Which one came first, the egg or the chicken?
You must’ve heard this question a lot. However, for marketers and content creators, there is simply a different version of that.
Which one comes first, content or links? It’s a question a lot of digital marketing agencies in Kolkata get a lot.
Well, there is no doubt that both are equally important. With a proper backlinking strategy, more readers will visit your website. Also, with good content, you can grow your audience and engage them.
So what’s the problem?
The problem is, which one should you start with?
It is hard to build hundreds of links and also create good quality long-form content at the same time.
The ideal thing is to do both at once, but what happens when you can’t?
In this blog, we shall present you with two scenarios.
- Keeping content first
- Keeping links first
And then we shall come to a conclusion which one should you start with when it’s not possible to continue both at the same time.
A digital marketing agency in Kolkata can help you with both content creation & link building.
But before we get into that, let us tell you that it is going to be a tough battle.
If you’ve already picked a side, try to keep an open mind because both of them have huge pros and this is a gray area.
Now, let’s have a look at each of them.
Opinion #1 – Content First
Let us consider that content comes first because good content increases the value of everything. It has a lot of benefits.
First, good content will help in making a great long-term marketing strategy.
If your content is evergreen, it has got an eternal lifespan and that is great!
You’ll have people coming to your content increases the number of web traffic.
This is called cornerstone content.
It is the content that people will link year after year.
For instance, Brian Clark of Copyblogger created just two blogs and a free report. That was his cornerstone content.
If you Google right now, you’ll see the same post in the #1 position.
Thus, creating long and detailed content will become an invaluable resource and it’ll give you long-term success.
Secondly, good content from a digital marketing company in Kolkata provides value.
This is an obvious reason not to start with links. Because if you start off with a heavy link strategy without any content, you’ll give your viewers no reason to link to your site.
Third, content gets your people talking.
If people like your content, they’ll share it and that is where true power is.
Did you know that 2 out of 3 people visit a website just because someone recommended it?
Content from a digital marketing firm in Kolkata can help you do that.
Now, let’s explore the scenario 2, which is keeping the links first.
Opinion #2 – Links First
A lot of people think that links should come first because they offer you an audience.
This is true and there are a lot of benefits of this.
First, content is of no use without an audience.
Even if you have excellent content on your website, it won’t matter if there is no one to read about it.
Links help you get that audience.
With the right network of backlinks, your website will be exposed to thousands of people from all over the globe.
Simply writing and publishing content will not get you a lot of viewers. You need a backlinking strategy.
Secondly, links will help you with SEO.
Yes, you can focus on SEO using your content, optimize keywords, and more.
However, linking with the help of a social marketing agency in Kolkata is much more scalable.
For instance, you can link similar content more than once. But you cannot write the same content more than once.
Basically, you can amplify your link-building strategy when your website grows.
Third, linking can help in establishing you as an authority.
As we mentioned earlier, 2 out of 3 people visit a website because of recommendations.
Thus, there is a lot of power in social proof and that goes for links too.
For instance, if someone visits a website and sees that the site is linked to your content, they’ll think of your site as an authority.
This is a great way to get lifelong fans.
What do the SEO pros have to say?
Here’s what the SEO pros have to say about whether the content comes first or the links.
Mark Jackson who is an author at SearchEngineWorld.com says,
“I’ve overseen approximately 200 SEO programs from digital marketing companies. From years of experience, I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t. I’ve witnessed websites rank without a lot of assistance from off-page labor. About the only case, I’ve seen where websites rank only off-page factors in an SEO competition or the miserable failure experiment from some time ago“.
Jayson DeMers, who is another SEO expert says there are dangers in building SEO without content.
As you can see, these are some major factors in favor of content-first.
Adam Bruk from Digital Third Coast says to start with content and then shifting to link building.
In his words, “But content comes first since great content makes earning links way easier“.
From all of these pros, it is clear that links are important but the foundation of your website has to be content.
Now, before we declare a clear winner, what about the search engines?
Search Engines on Content-first or Link-first?
So what do the search engines care about more?
For the search engines, we have to focus on On-Page SEO and Off-Page SEO.
On-Page SEO refers to the SEO which happens within the content. Off-Page SEO refers to link building and social media sharing.
So what do search engines care about more?
Google talks a lot about links. If you check the Google Support page for a “Google-Friendly” site, you will see there is a lot written on links.
Thus, it might convince you that the search engine favors links.
Think again!
The reason is, if you look at the top of the page, you’ll see that Google officially says, offering high-quality content from a digital marketing agency in Kolkata is the #1 thing that you have to do to make a website Google-Friendly.
The mission of Google is to help the users in finding the best possible content.
Yes, links are great, but in the end, the links lead to content.
If you don’t have content for the links, you are sending your visitors to a site that doesn’t have any value.
And Google is not going to do that!
Wrapping Up
So, the decision is pretty much clear.
Ideally, you have to work on both content and links, but if you have to choose one, you must start with content.
Content is the backbone of every successful marketing campaign.
People these days want to check the content of anything, be it a TV commercial to a digital marketing ad.
They don’t want a ton of spammy ads. They want to support the brands that can connect with. And you can connect with people through good content.
Good content is how you start with and good content will get your visitors to come back.
Thus, in the end, we can officially declare that it’s not content vs. links, it’s ALWAYS content first!
Get in touch with Skyram Technologies – a pioneering digital marketing agency in Kolkata, for premium content for your website.
