If you've done any search marketing in the last ten years, you've probably heard the phrase content is king, first coined in a 1996 essay in which Microsoft's Bill Gates made this prophetic statement about Internet growth...

"Content is where I expect much of the real money will be made on the Internet..."

As a professional SEO, I have experienced firsthand how quality of content within the design and marketing of the average website becomes the single greatest factor in determining success. Simply put, sites offering tools, resources, and detailed product or service information covering their specific niche are just more successful.

So what's the secret sauce of their success? Answer: it's the buzz.

In order to generate the incoming links that power top rankings and result in web traffic, you must provide something of value for bloggers, searchers and website publishers to link to. Content so valuable and buzz-worthy that they will actively seek you out! And the first step in creating great buzz-worthy content is learning how to spot and emulate the best of these content-rich sites.

Recognizing Content-Rich Sites When You See Them

• Veggie Life — 863 Total Inbound Links (note link numbers will change slightly from day to day as links are added or removed).

  As you might guess, Veggie Life is a site t...