Link building the right way -- with great quality contentLink building is probably the hardest part of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). But high quality incoming links are one of the most important components of your search engine optimisation strategy.

Search engines are always looking for better ways to assess the quality and relevance of search results. A significant part of Google’s search ranking algorithm looks at the incoming link profile of your pages, and uses that to help gauge the relevance and authority of your content.

So good incoming links are critical to getting your site in front of your customers for your key search terms.

But how do you go about getting quality backlinks?

  • Buy them? Er… no!
  • Blast the myriad local web directory sites with “free” and paid listings for your business? Er… no!
  • Write a gazillion articles for online article directories in the hope that they’ll be published widely around the web? Er… no!
  • Ask nicely? Well, maybe… but you need something compelling for other websites to link to – otherwise why would they bother sending visitors your way?

Effective link building is about adding value for people – and the way to do that is to create original, high quality content.

Content: the most powerful link building weapon in your digital marketing arsenal

When you create compelling, informative and useful content on your website you’re adding value for your visitors… but you’re also doing much more than that.

You’re creating a reasons for people to share, and for other sites to link back to your content.

Good content by its very nature encourages people to share, and with social media sites going from strength to strength sharing great content is easier than ever.

Encouraging people to share high quality content with their online peers and communities is a great strategy… because it ticks multiple boxes all of which benefit your online business.

  • Sharing drives direct traffic to your content via the shared link.
  • Sharing helps to build your reputation and authority across online communities.
  • Sharing encourages backlinks from other site owners who like what they read.

Building a sustainable, high quality, natural link profile for your site is a crucial part of your site optimisation strategy. Getting it right depends a lot on the quality of the content you provide.

When you add content to your site, ask yourself is this something that will add value for my visitors, is it something that I would link to, is it something another website owner will want to share?

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