I first wrote this after being asked to do the final interview for an SEO intern. The conversation touched a nerve. I was tired of hearing search work reduced to a continuing supply of backlinks, as though the business and its customers were an inconvenient distraction from the link count.
The word “backlinks” still makes me lose my shit when it is offered as the whole strategy. Earned links have a place, and a substantial site can need ongoing technical and content work. Finishing the title tags does not make that work disappear.[1]
If nobody can explain why the work is useful beyond “more backlinks”, ask a few more questions before paying for it.
Links are not the enemy
A relevant publication can link to useful work. A partner can point customers towards a service that belongs in the conversation. Someone can cite an original explanation or source.
The issue is manufacturing links mainly to manipulate search rankings. Google's policies specifically address link spam, including certain paid placements, excessive exchanges and automated creation.[2]
A box ticked in a monthly spreadsheet is not evidence that a placement was appropriate, credible or seen by anybody who matters to the business.
What I meant by making market noise
I used the phrase to describe doing enough worthwhile work in the world that people have a reason to notice and talk about the business.
That can involve a useful article, a relevant introduction, an event, advertising or an idea worth sharing. Those activities should make sense as marketing, not exist only as an indirect attempt to influence a search system.
Imagine a new business running social ads and then putting up a roadside billboard. Either might get people talking. Neither gives you a neat spreadsheet proof that a later rise in direct traffic came from the billboard or that paid social lifted organic rankings.
You need appropriate evidence before assigning those outcomes. A plausible story is still a story.
Do the foundations, then keep doing the useful work
Make the site accessible to search engines and usable for people. Explain the offer. Organise the content. Keep the important information accurate. Those foundations need maintaining, particularly as a site changes.
Then ask what your business can contribute beyond another rewritten version of the same advice. What have you learnt? What can you show? What question can you answer properly? Where would that contribution be relevant?
Promoting worthwhile work is not shameful. Treating every person and publication as a source of ranking points is what makes the process tedious.
Ask what the specialist is actually proposing
A good SEO specialist should be able to explain the problem, the work, its limits and how progress will be assessed. That might involve technical fixes or content gaps that have nothing to do with acquiring links.
Awove does not sell SEO retainers. Our role is the brand, creative thinking and website experience, alongside the appropriate specialists where they are needed.
Quit treating backlinks as the whole strategy. Give the business something worth saying, build a site that supports it and ask for evidence when someone promises results.