Know the "Right" in a Right Link-Building Strategy
It has been some time since you have been consistently creating great content. However, your site's ranking or traffic just does not seem to reflect the demanding work you have been putting in. Maybe it's not the content but the wrong audience that you've been targeting.
As a fellow content creator, I know this can be off-putting, and downright depressing.
Are you Creating the Right Content?
Your content is the issue. You must consider for whom you are producing content. Well, a site owner's standard response is that they create content for their audience. This is a perfectly acceptable response, in theory. The issue is that this is useless in the Google world. Simply put, you are producing excellent content for the wrong audience.
Let me explain. There are two types of people in your niche or industry: Those who run websites or blogs and those who do not. Phrases like "7 ways to XXXX." "Guide to XXXX." and "5 Power Keywords to XXXX." could make excellent articles for the public. The issue is that these individuals do not run websites or blogs.
How Does Google Rank its Content?
Let us take a moment to consider how Google ranks its content before moving on. While many articles on Google claim that content is king, the truth is that for content to be ranked higher on SERP, the king also needs his courtiers or links.
Under any circumstances, external links and links with high authority are irreplaceable. Numerous studies conducted by independent third-party agencies have shown that pages with higher authoritative links are ranked higher than pages with links of lower authority or no links at all.
The "Right" Audience
Blog or website owners, or "linkers," as we will call them, require in-depth, elaborate articles that add value to their websites. Linkers should be your primary target audience whenever you are writing content. Go back to your content now and be completely honest with yourself. Is it written for the public or for Linkers?
Ideally, your content should adhere to Linker's content guidelines or standards. Linkers look for articles that will deepen their sites' understanding of their specialized subject or divulge knowledge that is useful in their field.
They want to display content on their website that is uncommon or comparatively unique. To draw the interest of other Linkers, whom they are trying to reach, they want to have content that other Linkers will want to link to. If you can help them in their endeavor, you are in the game; if not, Google will never list your excellent content on its first page.
Should you Quit Creating Content for the Wrong Audience?
Should you stop producing content for the public now that you are aware that Linkers are your primary audience when creating content? In no way! Create content for the public, but only 10% of it should be intended for them; the other 90% should be targeted at Linkers.
Your site can be ranked higher on Google by linking to sites with high domain authority. This will aid in generating traffic from the public; this is where the 10% content will be useful. Both 90% and 10% will gradually increase significantly in terms of quantity. Both the traffic and the site's ranking will reflect this.
The linker-specific strategy will work not only for blogs but also for ecommerce sites and even service-oriented websites.
In my next blog, I will help you find these Linkers, till then.
Read more about Google’s new content policy in my previous post.