Building a content web

Content webs are posts and pages that link to one another to help your target readers find the information. In addition to giving your existing readers the opportunity to discover more of your rockin' ideas, they help Google and friends find your content, too. The more relevant links pointing to your page, the more likely that page will show up in the search results.

So what's a relevant link, exactly?
That's a link that will help a real human being find the information he or she wants.

• The link should be on a page devoted to a similar topic.
• The anchor text (you know, the blue words?) should tell the reader what to expect on the other side.
• The destination should actually have something useful to say, instead of being one of those pages that prattles on in sentences that never seem to make a point.

Example of a content web
I wrote a book review of Duct Tape Marketing: The World's Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide. I added a link to that as part of my Squidoo business strategy devoted to business book reviews. The link is automatically included on the Terence P Ward professional Facebook profile. Your curiosity is perhaps piqued, so I link to the review of this book about small business marketing in this very post.

The links in the paragraph above are just part of a content web. I've given you relevant links to my collection of business book reviews, a review about a small business marketing book, and my fan page on Facebook. The review itself provides links to other relevant topics in my articles, keeping the reader interested in the information I have to offer. My Facebook page collects writing from a variety of sources from me and from others, and keeps my fans informed about what I'm doing overall with my writing business by feeding in other sites I write articles for and other blogs that I contribute to or maintain. Those blogs also link to relevant articles, but since they have different niches they don't always overlap.

The cycle goes on as I write new articles or blog posts. All of my writing is focused on giving readers useful information rather than a desperate plea to use my services or click on ads on the page so I can feed my family. My links are better than your links because they mean something to human beings, because for all its algorithms all Google PageRank is designed for is to give surfers exactly what they're looking for.