An Email Excerpt

Here is a portion of an email I sent out this morning detailing the importance of quality when it comes to building and deploying SEO campaigns. The larger part of the email offered our existing clients an insider offer on having us create some fancy schmancy link bait viral assets, though for you, the casual blog reader, I think just getting an idea of how we view SEO progressing might be helpful.

Inbound marketing, link bait, white hat SEO, the technique of putting something of value out in order to get priceless link value in return has many names, not the least of which is the title good strategy. While many online business owners pay thousands, and in many cases, tens of thousands of dollars to have SEO’s buy links for them, or create massive troves of content for link building article submissions, a few smart-thinking CEO’s are testing the waters with a strategy that’s a bit more focused.

If you have 100 articles in search that all read like they were written by a defected robot, what happens when people actually read said articles? Are Google’s spiders savvy enough to detect the lack of literature in such articles? At best the articles help gain you a link or two, at worst they create a negative content situation (NCS) which can profoundly affect your search campaign. Just look at Google’s now infamous Panda update, and the tens of millions of dollars it cost sites like Demand Media. Quality content matters.

It is our theory that one really good link is worth more than 100 crappy links. One link on Mashable, or TechCrunch, or if your industry is outside digital, on Martha Stewart Living, or Rachel Ray Home, is worth an infinite amount more than any collection of contrived links could ever be. But how do you get there? How do you, time-crunched owner of a business just fighting to survive, get to a place of high linkage with the residual PageRank and organic traffic that follow? With a creative asset that offers VALUE to the outlet.

After taking a few paragraphs off, the buzz words are back. Inbound marketing, social media marketing, viral marketing, all these tricky phrases point to a sort of exposure built upon something of value to the end user. At a loss for what that might be? Here are a few of them-

• Infographics
• Targeted Surveys
• Video Workshops
• Video Focus Groups
• Interactive White Papers

This is just the tip of the high value content creation glacier, and as you might be thinking right about now, many of the above can work in concert with one and other, and aren’t all that hard to create.

Given the speed at which search engine algorithms are evolving, it is safe to say that concepts like the above play towards an evergreen, old-as-paper-itself concept of appealing to influential media in hopes of bottling some of their thunder when it comes to eyeballs, links, and most importantly traffic. 

Chasing Suzy Socialite

There is just something about the way she looks in sundresses. Like a lush rose standing alone in the middle of the 10th fairway at Augusta National, Suzy stands out.

She walks with such confidence, instead of one foot in front of the other, she glides, no, floats across the floor. Suzy never smiles, but looks far from smug. Her hair is never too long, or too short, and always perfectly matched to that of her television sitcom sisters that she’s so destined to become one day. She just has it, what the hell is it?

Everyone in school knows her, how could they not? Senior class president, captain of the cheerleading team, she’s hard to miss. Suzy Socialite steams up each classroom she blesses with her attendance from boys panting like dogs, hormones ensure they can’t help salivating at what they most desire.

How did this happen to me? I’m president of the cultural acceptance club, I like video games and bingo, how did I fall for Suzy Socialite? Understandably, love is never an easy emotion to explain.

I’ve never once had a meaningful conversation with Suzy Socialite, not once had we ever shared even a laugh together. The one time I did bump into her, literally in the hallway, she reacted as if a minor assault had just taken place, one part disgusted, one part determined to never let it happen again.

Connie Caregiver on the other hand, when don’t we laugh together? When don’t we have fun? She sends me cards on random holidays I’ve never heard of, and helps pack my stuff up for me when I’m running late for my next class. She’s vice president of the cultural acceptance club, so we are obliged to see each other at least twice a week. When we’re together we never run out of things to talk about. How come I feel so numb to the idea of chasing after her? I’m pretty sure she’s a really good person.