In my travels within the heavily forested circles of Search Marketing I have noticed that agencies act as various tribes, fiercely guarding the heavenly manna of insider information regarding their SEO and Link Building rituals. It has been difficult to pin down exactly what would be construed as the “right” way to build links. There are the tidbits of information squeaked out on stage at conferences of what has been deemed safe to share with other tribes. They are, to say the very least, watered down versions of white hat blather because everyone knows that Matt Cutts is Big Brother. And, much like Santa Claus, he knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be white-hat for goodness sake. I’ve been inside a few agency-level and in-house Search Marketing departments, and armed with no less than a machete and a camel pack I have discovered that you can stereotype Link Building much in the same way that you can people, and there are essentially three tribes of Link Builders:

Cut-And-Run Renters

In this particular tribe of Link Builders, the main goal is to divvy up the client’s budget so that a percentage each month is put towards renting links from brokers (you and I both know who they are, so don’t make me name them). Nothing against sites such as these, they have their purpose and they do it well, however in the long term this method in no way benefits the client. At a certain point, you will run out of budget and will no longer be able to add new rented links to your stable of acquired content, which will vary in quality (and frankly, English-speaking abilities).

At that point you can either A) stop link building and focus the remainder of your budget on doing real SEO work, or B) begin phase two known as “link maintenance”, essentially some BS you toss to your client meaning you go back, look at the links you already have and possibly try to find a way to make them better.

When the client eventually tires of your pussy-footing around their link progress (or complete lack thereof) they will leave your services, at which time you stop paying for those rented links and their rankings crash dramatically. Your answer: “Well, your rankings dropped because you stopped doing SEO – Guess you really needed us after all.” Bad Link Builder, Bad! I hope someone rubs your nose in it so you know exactly what you have done wrong and then sends you to bed without dinner.

Wheeler-Dealers

Wheeler-Dealers are the kind of Link Builders who acquired dozens, if not hundreds, of domains on which they plop a mediocre blog on various topics and outsource articles and various content to populate said blogs. They can then go into their own sites and drop semi-targeted, permanent links for their clients. These sites may receive only the bare minimum of their own link building, meaning their authority will be less than stellar and the quality of the link provided to the customer is questionable at best. They also are very often inter-linked between the agency’s other blogs, creating a link wheel of doom that will eventually be discovered by Google and punished severely. This avenue of link building is enticing because the cost is relatively low – the immediate output to purchase domains, (which you can get amazing deals on when you buy in bulk, by the way), and then regular monthly upkeep either by in-house content writers or outsourced through various methods. It also is an unending venue for links. Run out of relevant domains? Just buy a few more and start all over again. Beneficial to the client? Moderately. Are there better ways to acquire juicy, grade-A quality links? Absolutely.

Dudley-Do-Righters

This is a tribe of Link Builders that we all wish we could be. They take on only high-budget clientele who have fascinating and relevant businesses and content that every average American would sell their adorable chopstick-using kittens to link to. Their content practically does its own link building it is so damn interesting. The products they sell are so relevant and full of statistical golden nuggets that the infographics are featured on CNN as a reliable source of information in ways that the public can easily digest. Any link builder worth their yearly salary could browse through this customer’s extensive catalogue of backlinks, request certain anchor text changes, give a better landing page and BOOM, your monthly allotment of link building hours has been met and the customer could not be happier. This, ladies and jelly-spoons, is what I call an imaginary Link Builder. This is the link building that all the agencies go up on stage at SMX Advanced and would love for you to think that they are. In truth, any client that magically delicious will most likely have a highly-paid inhouse SEO and Link Building team and they certainly aren’t looking to outsource it to any agency.

The truth of the matter is that to run a successful Link Building campaign, you have to use the tools at your disposal to see what has historically worked for your client and their competition. Tools such as MajesticSEO and Open Site Explorer can give invaluable feedback on what the competition and your own clients have done. Use this to your advantage. Whether it is a paid strategy, advanced tools, creating linkable assets, or any other combination of techniques. Good link builders will find the right strategies that work.

The SERPs dictate what tribe, or mix thereof, you will need to belong to. In this jungle you don’t choose your tribe, your tribe chooses you. This is the only way you will be able to provide successful link building strategies that won't end in Matt Cutts standing on your doorstep with a search warrant and fuzzy handcuffs. Or maybe that IS your end goal. I don’t judge based on lifestyle, just do what is right for your clients and no one gets hurt.

Miki DeHaven is an SEM Specialist at the Internet Marketing Company Web Talent. Based in central Pennsylvania, Web Talent Marketing offers search engine-marketing services to clients nationwide. For more information visit http://www.webtalentmarketing.com