This past January I was sitting at the TRAFFIC conference watching the Test Track presentations taking in the sell and the reactions from the review panel when something that was said really got my attention. Rick Latona was talking about a site he had that he that could never outrank the school sites. Honestly I can’t remember exactly what they were talking about but he mentioned the fact that the schools all linked to these homework sites and that he could never outrank them because they had so many high PR edu links. I thought to myself, “I work with and speak to schools on a weekly basis”. “How do I get links from these guys?”
Rick put an idea in my head and I’ve run with it ever since. I just ask them. Now any time I work with a school I ask them to thank me with a link to the nursery at the school’s site. As much as I love the hand drawn pictures of a tree that says “Thank you” with all the kids signatures, I like the links even more. When I help a professor with research I ask that he credit me on his website which just happens to be on a PR8 edu site. It’s certainly worth a couple free plants I donated to his research. I’ve only been doing this for a few months and certainly has helped. The PR jumped up at the next Google update, and I’m ranking higher for many more terms. Over the next few years it’s certainly possible that I could accrue hundreds of PR8 links to my site and I’ve figured out another way to get some links to my other plant sites.
I’ve never asked friends or others to put links on their sites without the links being put up for a valid reason. Believe me, I know what a PR8 link is worth and it would certainly help my other sites but I don’t want to get anyone in trouble. I can get plenty of links by doing things honestly but to say I haven’t thought about asking for a few favors I would be lying. All my friends work and have access to PR8 edu websites and most likely would throw me a bone if I asked, but I’ve always done things correctly and a few dollars isn’t worth having someone lose their job.
So while Rick may have been trying to help the Test Track person as he discussed their proposed venture, he probably helped little old me sitting in the first row the most. Thanks Rick
Great post Shane – interesting and sensible way to go about building links – just a few PR8 links go a very long way – just check the page you are receiving a link from is the PR8 and not some inner page with a lesser rank.
Hi Shane. This is one of those things that is so simple you don’t think of it. Great angle, and nice to see your ethics at play. Keep rockin’ it out!