Exchange online link for offline publication? A good linkbuilding strategy?
-
Lets say I own a company that sells bakery-supplies. I would want links from websites with "bakery" as their main topic. So it seems obvious to try and gain links from local backeries.
Next step is: How do I convince them to link me? What is their benefit?
I can't link them back because it would weaken the linkpower. Therefor I was thinking about publicating an offline "Backery Guide" which includes all backeries in the area. Backeries which link us, would get more visibiliy and company information. That would be their benefit and we would get a 1-way link.
Is this an idea which could work? Any remarks are welcome!
-
Hi Cyrus,
Thank you for the response!
I have taken the time to deeply review your comment. You did make some good points.
1. With reciprocal links, I'm not worried about a penalty but it would weaken the linkjuice if it went both ways.
2. I do believe bakeries will see the benefit in a advert in the guide, if only they need to place a link on their website, which is free. I would be amazed if this would been seen as buying links, let alone that Google could track offline publications. But but then again, Google never stops to amaze us :).
3. So many SEO's stress the fact that content should be something which your clients want to link too. I totally agree when your clients are consumers but not always if they are professionals. This market is way smaller and is less social vibrant. In this case I must skip my target audience and concentrate on their clients. Your tips are great. I will try to implement them!
-
Seems like you're starting to think this out in creative ways, so let me add a couple of thoughts:
1. I wouldn't be too worried about linking out to these local bakeries. Reciprocal links are a natural part of the web. When you get in trouble is when you have dedicated "links" pages that exist solely to harvest link juice, or a significant % of your backlink profile comes from reciprocal links.
That said, you're still probably wise not to make this the backbone of your link building strategy.
2. The offline guide seems reasonable to me, but I have a cognitive disconnect between the guide and the motivations for the bakeries to link to you. If you actually require folks to link to you to be in the guide, then this could be considered "buying" links and could lead to a penalty. (although in reality, this is rare)
3. Better yet, I'd really rather see you create online assets that live on your website, that provide motivation for folks to link to you. These might include:
- Reviews
- Top "blank" lists / Ego Bait
- Business profiles
- Awards
- Content Marketing (like "5 Secrets Your SuperMarket Bakery Doesn't Want You To Know" - bad example, but you get the idea.
- A scholarship for local baking students
- A certification program
- A blog
- Charity Fundraising
- Interviews
- Contests / Giveaways
- Discounts
The trick, in my mind, is to give away freely more than you ever expect to get back in return. Never demand a link, but create resources that are actually useful to both the bakeries and their customers, so that they have a natural inclination to link to you.
More link building ideas from Jon Cooper: http://pointblankseo.com/link-building-strategies
-
I would love to digitalize the guide and have it run online. I have thought about before. But then you would get 3-way linking. This isnt very beneficial either.
Good points though... Will have to think on that.
-
You are definitely approaching it right. Like you said, there has to be something in it for them. It seems like a good idea to me, but also seems like some serious work. Getting 'em designed, printed could get pricey...and since it's not digital, how would you modify the bakery listings as time goes on to reflect which bakeries link and which ones don't? Seems like you'd almost need a monthly publication...it's a tough one. If you can somehow digitize this idea I think it'll be a lot easier for you.
-
Well the only way to know is to try it first.
If you can sell the idea to them, then it can work.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Outbound links
Hi there, i know inbound links are what hold the main value in terms of link building but if i have an inbound link from a big company such as ITV or BBC and they have put an article on their site linking back to mine, would it be beneficial if i made a comment on my site and then link back to their article or will this not really help? Sorry as you can tell im very new to seo! thanks anthony
Link Building | | anthonybriant0 -
Are Directory Links a Good Source of Branded Links?
I am trying to increase the number of branded links for a few of my sites since the links are too heavily weighted on anchor text. If so, would you recommend a service like Directory Maximizer?
Link Building | | rise10 -
Linkbuilding - Which is best?
Okay so we all know that: 1 Link on 10 Sites > 10 Links on 1 Site (potentially untrue with spammy links on 1 site than 10 links on high authority but that's not the point of this discussion) I've had some discussions at work I seem to be fighting a losing battle... So the questions is... which is better? 1 Link on 1 Site vs 5 Links on 1 Site (same site) We seem to operate on the form of - once we have a link from the site (in most cases blogs for product reviews / guest posts) - that's it , we move on and never talk to them again. For continued growth of links, would it be beneficial if we guest posted on some sites once a month? Then we get a steady stream of links each month.
Link Building | | FreddieChatt1 -
Link exchange with nofollow bad for ranking?
Hi, I wanted to give my EMD (Exact match domain) some more links and added it to some general start pages, just as my competitors did. The disadvantage of such link sites is that you have to add a link back to them. So I created a new page in my footer "links" and added a link back to those who requested that. However, I made all links a nofollow because I don't want them to benefit from my rankings. Those sites really have nothing to do with my subject and are just interested in a link to give them some boost I guess. I'm sure not everybody like my approach, but my question is. Will those nofollow links on my page back to the ones that requested it affect my rankings?
Link Building | | severtservice
Or should I remove the nofollow? Thanks!
Dennis0 -
JavaScript is crawled by search engines, isn’t it? Does it mean that links embedded in JavaScript pass link juice?
I wonder If links embedded in JavaScript from an external Website pass link juice to the linked page and thus have a positive effect on google rankings. I read that JavaScipt is craweld. Does it mean that also the link juice is passed? I'm looking forward to your answers.
Link Building | | Tabea0 -
Article Links
I write and publish artcles. Typically I publish them on a few top article sites like EZineArticles. The articles then get picked up by other sites, often numbering in the hundreds. All of the articles are published with a link back to our website using a keyword. Are there any SEO risks in this type of link proliferation?
Link Building | | JimSkychief0