Matt Cutt’s Hidden Link Building Tip; Write Great Content

In last Google Webmaster Video Marathon, about a few months ago, Matt Cutts from Google was asked what would be the best way to make new links that didn’t violate Google’s guidelines.  And Matt said “write quality content for your website”.

Of course he probably meant write great content and people will link to you but well know that is not very likely specially if you are a brand new website and not that many people know about you. If you wait for links to come, they may never come. So that is why you need to build links yourself but how do you engage in a link building campaign that doesn’t violate Google’s guidelines and also helps you improve your ranking?

Let’s look at Matt’s advice again. He said “write good content for your website” but did he really say you have to put that great content on your website?  I like to think there is a subconscious hidden message there;

The hidden message points to contextual links. If these links come from non spammed or trusted websites, are the best links you can possibly get because they boost traffic to your website and improve your ranking. Contextual links boost traffic to your website, because unlike the links on side navigation or footers that are often ignored by the users, contextual links are followed because users like to read good content and follow the links in them. The tip is for both content and the links in them to be relevant and favorable for the user. And if user likes it, then Google tend to link it because Google is striving to improved search quality by improving user experience. So if you write content that user likes, then Google will love that content.

So back to Matt’s advice; “write great content for your website”. And I like to add, submit that great content, and the relevant links in them, and promote them to self promoting sites; whether you have written articles, news and press releases, manuals,  or videos. There are a plenty of both free and paid version of such sites available.

For example, whenever my client has some press releases, I submit them to PRNewswire, which is my favorite.  They blast your press release to hundreds of online. Or they make great articles that I help submit to various article sites. But that is not the only places where you can submit your content. There are many blogs that allow guest posts because they want more quality content on their websites and they are tolerant for contextual links so as long as they are relevant and useful to their users. Just search for blogs within your industry and see if they allow guest posts with relevant links on them. And of course there is Youtube and other online videos where you can promote yourself which helps build traffic and bait for links.

So Matt Cutts gave the best link building advice there is when he said to focus on quality content for your website and I like to add, that quality content that was made for your website doesn’t have to be on your website.

Have fun link building.