Chapter 7. Creating Link-Worthy Content and Link Marketing
One way to think about on-page SEO is that it is like obtaining admission to an event in which you are competing. It has no bearing on how you do within the competition itself, but you don’t get to play in the game without it. If this analogy is true, then what is it that does drive your success in the competition (i.e., high rankings in the SERPs)? In today’s search environment, the main driving factors are inbound links, social signals, and user engagement with your content.
Links remain the single largest factor in determining search rankings. Links also have a multidimensional impact. For example, the strength of a site’s inbound links determines how frequently and how deeply that site is crawled.
In addition, each link’s context (its location within the page, anchor text, surrounding text, etc.) is taken into account when determining the relevance of the link. And links can convey trust, helping to overcome potential spam designations (which can torpedo a site’s SEO success).
Link building is the practice of actively marketing your site with the intent to obtain links from other sites. There are two critical points to remember regarding link building:
Link building is a fundamental part of SEO. Unless you have an enormously powerful brand (one that attracts links without effort), you will fail without it.
Link building should never stop. It is an ongoing part of marketing your website.
However, search ranking algorithms are ...
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