How to tame Google Penguin and build trust
Source: Visible HQ podcast, episode #7. Interview with Brian Dean of backlinko.com.
What doesn’t work
Today only those who deserve 1st page ranking can get there.
Google Penguin update penalises those who artificially build backlinks.
Posting links to your site in comments on other sites will not help your SEO today.
What works today
What works is creating great content and promoting the hell out of it.
Create quality content and people will organically link to your pages from their web sites.
Your Google page rank depends on many factors, but number one ranking factor is page authority.
Google wants to show sites that are respected by people.
Page authority is about getting backlinks to your page from trusted sites.
Strategy
- Find good content
- Improve that content
- Outreach
Step 1: Find good content
Look at your top competitors’ content.
Find which content attracts most backlinks.
It can be done with following tools: ahrefs.com, majesticseo.com, opensiteexplorer.org.
Step 2: Improve that content
Take good content and make it great.
Improve the content in as many ways as you can: make it more detailed, informative, entertaining and up-to-date.
You need to create the best resource about your topic.
The goal is to create content that people will link to.
Step 3: Outreach
90% of success depends on this step.
Find people who are influential in your space and let them know about your content.
Send them an email with something like this:
“You linked to something similar. You have a page about this topic. I just wrote an article about it. Let me know if you want to see it.”
No links in first email
Do not put links in your first email. Just ask if they are interested in seeing your content. If you send a link the person will feel that you are selling and will delete it right away.
Once you get a response ‘I am interested’, reply with:
“I am glad you are interested. You can view my article here. If you like to post it on your site let me know - I will be happy to write a personalised introduction.”
