Everyone uses the term quality content, but they don’t define it, say how to create it or what it is. What they do say is to create quality content to get backlinks or for link bait. Some search engines recommend you build quality content and it will attract backlinks naturally, however, that is complete crap which we all know.
When you are thinking about quality content, what it is and how to get links to it, here are three easy strategies that you may want to use to help get backlinks for your quality content and help your site rank better in the search engines with natural links. It works with every niche, every industry and can easily be applied to your site or company’s site regardless are an Affiliate, a Blogger or an In House SEO/Marketing professional.
What is quality content?
I’m going to define quality content as something that benefits your end user, is friendly for the search engines, ties in ways to find your products or sends people through your site to become a lead while being appealing to Journalists, Industry Bloggers and Trade Magazines.
Quality content can be articles, resources, interesting facts, infographics or something else that is worth sharing, remembering, bookmarking, talking about, sourcing and linking to. That is what quality content is and it can easily be applied to your site to build authority and drive backlinks, traffic and sales/leads.
How Can Quality Content Attract and Build Backlinks?
There are a ton of ways that your quality content can attract and build backlinks for you. The trick is helping to get it out there so that the right people can find it. Here are a few ways that you can help to get your quality content out so that it can be found and you can get backlinks for your content and then hopefully get it to rank.
1. Source your quality content in posts from other sites.
The first trick to getting links to your pages and site with quality content is to find content relevant sites and see if you can contribute to them. Find a topic that is very relevant for their audience, can use the content from your site as a source and tie your quality content in with a natural flow. If the tie in is not natural, the article would be equally as strong without it and it is clearly just for a backlink, you need to think of another topic and do not bother pitching or linking to it. This is very obvious and can get both you and the site you’re writing on hit by the search engines.
If sourcing your site for information does add value, does help to make the article stronger for the people reading it and it makes sense to have the link content and relevance wise, then link to it. If the site is large enough, there is a chance that industry relevant Bloggers, Journalists and Social Media Influencers will be able to find it. Because your site is referenced as a resource within the post, and if your site really did add value, explain something or made the post even better, you are now on their radars and your quality content can become something they may bookmark to use as a reference later or tweet/share sending social signals to the search engines about your content. This is a great way to build a brand, let people know that your quality content or resource exists and to get your content in front of the people that matter.
2. Let authors that write for industry sites know your quality content is there or recommend they source it in their posts if they need something to make their argument stronger.
As you’re reading relevant websites, articles and posts from industry and content relevant niche sites, look to see if they source facts, opinions and statements. Sites normally source with a link where they are quoting something, they have a link that says source underneath the image or by the fact/statement, or they include a list of urls as a source in the bottom of the post. If you notice that something isn’t sourced or could be sourced better with your content, write to the author of the post and see if they would like to use your quality content as a source which will get you a backlink. Even if they don’t use it on an older article, let them know it is there for future articles and that you would love to be a source or reference they can contact and use. The trick is making sure your content is reputable enough (i.e. you’ve created actual quality content) to become a source.
A second benefit to having this is that once a site knows that you provide high quality content or that you have something they can source in the future, they may add you to their list of resources to link to. This is always good because now as authors and contributors, especially ones writing about a new niche, are going through sites that the main sites lists as resources for information, you are on the list of experts or your site could be on a list of places to source to which gives you new backlinks.
If your url has links from a few great sites, but then nothing new built in the last couple years, this could tell a search engine that the site has changed, there is nothing worth linking to anymore or that the site is dead now. That is why being on a resource sheet is very valuable, especially with larger sites. It puts you in front of the authors and contributors which probably also contribute to other places which means your quality content can now build natural backlinks because of it being placed on a list of resources to use as a source and because you can continue to get new links showing your site and quality content are still relevant.
3. Facebook, LinkedIn, Adwords, etc…
Don’t be afraid to promote your own quality content through social networks and by buying ad space. Social Media sites let you target the exact people you want to reach. Some of them even let you use a person’s job title as a target. By doing this you can get your quality content in front of people who can give you backlinks and also give you the exposure to their audience which has followers that can share or give your quality content backlinks. The trick is to make sure your content is good enough to want to link to and share. You also need to know how to target the right way and what to include in it and who to exclude from your campaigns.
Creating quality content is a bit trickier than you’d think. What is quality to you may be garbage to someone else. Try to step away from your own internal business and thoughts and ask other industry related people that blog, have large followings, etc… and will be honest with you. Find out what they think, what they’d change and how they can make it worth linking to. They are the people you want links from so know why they would or would not link to or share it if they weren’t your friend. Once you have tweaked your quality content enough, you can then begin pushing it out to the world. If it is good enough and relevant enough, people may find it by using the methods above and you may start to see backlinks coming in helping you rank and push more authority into the other sections of your site.
*Images purchased from DepositPhotos.com.
