A long term link strategy starts with the quality of your site

It’s the same old question. “How do I get more links?”

The answer is that if you want lasting quality links, you need to start by investing the time to improve your website and add great content on a consistent basis. You need to be thinking long-term.

Google’s Algorithm continues to improve and they want to reward websites which are the most relevant and have the best information. Give them what they want and demonstrate that you are the best in the industry. Put the time and effort into generating good content and building a community around it and you will eventually be rewarded. Not only will you start attracting loyal visitors but you will also start attracting the quality links that search engines are looking for.

Give Your Visitors a Reason to Return

Do you sell soap or shoes… or stock tips? It doesn’t matter what you sell as long as you are demonstrating that you have the best site on the subject. Be the source for the latest information on what’s going on with the industry. Build content by using expert opinions, interviews with industry leaders, or user generated reviews. Reach out to the community and give them an area where they can express their own ideas. Create a valuable tool that will benefit your customers. Not only will this content have them checking back in with your site regularly but it will help to acquire the natural links Google is looking for.

It’s not always about the viral article

Of course everyone wants to build one amazing link bait article that goes viral and gains back a thousand links. The fact of the matter is that you can’t expect every piece of content that you put out to go viral. Not every article needs to be a homerun and set Twitter on fire. As long as you’re building articles which add value and show visitors that your site is the place to turn to for quality information. Your customers will appreciate the content and search engines will index it. Continue to build it out and search engines are going to send you long-tailed keyword traffic as a reward.

Don’t give up and be consistent

How many times have we seen websites put great ideas into motion only to have them die out after a couple of months. You must remember that the results of your content efforts can take time. If you’re going to put this into your long-term strategy then you need to have the patients to see it though.

When it comes down to it there are a million different link building strategies and each site may need something slightly different. But I can tell you that if you want to become a leader for the products or services that you sell and you want to acquire top rankings, then the quality of your content needs to be at the core of your strategy. Regularly build content that people find valuable and both the visitors and links will come.