April 18th, 2010 by Mike

To ensure your site gets the best visibility possible, your search engine optimisation company should offer link building services that adapt to the needs of each client. The three main aims of link building are to increase brand visibility, increase the flow of traffic to the site and improve search engine optimisation.

However, in the diverse world of internet reputation management, there can be no “one size fits all” approach. A company promoting a patented shoot-em-up game widget will need a very different approach to a not-for-profit charity aiming to educate the populace on environmental issues. One will place emphasis on branding, and the other on driving traffic. Although the two do overlap to a large extent, the link building strategies would be markedly different.

Someone who’s invented a new gaming widget will need an obvious form of marketing in order to build up the brand. Their online SEO plan must make their product as visible as possible, to as many people as possible – without appearing tacky. Search engines are particularly on the look-out for scam product sites, so the owner must be sure that any search engine optimization company they use is a reputable one with proven results in their area of marketing.

Some of the work can be done by the site owner themselves. Their first step is to have a simple, but instantly memorable logo that they can then include on all their merchandising material. Their search engine optimization company may suggest that they invest in some big banner advertising – but this is where tackiness comes into play. A good tip is not to invest in flashing banners. They cost far more than static ones, and are enormously irritating to browsers. Far from encouraging people to click on the link, they encourage them to go elsewhere.

A better option is to have some lightweight, fun animation relative to the product – this would work extremely well for a gaming widget. Also, banner ads should be placed in visible locations on highly ranked niche sites, with the company logo at the top. The brand name, rather than a generic link should be placed in anchor text (for example, don’t put “gaming widget” unless the product is actually a Gaming Widget).

In a nutshell, when the ultimate goal of a site is brand exposure, then the online reputation management plan must be to make potential buyers associate the site with a particular image and niche. The more they are reminded of the brand name in advertising logos and link literature, the more likely they are to give in and go visit.

This is only true of highly saleable products, of course. So what if the site aim is to educate peopleon things they wouldn’t normally bother with – the evils of spending too much time using gaming widgets, for example?

This is where SEO link building, and driving traffic via social media optimization come into play. SMO, especially, is an excellent way to drive traffic to your site. You can look at the home pages of social news sites like Digg as an alternative to page one values on Google – though ideally the aim should be to have leaders on both.

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