Brick and Mortar Linkbait

Imagine this? Someone actually makes a tangible product in order to get some links and in turn, rankings. I know that this happens in a very passive way. Lots of people make new products, make a site, end up getting links, and happen to get ranked. They didn’t set out to do this though. Traditional marketers and R & D folks should take SEO into account when they are making off-line products. Search marketers have access to loads of market research. They have information on what is searched for, how often, and in what context. Marketers should always let consumer demand, trends and tastes drive product development. It makes sense to see were the opportunities are on search engines and then make a product based off of those opportunities. This shouldn’t dominate product development, but more people should do this in the future.

Using off-line products to target online rankings wouldn’t even have to involve finding “empty” spaces in the search market. It is quite possible to use this type of strategy for very competitive terms. If you find a site ranking for a competitive term with a weak off-line product, superior product development maybe what tips the balance. I wonder how many companies forecast organic search revenue in their projections for new off-line products?

I imagine a day when the product development folks come ask the search marketer, “so what to are people looking for?”