Content vs Links: An Analysis

My decision years ago to forego link building for content was a decision based in two parts fear and one part laziness. In my early days online, I built a lot of links. I was obsessed with link building. Then Google released the mighty Penguin update that obliterated a good amount of my traffic. I had built so many links to my sites that there was no point in trying to recover them. I started over. I resolved to not build links. Instead, I had a crazy notion that if I published good content, other sites would link to me naturally. I was right. Over time I learned what types of content attracted more links. I published more of that. At no point did I become anti-links. I became anti-unnatural link building. I don't mean that in an ethical sense. I have no qualms morally about paying for links or getting them any which way I can. My decision not to build links is a business decision. When au natural worked, I liked the freedom to focus on writing. Writing is so much more fun than building links. I also enjoy dreaming up content ideas that I think/hope will attract links. It's link bait content. Nothing wrong with that IMO. Not having to spend hours per day link building was terrific. It freed up my time big time. Since Penguin, many link builders have come up with what they hope are "Google-friendly" link building methods. Some are Google-friendly such as outreach (with no offers of money). HARO is good if you can make it work for you. I'm sure there are some other Google-approved methods. I don't do it so I'm not on top of it all. Turns out my ongoing decision to focus on content production instead of link building was a good decision. And that's not just because I have sites with plenty of traffic. Today I read [an article by a popular, very successful link building agency]( that shifted strategies from outreach link building to focusing on natural link building via content for clients. As an aside, I'm not affiliate for this company. I've never used their service. I just happen to like the article. I've never been all that much of a data hound. But this article by said agency is a data hound. They crunched the numbers after sending 1 million plus outreach emails. They concluded they get best ranking results focusing on content production instead of outreach link building. That said, the article does set out some situations where outreach link building is worth it. I like articles that don't take a this or that hardline approach and instead offer a nuanced analysis. Natural link building is passive link building It really is. Publish. Wait for traffic. Links follow all on their own. More traffic. More links and so on. The key ingredient here is patience. Another tasty ingredient to improve the natural link building recipe is figuring out types of content in your niche that attracts more links. This requires trial, error and once again, patience. Once links start coming in, you'll gain momentum. Does this mean you should never build links? It depends on you and your site. The article suggests new domains benefit quite a bit with some initial link building. I agree although I tend to don my patience hat instead and just wait. I'm sure if you can get some good traction with HARO, that's worth it especially in the beginning. And as the article suggests, if you're trying to rank ridiculously lucrative content, incorporating link building can be worth it. BUT before you make any big changes to anything, we need to see what happens this week Unless you've been off the grid for the last week, you no doubt heard Google is releasing what appears to be a sizeable update this week. It's called the "Helpful Content Update". This isn't restricted to product reviews which have the been the target of recent updates. This update sounds like it's targeting information content and entire sites. I've been asked what I'm doing in anticipation of this update. My response is I'm doing nothing other than wait and see. I have no idea how surgical or widespread this update will be. Nobody does. I like to think my content is helpful and will do fine but one never knows. I've come out on losing and winning sides of updates. Same sites. Different outcomes over time. I'm sure the SEOs out there will have plenty to say as the update rolls out. Let's just say we know already that big winners will definitely be searchenginejournal.com, seoroundtable.com and other popular SEO blogs as the publishing world stays glued to daily updates about this update. Jon Fatstacksblog.com [Unsubscribe]( | [Update your profile]( | 2016 Hill Drive, North Vancouver, British Columbia V7H 2N5