More content or more backlinks?

[Matt281]

Yes I know both are important, but does anyone have a rough guideline for the ratio?

A little history - I started 3 websites in June, basically dropped 2, and the one I'm focusing on is now getting about 100 UV a day. I started by writing 8 or 9 articles, then I've basically been building backlinks through submitting small articles to other blogs and doing blog commenting. Other than the initial 8, I've written two more high-quality 1000+ word articles for my site, but other than that it's pretty much just been backlinks.

Is there a reason to focus more on content generation, at least up to a certain point? I know some people recommend getting 20 or so articles up on your website before you start trying to build traffic. How important is it for me to create more content vs build more backlinks?

Thanks!!

[Matt281]

Bump! Please help!

[blackout17]

Do both good content supported by backlinks is the way to go.

[Limekwat]

If you don't have anything interesting on your site people won't come back or care about it. That's why you've been told to build up your content first before getting backlinks. There's no "golden ratio," but you're definitely better off with maintaining and updating content first and foremost and concentrating on backlinks as a secondary venture.

[Sparda]

Great content and then build backlinks. If you have great content people will automatically build backlinks for you by linking to you.

[Johnny Optimo]

You need to come up with a content development schedule and a backlinking schedule. There's really no magic ratio, and it all depends a lot more on the quality of the backlinks anyway.

I like to create new content and build a handful of PR3+ backlinks and see where the article starts ranking on google via webmaster tools. Once I have that starting point I just keep at it until I reach the spot I'm aiming for.

[PatrickP]

Originally Posted by Limekwat

If you don't have anything interesting on your site people won't come back or care about it. That's why you've been told to build up your content first before getting backlinks. There's no "golden ratio," but you're definitely better off with maintaining and updating content first and foremost and concentrating on backlinks as a secondary venture.

Good point. Sort of like you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.

I need to think about this myself. I have been looking at the various Warrior Forum members who offer 1st page Google ranking BUT if I don't have great content on my site it wont do much good.

[danr62]

Here's how to do both at the same time:

1. Write a 1000 word article and post it on your site

1.5. Wait for Google to index it.

2. Submit the article to EZA with a link in the resource box to your landing page.

3. Ask other webmasters in your niche or market to post it to their site, with all links intact.

[Matt281]

Originally Posted by Limekwat

If you don't have anything interesting on your site people won't come back or care about it. That's why you've been told to build up your content first before getting backlinks. There's no "golden ratio," but you're definitely better off with maintaining and updating content first and foremost and concentrating on backlinks as a secondary venture.

Yeah well quality content isn't the problem. I'd say my stuff is better than at least 95% of IM sites. There's just not very much of it (about 10 articles right now). I'm just wondering, in terms of building traffic, if publishing more content on my own site is more important backlinks at this point.

I know there's no "golden ratio" but are their rough guidelines as to how much content you need early on? or how often is good to update your site?

Thanks

[cashtree]

backlinks come second to content, because at the end of the day you're goal is human interest, not catering to some super secret automation bot know one but google knows how it exactly works. That goes for all web crawlers. Because the idea is if you can get people to visit your site(which ways of doing that are far more vast and reliable than google) then with good quality content you may get them to come back themselves. People give you the click throughs, people give you the sales, they are what matters. Even if you had a billion backlinks and #1 spot on google, if your site is not any good then what good does that do you? people will be on it 2 seconds and leave.

[Lisha5684]

Spend half of your time writing good content and the other half of your time promoting your site. That is my rule. You need to have value. That is the number 1 thing. Traffic is equally important, but you can't earn money without value.

[Fazal Mayar]

do both but try to focus on backlinks more so people reads your content

[tektime]

Originally Posted by Fazal Mayar

do both but try to focus on backlinks more so people reads your content

I'm no SEO expert but I strongly agree with Fazal Mayar. The best content in the world is minute if no one knows where to find it. People constantly speak of backlinking penalties but I think that is more or less a myth. Even if there is a such thing as a backlinking penalty, I'd rather diversify my traffic sources.

The MORE backlinks you have to your content, the LESS you have to depend on search engine traffic to get your visitors/sales! Even IF you were to be "penalized," and even removed from the search index, guess what? The links you created (unless deleted by the webmasters) will stay intact and people who see those links and click them, will not be stopped from finding your site.

[rowanman28]

I write one blog post a day related to my keywords about 300 words. I know longer is better, but it's also good to publish every day.

[PleaseHelpMe]

I would say that quality content has the priority. If you really do a good job at quality content that engages your readers you are more likely to get organic linking. It never hurts to give your readers more of what they want.

[dadamson]

Ok, I see everyone is being mistaken by the NUMBER of backlinks or the AMOUNT of content. This means not much when you talk about quality.

Quality backlinks and quality content will trumpt the quantity of backlinks or the quantity of content.

You have to bear in mind that even just a few high quality backlinks can beat a page with a few hundred lower quality links (given all other things are equal).

Likewise, a few really high quality content pages, written with correct grammer, completely unique, maybe containing an image or two, and divided into neat paragraphs will outrank a page spammed with keywords, not making much sense, or even copied from somewhere (all other things being equal).

So before you think, do I need more backlinks, or do I need more content. Check where you are ranked. If it could be better, focus on a high quality diversified link building strategy mixed with high quality content.

and THEN move on to creating more pages and ranking them.

What's the point of hundreds of pages with thousands of backlinks if you aren't ranking...

Seems like a waste of time to me.

[blueriver]

Both of them, quality content make user happy, many quality backlinks make Google happy.
Good content and quality backlinks make Google be your (.....) slave.

[keithdyer]

I would also say both. With high quality contents, you can have your viewers to keep coming to your blog. But it is also with more backlinks that your site can get noticed.

[imarketingfanatic]

combine both articles and backlinks at the same time and you will see massive results.

most people think it just one thing, but in reality its a culmination of content and backlinks that can really get you the rankings.

that combined with consistency and a gradual link velocity will do you some good.

[tajrocher]

Quality content and quality backlinks are important.

[digitalmarketing]

with google content your back link provide best response of your site

[patco]

I believe you should focus more on the backlinks!

[Ajay Tiwari]

Well, as per my experience both are important.. unique & informative contents get indexed faster in search engines.. and backlinks generate traffic if your website have unique and informative contents then your website visitor would come again and again to see updated contents which increases popularity of your website. So, backlinks give you traffic and contents make your visitor stick with your website. This way both are important.

[yourmobisite]

Hello..
For getting desired result on particular search engine you should concentrate on both quality content and number of quality back links..........