I've been a big fan of Chris Dixon's excellent blog for a while now,
Posted: Sun Dec 22, 2024 9:08 am
So you can imagine that I was really excited to see him writing about SEO in a post last week. Chris kindly called out SEOmoz, which humbled me, but he also espoused some thinking in the comments that made me a bit concerned and was the catalyst for this post. Here's how it went: RAND: Chris - I think the biggest thing you've forgotten to mention is that 70%+ of the weighting/ranking used by all of the engines depends on links.
If you're not thinking about how your conte australia business email lists nt and pages will incent users/bloggers/writers/media/other sites to link to your work, you'll lose out to someone who does. A while back I got riled up about the lack of SEO in startup marketing and wrote about it -- might be relevant/useful, though I did write with a bit more anger than was likely deserved. CHRIS: Rand - totally agree re links. But isn't getting links primarily about creating great content? Read the article you link to btw and am in complete agreement.
RAND: Tragically, at least in my experience, the answer is a resounding no. Great content is easily missed by the web's link-heavy audience, while some pretty crummy content that's been marketed well (or made the right connections or comes from the right sources) will tend to overperform. The web's link graph isn't a meritocracy - like everything else in life, it's a popularity contest. Those who find the best ways to distribute, promote and market their works to the audience most likely to link to it are going to succeed much more so than just the "great content" producers.
If you're not thinking about how your conte australia business email lists nt and pages will incent users/bloggers/writers/media/other sites to link to your work, you'll lose out to someone who does. A while back I got riled up about the lack of SEO in startup marketing and wrote about it -- might be relevant/useful, though I did write with a bit more anger than was likely deserved. CHRIS: Rand - totally agree re links. But isn't getting links primarily about creating great content? Read the article you link to btw and am in complete agreement.
RAND: Tragically, at least in my experience, the answer is a resounding no. Great content is easily missed by the web's link-heavy audience, while some pretty crummy content that's been marketed well (or made the right connections or comes from the right sources) will tend to overperform. The web's link graph isn't a meritocracy - like everything else in life, it's a popularity contest. Those who find the best ways to distribute, promote and market their works to the audience most likely to link to it are going to succeed much more so than just the "great content" producers.