What are some of your best tips, strategies or resources for link building?

[TRICORSystems]

I currently work for a contract manufacturing company so when I think about building links it seems as if it's going to be a daunting task. Mainly because any kind of content that you can come up with is rather dry. When I go about searching for links I usually run into a lot of directories that charge anywhere between $25-$50 for a listing.

I've had a hard time convincing marketing that we should start a blog which may be a good way to build some links if we come up with quality posts but those posts may be few and far inbetween.

Does anybody have any recommendations for building links for this type of company or subject matter?

Also, and I'm sure we have all heard this. When I mentioned the fact that we should be building some quality links to the site marketing first asked why and then commented "Well that shouldn't take you too long". Why is it so difficult to get management to accept the fact that managing a website is an ongoing and constantly changing process that involves research and experimentation?

[TRICORSystems]

Gyi Tsakalakis

I actually went to management with three sites that ranked on page one of Google for our most important keyword and asked them to verify that the companies were our competition. Management countered me by printing out some pages from a competitor that they knew of but ranked no where near the top of Google. So I think they kind of missed the point of what I was trying to prove. So I've had some difficulty even getting off the ground.

[Thos003]

That's a lot easier to make a connection than say a travel website... What, you don't want your hotel to associated with roaches?

[EGOL]

They don't understand that top rankings in money SERPs are usually deliberately done and highly competitive.  It's just like war!

[Gyi]

Why is it so difficult to get management to accept the fact that managing a website is an ongoing and constantly changing process that involves research and experimentation?

+1 for competitive analysis. Show your client what their competitors are doing and what impact their efforts are having. In my experience, even if they don't quite "get it", they will be forced to acknowledge that their competitors are, and that can be enough to drive them to understand this. Especially when you can show changes over time.

[SteveOllington]

You've got stuff on the blog about humanely dealing with pests, and about how pest control is better than exterminators... along with saying annihilation of the pests isn't what you want, so maybe...

http://arachnophiliac.info/burrow/how_to_get_rid_of_spiders.htm

Worth a try

[Thos003]

Letting like minded link friendly people know that you have a site you'd like links for. Honestly, be direct and ask. I am pretty sure I could find you a link if I knew what site you wanted it to and as long as it's not a bad neighborhood.

This may not be the best place to try it but let's see... Can anyone here find a me a link for www.BlogPestControl.com?

Well if it doesn't work here try Twitter. Twitter is a great link building tool.... not Tweets but DMs. Feel free to DM me your website.

[EGOL]

That PowerPoint presentation sounds like a good idea.

If you can include data about your competitors.... about how they have a ton of links, busy blogs, tons of content. etc.  They have been investing in this stuff for at least ten years and you are playing catch-up.

Also let them know about SEOMoz and other training that you can attend. They are asking you to go out and fight the heavyweights in your SEO niche.  Would they ask you to go into the ring with the boxing heavyweight champion without a lot of training, investment and preparation.  They wouldn't. This isn't any different.

At the places I have worked I would have to be careful about getting the boss into a training session like this.  It has to start out punching with vital information and stay that way to the end or he would get itchy.    I think that it would be better to shoot for a short presentation that would put seeds in his mind and make him ask for more rather than try to get him for two hours.   Just sayin' how things were were I used to work - your boss might be different.

[TRICORSystems]

Thanks for your response.  I have been spending some of my own time gathering some data on our current rankings for some our most important keywords. I'm happy to say that some time that I've spent recently on some on page optimization have increased our rankings for some keyterms. But now it's time to push the site to page one of Google instead of page 2-3-4 or 5.

You hit the nail on the head regarding my current situation. A very small amount of my time is spent managing the website but I feel as if it should be a full time position. Instead of letting it sit and HOPE that people will visit and contact us, we need to spend more time climbing the ranking and then experimenting with landing pages to get visitors to convert.

Perhaps a power point presentation with graphs, historical rankings and suggestions and what to do moving forward is in order?

[EGOL]

Why is it so difficult to get management to accept the fact that managing a website is an ongoing and constantly changing process that involves research and experimentation?

I think that a lot of people in your position have the additional job of educating other key people in the company about how search engines work.   Without that they will think that all you have to do is tweak the pages and the rankings will rise.  But, as you know, SEO is a "battle of resources" and those resources can include: content, links, social presence, education, allies, time and more.  Since those resources all cost money then you have to educate them to get the allocation.   If you don't do that then they will think that you are a failure at tweaking and hire someone else.  So, this education is of jugular importance to your status at the company and your recommendations when you leave.