Forum posting. Custom blog creation. Article writing and distribution. Press release services. Let’s face it — there are a LOT of SEO services out there, so many that most webmasters couldn’t afford them all even if they wanted to. SEO companies will tell you — quite rightly — that it’s important to spread out your backlinks so that they come from a wide variety of sources, but it’s silly to try to get every single possible backlink variant going to your homepage.
In fact, there are a few simple ways to trim down the list to a dozen or so techniques that will fit your website best. It boils down to two questions: are you making money already, and what is your growth strategy?
Are You Making Money Already?
If you’re already seeing money coming in, then you have something of an idea about the conversion rate of your traffic. This is important, because different traffic sources have different conversion rates, and you need to know how to maximize the traffic that converts best for your site. Unfortunately, this is a process that requires testing and is unique to each site, so you’ll have to do the work on your own to figure out which link types to cut out — or have a talented SEO company do it for you.
What is your Growth Strategy?
Backlinks generally come in one of two broad types: links that drive traffic, and links that drive rankings. Some, like a well-written article submitted to a popular article directory, can do both. By and large, however, you have a choice between immediate traffic at the expense of long-term ranking power, or surviving on minimal traffic for quite some time until the rankings kick in and the organic traffic starts to flood. The design of your business should dictate which you shoot for, and you should communicate your choice with your SEO service.
In either case, if you’re not already seeing good business, it’s probably a good idea to pair your SEO efforts with a talented PPC management outfit, just to get the traffic flowing up front. The PPC costs might cut into your profits, but without them, you wouldn’t have any profits to cut into, so it’s a win/win.
