Emerce (2011): Linkbuilding-Specialist.nl in the Jungle Minds Finest 50

On Friday 14 January 2011, Emerce Wire published the news that Linkbuilding-Specialist.nl had been included in the Finest 50 of Jungle Minds. Linkbuilding-Specialist was the agency I started in 2010. The item was submitted by the agency itself and names the agency, not me: Emerce Wire is where companies post their own news.

The case: Olliewood.nl and the keyword kinderkleding

The item describes the case of Olliewood.nl, an online shop for children's clothing. The goal was a first position in Google for the keyword kinderkleding (children's clothing). According to the article, this was achieved within three months, using a responsible link building method that stayed within Google's guidelines. In its meta description, the article calls the case one of the fifty best practical examples.

The approach in four steps

1. Choose relevant keywords with high search volume and little competition.
2. Analyse which sites link to the competitors.
3. Check the most important links by hand for relevance.
4. Only request relevant links, by telephone where necessary.

It also contains two tips that I still give today. Online shops often have little content that other sites like to link to, so build landing pages with unique content. And analyse the referring sites again every month. The core of the piece is that it is better to have “50 relevant and valuable links than 1000 irrelevant links” (Emerce Wire, 2011).

The tools of the time

The article lists the tools of 2011: Google's keyword tool, SEOMoz, Yahoo Site Explorer, Linkdiagnosis.com, MajesticSEO, SEO PowerSuite, AdGooroo, Ontolo and Cemper. Some of them no longer exist, but the principle has remained.

What this says about my work today

Relevance over volume is also the basis of how I now work on local link building and on visibility in AI search engines with GEO. A link or mention only counts if it fits who you are and where you work. You can read the full story of the agency on my page about link building since 2010. A year later my name did appear in Emerce, with the DDMA Commissie Search.