We all want our site to appear in the first five results of Google, right? And the techniques for that are collectively known as SEO – search engine optimization. Search engines love new content and blogs are one way to add content. Here, however, I’m introducing another, cooler, less labor-intensive way to get that fresh content and loads of inbound links.
What is an “authority website”? It is a platform that offers new, interesting and relevant content to its audience. It provides them with value. Google loves new content. Google also loves a lot of inbound links – links to your site’s pages from other websites – because this tells Google that people value your content and are clicking through to your site to get it.
Note: I don’t want to write “the search engines” over and over again in this article, so when I say “Google”, I understand it in the collective sense of all search engines.
I said that an authority website is “a platform” for delivering value to your audience. There are other platforms. On TV, watch Oprah. Her show is an authorized content resource. Guests bring themselves and their information, and that’s the content we’re looking for, yes? Oprah herself runs the authority platform. Very good I would say!
This very website, EzineArticles.com is itself an authority website, over 420,000 authors here now, writing on a wide variety of topics. Some of the articles are about exactly what you do, what your website is about.
A different type of authority website is The Huffington Post, an online newspaper, with articles written by different writers who already have their own authority and following. Can you really imagine a newspaper that only had one writer? Or a radio station that only played songs by one musician? Why, then, do we maintain such an unworkable model for our own websites?
You are allowed to copy the articles onto your own site, as long as you include the author’s resource box at the bottom to give you author credit and promote your link to your own website.
I also write my own articles and publish them. But there are only 24 hours in the day, I can only write so much, articles, blogs, whatever. The authority model beats all of that, it’s much easier, faster, and can be monetized for much more money as new traffic comes in.
I have social media buttons at the bottom of each article so readers can share it. This builds my own Facebook presence and follows, too, another advantage.
And while on my site, visitors are encouraged to sign up for the newsletter.
When I was a mortgage broker, I could basically offer the same rates as everyone. To stand out, I positioned myself as an expert authority with my own website and many articles. Therefore, the position of “authority” is a great draw for new and fresh traffic.
You don’t have to throw the baby out with the bathwater, but the authority strategy is definitely something to implement and raise your site’s ranking with Google. There is no need to try to trick Google, just provide value for your visitors and you will get higher rankings.