Same Old Stuff
Creating an extremely useful web-based tool, or paying a programmer to create one
for you, is one of the most effective ways to build content, which will, in turn, help
you build natural linkage data. Writing articles will also help you build up your link
popularity.
Many websites blindly add large sums of free content to their site because they
think it will help them for low cost. The problems with adding exact copies of
low-quality articles are the following:
• Since the articles exist elsewhere, yours probably will not rank as well
as one of the other copies on the web.

low-quality content reflects poorly on you and wastes your link equity
that could be going toward getting unique content pages ranked.
• Many people add unfocused garbage to their site, which loses the
interest of their visitors.
• Some unscrupulous parties copy the contents of other websites
without asking. Tools such as CopyScape make this easy to detect,
although legal enforcement is cost prohibitive and too time consuming
for most publishers.
• Many tools scrape various RSS feeds and mix them to create many
content pages. Content generation tools such as these will require
search engines to place even greater trust on linkage data.
Some people also clutter up the Internet with search result screen scrapers and
other auto content generation crap. I am generally against generating low-quality
automated content, as I feel it lowers the quality and functionality of the web as a
whole, though I suppose some people may find it effective for generating traffic (at
least until their sites get banned).

Comparison Content
Many times, people are interested in the difference between two similar or
competing products. I created pages comparing Overture (now known as Yahoo!
Search Marketing) to Google AdWords, and many people search to find the pages
comparing and contrasting those two systems.
Content Format
Sometimes the format of information is as important as its quality. By distributing
information in different formats, it might become easier to pick up inbound links.
For example, good blog posts are often viral marketing link magnets.
Radio is not very competitive in many markets. SEO Rockstars and SEO Radio
are a few SEO-related radio programs that pick up many inbound links. There is
one quarterly print magazine about search marketing; as such, it is easy for them to
gain links because they are the only people distributing content in that format.
Ideal Content
If you can create something that becomes a well-cited authoritative work in your
field, it is worth far more than creating dozens of low-quality pages. The authority
granted by one well-referenced document will help boost the rankings of every
page on your site.
It is a good idea to create day-to-day content, but it is smart from a business
perspective to also try to create a few industry-standard pieces of work. Some
examples of well cited things I have done:

Many free SEO tools
• 101 ways to build links in 2006
• SEO for Firefox
• Industry event calendar
• This book

Deep Linkable Content
If you build a large website and large brand, it is a good idea to try to create nichespecific,
high-quality content that many people will directly reference/link to. This
will help search engines spider your sites better and help them understand that your
site is an authority on much more than just whatever is on the home page.
Free Decent Content
There is a ton of good, free content out there, but you need to do a bit of research
to find it. If you are building a long-term business, quality is usually more
important than quantity. Creative reintegration of other content with some fresh
new content or other features can make your site much more useful to your site
visitors, but you do not want to push it too far, as duplicate content filters improve
daily.
• If you sell products, make sure you grab the official specifications from
the manufacturers.
• Incorporate user feedback into the pages. These can add value to your
shopping experience and give you unique content.
• When you write articles, remember to quote and link to websites of
topical authorities.
• Incorporate product recommendations and related/compatible items
into pages.
• If you have a web-related idea or are researching the history of
something that may have appeared on the web, you can view what a
site looked like in the past from the Internet Archive. You may not be
able to use the old web copy, but screenshots might be acceptable and
how things change certainly makes for good article information.
• Integrate topic-specific RSS feeds into your website.
• Ask a friend to write an article for you or interview an industry expert.
• Search for articles on your topic in search engines. In addition, you
may want to look at article/e-zine directories and glance at industry
hub sites to see if the authors allow you to repost their articles. Many
people who know a decent amount about marketing will let you post
their articles in exchange for a link back to their site.
• Sometimes, it is worth the cost to hire a professional writer. Some of
my friends hire people to write press releases and articles to promote
each new site they create.

Common Content and Copyleft are two projects that aim to help the
free flow of information by allowing people to reuse various registered
content. Yahoo! created a free Creative Commons search.
• Content from prior to 1923 should usually be usable. Material from
1923 to 1963 may be usable depending on whether or not it was
copyrighted, published with a copyright notice, and whether or not the
copyright was renewed.
• The U.S. Government has a bunch of free copy on a variety of topics.
When in doubt, check with Copyright.gov or your local laws. A variety
of government resources are referenced at the end of the chapter.