Healthy Link Building – Content Is King
Posted : 04/4/10 7:29 PM
I’m sure all or most of you have heard the cliche “content is king” when it comes to link building. But is it true? The simple answer is yes. Having quality original content on a website, or blog as it may be, is vital to the success of the site. Good content can help build solid back links, keep visitors coming back, and draw in new unique visitors. But what constitutes quality content? And even if the content is the best out there how are people going to find it? These are a few of the questions I plan to answer in this article.
What constitutes quality content?
The sad and sometimes horrifying truth is that quality content is subjective from person to person. What one person may think is the greatest article or post ever written another mite think is the biggest piece of garbage on the Internet. You must accept and come to the realization that no matter what you write not everyone is going to like it. However, you shouldn’t be out to impress everyone, you should be out to write content that is unique, original, and that you feel would be beneficial to the readers you are trying to attract. Doing this may be a bit of a challenge, but here are a few tips to help..
1. Be original : Original content is some of the best around. Write about something that no one has written about before. It could be a personal experience, a bit of research you’ve done in to something, or an extension or personal view on someone else’s work. Whatever it is though make sure it is your own original work, contains your own views and opinions, and portrays you, your business, organization, or other as a unique source of information.
2. Be beneficial : Most times people will come to a site to find some sort of information on something. The content they’re looking for will obviously vary by niche / category, but there is one thing every post / article / or other work should have in common, and that is that it should offer something beneficial to the reader.
3. Write to your audience : In order to write to your audience you must first know your audience. Find out who they are, where else they visit on the Internet, and what they like and dislike. There are various methods you can use to do this ranging from the use of forms and analytic tracking software to researching market trends but such content doesn’t fit within the scope of this article. However, I will be covering this in the Healthy Link Building series so check back for future posts.
Once you know your audience you can write content that is appealing to them. Do they like an informal style of writing? A technical writing style? A business writing style? Or something entirely different? Do they like pictures and videos? Are they looking for opinions, new research, or something completely different? These are all questions you need to know the answers to in order to write to your audience.
How will people find my content?
The answer is content. But not the content you write on your own site, but rather content you write on other websites or “off-site” content. This type of content can range from press releases and article directories to blog comments. The same methods mentioned above for “on-site” content ( content you write on your own site ) are still applied to “off-site” content.
1. Be original : Make sure your content is unique. Don’t read someone else’s work, paraphrase it, and then claim it as your own. Write from your own mind. If your content is unique people will be more likely to consider you an authority, and be more likely to click over to your site.
2. Be beneficial : Whatever you write make sure it would be beneficial to the reader. A good way to do this would be to answer questions. Often times on blog and forum websites users will ask questions. If you know the answer, post it. Maybe even leave a link to your own website where you have a post or page explaining the answer in great detail. If you answer the question properly people will remember you, recognize you as an authority, and be more likely to link to your answer and any links you leave in your post.
3. Write to your audience : If you’re leaving a comment on a blog or forum write within the style of the page. If it’s a technical website write with a technical writing style. If it’s a personal blog write with a personal or informal writing style. Doing so just mite entice people to click over and link to your website.
Concluding thoughts…
“Off-site” content in general relies on your “on-site” content, and in many ways your “on-site” content relies on your “off-site” content. Your “off-site” content will bring users in to your own website, but if your “on-site” content isn’t up to par people won’t link to it. Your “on-site” content can be truly amazing, unique, and beneficial, but if your “off-site” content isn’t very good ( or is non-existent ) people may never know it exists. A balance between the two is required to help build solid back links.
Thanks for reading this post. If you like please link to it. What I just did there is a form of an SEO tactic called “link baiting.” Check back for our next post which will go in to more detail about “link baiting” strategies. Hope you enjoyed this post everyone and as usual feel free to leave comments.
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