Look for SEO Opportunities in these Dire Economic Times
LINK LOVE By Justilien Gaspard, Search Engine Watch, Dec 11, 2008
Columns | Contact Justilien | Biography
Take advantage of these dire economic times to boost your search engine rankings. There are some remarkable opportunities for those willing to seize the moment and think outside the box.
High unemployment has some top-notch people looking for work. Why not hire them as a freelance consultant to create remarkable content, or for a public relations campaign? This is an opportunity to hire the best and brightest as freelancers. Remember: people link to remarkable content.
Here are some examples.
Content
Have a B2B site? Hire an unemployed factory manager to guest blog about different management techniques and strategies. Allow them to share their years of experience with your clients. This will give your site's content a huge boost and may give this person a launching pad for a new career in consulting.
Operate a consumer retail site? Hire former managers, marketers, and others from brick-and-mortar retailers that are going out of business to create content for your site. You might even find that perfect marketing professional you've been looking for to handle online marketing.
Research
There are plenty of analysis/statistical types looking to do research who could publish on your site. Conduct surveys or compile numbers. Journalists are addicted to this type of content.
Humor
Humor is always a winner for any industry, especially if you want something to go viral. Find an out-of-work cartoonist, animator, or someone who simply needs extra money to pay the bills. During these down times people who normally wouldn't be looking for freelance work will be.
Tools
Want to develop a tool? This is a great time to get a top-notch programmer. Perhaps it's a widget for blogs and social media or an interactive tool to help consumers make better buying decisions. Maybe it's a desktop or iPhone application.
Public Relations Strategies
Are you feeling really generous this holiday season? Hire someone out of work to help a nonprofit that has seen donations dwindle. Perhaps they need someone to fix their computers, or need accounting advice.
Better yet, hire a construction worker to do repairs for homebound elderly. With the right PR, the media will eat this up. Spread the word in blogs, newsletters, social media, discussion boards, and to other nonprofits.
This strategy could easily get your company featured in traditional media, such as TV and newspapers -- perhaps even a morning news show on one of the major networks. After all, in these economic times, and with the holidays, everyone is looking for something positive to report.
Don't have a war chest to pay for any of this? Perhaps it's time to take a look at the effectiveness of your PPC and media buys. A reallocation of funds to content creation and public relations might be a wise investment. That way, when the economy turns around, you can outrank your competition.
These are just a few ways to make the most of these tough economic times to benefit your SEO campaign. It's all about creating those opportunities to draw attention to your site. That will lead to more inbound links and better rankings.
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Biography
Justilien Gaspard is an independent consultant that provides custom link building, seo consulting and link training. His area of focus is organic search. He has spoken at Search Engine Strategies conference (SES), authored 3 advanced search optimization courses for Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization's (SEMPO) Learning Institute and runs a link building blog. He has worked and consulted on link development campaigns that included Fortune 500, top online retailers and small to medium size businesses in competitive fields.
Article Archives by Justilien Gaspard:
» Look for SEO Opportunities in these Dire Economic Times - December 11, 2008
» Use Online Public Relations for Link Marketing - November 13, 2008
» Use Humor for Link Marketing - October 30, 2008
» Content Promotion for Link Marketing - October 16, 2008
» Link Marketing -- Solve a Customer Problem - October 2, 2008
» Link Marketing: What Google Can Teach You - September 18, 2008
» More Articles by Justilien Gaspard
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