Link Building Through Content Distribution

It has long been known that link building is a vital part of optimising your website. The search engines have worked hard on adapting their ranking algorithms, the process by which they assess where a site should rank, in order to reward quality of links over quantity.

This would lead you to the assumption that the more links a site has from relevant and quality sources the better. Furthermore, links using the targeted key phrase of that page as the link text are more powerful than generic link text such as ‘click here’. With this in mind, how do you go about getting the links you need?

One of the ways that websites are getting links to their site is by distributing content that can be picked up by other webmasters. This can be in the form of article marketing, press release submission and blogging. This article will help you maximise your efforts with tips on designing a content distribution link building strategy:

Target Audience

It is important to consider who the people that you want to target are. Creating content that is right for your target audience will be the key to how many webmasters are willing to republish it on their site.

Research

Research the subject matter you are writing about. Visit forums, blogs and search for questions online using keyword tools such as Wordtracker Labs and Google’s own keyword tool. Find out what people in your target market really want to know about.

Purpose

Does the content meet the needs of the target audience? Is it informative and help the reader with the solution to their problem? A well crafted and considered piece of content can be valuable in terms of its ability to generate links.

Innovative

Are you simply rewording something that others have created or are you generating your own unique take on the subject? Websites are often looking for new ideas and in a crowded internet you need to stand out above the rest.

Check your Work

It almost goes without saying but any content you distribute will reflect upon the organisation you are looking to promote. Make sure it is spell checked, proof read by someone else and checked for errors.

Optimise

Make sure the content you wish to distribute has the keywords of the subject you are promoting in the appropriate places such as article or blog titles and in the content and any Meta if it is allowed. Some content can be indexed and ranked in its own right such as your blog post and can be easier to find by those seeking content for their site or for their own interest.

Link

The most important thing to remember is to link back to your own site using the appropriate key phrase as anchor text. In any article this can be done in an author’s resource box and within the content of the page. It is best to do this at the point the reader is interested in finding out more.

Submit

Once you are happy with your piece you can submit it to some article submission sites so it can be picked up by web content managers and webmasters. Sites such as EzineArticles, Article Base and Isnare are good examples, and  in the case of Blogs there are blog directories that you can submit your blog to including Blog Catalog and Blog Pulse.

Promote your Material

A mistake often made is that once people create some content, they forget to promote it. This can be done by using social media channels such as Twitter or using your network on sites such as Facebook. Your material could easily be passed around and end up generating traffic and links back to your site. You can also email your distribution list letting them know you have just created a blog post that would really help them.

In conclusion building links by distributing content is so much more than just firing off waves of articles and blog posts.  A carefully thought out and crafted article could be very powerful in gaining both links and relevant traffic back to your site. So get writing and with a bit of practice you could gain those much needed links; leading to a boost in rankings and, ultimately, site traffic.