Link Building

Hey Again,

In reference to my post below about our social media marketing internship, I got this information that I'm pasting here from our internship website's blog. It's private, otherwise I would post the link. It is about the last step of SEO, which is link building according to them. I just thought I would share the information and also just mention that I think this is something that is overlooked a lot of times but is very important after good content has been posted.

Pitching Bloggers and Journalists
Building links very much falls under the realm of PR. The key is to pitch a story, not your company. By giving the journalist an interesting story, you are helping them do their job. Mark Hendrickson categorized the common types of narratives he found on the front page of Techmeme, a popular technology news site. While these are more relevant to tech companies, they give you examples of the types of stories bloggers and journalists want to write about. The key is to research who you are pitching to and know the types of stories they are interested in.

1.Competitive or Political Drama – aka “company X releases product Y to kill company Z”
2.Gossip – “CEO of company X gets tangled up in Y”
3.Insight – “trend X will change the world because of A, B, and C”
4.Evolution & Confluence – “service Y is like X for Z, capitalizing on the recent developments of A and B”
5.Success – “company X has created super impressive technology Y, is growing fast, or has made lots of money”
6.Failure – “company X is dying or has messed something up”
Another idea to entice bloggers is to give them exclusive rights to review new products or give them free trials. Again, you are creating win-win relationships.

Start a Blog
No matter what your company does or is selling, it’s still a good idea to blog. Fresh compelling content is the best way to get long-lasting, valuable links. Also, it will keep journalists updated on new releases from your company. I will write more on the topic of starting your own blog in the next series of posts.

This ends the series on SEO. However, I hope by this time you’ve realized that SEO isn’t a small, distinct part of a website’s business. It overlaps with design, marketing, PR, and social media. Often, the return from SEO is difficult to match, and SEO should be integral to a website’s business plan.