it makes sure that you won’t lose subscribers and it avoids the risk of looking like (or becoming) a one day fly.

Conclusion

While some seem to think that a campaign -whether it’s a viral, a link marketing, or any other campaign- is over as soon as you hit the launch button, that’s just one of the several stops during the journey. Monitoring the campaign thoroughly and optimizing the results with care can make or break the outcome. Preparing a solid follow up can make life a lot more easy in the future.

The most important factors of a successful campaign, however, are planning and dedication. If you can manage to think one step ahead, you’ll manage to stay ahead of your competition as well. And sure, you might have success with something that you made in just five minutes, or with something that accidentally came across your path, but you’ll only reach maximum effect if you’re dedicated enough to walk through all steps.

For link building and SEO testing purposes, I try to find the edges. For own projects, I use the strategies that work best, regardless of what’s ‘allowed’ and what isn’t. When clients are involved, however, it’s completely different, especially when you’re dealing with big brands.

Most clients, and especially clients in very competing online markets, know who their competitors are and what they’re doing online. When it comes to link building, most of these clients usually want to do exactly the same as what their highest ranked competitors are doing, because they know it works. The problem is that, especially in those competitive markets, the majority of these competitors are using techniques that are either questionable or completely against the Google guidelines. In most cases like this, I’d advise these clients to mainly focus on improving the on-site content and on obtaining authoritative, editorial mentions. However, in such kind of situation, you can expect a (very understandable) reaction like

“why is it better to use a long term focussed link marketing strategy, when other techniques are much more efficient and can lead to excellent results much quicker?”

So, how do you explain that buying your way to the top isn’t allowed, although everybody does it? How do you make a client understand that it’s safer to make stories up than to rent a few sponsored spots on a news website? Why should you wait for good results, when it’s possible to get good rankings pretty quickly?
In some cases, questions like these are pretty easy to answer, but in other cases they really aren’t. How do you cope with situations like this? What are the reasons that made you choose for a specific approach or strategy? I’d love to hear your opinion and to make this post the perfect resource for every webmaster that’s struggling with the decision whether to follow Google’s rules or not.

I knew that Google stopped allowing ads for search phrases like ‘buy links‘ and ‘text link ads‘ a while ago, but apparently, Google stopped accepting ads for ‘link building‘ as well. After doing some research, I found out that a member at WMW noticed this too, around a month ago.

According to the Google AdWords help center, “This keyword is not permitted to show your ads in the targeted location.”

Google still displays ads for keywords like ‘linkbuilding‘, ‘link baiting‘ and even ‘purchase links‘, though.

UPDATE: A reply from Google came in (translated from Dutch):
“Advertising for ‘link building’ isn’t allowed, because Google doesn’t encourage building links artificially in order to obtain higher search engine rankings, and can even penalize this. I don’t know if you can interpret ‘link building’ in an other way, but Google sees this query as ‘building links for higher rankings’. This is why advertising for this keyword isn’t allowed.”