Creating Content that Earns Links Organically: A Nutshell Guide

Today, everyone wants to create content that’s good enough to pull in links on its own.

Unfortunately, that’s easier said than done.

While creating valuable organic content is possible, it takes some time, attention, skill and know-how. Dedicate yourself to mastering it, though, and your content strategy will never be the same.

Here’s your complete guide.

First Things First: Define Your Goal

In the words of Moz, “engagement alone is a poor goal.” If you want to create content that earns links organically, you’ve got to shoot further than engagement as a standard. While engagement is all well and good, it’s not enough to give you those organic links you’re craving.

Instead, you’d do well to focus on metrics like engagement, conversions and shares. These things, together, create content that earns organic links.

When you take the time and energy to define the goal for your content before you start creating it, it’s easier to stay on track and save yourself edits down the road.

How to Create Great Organic Content: 6 Tips

Content is a diverse field: it comes in all shapes and sizes. If you want to create content that earns organic links, though, you’ve got to focus on these six things:

1. Make it Trustworthy

People don’t link to content they don’t trust. With this in mind, everything from your header to your closing paragraph needs to scream “Trustworthy” to your reader. Reinforce this by always citing your sources, providing links for statistics and quotes, and staying away from egregious claims. The more precise you can be about your information, the more trustworthy your content will be.

You’ll also want to ensure the information you’re providing is relevant and actionable, and that you’re not going over the top with your self-promotion.

2. Keep it Fresh

It can be overwhelming to think about creating content that’s different from anything else on the web, especially when you consider the fact that millions of blog posts are published daily. If you want your content to stand out enough to earn organic links, though, this is a must.

Spend some time researching content topics each month. If there’s a niche that catches your eye, or a problem you’d like to solve for your readers, pay attention to how you can approach it from a different viewpoint, or how you can add your unique spin to it.

Fresh content that “swims upstream” is exciting for readers, and will earn more organic links.

3. Insist on Quality

It’s impossible to earn organic links if you’re not producing quality content. There are several reasons for this. First, people don’t want to share low-quality content with their friends or social circles. Secondly, low-quality content damages the trustworthiness of your material, and communicates that your brand doesn’t care enough to edit or proofread.

Focus on making every piece of content you publish better than the last. If you don’t have a professional editor, hire one. If you’re writing your content ton your own, consider outsourcing it to a team of skilled copywriters. Think of every dollar you invest in boosting the quality of your content as a dollar that will come back to you in the form of more readers and higher sales.

4. Write Better Headlines

Headlines impact your content’s click-through-rate, which increases its link value. With this in mind, it’s smart to focus on improving your headlines wherever possible. Not only do great headlines grab reader attention, but they also increase the relevance of your material, and make it attractive to a wider segment of audience.

As a general rule, your headlines should always be relevant, informative, and keyword-rich. You can also consider adding numbers or action words to entice readers to click, read, and share.

5. Make it More Reader-Centric

Today, readers are hungry to interact with the custom content brands create just for them. If you’re looking for a way to encourage your content to perform better, making it more reader-centric is a great place to start.

In addition to ensuring your material speaks directly to your target audience (thus making it more valuable and easier for readers to want to share), making your content more reader-focused also helps you brand your business as one that genuinely cares about your customers. This, in turn, makes people more willing to read your content down the road, and boosts the chances that they’ll share it when they do.

6. Ensure It’s Easy to Share

When something is simple to share, readers are much more likely to take the step. With this in mind, make your content as simple to share as possible. This means including social sharing buttons in your blog pieces, shortening the slug of your article so it’s keyword-rich and easy to read, and writing informative and keyword-rich meta descriptions.

You should also include a nice cover image with your content and ensure your reader doesn’t have to jump through any unneeded hoops to share your material.

While these are simple tips, they can go a long way to ensure your material is enjoying the reach it deserves.

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