Given the ample warning and increased transparency Google provided in
advance of Penguin 2.0, it surprises me that B2B search marketers still
blew up the forums about being penalized for link spam after it hit.
There’s no reason webmasters should not have cleaned up their act
before the rollout (the exception being a recently acquired client that
already had a bad link profile). Yet, some B2B marketers continue to
build spammy links. Can you honestly picture a manufacturer of pipes or a
custom fabrication shop creating enough online dialogue that 100 sites
per month would link to them legitimately?
I’ve been working in the B2B space for years now, and I’ve learned
over the last few years that building links should not even be among
your top priorities. I won’t deny that link building is still an
important and viable tactic, but I do think too much emphasis is placed
on it considering the direction Google has been turning lately.
Build up your online brand awareness, not links. Create high-quality
content and develop a strong PR and social campaign to connect relevant
audiences to your content. High-quality links will be built in the
process — links for which you will never have to worry about being
penalized. In fact, Google recently
updated the rankings article within their webmaster guidelines to substantiate this theory.
Over the last couple years, I have shifted my focus from link
building to building quality websites meant for users, creating thought
leadership, and integrating PR and social media with content marketing
to build links. In the B2B space, I’ve found competition in search to be
very light — it’s seldom you come across a B2B space where most top
competitors have optimized sites.
By making usability the main focus of SEO strategies and only
building high-quality links, I have seen the following results across
numerous websites:
- Dominating organic search rankings
- Never having to worry about penalties
- Higher organic conversion rates
- Inbound links that drive relevant traffic and conversions
- Stronger brand recognition
- Business owners becoming thought leaders in their industry
Short-Term Strategies
The following short-term link and brand building strategies can be
done within a couple months and will deliver quick results and link
profile growth.
Brand Mentions
Sometimes, finding ideal link and brand building opportunities can be
as simple as finding sources already mentioning your brand, but not
providing a link. This strategy will build links on relevant sites
already talking about your brand, and will drive referral traffic from
relevant audiences.
This tactic is as simple as finding the sites and asking them for a link. Do a Yahoo search with the following parameters
-site:yourwebsite.com “your brand name” -link:yourwebsite.com.
Competitor Links
The one great thing about B2B is very few competitors do any form of
SEO, which means the links your competitors have acquired over the years
will most likely be from legitimate sources that are highly relevant to
your site as well. Check out your competitor’s backlinks and look for
opportunities there.
Parent Company Links
In many cases, B2B companies are owned by a parent company. If a
bigger entity has ownership of your company, contact them for a link on
their site.
Affiliates & Partnerships
This next one can be a good tactic, but can also be disastrous if
done in excess. If your company is affiliated or partnered with a few
other companies whose websites feature content relevant to your
business/industry, doing link requests on a small scale can be
helpful. However, if the websites are only loosely affiliated, or their
content is irrelevant, this may not be a good tactic.
I’m sure I don’t need to mention this, but exchanging links on a
large scale is always a bad idea. This tactic should only be used for a
handful of sites — if you do this with 100 different sites, it may have a
negative impact.
Organizations & Associations
Joining organizations related to your industry will result in links
on membership pages. Becoming heavily involved with these groups will
also create speaking opportunities, partnerships and a place to promote
thought leadership material.
Much like with affiliates and partnerships, don’t overdo it with the
linking and keep the memberships highly relevant to your industry.
Articles
If you think I’m going to talk about blog guest posting on a massive
scale here, you are terribly mistaken. Guest posting is a great link
building tactic, but it should only be done in reasonable amounts and
only in highly relevant publications.
If you are providing unique content to authoritative publications and
using G+ authorship, you will build powerful links. Keep these links
very simple by only placing one link in the author bio. If you write for
lower quality sites, some Joe Schmoe blogger, or a site that is only
loosely relevant, you won’t be helping your brand or linking strategy.
Build Blog Relationships
Small-time blogs do still have use for link building. Instead of
wasting your efforts on a guest post, build relationships with the
bloggers. Create dialogue with them using social media and engage them
in your brand.
Over time, they may be influenced to share your content and thought
leadership with their audiences, which will further amplify your brand
and content to relevant sites that would be likely to link to you.
Directories
This is probably the most highly-debated topic when it comes to link
building, which is why I place very little emphasis on it. Take care of
your local listings and submit to the basic three directories —
business.com, Best of the Web, and Yahoo business directory.
Other than that, unless a directory is 100% relevant to your
business, contains real content, links only to companies similar to
yours, and will actually generate referrals and leads, don’t waste your
time or money with them.
Press Release Distribution
This is another
highly-debated topic.
Over the last year, I have heard several webmasters claiming they still
are seeing some value to press release distribution, despite
Google’s Matt Cutts suggesting that it provides little or no ranking value.
You can always try your luck and money with services like PR Web, but
you will see a lot more value by syndicating press releases with
relevant industry news sources rather than a PR syndication site that
links to sites across hundreds of industries.
Press releases should never be done in excess. Only send them out
when you have something important and newsworthy to say that people will
actually care about.
Trade Shows & Speaking Engagements
I don’t think there’s much to say here. Attending or speaking at
industry events is one of the oldest link building tactics in the book
and is still quite viable. You won’t always get a link, but you will
still get your brand name out there.
Long-Term Strategies
The following long-term link building strategies can be carried out
for an indefinite period of time, and may or may not result in links.
However, they will build a strong online brand presence and establish
you as a thought leader in your industry.
Creating Linkable Assets
White papers, videos, podcasts, brochures, webinars and other
educational resources create great link bait, which can be disseminated
through social, PR and blog programs to reach relevant audiences
(including publications that may be influenced to link to your content).
Build Online Tools
A company in the construction materials industry providing a concrete
mix calculator on their website has created valuable, link-worthy
content. A building code compliance consultant creating a building code
finder has also produced an appealing tool worth linking to. Even
something as simple as a glossary of industry terms is great link bait
worth promoting through social and PR networks.
Start A Blog
I’m sure I don’t need to go into much detail here about how valuable a
blog is for SEO. In the B2B world, nobody cares about your boring
products used for boring things. But if you have a well-managed blog
that can actually make your boring industry appealing to people, you
will pick up links over time. The blog also serves as a centerpiece for
housing thought leadership and other assets.
Building The Link Building Machine
Below is a diagram that shows what can happen when you disseminate
your content through social media channels, resulting in brand
awareness, inbound links, search visibility and targeted traffic.
The dissemination of content through social media channels.
Once you have all those articles, thought leadership pieces, assets,
blog posts, and industry relationships built, use your social and PR
program to amplify your company message. Social promotion of content
will result in an engagement in online dialogue by relevant audiences.
Those audiences will share your content with their audiences, which will
create brand awareness, inbound links, search visibility and targeted
traffic.
Source URL 
On
today’s quarterly earnings call, Google CEO, Larry Page, addressed
Enhanced Campaigns and noted that nearly three quarters of AdWords
campaigns have migrated.
Today
is the 95th birthday of Nelson Mandela, former President of South
Africa and 1993 Nobel Peace Prize winner, to name just a couple titles.
Even the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed Mandela's birthday,
18 July, as "Mandela Day". So why no Google logo for Nelson Mandela
today, while he sits in his hospital bed possibly on his last days?