The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article:
September 2005, Volume 4, Issue 9

The Power of Partnering: Linking Your Way to Increased Visibility

by Kerri Fleming, Search Marketing Specialist, iProspect

and Dan Ouellette, Search Marketing Specalist, iProspect

Link popularity is an important facet of natural search engine optimization. But how and where to begin your link popularity strategy is not very clear. With the infinite number of sites on the Web, where do you start? And once you start, how can you ensure that site owners will link to your website without requiring payment or reciprocation? A good first step is to stick with what you know, or more importantly, who you know. So embrace the power of “partnering.”

Familiar Territory

Linking opportunities exist in places so obvious that you probably overlook them — from partners and affiliates, to advertisers and vendors. Leveraging existing business relationships is a no-brainer to jump-start an effective linking strategy. An immediate benefit to starting this way is “manageability of scale.” The potential universe of sites to link to yours is no longer as broad as the vastness of the Internet. Your strategy is now focused on specific sites — perhaps pointing to a few select categories of sites — making the task at hand much less daunting, and much more manageable.

Without this focused strategy, you could be contacting sites that may have no connection to your business, and therefore no loyalty to your company. Why would a webmaster of a random website want to provide you with a link if they receive nothing in return? Unless you are willing to pay, or provide a link in return, such linking efforts could be a waste of time. Someone who is familiar with your company and has worked with you before would be more inclined to provide you with a link.

Personalized Approach

Most link requests are made anonymously through company webmasters or through their request-for-information email address. Both are typically inundated with mass-produced, non-personalized link requests.

But because there are existing relationships between your organization and your partner companies, vendors, advertisers, or affiliates, someone at your company has the contact information for specific people at those companies that you can use as your starting point for requesting a link. And, you can do so in a more personalized way that references and leverages the pre-existing relationship between your organizations (e.g. “Bob Smith told me that you might be able to help me.”).

Requesting a link in this way can be a much quicker process, and the fact that they are familiar with you and/or your company increases the chances that your link request will be granted. Additionally, dealing with an identified contact gives you the unique opportunity to make requests that others may not consider, such as embedded links in copy, or anchor text that better meet your objectives.

This more personalized communication with your partner enables you to strengthen the business relationship, while simultaneously cutting down on the turnaround time of receiving a link.

Barter Trading

Another strategy for obtaining links is to offer barter trading. Barter is one of the oldest forms of business and can be used to leverage your existing partnerships while offering your products/services in return for a link. Offering incentives to business partners such as reduced advertising rates, free samples of your product or service, or percentage discounts may further entice them to grant you a link.

The challenge is determining whether the potential link will provide enough lift to your link popularity to increase the visibility of your site (Google’s PageRank of your partner’s site can be used as an indicator.) The strength of your business partner’s site can help establish whether bartering provides an equitable return on your (barter) investment.

When identifying opportunities for your link popularity campaign, consider existing business relationships as your first step. Using the power of partnerships, you can create an effective linking strategy and strengthen your existing business network — which ultimately leads to linking success.

Click here to subscribe to the Search Marketing Advisor newsletter now.

Read search engine marketing case studies about improving link popularity.

del.icio.us

Inquire About iProspect's Services

Access FREE White Papers and Webcasts

Subscribe to our FREE SEM Newsletter

View Upcoming Events and Webcasts

The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article: September 2005, Volume 4, Issue 9

The Power of Partnering: Linking Your Way to Increased Visibility

The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article:
September 2005, Volume 4, Issue 9