Outsourcing link building. I hate it. You know the emails, the offers, the failed promises, the lies, etc.

Typical Ad: Get 300 one-way links for $29.95.

Some fall for it, and end up getting garbage links and the frustration mounts. The most recent scam that continues to trick Webmasters is the One-Way Links offer. We all know that directory submission is dead because Google has killed off the majority of the secondary directories as spam and they no longer count links from them. So you rarely, if ever, see ads for submission to 2,000 directories. However, you see offers for 2,000 one-way text links.

Guess what? They are the same offer.

How they get you is your definition of a one-way link is a link in an quality article or reference section pointing back to your page. But reality is the one-way link is just a directory listing and 9/10 that page isnt even indexed by Google.

Benefit: None

How can you protect yourself? First, let me share with you briefly some testing that I have done and some solutions that I have come up with.

Now, hiring someone to do your link building is fine – as long as they share your vision of what you want to accomplish. The dirty area is when companies offer to build links for you by package, or pay per link as what you are getting isnt what you wanted. And each week that goes by the business gets more dirty too. Usually they own a network of sites, and they are generally link farms, not indexed by Google or have little to no authority online.

Here is the problem. Most webmasters have been brainwashed to believe that they need hundreds or thousands of links in order to climb the rankings in the search engines. Thats just not the case. What you need are highly targeted, very high quality links, placed in the right spot on the page, and targeting the right anchor text.

Where do you start? Your first issue at hand is to understand what anchor text you want to use. You see, too many go after a very generic anchor text like buy car and get nailed with the -30 or -950 penalties. Remember, Google knows what each keyword phrases value is because of AdWords, and the high value keywords are the ones that get those most attention. But think about it, if someone types in buy car are they really looking to buy? It is doubtful. What car do they want? What style? What color? What price range? What location? See the problem? Stop focusing on the keywords at the wrong end of the buying cycle. You want the keywords where people are buying.

Ranking means nothing. Traffic means nothing. Conversion means everything.

So, what do you do next? You want to test and test with PPC. See which keywords convert well. This is a concept that very few marketers understand. Instead of looking at which keywords get the most searches, look at the keywords that bring the most buyers! Here is the quick rundown of the process after you have run your PPC test campaign:

1. The best keyword phrases to target are those that convert well and are $4.00 or more per click on AdWords. The second group are those that are between $1.50 – $4.00. And the bottom ones are those that are $0.90 – $1.50. Keywords that convert well that are below $0.90 per click are those that you want to just pay for, while you work on the big ones. Remember, the big keywords tend to have a trickle down effect on the long tail keyword phrases. You want to start at the top and work your way down.

2. Analyze the top ten organic sites in Google.

3. The back links of the sites ranking in the top ten should be reviewed and studied using Site Explorer in Yahoo! (dont use the Google backlinks, the information is not accurate).

4. Look for unknown directories, press release areas, forum postings, articles distribution areas, hidden gems, etc.

5. Target all the links that are quality that the top ten sites are linking to. Study them to see if you want to be listed there as well. You can even call the Webmasters and tell them why it makes more sense to link to you instead of your competitor. Of course, if needed, you can offer to sponsor their site for a few months get the relationship rolling. Good things happen with good relationships.

Why do you target keywords that are high cost per click? Easy. Lets say that a keyword that you tested was $4.00 per click, and in your test, it converted good. Well, researching this, you realize that if you had the #1 listing, you could potentially get 5,000 visitors to your site a month. Simple math tells you that would be a $20,000 spend per month, which may be outside your budget.

If you had the #1 ranking organically for that keyword phrase, you probably wouldnt get 5,000 visitors, but you would probably get about half that and other spill over traffic from other phrases that you would rank well for, should fill in the gap. The point is, you can see what your site could do in terms of convertible traffic. All you need is the top ranking. If you kept conservative, and invested 1/10th the spend, or $2,000.00 per month, on a paid link/directory campaign, along with other SEO and SEM methods, what do you think your results would be at the end of 90 days? I would estimate that you would be in the top ten, possibly top three, and your traffic and conversions would be solid.

How do you know the conversions will be solid? Easy. Because you tested the keywords first via PPC and you know this keyword converts and makes you money.

Did you see how that worked? Of course I am being very simplistic in describing this, but this should make sense to you how this is rolled out and how you use testing to uncover the right keyword phrases to target for your SEO and link campaigns. That is the issue for most SEOs and webmasters. The wrong keywords are often targeted.

* In the late 90s, the keywords that were targeted didnt have traffic, therefore failed.
* Early in this decade with the introduction of Wordtracker and other keyword tools, we could target keywords that drove traffic. But sites still failed because they didnt target keywords that sold.
* Now, you have many keyword research tools and the understanding to focus on keywords that sell.

It is very basic. The main difference between a successful business and a failed one is the successful one was profitable. Seriously, it is that simple. Focusing on keywords in your SEO campaigns that convert, will allow you to be more profitable, therefore a higher rate of success.

Lets go back to linking. Should your goal be several hundred links per month? No. Start small. Shoot for ten quality link a day. Thats it. Just ten. In my testing, doing this far outpaces any link building package you get, and it gets both traffic and good link reputation to your site. Since you are following the heels of the top ten sites, if you add in a few paid links, and some paid directories, you will be in great shape. As you get better at the process, you can add more links per day. The key is consistency and targeting quality. Use the top sites as your measuring stick.

Remember the golden rule of business: Spend 50% of your time analyzing your competition and the other 50% looking for ways to do it better. You already can see how the #1 site got there, just look at the blue print (back links in Yahoo) and follow the path.

A parting shot on link programs, link groups, etc. The reason why these struggle is due to the law of attraction. You see, the Webmaster who is new or desperate who sends out a couple hundred thousand spam emails requesting a link exchange will only attract equally new or desperate Webmasters to reply to his request. They exchange links and because they both have pathetic sites, they both just sit there at the bottom of the results and rot.

Why is this true?

When is the last time you received a link exchange email from CNN or Google? Exactly. Those who have successful and authoritative sites dont go around begging for links. They get them and you can too.