One of the things people like about digital marketing and SEO is transparency.
In the early days of marketing, advertisers were never given access to key analytics like the reach of the medium, the general conversion rate of people seeing an advert, and the amount of money needed to bring enough customers to a brand.
Newspapers are a prime example. If you were a small business and wanted to advertise in the national daily newspaper in the 1960s, the newspaper would not provide you stats like total readership, average ad spending, the conversion rate of people seeing the ad, and so on.
As an advertiser, you would not be provided a single stat which would help you gauge the type of audience which reads the newspaper, the reach of the medium, and other insights that would help you make an informed decision.
Digital marketing in the 21st century draws a stark contrast to these traditional trends. Advertisers and marketers are granted access to all kinds of data. Armed with knowledge, they are much better placed to understand their audience on run marketing campaigns accordingly.
One of the key reasons we have seen marketing grows as a field in these past few years is the increase in transparency. Techniques like SEO are especially transparent. Google;s very own John Muller is known for providing regular advise to SEOs on how they can rank their website. In a recent session, he explained the basics of how Google ranked content on its search engine.
The Question
In the session, John Muller was asked a question by someone running multiple websites in various competitive niches. The person claimed to have gotten first ranking on Google in competitive niches, but it took two long years. In these two years, the person didn’t work on creating any backlinks. The first the person had gotten was based purely on content.
The person then asked if the time taken to rank the websites number one on Google would have been less than two years if some link building would have been done.
The question is indeed intriguing. Through content alone, it took a person two years to reach number one on Google. Could the time taken to reach number one be cut short if the person had invested some time in creating relevant backlinks?
John Muller answers.
The Answer
John Muller answered by stating that a lot of factors go into ranking a website on Google. Asking whether creating more backlinks would have helped the website rank faster is useless as there are a number of other factors in play.
Muller goes on to say that people running websites should ideally spend some time promoting the content they have created. This does not mean using spammy link building methods like social media bookmarking and forum submission.
Using social media as a medium to start a dialogue about your content is a good way to bring in new traffic. If more people talk about your content, the more likely they are to link back to your website. This way, you can earn backlinks organically without manually placing your link in submission forums.
In Conclusion
In this article, we have a clear picture of how Google ranks websites in the words of John Muller.
About the Author – RomanaTyagi is an SEO consultant and content writer currently writing guest posts for big names in online marketing including DelhiCourses, an institute known for its digital marketing course in Delhi.
