We recently talked to the owner of a company about a potential SEO project. He had recently dropped from the top organic search position for the keywords that mattered most to page two and he needed help getting that back. He had hired an agency to help him only to see his rankings slide even more. In his mind it was all the agency’s fault. As I investigated his situation what I discovered was an absolute train wreck. His domain has every flavor of spammy link you can imagine pointing at it. Russian link farms, an autoglass company from another state with a bunch of random links at the bottom of their home page, free “SEO directories” and on and on. He had dominated organic search for years by cheating. But now the great Google god is punishing him via an algorithm change. He is scrambling to claw his way back up, hiring and firing agencies and making changes like crazy. In a small way I kind of feel bad for him, seeing his business dry up so suddenly. But what about his competitors? For years they have lost business to a cheater, until now. When I think about it that way, Google is doing the right thing. This guy, we’ll call him Bill to protect his identity, represents the worst side of SEO. Cheats, reaps rewards, gets punished, can’t recover.
In contrast I have had the wonderful experience of working with someone who does SEO the right way. Jeff Jorgenson, who founded Elemental Cremation & Burial, has done everything right from the beginning. His business is the top result for the keywords he cares most about. He understands SEO and how important it is. He has a sustainable strategy that works and he sticks with it. There is absolutely no chance that he will suffer a setback from a Google algorithm change. He is what a successful link builder looks like these days – smart, strategic, ethical and successful.
As I thought about these two very different people and their stories of success and failure it occurred to me that it would be useful draw out the qualities that differentiate them. Because all of us should strive to be more like Jeff and less like “Bill”. Here are 5 characteristics of a “new school” link builder:
- Avoids anything sketchy or spammy – I will admit that I get tempted by short cuts and sketchy ideas from time to time when trying to move the needle for our clients. Sanity always prevails, thankfully, but Jeff would never even be tempted. He is ethical to the core, doing things the right way every time. I believe that people with Jeff’s attitude are going to be the winners with SEO going forward. My challenge is to be more like Jeff.
- Treats PR and SEO as a unified effort – Jeff understands that investment in PR are also investments in SEO. As a result, he invests time in PR activities that might not make sense on a stand alone basis. I am very guilty of shying away from PR opportunities that haven’t appeared to have immediate ROI tied to them throughout my career. Jeff is smarter than that. He is focused on the long view and understands that investments of his time to take interviews and participate in events will pay off for years to come. Again, be more like Jeff, folks. I’m pretty sure “Bill” has never been interviewed or attended and event.
- Creates content his customers are looking for – Jeff doesn’t have the biggest budget in the world, so the content on his website doesn’t compare with with Moz is up to, but what he has created is incredibly useful. As a result he ranks nationally for all sorts of topics. Does traffic from a woman in Minnesota who has a question about cremation help him today? Nope. But guess what, he’s getting that traffic from his service areas too. “Bill” on the other hand has no non-promotional content on his site. If you want to learn about something related to his industry you need to go elsewhere. Stupid, lame and lazy. Again, be more like Jeff.
- Establishes him or herself as a public figure – Jeff gives a really good interview. He cares, he tries, he is informative and he’s funny. People want to include him in their projects because they know he will make them better. A lot of his success comes from leveraging a gift he was born with, charisma. You may not have that gift. As basketball pundits love to say, “you can’t coach height”. But most of his success comes from caring and trying really hard. Even if you are not the orator of the ages or the next Rand Fishkin, if you try as hard as you can people will want you involved in their projects.
- Develops real relationships with real people – A lot of business owners and marketers view PR and SEO as “just another channel”. They want to know what the “best practices” are, what software they can use and how they can outsource the activity to the cheapest resource possible. Jeff doesn’t think that way. He has made the conscious choice to go all in on this for all the right reasons. He loves the business he is in. He genuinely likes and admires the thought leaders in his space and wants to participate in their projects. He wants the truth to come out when stories are written about his industry. There are no shortcuts being taken and he is not looking for specific ROI for every move he makes.
As with most things in life, taking the long view and doing things the right way pays off. Jeff ranks #1 for the keywords he cares about and his business is flourishing. “Bill” is stuck on page 2 and his business is withering. I definitely know who I want to be like when I grow up. And if you are in need of Seattle Cremation services, please look Jeff up!
