Link Building: Top-Down or Bottom-Up?

Before anyone embarks upon a content publicity mission, they should ask themselves some important questions. Foremost among these questions should be the question of whether they intend to take a 'top-down' or 'bottom-up' approach to link building - each has its own advantages, and each requires a different set of techniques.

The top-down approach is one that aims to gain search engine ranking positions by generating links from one or several authoritative websites. In turn, these links will make the website more visible to a greater audience. This approach is all about gaining the maximum possible value from each individual link, and has been propounded by many famous link building experts. In a top-down link building strategy, the focus must be on creating original, high-quality content that rings true and attracts attention from the right people. Selecting the authoritative websites you intend to attract links from is an integral part of this process.

Offering guest posts to magazines that have a strong relevance to your website will greatly increase your chances of success. If your expertise lies in car radios, for example, and you offer to write an article for a magazine that specialises in bicycle parts, you are unlikely to receive an enthusiastic response. On the other hand, if you offer to write an article on common car radio faults for Car Radios Online, you stand a far greater chance of success.

A bottom-up link building strategy focuses on content that is published on your own website. Rather than targeting the major publications in your field, a bottom-up link building strategy aims to generate interest at a more grassroots level. Although high-quality inbound links are always the goal, a large volume of lower-quality links can give your website the visibility to be discovered naturally by major publications.

Perhaps the most powerful example of effective bottom-up link building is the use of viral videos to attract attention to a particular website. When websites produce a piece of content that goes viral, sheer weight of numbers draws attention from significant publications. This can result in a piece being published on the content in question, perhaps including a link. A successful bottom-up link building strategy begins with the many and inconsequential, ending with the few and powerful.

There are many different approaches to link building, and this is just one way to conceptualise the process. Nevertheless, this dichotomy can be extremely useful when designing a link building strategy to promote your business. Taking a top-down approach to link building is excellent for businesses that have strong creative skills at their disposal. Others may struggle to gain the interest of popular publications. A bottom-up approach is more appropriate for businesses whose strengths lie in marketing. Others may struggle to promote their intended viral content. Understanding the difference between these two approaches may help your business make the right decision in its quest for inbound links. It is generally (although certainly not always) more efficient to focus resources on either approach, rather than splitting the pot.