August 31st, 2009 by Dejan SEO | Posted under 
via flickr
Ask yourself, why are there so many wannabes in the SEO industry and why do they appear to be a brainless army of zombies dwelling in the realm of repetitive and low value activity.
Think about all the blog commenting, forum signatures, cheap and fluffy article distribution, countless directories and paid reviews. The answer could be in the fact that a lot of these processes seem very easy to replicate.
Let’s look at online directories. There used to be a few, fairly well moderated, carrying a reasonable link value. Naturally some genius thought –
‘ Hey, why don’t we make more directories and give ourselves more links!? ‘
Soon after that, link directories were popping up like mushrooms after rain. What did search engines do next? Devalue! Great. Thanks guys.
The above mentioned scenario replicated in countless other cases, and all of them exhibited one common element – they were easy to do, and easy to replicate.
Let’s face it, there is no long-term shortcut to easy SEO results. Instead, we can hope occasionally catch a wave of a new strategy that search engines have not caught on yet, or we can choose to do it the other way – the hard way. The reason this strategy is worth adopting is the fact that people are lazy and only true professionals will bother with hard work and high quality. By eliminating about a ninety percent of spammers leaves us with true SEO professionals. Wouldn’t you want to belong to that category? The crop of the cream!
What is involved with creative link building?
- Brain. Those creative cells in your brain will have to spark up and you will have to invent a new solution for every new client, scenario or situation.
- Uniqueness. You cannot afford to think in the way of automation, replication, there can be no shortcuts. Think about the unique approach for each webmaster or content manager you are about to approach.
- Personalization. Connect to people you wish to get links from on a personal level and try to understand what they do, what their motivations are for publishing content online. A retired general will not be interested in a $100.00 per link per month deal, but he might give it to you for free if he knows you’ve read his book or donated to the charity he is a member of.
- Time. You will have to spend time getting that link, there is just no way around it. Be prepared to carefully plan your approach and execute it in an appropriate fashion. Your clients will push you for rankings, but you cannot push a webmaster for a link.
- Contribute. Be generous, get involved, help and give without asking for anything in return. People will recognise your efforts and offer to assist you on their own, try to find a solution that will compliment both your efforts and their content or mission.
These are just a few key elements that characterize a unique link building strategy and all of them result in contributing to the quality of the web content. Not all links are difficult to get this way, at Dejan SEO we’ve been using these methods to stay ahead of the competition and it has paid off.
It’s not only our clients who benefit here but also our staff who are able to bypass the monotony of link building and enjoy their daily tasks knowing that every next day brings a new challenge.
Please comment on this post by sharing your creative building strategy or experience with other readers. Share this post http://bit.ly/TJV6g
This is a Li’l Engine guest post by Dejan Petrovic of Dejan SEO – Follow Dejan on Twitter if you like to get more tips on link building strategies.
That’s a good post. Who would you consider the most “brainy”, and “lowest cost” vendors that are still available through the web?
Will Critchlow from Distilled seems to be on the cutting edge of the smart link building. Low cost??? I get daily emails from so called SEo companies offering link building services. Too many to mention.
[...] 7. Develop your creative mind. No one likes a robot or a drone, SEO is a creative process that requires you to create solutions for many different clients in different markets. If you are a freelance SEO, having a creative mind will help you with your sales pitch, if you can consistently put forward new ideas to your clients that will increase their traffic, they will love you for it. Ideas can be big or small, such as this simple creative link-building concept. [...]
For being a good seo, what really matters is that you should have passion for working. You should build links for the clients.
LOL @ Karmadir – Have you even read the article?
I do believe that Karmadir’s reply was meant to be on the 7 tips to become a better SEO post.
nothing new, i thought that i find some usefull tips, but nothing
Hi Milan, sounds like you are pretty good at link building. Perhaps you should share some of your knowledge and tips with the rest of us.
Hi, I have been heavy into SEO lately particularly link building and every little bit on info that can help me get top rankings and traffi chelps.
Many thanks for downloading and sharing your great well written articles online with all of us.