We've all been trying to walk the straight and narrow path of relevancy.  We know that search engines - and actual human visitors - will look askance at links to French vacation properties appearing on a page about dog beds.  So we've all been working hard to build relevant links to the sites under our care.  Dog bed links appearing on pet pages is ok, so let's go after those.  SEO links should appear on search marketing related sites - so if we can get a link on there, then all is right with the world.  Unless of course, the bottom of your sector falls and your site plummets right along with the rest - then what are you to do?

In case you missed it, earlier Rand posted an article calling Google out on some minor issues, one of which was a PageRank drop for SEOmoz.org.  None other than Matt Cutts himself very generously posted a number of comments responding to a few of the issues, and in one of them he had this to say:

"We did do a full PageRank update several weeks ago. seomoz.org went down one notch not because of link selling but just because there's less PageRank flowing around in some areas (e.g. search and SEO). Vanessa Fox's site dropped by one as well, and for her as well, it's just a case where less PageRank is flowing in some niches of the net. PageRank doesn't always monotonically increase." 

I had posted a follow-up comment where I said this was the equivalent of my local bookstore shrinking their section of floor space allotted to selling computer books.  Even though more computer books might be sold this year than last, since a smaller percentage of the book-buying population are looking for computer related books, those books are not going to get as much floor space as before.  I don't know if what I said was relevant, but it seemed awfully insightful of me at the time.

In any case, whether it is by penalty, a change in linking strategies across various websites, or just the proliferation of new websites all giving more selective links, this sector wide PageRank drop shows that any site can be vulnerable.  Even if you are a leading authority in your content area, and you've been growing links and content like crazy, if the sector as a whole goes down, you're at risk of going down as well. 

So, what can you do about it?

The quick answer is to minimize the loss by thinking (and linking) outside of your given content areas.  And I propose three quick ways to do this: 

1. Redefine your vertical

This is a fancy way of saying that you should broaden how you define your business.  This was very popular business book fodder back in the 80's and 90's.  It seemed businesses everywhere changed how they thought about their products and services.  Oil companies became energy companies, phone companies became communication companies (and those are now becoming entertainment companies), and shipping companies became logistics companies. 

This wasn't just a change in industry name only.  The most successful companies actually started to provide more value-add services across the scopes of their various industries, so you have to keep that in mind if you do this.

But try to think about your company as operating in a broader spectrum of your current industry.  If you're a search marketing company, could you now define yourself as a marketing company with a search specialty?  Could you then seek out linking and networking relationships with other marketing companies - even those unrelated to search?  Could you then increase your participation in forums and blogs to encompass those that cover marketing?  Or even business-to-business as a whole?  Can you get featured in a business-to-business website or publication?  As long as there is some tangential relevancy, then the more variety in the sites that link to you, the better.    

2.  Build link diversity

I think one of the things that trips up many entry-level SEOs is putting all of our eggs in one or two baskets.  We find a way to build links that works and is relatively easy - mostly because once we've done it the learning curve is gone or very small - and we run with that until it no produces measurable results.  

Then when someone says "Oh, the way to build links is by doing x y and z," we like to say "No, that doesn't work anymore" and we dismiss the whole scheme as dated and flawed.  You can take your pick on whatever the method is: article submissions, directories, blog and forum comments, blog rolls, site-wide credit links, link bait, link buying, etc.

In actuality, the best strategy is one of diversity; you want a little bit of everything in your linking strategy and you don't want it to rely on any one kind of link too heavily.

If you're looking to avoid a potential drop to your PageRank because of drops in those sites that link to you, then cast a wider net when it comes to getting inbound links.  Seek some new directories, blogs, or forums that aren't flooded with similar links.  Repurpose some of your articles or blog entries and submit them to a new and different audience.  The point is to build links that are outside of your normal targeted areas. 

In addition to hedging against drops in traffic or PageRank across a sector, link diversity helps to expose you to a broader audience - thereby increasing the potential for incoming traffic as well.

3.  Offer Content Outside of Your Niche 

You're a Toyota Dealership in Holly Springs, North Carolina.  Being a Toyota Dealership, you can't really redefine your industry too much (transportation maybe?  lifestyle maybe?), and as a blatant commercial enterprise your linking strategies are limited.  What can you do?  My advice would be to offer content outside of your supposed niche (Toyota vehicles, vehicles in general, etc.) and give your customers value in another way. 

Maybe you can offer a guide to living in Holly Springs: the best shopping centers, restaurants, etc.  Or maybe you can offer a guide to the local little leagues sports scene.  Maybe even a guide to the Holly Springs Single Scene.  

This strategy isn't new.  When I was in college a hundred years ago we got free guides all the time - sponsored by the likes of American Express, NationsBank, and yes, even Toyota.  And since the sponsor was paying for them, they were always delivered with a heavy handed message (e.g. in an article about home buying: "A good way to save money for a house is to put 10% of all of your income in a savings account.  NationsBank can arrange to do this if you have your paychecks deposited directly.").  If you can avoid this kind of sales copy disguised as advice, all the better.  Replace it with a few tasteful ads off to the side and some well placed links with anchor text leading back to the main site and you'll probably get better results.

When you're done you can then go out and build links to this new content offering from the community at large:  local schools, chambers of commerce, little league websites, etc.  This isn't link bait as we might currently think of it (scintillating, provocative, cool, digg worthy, etc).  It’s more of the generic white bread link-bait that any of us should be able to pull off.  But most importantly, it is link-bait with a reach that extends out and beyond those sites that would normally link to us.  For more information on how link baiting works, I'd recommend reading over Jane's SMX London presentation--she covers it beautifully. 

Conclusion

We can't forsake relevancy, and we all know that all traffic is not created equal.  Building content and links for our target audience is crucial to converting traffic, and that helps our bottom line. 

However, at the same time, we need protect ourselves from being part of a de facto link silo, where we're so heavily interconnected to our peers, competitors, and industry that everyone is vulnerable to the same changes in traffic, PageRank drops, or whims of the market.