The New Face of Content-Driven Link Building

Google’s relentless algorithm updates over recent years have wreaked havoc on many internet business ventures. However, if you remember the sad days of article spinning and mass submission of worthless articles to hundreds of directories, you’ll surely agree that’s a good thing.

In the bad old days, the Internet became choked up with mediocre content that was generated simply as filler to attach a backlink to. Nowadays, we have to do much better than that to get natural links. We have to provide value. But where do we begin?

As with everything in modern SEO, it has to start with the audience. Think about your target visitors. What do they want to know? What problems are they seeking solutions for? What can you offer that will help them and gain authority and trust.

Your linkbuilding campaigns should begin with questions such as these. Then you can craft the right type content that will a quality link portfolio. Here are some types of content that can work well and quickly to attract links.

Link Bait

It sounds like something dodgy, but actually it just means creating content so good that other sites will just have to link to it. Long list posts on topics of interest can work wonderfully, as can collections of resources. Such content can become viral very fast and gain the creator massive exposure and back links.

Infographics

Everyone’s favourite link bait, these are the perfect way to present information for fast and easy consumption. Infographics get shared, tweeted and linked to like crazy if they’re good. That makes them a fast way to build up a link portfolio as long as they’re outstanding.

Guest Blogging

It seems like a win-win situation. You publish a quality post on a blog that covers a related topic. They get content, you get a link or two back along with a flood of visitors eager to read more.

Unfortunately, a whole industry has grown up to take advantage of guest blogging just as it once did with articles marketing. Many high PR sites now exist purely to publish paid posts from SEOs desperate for ‘white hat links’. Google spam chief Matt Cutts said his team were aware of certain abuses taking place and were looking into dealing with them.

Content Syndication

Similar to guest blogging, this involves sending one piece of content to be published in a number of outlets including websites, blogs, and newsletters. Again, publishers get quality content to give their readers, you get visitors, links and social media signals.

Instead of grumbling about Google’s heavy-handed behaviour we should thank them for making the quality of the net that much better by ridding it of all that spun dross.  Let’s be sure we’re replacing the junk with something of genuine value.

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About Nathanael Vanderkolk

Nathanael Vanderkolk is the Director of the Smart SEO Company, a SEO Agency in Sydney, Australia. Smart SEO Sydney has a keen awareness of the latest approaches to online marketing. Follow him on , Facebook and Twitter.
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