Backlinks Vs. Content: Which One Should You Prioritize?

Which One Should You Prioritize First Between Content And Links?

  

Today, digital marketers face a difficult SEO dilemma. Copywriters cannot really tell which is more rewarding between link building and creating content. However, when modifying your website there is more to it than just tossing in some keywords. You need to make sure that your content is on point and that your links are unique.

  

Therefore, there is no doubt that you need both content and links for any site. A link strategy will attract readers to your site while deep content will help to grow your audience and give you ultimate conversions.  But, there is a catch…Which one should you start with?

 

We will look at the benefits of both links and content and which one you should focus more on below:

  

Content

Everyone knows that content is king. One can write a blog, start an email campaign, and create a video brochure as long as you are creating. If you are truly dedicated to improving your website’s ranking, you cannot just focus only on links. This is because you need strong content in order to improve your page rankings. The more content pages you add to your website, the higher you may rank since search engines rank constant updated websites more.

  

In addition, writing more content gives you the chance to incorporate more keywords within your website. This will help you rank on the first page of search results for multiple keywords. If you dedicate time to writing unique and useful content for your website, other people might use it as a resource. If those people link back to your content then search engines will begin to recognize that other people value your content. This will in turn improve your overall page ranking.

  

Note that links might give your audience an entrance to your site but you need content to keep them there.

  

Backlinks

Content helps to improve your page ranking but links strengthen your entire domain not just a single page. Linking to external, high quality resources on your website may affect how Google perceives your domain’s relevance and authority. This is because Google wants users to be able to find the information they are looking for at all times.

  

If you add high quality external links on your website, users will click on the links and access valuable content. This in turn will make their search experience more favorable. This way Google will reward you by ranking your website higher since people view you as a valuable resource.

  

However, be careful with the external links. Google will view your domain in a positive way if choose high quality external links. On the other hand, Google will associate you with poor quality links if you choose to link back to spam content. Make sure to link to a variety of high quality sources instead of constantly sending users to the same place.

  

Content is effective in improving the ranking of a single page while links are more helpful for strengthening your entire domain.

  

Content Can Help You To Target Keywords

One of the main reasons as to why content is important for SEO is because it allows businesses to target keywords. However, if you keep targeting keywords that your customers are not looking for all of your hard work will go to waste. You can use Google Keyword Planner to find relevant keywords.

  

Type in any main keyword and Google will pull back results for this keyword along with dozens of other suggested terms. The results will show you the average number of searches and level of competition associated with each keyword. This will in turn make it easier for you since you can decide which ones are worth your time.

  

Remember to use long tailed keywords when developing your keyword strategy. This way people searching for that specific term will be more interested in your business if it is an exact match.

  

Links Can Also Contribute To Keyword Strategy

Links can help you with keyword strategy if you use the appropriate anchor text. The anchor text is the clickable text in a link and the words you choose here may affect your ranking. Make sure to make the anchor text relevant to the link you are directing users to by using keywords related to the content of the external link. If you use irrelevant keywords in your anchor text, search engines can sense that and will punish you for what they believe is an attempt to misguide users who are looking for resources.

  

Search engines will penalize you if you are stuffing too much keywords into your anchor text or using the same anchor text repeatedly. Therefore, when creating external links remember that you can incorporate a keyword into your anchor text but you have to make it feel natural.

  

Conclusion

Content creation and link building are both important parts of quality SEO. The rules of SEO are constantly evolving and most marketers may argue that content is more important and links are becoming less important. Somehow, this is true; content is becoming increasingly more important. Readers are no longer interested with traditional forms of advertising. Therefore, more brands are beginning to appreciate the value in authentic content as a marketing tool.

  

Note that the more content you create, the more competition you have when it comes to ranking and keywords. However, just because content is increasing in importance does not mean links are less important. You may think that it makes more sense to focus on one are but that does not apply to SEO. Try to allocate resources to both links and content to have a successful SEO strategy.

  

In case, you need to pick one first then start with content. Content is the backbone of every successful marketing campaign. Actually, content is vital to any marketing campaign.