By Jill Kurtz, Owner, Kurtz Digital StrategyA new ranking study on links done by the Stone Temple Consulting team shows that links to your content from other websites is extremely important to your online credibility. The research shows a “near-perfect correlation” between ranking highly in Google and the number of links pointing to that page.Stone Temple Consulting aggregated the count of links for the top 50 results across 6,000 search results pages and found a near-perfect correlation between links and ranking. The authors offer this key takeaway:If your content is not relevant or competitive, links won’t help ranking. If it is, links will make the difference. Read a summary of the study and findings.Boost Your Links

• Getting links to your content takes a little effort. Here are some strategies to try:
• Guest blog and include links to relevant content in the body of your post as well as a link to your website and/or blog in the bio.
• Share your content on social media and external sites that allow you to share content published elsewhere like Facebook, LinkedIn, and BlogHer. Be sure to follow the guidelines of each site.
• Find people who are writing on similar subjects and ask them to include links to your content. This is a win-win, because links that support their content boosts the credibility of their content as well.
• Comment on social media and blog posts and include a link to your content that supports your thoughts.

[author]About the Author: Jill Kurtz founded Kurtz Digital Strategy to help clients see the communication potential of the newest trends and technologies. She is an expert at website strategy and redesign, social media planning, and developing exceptional content.[/author]