kamran sharief SEO Growth: How do you succeed with search engine optimization (SEO)? You build quality links and write compelling content.
There’s no either.
This post will explain why both are critical in your SEO efforts. We’ll provide you with solid link-building and content marketing strategies to help you succeed.
Table of Contents
Why Is Link Building Important?
Website links come in different forms.
External links are links in your content that lead to pages outside your website. Internal links are those on your website that point to your other pages.
Regardless of how they function, all are essential for one reason.
Google counts links as a ranking factor.
Just to be clear, the mighty search engine doesn’t completely reveal its ranking methods. It also doesn’t provide a list of ranking factors. But recent evidence suggests that links are one of them. They have been for a long time.
Why do they matter to Google?
Here’s why:
- Links tell Google your website is credible. Every link serves as a vote of confidence. Google will think your website is trustworthy if an authority site links back to you.
- Links help Google find new pages on your website. When Googlebot crawls the web, it follows links to discover new pages. It is especially helpful if your website has a poor or no sitemap.
- Links help Google (and website users) understand your website’s topic. The anchor text (the text linking to your website) gives Google clues about your page’s content.
Pair Your Link-Building Strategies with Excellent Content
Marina Turea with Digital Authority Partners cannot stress enough the value of links.
Link building helps you rank and increases brand visibility and credibility. It also drives traffic. But it doesn’t work well without a secret ingredient—good content.
Your link quantity won’t matter if your content is terrible.
Too many low-quality links can even hurt your website’s ranking. They do not improve the user experience. Plus, search engines might think you are using unethical techniques like link farms or linking to sites with thin content.
Bottom line: poor-quality links and content suggest your website isn’t worth the users’ time.
Drive more traffic and conversions by pairing solid link building with excellent content.
How Links and Content Work Together
Think about this.
Let’s say you have written an informative and relevant blog post for your audience. Your readers are so impressed that they share it on social media and blogs. Such sharing exposes your content to new people who may not have found you otherwise.
Now imagine that a high-authority website links to your post. Google sees this link and recognizes that your content must be high-quality. After all, an authority site did link to it. Google then indexes your page and ranks it higher on the SERPs.
That’s not all.
A higher SERP ranking enhances your authority and credibility in the industry. More marketers will link back to you, further increasing leads and conversions.
Such is the power of combining great content with an effective link-building strategy.
How to Combine Link Building and Content for SEO Growth
Proper link building + compelling content = SEO gold.
Do both, and you’ll see traffic and conversions increase for your website.
But how do you succeed in doing both?
Here are seven solid link-building and content marketing strategies to start.
1. Build Authority with Your Content
One of the best ways to earn links is to produce high-quality content. People often want to link to informative blog posts and helpful guides. But it’s not enough to publish great content. You need to market it, so people actually see it.
Here are some tips:
- Share your content on social media, forums, and other websites.
- Email influencers in your industry and let them know about your latest piece of content.
- Optimize your content for SEO with the right keywords and phrases.
2. Do Not Ignore Technical SEO
Poor page designs make it hard for crawlers to access your content. Your website may not get indexed at all as a result. Worse, your leads might struggle to find you online.
Technical SEO is broad, but you can focus on key technical SEO elements like the following:
- Improve your website’s speed by compressing images or choosing lightweight themes.
- Ensure you have a responsive, mobile-friendly website.
- Enhance link-building strategies by avoiding broken links.
- Reduce duplicate content with canonical URLs and 301 redirects.
3. Focus on Generating High-Quality Links
Quality trumps quantity in link building. Having ten high-quality links is better than getting 100 low-quality ones.
But how can you tell if a link is high-quality? Look for the following:
- Check its domain authority score to gauge the site’s reputation.
- Get inbound links from industry-related websites.
- Pick websites with a clean design and easy-to-use navigation.
4. Diversify Your Content
Content diversification is key to driving traffic and conversions.
Creating different types of content can reach new people. It also attracts links from different sources.
Besides tried-and-tested content types like blogs and infographics, consider new channels. Podcasts, for example, could reach over 400 million listeners globally by 2022.
Experiment with different content types. This way, you can find what works for your audience and website.
5. Update Content with New Keywords and Perspective
User intent and needs change. What they’re looking for today may not be the same tomorrow.
Your content must change with them by doing the following:
- Add new keywords or update old ones.
- Apply new SEO-friendly content marketing strategies, such as inserting more visuals.
- Reformat the content to make it readable.
- Include new data or remove outdated information.
6. Use Other Online Marketing Strategies to Improve Link Building
Use other digital marketing channels to improve your website’s ranking.
Email marketing can help connect with new leads and build relationships with customers. You can then include links to your website in these messages.
Social media is ideal for sharing content and connecting with new people. You can use it to drive traffic to your website and build organic links.
7. Track Your Progress with Link-Building Analytics
Use link-building analytics tools to track your progress and results over time. Doing this will give you a clear idea of which strategies are working.
Some essential metrics to track include:
- Number of links built per month
- Domain authority of linking websites
- Link types (follow/no-follow)
- Referral traffic from links
- Leads generated from links
- Conversions from link-building campaigns
Final Words
Link building and content should go hand in hand.
Your website needs great content to attract links. Plus, you need links to improve your website’s ranking and reach new people.
See better results by combining both strategies.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, reach out to reliable SEO agencies. They can guide you through the process.