Link Building: How to Increase Website Traffic with Link-Worthy Content

by James @HelpYard - View Comments

How does link building get me more website traffic?

more links from quality sources = better position in Google's search rankings = more people will see/click on your entry = more traffic from Google
more links on more sites = more people will see them = more people will click them = more traffic from referring sites

Warning: There are no Quick Fixes - it takes time.

There are 2 elements to link building: Active and Passive.

Active is going out and finding/requesting links, and there are loads of good resources like this A-Z of link building to help you.

In this post I'm concentrating on the Passive side: people adding links to your content on their own site, without your active involvement.

How to create link-worthy content to increase web site traffic

Create content targeted at those that can link

99% of people that come to your site don't have a blog or website to put a link on. You need to create extra content that's designed to encourage links, and targeted directly at the 1% who can link to you.

Give your content a catchy title

There has to be a trigger, some spark that makes their brain sit-up, take-notice, and germinate the idea of: 'I should link to this'. A catchy title contains either some intrigue, a surprise, a promise/benefit, or even a combination of all 3. For (an extreme) example - I bet you are intrigued to: Learn the marketing secret that Hitler knew and you don't.

Create content worthy of a link

People link for selfish reasons: they have a 'following' and are always keen to either look-good in the eyes of their followers and/or add extra followers.

If your content informs, educates, enlightens, or otherwise helps their followers be more awesome, and in turn they can gain kudos, respect, awe, and admiration, then you are likely to gain a link.

Create content that provokes discussion

If you can provoke a discussion: by asking a question, asking for feedback, taking a viewpoint, or stating a controversial opinion, then people will have to link to the content in order to reference it wherever they chose to discuss it - via email, on their blog, or on Twitter.

You can combine this with other types of content - teach people the facts surrounding a topic, and then state your personal opinion at the end while asking for the opinions of others - you will always find someone to disagree with you!

Make it easy for people to link to

Do all of the mental work and decision-making upfront for your potential linkers: give them the link-code to just copy & paste, suggest the text to use as a link, give them buttons to press to share the content on social sites.. Just generally make it a complete no-brainer.

Lowering the barriers to linking means more people will be bothered to link.

Ask for the link

Don't be shy - you're providing good content that's worthy of linking, you have worked hard to make it the best it can be, anyone that links to it will be better-off than they were before they linked to it - so suggest that they do!

Ask nicely, and make it easy for them.