Barnacle SEO may not be as mainstream as some of the other types of SEO out there but this one should be increasing in popularity as markets become saturated and the ability to rank on page 1 for the tough keywords becomes increasingly difficult.
Barnacle SEO is basically like attaching yourself to a site link that’s ranking well and feeding off of the traffic it’s getting. Sounds easy? Let me share with you some good information on how to go about doing it.
When You Should Do It
The ranking landscape for a lot (if not most) industries has become incredibly packed and extremely difficult to break into the top 10. Not only have the generic types of keywords become difficult to rank for, many of the second tier keywords are difficult to rank for. That doesn’t mean you can’t latch on to some of the sites that rank.
Maybe you’re new or you’ve been penalized or maybe just some other reason why you probably don’t think you’ll rank on page 1 for that keyword. You can scan through those top ranking sites and see if there’s any value you may be able to bring to them.
Some Of Your Options
Ok, so you’ve scanned through some of the top ranking sites. Have you noticed anything about them? Are any Wikipedia pages? News sources? Blogs? What can you provide these sites?
Easy enough, you can provide content! Pictures, stories, and even validate wiki entries. Find something you may have of value that you can offer them, contact them and start the process.
How To Approach Them
Be prepared going in! Don’t waste their time so be clear on what you’re going to provide, a timeframe to get it to them should they be interested and what you’re looking for in return. Remember, you’re looking to feed off the traffic that will go to them so a no-follow link is just fine. In fact, no follow links are good for your overall link profile.
We’re hoping the site responds to you. You now have work to do. Make sure you deliver what you proposed. Think about over-delivering meaning go above and beyond with the content and even getting it to them earlier than scheduled. Be courteous and friendly and work to build that relationship with them because you may want to contact them again in the future. Or they may decide to call you for something too!
Where’s The Benefit?
The benefit at the outset is traffic. You want to feed off the traffic that other site will get by being connected to them and hopefully drawing some of that traffic back to you. You’ve now got an opportunity to get people connected to your brand. Secondary, as mentioned, you’ll build up a clean link profile by having no-follow links, something Google likes to see.
There you have it, opportunities to take advantage of Barnacle SEO for your own site.
