It’s no secret that link building is one of the most important areas you must cover to rank higher in the search engine results. Most of us have heard search marketers / inbound marketers telling us that you should not chase links or rankings and we should be creating great content which will do this naturally.
On the whole this statement is true. Creating great content which is unique, opinionated and insightful will get online communities talking which will ultimately built you links from authoritative websites naturally. In my early days as a search marketer I used to believe heavily in this, and would write blog posts and content assuming the crowds would flock as soon as I hit publish. This is very far from the truth!
The problem with this strategy, especially when you are a start-up website with little or no readership is that you do not have the audience to help you share the content you are creating. Yes you can push your content on social media networks, LinkedIn etc but this will still only bring you limited sharing and traffic.
Below is the cycle of acquiring links through great content.
In reality, getting the initial readership can be a daunting task and unless you are giving away money, it can often be very difficult. You will always find that your loyal readers are the best source of referrals and sharing which makes it even more important to increase the numbers.
How to increase readership
Getting in front of the audience you are targeting is the hardest part in building your websites online profile. Using your imagination to catch the attention of the crowd you are ultimately looking to target is a great way of achieving your goal.
A few ways of getting in front of your target audience:
Guest Blogging
This is one of the best ways to increase both your online presence as well as your readership. Imagine you are an artist and wants to increase the community on your website. This is a pretty niche area you are targeting, which in many ways makes it easier to acquire loyal readers.
Why not write a totally unique piece and submit it to a reputable art blog such as artthreat.net. They have a huge readership, and if you can inspire with your post they will want to know more about you and follow the link through to your website. If they then arrive at your website and like what they find there, they will be back!
Link Out
This is a strange one, but linking out from your website can often bring fresh inbound links and visitors.
Remember that most webmasters are now pretty clued up on who is linking into them and where there traffic is coming from. If they see that they have a new link from your website in a good post, often they will find a way to link back to you in some way (assuming your website is worthy of a link). This will not add anything significant to your SEO efforts but will raise awareness and offer a new route of inbound visitors.
Contribute
Rather than waiting for visitors to find you why not go and find them? Go and contribute on mature websites who already have an online community. Give your expert opinion to add value to forums, blog posts and articles. Communities appreciate this and eventually you build up a reputation as an expert contributor. Users will naturally gain interest in you and the website / service you are offering.
Raise Awareness Generally
It sounds pretty simple, but little things like putting your company logo on the footer of your emails builds up brand awareness and trust in your product or service. It is amazing to see the amount of employees and webmasters who send out emails without a web address and contact information on them. This is very basic and although it will not increase the readership directly, if someone reads something which they know a friend will like, chances are it will get passed on.
Update often and consistently
Making sure your content is being updated often is very important. If you arrive at a blog and see it hasn’t been updated in 6 weeks, it makes you wonder if it is still even being used. If you are going to post once a week, make it on the same day and time. For example I know that when I wake up every morning I will have an email from Groupon. This has now become part of my daily schedule, checking to see the latest news and offers. Do this with your readers so they know if they log onto your website on Friday at 2pm you will have just published a new post.
Remember that the suggestions above are just the tip of the iceberg and usually the more creative ways you think of are the best. Catching a user’s attention and generating interest in your website is only half the battle, and following your own guidelines ensure you keep them as a user.
Below illustrates how the best websites around with a large readership generate huge traffic to the website, and also increase readership with each piece of new content.
As online marketers we dream of our content moving through social networks as it does above, the fact is you really cannot get away from point that great content is highly shareable and just works!
