After launching Daily SEO Tip, I wrote an article about how to turn your site into a link magnet, which makes it easier to not only attract links - but also will boost the response return on your push oriented link building strategies.
Today I would like to follow up with a very simple networking tip, and apply it to SEO and link building. Whether your website is a business oriented site or a vertical blog, you have the power at your disposal to turn your site into a networking magnet by attracting peers via positioning your company’s website into THE resource within your industry. Blogging and social media are forms of communication which open up a conversation between your company, and followers of your thoughts and ideas.
Look at SEOmoz for example. Rand Fishkin kind of got into the SEO consulting industry a lot later than most of his peers. But what Rand did with SEOmoz was create an incredibly informative and generous blog and social community around his company (paired with an outgoing & fearless personality). After a couple of years, the community and blog became so large and loyal that their entire business strategy transitioned into a way to leverage that loyalty into a membership driven B2B service and resource firm. And the rest is history.
Also, take High Rankings and Top Rank for example, the High Rankings forum & email newsletter have been around longer than Google and the Top Rank Online Marketing Blog hardly ever crosses the fine line between resource and service : and ranks #2 in Google for “online marketing”!
People link to these sites because they are resources … not because they have to ask or pay for the links.
You too can become the Lee Odden, Rand Fishkin, Lisa Barone or Jill Whalen of YOUR INDUSTRY! Just think about it.
Furthermore, from experience, I can tell you that after building Search Engine Journal, I’ve also gone out of my way to help a lot of others out over the years, giving them a voice on the blog and also helping them land positions with rather large search marketing or interactive ad firms.
I like to help people, and I know that the good faith will pay off. By positioning your site or business blog as a resource, you will attract trusted and loyal friends within your industry who you can later leverage when you need to ask for a favor.
I’ll also admit that I’m not the best networker in the world, but via social media, connections come to me and SEJ. I really don’t have to work the room at a conference or networking event. I know that SEJ and 6 years of blogging speaks for me (and our other incredible contributors).
I’ve heard the same from many bloggers, in and out of the search industry. A friend of mine named Derrick Daye runs a branding blog called Branding Strategy Insider. I don’t do much consulting, but my friend Derrick’s company The Blake Project does a lot of it. He’s told me that on multiple occassions, when pitching a company on building their branding strategy, the CMO or CEO of the company will tell Derrick how much he or she enjoys Derrick’s blog and how they feel as they know Derrick already. Not only do they feel that they know Derrick personally, but also know via his company’s blog, Facebook profile and Twitter stream that Derrick surrounds himself with branding professionals, marketing experts, has some very large and happy clients and is well connected in the social media world.
Derrick doesn’t need to sell himself. His blog has already closed the deal.
I first met Dave Dugdale about four years ago at the Fairmount bar in San Jose the day before SES West. After a couple of drinks, we got to talkin’ and he was telling me how he had taken the plunge to leave his fulltime job and concentrate on RentVine, a new home rental site he was developing. Dave decided to launch a home rental blog which covered the rental business vertical, and write about his competition and the industry as a whole. He also got involved in social media and has become a bit infamous in online marketing circles for his videos.
Via a lot of hard work and long hours, Dave has now become the Michael Arrington or Danny Sullivan of the Home Rental industry. The result of all of that hard work? Dave now competes in the SERPS with Move.com and Rent.com.
