Content and Citation: How to Build Online Authority

In order to get the power to influence or command thought, opinion, or behavior online, you need to become an authority that others cite (link to) in their online content. Which means, of course, you need a content-rich website that demonstrates your authority in the first place.

Your content actually demonstrates your expertise, compared with a website or bio page that claims expertise. This is a crucial distinction, because it truly levels the playing field and allows anyone to come along and build authority that outpaces even recognized and credentialed experts in a particular niche or field.

How is this possible? Well, it’s due to the one essential truth about how both people and Google perceive authority:

What other people say about you is more important than what you say about yourself.

Authority is all about perception. Perceived authority can outrank actual authority, because both the general population and the most powerful search engine on the planet look to what others “vote” to be the most relevant expertise for any given topic, rather then some other method that might give a different result.

Let me give you an example.

Let’s say Professor X is the world’s foremost authority on green widgets. This guy really knows his stuff when it comes to green widgets, and he’s got the PhD in green widgetology to prove it. He’s also published several scholarly papers on the topic of green widgets, but unfortunately those demonstrations are deemed too valuable to publish freely online.

Bad move, Professor X.

Then there’s Ned Newbie. Ned is passionate about green widgets, even though he didn’t quite make it to graduate school. Ned is teaching himself everything there is to know about green widgets by doing his own research and reading everything he can get his hands on.

The scholarly journals won’t touch Ned with a 10-foot pole, but that’s okay… Ned decides to blog about green widgets and share what he’s learned so far with anyone who’s interested. It doesn’t matter that Ned doesn’t know as much about green widgets as Professor X (yet), because Ned figures his own understanding of the topic will increase by having to transform his research into content that can be viewed across the planet.

Ned’s absolutely right. And here’s the good part… whenever someone needs to cite (link to) a web page when mentioning green widgets, they link to Ned.

Two years later, Brad Pitt confesses a fascination for green widgets during a Barbara Walters’ interview. Suddenly, everyone is hot to find out more about green widgets. Search traffic surges, reporters are digging for sources… it’s downright green widget mania.

Who will people find? Who will the media contact?

That’s right… it’ll be Ned. Sorry, Professor X.

The key to becoming an authority in any area is to learn all you can, and share all you can. Then you make money by selling something related to your authority, and even by re-packaging the content you’ve already created.

As you might have guessed, there are ways to go about this that provide better results than other approaches (especially in the competitive niches that don’t need Brad Pitt to drive traffic). Let’s get into the elements that result in authoritative websites that work.