Samuel Edwards

Of course, you want to improve your rankings for a specific, target keyword. While some aspects of SEO, including link building and quality content creation take time and effort (which has a huge cost), the following three tips are quick, easy and can yield results VERY quickly. 1. Internal Links Internal link building is perhaps one of best ways to boost and target for specific keywords and the good news is that it is immediately in your control. Don’t be afraid to target specific words or phrases with your internal links. 2. Title, Meta & H1 If your web pages aren’t performing for the keywords you want, try A-B testing tweaks on your titles, meta descriptions and H1 headers to include direct targeting of your keywords. We have seen as much as 80% traffic improvement from this alone. 3. Backlinks From External Sources While less in your control than some of the other sources above, you can still engage in white hat link building services or perform link building outreach on your own to target publishers that are relevant to your niche and who have sufficient domain authority to move the needle. Keep in mind: the highest-volume/value keywords with commercial intent may take years to rank for. And, you may never rank for the short-tail due to incumbent competitors. That said, there are many strategies that can still garner you revenue and leads! All is not lost. But, What Keywords Should You Target? Ultimately, you’ll want to narrow down your target keyword list list to the top potential candidates, zeroing in on a dozen or two strong keywords with the highest potential return. You’ll want to look at three factors here: Relevance. Realistically, how close is this keyword to your client’s products, services, and target niche? This is going to be a subjective question, but you can ask more critical questions here; for example, how far along in the buying cycle would a customer be if they were searching for this? How informed is a customer who is searching for this? Who wouldn’t be searching for this? Volume. The volume is another important factor, as it controls how many people could ultimately be influenced by a high-ranking site for this query. However, there’s one limiting factor that could compromise volume’s effectiveness, and that’s competition. Competition. A keyword with a lot of competition will be nearly impossible to rank for. On the other hand, lower competition keywords tend to carry lower volume. You’ll have to find a balance if you want your strategy to work. Now, let’s consider a few other factors when it comes to targeting specific keywords in SEO. Keyword Density You’ll want to include keywords in your blog posts, and meta data, and really, throughout your site. But thanks to various Google updates, if you include too many, you’ll end up getting your client’s site penalized. What’s the solution? The old method was one of percentage, making sure your targeted keyword phrases don’t appear more than 2-3 percent of the time. However, a better solution is to avoid stuffing keywords at all; the less you think about it, the more naturally you’ll write, and the less you’ll have to worry about a penalty. For starters, only choose keywords that you can work into your content naturally, and then, work them into content titles only when they’re appropriate. From there, they’ll probably appear naturally as you complete the content work. For some keywords, this is easier said than done, but your first job is choosing the right keywords to begin with. Your keyword density should mirror the purpose of the miniskirt: Long-tail Keywords vs. Head Keywords First, you need to know the difference between basic keywords (sometimes called head keywords) and long-tail keywords. These are long phrases, sometimes colloquial, like “where’s the best place for chicken tacos” instead of the basic “chicken tacos.” Generally, the longer the query becomes, the lower the volume and competition become. This makes them easier to rank for but also makes them yield a lower potential traffic rate with a high rank. Compared to head keywords, they offer fast-paced gains, but a lower long-term payoff (assuming you invest sufficiently in the basic keywords). They’re also great material for topic-based optimization. The biggest risk between the short and the long tail in keyword targeting is keyword cannibalization. Why Too Many Keywords is Killing Your SEO Strategy In many ways, “more is better” is an ideology that dominates the SEO world. If you have more high-quality links pointing to your domain, you’ll have a higher authority. If you have more content on your site, you get more attention. In most cases, if you invest more time and money into a strategy, you’re going to see better results. Applying this thinking to the realm of keywords, many businesses select a broad range of subjects and key phrases on which to focus their campaign. However, the “more is better” philosophy can actually be counterproductive when applied in this context; in the majority of cases, focusing on fewer topic keywords is going to yield the best results. There are many factors responsible for this dynamic. Worse still is that AI is changing how SEO works. How Keywords Have Evolved Over Time Today, Google operates under an entirely different algorithm. It uses a process known as “semantic search,” which analyzes the intent behind a search query, then tries to find the most relevant answers for that query. Because of this, being relevant is no longer a matter of direct keyword frequency—for example, to rank in search engines for “cheap sleeping bags,” you no longer need to focus on “cheap sleeping bags” specifically. Instead, you must focus on topics for your content—for example, “sleeping bags” could be a broad topic keyword, and you could use that keyword to generate articles like “The best sleeping bags for camping” or “10 qualities every sleeping bag needs.” Your keyword choice doesn’t have to match on a one-to-one basis; instead you can focus on

There is a common misconception that to rank highly in search engines you have to build lots of backlinks. While the data DOES show that backlinks are a critical factor website rankings, the truth is, there’s no instruction manual on how exactly to outrank your competition that has more content, more brand recognition, more backlinks, and more experience on the web. Ranking without building backlinks is akin to trying to get backlinks without quality content. It’s possible, but not likely. There are metrics that you can learn about through Google though, that will let you rank without backlinks and otherwise outrank your competition for competitive terms, even if they have a much more dominant presence on the web. We’ll break down the strategies on how to rank without backlinks to help you better understand them and so that even without backlinks, you can rank highly in search engines. 1. Be Patient It can take a long time to rank. In our experience, it can take 3 to 5 years for the most competitive keywords. NOT heavily building manual links in the first couple years is actually better for your long term viability. Take our client in the “video production” space. Their website has only had 81 referring domains over the last four years. We spent most of our SEO services budget tuning pages, optimizing for visitors and mostly doing on-page SEO (more on this below). The result: The company now outranks its top competitor for the industry’s most coveted keyword, all by building a very strategic number of inbound links.  Could they have gotten their faster if they had built links aggressively over that time period?  Maybe. It depends on the execution. Are they ranking for long tail keywords?  Absolutely. When you are able to capture the money terms by SEO tuning, the long tail keywords take care of themselves. SEO ain’t a microwave, it’s an slow cooker. As such, if you’re a new site, you should plan on being in it for the long game. Build links to increase organic traffic, but remember links can hurt if not done with the right strategy. 2. Internal Links are Underutilized What we mean by this is using internal links to point people towards the most important web pages on your site. Google sees large numbers of internal links pointing to a particular page as that page being more relevant and thus Google tries to rank it higher. Using lots of internal links to a target page and the right content, using the anchor text of your target keyword, shows its importance to you and helps to drive search engine traffic. Google sees this as a positive sign of content quality and content relevance. It’s basically about using what you already have available to make yourself rank higher. Internal links are free while the right inbound links can be extremely expensive and time-consuming. We typically advise internal link building in the following ways: Focus on your money terms first, using anchor text that aligns with search results, search volume and cost per click metrics that will drive leads and sales Don’t worry too much about over-optimizing for anchor text on-site. You can certainly get in trouble if too many of your off-site links have the same anchors, your internal links can be heavily weighted toward your target keywords. Make sure all of your most important web pages have multiple (if not many more) internal links Make sure the largest volume of your internal links point to the web pages you want to rank, including those with the highest search volume and cost per click from your keyword research. 3. On-Page SEO Tuning The second most underutilized tactic for ranking in search engines without backlinks is using a good on page SEO strategy as well as technical SEO. The great thing about on page SEO is that it’s inexpensive and completely within your control. Focus on things like the following: Optimize your title tag, H1 tag & meta description. Make sure you have enough H1-H6 tags, the right keywords in your title tags and meta descriptions and that they’re fully diversified. Keep URLs and titles, straight, short, to the point and fully optimized. Make sure your URL strings target high volume keywords, but that your initial strategy is aimed at low competition keywords until your site is fully vested. Optimize images, including alt text and exif data Add schema markup to pages Place outbound, external backlinks to other quality resources Implement and optimize your sitemap and overall site structure for crawlers Install an SSL certificate Make sure you have Google Analytics and Google Search Console fully implemented Focus on page speed, load speed and other Core Web Vitals (CWV) Optimize for local SEO, including Google Maps Get the right target keyword density comparable to other top-ranking web pages Disambiguate your content with the right entity keywords and semantic keywords. Make sure your bounce rates are low and dwell time is high. This will throw off the right signal for the particular keyword rankings to the search engines as long as you are able to nail user search intent. These on page SEO items represent very low-hanging fruit in your overall SEO strategy. We discuss these and others in our complete on-page SEO guide here. 4. User Data is Key Everyone pretty much knows by now that Google controls the search engine market and that user experience is one of the main ways they judge the value and ranking of your site. Many sites use a lot of backlinks to prove their domain authority on a subject and generate traffic from external links and external sources, but that doesn’t mean they provide the best user experience or even that they fully understand their audience. Google Analytics provides all the data you need about user experience to optimize your site so that users click on links to your site, stay on the site longer and click to other pages on your site to acquire

What happens when someone runs a Google search for your brand, industry, product, or service? Which results pop up in the Google search results page? Is your website ranking in the top position(s)…or has the competition laid claim to these top results? These might sound like questions of vanity, or they may feel irrelevant in a world of social media marketing and paid traffic, but the reality is that organic traffic from search engines is still the most powerful, cost-effective, and sustainable form of traffic on the internet. And if you aren’t ranking on page one of Google for target search terms, it means one of your competitors is. And that’s bad. Because 31.73 percent of all clicks go to the search result in position number one. Another 24.71 percent of clicks go to the search result in position two. Results three, four, and five grab 18.66 percent, 13.60 percent, and 9.51 percent, respectively. If you’re doing your math at home, the top three Google search results get 75 percent of all clicks. To further compound the importance of ranking well, consider that almost nobody visits the second page of Google results. And if they do, they aren’t clicking! (Just 0.78 percent – that’s less than 1 percent – click on a result from page two.) Top Qualities of a Great SEO Company Characteristics of the best SEO companies include conducting a comprehensive website audit to identify areas for improvement, developing a customized strategy based on your business goals and target audience, providing regular and transparent reporting on your website’s performance and rankings, using ethical and up-to-date SEO techniques to optimize your website’s content, structure, and links, and offering ongoing support and maintenance to ensure long-term success in search engine rankings. All of that to say this… You can’t afford to ignore search engine optimization (SEO) any longer. And while there are certainly some SEO and link building techniques and strategies that can be implemented on a DIY basis, you’re much better off outsourcing your SEO so that you can focus on the core tasks of your business. But therein lies the problem. Your digital marketing agency is not the only one on the market, but how do you know which one to pick? In this article, we’re going to attempt to clear the air for you a bit by showing you precisely what sets the best SEO companies apart from the rest of the competition. In other words, we’re going to highlight the features and characteristics that make the top one percent of digital marketing agencies different. Then, based on this information, you can make a more educated hiring decision. How to Cut Through the Noise and Find the Best SEO Company Before digging into the best search engine optimization company characteristics, it’s important that we set the table a little more for you. Because we’d be doing you a disservice not to mention the fact that this is an incredibly crowded market. In the early 2000s, when Google was first rising to prominence and small businesses were beginning to develop some awareness for the importance of having a web presence, the SEO industry went from a simmering little industry to a boiling pot of potential. Savvy entrepreneurs and digital marketers saw an opening and they took it. With low barriers to entry and relatively few industry regulations, entrepreneurs who understood how the search engines worked started selling SEO service. And because Google was still relatively unsophisticated (compared to today), it was easy to manipulate the algorithms and get quick results for clients. A company would come to a small business and tell them that they could get them on page one for an important keyword, and within just a few weeks that’s precisely where they’d be. Many SEO agencies were seen as miracle workers…but that wasn’t the case. In reality, most of these early digital marketing services were simply gaming the system. They didn’t really understand how search algorithms worked or the understanding of developing sound digital marketing strategies that would stand the test of time. They were simply in it for a quick win here and there. They used spammy practices and took advantage of low hanging fruit. (Which Google eventually caught on to and nixed and/or penalized.) As the SEO industry has grown and matured, it’s become more challenging to rank on page one. Despite this, the number of SEO agencies, and “experts” offering freelance SEO services has ballooned. It’s become an oversaturated industry with high competition, which has simply created more noise for clients, who are uncertain of who to work with in the first place. If you want to find the best seo company, it’s almost impossible to know where to start. Do you run a Google search? Do you browse social media? Do you work your professional network and search for referrals? There’s so much noise – and so few qualified options – that many businesses give up before they even start. They push SEO to the side and continue investing in other areas, like social media marketing and paid traffic. And while there’s nothing wrong with this, it simply makes the problem worse. Now is the time to invest in SEO. It’s not getting any easier to rank for high-level keywords, but it is becoming more important. And we’re going to show you how to cut through the noise, so that you can overcome the issue that so many of your peers have: Selecting the best SEO company to work with. 17 Characteristics and Features of the Best SEO Companies What makes the difference between an average search engine optimization company and one of the best SEO companies? It’s a question that we’ve all contemplated before. And it’s a question that we’re going to answer for you in detail. In no particular order, here’s what makes up the DNA of the best SEO agencies in our industry: 1. Honesty and Transparency Let’s start with two characteristics that aren’t traditionally keystones of the

Legal SEO and link building have seen dramatic shifts, particularly with the emergence of generative AI in search engines. For law firms and attorneys, strategizing with these trends in mind will only enhance online marketing ROI. These 6 Legal Marketing Trends Are Hot For law firms, digital marketing can be more challenging than it is in other businesses and industries. This is true for a number of reasons: Restrictions and regulations. For many decades, law firm marketing and promotion was illegal. And while that all changed with Bates vs. State Bar of Arizona in 1977, there are still plenty of restrictions and regulations regarding what your law firm can say and do in marketing and advertising. Heavy competition. The competition is overwhelmingly stiff in the legal industry. Some law firms regularly spend $100,000 on PPC ads every month. For smaller firms, this creates some challenges with how to stand out on a limited budget. Subject matter. Marketing legal services is a little bit harder than marketing the latest video game. People only need your services when a specific situation arises. This means you have to be more strategic with how you target your audience. Yet despite these challenges and constraints, the best law firms consistently point back to marketing as one of their keys to success. They’ll also tell you that it’s important to stay up to date on the latest trends. In the world of digital marketing, trends can come and go in a matter of weeks. So rather than focusing on quick tricks and questionable hacks, we’re going to drill down and emphasize the biggest legal marketing trends of the year that are both effective and sustainable. Take a look: 1. Quality Content Content will always be the fuel that keeps a firm’s marketing engine running. But today’s trend is no longer about quantity of content, but quality. Law firms are waking up to the idea that it’s better to invest in a few quality pieces of content each quarter than dozens of shallow pieces that generate minimal results. In particular, law firms should focus on developing sticky, resourceful content that is useful to the reader – i.e. a prospective client. Content marketing isn’t just about plugging keywords into your website to generate better search rankings. Today’s content needs to satisfy both humans and search crawlers – with the emphasis on the former. More and more of quality content includes video marketing and video production. In fact, we almost considered adding video marketing as a separate #6 to our list of top legal marketing trends. 2. Link Building Quality content and link building go hand in hand. In order to increase your law firm’s online visibility, you have to develop content that’s conducive to backlinks. Legal link building is one-part relationships and one-part content development. You need the right relationships with other bloggers, website owners, journalists, and industry insiders to gain access to their publishing platforms. You also need the right content so that people outside of your immediate network naturally link back to your website and feed you “SEO juice.” 3. Semantic Search and SEO SEO has evolved tremendously over the past five years, yet most law firms are still stuck in the past. Today’s most successful firms have recognized this shift and are now focused on semantic search. Semantic search is a search engine’s way of generating the most natural and contextual results for queries. Instead of using a basic algorithm to deliver results that rank for cut and dry keywords, semantic search accounts for things like user intent and the relationship between words. In essence, it’s Google’s attempt to understand natural language like any human would. For law firms, the shift to semantic search is very important. The impact is far-reaching, but let’s focus on one key element: voice search. With the rise of Siri, Alexa, Cortana, and other AI-assistants, the number of voice searches has risen dramatically in recent months. In fact, 33 percent of high-income households now use voice search “frequently” or “very frequently.” By optimizing your content marketing to account for semantic search habits – i.e. making it more conversational – you can tap into these searches. 4. In-Person Events According to the most recent Bloomberg Law and the Legal Marketing Association study, nothing replaces face-to-face time with clients. Both legal marketing professionals and attorneys rank firm-hosted events and client meetings as the most effective tactics for generating new business. While social media and digital content are primary tools for law firm marketing, make sure you don’t forget about the value of meeting prospects in person and directly communicating with your clients. Try to schedule at least one in-person event every quarter. 5. Podcast Interviews Podcasts are extremely popular right now. And because of the unique way in which they communicate to people, they represent a complementary marketing medium for law firms that are seeking increased exposure and relatability. You don’t necessarily need to launch your own podcast. In fact, the better strategy is to find out which podcasts are most popular among your target audience and to look for opportunities to intersect. Advertising is one option, but an even better approach is to offer yourself up as an interviewee or resource for the show. When a podcaster interviews you on their show, you get the benefit of speaking to thousands of people in a very direct manner. You’ll also enjoy the added perk of a backlinks service for your website through the promotion of the podcast episode (perhaps through social media platforms like Facebook and Linkedin). 6. Chatbots, GPT and Artificial Intelligence This post would certainly not be complete without some mention of ChatGPT and AI. Legal marketing professionals have already begun to leverage generative AI for everything from blog post title ideas to audio voiceovers for podcasts. Marketing Data Analytics and Insights: AI tools can analyze vast amounts of data to identify market trends, client preferences, and competitive landscapes, helping lawyers make informed marketing decisions. Targeted Advertising: AI enables personalized

At this point, AI is nothing new. We’ve had AI tools for many years now, and we’ve had a couple of years to get used to generative AI. But now, we’re entering a new generation of AI tools for business. Most notably, agentic AI is starting to make waves. In the white label SEO world, professionals are starting to take note. Could agentic AI eventually replace white label SEO altogether? And if so, what would that look like? A Primer on White Label SEO White label SEO is a collection of services related to search engine optimization (SEO), but provided in a white label capacity. Typically, the white label SEO partner takes care of some collection of SEO-related responsibilities, including but not necessarily limited to content marketing, link building, and technical optimization. The person or entity enlisting these surfaces gets to market them as their own, taking advantage of the white label to brand them however they see fit. The end client gets access to superb SEO services. The agency or firm branding those services gets to take credit for the quality work and avoid hemorrhaging resources in pursuit of these strategies on their own. And of course, the white label service provider gets to make a profit without ever interacting with the end client directly. Hypothetically, it’s an arrangement that works for all parties. What Is Agentic AI? What exactly is agentic AI? Agentic AI utilizes the most recent, most sophisticated forms of AI technology to tackle a wide range of responsibilities. In most applications, agentic AI is more focused on making decisions and automating processes than it is responding to individual prompts. In a sense, most of us have already had experiences with agentic AI. Personal digital assistants, like Siri or Cortana, are early examples of agentic AI in practice. Typically, agentic AI focuses on tasks and objectives, and it can help you with innovation, decision making, automation, and much more. Agentic AI vs. Generative AI Agentic AI and generative AI are similar in some ways, but we should think of these as discrete technologies. Generative AI typically focuses on things like:       Content generation. Most people are familiar with generative AI for its ability to generate content, including written content, images, and even videos. Although it’s possible for agentic AI to pursue these as goals, content generation isn’t its primary purpose.       Data analytics. Generative AI is also extremely skilled when it comes to processing data and analyzing it. Again, agentic AI can do this, but generative AI focuses more concretely on crunching numbers than it does on forming conclusions or making decisions.       Personalization. Generative AI is also very good at personalization. If you want to rewrite a swath of content with a different tone or purpose, or if you want to appeal to specific individuals, it’s an incredible tool.       Adaptability according to prompts. In most cases, generative AI is almost entirely dependent on user prompts. In the hands of a skilled user, it’s possible to guide and refine the results of generative AI by issuing modifying prompts and subsequent adjustments.  Agentic AI is different, in that it focuses on things like:       Decision making. Unlike generative AI, agentic AI has the ability to reason and sort through complex ideas. It’s not truly conscious or intelligent, but it can use sophisticated processes to make intelligent decisions. It gets even better when properly trained and guided.       Problem solving. Agentic AI is also formulated to assist with problem solving. Generative AI might be good at summarizing complicated information or restating things in creative ways, but it’s not especially skilled at helping you think through problems or brainstorm solutions. Agentic AI attempts to break from this, offering support for a variety of problem solving efforts.       Total autonomy. When working with generative AI, users have to issue a number of successive prompts. Without sufficient prompts, generative AI can do basically nothing. However, agentic AI is differentiated because it can function almost totally autonomously. Once it’s given an objective or directive, it can take care of the rest on its own.       Conversational interactions. Although generative AI does offer some kinds of conversational interactions, agentic AI is much more forward and formal with this aspect. Some agentic AI systems even attempt to replicate the experience of having a personal assistant or collaborator.       Big picture planning. Finally, agentic AI is exceptionally good when it comes to big picture planning. Most CEOs and similarly authoritative decision makers wouldn’t deign to use generative AI as a tool to improve their decision making or long-term planning – but they might use a sufficiently powerful agentic AI tool. The Current State of Agentic AI Agentic AI isn’t perfect, and it’s still undergoing rapid development, but even in its current state, it’s useful in a variety of applications, such as:       Customer service. One of the most common ways for businesses to use agentic AI is to provide customer service. In this way, agentic AI functions as a kind of digital customer service representative, greatly improving upon what previous generations of chatbots have been able to do.       Workflow/process automation. Agentic AI is also useful for improving workflows, automating processes, and planning campaigns. Already, you can probably see why agentic AI is so useful in the realm of SEO. It can even hypothetically help you find free link building opportunities – and take advantage of them.       Risk management. Some business leaders have latched on to agentic AI because of its utility and risk management. With the help of the data processing and objective reasoning of these types of tools, business leaders can do a much better job assessing risks, catching fraud, and generally managing and mitigating potential issues.       Decision making. And of course, most agentic AI proponents use this technology for improved decision making.

You’re ready to hire a link building service. Cool. But wait. These guys over here are charging $1,000 per link and those guys over there are promising a dozen links for $50. Another group requires a minimum link building outreach retainer of $5k/mo. Damn. The coupon-clipping section of your brain is pushing you to find the cheapest services possible. But the Rolex-wearing section of your brain is tingling at the perceived luxury of a more expensive service. We’ve all been there. There’s a fundamental dilemma here, and it’s not just the tug-of-war between the competing financial intuitions in your head. There may be some irrational variables in play, but in link building and guest posting, you often get what you pay for. So how can you make sure you’re getting high quality links without breaking the bank? What should you really be paying for link building services? Spoiler: Good, High Quality Backlinks are NOT Cheap Okay, let’s approach this from a high level first, and then start pinching pennies. Link building is expensive. It just is. Let’s look at some of the details that make it expensive. Cost of keyword research and strategy There are some great keyword research tools out there, but… it’s just such a pain. Generating ideas, digging through data, assembling reports, looking at the competition, and working with version after version… it’s super time-consuming. Part of what you’re paying (or willing to pay for SEO) for is the research and high-level strategy necessary to make your campaign work. And remember, most of these reputable link building vendors have years, if not decades of combined experience to make those strategies even more valuable. Content creation pricing Good links need content. You can’t just spam your links on every forum and blog you can find and expect to get a boost to your domain authority. You need to house them in carefully crafted, unique, engaging content. Depending on the publisher, these pieces range in the thousands of words, contain lots of expertly-researched details, and even have touches of humor. Do you know how hard it is to work humor into an article about window replacement? You can’t just jamb it in. In any case, good content takes a long time, and great content takes even longer, especially if you’re pitching the idea of providing a guest post to other high quality websites. You’re paying not just for the writing service, but also the revising, the editing, the back-and-forth consultations with the publication editor, and the finishing touches that take it live. Backlink cost from longstanding publisher relationships Speaking of publishers, you’re also paying for the long-term relationships this link building agency has established. Keep in mind these are not “paid links” in the direct sense, but indirect paid links through bridging the gap quick on link placement relationships with the right partner. Domain authority is calculated in large part based on the authority of referring links. In other words, the more authoritative the publisher is, the more valuable the link will be. The problem? The more authoritative the publisher is, the harder it is to get featured. Think of authority as higher and higher walls, keeping out unknown parties. Link building agencies often spend time building better relationships with these fortresses, so they have a much easier time publishing new work. It’s like the Trojan horse that gets you past the walls—except way less sneaky and instead of a horse, it’s a smartly written opinion piece. Nurturing and follow-through Link building strategies also require finesse when it comes to nurturing and ongoing follow-through. Published pieces sometimes need follow-ups and monitoring to make sure they go live and stay active. It takes ongoing analytics and observations to improve your approach over time. Expected losses on costly link building  In link building, things go wrong, and probably more often than agencies want to admit. You’ll have links removed. You’ll have publishers fall through. You’ll have pieces that get stuck in development hell. Are these mistakes? Sometimes. But most of the time, they’re expected losses—and a necessary cost of doing business. Accordingly, they’re worked into the bottom-line costs. Mobile app addictions Link builders are known compulsive spenders on mobile app microtransactions. They need your help to fund their addictions! (Just kidding. Bonafide link builders don’t have time for such trivialities. They have a Terminator-like focus on content). So yeah, all of a sudden it starts making sense that link building prices can range in the hundreds to thousands of dollars per link. But [Fill-in-the-Trendy-Brand-Name-Here] Promised They Could Get Me Links for Cheap! You know what? They probably can. But they’re not the links you’re looking for. Oftentimes, cheap links are a red flag that what you’re about to engage in is a link scheme. Let’s consult Google on the matter: Any links intended to manipulate PageRank or a site’s ranking in Google search results may be considered part of a link scheme and a violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. This includes any behavior that manipulates links to your site or outgoing links from your site. They go on to list examples, like directly buying a link that passes PageRank, exchanging links excessively, automated link building techniques, or bullying people into building links with contracts or terms of service. For a link building strategy to be cheap, it has to bypass the time-consuming and costly elements we listed in the previous section. And it usually means the link isn’t valuable, in one or more of the following ways: The content sucks. The linking sites are low-authority. The links are being cheaply spammed. The links are built with automation tools. The links aren’t even real. Yes, seriously, we’ve seen some people stuck in this position. In most cases, this is worse than neutral. Being part of a link scheme or building bad links to your site can actually hurt your domain authority, or result in a penalty that compromises your ability to rank. Yikes. So the bottom line here is that if it sounds too good to be