A lot of SEO & Internet Marketing blogs will say pump out a lot of relevant content on your blog, build a resource all around a specifc subject. Even Google says to do the same. What you won’t normally hear is to improve your traffic, improve the number and quality of your links to your website is to go off topic…. write about anything that is timely – especially when it’s even slightly topical.

While on the whole of course that’s good advice, I’ve went off topic on a number of times. Because of that I’ve been linked to by authority sites that wouldn’t link to a seo company normally.

I had a PR 9 link once because I wrote about something ‘slightly‘ off topic. Today I was linked to a .edu on a ‘slightly‘ off topic subject to an article I wrote 2 years ago. Last week this site got a home page link on what I can only determine was the Brazillion version of TechCrunch and sent me nearly 5,000 visitors on a link that was buried 4 pages in on the article (to an article that was a year old). The link was to a ‘slightly‘ off topic subject area but I rank number 1 for in the that competitive but similar niche.

When you go off topic into less competitive niches, you have a better chance of ranking on the first page of Google. If you are the number 1 link in a SERP, you wouldn’t believe the amount of natrual links you get just because you are already No1 – it truly is a self re-inforcing effect and can be a powerful way to attract links over time. The number 1 position truly is a self reinforcing position especially if there’s any semblance of a natural linking profile in that particular keyword vertical – ie tutorials, research, how-to etc.

These links from trusted sites help ranking your content – especially your new content. A natural link from a trusted site (or even a more trusted site than yours) can do nothing but help your site. I would think when a trusted site links to your site, the trust Google places in your site because of that link raises your own trust levels, and while not helping you rank immediately for your main terms, can help you when you publish new content in the future. Of course if the off topic trusted site links to you with good keywords you don’t get much better.

Now for sure, I don’t go that far off topic so my links are even better for linkbuilding purposes. Sometimes I’ll write about something we intend to do in a few months so it’s of use long term.

But certainly, going off topic every now and again, especially with a helpful article on your blog certainly gets you links, sometimes tons of traffic, some you wouldn’t normally recieve in your boring niche. And you know you can monitise anything if you can be bothered and take advantage of any page that’s been linked to heavily.

Sometimes it’s surprising the quality of links you get.

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