SEO for Traffic with Content vs. Ranking with Links

How do you grow your search engine traffic without adding a single new link or making any changes to your existing webpages? ... It's simple. Just add content.

Simply having keyword-optimized pages of content on your site won't rank you high for competitive search engine keywords - that's a fact of life. But keyword-optimized content can really bring in the traffic for low-competition and unique keywords. The low-competition and unique keywords are typically longer multi-word variants of the keyword. For instance, instead of "search engine ranking," "ranking for search engine traffic niche keywords."

If you have lots of pages of optimized content-and you optimize well - all the search engine traffic from these low-competition keywords will really add up. Plus, you'll usually get more repeat visitors and type-in traffic, too.

Just picture this realistic example of traffic-building with content vs. ranking-building with links. Company A invests $5,000 for link-building in order to rank for a competitive keyword. Company B invests the same amount, only in content. Company A and Company B: each start out on equal SEO footing: equally old websites with the same amount and quality of content, same content management systems, the same PageRank and quantity, quality, and relevance of inbound links.

Company A's research reveals that $5000 is just the amount needed to get on the first page of Google for a target keyword that should deliver 100 unique visitors per day if the site ends up in the first position. They dutifully get inbound links optimized for that keyword, following all SEO best practices. Three months and $5,000 later, the site is stuck somewhere toward the bottom of the second page of Google search results for the target keyword. Six months later, they've actually sunk a bit lower in the SERPs. The good news is that the site is getting some traffic from the links built and from the lowly search engine position, but nowhere near the 100 visitors/day they were hoping for from search results.

Company B, meanwhile, had content written around a long list of keywords with little or no competition in the search engines, using up-to-date search engine copywriting techniques. They've been enjoying a growing stream of visitors to their site almost since the first page of content was added. Three months later, the site's search engine traffic has grown by a hundred unique visitors per day, or 3,000 per month. Moreover, Company B's repeat visitor traffic has also jumped. Type-in traffic has increased, presumably as visitors forward the URLs of useful pages to their friends. Page views are up, too, not only from more repeat visitors and type-in visitors, but also from first-time search visitors staying longer and browsing more pages. Six months later, the website's content has built a loyal following on the net, generating even more repeat visitors. The search engine traffic is as good as it ever was.

Advantages of Web Content SEO

Greater certainty. Not only is a page of content extremely likely to bring in search engine traffic - unlike the similar investment in links - it won't suddenly disappear. The sites linking to you might stop anytime, or do something to stop links' passing search engine value (such as adding the "nofollow" tag or switching to a search-engine-unfriendly content management system).
Cost. Traditionally, copywriting has been more expensive than link-building. But that's changed. As "nofollow" link-Scrooge-ry becomes more and more common, and as paid and reciprocal links get downgraded, the real cost of obtaining quality links increases. Meanwhile, the copywriting market has increasingly adapted to the needs of search engine marketing. To get a search engine visitor, you don't need a Pulitzer-prize winning essay or a killer sales letter. You simply need highly focused, readable, keyword-optimized, information-packed pages of around 250 words each - and more and more copywriting and SEO firms are delivering this service cost-effectively. Blogs, meanwhile, let you and your employees add content easily. Bulletin boards (modified to be search-engine-friendly) let site visitors add content, too. In fact, "natural content" from blogs and bulletin boards is now much more viable than natural link building.

In conclusion, when you look at SEO, don't forget that your number-one goal is not to rank high for a certain keyword, but to get more search engine traffic. In some less competitive sectors, high rankings may still be a realistic and effective proposition. But increasingly, ranking high for competitive keywords is no longer the best way to get traffic.

Crash Course in Getting a #1 Google Ranking

First, here's the rundown of some of the terminology I'm going to use in this article -

Inbound Links - Links coming into your site
Outbound Links - Links leaving your site
Cross Links - Links that you have "traded" with another site (i.e., they've got a link from their site to your and you've got a link from your site to theirs)
(Page Ranking) - Google's measure of how "important" your site is.

SEO Is Not Dead

Ok, now lets talk about what you really want to hear - how to get those coveted 1-10 ranks for your keywords. Remember this - SEO is not dead. In fact, it is very much alive and important. The first thing to do in order to raise your site rank is target specific keywords. I say specific, because you need to target "keyphrases," meaning more than one word keywords. Some people use the words interchangeably (me included) so just ignore one-word keywords altogether. You will waste your money if you shoot for these, because chances are, there are other, much larger companies who already have you beat, and will continue to have you beat unless you've got a bottomless wallet.

Check Out Your Competition

Take this example, for instance, if you sell computers, you should not try to optimize your site for the keyword "computer" or "computers." First, think about all of the businesses that do anything with computers. Yeah, that's a lot. They'll all show up if you search for "computer." Now try to think of who would show up at the top of that list. I'll make it easy, it's Apple, Dell, Computer World, Computer Associates, IEEE, Computer History Museum, Webopedia, ASUSTeK, WhatIs.com, and HP. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I 99.9% guarantee you that you'll never get into that top 10 list. The HP link has almost 5,000 backlinks (discussed later) and a PR of 7/10. Good luck. Then What Should I Do?

So what should you try to target? Lets re-visit your computer store. What types do you sell? PCs, ok, what types of PCs? Custom. Ok, that's a little better, "Custom Computers" is still a vague keyword, though. (How many people build custom computers?) What kind of components do you use? Intel? AMD? SoundBlaster? GeForce? There you go, that's a little better - "Custom GeForce Computers." That returned 476k results instead of our previous 633 million with "Computer." Just a little bit less competition.

I Want More

Want to go further? Forget what types you sell, go for what do your customers want. What do they use your computers for? Gaming? Try "Custom Gaming Computers" - There are 672,000 results here, but the # 1 spot has a PR of 5/10 and only 41 backlinks. That shouldn't be too hard to beat, we've just got to know who is linking to them, and beat them at the backlink game.

Oh yeah, before we move on to beating the pulp out of your competition, don't forget to SEO optimize your site for your chosen keywords before spending any time on backlinks. Otherwise, this next section won't mean much.

But I Digress... Ok, now that your site is thoroughly optimized, how do we find out who their backlinks are? Well, you can do it by hand, or you can purchase a very helpful tool called SEO Elite that will analyze all of the backlinks to a site (and more). But, since you don't have SEO Elite yet, we'll do it the long way.

First, go to toolbar.google.com and download the Google toolbar, this will save you some time. Ok, now type in your keywords - "Custom Gaming Computers." The first link should be overdrivepc.com (if it's not, then someone may have already read this column and risen above them!) click to go there. When the page loads, go to your Google Toolbar, click on Options >"More" Tab > Make sure the "Page Info" box is checked. Then, click on the blue circle with the i in it. (This is the aptly named: "Page Info") It should drop down and allow you to select "Backward Links," choose it. Now you should be looking at a Google search page again, but this one is different, it only shows pages that link to overdrivepc.com. (Wow, that's handy!) At the time of this article, there are 41 pages that link to the site, and you can view them all. Some are other pages in the site, others are third parties.

Get Your Site Some Friends!

Follow each third party link and check out the page. Does it have to do with your business? Would their visitors benefit from coming to your site? (The answer is probably yes) If so, email the webmaster - there should be an email address somewhere on the site. Ask him or her if they would link to your site. Be willing to trade links with them, or to pay for a good link with a high PR. That reminds me - look just to the left of the Page Info icon on your Google toolbar, and you should see a green bar. That is the Page Rank of the page you're currently on. You want to target pages with higher page ranks than your own, because for each of those sites that link to yours, they effectively "give" you a little bit of their PR. Kinda like in high school when the head of the cheerleading squad flirted with the nerd in the hallway, she "gave" him more popularity.

By the way, if you can manage to get a link from the # 1 site itself, do it! Do this for all of these links you can, then move on to the #2 listing for your keywords. Then #3, and so on. Don't get discouraged if some webmasters don't reply to you, it may take an email or two. If they say no, thank them for their time and move on. I try my best not to burn any bridges - you never know when you'll need to contact that webmaster again, and if he remembers you were polite, that will make you look good.

Whew, Finally Done. ... This is a very easy way to move up the Google SERPS, no "expertise" required, just good old-fashioned hard work. It will take some time for Google to re-index those pages and realize that they have a link to you now. And it will take even longer for your PR to go up (from what I hear, it's been around 3-4 months since the last PR change [Today is 7/14/2005]) But be patient, get links upon links, and keep adding great content to your site, and you will jump up in the SERPS by leaps and bounds.