Egobaiting the first link in the supply chain may be an untapped resource. I usually find manufacturers to be an untapped resources for my clients. Search and reach out to the manufacturer of products that you may sell on your site, or that you might be using as part of your services. If they have a list of “approved retailers or vendors,” be on it. But if they don’t, offer them a heartfelt recommendation or testimonial. Give permission for them to use it for their site. Play above board and don’t mention anything about links. Often I found these usually smaller manufacturers are touched, and find the referral or testimonial useful for their onsite marketing. They very well may post it with a link out of their own interest. Maybe help the goodwill along by creating pages on your site as love letters to the manufacturer, especially for those who may not have budged on the recommendation. Give them a heads up, which is more enticement for a link. That connectivity and potential co-occurrence could lead to you actually ranking well for manufacturer brand names in addition to getting a link. I find that companies usually like to promote these on their blogs.
Manufacturers could be a source of untapped link opportunities for your business. [tweet this]
Here’s an example from a current client. They retail products from 70-plus manufacturers (who don’t sell from their own sites). Forty-three of them had pages suggesting retailers to visit—none of which our client was on. Low-hanging fruit? You bet! These manufacturers had high domain authority. Plus, the referral traffic we received was pretty high in some cases. SEO and revenue in one small campaign! In addition, seven different sites in particular responded to the offer to provide a testimonial, four of which resulted in links. Interestingly enough, the conversions through the testimonial links are about even with the “approved retailers” links. To me, nothing beats a link that kills two birds with one stone.
This tip, and 19 more, can be downloaded in one PDF.