Couple questions: backlink bartering and getting backlinks in less developed markets.

[mack-ayache]

How do you guys go about getting sustainable links from high authority sites? In some markets, like say SEO, it can be as easy as writing great content and "people will share it" because there are a ton of SEO websites on the internet and all of them are talking about SEO and want to share with you great SEO content.  But as you guys know there are markets that aren't as well developed online - where do you look for backlinks for these markets?

I'm working on a project and I'm trying to put together a good backlinking strategy.  Part of it will be chasing backlinks from University websites (relevant to my market).  What I'm wondering here is if its OK by Google to barter for links.  Say you have an online store and you give the University a "student's discount" in exchange for a link (I don't know if this would be appealing enough but is it fair game as far as Google is concerned)?

[matbennett]

Offering student discounts is a great thing to do. From experience I can say that many of them come with nice links attached  .

This is definitely one of those "open to interpretation" areas.  A few years ago I would have said that Google wouldn't expect links on a discounts page to be no-followed. It's harder to tell these days though.  On the flip side I don't that they would be too impressed by student discounts being used as a way to game links.  Student discounts bring referrals, raise profile and bring business.  Do it for those reasons and enjoy any nice authoritative followed links that come with it.  (no harm in targeting those with the best links first though!)

[donford]

I think it is perfectly acceptable to do so but I have a caveat.

If you say this discount only applies if you give us a follow link on your site/page whatever then you are effectively buying that link. If you make it attractive for them to give you the link but make no demands on follow / no follow or the link at all then you have done nothing even close to wrong. The key would be to really make them want to get the information to their students (hopefully via a link and social media).

I used to do this when I ran a few sites for online games. When a new game would come out, I would immediately contact the fansites and offer them exclusive discounts. They always wanted their users to know about the discounts and make a link to our site(s) and sometimes even offered me free ad-space promoting the discount.

A+ for creativity

[KeriMorgret]

Actually, Overstock tried this. Worked great until Google slapped them. See what happened in 2011 at https://www.seroundtable.com/overstock-google-penalty-13004.html

[matbennett]

I think this is different:

offering customers discounts for adding links to their site to Overstock.com.

That is straight forward link buying.  "I'll give you X if you link to me" isn't the same as "I see you have a page about X. We do that!".   It's a good example of what to be cautious of though.

[mack-ayache]

Interesting outcome, Keri.

[Toddfoster]

Hello Mack,

Definitely a good move and I applaud your ingenuity in your link-building processes. It can be hard to retain the excitement and drive to go out and get those authority links, so I support you for thinking outside the box.

I would add that you are fine as far as Google is concerned as long are you are not making it a "tit-for-tat" trade/bargain/sale. If at any point, your marketing technique includes a phrase such as "I'll do ____ if you do _____.", it is a non-starter. However, if you are doing it from a "goodwill" perspective, and universities just "happen" to link to you as a result of your pleasant attitude/amazing deals, etc., then that would be fine.

For example, you might consider reading the following article, which has some great tips for a project such as what you are describing:

http://moz.com/blog/filthy-linking-rich-how-to-passively-attract-valuable-links

Somewhat related - How to know when to approach a potential influencer/link:

http://skyrocketseo.com/the-moment/

I still use these as resources for passive link-building. Depending on the circumstances, this can more effective than actively pursuing links - it is also much more rewarding when it works, because you have to invest less energy.

Cheers and happy link-building!

Rob

[MoosaHemani]

Hi Mack,

For less developed markets, acquiring links would really cost you some money either in developing a content asset that is targeted to tangent industries (not just to the specific industry where the website belongs) or in setting up scholarship programs that aims to provide value to community user in that niche.

In fact, you don't need to tell the webmaster to link to you from their pages, if you know that student discounts is what the .edu/.gov site is interested about, then it won't be difficult for you to get links from them.

You may want to check out this post for more link building tips for boring/difficult industries: http://digitalphilippines.net/link-building

Cheers!

[mack-ayache]

Thanks Moosa.  Great read.