i’ve been progressing a proposal for an intelligent, well-meaning businessman the last few days. we’ve been exploring a linkbuilding campaign to help advance the google rank of his website. i’m feeling as though a link is being viewed as a meaningless commodity — ie. that all links are created equal. questions like “how many links can you get me for $1,500 per month?” leave me no other choice than to feel this way. in fact, linkbuilding is like establishing and growing a people-based network — the relationships either work and add value to your business or they do not. with links, the discourse should be more about quality than quantity. only if you’re growing money on trees can it be about large quantities of high quality links. very few of my small business clients are serious at even $1,500 per month. most challenger brands have to be committed at that level or higher.
so why does price matter with links?
for starters — cheap links are often spam. some are temporary and never even hit the grid as a new asset to build your link count. second — links that point from bad neighborhoods can get your website(s) sent to google’s infamous “sandbox” where you could remain for one to several months. you are who you hang out with, so guilt by association is very much in play. third — low-brow links that aren’t bad neighborhoods but are springing from low page rank websites (those ranked zero to PR3 for argument’s sake) have the effect of holding down or reducing your website’s page rank. google looks at the average page rank of your links in deciding where to rank your website. the trend in your newest links is a swaying factor in whether you get the up arrow or the down arrow, so to speak. i have seen aggressive monthly campaigns with dozens of new links from low page rank websites get outdone by a competitor who chooses a select few from high page rank websites. keep that metric high at all costs! fourth — where people visit a bad link and make the affiliation between your brand and their brand, is the connection likely to be favorable? far too often, the answer is no. perhaps you’re lucky and the brands’ values are apples to apples. what if your brand is connected with something you don’t endorse? companies that sell low dollar links don’t often provide where they’re linking from so you to evaluate this carefully. that’s because these are random links at the lowest end of the scale. you get what you get. lastly, cheap links are not the refreshing or renewing variety. they are often one-time buys. the best links are ones that stay live and have to be earned on an ongoing basis. the more often the content at a website refreshes, the more often the website is indexed, the better the neighborhood from which you’re linking.
hopefully, much of this is common sense for you. having read this, it’s easy to see why you’d want to invest wisely. make sure that all link buys are strategically considered and aligned with your branding and marketing goals.
