I think there are “big ideas” that can have a major impact on an SEO campaign. The problem that usually arises is that a company is either not prepared to take the leap of faith that the project will have significant SEO benefits, or is not prepared to devote the resources necessary to make the big idea a success (a half-baked idea is almost useless).

Some examples of big ideas that we have brought to clients have included:

- Offer a free download of a scaled-down version of a software product. This would give us the opportunity to generate a number of very valuable links to the download page (increasing link popularity, of course!). Yes, there are major hurdles to accomplishing this. How technically feasible is the task? Will it damage the brand of the main product? How much functionality is enough to offer for free (making it valuable to people)? Should the download be available on the main website, or should a microsite be created? Will the free download require technical customer support? But, many companies have used this technique very successfully to boost the rankings of some of their valuable, targeted keywords.

- Create a contest where people submit pictures of themselves holding a particular consumer product in exotic/strange locations. For example, people might submit pictures of themselves holding the product while standing in front of the Taj Mahal, at a concert, on a mountain, at a family reunion, or in any place that does not conflict with contest guidelines about profanity, safety, etc. The “big idea” here is to offer a large-enough cash incentive to get people excited about the contest. And, the contest should have a social community aspect to it where people vote for their favorite submission. In this way the buzz and community interaction will create links to the contest page.

- Create a comprehensive resource on the website that catalogs recent, current, and important, “events” related to the company’s products/services. For example, an environmental consulting firm might create a running catalog of EPA violations and/or lawsuits (and provide commentary on each event if appropriate). Not only would this create excellent content on the site for keywords such as “environmental lawsuits”, it can become a popular reference for people on the Internet that they will link to (see a theme building here? links, links, links!)

- Write a book. Not a new idea. But use the published book (or advance copies) to reach out to influential bloggers to get their feedback. Again, links (from bloggers). One firm that I know (Wellesley Hills Group) does an excellent job working with services firms to help companies go through the entire book publishing and promotion process .

- And, of course, corporate blogging is often a “big idea” for companies. Do we do it? How will do we do it? Why should we do it? Who will do it? What return will we get? I’ll be writing a post on those questions soon… and you can read my post on converting a CEO into a blogging evangelist .