It’s Not All About Links

Bing’s Official Webmaster Blog came out with an interesting post recently.

Before we even started let’s get the most important piece out of the way:

To be clear, again, this isn’t a post stating links are dying, or you should ignore them, but it is a post saying watch how much time you invest in them.

Now that we have that out of the way let’s move into the discussion.

The folks at Bing have the inside track on what’s happening in the search world. Personally I don’t use Bing that much, but there do seem to be similarities with Google, which remains the biggest player in the search game. So I think it’s worth noting when Bing talks about links not being as important as they have been in the past.

I wanted to highlight this post for two reasons.

Guest Blogging

Something we do here at Ghost Blog Writers for our own benefit is guest blog on other websites. It’s a great way to expose our brand to our target customer. We focus on the sites that business owners are reading and try to get interesting content in front of them.

In the past guest blogging has been about getting links back to your website. While this remains a focus at least in some ways I don’t feel it’s a main focus anymore. I’m fine with getting my name and the name of the business out there much more than getting a link back to the site. If the article is interesting enough people will find the Ghost Blog Writers website. It’s not about SEO for us.

Guest blogging is harder when you focus on name recognition and getting access to new audiences, but I still feel it’s the best long term strategy. It’s not about getting all those links out there anymore and Bing is saying as much.

You want articles that people share. Search engines are focusing more attention there. I think the social aspect goes beyond search engines. It’s about how far you can spread the name of your brand to get introduced to new customers.

Link Building in a Different Light

It’s time to look at link building in a different light. Links are truly meant to give readers of content a place to further expand their reading. It’s not about focusing on telling the search engines anymore. Anytime you link on a website or a blog post it should be about enhancing the experience of an actual person.

Bing is saying that links aren’t as important anymore, but really the bigger story is that search engines aren’t as important anymore.

Here is a great quote from the article:

Is the editorial side of your house producing the killer content you need them to? Do they seek new ways to engage readers through not just well written content, but with content that answers questions before they’re asked?

…..

So many times across the industry you hear conversations about shortcuts. How can I build links quickly? I need more followers on Twitter, quickly. Where can I get free content?

If all the time that was spent seeking shortcuts was invested into producing quality, engaging content, more websites would find success.

That is what it’s about. It’s time to focus on content. That’s what people want to find online.

What is your business doing to create content?

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