Backlinking Like a Boss: 4 Techniques Guaranteed to Work
- SEO |
This isn't going to be a namby-pamby guide full of un-actionable suggestions to magically manifest quality backlinks in 20 minutes or less. This is a list of totally actionable ways to get links, from the start of the idea to the end of the concept.
I'm talking about good links, authority links. I'll wait for you to grab a tissue for all of that drool I know is running down your face. Don't be offended when I say this is a backlinking guide for dummies. Anyone with a pulse and some content creation skill can follow these steps from start to finish for results, even if you are just a beginner.
Experts are also welcome! I hope you'll learn something new, and I hope you'll share tips and tricks that you know with us all in the comments section.
Some of the information discussed here is drawn from a link building case study done by Emily Johnson of Omnipages. This study specifically focused on a niche promotion, which is important because that means it was tricky. If it worked on a hard case, it is likely to work for you.
Some information specifically draws from changes in how Google views links, another solid source for authoritative information on this subject. I'll share some techniques from Brian Dean's Skyscraper Technique for link building as well. Some of the suggestions come from my own, on the ground experience in content creation and blogging. The bottom line is, these techniques are guaranteed to work if you work them. Without further delay, let's get into the meat of plotting out organic link building fast.
1. Asset Content As Link Bait
The art of growing links starts with the seed, which is the idea for your content. You'll nurture that seed with a few resources that will be attractive to readers in your immediate audience and beyond. As the plant grows, others will notice it, find it attractive, and want to show it off. This is a residual benefit of creating the right type of content and it will feed you traffic without any additional time and effort from you.
Make sure your content is in line with your niche, but also relevant to anyone in a related field. In the Johnson case study, the niche was in writing, and the post was created to appeal to both writers and those outside the writing field. The idea of a workspace organization concept was born, because it could interest anyone working in an office environment, whether for themselves or others. Before deciding on that topic, Johnson sourced some information from BuzzSumo, What's Trending, and Open Site Explorer to find the most popular published content on the topics they were considering. All of these tools are fantastic for finding viral topics, bloggers and sites with influence, and the hottest search terms.
Read the content that you find using the tools suggested by Johnson and see what seems to me working for them. Structure your content accordingly in terms of layout, including an infographic if that seems to be pulling in views for others, or video, as the case may be. It is often worth collaborating with another content creator that specializes in design. Not only is this a backlink opportunity in itself (give guest post credit for the infographic and ask for a cross post promotion from your collaborator!), but it can really set your content apart from its strongest competitors.
Make sure the content you are going to peddle is solid, interesting and, if possible, entertaining. If it isn't, all of the networking and research in the world may not help you attract interest from influencers.
2. Identify Influencers
You've no doubt found some influencers through BuzzSumo during your research process, but things like the MozBar make SEO research literal second nature. Use it to find posts with a Domain Authority of greater than 30. The authors of these posts are your contact list.
Full disclosure about the next tip: Klout is a thing close to my heart. I think it's a wonderful way to get a quick and dirty idea about the social influence an individual has, and I think more people should use it to source backlinking opportunities. Peerindex and Kred are other, similar measuring sticks. A Klout score of around 50 is slightly above average, so reach out to those in the 60 and up score. Of course, influencers should be related or relevant to your topic.
Hashtags on social media sites can be another great way to source out influencers, but you have to get involved. Click around at posts that rank highly on trending topics and then click around on those individuals' pages. If they frequently share or create posts that relate to your topic, consider reaching out to them.
A tip from Brian Dean is to put influencers who already have a history of sharing content from others at the top of your contact list. These influencers are like a warm market waiting for your high asset content to reveal itself to them.
3. Reach Out And Promote Your Content
I could spend a lot of time talking about the mechanics of this, but instead I'm going to give you some scripts to work with. Once you feel confident with the scripts, you can reverse engineer them to figure out new ways to say the same thing that reflect some of your personality. For now, here is a guide.
Hello, I hope this message finds you well! My name is Martha Smith and I am a <your title/role at publication>.
While researching <topic your piece is about that relates to what you've seen on their site>, I found this article you published <their URL>. I really enjoyed it and related to it, and even noticed that you linked to <some URL they linked to that is also on topic>, which is a great reference. I'm reaching out because I've created a <blog/infographic/video> with <new/more in depth/updated information> on the matter and thought you might find that interesting or useful.
If you'd like to link to my content on your page, I welcome you to do that and am very open to extending that offer to you about your future content as well. I'd love to collaborate. I'm happy to provide you with whatever unique description or intro you might want to use with it.
Thanks so much for doing what you do. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me, anytime.
Martha Smith
Make sure all of your most relevant information is included in your email signature, including your blog or the page you are focused on promoting at the moment. At this point, you can sit down and wait. If you're neurotic like me, you may want to put a spreadsheet together so you can easily see who you've reached out to, who has responded, and what the status is. I like to use columns to indicate information like this and also a color coded system where I highlight certain fields to let me know quickly that communication is established. If you do this, you'll also be able to see what your success rate is from cold emails to your warm market.
Brian saw an 11% conversion rate of quality links result from this practice and it worked for Emily as well. This is expert tested and approved.
With your social media influencers, lurk around on their pages and retweet or share their posts and content. You can warm them up this way, as many pay attention to these types of things (they're engaging with their audience as well, after all) and they'll recognize your name. Modify the email script above to reference social media, and see if you can convert them to sharing your posts or even adding your blog or infographic to theirs as a source for additional information. Some social media sites like Instagram and Pinterest are extra friendly to images and infographics, such as Emily's example in her case study. Considering this will help you along the way, but test out influencers from all forms of social media.
4. Reach For The Stars- Contact Bloggers With Columns Or Relationships With Major Authority Sites
The top of the mountain in backlinks contains A-listers like bloggers for the Huffington Post, LifeHack, Real Simple, and similar high traffic authority sites. Once you've collected some hits from the tips outlined earlier in this piece, make a play for the Big Bloggers On Campus. These bloggers should already be interested in the type of content you've created and post often. They're always looking for ideas to keep the content rolling.
Your approach to these folks should be more like pitching an idea to an editor. Be friendly, brief and ask if they'd like to see what you've created. Here is a quick modification of the earlier script for authority bloggers:
Hi and thanks for taking the time to read my message. My name is Martha Smith and I am a <your title/role at publication>. I'm a big fan of your work and you've given me a lot of great information since I started reading your posts.
I recently created a <blog/infographic/video> on <subject of your post that intersects with their type of content>. It's doing pretty well online, and I wondered if you have any interest in seeing it.
Drop me a quick note and I'll send it right over.
Martha Smith
It's important to note that PR people can also use these scripts to alert bloggers and news sources to info about events they are promoting. Just substitute in the information where I talk about the subject of the content in either script.
If you receive a positive reply, take a moment to dance around the room for a few minutes. You deserve it. Once you're settled, craft a response and supply the information. Again, be SURE all of your relevant information is in your email signature. This will keep your email body short and to the point and the pretty colored links will stand right out, drawing the blogger to your information.
A great pro tip from Emily Johnson is to avoid Mondays and Fridays to do your prospecting. People are more focused and in the groove from Tuesday to Thursday.
Have any of these tips worked for you? Do you have any great backlinking opportunities to share with the readers? I'd love to hear from you in the comments section.
I'm talking about good links, authority links. I'll wait for you to grab a tissue for all of that drool I know is running down your face. Don't be offended when I say this is a backlinking guide for dummies. Anyone with a pulse and some content creation skill can follow these steps from start to finish for results, even if you are just a beginner.
Experts are also welcome! I hope you'll learn something new, and I hope you'll share tips and tricks that you know with us all in the comments section.
Some of the information discussed here is drawn from a link building case study done by Emily Johnson of Omnipages. This study specifically focused on a niche promotion, which is important because that means it was tricky. If it worked on a hard case, it is likely to work for you.
Some information specifically draws from changes in how Google views links, another solid source for authoritative information on this subject. I'll share some techniques from Brian Dean's Skyscraper Technique for link building as well. Some of the suggestions come from my own, on the ground experience in content creation and blogging. The bottom line is, these techniques are guaranteed to work if you work them. Without further delay, let's get into the meat of plotting out organic link building fast.
1. Asset Content As Link Bait
The art of growing links starts with the seed, which is the idea for your content. You'll nurture that seed with a few resources that will be attractive to readers in your immediate audience and beyond. As the plant grows, others will notice it, find it attractive, and want to show it off. This is a residual benefit of creating the right type of content and it will feed you traffic without any additional time and effort from you.
Make sure your content is in line with your niche, but also relevant to anyone in a related field. In the Johnson case study, the niche was in writing, and the post was created to appeal to both writers and those outside the writing field. The idea of a workspace organization concept was born, because it could interest anyone working in an office environment, whether for themselves or others. Before deciding on that topic, Johnson sourced some information from BuzzSumo, What's Trending, and Open Site Explorer to find the most popular published content on the topics they were considering. All of these tools are fantastic for finding viral topics, bloggers and sites with influence, and the hottest search terms.
Read the content that you find using the tools suggested by Johnson and see what seems to me working for them. Structure your content accordingly in terms of layout, including an infographic if that seems to be pulling in views for others, or video, as the case may be. It is often worth collaborating with another content creator that specializes in design. Not only is this a backlink opportunity in itself (give guest post credit for the infographic and ask for a cross post promotion from your collaborator!), but it can really set your content apart from its strongest competitors.
Make sure the content you are going to peddle is solid, interesting and, if possible, entertaining. If it isn't, all of the networking and research in the world may not help you attract interest from influencers.
2. Identify Influencers
You've no doubt found some influencers through BuzzSumo during your research process, but things like the MozBar make SEO research literal second nature. Use it to find posts with a Domain Authority of greater than 30. The authors of these posts are your contact list.
Full disclosure about the next tip: Klout is a thing close to my heart. I think it's a wonderful way to get a quick and dirty idea about the social influence an individual has, and I think more people should use it to source backlinking opportunities. Peerindex and Kred are other, similar measuring sticks. A Klout score of around 50 is slightly above average, so reach out to those in the 60 and up score. Of course, influencers should be related or relevant to your topic.
Hashtags on social media sites can be another great way to source out influencers, but you have to get involved. Click around at posts that rank highly on trending topics and then click around on those individuals' pages. If they frequently share or create posts that relate to your topic, consider reaching out to them.
A tip from Brian Dean is to put influencers who already have a history of sharing content from others at the top of your contact list. These influencers are like a warm market waiting for your high asset content to reveal itself to them.
3. Reach Out And Promote Your Content
I could spend a lot of time talking about the mechanics of this, but instead I'm going to give you some scripts to work with. Once you feel confident with the scripts, you can reverse engineer them to figure out new ways to say the same thing that reflect some of your personality. For now, here is a guide.
Hello, I hope this message finds you well! My name is Martha Smith and I am a <your title/role at publication>.
While researching <topic your piece is about that relates to what you've seen on their site>, I found this article you published <their URL>. I really enjoyed it and related to it, and even noticed that you linked to <some URL they linked to that is also on topic>, which is a great reference. I'm reaching out because I've created a <blog/infographic/video> with <new/more in depth/updated information> on the matter and thought you might find that interesting or useful.
If you'd like to link to my content on your page, I welcome you to do that and am very open to extending that offer to you about your future content as well. I'd love to collaborate. I'm happy to provide you with whatever unique description or intro you might want to use with it.
Thanks so much for doing what you do. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me, anytime.
Martha Smith
Make sure all of your most relevant information is included in your email signature, including your blog or the page you are focused on promoting at the moment. At this point, you can sit down and wait. If you're neurotic like me, you may want to put a spreadsheet together so you can easily see who you've reached out to, who has responded, and what the status is. I like to use columns to indicate information like this and also a color coded system where I highlight certain fields to let me know quickly that communication is established. If you do this, you'll also be able to see what your success rate is from cold emails to your warm market.
Brian saw an 11% conversion rate of quality links result from this practice and it worked for Emily as well. This is expert tested and approved.
With your social media influencers, lurk around on their pages and retweet or share their posts and content. You can warm them up this way, as many pay attention to these types of things (they're engaging with their audience as well, after all) and they'll recognize your name. Modify the email script above to reference social media, and see if you can convert them to sharing your posts or even adding your blog or infographic to theirs as a source for additional information. Some social media sites like Instagram and Pinterest are extra friendly to images and infographics, such as Emily's example in her case study. Considering this will help you along the way, but test out influencers from all forms of social media.
4. Reach For The Stars- Contact Bloggers With Columns Or Relationships With Major Authority Sites
The top of the mountain in backlinks contains A-listers like bloggers for the Huffington Post, LifeHack, Real Simple, and similar high traffic authority sites. Once you've collected some hits from the tips outlined earlier in this piece, make a play for the Big Bloggers On Campus. These bloggers should already be interested in the type of content you've created and post often. They're always looking for ideas to keep the content rolling.
Your approach to these folks should be more like pitching an idea to an editor. Be friendly, brief and ask if they'd like to see what you've created. Here is a quick modification of the earlier script for authority bloggers:
Hi and thanks for taking the time to read my message. My name is Martha Smith and I am a <your title/role at publication>. I'm a big fan of your work and you've given me a lot of great information since I started reading your posts.
I recently created a <blog/infographic/video> on <subject of your post that intersects with their type of content>. It's doing pretty well online, and I wondered if you have any interest in seeing it.
Drop me a quick note and I'll send it right over.
Martha Smith
It's important to note that PR people can also use these scripts to alert bloggers and news sources to info about events they are promoting. Just substitute in the information where I talk about the subject of the content in either script.
If you receive a positive reply, take a moment to dance around the room for a few minutes. You deserve it. Once you're settled, craft a response and supply the information. Again, be SURE all of your relevant information is in your email signature. This will keep your email body short and to the point and the pretty colored links will stand right out, drawing the blogger to your information.
A great pro tip from Emily Johnson is to avoid Mondays and Fridays to do your prospecting. People are more focused and in the groove from Tuesday to Thursday.
Have any of these tips worked for you? Do you have any great backlinking opportunities to share with the readers? I'd love to hear from you in the comments section.
If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.
Get Accurate Search Volume Data directly from Google Adword without your own Adword account