intent: How you can combine great content and strategic outreach

AI will have a fundamental impact on SEO. However, I predict that the importance to establish authority will not be diminished.

Now, your content is up against even more competition. AI results are now a part of the SERPs and AI-produced material from other publishers.

The importance of delivering signals of authority and worth will increase. Backlinks are an important part in establishing authority as long as individuals and organizations continue to publish content.

You probably get at least 10 LinkedIn messages a day from “link-building agencies” who promise you a certain number of links.

This is not only annoying, but also a waste of time. This is the wrong way to get links to your content.

The importance of building links cannot be overstated. External authority is important.

Let’s discuss a better way (and turn away fewer people): creating content that generates links naturally, or what I refer to as writing content with a link intention.

This article will explain how to link intent.

• The content that generates the links.
• Effective link intent and its business implications
• How to create content that links?

Link intent is a philosophy that drives content.

It’s rare that I see link building and content creation as part of the exact same process. If you treat link building as a separate project, it’s likely that your will optimize for links only and ignore the effects on the down-funnel.

Start by determining who in your community will be interested – or care – to read what you write and why.

This mindset will have a much better chance to passively gain links in the long run than a “must-get links” mentality.

You don’t need to spam people or send InMails to get links if you write strong, relevant content.

If you are working in separate silos for content and linking, it is likely that your resources will be working towards a certain number of links. They may also ask for link exchanges.

This strategy, in my opinion, tends to ignore the fact that the content being promoted is useful or relevant and could reflect positively on your brand. That is the exact opposite of what a good piece of content should do.

The people who are interested in the same topics and want to find other experts to validate their opinions will be attracted to content that is written with an eye toward Google’s useful content guidelines.

Google will recognize your relevance if you produce quality content that contributes to the discussion of a topic. This is a deeper, more integrated strategy than simply building links.

Effective link intent and its business implications

Search Engine Land has helped me to win several clients for my agency. Many B2B companies can probably make similar claims.

You can increase your chances of being shared and generating referral traffic by creating content that is good enough to create passive links. This is something SEO does not value.

Over time, valuable content that is produced with the intention of generating links will generate equity and links. This snowball effect is built in.

This does more than just save you time. It creates an ideal network of publishers and sites that are related for referral traffic. This can be extremely valuable over time.

Imagine it as a natural version of Affiliate Marketing. This is a massive channel (and gaining steam).

How to build content with link intention

Are you ready for a quick checklist?

After the relevance work is completed, you’ll see an outreach component.

• Search for keywords that bloggers and journalists use to find references. These keywords are often “statistics”, “reports”, or similar. Reddit (Quora), Twitter, Ahrefs, and Exploding topics are all good sources.
• Create a list based on these keywords of topics where your team could share valuable insights.
• Lists of journalists and writers who write about these topics are available.
• Interview experts (internal or close-connected) to gather resources.
• Use Google Trends, social listening and timing to refine and develop the content.
  • For example: Ask an expert for tips on how to get a good night’s rest (core topic/target), during a period of high pollen counts (relevance).
• Writers and journalists covering your topic and/or subtheme should be able to explain what is important now, and how it differs from other content.
• Follow them on social media channels if you want to strengthen your relationship with future opportunities.

Does this work? Todoist’s unique display of productivity methods generated hundreds of domains that referred to it. This number has grown by 50% each year, and is a major contributor to the growth of Todoist.

Focus on link building with a purpose

Many SEOs I speak to today place less importance on link building compared to years ago.

According to me, the issue is not so much that links are losing their importance as it is that old tactics of link building have become irrelevant.

Link-intent approaches that combine great content with strategic outreach are more effective, evergreen and efficient than siloed link initiatives and content.

This will also improve your user’s experience, as well as driving more traffic.

The first time Search Engine land published the post Link Intent: How to Combine great content with Strategic Outreach.