You have proposals to write, meetings to attend, strategies to devise and posts to blog – where does building links work into your daily routine? I want to know.
If your work week is anything like mine, you probably don’t spend time building relationships with PR execs, journalists, bloggers, and webmasters across a mind boggling range of industries in the hopes that one day this relationship will results in a link for a client. Many of the link building blog posts I read do promote relationship building in the real world to facilitate link oriented relationship building online, a logical strategy.
But unless you are a full time link builder, I can’t see where SEO consultants have the time to do this. The clear answer is have someone with link building knowledge do the work for you.
Queue the “Gasp! Buy links?!”, look of shock, and head shaking. I’ve bought links and I know many SEOs (who would be horrified to be named) who have done the same. What I can’t agree with is this attitude that paid link building is for the cheaters and spammy SEOs.
The preconception that buying links is dishonest and “cheating” the system prevails, it’s ingrained by industry leaders and SEO blogs that genuine organic links are the only answer for strong “long term results” (is anything long term in SEO?). In my experience buying links can aid in jump starting a new campaign, so if it’s a cost effective use of my time to have someone else link build for a fee – why not?
And I’m not the only one doing this, I just feel like the only one who will admit to it. Major companies like Text Link Ads wouldn’t be popping up at industry events if their target audience wasn’t responding like we do – so let’s shake off this holier-that-thou façade.
When it comes to putting down £ for links, I think the best way to go about it is avoid the major link selling companies and go straight to the webmasters and bloggers. This still takes time, but if you have a decent client site and a bit of £ is involved, chances a webmaster will return your email improve greatly.
The big danger is buying spammy links, often from foreign agencies. But I have worked with some small Eastern European link building consultants who got some great links with high PR.
What do you think about buying links? Whether it be through an agency with a backlog of sites or an independent link consultant – I think the activity warrants a better reputation than it has. So starting with me, I buy link building services; I’m proud of it because it means I better optimise my day to focus on more important consulting activities.
Chelsea Blacker is a London based search consultant currently working at Base One Search With a background in SEO & PPC cultivated at Promediacorp in NYC, Chelsea focuses on engaging B2B brands in social media and online PR. If you want to further procrastinate from getting on with your real work, check out her current Marketing Pilgrim post You Know You Work in Search When… or say hi to her on twitter @ChelseaBlacker
