The SEO Diaries

It is much easier to double your business by doubling your conversion rate than by doubling your traffic. – Jeff Eisenberg

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The World is slowly but surely going gaga over paid social, search engine marketing (SEM), performance, tracking user data, to even DMP and DSP in the recent years. With that, the very basic (often inexpensive) and longest serving marketing innovations seem to have faded — Emails and SEO.

Entering the 2020s, I still maintain the the best conversion rates will still be delivered by emails, and if any marketing exercise can fetch you the best long term value, it has to be Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

So I thought it might be a good idea to begin with refreshing up on the basics of SEO and how it can be achieved. Within SEO, I wanted to focus on a particularly mysterious entity called “Backlinks”.

Every website owner wants his/her page to rank higher on Google search. The best way to do so organically is by links. These are links from other websites to your website (or page) which signals to Google that content is quite cool and deserves to ranker higher on searches.

So, as you may observe, the more links like these you can have, the better.

The question that now arises is, how to get them?!

There are four basic ways we can approach solving this question:

1. Add Links: Adding links manually to the websites
2. Ask for Links: Email the website owners and ask them for a link
3. Buy Links: Get money for the links
4. Earn the Links: Get links from your fans (or people who visited and liked your stuff)

Adding Links

This one’s quite simple. It means manually adding the link of your website to some other website, without asking for permission.

Ridiculous, isn’t it?

Consider different social networking sites, random business directories where anyone on the planet could sign up. You get the hit?!

The bigger question is, how valuable are these links after all?

The unfortunate answer is that these add very little value to your SEO efforts.

Having said that, there must be some business directories which will form an essential part of your niche for growth, but beyond that it is a wasted effort. As far as social profiles are concerned, do go and register the profiles that may make sense to your business, especially in the long term, but it will do very little in terms of SEO.

Why do I say so?

These links are not actually a competitive advantage for you as anyone and everyone in your competition can easily get them. Alas!

Asking for Links

If you own a website, you’re sure to have received a few emails from content writers and bloggers asking for a link (directly or indirectly).

Well, most of such requests usually get turned down (Bummer!), unless you put a cookie on top.

When you reach out to a website owner and request them for a link, make sure to tilt the proposition in a way which tells them what’s in it for them.

Here are some of the things that usually work:

• Guest Blogging: Create content for their website that’s useful for them
• Link Insertion: Show the owner a resource with more information on a topic of relevance than they’re currently linking to
• Everyone loves Praise: Mention the owner’s content in a positive light in your work
• Back Scratching: Link back to their site if they link to yours. Win-win!
• Resource Building: Point the owner to a resource that fits their niche
• Just Ask: Ask them for credit when they’re using your image/brand name/ product
• Be the Expert: Try giving the “experts quote” in their article
• Testimonials: Give positive feedback about their product/service. Works more often than not!

One small issue with this is that people overestimate the value of this technique. Not everyone who acknowledges your pointing out of a broken link will replace it with yours. (Ouch!)

Buying Links

First up, Google is against paying for links. They penalise your website if you’re caught doing this.

But people do get away with it. So essentially, it all depends on your risk taking ability.

A lot of people who indulge in this trade are the ones who fail to acquire links in the “right ways”. So it sometimes becomes about morals too.

There are perfectly sound arguments for buying links too, atleast to get started but the ‘line’ is always decided by you.

Earned Links

The best of the lot, really.

This is when people link to your site without you having to ask them to do so. Interestingly, earning links is quite simple too:

1. Create awesome content (or product/service)
2. Make sure it reaches the relevant audience
3. Sit back and see the magic

Simple, but not easy!

After all, there are only 10 pages that make it to top 10 on Google searches, out of millions maybe?!

So how do you do that?

• Build up your brand
• Work on growing your following
• Grow your reputation
• Create good content
• Distribute your content effectively

As I said, this is quite simple, yet not easy. And well worth the effort.

Using some or all of these tactics will certainly push up your leads, revenues, and conversions/signups. And that is how we define success in growth marketing.

Conclusion

In a dynamic digital landscape, remember: “Double your business by doubling your conversion rate, not your traffic.” Amid new trends, don’t forget the power of email marketing and SEO. Backlinks, key for SEO, can be obtained by adding, asking, buying, or earning links. However, earning links through great content and reputation-building is most effective, though challenging. It leads to increased leads, revenue, and conversions, defining success in growth marketing. In a world of fleeting trends, SEO and earned backlinks provide a lasting path to digital growth.