Paid links can’t build you a valuable online network!
Paid Links: Or why you should never pay for love!
The stock-in-trade for many SEOs is paid links.
I hate to talk about my fellow SEOs: by-and-large they’re a great bunch. But. They will often make a big deal out of getting paid links as the foundation of their strategy to get you to the top.
The reality is, a paid link is hugely inferior to the kind of links you acquire through honest networking.
The search engines can usually tell what’s a paid link, and what isn’t. And they don’t like paid links–especially Google. I strongly suspect it’ll emerge that Blekko doesn’t like paid links either.
While unpaid links may take a little while longer to acqure, they are worth so much more to your SEO strategy in the long term. No question about it–organic is still best and it will still get you the results you crave in terms of website success.
But but an organic linking strategy has another value, which in my view is priceless: getting out there and commenting on other people’s blogs, and actually creating social media relationships where you feel inclined to link to each other, will just be so much more beneficial to your online business as a whole.
It will also help you build your brand in a way that enables you to demonstrate your personality and your true worth. In other words, this is brand building at its best.
Get out there and network!
The process of social media networking, and commenting on blogs, will provide the most valuable links back to your site and will also build your brand in a powerful, lasting way.
So,
- Paid links are weak, wimpy and have a short life-span compared to organic links
- Organic links will go on and on, and will often spawn other links for you. If someone links to you through an article, for example, others often will too.
- If you comment on other people’s blogs, they will often respond and it will create buzz for you. Never underestimate that power.
- While ultimately raising your site’s earning potential, an organic social networking campaign will save you a lot of money.
Paid links and pay-per-click just never have more than a temporary good effect. Paid links, no matter how much they cost you, have a limited length of time before their effectiveness is wiped out by the engines, and pay-per-click is llike buying blackberries. There’s just no substitute for gathering the real thing–wild blackberries taste wonderful, and the gathering process is part of the enjoyment.