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Content Development Can Directly Impact Link Building
By Stephen Pitts
Expert Author
Article Date: 2009-05-19
Maybe you have heard some of the cliches about content: If you build it they will come! Content is King! Really? Yes, it is true.
However, what most of the people that use these and other cliches about content development and link acquisition fail to share the details about what content development can directly impact link building.
Great content is valuable to others and users and webmasters will link to content that is useful, but in a case of which came first, the chicken or the egg, how do these users and webmasters find your great content to link to, if they cannot find it?
Thinking outside of the box is extremely important to get momentum rolling for a website to start ranking and being found and this is especially important for link development. So, where do you start? Well, thinking outside of the box is extremely difficult, however, defining what the box is can be a great first step. Defining the box might be different for you than others because of the category or vertical you are in and what your competitors are doing. The second, and most difficult, is to do what isn't being done. I know it sounds simple, but it can be the most difficult. This is one of the biggest reasons that businesses look to consultants to get advice about what they are not doing or didn't even realize they could or should rather than doing it yourself.
OK, back to the the topic…
I have broken up the idea of content development for building links into two very broad categories, on-site and off-site. On-site contains some ideas around developing content on your site or domain, but actually, it is what you have direct control over. Off-site, on the other hand, is content that is published somewhere else, simply, you don't have direct control over it and might be more difficult to manage for optimal user and ranking benefits.
On-Site Content Development
Since on-site content development you have full control over, it doesn't carry as much weighted value, but has the most long-term benefit. Below are outlets to develop content that can attract inbound links. You may have heard of them previously, but how you approach them can have a huge impact in their success. Potential value assessments will also be covered to set the expectations for cost and benefit.
Resource Documentation
Do you know what you are talking about? This is a very valid thing for a search engine to try to understand about your site before sending their users to your site. The reason? Because they want to send the user to the most relevant page because this makes a happy user and a happy user is a returning user. So, how do the search engines determine that you know what you are talking about? Content. Plain and simple.
Building a catalog of information that is relevant to a user will do two things, attract search engine attention and user attention. Search engines send users and users send users, so the way to best accomplish this is by having enough content on pages that you want users to find. If this does not account for the aesthetics you are trying to deliver, my suggestion is to include this information in an easy to find place (global navigation is a great place for an entry to this information). Remember, a good rule of thumb to consider is "every page is a landing page," so, if a user landed on any page within your site, would they know where they are and are they able to easily navigate to any other area.
Quality content is quite often overlooked when engineering a site for SEO. Test your site, if you don't have the budget, get a couple of friends that don't regularly visit your site and solicit their feedback. The other thing, difficult to do but valuable none the less, is to look at each page of your site and ask yourself the question, "if this wasn't my site, would I link to this page?" If the answer is no, then rethink it!
Blog
I know that so many have hopped on the bandwagon of developing a blog for their site. For link development, it is a great tool to attract attention from users that are more likely to have an online voice. Bloggers read blogs and write about blogs, so this is a good group of people to target if you are looking for inbound links.
Four concerns with building a blog for your domain to attract links:
1. Is your content solid? In other words, will it stand on it's own or is it just a different way to pitch your products or service offerings? If it is another attempt to pitch your wares, check out other ways to attract links in my opinion.
2. If you let the cat out of the bag, be ready to clean up after it! A blog is a great tool, but if you don't put in the time and energy required it will show and might turn your greatest advocates (and link givers) away.
3. If you can't commit to the time it will take to maintain, build content that doesn't need to be updated and managed. Build your content on your site instead of adding a blog.
4. If you build a blog, the likelihood is that others will link to your blog, not to other important pages on your site.
Off-Site Content Development
Off-site content development outlets, of which some will be covered below, have varying degrees of difficulty to accomplish. Some require a financial cost, but all require some resource, usually time and patience. As with on-site activities, the following topics will contain potential value assessments to help set expectations for cost and benefit.
Press Releases
Press releases are a great way to make a splash and start the inbound link ball rolling, however, like so many other link building tactics, don't overdo it. If it isn't news worthy (be honest to yourself), don't put it out there. The other thing to consider is the cost. Yes, you can put out releases for free, but you do get what you pay for… just a consideration. Press releases have a way of being a flash in the pan as well, they can attract some attention, but the goal of press releases for link development is not in the release distribution only, it is in the hope that it is picked up by other writers and capture links from these sources.
Distributing content that you already published is not a good idea either, so keep it unique…
Article Syndication
The thought of writing content and publishing it anywhere other than your own site might seem wrong, however, it may get attention from users that might not find your site through normal search activities. Articles can also be a way of taking an indirect topic off of your site and address it without trying to find a way of forcing it in your site. Like press releases, don't republish content that you already have on your site, it should or will be disregarded by search engines because it is duplicate, if you are lucky. If you aren't, the article might rank higher than your original page. Not a pretty sight.
Guest Posts
This is a great way of dipping your toes in the blog waters by working with a vertical blog resource and offering them something they are looking for, quality content. If you are looking for a tough judge of content, a good blog editor will provide the needed feedback!
Quality content is a great bartering chip to offer a blogger, it can be a win-win. Be careful and make sure you are respecting the blog's owner, author(s) and especially readers. I don't recommend paying a blogger to write a review unless you are prepared to allow them full control of the message, link(s) included or not!
There are plenty of other areas of online content to attract links, I am sure you can think of one or two I haven't covered here. But circling back to the old cliches, content is still king. Building quality content that is link worthy is the best way to attract links. Be a quality resource and you will be resourced. We have a saying about promotions at Rosetta, "You have to do the job, before you get the job." This can also be applied here, if you don't link out to other sites, chances are it will be tough to get others to link to your site. No website is an island.
This concludes the link building via content development, for now at least. The most important thing to remember is that content is what drives the Internet, images and design are great but if the user doesn't see it, did it even matter. Build quality content, it is the foundation of relevance. If your content is need of work, fix it first before looking elsewhere for inbound links.
Next, we will be covering direct link requests, so stay tuned!
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About the Author:
In-house SEO for a private travel company with great success. Has been influential in developing and building a niche travel directory and search engine. I enjoy learning and sharing information on my blog, SEOPittfall.com to others in an effort to build relevant, content driven websites with the user in mind.
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