Yesterday I had three people from separate companies ask me to sign an NDA, actually they weren’t people they were clients. And clients have a much higher status than people, at least they do around these parts.
The bigger the client of course, the more you are likely to trigger an NDA and of course an NDA can cut both ways. It protects you if you are offering seo services and protects your client who is hiring the seo company. So, everyone should be happy and signing the NDA is all good stuff.
But that got me thinking. What’s the point of the NDA? Ultimately is about protecting confidential information and secrets.
Secrets!
It’s a massive word, much over used in online marketing of course. Come learn the secrets of link building, buy the latest ebook, SEO secrets revealed.
The Zen master will tell you that the secret to success is that there are no secrets. That the secret lies within yourself.
Megh!
Whilst there is truth in that, I know of a high ranking authoritative website where you can drop a dofollow link, point it at a target page, using the correct keyword and get it to rank quickly and rank well. But, I’m not going to tell you where it is. It’s a secret. If I published it on this blog the harvest would be shortened and the fruit would soon be over ripened and riddled with maggots.
So it stays secret. The point is, there are secrets, little bits of information floating around that would benefit your online marketing efforts.
No this isn’t a lead in to a “Secrets of Link Building” ebook.
To get to know these secrets of link building you do have to revisit the Zen Master and learn that there are no link building secrets. The reality is, there is nothing that you cannot know in the click of a mouse that will teach you all you need to know to create the most amazing online marketing campaign.
Because, it’s not the secrets to link building that will make you a great link builder. It’s the other stuff, the stuff that expert link builders give away for free on their blogs, it’s what gets talked about at SEO conferences, in free downloads of pdf files. It’s what given away in the seo books stacked on the shelves of you local book shop for a tenner.
The secret stuff, probably only makes up 5% of the mix, if that. The other 95% is hard work and focussing on what works.
The reason why people are looking for that link building secret is because link building is boring, simple and hard work. Which is why people outsource to link building agencies.
13 replies on “Secrets of Link Building”
Right on, Lyndon! Right on!
Excellent stuff Lyndon. We just had a meeting with a prospect that said basically this. Every time he asks someone how it’s done the SEO company in question glazes over and speaks so technical that it makes no sense.
We informed him that there is no hidden secret about link building. It just involves a lot of hard work and creativity. You are right the inform is there you just need to know where to look and apply it using a lot patience.
The search for the silver bullet gets translated into every industry. And usually there is a cadre of folks in each industry awake enough to call a spade a spade. Glad you have a full deck. 😉
“call a spade a spade” Love it! I agree with you and that keeps me plugging away… but I still dream of finding that ‘magic’ and that makes me read articles titled “Secrets of Link Building!”
In SEO, strategy is basic and everyone know it : great content + many links. What make the difference is the tactics to achieve this strategy : how to craft content, how to find the best links, how find the best keywords and so on…
I have been doing a Google Alert experiment for “Link building Secrets” since April 2010. 168 Articles to date with same old info #NotSoSecrectSecrets
That’s awesome! Thanks for making my day with that humorous little experiment.
I agree, link building is boring, very boring and “link building secrets” simply exist to make it a little more interesting and mysterious. Much like any other SEO activity.
But… the other 5% rock!
While different companies and agencies may take different approaches to link building one thing is certain. It takes a lot of time and effort. Like any other marketing plan it’s important to implement a strategy and stick to it. Don’t build your links too fast, that can look like spam to the search engines.
I’m afraid that hard work is the key. The shortcuts make be attractive and may even work in the short term, but they are too risky to expose to your valuable clients.
Great post, I have subscribed to your RSS for years now and always welcome the humour and dose of reality in your posts Lyndon.
It feels as though aspects of what we do each day as in-house or agency-side SEOs, like link building or developing true quality content, appeals to those who are looking for minimal effort / high reward payouts for the investment of a tenner in an eBook of ‘secrets’. Better labeled as methodology for the most part.
Link building can be tedious, but those true veins of gold as you say remain our trade secrets.
Damien
I disagree with the idea there are no secrets or that secrets only make up 5% of everything. Except I wouldn’t call them secrets, they are more of an acquired knowledge thing, its not hidden stuff only a handful of people know about. The thing about it is if you don’t know what you should focus on or what is a waste of time, that can lead to a failed link building campaign. Its critical for you to atleast know what kind of game you are playing before you try to win at it 🙂