Part 2d - Making Your Website a Must-Read
Great content helps your SEO program in ways other than just covering your key phrases. It also helps you acquire inbound links to your site. In this book's Introduction to SEO, we talked about the importance of inbound links (links from other websites to yours).
When you have a website worth linking to in the first place, your link-building program will practically run itself. "Link worthy" websites come in all shapes and sizes, but they all have one thing in common. They all offer great content that gets people's attention.
Aside from paid listings (such as web directories), few people will link to a "bare bones" website that offers nothing unique, helpful or interesting. A webmaster's dream is to have the kind of website that is so useful and popular that people link to it and recommend it without being asked to do so. I refer to this as reaching "critical mass."
At first, you have to grow your link popularity through directory submissions, article publishing, press release syndication and the like (all covered in this book, by the way). But eventually, great websites reach a point of "critical mass" where they begin to attract links and traffic without any link-building effort from the owner.
Imagine checking your inbound links and seeing that they have tripled since the last time you checked — without any link-building effort on your part. This is what I call critical mass, and in order for it to happen you have to have a website worth talking about, worth recommending, and worth linking to.
If you build the kind of website that makes other in your industry or niche say, "Wow, that's really something! I know some folks who would like that," then your link-building efforts will be a breeze. You'll get unsolicited links without even asking for them. And your search engine rankings will soar over time.
Unsolicited links happen when people visit your website, find it extremely helpful, and link to it as a recommended resource. Your direct competitors won't do this, but others in related industries will.
I've beaten this topic to death, so let's put it to rest with a summary:
The more "link worthy" your website is, the easier it will be to acquire inbound links. The more links you acquire, the higher your website will rank in search engines for key phrases. The higher your website ranks, the more people will find you online ... you get the picture. It all adds up to more leads, more customers and more business!
Creating a Resource Section for Your Website
Want an easy, low-cost way to increase your website's value to readers (and its visibility to search engines)? Create an information-rich resource section of your website. Any website can benefit from having a "Resources" section. Small business websites, mortgage websites, marketing websites ... websites about basket weaving. You name it!
When you add quality articles, resources or tools to your website, you're improving your Internet marketing program in three major ways:
- First, you're making your website more visible to search engines, because search engines love content. So by developing original content around your website's key phrases, you'll improve your search engine ranking for those phrases.
- Secondly, you will further position yourself as an authority in your subject area. Everyone knows you have to understand a topic well in order to write about it well. So by building a resource section, you'll demonstrate your expertise.
- Also, by adding useful content to your website, you'll keep people on the site longer. It's logical that the longer people stay on your website, the better chance you'll have of getting a response or capturing a lead.
The key here is to think like a publisher. You'll hear me say that a lot throughout this guide, but only because it's an important concept. Think like a publisher!
Whether they work for a local magazine or a major Internet site, professional publishers all have one thing in common. They all know the importance of catering to the needs of their readers. They first find out what it is their readers want, and then they give it to them in spades. Otherwise, they are doomed for failure.
Whey you apply this "publisher's mentality" to your web marketing, you will grow a web presence that's built on information people actually want. And the more you do this, the more website traffic you'll get. And that traffic will be easier to convert into business, because your readers will trust you and view you as a prominent expert in your particular industry and niche.
Creating additional web pages is easier than you might think. If you're not much of a writer, then outline some topics and pay a writer to create the content. You can find plenty of good writers on Elance.com. Glossaries and Q&A pages are other good ways to implement this tactic.
Part 3 >> The Small Business Blog