- Links
are one-way. Many SEO experts believe
that reciprocal links may be
"dampened" by the search
engines; i.e., they will not help you
rank as high as one-way links. Of course,
reciprocal links are still valuable,
there's a just a question of how valuable
they really are.
- Links
per page are fewer. Many SEO experts
believe that the higher the number of
links per page, the less SEO value each
link has. When a website publishes an
article, the author's backlink is often
the only live link to another website on
that page.
Distinct
Non-SEO Benefits of Distributing Content
What makes content distribution a truly
special method of link building is that it's the
only method where the non-SEO benefits may even
outweigh the SEO benefits:
- Website
building. If you create special
content for your link-building campaign,
you can publish it on your site. As a
general rule, the more content your site
has, the more search engine traffic it
will receive. Just publish the article
and get it indexed in search engines
before distributing it, which should help
you to outrank your republishers in
search engines for that same content.
- Traffic
generation. The links in distributed
content generate traffic in the form of
highly qualified leads: people who liked
what you had to say. Distributing content
gets you traffic even when it doesn't get
you a link. If your article gets picked
up by a large-circulation email
newsletter, you will get a flood of
highly qualified traffic.
- Authority.
Distributing content is the only linking
campaign method that can make the
recipient website and its owners appear
authoritative. There are thousands of
internet gurus who owe their lucrative
reputations entirely to the articles
they've distributed.
- Mindshare.
Distributing articles is the only linking
campaign method that can help you spread
an idea. This makes article distribution
invaluable for launching new products or
services.
Drawbacks of
Content Distribution
Of course, nothing good ever came easy. Any
website owners who are looking for SEO magic
beans will be disappointed by content
distribution:
- Desired
anchor text is not always available.
Unfortunately, the content management
systems most widely in place today make
it easier for website owners to accept
content as text rather than HTML. This
means that many website owners simply
have their content management system
convert a URL into a live link, rather
than taking the time to code in the
anchor text. Still, an experienced
content distributor can usually find ways
around this problem to make sure that
many if not most of the links use anchor
text.
- Results
are variable. Content distribution is
not quite as sure a thing as reciprocal
linking. The site that publishes your
article has to like not only your site,
but also your article. This is especially
true for the passively-generated links
that come from content clearinghouse
websites. But results can vary the other
way, too: an article that catches on will
yield more links than you ever could have
gotten through the same investment in
reciprocal linking. In order to minimize
the risk of content not catching on with
website owners, you should make sure your
content is high-quality, and also plan
for a large content distribution
campaign: the more content you try, the
more likely you are to find a winner.
- Requires
significant investment. You need
high-quality content, expertise in
content distribution, and quite a few
work-hours to distribute the content and
track the results. Of course, the cost
has to be weighed against the cost of
reciprocal linking, which is also
significant. These costs can be mitigated
by outsourcing the entire process from
soup to nuts to a content distribution
specialist. Costs of outsourcing content
distribution compare favorably with costs
of outsourcing reciprocal link building.
- Requires
special expertise. There are numerous
newbie pitfalls to distributing content,
from improperly formatting articles to
writing a bad introductory email to
accompany content submissions. You
generally have to have done numerous
campaigns to truly get the feel for it.
Again, this requirement has to be weighed
against the real-world requirement of
special expertise in other link campaign
methods. Again, this drawback can be
mitigated by outsourcing your project to
a specialist.
In short, there
are benefits to both reciprocal linking and
content distribution. All things being equal, you
should use both. Still, content distribution is
the only one method that carries substantial
non-SEO benefits as well. Plus, a professionally
managed content distribution campaign may even
yield greater SEO results than reciprocal linking
would for the same investment.
You owe it to yourself or your clients to add
content distribution to your SEO-toolkit--before
the owner of the next highest-ranking site finds
out about it.
About The Author
Joel Walsh is the owner of UpMarket Content,
offering a fully managed content distribution
campaign guaranteed to get you at least one
hundred one-way inbound links for every three
pages of content: website content
distribution
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