There are no more shortcuts when it comes to link building. . . Just as there are no shortcuts when it comes to losing weight.

Yep, here comes one of those David McBee analogies…  Enjoy.

Stephanie wants to lose 15 pounds. She goes on one of those trendy crash diets. She fasts or she only drinks juice or whatever. She sticks to it for a whole thirty days. At the end of the thirty days, she’s lost over ten pounds! Awesome, right? But what happens when she stops fasting or goes back to her regular routine? Yep, she gains the weight back, or even worse, gains more.

Let’s translate: Stephen wants to improve his search engine rankings. He buys cheap links or uses some kind of link scheme to convince the search engines that his site deserves to be higher in the SERPS. He gets pretty quick results and his site rankings improve! Awesome, right? Sure, at first, but as time goes by, those links that don’t bring real value to his site lose their influence over the rankings and he ends up right back where he was, or maybe even worse.

Now meet Chris, who also wants to lose 15 pounds. But instead of a crash diet, he makes a lifestyle change. He starts eating healthier and exercising. Thirty days in and he really doesn’t see a lot of changes. Maybe he loses a pound or two, maybe not. But he knows that he’s doing the right thing for his health so he sticks to the plan. Little by little he starts to get results. Five pounds down after a couple of months. then ten, then fifteen after a few months. Of course, if he goes back to his old ways, he too will gain the weight back. But unlike Stephanie, he’s made a lifestyle change and has kept it up for several month now. He’s healthier and more inclined to stay that way.

Let’s Translate: Christina wants to improve her search engine rankings. But instead of using strategies to trick the search engines, she starts blogging regularly and sharing her content on other relevant sites. She creates content that inspires others to link back to her site (like an infographic or video). She reaches out to relevant websites in her niche and persuades publishers to link back to her site. These things take time. So instead of getting fifty, a hundred, even hundreds of links at a time like Stephen, she’s only able to get five or ten a month. So she doesn’t see any ranking improvements right away. How much could five links be expected to do? But she  he’s doing the right thing to create a good backlink profile so she sticks to the plan. Little by little her site rankings improve. Of course, if she stops creating content and building high quality links, this progress will be halted. but unlike Stephan, she’s made a commitment to doing SEO the right way and has kept it up for several months now. Her site is “healthier” and more inclined to stay that way.

The days of short cutting SEO with cheap, or easy-to-acquire links are gone. Now is the time for high quality content that inspires natural links combined with content marketing and webmaster outreach.

Thanks for reading

David McBee