Welcome to “Do Follow” Tuesdays. To read what this is all about, you can check our announcement post. 

In summary, every Tuesday we pick a vertical market based on the number of votes a market receives at our Vertical Market Poll. This week it is the Business Services market. We invite all of you out there to post in the comments a specific link building recommendation for the Business Services market (a good directory, authority website, blog, link search, etc.). If it adds value, we will approve it, give you the credit and a “do follow” link to your site. However, we will just delete stupid, irrelevant, spammy comments – only truly useful information will be allowed. 

Business services can cover a lot of ground.  Places like ad agencies, employment agencies, payroll services, collection agencies and cleaning services all would fall into this category.  This week’s suggestion from our staff is finding good online directories for your business.   Just like Debra Mastaler, we too feel directories can still be a good place for link building.  Google has hammered many of the "free directories" and rightly so, but there are still many very worthwhile directories out there.  Google and the others still like quality, niche directories and those with editors, traffic and backlinks.  Don’t get too hung up on the PR of the directory and its inner pages, you might be surprised at how much link juice you can still achieve from some of these links.

And it’s not all about links, good vertical sites also provide opportunity for marketers, who can generate highly qualified leads and click-through due to the focused demographics of many B2B vertical sites.

Here are some examples for the Business Services Market.  It took us about 30 minutes find these.  Try doing searches for "small business directory" or "human resource directory" to find directories in your niche.

http://www.littleengine.com - LittleEngine is a social directory for Small Businesses who want to publicize, network and communicate with their local communities.
http://www.kellysearch.com – A business to business (B2B) supplier site, with more than 22,000 Google backlings!
http://www.hrdirectory.org – Not the strongest directory, but if you are in the HR business, you should be listed here.
http://www.asmallbusinessdirectory.com – Check out their B2B, office decor and professional services sections.
http://www.bizseek.org – This directory has more of an international flair, not the strongest, but a good niche directory.

Lastly, here is a great list of major B2B search engines and directories from Search Engine Land.

OK, now lets hear from the rest of you. Place your advice for link building for the Business Services market in the comments below. Those that are accepted will get a nice "do follow" link from us.

Make sure you sign up for our email or RSS feed so that you are alerted every time a new niche market is covered. Even if we are not focusing on your niche, you just might see a pretty creative idea that will trigger an thought for your market. 

Be sure to vote for your market today! VOTE HERE  

[tags] business services, ad agencies, employment agencies, payroll services, collection agencies, cleaning services, hr services, vertical markets, niche markets, link building [/tags]

Vertical Measures

Welcome to “Do Follow” Tuesdays.  To read what this is all about, you can check our announcement post. 

In summary, every Tuesday we pick a vertical market based on the number of votes a market receives at our Vertical Market Poll. This week it is the Real Estate market. We invite all of you out there to post in the comments a specific link building recommendation for the Real Estate market (a good directory, authority website, blog, link search, etc.). If it adds value, we will approve it, give you the credit and a “do follow” link to your site. However, we will just delete stupid, irrelevant, spammy comments – only truly useful information will be allowed. 

It is little surprise that Real Estate became our top vote getter in short order.  This is a very competitive market and every good lead truly matters.  This week’s suggestion from our staff starts with directing you to another website.  There is a superb list if SEO and link building resources located at International Listings.   There is a list of blogs and forums you could reach out to for linking purposes and for some great content.  (Remember – share the link love with them first, it will eventually come back to you.)  There is also a list of search engines where you might place some of your listings or your website.  And while you are there, take the time to make a useful comment and get a link to your site!

Just like the automotive market, realtors need to think local.  Google local, Yahoo, and MSN/Live. are great places to get local listings.  They are free, so there is no excuse not to create them for all of your physical locations.  Once you do, get some customers to add reviews and maybe even point some links to your local page.  It all helps!

OK, now lets hear from the rest of you.  Place your advice for link building for the real estate market in the comments below. Those that are accepted will get a nice "do follow" link from us.

Make sure you sign up for our email or RSS feed so that you are alerted every time a new vertical market is covered. Even if we are not focusing on your niche, you just might see a pretty creative idea that will trigger an thought for your market. 

Be sure to vote for your market today! VOTE HERE  

[tags] vertical markets, real estate, link building, realtors [/tags]

Vertical Measures

Welcome to the first edition of “Do Follow” Tuesdays. To read what this is all about, you can check our announcement post. 

In summary, every Tuesday we pick a vertical market based on the number of votes a market receives at our Vertical Market Poll.  This week it is the Automotive Dealer market.  We invite all of you out there to post a specific link building recommendation for the Auto Dealer market (a good directory, authority website, blog, link search, etc.) in the comments section below.  If it adds value, we will approve it, give you the credit and a “do follow” link to your site.  However, we will just delete stupid, irrelevant, spammy comments – only truly useful information will be allowed. 

This week’s suggestion from our staff for the auto dealer market is all about local.  Since most dealers still obtain most of their car sales from their local markets, we think it is critical for them to appear in local search results. 

For example, when conducting a Google search for ‘phoenix toyota dealers’, you get this result.   Notice the local search results dominate the top of the page.  If we were consulting with Earnhardt Toyota, we would recommend they work on their Google local listing as they are completely missing from there, and since they rank 5th in the natural results, they are now pushed below the fold on the screen.  

Other places to be listed for local search results include Yahoo, and MSN/Live.  Many local listings are free, so there is no excuse not to create them for all of your physical locations.  Once you do, get some customers to add reviews and maybe even point some links to your local page.  It all helps!

Make sure you sign up for our email or RSS feed so that you are alerted every time a new vertical market is covered. Even if we are not focusing on your niche, you just might see a pretty creative idea that will trigger a thought for your market. 

Be sure to vote for your market today!  VOTE HERE  

[tags] vertical markets, auto dealers, car dealers, local search, Google local, Yahoo local, MSN local [/tags]

Vertical Measures