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Content and Backlinks - Which is More Important?

By Charles Kassotis
Sep 14, 2009
The formulas (algorithms) that search engines use to rank their results are kept very close to the vest, and they are constantly changed so no one gets an unfair advantage on the search engine results pages. Search engines have a very powerful role on the Internet, because they decide whose website lives and whose website dies.

This might sound a little extreme, but if you stop and think about it, you will probably find yourself understanding this point of view. We live in a society of itchy pointer fingers and tiny attention spans.

Gone are the days when you'd pour over lots of books to find what you are searching for. Now, you'd be hard-pressed to spend more than one minute before you've either found what you were looking for or you've moved on to something else. This is all thanks to the Internet and the search engines that make it possible to find the content you want.

The Cold Hard Truth
All of that isn't to criticize, but to spell out the cold hard truth. If you want to make it on the Internet, you need search engines. Even if you start off okay without their help, you won't get very far unless people can find your website.

So, what can you do to hit that number 1 slot in all the major search engines?
Well, you can utilize a process that makes your sites more amenable to search engines, called search engine optimization. You can save yourself a fortune in ineffective advertisements if you instead top the search engine results pages. There are only a few general ways to get optimized: keyword rich content and incoming links.

If you had to choose one, you had better focus on the keyword rich content first, because after all, if someone searches for a term that you should have on your website, but don't, they won't even see you in the results. However, even the most highly optimized site won't rank highly without incoming links. Because of this, you need to recognize the balance between these two important factors.

Getting the Thumbs Up
Incoming links are like a "thumbs up" from a massive number of Internet users, implying that a certain site is actually worth something. A website like CNN or MSN is partly ranked as highly as they are because people link to their news stories all over the web. Those incoming links mean that these sites are considered credible, popular, and valuable, so they should show up on the results above something most people don't know or care about.

The big problem for a new or relatively small website is that it doesn't have a lot of incoming links. This is understandable, because it's new. Unfortunately, you're not likely to get more links if you don't attract much traffic. If you had some links, you'd not only rank higher, but also have traffic stopping by via those very same links. As you might be starting to see, incoming links are a very powerful advantage, and you need your own if you want to compete.

For this reason, you would be wise to look into a link building service. It is the job of a service like this to provide links to your site that are legitimate, which will boost your ranking in search engines and jumpstart your website's success.
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