Content Marketing Made Simple

Content or Links - Which is Really King?

There's been a heated debate in SEO circles for awhile about which factor is more important when it comes to ranking high in the search engines:

Content? or Links?

The long-standing belief has always been that, when it comes to SEO, Content Is King. Recently, however, some have challenged this by boldly claiming that content was no longer as important, and that nowadays... it's "all about the links".

Has content really been pushed off its throne?

I say no way.

There's no doubt that inbound links play a very crucial role when it comes to how high your site ranks in the search engines. In fact, with the right inbound links, it's possible to rank a page very high in the search engines with very little content, or even no content at all. However, this situation is rather rare and is usually only possible with some amount of link manipulation that is not natural. There is the rare instance where a page with no content catches on virally and gets passed around the net for something other than its content. This is definitely not the norm.

So the question of which of these 2 important factors is more POWERFUL is a faulty question. They are both extremely powerful tools and they both play a crucial role in achieving top ranks in the search engines.

The real question is: "what is the best way to USE both content and links together to achieve top ranking for the long term?"

This question is answered differently by many depending on their understanding of SEO, as well as their philosophy when it comes to following Google's guidelines.

The fact is, Google makes it clear that they only count links that are obtained "naturally". This means that another site owner linked to you because they felt your site had a lot of great content on it. This is the usual way that sites achieve links, and this is what Google considers a legitimate "vote" for your site.

If your focus is on link-building first and foremost, in the long run, you will lose. Without great content, you offer no reason why anyone would link to you naturally... and that means you are left to using clever tricks to obtain links in "unnatural" ways.

What we teach site owners is this:

First and foremost, focus on developing your site into a content-rich resource that both people and search engines will appreciate. Update the content as often as you can. Try to give your visitors the information they're looking for.

Once your site has grown into an authority on your topic, you will begin to attract natural back links.

This doesn’t mean you have to sit back and wait for other site owners to link to you. There are other ways to promote your site and get the word out. Techniques like submitting to high quality directories, link-baiting, social media and bookmarking, pay-per-click, press releases and many other promotional methods can help put your content in front of others.

There are many differing views out there, but once again, I choose to take the advice given by Google:

“Give visitors the information they're looking for... Provide high-quality content on your pages... This is the single most important thing to do. If your pages contain useful information, their content will attract many visitors and entice webmasters to link to your site.”