Link Building with Content
There are several changes occurring in SEO everyday. And Google’s unpredictable algorithm changes are not helping. But two things remain constant throughout the changes.
- High quality, relevant content is an important factor considered by Google for search ranking.
- Natural organic links are an important SEO factor.
And not surprisingly, the two are connected. Good content attracts natural links and link building with content is emerging as an important SEO strategy for enhancing search rankings and relevant SERP’S.
The Significance of Link Building with Content
The importance of link building with content is driven by the following factors
1. Google Panda Update
This update focuses on eliminating low quality, irrelevant and duplicate content in a bid to make available to searchers only high quality, relevant content. If earlier, your Affordable SEO strategy focused on generating links for your website with articles spun by a program and uploaded on article directories, such a strategy will clearly no longer work. And in fact, there is a good chances that your website may be penalized.
One of the important factors being considered under the Google Panda update is the bounce rate of website traffic “ DID THE VISITOR FIND WHAT THEY WERE LOOKING FOR”. Websites with lower bounce rates are accorded higher search rankings. So your content has to be good enough to hold the attention of your visitors and inspire them to visit other pages on your website.
2. Google Penguin Update
The aim of the Penguin update is counter link spam. Creating articles, comments, posts etc with no aim other than to gain links is frowned upon by Penguin. Such a strategy obviously pays no attention to the quality of the content (all attention is focused on the links) and Google does not want its searchers to get crappy content in their searches.
Some of the critical factors considered by Google under the Penguin update include creating natural links, link velocity, link diversity and anchor text diversity. And all these factors occur only when you focus on link building with content, rather than link building just for the sake of link building.
3. Social Signals for SEO
Social signals have emerged as a powerful SEO factor. The stronger the social recommendations (Facebook likes and shares, Twitter tweets, Google +1s etc) a piece of content attracts, greater the chances of it being ranked high on the search engines.
And this works in two ways – the direct impact of social signals being considered for SEO and the indirect impact of links being generated on account of greater social recommendations.
It is quite logical. If your content is of good quality, relevant and adds value, it will obviously generate more social recommendations and shares. As people become more aware of the content, they will link to it. Such links
- Are natural
- Exhibit anchor text diversity as different people will link to your content with varying anchor texts.
- Contribute to link diversity as you receive links from varied sources.
And these are precisely the link factors that are important under Google Penguin.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the days of link building just for the sake of link building no longer exist. For a sustainable SEO strategy, link building with content is the way forward.
Tom Bates | President
Absolute Placement Today, Inc