Sadly, black hat SEO’s recently began spamming Wikipedia with outbound links, creating pointless entries solely for the purpose of link value, and vandalizing valid entries by stuffing them with outbound links. Now mind you, plenty of SEO’s have utilized Wikipedia for link value, but by creating legitimate, relevant topics, which also happen to include a link to their client’s page.

Unfortunately the masses are now being punished for the transgressions of the few. To stem the massive flow of link spam, Wikipedia recently announced a site wide no follow policy on all outbound links. Check the HTML source code on any Wikipedia entry, and you will find the outbound links are strewn with rel="nofollow." For those of you that aren’t familiar with nofollow code, it instructs search engine crawlers to NOT FOLLOW links, meaning that every outbound link found on Wikipedia, now has zero SEO link value.

Are you freaking out? Don’t.

Just because your Wikipedia page no longer has link value, doesn’t mean it’s useless, especially if you approach SEO as a marketing tool, and not just a rankings game. The following three steps can help your Wikipedia page increase traffic to your site.

#1- Market your Wikipedia Page Inside Wikipedia
Google values the topics in Wikipedia so much, that you can usually find a Wikipedia entry in the top 10 results of any search term, and I mean ANY TERM. I just looked out my window and saw a tractor (perhaps it’s time to move the office). A quick Google search for "Tractor" returns Wikipedia as the #1 entry. Since Wikipedia often ranks in the top 10 results for most terms, a considerable amount of consumers are obviously exposed to Wikipedia entries. Utilize this knowledge and market your Wikipedia page INSIDE of Wikipedia. Increase consumers’ exposure to your links by finding Wiki topics that relate to your product and linking to YOUR Wikipedia page from them. But make sure the topics are relevant, or they will quickly be deleted (often times they’ll be deleted regardless). A good rule of thumb is that if you sincerely feel a link to your company’s Wiki is relevant and would provide value to the user, ADD IT.

#2- Change your Anchor Text
Since your outbound Wiki links no longer provide link value, it’s time to replace that old anchor text. The end goal is to get users to click through to your page, and one way to achieve that is by replacing your old, keyword stuffed anchor text with a relevant and inviting call to action. Ideally, the keywords in your anchor text should already be relevant and inviting. But if they’re not, optimize them and utilize a call to action to attract as many consumer clicks as possible.

#3- Link Destinations
Optimize your link destination to match the goal of your campaign. If your goal is to capture an email address, point your link to a page giving away a whitepaper following registration. If the goal is to increase sales, don’t just send the link to your home page, direct the link to a landing page that’s been tested for conversions.

But as a marketer, the decision cycle is not something to merely accept. It needs to be measured and understood. When you manage the decision cycle, you'll find ways to shorten it. By acknowledging the prospective customer's needs in the decision process, you'll be giving them what they want. In turn, you'll get what you want – more sales, faster.

How will advertisers achieve any level of prospect customer cultivation in 30 seconds? The answer is simple...invite viewers to visit a product or brand specific website after the game (if the game proves interesting), or possibly in place of watching the final painful seconds tick off the clock, if the game is a blowout.

The true cultivation will occur as the "lean back" audience finishes watching the game and leaves the comfort of the living room, moving to the den to become the "lean forward" audience as they get online.

This is where the real value of advertising in this year's Super Bowl will be realized. This "lean forward" audience will begin to interact for hours and hours with engaging content designed to move a person towards the all important CLOSE. I predict that there will also be plenty of CAPTURE attempted on these Super Bowl ad supporting web sites.

So lean back and enjoy the game, then lean forward and become more deeply involved with your favorite Super Bowl advertiser. This will be possible because the advent of one of permission marketing's most powerful and recent tools - online CULTIVATION.

Written by Brian Ranck, Co-Founder and Board Member of HyperX Media

"E-tailers have learned that consumers often begin their search 12-25 weeks before they actually make a purchase." Read eMarketer Article

The fact that many online consumers are searching for retail products 12 to 25 weeks in advance of their actual purchase really drives home the importance of regularly communicating with potential customers. Neglecting opportunities to influence customers during their, sometimes lengthy, journey down the adoption continuum could be significantly impacting sales.

For example, one of our current e-tail clients has found that first time visitors to their site rarely convert to sales, but those that opt-in to a monthly email newsletter become more trusting of their brand and then convert very well close to holidays. Without timely communication with their prospects this particular E-tail business would be in serious jeopardy.

In any business, cultivating deeper relationships with customers and influencing them when they are ready to buy is sure to pay dividends. So are you regularly communicating with your potential customers? If not, it is time to start thinking about how you can capture permission to do so, and start doing it.

Jeff Morgan - CEO HyperX Media