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The Story of the Banana
I’ve had a few occasions where I’ve been asked about the gent on my consulting contact image on my site.
Stock people on a website decreases your credibility. No, I haven’t done extensive studies on this, but I can spot stock photos of people from a mile off, and sites with it are much less likely to get my dollar than a site with a REAL picture of REAL people on it. Yes, I may be a little more saavy than your average web consumer…but how long do you think it will be until they catch up? Do you ALWAYS treat your customers like they’re idiots? Do you really think they believe you dress in a suit everyday and your skin is flawless?
I’m giving Feedburner a whirl, as it always seems like there is some cool functionality with it. I’m not sure if I got it all right or not yet, so if you see anything weird, please let me know.
The guys over at Text Link Ads got a cool new little tool called the Link Calculator to give you an estimate of what your links might be worth. More info on it over at the Link building blog. It’s pretty handy as a baseline tool…give it a whirl.
Getting links is hard work. It’s very difficult to solicit links with no value proposition. It’s difficult to develop a value proposition if you have no sense of what you’re negotiating for. This is one of the key reasons why understanding the value of links is such a critical component to an SEO campaign.
I had a recent e-mail conversation that I felt was worth publishing publicly (with permission of course), due to the frequency I receive this type of question. Link development is highly important, and quality link development is a valuable skill. That being said, it is still only a part of the overall process of getting a website top rankings. It is often among the most difficult part of ranking a website high because it doesn’t get planned for from the start of the project and has to be retrofitted later. Getting the links you need for the rankings you want entails understanding the value involved from the publisher’s side, and providing adequate incentives for them to link to you (cool stuff, good content, bartering, cash, etc.). Unfortunately, this is a pretty difficult thing to put a budget proposal in for unless you really understand the true value of the different types of links, and what they mean to the bottom line.
Don’t make your users feel stupid. Make them laugh. Check your 404 page today and make sure it’s not the same old default techie drivel that sites lose users to every day. Preserve your web traffic with a few easy changes.
