Link Building vs Content Marketing: Who Should Come First?

This is one of the most popular debates in the world of SEO. The issue usually arises when an entrepreneur is facing tight budgetary constraints and numerous priorities. And the main question here is: should we prioritize link building or content marketing? After all, it seems quite logical that it is impossible to perform both tasks simultaneously, thus forcing us to choose the most profitable solution.

In fact, link building and content marketing are not competing processes. These are two sides of the same coin. And the most effective approach to achieving your business goals presupposes working with both strategies.

However, if you are thinking about where to focus your efforts first, it is vital to realize the importance of proper sequencing of these two processes. In this article, we are going to discuss what each of them means, how they depend on each other, which strategy is crucial for you under certain conditions, and how professional link builders combine both of these techniques into a single growth engine. Let's put an end to this age-old discussion once and for all.

Understanding Both Strategies

We should start with a brief clarification of the meaning of these two popular SEO concepts. After all, it is impossible to make the right decision if we do not properly understand what we are talking about.

What Content Marketing Actually Is

As you know, the term "content marketing" refers to the process of creation and publication of materials attracting, informing, and engaging your potential clients. It presupposes such activities as the creation and posting of blog posts, guides, case studies, videos, infographics, landing pages, and so on. This technique aims to provide the visitors of your website with useful information.

The function of content in general can be described by the following points:

• It supplies search engines with pages to analyze and rank
• It focuses on keywords used by your target audience in search queries
• It creates topical authority and shows your knowledge and expertise
• It gives your visitors reasons to stay and use your service or buy a product
• It gives grounds to other websites for referencing

Thus, content is the foundation for the visibility of your business.

What Is Link Building, in Fact?

As you might guess, link building is the process of gaining backlinks to your website. Each quality backlink is a vote of confidence. It tells the search engines about your content authority and makes your website valuable enough to show to searchers.

There are several points that link building allows you to do:

• It proves to search engines your website's authority and credibility
• It transfers ranking power to your pages (in some circles, it is known as "link equity")
• It helps to attract referral traffic from a relevant audience
• It makes your content ranked rather than hidden among millions of unranked pages
• It creates a competitive moat that is impossible to duplicate

There is a harsh reality many entrepreneurs learn the hard way: you can publish the best content in your industry, however, if there is no authoritative link to it, there is little chance for this content to climb to the top of Google search results. Thus, content allows you to gain a seat at the table, while link building makes you heard.

Why This Is the Wrong Question (and the Right One)

The way this question is formulated suggests that you have to choose one of these options and completely ignore the second one. However, as you might have guessed, the reality is that you should focus on both of these factors simultaneously. And you should sequence them in the most appropriate way to achieve the best results.

The question is not "Which is better?", it is "Which should I start with?"

Thus, the right question is not "Which is better?", but "Which should I start with?" Let's discuss both aspects in detail below.

The Argument for Content Marketing First

In most cases, content marketing should lay the groundwork. There are several good reasons why you should focus on content marketing first, and here they are.

You Will Need a Page for References

It is much easier for a professional link builder to persuade people to link to your content when this content is interesting and useful. During our link building process, we usually contact publishers and website owners. We need some good reasons for making them reference your content. These reasons are usually your great content: some original research, a unique tool, or an informative guide. Try to build a link for an empty page? Good luck with that. Try to build a link for outstanding content? It will be much more natural for the publisher.

Content gives link building its ammunition.

Content Creates Topical Authority

When search engines try to find websites that can be considered authorities in some particular topic, they are looking for websites that have a lot of content in this sphere. The existence of such content means that this website knows everything about the topic it discusses and can give searchers accurate and valuable information.

Thus, content creates the topical authority of your site and makes any backlink you receive afterwards more valuable, because the link is directed to an authoritative site.

Content Determines Relevant Keywords

If you want to build backlinks to your website, you should have something to rank. Before you can start building links, you should know which pages of your website are important for ranking and which keywords you need to target. Content marketing, conducted in the right way, starts with the conducting of keyword research and the creation of a content map that defines pages of your website for every keyword. And it becomes the basis for your further link building strategy.

The Argument for Link Building's Central Role

Even if the creation of quality content lays the groundwork, the decision not to pay attention to links can significantly limit the effectiveness of the whole process. In many cases, link building is a critical point that can determine whether your content investment is going to bring profits or not.

Content Without Links Usually Remains Invisible

This is the harsh reality that changes the whole perception of the problem. The web is saturated with content. Millions of articles are published every day. Your excellent post is fighting against hundreds of similar posts from different websites that are trying to rank for the same keywords. And this competition is usually quite tough.

What makes the difference between your post and the posts of your competitors? Backlinks! The more links your website has, the more chances to get a high ranking. Without links, even the greatest content can remain on the fifth page of Google search results, where it will almost never be seen.

Link Building Uncovers the Value You Have Already Paid For

You can imagine the content of your website as a beautiful store. Links are the road to this store. You can have the most amazing store in the world, however, if nobody knows about it, what use is it? That is why link building deserves its place in your strategy rather than being postponed forever.

And that is exactly why it is so important to start link building as soon as possible.

Link Building Effects Compound Over Time

One of the biggest benefits of the process of link building is the fact that its results compound. The more links you gain, the more authoritative your website becomes. And the higher authority of your domain means that you can easily rank any pages you publish in the future.

So, Which Comes First? Practical Advice

Let's discuss the actual answer to this burning question. The decision depends on your particular circumstances. Follow the advice we are going to give you.

Focus on Content Marketing First, If...

• Your website is new or thin. First of all, you need the basis of quality pages.
• You have not done the keyword research yet. In order to conduct an effective link building strategy, you need to know which keywords to target.
• The content of your website is weak or outdated. Link building will be wasted in vain.
• Your niche requires lots of in-depth resources.

Under these circumstances, you should invest in the creation of your content foundation: several pages that will become valuable for ranking and will require further promotion with the help of links.

Give Preference to Link Building in the First Place, If...

• You have some quality content but it does not rank. It is a signal that you should focus on links.
• You lose to your competitors despite your similar content. Most probably, you lose on links.
• You compete in a competitive industry where authority is the crucial factor.
• You have an established website with a good content foundation that needs more authority to break through.

Under such circumstances, your great content waits to be unlocked, and there is no good reason to postpone this moment.

The Best Approach: Run Them in Parallel

For most businesses, the best strategy is to run content creation and link building at the same time:

• Content creators are producing link-worthy content targeted at your keywords
• Link building specialists are promoting the content you produce to make it more popular and gain backlinks
• The rankings and traffic you get are the guidelines for the creation of new content

That is how a professional link building company operates.

Mutual Promotion of Content and Link Building

In order to understand how the synergy of these two processes works, let's discuss their interaction.

Content Stimulates Link Building

Good content gives a link builder a good reason for building the link. There are certain types of content that can easily attract links:

• Original research or data studies: journalists and bloggers love to cite statistics.
• Comprehensive guides: such guides become authoritative references.
• Free tools or calculators: such resources are naturally linked over time.
• Expert round-ups or interviews: participation of reputable experts leads to link building.
• Infographics: easy-to-use content that spreads around the web.

Such content makes link building a natural exchange of values.

Link Building Promotes Content

On the other hand, link building can significantly boost the visibility of your content:

• It helps you to get your best pages on page one, where they can be seen by your target audience
• It sends the referral traffic from relevant websites to your content
• It increases the overall authority of your website, helping it to rank pages better
• It creates the authority that makes your potential customers become buyers

Each of these processes alone is far from being perfect. Content without links remains unnoticed, and links without content have nothing worth of attention.

Common Mistakes to Be Avoided

There are several mistakes entrepreneurs usually make when trying to organize the work with both of these disciplines at once. Let's discuss them here.

Publishing Content and Waiting for Links to Arrive

It is one of the most common mistakes that can make your content useless. It is impossible to hope that links are going to come automatically in a competitive niche.

Focusing on Links Without Good Content

Another common mistake is aggressive link building to some pages that lack value. It will waste your money, and even worse, it will raise suspicion.

Considering Content Creation and Link Building as a Once-and-For-All Effort

Both content marketing and link building are processes that require constant efforts. Search engines favor consistency and the update of your content and backlink profile.

Ignoring Relevance

Not all content and not all links are equal. The content should be relevant to your target audience, while links should be from sources relevant to your niche. Relevance is what makes both these efforts look credible in the eyes of search engines.

Underestimating the Importance of Links

Probably the most costly mistake is considering link building as an optional part of your SEO strategy. Businesses that invest all their money in the creation of content and completely ignore links watch how their competitors with more authoritative websites outrank them, regardless of the quality of content. Link building is not a part you leave for later. It is the key to success.

The Help of a Professional Agency

Balancing between content creation and link building, and doing it properly, is a challenging task to perform for any business. And that is where professional link builders step in.

A professional link building company usually does the following:

• Audits your content and backlink profile in order to understand where you stand and what you miss.
• Maps keywords to pages, thus giving every effort a target to work with.
• Identifies the gaps in your content and advises on the type of content that is most likely to be linked to.
• Performs strategic outreach in order to earn authoritative and relevant backlinks.
• Coordinates content and links, thus multiplying the effects.
• Reports on transparent metrics such as authority growth, rankings, and traffic.

The benefit of hiring specialists is the absence of any guesswork and waste of money.

The Answer to the Debate: Which Comes First?

If we have to give a one-sentence answer to the question posed in the title, it will be as follows: content is created first, but link building makes it succeed. Both processes are important, and none of them can be effective without the other.

And here is a brief summary for you:

• Start with content if your website is new or thin, and requires a proper keyword-based foundation.
• Give preference to link building if you have some quality content that is not ranked, or if you operate in a competitive niche.
• Ideally, perform both in parallel as a continuous growth process.

Entrepreneurs who consider this question a false choice, and who focus their efforts only on one of these two processes, fail to achieve their goals. The ones who understand that these are two sides of the same coin, and who focus on link building as the tool that unlocks content potential, succeed.

Conclusion

It is quite obvious that the debate about the priority of link building or content marketing can be solved once we stop considering these strategies as competitors. Content allows you to speak. Link building allows others to hear you. Without each of them, you miss a lot.

If you have good content that is not ranked and brings you no traffic and revenue, it is the clearest signal that links are what you miss. And if you are starting your online business, it is the best idea to think about link building from the very beginning.