Need ideas to get do follow links from highly competative niche "wedding"

[photoseo1]

I need to get high quality do-follow links and my target market/keyword is ‘Maui wedding’ and a few others. Because it is such a competitive market I am having a hard time getting links from local companies providing Maui Weddings (I know why because they are my competitors) and national companies sites aren't much help because they are trying to provide leads to their advertisers. I would like do-follow links from non-paid sources any ideas or resources you could help with would be much appreciated.  Thanks.

[EGOL]

Since you have this site you must be the expert on planning a wedding in Maui?  Is that correct?

If it is then you should be able to prepare the very best guide to planning a wedding there.  It would be a big list of all of the churches, where to get a marriage license, how to hire clergy, where to get gowns, where to get a tux, who are teh photographers, where to get flowers... you get the idea.... this will be the single best one-stop site for anyone who is having a wedding in Maui.

This will be much more than a directory... it will be a guide for how to get things done and an idea source for having a great Maui wedding.  Where to have it outdoors articles, where to have the small ceremony, busy times of year, sunset/sunrise.. .. each of these is an article or a series of articles.   Lots of photos of chapels, outdoor locations, maps, flowers, etc... venues and photographers should cut deals with you for this type of featuring.

That big resource alone should get some links but you can probably figure out a way to get the feature photographers, flower shops, bridal shops, etc. linking to this incredible guide.  You can probably also get some interviews with the media to announce your great website.

This will be a huge amount of work... are you up for it?

[RyanKent]

This has been said before, and will probably be etched on the SEO tombstone should the concept ever die.....

Create compelling content that people will want to link to!

• Since you are in the industry, find a celebrity or person of interest who is getting married in Maui and write an article about it. Article title: Maui Wedding Bells Ring for Jennifer Anniston

• Do research and find an interesting statistic to talk about. Article title: Maui Weddings - The Secret to a Happy Marriage. Did you know that according to the latest statistics couple who wed in Hawaii have longer lasting marriages?....

Somehow you MUST generate unique, compelling content that people will WANT to link to and talk about. Otherwise you are simply a beggar asking for a handout. The world is full of them.

[photoseo1]

I like the idea on statistics posts. I really like to create content and do about 3-5 blog posts per week then feed them to social media which has been helping.

[EGOL]

Great advice from Ryan... just tossing one more idea out because he mentioned the "beggar asking for handout" concept....

Something that can be very effective is for a small group of competitors entering into a cooperative effort to help one another.  Three or four working together will have an enormous advantage over everyone else.

Maybe you can get a group of people to work on this site with you.?

[photoseo1]

Great idea. I currently need to focus on the site that needs some search engine love right now though. I will use your guide idea in my content creation.

[EGOL]

Instead of three to five blog posts per week consider three to five kickass articles per month.

[photoseo1]

Do you think the best idea is to contact those on page 2 and 3 with quality sites and content, to band together to overtake those on page 1. Just trying to make sure i understand you correctly.

[EGOL]

I am not talking about a new site.  All of that goes on your existing site.

Think about becoming the Maui Wedding Man!

[photoseo1]

Where do you thing the best place to post them is besides my blog?

[EGOL]

I would unite with the strongest content producers.  This is a content play and you don't want a team of weenies.

[EGOL]

I never post great articles on a blog.... post them on a dedicated webpage where you have absolute control over formatting, optimization and appearance.  I envision these articles each having a ton of photos with detailed captions.

Post them as pages on your website, announce them on your blog and promote them on your homepage and all across the rest of your site.

[RyanKent]

I love the creativity of your answers EGOL. You definitely offer outside-the-box thinking.

I am trying to wrap my mind around the concept of gathering a group of competitors to work together. Search engine ranking is purely about competition. You can have a poor page rank as #1 if it is better then the pages of your competitors. If you boost your ranking or exposure, but you strengthen your competitors at the same time, how is this beneficial?

I can understand this tactic when an outside force jumps ahead of you in SERP. But when it's just your site and other wedding sites, where is the advantage?

[EGOL]

Most competitors don't have 100% overlap of merchandise or services.  They also don't have 100% overlap of geographic areas.  Competitors working together identify the areas where they really don't compete.  Then they cross promote competitor good/services on related pages of their website.

This gives them advertising on a competitor's site but in a way that will not directly steal clients.

A music store near me has a fantastic selection of guitars but does not sell violins... the best place to get a violin is more into orchestra instruments and could easily partner with the guitar specialist.

===================

If Steven decides to build the huge Maui wedding resource on his site he could ask the florist who is the strongest content generator to produce some great articles for the various types of wedding flowers and have a photographer who specializes in product photography create the photos.   The product photographer would get some attribution links and the florist would get some links too, some great visibility for his work and top billing on the florist resource page.

Remember that acquiring great content is much more valuable than giving it away  (it also takes a lot less time)... so create a content acquisition plan that has strong benefits for your partner.

[RyanKent]

Thanks for the explanation EGOL. It makes perfect sense, and represents a great thought process. Your views clearly take SEO to a higher level and define the difference between "on paper" SEO, and in practice SEO.

[echo1]

Egol, I just want to make sure I understand this right. My blog is part of my website and is not a subdomain. I have "absolute control over formatting, optimization and appearance". Why would I create separate pages and not use the blog to publish my articles?

[EGOL]

You can use the blog to publish your articles.

If you do that you are stuck with the way that the blog optimizes the pages and links them into your site.  You can modify that to within limits.  Blogs are great for getting pages onto your site easily and spending minimum time formatting and optimizing.

However, if you think that you can do a better  job at formatting or optimizing then publishing by a different method is needed.

Sometimes I prefer to make finely crafted arrows than to use the ones off of a mass production line.

[echo1]

I understand, we can format the pages on the blog as we want. That is the answer that I was looking for. 
Thanks!