Founded five years after Shutterfly, Tiny Prints has grown at roughly 200% a year, propelled by driving traffic to its sites tinyprints.com and weddingpaperdivas.com. Without its top rankings for keywords like “holiday cards” or “baby shower invites” on Google, Tiny Prints would not have been acquired by its publicly-traded competitor for $333 million.

A look at tinyprint.com’s inbound link history reveals some risky link acquisition tactics.

Link-Heavy Paragraphs in Blogs

Tiny Prints offers giveaways or promo codes to bloggers in exchange for paragraphs filled with specific anchor text:

Here are some examples:

• http://coolstuff.rickbucich.com/nice-dated-tinyprints-review-from-debmomof3
• http://tippytoesandtantrums.typepad.com/diatribes/if_youre_happy_and_you_know_it_clap_your_hands
• http://susanheim.blogspot.com/2010/10/celebrate-halloween-with-tiny-prints.html
• http://www.thriftynorthwestmom.com/2010/04/tiny-prints-3-free-cards-giveaway-for-25-personalized-greeting-cards

I even found a blogger that attacked back at Tiny Prints for their outreach to her: http://blogs.chron.com/goodmombadmom/2008/08/how_to_market_to_bloggers.html.

Possible Paid Links

Do an on-page search for “Stylish Christmas Cards”:

• http://monkey-mayhem.net/2010/07/uv-skinz-reviewgiveaway.html
• http://lilybeanpaperie.typepad.com/lilybeans_paperie/
• http://jonbonjovious.blogspot.com/2010/06/choosing-right-weight-loss-program-for.html
• http://www.outnumbered3-1.com/
• http://table4five.net/2010/06/06/send-table-for-five-to-the-type-a-mom-conference-and-promote-your-blog/ (“Stylish Thank You Notes”)
• http://www.sfgirlbybay.com/2011/02/14/sunday-in-the-city-95/ (“Stylish photo cards”)

While this is hardly an exhaustive analysis of the company, before closing a $333 million deal, such SEO due diligence must not be overlooked.