Link Building and Content Marketing: How They Work Together
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Benj Arriola discusses the evolving relationship between link building and content marketing in SEO, emphasizing that while some view link building as obsolete, it remains crucial for building credibility and authority online. Effective strategies include creating quality content that naturally attracts links, rather than solely aiming for backlinks. The presentation also highlights the challenges and shifts in link building practices over the years, underscoring the importance of relevance and quality over quantity.
Link Building and Content Marketing: How They Work Together
- 2. Benj Arriola Work Global SEO Architect / SEO VP Internet Marketing Inc. Speaker SMX, Pubcon, IRCE, OMS, eMA, EmMeCon, SEMCon, MORCon, and more! Experience SEO: 11 years Web Design & Development: Since 1997 Before 1997 Chemist Industry / Laboratory Professor IT Instructor Competitor Winner of several SEO contest winning cash and a brand new car in the 2007 SEO World Championship It’s my first time in Sydney!
- 3. Link Building Vs. Content Marketing What some SEOs are saying: Link building is out. It’s dead, content marketing is in. Content marketing has nothing to do with link building. Link building still works! With or without content marketing. Link building is content marketing. Content marketing is link building.
- 4. The Main Reason Why We Are Talking About This Your links look like some spammy SEO guy made it. I’m bored reading your mediocre content.
- 5. Are Links Still Important? Links are like votes of: Credibility Trust Authority But links should be natural As long as they are natural, they are generally good. They are definitely still important.
- 6. Goals Link Building Gain more links Gain good quality links Gain natural links Scale the Process Content Marketing Social Shares Gain Links Brand Engagement Loyalty Popularity / Ubiquity Generates Demand Conversions Sales Revenue / Profits
- 7. Which Is A Part Of Which? Goals Content Marketing Gaining links is just one of the goals of content marketing. There are many other goals of content marketing, not just links. Tactics Link Building Content marketing is just one of the ways to gain links going to a webpage. There are many other tactics for gaining links outside of content marketing.
- 8. The Role Of Links In Great Content Usability SearchSocial Content Good Quality Content = Good for Penguin and Panda, and Good for Users Good Quality Content = Compelling to share, viral, share bait, link bait Good Quality Content = Good link bait, natural links. Increase ranking. More about this tomorrow: Creative Content Marketing: From Strategy to Execution 10:45 – 11:30am
- 9. The Panda And Penguin Solutions Work Together You know your content is good when people talk about it & pass it around. Good natural links are gained when people pass your good content around. Oversimplified Action Item: Prevent your site from being affected by Panda & Penguin by: (1) coming up with great content & (2) doing a social promotion.
- 10. Backlink Factor Metrics Quantity Quality
- 11. Quantity Quality Backlink Factor Metrics Quantity Google Webmaster Tools Bing Webmaster Tools Search Engine “link:” command Majestic Moz OpenSiteExplorer aHrefs Sistrix Link Research Tools SEMRush Unmeasurable Dimension: Relevancy Quality (Power) Google PageRank # of Backlinks of the Backlink Total Backlinks of the Domain Keyword Focused Majestic Citation Flow Follow or No Follow Hosting Country Site Wide vs. Single Page Cemper PowerTM Quality (Authority & Trust) TrustRank Google Indexed SEOMoz Page Authority SEOMoz Domain Authority Majestic Trust Flow IP Diversity Anchor Text Diversity Deep Linking Domain Age Domain Name Extensions .gov/.edu/.org ccTLD Cemper TrustTM The Challenge
- 12. You can change You can't change You can influence Potential Link Sources Evolution Of Link Building Late 90’s, early 2000’s 2000’s to Pre-Panda & Penguin Post-Panda & Penguin You can change You can't change You can influence Potential Link Sources You can change You can't change You can influence Potential Link Sources Bad Good You have strong control. You make it relevant. You have little control. Hopefully it is relevant. “Influence others to link” makes link building part of earned media. To earn trust, credibility & authority, needs quality content.
- 13. You can change You can't change You can influence Potential Link Sources Late 90’s, early 2000’s 2000’s to Pre-Panda & Penguin You can change You can't change You can influence Potential Link Sources You have strong control. You make it relevant. Evolution Of Link Building Post-Panda & Penguin You can change You can't change You can influence Potential Link Sources Bad GoodThe links with the largest benefit is a smaller subset of all sites you influence. Very Relevant You have little control. Hopefully it is relevant.
- 14. Obsolete Link Building Practices Early days of link building (~ late 90’s) Link farms Doorway pages, multiple websites Unmoderated pages: forums, guestbooks. Link Building Improvements (~2000-2005) Submissions: Directories, Articles for relevancy. Content: Blog Networks for better relevancy. Interactions: More natural postings on Blog Comments, Forums and Wiki Entries Themes/Template, Tools/Widgets Link Buying, Link Exchange RSS Syndication Pre-Penguin Days (~2006-2010) Blogging Networks Guest Blogging Press Releases Paid Links (Including .edu links) Link Wheels Automated Article Spinning & Posting Link Building Today Content Marketing aka Inbound Marketing, Viral Marketing, Link Baiting, Buzz Marketing, Earned Media Marketing Quality Content Promotion
- 15. Obsolete Link Building Practices Early days of link building (~ late 90’s) Link farms Doorway pages, multiple websites Unmoderated pages: forums, guestbooks. Link Building Improvements (~2000-2005) Submissions: Directories, Articles for relevancy. Content: Blog Networks for better relevancy. Interactions: More natural postings on Blog Comments, Forums and Wiki Entries Themes/Template, Tools/Widgets Link Buying, Link Exchange RSS Syndication Pre-Penguin Days (~2006-2010) Blogging Networks Guest Blogging Press Releases Paid Links (Including .edu links) Link Wheels Automated Article Spinning & Posting Link Building Today Content Marketing aka Inbound Marketing, Viral Marketing, Link Baiting, Buzz Marketing, Earned Media Marketing Quality Content Promotion This is a large blog network: Autoblog, games.com, winamp, Huffpost Money, Huffinton Post, Huffpost Celebrity, Huffpost Politics, Huff post TV. Stylelist, AOL, Techcrunch, Engadget, MMAFighting.com, SB Nation, and tons more. • They are all good quality. • All can stand on their own. • All were not just created for links. • They all get a good amount of natural links themselves.
- 16. Obsolete Link Building Practices Early days of link building (~ late 90’s) Link farms Doorway pages, multiple websites Unmoderated pages: forums, guestbooks. Link Building Improvements (~2000-2005) Submissions: Directories, Articles for relevancy. Content: Blog Networks for better relevancy. Interactions: More natural postings on Blog Comments, Forums and Wiki Entries Themes/Template, Tools/Widgets Link Buying, Link Exchange RSS Syndication Pre-Penguin Days (~2006-2010) Blogging Networks Guest Blogging Press Releases Paid Links (Including .edu links) Link Wheels Automated Article Spinning & Posting Link Building Today Content Marketing aka Inbound Marketing, Viral Marketing, Link Baiting, Buzz Marketing, Earned Media Marketing Quality Content Promotion Matt Cutt’s told us to stick a fork in guest blogging. But taking a look at the authors on Huffpost, Mashable, Buzzfeed, some of the authors are pitched contributors. They are essentially guest blog posters. • The post is good quality. • The site is a good quality site, authoritative and credible. • The sites were not just created for links, and the post was not created solely for links.
- 17. Obsolete Link Building Practices Early days of link building (~ late 90’s) Link farms Doorway pages, multiple websites Unmoderated pages: forums, guestbooks. Link Building Improvements (~2000-2005) Submissions: Directories, Articles for relevancy. Content: Blog Networks for better relevancy. Interactions: More natural postings on Blog Comments, Forums and Wiki Entries Themes/Template, Tools/Widgets Link Buying, Link Exchange RSS Syndication Pre-Penguin Days (~2006-2010) Blogging Networks Guest Blogging Press Releases Paid Links (Including .edu links) Link Wheels Automated Article Spinning & Posting Link Building Today Content Marketing aka Inbound Marketing, Viral Marketing, Link Baiting, Buzz Marketing, Earned Media Marketing Quality Content Promotion Matt Cutt’s once said, links from news sites should be treated like nofollow links. Additionally, news articles are all duplicate content. But news articles can also get on high traffic sites with a lot of visitors. • Make the articles newsworthy for better distribution. • Do not just go after the link to get a link. Go after the promotion of a content piece on your website that may gain new natural links.
- 18. Content Marketing Evolution Didn’t change that much Copywriters, PR writers, newspaper writers, have been doing this for years. The only thing that changed was SEO people are trying to do it more and more these days. Content marketing may also be loosely known as: Link baiting Inbound Marketing Buzz Marketing Viral Marketing Earned Media Marketing Content Marketing is not just PR Distribution Mat Release Article Distribution Guest Blogging
- 19. Content Marketing Is Not Just Writing An Article Ideation Creation Promotion Many forms of content marketing Blog Post, Infographics, Kinetic Typography, Explainer Videos, Interactive Pages, Online Tools, eBooks, Slideshares, Whitepapers and more! Or in any combination of the above. More about this tomorrow: Creative Content Marketing: From Strategy to Execution 10:45 – 11:30am
- 20. Is There Link Building That Is Not Content Marketing? Tactics that may still work if done correctly Blogging Networks Guest Post Press Releases Partners, Dealers, Distributors, Affiliates, Memberships, Donations Forums Blog Comments Q & A Wiki Entries Niche Directories Intent The intent is not to get a link. The intent is to reach your targeted audience. Shares the same interest Passionate in the topic Has a strong following Is an authority on the topic
- 21. Is There Content Marketing That Is Not Link Building? What we measure in content marketing If you are doing content marketing for links alone, you might be doing it wrong. Conversions Traffic Links Engagement Social Activity
- 22. Bad Old Links Made Years Ago
- 23. Some Say: That’s BS! My Spammy Methods Still Work! Early days of link building (~ late 90’s) Link farms Doorway pages, multiple websites Unmoderated pages: forums, guestbooks. Link Building Improvements (~2000-2005) Submissions: Directories, Articles for relevancy. Content: Blog Networks for better relevancy. Interactions: More natural postings on Blog Comments, Forums and Wiki Entries Themes/Template, Tools/Widgets Link Buying, Link Exchange RSS Syndication Pre-Penguin Days (~2006-2010) Blogging Networks Guest Blogging Press Releases Paid Links (Including .edu links) Link Wheels Automated Article Spinning & Posting Link Building Today Content Marketing aka Inbound Marketing, Viral Marketing, Link Baiting, Buzz Marketing, Earned Media Marketing Quality Content Promotion Spammy old link building methods may still appear to work when: Spammy Industry Even if your links are bad, all your competitors are bad, Google still has to choose who becomes #1 based on all the other ranking factors. Very Non-Competitive Industry You are in an industry that almost no one targets at all. You Actually Have Very Good Links You have may good natural links and they are over-powering the bad links, but you think it is the spammy ones that are helping you. You are Measuring Success Wrong You think you are doing good, but you are really doing bad, but is just looking at the wrong things.
- 24. How do I make that awesome content?
- 25. Thanks Question? My Main Takeaways Content Marketing Involves ideation, creation and promotion. Create great awesome content that users would link to naturally. The goals of content marketing is not to get links alone, but also gain some traffic, engagement , conversions. Link Building Many methods in the past don’t work anymore. Some may still do, if done properly, where the intent is to reach your target audience and promotion your content than interacting just to get a link.
Editor's Notes
- #5: The Penguin Update devalues many of the links that used to work in the past. The Panda Update is all about content where low quality content is devalued, and many links used to come from content that was not affected by Panda in the past. You can check out my presentation about Panda and Penguin, how to detect, fix and prevent being affected negatively by these updates that I presented at the Online Marketing Summit in 2012. http://www.slideshare.net/BenjArriola/presentation-2012-14848817