Whether you have a large or small link building budget, you must face challenges. Everyone struggles to get the rankings they want because SEO is competitive and link building is difficult work.
Let's explore ways to improve your results, whether you're spending $1,000 or $10,000 a month on link marketing.
Rethink Your Strategy
Examine your link marketing methods. Maybe they're working, maybe they aren't. Just because everyone else is doing it doesn't mean it's effective.
Once you've assessed your link marketing strategies, ask yourself if you can get a better ROI with other strategies.
Here's a common one to reconsider: Are your link builders in South Asia actually promoting your site and getting "real links" that search engines count? Or are they supplying you with links from a massive link farm?
Change your Vantage Point
Change the way you approach link marketing. Too often, people get stuck in the same viewpoint as everyone else.
Change your perspective to see the real opportunities in link marketing. Changing the way you view link marketing could give you the competitive advantage to beat your competition.
Link marketing is no different than any other aspect of business. It's all about strategy and implementation.
Revisit a couple good business history books. While you may not support the business practices of some companies, most have something to teach. At the least, they might provide the starting point for your next great marketing plan.
Of course, the skeptics and naysayers in your office will challenge new ideas. That's normal. Just look at business history and how many successful ideas people said would fail.
Need a starting point to come up with a new approach? Read the classic "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu or the business history book "Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies."
Diversify
Search engine algorithms are always changing. The value of particular types of links will change in Google, Bing, and other engines.
To maintain your rankings over time, it's important to have a wide variety of links. This will help to insulate your site as updates take place.
Divide your budget into different types of link marketing to accomplish this. If your company is devoting the entire budget to content development and promotions, then perhaps a percentage could be used for online public relations campaigns. If your company asks for links by e-mail, then start developing free tools and resources.
Get Noticed
Instead of pleading to get your site noticed, give people a reason to notice it. Use your resources to develop tools (I use this term loosely) -- then give them away. Here are some examples of things to develop: gadgets/widgets, cartoons, online tools, plug-ins, quizzes, open source software, phone applications, and more.
Don't have a large budget? Hire a talented high school or college student.
Most companies with larger budgets fortunately have in-house developers and programmers. Use the money saved from not having to hire a more expensive third-party company to develop even better tools and a larger number of them.
Link marketing is hard work, no matter the size of your budget. Rethink your link marketing plan to give your company the competitive advantage it needs.
Remember, good link building is just good marketing.
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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:
Rethinking your Link Marketing Strategies - December 10, 2009
Link Building With a Small Budget - November 12, 2009
Developing Successful Viral Marketing Ideas - October 29, 2009
Targeting People Who Control the Links - October 15, 2009
Getting People to Talk About Your Company - October 1, 2009
5 Essential Skills of In-House Link Marketers - September 17, 2009
» More Articles by Justilien Gaspard
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