Link builder personality quiz - which type are you?

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Incoming links are the lifeblood for an SEO. For this reason, SEOs tend to view link-building as a life-or-death proposition, and for certain people in certain industries, it is. Different types of link-building personalities emerge after any time in the field:

Sammy the Slut

The first type of link builder is promiscuous. He’ll get in bed with any link partner, no matter how undesirable, as long as he can “get his”: his link that is. Any website that even winks at him is a potential link partner. He doesn’t care about the site in question. In fact he doesn’t even know what the topic is. Sammy the Slut loves building links en masse, and he doesn’t care about what may happen tomorrow.

Augie the Automater

Augie is a lot like Sammy, but he’s a lot more technically inclined, and even lazier. He doesn’t plan on even visiting a single website ever to ask for a link. His plan is much simpler. He writes a script that looks for appropriate websites and automatically emails them asking for a link. He links up automatically and so do they. Augie is free to go live the rest of his life, and it’s a good thing too: because Augie is never getting any visitors to his website anyway.

Unethical Elvis

Unethical Elvis is a lot like Augie the Automater, but he has no concern for ‘fair play’ and the word ‘ethics’ is one he only discusses with single or double quotes attached. Morality and laws are mere abstractions to him: exercises in human thought and nothing more. Elvis will automate his link-building with one specific caveat: he will attempt to build one-way links automatically without the permission of the remote website owner. Unfortunately for Unethical Elvis, their are automated sentinels waiting for him. If he trips one wrong trigger, he’s dead.

Perfect Pamela

Pamela runs a tidy website. Her website is so pristine, in fact, that she fears people linking to her at all. When she discovers a new backlink via MSN, she quickly examines the website in question to see if it’s related to her “theme”. If the website appears dodgy, she’ll contact the website owner to remove her link! Perfect Pamela dreams of acquiring the perfect link. She’s sure that there is one killer link from a “themed .EDU” website that will rocket her to the top of her niche. The only problem is: the local webmaster at the college has already obtained a restraining order against her contacting him any more. Perfect Pamela’s problem is she just can’t get her perfect links fast enough.

Carl the Content King

Carl doesn’t even “concern” himself with the dirty work of getting links. Carl is so confident his content is top-notch, he never even has to analyze his standings, and he never needs to deal with other webmasters. They simply link to him, due to his pre-ordained and divine authority. Carl has a wonderful life, until the fateful day his website succumbs to “everflux”. On that day, Carl runs for the first time to a webmaster forum and asks “What happened to my authority site?”. The friendly members will teach him to look at his backlinks, so he can figure out what happens. Most of the time Carl’s problem is he either doesn’t have enough links, or his backlinks change without him knowing.

Big Bucks Barry

Barry is a winner. He’s the type of person you meet and he leaves you with a favorable impression: “What a great guy”. Barry has money, and not a lot of time. Barry decides to spread the wealth, share the love, and get the word out about his website. Barry has only one problem: he acquires links so fast, that invisible triggers are clicked, and he’s put into suspended animation.

Timo the Trader

Timo is a great guy too. He’s from an “emerging market” and based on his low economic output, he doesn’t have the money to run in the tall grass with the big dogs.  That’s okay, Timo has time and a big family too.  He, she, and all of them will become employed in the new link trading business.  Timo’s fatal flaw: all of his links come from one source, which is easily decipherable to advanced search engine technology.

There are even more personality types of link builders, and we’ll take a look at them in upcoming articles.  Undoubtedly, you might recognize some of yourself in the traits of these fictional people.  The key is, I think, to not look too much like any one of them.  The School of Hard Knocks has taught us all one thing: don’t put all of your eggs into one basket.  If you’re relying on only one form of link building, your foundation has a crack in it.  Spend some time in the next few months examing methods of link building that you haven’t delved into yet, because the reward will be a more well-rounded foundation for your continued website success.

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