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Web merchants with affiliate programs have long struggled with the conflict of interest between allowing their affiliates to rank well for brand expressions and competing directly with affiliates. When your affiliate sites outrank you you’re getting Indirect Search Placement. This builds second-tier search visibility for you, which is not as great as being the first-ranked site but at least you get some search visibility.

There are other ways you can build indirect search visibility, including: press releases (you appear in press release site searches and possibly news search); news stories (you appear in news search and may possibly get a favorable listing in Web search); blog articles and interviews (you appear in blog search and may possibly appear in Web search); Web directories (you appear in their search and possibly in search engines’ results).

The major search engines have all built filtering mechanisms into their algorithms to minimize indirect search placement, which has also been incorporated into many people’s search reputation management strategies. Nonetheless, through links and on-page copy and emphasis you can build up a lot of indirect search visibility through secondary sources.

Rather than launch a whole new campaign and initiative to build indirect search visibility, it’s better to optimize your link-building techniques so that they maximize your indirect search placement. Don’t just ask for a link. Build a relationship with a Web site that ensures dedicated copy about you (mentioning your site) establishes its own search visibility. You don’t just get a relevant link — you also get fantastic advertising and marketing reach.

Link building should not be confined to just acquiring links. It should achieve the maximum possible return on investment. You can measure ROI for link building in part by evaluating your indirect search placement.