New website, small business, niche market --- what's my best link building strategy?

[DSG_clan]

Hi everyone,

We are a small company manufacturing a niche product (indoor playground equipment), our new English website (www.funlandiaplaygrounds.com) has just been launched 2 months ago, before that we didn't even have a website in English.

As the international sales manager of such a small company, I have to do all the international marketing jobs including SEO, but before this I'm almost a noob on SEO.

I've just started the linking building work for our website, after a research on the links of our highest ranked competitors, I have found out that almost ALL of the external links of them come from directories and purchased links, many links are very dubious, please see the open explorer results below:

http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/links?page=1&site=www.spiplay.co.uk&sort=page_authority&filter=&source=&target=page&group=1

http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/links?site=www.softplay.com%2F

http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/links.html?page=1&site=www.china-cheer.com&sort=page_authority&filter=&source=&target=page&group=1

http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/links?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aileplay.com%2F

http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/links?site=internationalplayco.com%2F

The search keywords is: indoor playground equipment.

According to the latest SEO theory and numerous posts I've read here, links from these directories carry very low value, and solely relying on these links may even cause penalty to the website, but the reality is, all these competitors rank on the top as a result of these "spammy" links.

For example this website www.aileplay.com that has the highest PA of 64 and rank on the first page on the search result of indoor playground equipment, has tons of spammy links.

That is the situation we are facing now, then my questions is:

As a small business in such a niche market, what is our best strategy to rank well in a reasonable time, say 3 months to 6 months?

I do not think our competitors are very strong and hard to beat, I believe we will beat them in content creation for sure, but what should we do in link building? should we start to get directory links now, as it obviously works for them?

Or should we first create more attractive content, then use these content to get natural links BEFORE we submit for directory, as recommended by most link experts here? If so should we just sit back doing nothing before the link worthy content is created and natural links starts to come in?

I highly appreciate any comments!

DSG_clan

[DSG_clan]

Hi Dana,

Thanks a lot for your great advice! I will follow all your 3 advices and start to create some really useful content for natural link building, our competitors are not strong, I believe we have a good chance of catching up them in half year or 1 year.

Thanks again for the help!

Tian Jie

[danatanseo]

Hi Tian,

I have tthree suggestions, one of which may get me impaled here, but I'm going to say it anyway. The first thing I would do is search in Google for blogs related to your product line. I imagine there could be a pretty broad spectrum ranging from daycare centers, parenting coops, parenting bloggers, anyone who is writing about kids, playground safety, etc. Make a list and then visit these blogs looking for posts that might make good places for you to post relevant, well-thought-out comments. Don't worry whether or not some are no follow, just get in a groove of writing 2-3 comments a day.

The second is to do a bonafide, real press release for your new business, announcing the launch or opening of your English Web site. I know people poo poo press releases. But IMHO, I believe a press release that is real news (which I believe yours would be), is still valid and valuable. Press releases that just regurgitate ad copy or announce every time a CEO sneezes are not news worthy, and it's those kinds of press releases that have given PRs a bad name. If you can find a Press Release service that is more focused on your niche, then that's even better. Our niche is with Christian church products so we opted for a press release with Christian News Wire and it was very effective.

Third, okay people, try not to throw things...I still believe that presence in some directories can be a very good and valuable thing, especially for a brand new site. We too recently launched a niche site. We launched in January 2012. The first thing I did was #1 and #2 above, and I made a list and budget for which directories we were going to submit to, starting with Yahoo.dir  I'm not advocating going crazy and submitting to 100's of directories, just be selective. For example, there were some smaller directories focused around our niche [religious products]. They weren't big directories, but they were very relevant, USA-based and their editors responded to direct emails. Business.com, Joeant.com, Exactseek.com and several other directories are excellent and worth the expense. Here's SEOMoz's list of directories: http://www.seomoz.org/directories  Just be careful to research the directory before submitting for some key things:

1. Age - How long has the directory existed?
2. Country - Where is the domain registered?
3. MozRank and PageRank
4. How many inbound links does the directory have, where are they from (.edu, .goc?)
5. Browse through the directory - If you see a lot of garbage & or links, move on

Using these three strategies, we are in the top 5 of page one in all three SERPs for every single one of our targeted keywords. Of course, being in a niche where not very many competitors are doing a good job helps too! Good luck. I hope this is helpful.

Dana