Forum Moderators: martinibuster
This particular widget is used by both people at home and at work.
I do have one niche, and that is special widgets for a certain event. That one's easy. I have a little online certain event guide and share links with other merchants that have stuff for that certain event. My site was also listed in a national certain event magazine as a resource.
There are a handful of other niches I can target and exchange links with.
But, overall, those niche markets are very small, and even targetting those has not increased business in those niches to any significant degree. Even exposure in that national magazine did not increase sales in that niche by any big degree.
I do get a higher conversion rate in those niche markets, but still the numbers are small.
Most orders come from people using the widget in a more general purpose manner. The problem is, how do I find relevant link partners to exchange links with my site? The most highly relevant would be my competitors. There isn't a "World of Widgets" publication or anything that provides relevant content to these widgets.
I have noticed that most of my competitors have no reciprocal link exchanges (they also don't have much widget content). And, one competitor that beats me in the rankings *used* to have a link exchange, but has since removed it from their site. (And that link exchange was more of a link farm than a quality exchange of links.)
So, I think there is an opportunity here that my competitors are not taking advantage of. Of course, they may be not taking advantage of it for the same reason I'm struggling: who do you link with for relevant links that complement your content?
If it was something less general, I would know where to go. I have other such sites where I know who has related content and who would make a good link partner. But, for a more general purpose product, I just don't know.
I mean there are various uses for the widget, but those assorted uses do not make niche markets.
Your goal is incoming links. A link exchange is one way to accomplish that of course. But I'm convinced that Google is now devaluing reciprocal links (Yahoo seems to like them) and a link exchange program may not be your best strategy.
SEOs are starting to talk about "natural linking" and "organic linking" and what they are refering to is linking structures pre-Google, before incoming links were key to getting top rankings.
The current mantra for SEO is, "Build a site that's useful to your visitors." Your "recommended resources" page (you DO have one, don't you!? ;) ) should include links to every scrap of info about your widgets that your site doesn't already have, their history, how they're made, etc. If a few of these are reciprocal links, it probably won't hurt but my preference is to avoid reciprocals altogether. Become the "widget authority," the clearing house for all things widget!
Acquiring "natural" incoming links presently is very difficult, but by becoming the widget authority you have started a long term strategy. People will freely link to a true authority.
Conventional wisdom has been to create a link exchange or to advertise (buy links from prominent sites). Link exchanges have become so common that Google is in the process of thwarting them. Advertising (AKA buying links) is basic to commerce and will always be with us... Less desirable options include hiring a "link hunter" or log spamming.
If your widgets (or widget accessories) are cheap enough, could you offer a free widget in exchange for a link? "Add a link and send us $5.95 to cover shipping and handling." Add a page for webmasters and offer some kind of freebie for a link! Some sites have had good results offering a unique free script in exchange for a link. If it's viable for your products, starting an affiliate program could get you thousands of incoming links.
Incoming links are still important to a site's prominence, but they are not nearly as important as they once were. Target your SEO efforts accordingly.
The current mantra for SEO is, "Build a site that's useful to your visitors." Your "recommended resources" page (you DO have one, don't you!? ;) ) should include links to every scrap of info about your widgets that your site doesn't already have, their history, how they're made, etc.
That's a work in progress, but most of them will be internal links. Even the manufacturer does not have a page showing how they are made! So, I'm going to take one of these widgets, cut it apart, and show it's construction and tell as much as I know about how they are made! I think it will serve to both educate people as to their construction as well as to demonstrate the quality of the product.
The hard part will be keeping my competitor's from stealing my photos! Fortunately, I do know some of the ones to keep an eye on. The last image that was stolen from me was a modified scan of the manufacturer's photo. We can all use the same stock photos from the manufacturer, but I made changes to mine. My salesperson told me I could go ahead and tell the other company not to use my modified photo. But, it wasn't too big a deal, and I'd rather not tip them off that I'm keeping an eye on them. That way, when I have my own photos, to which the rights are 100% mine, and if they should steal those, they had better watch out! ;-)
Acquiring "natural" incoming links presently is very difficult, but by becoming the widget authority you have started a long term strategy. People will freely link to a true authority.
Is Google yet able to distinguish between "natural" incoming links and the "Google bomb" technique?
If your widgets (or widget accessories) are cheap enough, could you offer a free widget in exchange for a link? "Add a link and send us $5.95 to cover shipping and handling." Add a page for webmasters and offer some kind of freebie for a link!
Actually, I have been working on creating a special webmaster widget for webmasters to use to help promote their web sites. I never thought of giving it away (with a shipping and handling fee) in exchange for a link.
Too bad my shipping charges are less than $5.95!
Incoming links are still important to a site's prominence, but they are not nearly as important as they once were. Target your SEO efforts accordingly.
My primary efforts are in building content. In fact, I think this is my first post on WebmasterWorld outside of the Content and Writing forum! ;-)
Thanks,
Dan
My primary efforts are in building content. In fact, I think this is my first post on WebmasterWorld outside of the Content and Writing forum! ;-)
I wish I would see a bit more of the white side of WebmasterWorld. But honestly, keep cool, keep on writing and you will succeed.
On a long term basis, you know: CONTENT IS KING! You will get free links because you have great, unique content.
written by a SPAMMER
The hard part will be keeping my competitor's from stealing my photos!Watermark 'em! Add your domain name to the images in small text. :)
Is Google yet able to distinguish between "natural" incoming links and the "Google bomb" technique?Google bombs (and typical link farms) rely on identical (unnatural) anchor text, so they're easily identified.
If you missed it, there are a few more ideas for acquiring incoming links at [webmasterworld.com...]
