The Pros and Cons of Link Building

Joshua Palau does a great job exposing the advantages of link building for search engine optimization in his article entitled, The Schizophrenia of Link Building.

I enjoyed his simplistic explanation of this common SEO practice...

"In order for a site to rank well for a topic or specific keyword, it needs to have quality links pointing to it from other quality sites, preferably using the targeted keyword in the link. The concept is very much at the center of how Google ranks pages and finds grounding in the educational principle of authoritative references.

If an author publishes a book on quantum physics and cites several other physics books, people in the field will likely believe the cited books are experts on the subject matter and worth reading. This concept was transferred to the web and evolved further as social media exploded.

I'm a TV junkie. So when asked about the latest celebrity dalliance, my opinion may count for more than someone else's who can't tell the difference between Mary-Kate and Ashley. This idea holds sway in the world of link building as well. If I told you that The Superficial is a great site for celebrity gossip you would trust that site because it came from me.

For a time, all was good in the kingdom of search as the world of link karma worked in a very "wiki" way. Sites that had content about Caribbean vacations would link to Starwood's Caribbean hotels because it was in the best interest of their users. Links were swapped, given away and even paid for because there was no harm. For the most part, users got links to good partners and sites received a boost in Google.

Then, the concepts behind link development spawned several search result jokes like Miserable Failure, French Military Victories and others.

It stands to reason that as the Google team got wise to such Googlebombing, it recognized how easily the company could be manipulated through the use of links. People could buy enough links to gain high rankings as long as their site was somewhat on topic. The ripple effect on Google would be significant because the quality of its results would go down; users would visit less, and there would be less clicks on those paid listings."

Where's The Beef?

I spent the weekend in a class the certifies me as a "CBJ" (Certified Barbeque Judge), which is mostly a matter of paying a fee and learning a few rules about barbeque contest. The substance of the class consited of eating a lot (about 2 pounds, total) of barbequed meat to practice judging, then compare notes with others in the class and with practiced judges.

The weekend before, I spent at The ADDYs (formerly OMNIs) show watching a ton of winning ads from Kansas City agencies . . . and I've got to tell you, though there were several exceptions, for the most part, there was way more "beef" at the BBQ judging class than at the ADDYs.

Don't get me wrong--there was a lot of beautiful, eye-catching, and clever artwork, film, and photography . . . many georgeous ads that could attract attention from across a room crowded with other ads--a lot of good stuff to learn from. But for most of the winners, even after a closer look at the posted ads and watching them live during the show--it was difficult to tell exactly what they were selling or what the ad was trying to say about the product or service (other than--oh, look how arty/clever/design-y the agency we hired is). Overall, they lacked the beef of any ad--the message.

So really, all I'm saying is please, please, please, start your ad from the premise that you have something to say--listen to your clients first, find out what's great about their product and service, then say it loud and proud in the ad you create for them. Too many ads looked like they started from the premise, "Hey, let's make a cool ad that'll win an ADDY" instead.

Forrester Calls for 'Connected Agency'

In yet another rebuke of traditional advertising agencies, Forrester Research believes today's ad agencies are not well-structured to take on tomorrow's marketing challenges, needing to move from making messages to establishing community connections. In a new report, the research firm paints a grim view of the current state of advertising, which it believes is in "a world of hurt" because consumers are tuning out the messages the industry is predicated on producing.

Instead, it believes shops need to be organized around communities, not disciplines. What it is calling "the connected agency" would not only know certain communities but also be active members of these groups. Pushing messages would give way to encouraging voluntary engagement, and ongoing conversations would replace time-based campaigns.

In Forrester's view, most people rely on advice from friends and others in their various communities to make product decisions, while using tech tools to tune out ad messages they deem irrelevant. On top of that, consumer media choice has made the notion of a "captive audience," other than during some sporting events, a thing of the past.

Forrester sees agencies made up of community members -- moms, for instance, helping Procter & Gamble play a constructive role in communities of other mothers.

Savy marketers have long known that building a digital profile customers can lead to a high ROI. This new reocmmendation is an interesting idea to help traditional advertising agencies evolve in a Web 2.0 world.