Link Building Is Like...

I’ve always used the analogy that link building is a bit like fishing. This has been for a handful of reasons:

You need reliable hooks and good bait
You have to understand the climate/ weather
A great team catches together
If you want quality, it takes time and practice
Experience is the best teacher
Strategy evolves with experience

I’ve even went as far as to build the “P.E.S.C.A.R Process” for teaching link building at MarketMotive. PESCAR is Spanish for “to fish”, as well as a handy acronym for teaching these concepts:

Process Strategy
Equity Education
Site Prospecting Strategy
Competitive Backlink Analysis
Approach Assessment
Relationship Building and Tools

A Guide to Getting Links: Part 1-7

Others have agreed with me that link building is, indeed, like fishing.

I think you can even make a pretty fair argument that the term “linkbaiting” comes from an analogy based in fishing. Unfortunately, webmasters don’t really like to be compared to fish (or other hunted animals for that matter), so the analogy sometimes comes off mildly offensive (my apologies).

Couple on a Date There have been lots of analogies and metaphors used by SEO’s over the years to describe and teach link building, and often one is about dating.

A link is like a vote…and Danny thinks the ballot boxes are being stuffed, and that social shares might be the new vote.

A link is like asking to do business…

So what else is link building like? (caution: read at your own risk, some of these analogies are pretty bad!)

chess game Link building is like a game of chess…

Think
Research your competitors
Build up a thought-out strategy
AND MAKE A MOVE…

Link building is like planting potatoes…

…simple, boring, and hard work.
…it’s a process.
…it’s a process that can be replicated.
…correct implementation requires the correct methodology
…past performance does not guarantee future performance.

Link building is like an orchestra…

…the orchestra needs something to play.
…more is not always better.
…1000’s of violins is not an orchestra

scale Link building is like losing weight…

…it takes hard work and there are no shortcuts.
…show up everyday with a consistent work ethic.
…beware of scammers.
…you can trick the system, but it won’t last.
…the end result is worth it.

Link building is like dating… (from @martinibuster)

…you need to find out where your potential partners hang out

Link building is like investing…

…you need a diverse portfolio.

box of chocolates Link building is like a rolling snowball…

Link building is like high school…it’s a popularity contest.

I think SugarRae should really get credit for this analogy though…

Link building is like building muscle mass…

Link building is like a box of chocolates…you never know what you’re going to get.

Link building is like giving out your business card…

Link building is like getting laid.

Link building is like spinning plates…

Link building is NOT a walk in the park…

Without question, link building is both an art and a science.

Obligatory Link Building Resources:

So what’s your favorite analogy for link building? Link building is like…

Todd Malicoat

More information about Todd Malicoat aka stuntdubl.

jenindra

Todd Malicoat @wonderful man
http://www.advancedwebranking.com/ Philip Petrescu

Link building is like… dead. At least the way people used to do it. The new way to do link building is to build a social network made of influencers. These people own websites and have a presence in social networks. They can link to your content and share it for others to see it.

I believe that if you do this you’ll accomplish far more than just getting the links that your competitors already have or getting links from directories or unrelated sites.
http://www.seobooklab.com/ Ram Babu SEO

thanks, links seems to be broken , found right http://www.marketmotive.com/training/tutorials/search-engine-optimization/guide-to-linkbuilding-part-1-why-links-are-so-important.html
http://twitter.com/earnonline_miss Earn Online | Miss`C

I like your analogy, funny but true. I usually use ColibriTool in researching for competitors, tracking my traffic. It has helped me in my link building agony.
http://www.facebook.com/fawadn2 Fawd Noor

That post are given by the good way like as we all speak about a lot more precise conditions, we all note that keywords, back-links in addition to single point textual content tend to be some of the conditions which have been quite prominent, successful in addition to successful in the search engine optimization universe. Nonetheless, by using frequent improvements in the Google’s criteria in addition to rank system, these kinds of weighting of these factors offers transformed considerably over time.
Thanks…………………………
Education Information
http://www.eseoservice.com/seo-services.html SEO Services

Excellent
http://www.danilopetrozzi.it/ Danilo Petrozzi

You missed the right one: Link building is just a pain in the .. :D
http://www.microsourcing.com/ MicroSourcing

These are good analogies for link building. It’s a basic SEO tactic that gets more challenging as the web landscape changes.
http://twitter.com/CrackMarketing Crack Marketing

Nice one! Funny but oh so true!
socialbeat india

Almost the genuine white hat link building save the SEO & give more ranking with traffic from potential users…I love white hat SEO…You….???

SEO in Chennai | Website Design in Chenani
http://www.marketingquery.com/ Jose Capelo

Must agree with you!
Anna Pham

Very interesting post, thanks for sharing Todd.
http://www.diggbloggers.com/ Suraj

Hi todd, Very nice and detailed post. Thanks for sharing.
http://www.viralseoservices.com/ MOS SEO Services

Good analogies. Thanks for an extremely useful post.
Prabal Chowdhury

Thank you for your suggestion and such a good writing. .I want to share my experience with colibritool. It’s an amazing tool for website owners or authorities. It can help you in a top level to satisfy your demand from a super tool.I personally prefer this tool and always advice my friends to use it and now they are doing so. You can try colibritool. I’m sure you’ll be loving it after that. you can find it out here in http://colibritool.com
Spook SEO

I really like your comparison of link building to providing bait. I
guess that is the same and exact way to really explain it. There are no big
fishes when it comes to SEO. Traffic is always one-is-to-one. However, if you
choose the right site for your link building, then, you are about to catch a
net full of fishes.
Lilia MacCannell

Thank you for great points on search engine optimization. As an owner of a small business I have realized that trying to do SEO all by yourself may result in a waste of time. Link building is a tough job and should be done by experts as they have the detailed knowledge about changing cultures in SEO. So, it’s better to contact a legitimate SEO marketing service company which does the job in the tenure of 2-3 months. I was working with Ignite http://ignitecloudware.com It seems to be reliable and professional company.