Any search engine optimization consultant will tell you that links are the currency of the Web. They’re also the currency of the blogosphere. Without any inbound links, you’re just blogging to yourself. In Mike Grehan’s seminal piece “Filthy Linking Rich“, he explains how those rich with links just keep getting richer.
So how can new business bloggers get a jump start in the search engines? Simple: just whip out your wallet. The business of text link ad buying has matured, and it’s on the up-and-up. We’re not talking about “buying PageRank”… what we’re talking about is a totally legitimate business practice of buying text ads where you choose your hyperlinked words carefully based on keyword research and your advertisement appears on a reputable, relevant website. And of course, it links directly to your website, sans click tracking, so the ‘search engine juice’ flows unhindered. If the practice weren’t legit, would you see such well-respected link-building pundits as Eric Ward on the board of the link broker Text-Link-Ads.com?
Buying links is not quite as simple as I make it out. Yes, you can use a broker and they’ll happily take your money. Caveat emptor! In order to make an informed purchase, you’ll need to evaluate the quality of the links using a number of criteria. Here’s such a list of criteria, courtesy of the ABAKUS SEO Blog:
- Inbound site traffic and page traffic.
- Inbound dot gov and dot edu links.
- Click though traffic you get from the page.
- Site in DMOZ and Yahoo directory.
- Age of domain and time of domain being used (longer the better).
- Inbound links shown to that page on Yahoo (link:http:www.domain.ext/page/).
- Ranking of page for the keywords it is optimized for.
- Relevance of theme of site and page to your site and page.
- Alexa ranking (lower is better).
- Deep link compared to home page links.
- Location of link.
- Length of allowed description text.
- PR of page (still matters a bit).
Personally, I’d also add to the list:
- Appearance of any link advertisers on the page that would attract the attention (negatively) of the search engines (e.g.: casinos, Texas Hold’em, Viagra, pharmaceuticals, insurance, Rolex, etc.)
- Quality of the landing pages of the existing link advertisers (if you find any are spammy-looking, turn and run!)
- Placement of the link. (i.e.: being relegated to the bottom of the page as footer links is not ideal)
I can see how this could be considered a marketing investment of sorts. You spend money to buy links and build your readership to the levels where you have the drawing power to then sell links on your site and make your original text-link investment back, and then some.
On the other hand, you’re in the same boat here as paid search results. If people knew you text links were bought, they’d no longer trust you. You would have just commited blog suicide. The reason paid links work for search is because they’re separate from the “natural” links.
Authenticity and trust are, I think, the building blocks of the most popular blogs. We trust those links are their because the blogger has a relationship or at least a respect for the enterprise behind the link. To have unannounced paid links is deception and, in my opinion antithetical to what blogging is really about.
Can you imagine how you would feel if a friend you trusted convinced to buy a product or service, and then later confessed to you she was PAID to? Even if you had a positive experience with the product or service, would you not feel betrayed and used? This is no good.
Comment by Michael Martine — August 7, 2005 @ 11:28 am
Hi Michael,
Interesting. I was hoping for an ethical debate. 😉
Let me play devil’s advocate here.
First off, by way of disclosure, I haven’t bought text links for my blog, in case you are curious.
I’m having trouble with your argument. Whichever way you look at it, I don’t see it as disingenuous. It is indeed marketing (advertising, specifically). There’s nothing wrong with marketing your blog.
Are you suggesting that a business blogger must disclose to her readers all her online advertising buys in order to be considered transparent and ethical? That doesn’t make much sense, nor is it practical. Or are you suggesting that buying text ads is fundamentally different from buying banner ads? If so, please explain. Is it the fact that the ad isn’t going through a click tracker? Or that it’s graphical versus text? You can buy banners that link straight through to your site. Is that kind of banner unethical? Ads from BlogAds.com are both banner and text, with straight-through text links. Is that somehow ethical? Or perhaps you are suggesting that the text ad has to be disclosed as such on the site in which the advertisement appears. No problem there, as such ads are almost always labeled as “sponsors” or “advertisers”. But of course the blog readers and search engine users won’t see that disclosure unless they visit the linking site — an unlikely occurrence for most of them. So then we’re back to my earlier question: do you feel it necessary that the blogger disclose on their blog that they are buying advertising and where?
By the way, I tried checking out your blog and it is down. I got a WordPress error: “Error establishing a database connection”. You might want to check that out.
I look forward to your response. Great philosophical discussion!
Comment by Stephan Spencer — August 7, 2005 @ 3:18 pm
Don’t forget, that all the stuff mentioned here is also true for free link exchange with other blogs. Even if you are not a pro blogger -like me-, you will have to check position, linktext and co if you plan to ask another site for a link. I started my blog and after 2 weeks with posting much content I began to ask some sites in my topic to link. And it starts to work.
I will print this lists to have a checklist before asking the next linkpartner.
–Markus
Comment by Markus — August 7, 2005 @ 4:32 pm
Wie man Links kaufen soll.
Via Darren habe ich den Link zu Stephan Spencer bekommen, in dem er erklärt, was zu beachten ist, wenn man sich Links kaufen will.
Wie ich dort auch in den Kommentar geschrieben habe, trifft all dies natürlich auch auf kostenlosen Linktausch …
Trackback by kloeschen.com >> — August 7, 2005 @ 4:38 pm
[…] Stephan Spencer has posted a good piece on buying text links to help promote your blog and to build it’s ranking in Search Engines – he writes: ‘The business of text link ad buying has matured, and it’s on the up-and-up. We’re not talking about “buying PageRank”… what we’re talking about is a totally legitimate business practice of buying text ads where you choose your hyperlinked words carefully based on keyword research and your advertisement appears on a reputable, relevant website. And of course, it links directly to your website, sans click tracking, so the ’search engine juice’ flows unhindered.’ […]
Pingback by On Buying Text Link Ads: ProBlogger Blog Tips — April 15, 2006 @ 1:27 am
[…] A few weeks back I blogged some advice here for business bloggers who might want to consider text link advertising as part of their blog marketing mix. […]
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