We'll see dude ;) @JoelKlettke 

Totally agree with you here @NChimonas . Broken link building, skyscraper technique, moving man technique... All service or content approaches to link building where you ask for a link- this is no different.

Never out reaching or asking for a link is a slow ass way to do SEO imo...  

IMO It's not the value of my time in question- it's the value of the link, how cumulatively those links will effect rankings, drive traffic and bring in future paid business. @JoelKlettke 

@patrickcoombe yes if your name is John Mueller then we should avoid any form of link building, asking for links yada yada, but let's face it- it doesnt work like that does it? This is a small business and not a technique that's going to scale up to become a problem IMO. If I offered to help a business and they added a link without me asking is that a problem?

@JoelKlettke, I see where you are coming from regarding scalability- I guess that boils down to the businesses you work with under this agreement and the website you get a link from. How do you value a link? Back in the day you could pay up $xxx for a decent link. What I am offering is consultancy- a few hours of my time. I think it could be worth it.

I like your last sentence, and of course this is one of the main goals of content marketing. I'm doing that too ;)

Agree @NChimonas, getting a link back is just one of many advantages of offering free services tro the right type of company. I've often done favours in the past that have led to paid work. In the SEO world I think it's a good strategy to build a relationship and earn trust before offering paid services.

I'd be cautious of any wizard that guarantees #1 rankings. You could be dealing with a mortal with a strong and undetected link network here...

I'd first ask for examples of previous SEO wizardry,  testimonials and references.  If it all checks out then I'd move on from there...maybe barter for more than one #1 ranking and also clarify the length of time you would be #1.

Proceeding with intercourse with a wizard is oobviously down to personal preference,  but either way I think the whole experience should be recorded for a fantastic article/video/infographic..

"You build websites... no?"

"No mum, we've had this conversation a million times, I can build websites but my job is SEO".

"What's SEO again?"

Rinse, repeat x 248

Excellent point here about "Rational justification". I was recently involved in an ecommerce project where we went from "salesy" product descriptions to more "decision reinforcement" descriptions. The outcome was improved conversion rates for 80% of the products we wrote descriptions for. Some pages converted up to 30% more...

I personally think the whole concept of getting more links via bloggers doing less social sharing is counterintuitive. If people stopped sharing we'd get less traffic, less eyeballs and ultimatley less links to our content?

Let's not forget people that engagement can be a very difficult metric to measure for Google. The number of websites without Google analytics is way too large for them to bias those with it because they have engagement metrics.

CTR from serp bares no relevance to the quality of the website or traffic engagement.

Bounce back to serps can be skewed by varying factors other than poor website or lack of engagement.

I do think Google will look elsewhere for ranking factors and rely less on links, but currently good quality links are as strong a ranking factor as they have always been.

Luke, can you confirm please that you are advertising on "search partners" and that these partners generate 1000% more traffic than Google itself?!

Al- are you suggesting that Google's search partners supply almost 1000% more traffic than Google itself? That in itself sounds like a flaw in the tool if those settings make such a difference IMO.

Thanks Mark, nice share. I'm particularly pintrested in “Place Pins” and how as marketers we can leverage that for local traffic... now off to explore ;)

This is a great article on semantic seo and a must read for anyone wanting to learn more! Very nice to gain insight from respected search experts. Thanks for the share :)

Im keen to hear other views on this? Im not convinced Schema.org is a move to save cpu, more like a move by Google to improve their own SERP's and keep users on their monetised pages rather than clicking  away to another website...

As always with such posts- interesting conflicts of opinions!

Thanks for the share, nice insight :)

Great piece and SO true Dustin....I quite often get asked to fix computers because I work with the internet?!...Go figure!

Also, I love trying to explain digital marketing to anyone over the age of 70- It's like asking neanderthal man to send an email on a smartphone.