Happy hump day!
So, it happened again this morning. I’m sitting on the train, commuting to the city and reading my email. I plugin my internet stick and prepare to reply to an email I feel very strongly about, and the next thing I know I’ve got a full blown blog post — not the response to the email I had originally intended.
So, the email I read started out something like this …
“We’ve been talking with this guy, he has a social media background is great with analytics. We really think he’d be an asset. Do you think we should hire him?”
So I open up the link in the email to find a link farm. Seriously? A link farm? Paid links, affiliate MLM options, really? This is “the guy” with this social media and analytics expertise I’m supposed to embrace? <Sigh…>
Here’s the thing. Buying links is never a technique I recommend to clients who want long-term results. {I can hear the clickity-clack of keyboards as angry link-builders crafting their strongly worded emails to me!} Save yourself the time and blood pressure spike, I’m not saying all links are evil. I’m saying that all links are not created equal.
In my opinion, paid links is a band-aid approach to low search engine rankings. If you have crappy rankings, you have bigger problems than a lack of crappy links. Paying for links has been known to give certain sites a quick boost their rankings. The problem is that those rankings are short-lived.
My second opinion is that paid links are a thing of the past, a pre-panda tactic. Search engines are getting smarter and they’re demanding better quality from sites overall.
The issue that I have with using paid links as an SEO technique is that even if (and that’s only IF) a site gets to the top of the rankings, odds are it won’t convert/get the click-thru. That’s because there was never a strategy put in place to cover, which is really the most important part. What do I always say? “What good is a #1 ranking for 100 keywords if none of your pages are converting?”
Link farms build links — that’s it. They don’t create quality, relevant, useful content (c’mon, stop the clickity-clacking again). Quality SEO copywriters are NOT a dime a dozen. Finding one sort of reminds me of American Idol in that everyone thinks they can sing write. But the ones who win get results are the ones who have a healthy combination of raw talent and years of industry-specific training.
How do you find an SEO copywriter who will help you rank well and convert? I’ll explain in my next post … I’m about 3 minutes from Union Station and I need to pack up my gear and hike up the office!
Cheers,
Aimee
As always, you absolutely nail it on the head, Aimee! I’ve been banging my head against the wall for over half a decade now with this topic. When it comes right down to it, nothing (and I mean NOTHING) will ever replace the organic, human copywriting techniques and voice. Fly by night content farm idiots will learn this by being banned from search engines, and another thing: STOP outsourcing!!! Let’s take back our jobs, strengthen our economy, and smarten the heck up!
End of rant. Can we scream IN-SOURCING and QUALITY links? Idiots won’t get this, but the true leaders who will achieve long-term success will. That’s how it always is. Seth Godin is right.
Greetings! Very helpful advice in this particular article!
It’s the little changes that make the largest changes. Thanks a lot for sharing!