What is the most effective link building technique?

[fourthdimensioninc]

Hi seomoz community!

My question is this: Which is more effective in a) generating traffic and b) increasing authority in the long and short term? Press releases or back-linking through blogs and forums?

Some more detail:

You have $6000 to spend over a 6 month period on which ever technique you choose.

$6000 can buy you 20 press releases, each distributed to over 250 online news outlets (yahoo finance, td waterhouse, ABC, etc), emailed to editors of publications in your industry niche, and tweeted by 10 to-15 influential tweeters. Every release is published by the same news organization plus 5-10 new sources per release. The news organizations all have relatively high domain authorities (60-90) and generate 2500-3000 unique pageviews in total for each article. They also all link back to my site through the articles.

$6000 can buy you 6 months of back-link building - outsourced overseas in India. Based on keywords that our target audience are using to find our competitors (long-tail included), we post links through blog/forum comments that appear in results when those search terms are queried. The blog/forums have varying domain authorities in our industry but none higher than 60.

Again the question: Which technique is more effective in a) generating traffic and b) increasing authority in the long and short term? Press releases or back-linking through blogs and forums? My current website has a domain authority of 66.

Please share your opinions or thoughts.

Thanks

[eacsoft]

its a good investment, but won't be significant change lol

[eacsoft]

I will do the same, choose the option 1

[THB]

Agreed.  For $6,000 you can build quite a solid SEO campaign with a reputable company for sure.  They'll make sure things are done right, unlike these 3rd-party seo companies that just fire your link up in comments and other questionable websites.

[fourthdimensioninc]

thanks for this. its pretty much how i was feeling as well. I am creating an action plan - ordering our options from highest importance and ROI to lowest. Both of these options have been given low priority, but understanding the difference really was important to me.

I have actually seen quite a large increase in domain authority from press releases, and i also am aware of the type of targeted traffic good blog comments can generate. Again neither of these are our first option, but its something we wouldn't mind doing on the cheap.

Just needed to know what i should be careful of, what if any benefit one may have over the other, or if they would do generally the same thing.

I think it is safe to say that no one really thinks that either of these techniques are extremely effective, but for the most part press releases are a safer bet (if the content is newsworthy)?

[fourthdimensioninc]

enjoy the seas.

[flowsimple]

For argument's sake? Why? Neither are better. I might as well take that $6K rent a yacht, get some caviar and champagne and have a good old time.

I'll give you that the press releases may have some short term boosting effect. Then nothing. And you're back to where you were. And if you're in a competitive market, those links won't do anything for your actual traffic.

[KeriMorgret]

My gut tells me that the press release option has a lesser chance of having spammy or rogue links pointed at you. If it were my site and I had only those two choices, I would go for the press releases, presuming they were well-written and met the standards of places like Yahoo and would actually get included. My argument is going to fall back on the content here -- use the method that contains the best content and is the most on-target for your business.

Link building is not a bad idea in and of itself. But six months of having someone halfway around the world post comments in blogs and forums that show up for search queries is NOT where I would spend my money.

edited to add: does the overseas firm chose the search queries? Do they have domain knowledge about the real estate industry in your country? I wouldn't even have someone from a different state or different region of the US write real estate content for me without researching how things are done in my area, I wouldn't want someone who had no concept of the way things are done here to try to decide for themselves what is relevant.

[fourthdimensioninc]

I understand the importance of good link worthy content, and can appreciate the advice about spreading the money internally to increase productivity for our content writers.

However, I feel as though my question is still unanswered. The amount of money we spend is of no significance. At the end of the day, which of the two techniques will be better at generating traffic and increasing domain authority?

From what I can tell, it seems as though everyone agrees our money is better spent elsewhere, but just for arguments sake, which is better?

Thanks!

[firstconversion]

Use the money to buy linkworthy content and seed it.

[KeriMorgret]

I believe Stephen is trying to say spending $6000 to buy art will do about the same for your site as 20 useless press releases. I'm not saying they're useless, though I vote with Egol about investing in content. But I believe that's the point Stephen is trying to make here.

[fourthdimensioninc]

what are these things. how do they effect traffic? elaborate would ya?

[AdoptionHelp]

Either take EGOL's advice and spend it on internal resources, or spend $6k contracting with a legitimate SEO services company. They will deliver far better results than shady press release businesses and east asian blackhats.

[firstconversion]

What else can you buy for $6000 that will add more value than 20 useless press releases?

[MarieHaynes]

Bahahahahaa.....you're so predictable EGOL.  

[KeriMorgret]

Even with a second cup of coffee this answer isn't making sense, and yours normally do Stephen. Was there a copy/paste fail somewhere, or did the editor eat the rest of your reply?

[fourthdimensioninc]

this doesn't even make sense.... are you suggesting spending time and money building content to grow organic links or are you just hyping up some stuff you like? either way an explanation of your answer would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[fourthdimensioninc]

This is definitely an option, and something i will take into consideration, but i just want to know, for sake of argument, which will be more effective in generating traffic. So that for future clients i can firmly say, this will increase traffic in the long term by this much and in the short term by this much. Or this will increase search visibility and authority by this much as opposed to this much.

Directory submissions are already in place.

[fourthdimensioninc]

Thanks John!

The press releases all contain followed links back to my website. And are also distributed to industry specific publications (real estate).

What type of domain authority increase can i expect from press releases versus link building?

[EGOL]

If I was planning to spend $6000, I would not spend it on press releases or blog/forum spamming.

You asked which would generate more traffic and which would contribute more to domain authority.  I think that press releases and blog spamming are wastes of money for both of those purposes.

WIth $6000 to spend I would rather spend $2000 on really comfy chairs for the content writers, $2000 on a new camera/lighting equipment for the photographer, $2000 on licenses to Mindjet or new a graphics program or other productivity software.  I'd also chip in for a fancy coffee machine and cold drinks for the refrigerator.

These are "sharpening the ax" at the most basic level.

[KeriMorgret]

Abe Lincoln is quoted as saying "Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe."

I think you need to sharpen the axe here, or at least mention more details about your site. Do you have any killer content for the people to come see? Have you made sure that everything works so that people can easily do the desired action/conversion on your site?

What's in it for the users?

[OK, EGOL now you can come in and say to spend all $6000 on content and none on link building, I've done the initial part of adding option C as something to think about ]

[firstconversion]

Both options are weak.

How many of these can you buy?

• http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=pixel+art&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1440&bih=646

• http://www.blender.org/features-gallery/gallery/art-gallery/

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BAM9fgV-ts

[ufmedia]

This is one of those questions you can ask ten different SEOs and get ten different answers.    But, since you asked...

I'd vote for some diversification.  Is there a reason you can't split it up, with 50% of your spend on press releases and 50% on blogs/forums?  Or maybe split it three ways: $2k on press releases, $2k on blogs, and $2k on directories?

[MichealGooden]

From what you said, the press releases don't contain any back links so you're relying solely on people reading them and then searching for your site. That's not going to help with your SERP results and what traffic it does create will be lost when the releases become dated.

As for the 6-months of backlinks. As long as the sites they're using aren't blacklisted or considered spam sites then that would be the best bet. Proper backlinks boost your Domain Authority(DA) which should move you up through the SERPs and generate more traffic.

Now, if you you could grab some backlinks from the press releases also, I personally would try to find a good mix of both. A good variety of backlinks from various C-blocks and domains is worth more than all links coming from one genre of social sites.

Unfortunately, building DA is a slow process so the results are going to have to be a long term goal. Your traffic should be affected almost immediately with both methods but will last longer with the backlinks.