How Good Is Your Stuff? How To Use Links To Grow Your Business

TweetGoogle only wants one thing — GOOD STUFF.  Good articles, good video, good products, good services, good businesses, good events, good people ….

If your STUFF isn’t good – they don’t want you.

How does Google know what STUFF is good?

Google looks at what other websites are linking to your STUFF.  Do the websites that are linking to you have good STUFF?  Do they have websites with good STUFF linking to them?

What Is Link Popularity?

The Link Popularity portion of Google’s ranking system is the sole reason that the Google search engine became superior to Yahoo and its other competitors.  Google looks for websites that are authoritative — and they base that authority on the quality and quantity of the links that are pointing at your website from OTHER sites on the web — the higher the quality and quantity of your links determines your Link Popularity.

The Quality of Your Links

First and foremost, Google is considering the QUALITY of the links that are pointing at your site.

They rate quality on trust and relevance.

How Does Google Rate Trust?

Think of it this way — you need to hire an attorney to do some work for your business.  It is important that you find someone that is reliable and good at their job, after all this is a legal matter.

You get two referrals from people you know:

1.  The first referral is from a very trustworthy friend that is very reliable herself.  She has always kept both her personal and professional life in good order. She is a solid professional that you would trust with your children.

2.  The second referral is from a friend that is always in trouble (probably how he knows the attorney) and has trouble keeping his affairs in order.  He seems to drift from one job to another with no real ambition in life.

Which referral do you trust more?

Google looks for the same thing — they look for reliable websites that have lots of others referring (or linking) to them.  They are looking for sites that don’t do “shady” things to manipulate Google’s rankings.  They are looking for sites that are providing good content to their visitors.

How does Google rate relevance?

Think of it this way — you need to hire a financial advisor to manage your retirement account.  They need to be reliable and good at their profession.  After all, your retirement is important.

You get two referrals to financial advisors from people you know:

1.  The first person is someone that has been working as a money manager for a large Fortune 500 firm in the city that you live in.  He has a Masters Degree in Finance from a large university and knows his stuff when it comes to managing money.

2.  The second referral is from a Human Resources manager at a Fortune 500 company that lives on the other side of the country from you.  She has a Masters Degree in Communications from a large university in her city and she knows her stuff when it comes to managing employees.

Which referral do you trust more?

Google looks for the same thing — they are looking for referrals (links) to your website from other websites that are in the same broad industry that you are in.  If you manufacture widgets, a link from someone that repairs widgets is a good, relevant link.

The Quantity of Your Links

There really is no such thing as a bad link to your site.  If you can get it, you might as well take it.  However, the quantity of your links will take a back-seat to the quality of the links you are getting.

One relevant, trustworthy link will outweigh dozens of irrelevant, spammy links.

How Do I Get More Links?

That’s easy– create GOOD STUFF and put it online.  Share it with your friends on Facebook, post it on Twitter, email it to your list, send it out via RSS, etc.

Read my eBook, Tiny Business, Mighty Profits for more on distributing your content online.

Google wants GOOD STUFF.  People want to link to GOOD STUFF. Come to think of it — your customers and prospects want GOOD STUFF too.

So — I ask again — how good is your STUFF?