Content or Backlinks – Which one is the winner?

I got a private Plurk message with a question which is a winner? Content or Backlinks? Often that I see people argue on this subject. Some say Content is King, and others say without backlinks (Marketing) content is worthless.

I have done SEO for all of my sites either by myself, or with help from other experts. Now when you are making a website, you would think how will I attract visitors to my website? Now I will give you a sample scenario answer that you will get:

SEO Expert 1: You need keyword rich content to attract your users to your website. With time, you should rank high in search engines.

SEO Expert 2: You need high backlinks counts, so you rank high in search engines. Adapt a powerful link-building strategy and start your website.

Syed Balkhi: Both of you are wrong. You need keyword rich content and along with the content you need powerful link-building strategy. Read on the post to see why?

Lets use the analogy and Call Content = (Blog) and Backlinks = (Blogger)

Content (Blog)

You need alot of Content. Wait a minute, I meant to say Keyword Rich Content.

So Basically you need to write about terms that you want to rank for in search engines, and use those keywords repeatedly. So if you have a site about Making Money Online (MMO), and you want to rank for the term Make Money Online. So you would use the keyword Make Money Online in your posts as much as you can. So basically you need this keyword to be in the: Page Title, Meta Description, Meta Keywords, Ofcourse in the CONTENT and if possible in the URL.

Search Engine take alot of things in consideration when they rank a page, and one of the things that they take in consideration is keywords in the content. Heck thats how everything is ranked. Google and other SEs have bots around the web that are searching for content. They love content. So the more content you have the better it is. So if you have alot of content and you put the keywords in the right way you are half way there.

To tell you the truth, I believe that everyone can write good content, but not everyone can write keyword rich content. Because most people end up keyword spamming, and instead of ranking high in Search Engines, they end up getting penalized.

So instead of pouring keywords in your content, you need to sprinkle it. Use the terms/words that other people would possibly search for. Don’t go overboard. Make your article seem genuine. How much keyword should you have in a post? It is a very debatable question. I think around 5% – 7% of your words should be your keywords as an ideal method. But there is no where that says you have to follow that exactly. Sometimes it can be 10% or sometimes it can be 3%. But if your keywords are 50% of your content than you are in some trouble.

Now you have good content, and in like 5 years you might be found, but all of your articles are now outdated, so you are screwed. Basically I am saying that with alot of good content words will spread slowly, and it will take too long. So you have content(blog) but no one is reading it.

Backlinks (Blogger)

Promote your site here and promote your site there. Get backlinks from this place and get backlinks from that place. Heck you even followed 13 ways I promoted my Blog to success. You are still no where.

You are buying links with the anchor Make Money Online, on the most popular sites you can. You are buying it on sites with the highest PR. You just plain simple bought it on every site you can. Now you are ranked in the top 10 for make money online. Just because you have alot of backlinks. But your blog’s subscriber count is not increasing. Bounce rate is very high. Why?

Because you are doing only 50% of the job. You are bringing the users to your website, but your crappy content is not keeping them there. So you are going on the dead end because a person won’t visit your site twice if its not useful.

So the bottom line is if you follow either SEO Expert 1 or SEO Expert 2, you are screwed. Now do you want to see Syed Balkhi’s suggestion?

Lets get back to our analogy. Content is Blog, and Backlinks is Blogger. Without a blogger, blog doesn’t go anywhere. Without a blog, Blogger is not a blogger anymore. The bottom line is that you need to remove the or from Content or Backlinks. Switch that to Content and Backlinks. Because you need both of them to run a successful website.

You need backlinks to bring the users to your website, and you need keyword rich quality content to keep the users on your website.

You need backlinks to increase your page strength and with the help of your keyword rich content you can grab the first position for your desired keyword.

Avoid using just backlinks because you should know the issue with Google and Paid Links. You will be penalized. Avoid using just spamming keywords in your content because you will also get penalized.

The only option you have is to use the combo. Blog and Blogger works best.