SEO has a somewhat questionable reputation. In the past, people shared supposed tricks that would instantly get you to rank. But a lot has changed in the SEO world. So, are these tricks still true? Let’s take a look at what’s an SEO fact, and what’s SEO fiction!
The origin of this reputation
A lifetime ago, when Google’s algorithm wasn’t that good, you could trick your way into the search results. Putting down keywords in white (so nobody would see, but Google would crawl it) was an effective strategy back then. As was buying bulks of links from questionable sites. As Google evolved, these kinds of dirty SEO tricks started to backfire.
If you’re wondering whether certain tactics of old school or blackhat SEO still pay off, just think: does it give the user a better experience on your site? Does your website become a better result? If you can answer these questions with yes, then it’s probably a good SEO strategy. Anything that feels like a trick though, probably won’t be a good SEO strategy in the long run. So, let’s look at some SEO statements and find out if they’re fact or fiction!
SEO fact or fiction?
Fact or fiction 1: Content is king
Content is a very important aspect of any SEO strategy. After all, Google crawls texts and determines the ranking of your site on the quality of your texts. High-quality content also leads to lower bounce rates and more social media attention.
SEO fact: Content is king
Fact or fiction 2: Get as many links as possible
While backlinks are definitely important for your SEO strategy, you should be rather selective in which kinds of backlinks you’d want to attract to your website. To start, you shouldn’t buy large amounts of links. (Nor should you exchange links.) Secondly, don’t use any automated programs to get links. Moreover, don’t do guest blogging with very thin content and don’t go for links that are unrelated to the topic of your website. You shouldn’t have links from spammy sites whose only purpose is to advertise for gambling, viagra and porn (unless your website is about gambling, viagra and porn). Lastly, make sure there is real content behind the links you use. In a nutshell: you should never pay for links.
Fact or fiction 3: Keyword density should be sky high
Some people claim you should put as many keywords in your texts as possible. They hope that Google will notice the amount of keywords they’re using and therefore will rank the text highest in the search results. However, their text will become unreadable. So they shouldn’t do that! It’ll definitely backfire. Never write content that’s created for the search engines. Always write content with a real audience in mind. Invest in high-quality content that’ll generate long-term stable traffic to your website.
SEO fiction: keyword density should be sky high
Fact or fiction 4: You don’t need high-end technical skills to do SEO
Technical SEO is definitely an important element of an SEO strategy. And it doesn’t hurt to learn a bit of code (it could even be great fun). However, if you’re using WordPress and our Yoast SEO plugin, your technical SEO is pretty much covered. Our plugin is designed to take care of all the technical aspects of your SEO strategy.
SEO fact: You don’t need high-end technical skills to do SEO
Fact or fiction 5: Meta descriptions don’t matter
Google rewrites 70% of manually added meta descriptions. That means there’s a high chance that a meta description you added manually will be rewritten by Google. However, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t pay attention to the content of your meta description. Meta descriptions provide critical information to both search engines and users. Moreover, it’s based on the SEO title and meta description that the user decides whether to visit your page. Neglecting them would be missing an opportunity to get more traffic to your website.
SEO fiction: Meta descriptions don’t matter
Fact or fiction 6: Social media can improve your rankings
Google doesn’t look at your website’s social media performance (like followers or shares) when ranking your content. However, a good social media strategy helps your rankings by boosting your traffic. A lot of traffic makes search engines deem your content as relevant. Furthermore, the difference between search engines and social media has been blurring. For example, both Google and Instagram can be used to find an answer to a question.
SEO fact: Social media can improve your rankings
Fact or fiction 7: Google will be replaced by AI
While using AI platforms as search engines might be relatively new, AI has been shaping the search engine experience for quite some time. For example, AI is what helps Google provide voice search and image search. And not only are some search engines introducing their own AI language models (like Gemini), they are also integrating AI models into the search engine results.
So while we don’t know exactly what the future holds, it’s clear that Google and AI found a way to work together instead of replacing each other.
SEO fiction: Google will be replaced by AI
Fact or fiction 8: SEO is all tricks
At Yoast, we propose an SEO strategy we refer to as holistic SEO. Holistic SEO means you focus on developing a long-term SEO strategy that focuses on all aspects of website optimization, in order to be the best result. Part of this strategy is to write awesome content, do great PR and social, make sure your website is properly secured and create a superb User Experience. And of course, your website should have technical excellence and an awesome site structure. That’s no trick. That’s just a whole lot of hard work.
SEO fiction: SEO is all tricks
Conclusion
The final SEO fiction actually says it all: SEO is not all tricks. Yoast believes that SEO is a long-term strategy that focuses on creating quality content for your audience and becoming the best result. It is a lot of work, but it will definitely pay off in the long run!
If you’re looking to enhance your SEO efforts in 2024, mastering digital PR is the key to success.
In today’s landscape, traditional link building methods no longer cut it, and public relations have emerged as a powerful alternative.
However, securing meaningful links and mentions from journalists and the press can be both a creative and process challenge.
So how can you scale the time-consuming and complicated process of earning digital PR links?
Join us on February 28, as we reveal proven case studies for how to earn hundreds of links in just 30 days.
In this exclusive webinar, Kevin Rowe, Founder and Head of Strategy at PureLinq, will unveil the systematic approach his firm has developed to revolutionize data-driven digital PR for SEO.
With a wealth of case study examples, Kevin will demonstrate how his firm has successfully secured hundreds of high-quality links and mentions on top-tier domains.
A Proven Process for Press Links: Gain insights into a comprehensive process and essential tools to secure press links within the next 30 days, accelerating your link-building initiatives.
Scalable Data Gathering: Learn how to gather and leverage data to enhance journalist storylines, enabling you to create compelling narratives that resonate with your target audience.
How To Combine Data and Expert Commentary: Seamlessly integrate data-driven insights and expert commentary to craft compelling press pitches that capture media attention and drive results.
If you’re seeking ways to elevate your SEO strategy through organic link acquisition, you won’t want to miss this webinar.
We’ll explore the scalable strategies you can employ to get your brand published in the press and start collecting hundreds of PR links.
Whether your aim is to stop relying on paid link building or simply enhance your online presence, you’ll leave this session well-equipped with the actionable insights you need.
Ready to unlock the secrets of data-driven digital PR and boost your link-building efforts?
SEO is all about creating a great experience for people visiting your website, or seeing your snippet in the search results. That’s why a lot of your SEO efforts will likely be focused on things like content, UX and pagespeed. Efforts that help you optimize your page or website overall. As they should be! They help you become the best search result for search engines and people alike. However, there are also a few things outside of your website that you should not forget about. An important one being link building. In this post, we’ll discuss the 6 steps to create a successful link building strategy for any business.
Grow your traffic with link building
In a nutshell, link building is the act of getting other websites to link to your page. The reason why you should invest some time into this is because these links are important for SEO. They help your pages rank higher in the search results. But that’s not the only thing they do:
A good link, first and foremost, drives traffic to your site.
Other websites linking to your page will help in getting more (referral) traffic to your site. This grows your overall traffic and brings new people into contact with your website. To make sure these efforts aren’t in vain, it’s good to think about which websites would make sense in linking to your pages. You want people who are visiting that website to also enjoy yours when they’re being directed there, but we’ll go into that further one.
An important note is that link building should always be done from a holistic SEO perspective. Meaning that you should focus on getting quality backlinks that will actually generate traffic for your website. In addition, it means staying away from bad practices as these can hurt your rankings.
The 6 steps of a successful link building strategy
1. Really get to know your audience
To get an idea of what websites would ideally link to yours, you first need to have insights into who your audience is. You might have a hunch of who your audience is, but you’ll be surprised how often that doesn’t match with reality. Make sure to do some research and analyze your audience to get to know them. This can help you retain your current audience and perhaps even reach new audiences that might be interested in what you’re offering. All of this also gives you a better idea of other websites they might be interested in. If it feels natural, you can even ask them about other websites that they frequent.
To give you an example, say you run an online store with loads of craft materials. and blog about new craft ideas now and then. User research could give you the insight that a large part of your audience is parents looking for fun crafts to do with their kids. This could give you the idea to reach out to websites listing fun activities to do with kids. Something you wouldn’t have done if you did not know about that segment of your target audience. Or to give an example closer to home, at Yoast, we started with an audience that consisted mainly of WordPress developers. However, we wanted to broaden our audience to a more general group of WordPress users without losing our initial audience. So we created additional content that caters to our new audience and went to work to get links from other websites where these people can be found.
2. Create a list of sites that your audience visits
When you know more about your audience and, you can create a list of websites that will help you reach them. Use your research to find the websites that appeal to these people. Because links from these websites can help you reach your audience, especially if they don’t know about your website yet. Do pay attention whether there’s a logical connection to be made between you and a website on the list. This increases your chances of getting the link and is better for SEO as well. A link from a website that has absolutely nothing to do with your niche is not valuable when it comes to your position in the search results.
In addition, I want to note that a link from a spammy website is also not going to do you any good. These links can even backfire and hurt your rankings as Google is absolutely not a fan of bad link building practices. So stay away from spammy websites, paying for your links and other link building DON’Ts. Link building isn’t just a trick or something you can throw money at. Getting these links should feel like a normal marketing effort and part of a holistic SEO approach.
3. Write great content
To get other websites to link to your content, you need to have content that makes them want to link to your content. Which means that you need to create quality content. Content that appeals to your audience, is helpful and that showcases your unique point of view. If you sell products or services, don’t just write about why they’re awesome and why they should buy them. Write content that answers a question that your audience has or solves a problem they’re facing. Don’t center it around your product or service. Make your content genuinely helpful and show your expertise on the topic. This will not only build trust and authority, but you’ll also get more links to your page as other websites will see the value of your content.
To give an example: Let’s say you sell garden tools like lawnmowers. Instead of writing a blog post on why your lawnmower is the best one out there, write blog posts on topics like ‘How to get your garden ready for the summer’. Or if you sell furniture, write an article on the latest trends in interior design. This type of content is a lot more shareable for other people outside your company. Which will increase your chances of getting relevant links. If you need some guidance on creating quality content, we have lots of blog posts on content SEO and an SEO copywriting training course.
Guest blogging
When you’re a blogger or (aiming to be) an expert in your field, another option is guest blogging. This not only builds your authority, it’s a great way to get more links to your website. Often enough, blogs are looking for input from fellow bloggers and in return will let you link to your own content. This gets you a great link to your website and the opportunity to bring yourself into contact with their audience. Growing your reach.
Once again, be tactical in the websites you choose to partner up with. They should be trustworthy and relevant to your own website to get any real value out of it. Visit your favorite blogs, or blogs that are similar to yours, and check to see if they’re open to guest submissions. They’ll usually mention this on their contact or collaboration page.
4. Match content to the right website
When you’re happy with the content you’ve written, it’s time to dive into the list of websites you’ve made during the 2nd step. Which websites on there will be likely to link to which piece of content? You may be tempted to just send everything that you’ve created to everyone, but this will hurt your chances of anyone linking to your content. You will come across as spammy and you can’t ask those people to read 5 blog posts and decide which one they like.
Also good to know: if you have a long tail keyword approach (writing about small and niche subjects) the number of websites that are a good fit will be smaller. This isn’t a bad thing, as very specific content can mean that this smaller number of websites is more willing to link to your content. It can also mean that readers will appreciate your content even more, as there’s less of the same content out there and they’ll be eager to know more about your business.
5. Reach out in a personal way
After figuring out which content to send to whom, it’s time to reach out to them. You can always send an email, but social media like X/Twitter or LinkedIn are also a great way to contact people directly. To increase your chances of getting their attention, make sure to do your homework. Use your audience research and what you know about the website to personalize your message. Never send out automated emails or direct messages. Send them a polite message in which you tell them about your content, why you feel it would be of value for their audience and request them to place a link to your content. Please note that often, you will not get a reply at all.
To improve your chances, you need to explain why your content is unique. Trying to get a link for a very general blog post that could’ve been written by anyone, is less likely to succeed than unique content. Content that people can only find on your website. That being said, don’t make your message too long, as this will result in people not reading it at all. If you’re not sure where to start, you can also contact your business partners. They will probably be active in a field that’s related to yours and they’ll be more willing to link to your site (as you already know them personally). Just make sure that the backlink is relevant and doesn’t feel forced. Like I said before, link building should always feel natural.
6. Extend your reach through social media
Reaching out to specific people or websites is one way to get links to your content. Another option is to share your content on social media. This can also lead to other people sharing your content, which helps you extend your reach. And a wider reach gives you a higher chance of people linking to you on their websites as well. When people like, share and talk about your content on social media, you’re bound to reach new audiences and receive some more links as well.
Conclusion: link building is a growth strategy
A successful link building strategy should always be aimed at getting new people into contact them with your website. A (welcome) side effect of proper link building is a higher ranking in Google. As long as you consider link building as a way to reach out to other sites to get more visitors that will genuinely enjoy your content, you’re doing it right. Lots of luck!
A company can generate influential media exposure by turning internal expertise into media sources.
I challenge you to use brand scoring, like count, content shares, or other vanity metrics when pitching a journalist or editor to become an expert source.
The best-case scenario is that you don’t get a response. But if the media contact feels snarky that day, they would respond with a laughing emoji.
More than 50% of journalists need PR pros to provide expert sources. However, news happens fast around an event, and you must be a proven expert for journalists or editors to reach out or respond.
To become an expert source, be ready to prove your expertise fast.
Creditable experts are becoming a valuable resource, but this raises some questions:
How do you know you or a source is an expert in their field or topic?
How do I demonstrate my expertise and creditability?
Is there a way to improve my creditability?
How do I know what I’m an expert in?
When identifying an expert’s core expertise, start by identifying the experience in a specific field. In that field, examine:
Proven expert knowledge: Depth of knowledge, real-world experience, and demonstration of skill.
Developing influential assets: Reputation and recognition, published research, and influence in the field.
Evolving with change: Innovative contributions, adaptability to feedback, and continuous learning.
Improve communications by teaching: Teaching and mentorship, real-world problem solving, and communication skills.
This tool helps to identify, improve, and prove a subject matter expert’s (SME) or company’s experience and expertise in a given field. It’s not an attempt to reverse engineer or deconstruct why pages rank in search engines but rather a human tool to judge if someone has expertise in a given field.
Image created by author, December 2023
Start by selecting an expert and identifying their field of expertise. For each field of expertise, identify proof in each of these areas. Then, rate each one on a scale of one to five.
These scores don’t add up to an overall score, as you would have to weigh each criterion against the others.
The purpose of scoring is to provide a human rating scale in which a person can evaluate the levels of expertise for a given criteria.
Each criterion is explained in-depth below, with examples.
Specifying Field Of Expertise
The specific field is a niche or area within a broader field where the expert has specialized knowledge. An expert in a field has deep knowledge that gives them a clearer perspective and insights into a complex topic.
An expert can have general field knowledge or be a hyper-specialized subject matter expert (SME). The scale looks something like this:
General knowledge.
Some specialization.
Notable expertise in a niche.
Renowned in a specific niche.
Leading authority in a specialized area.
When a field is identified and ranked, map the expert’s proven knowledge.
Proven Expert Knowledge
Malcolm Gladwell wrote a book called “Outliners: The Story of Success” and frequently mentioned the 10,000-hour rule to achieve true expertise. This means that by focusing on something for a long time, one can become a “true expert” in that skill, or any skill, by practicing.
The book “Mastery” by Robert Greene postulated that to master something truly, one needs to integrate diverse experiences and use those to drive a unique practice (I’m butchering this idea a little).
This reminds me of a training session with a blackbelt in Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu.
Expert knowledge doesn’t just pop up; it’s developed through sweat and tears. This can lead to depth of knowledge.
Depth Of Knowledge
What depth and breadth does the subject matter expert have in their field of expertise? An expert should have deep knowledge in specific areas and a broad understanding of the entire field.
Use the following scale to evaluate an expert’s depth of knowledge.
Basic understanding in a few areas.
Fair understanding in multiple areas.
Solid grasp of most areas.
Deep knowledge in several areas.
Expertise across the entire field.
An expert who applies what they have learned gains a practical understanding that others can use.
Experience & Practice
The length of time in the field, the hands-on application, and the wide range of experience are reliable ways to understand any individual or company’s expertise.
However, I remember telling someone I had put over 10,000 hours into something, and they looked at me like I was crazy. Hours are difficult to measure, so use years instead.
The more diverse and long-term the experience in a specific field, the higher the score.
< 1 year.
1-3 years.
4-6 years.
7-10 years.
>10 years.
With years of practice from thorough learning, the next step is demonstrating those honed skills.
Demonstration Of Skills
A reputation combined with the demonstration of skills provides another filter to judge a level of expertise. These proofs are real-world examples of projects, implementations, or deep case studies.
Few examples.
Some basic examples.
Several good examples.
Wide range of examples.
Numerous standout examples of expertise.
Developing Expert-Led Influential Assets
Developing influential assets that other experts recognize and adopt can drive influence in a field and create significant proof of expertise alone.
Michael E. Porter, a professor at Harvard Business School, specializes in strategy and competitiveness, which has led to his ideas influencing government and large corporations.
Screenshot from LinkedIn, December 2023
In 1996, Porter published an article called What is Strategy, where he explained that strategy is not just operational efficiency but also the creation of a unique position from a set of activities that work well together for a common purpose.
This means that being able to produce a product at a lower cost or faster than others doesn’t generate a competitive advantage alone.
I use this when examining a product’s competitive positioning or planning content strategy. This one article guides a lot of my thought process.
This article, and much of what Porter produces, is an influential asset. These are not just articles but are well-researched and considered works.
Proter’s work embodies three aspects of what comprises an influential asset:
Performing research and getting published.
Gaining a reputation with recognition from other experts’ citations.
Show influence in the field from the publisher research that other experts recognize, write about, and apply.
Publications And Research
Performing research and being quoted in reputable publications, journals, or books can indicate an in-depth understanding and contribution to the field.
As an expert in the field generates recognition for published papers that stand up to scrutiny, their reputation strengthens.
However, publishing peer-reviewed papers is time-consuming and not always a realistic investment of time – industry awards where peers review a case study or contributions to publications.
Being published in a reputable publication and having reputable experts cite your work can validate a reputation. The scale may range from:
No research or publications.
Few research or publications.
Some research or publications.
A lot of research or publications.
Renowned author or researcher in the field.
Improve an expert’s reputation by getting more published research recognized by other experts. Then, the expert can gain influence in a field.
Pro tip: I asked my friend Adam Peruta, Associate Professor in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and the director of the M.S. program in Advanced Media Management, about the importance of scholarly publications. He suggested that performing primary research and writing a book doesn’t require as much scrutiny as scholarly papers and can provide great insights to an audience.
Reputation And Recognitions
A reputation is built over time with ongoing recognition from reputable sources.
Gaining acknowledgment from peers, reputable media mentions, or experts in the field can greatly influence reputation. Testimonials from clients or internal case studies are valuable tools but don’t carry enough weight for editors and journalists.
I was on a Zoom call to interview a senior editor, and as we began talking, he looked at the bookshelf behind me and said, “Is that the ‘4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris’…I’m in that book.”
After a few seconds of confusion, I asked what he meant, and he clarified that he was cited as an expert by Tim Ferris, who is known for his ability to vet experts. The interviewee’s reputation for producing high-quality work was immediately clear due to Tim Ferris’s recognition.
The more recognitions by reputable sources, the higher the score. My scale is as follows:
Rarely recognized.
Occasionally acknowledged.
Known by some peers.
Frequently cited/thought leader.
Widely recognized in and outside of the field.
With publications and recognition comes long-term influence, and not before.
Influence In The Field
When it comes to experts, influence is based on the impact and change in their field. It can be measured by other professionals’ adoption of their methods or concepts but less so by followers, citations, or mentions, which are vanity metrics.
This is in contrast to an influencer who has followers and engagement but may not have a true influence on long-term behavior.
Influence is determined by how people talk about that individual and how the expert’s knowledge impacted their process or methods to help create breakthroughs.
My simple scale is as follows:
Minimal influence.
Some followers or citations.
Influences a group within the field.
Major influence in the field.
Transformative influence, setting trends or standards.
Evolving With Change
In the book “Mastery,” Greene explains that a master will reach a creative-active phase and find their unique methods. These methods can be breakthroughs, new methodologies, or tools they’ve introduced to the field.
John Danaher is Gordon Ryan’s Jiujitsu coach. Danaher is considered one of the greatest BJJ coaches ever, while Ryan is the most dominant BJJ athlete with a 95-5-3 (Win-Decision-Loss).
In the first 45 seconds of this video, Danaher explains that he has taught Ryan everything he knew, and Ryan has begun to create his own breakthroughs. This is the creative-active phase.
Ryan states in the video that as he learned new moves, the industry, and competition evolved to identify and counter the moves; thus, his system would be ineffective in the evolving world of BJJ.
If Ryan stuck to the known system Danaher created, he would quickly become ineffective. Instead, Ryan evolved his system and is still the most dominant athlete in BJJ.
If you want to study how to master something, study the relationship between these two men. From the book “Mastery” and this example, I find three aspects to examine in an expert:
Continuous learning based on innovations.
Feedback & adaptability against those innovations.
Innovative contributions of your own based on your learnings and applications of the knowledge.
Continuous Learning
The first step in an expert’s evolution is a feedback loop from continually updating their knowledge. This shows commitment to the field, but they can’t change with the industry in a closed-loop system. The scale is very simple.
Ryan learns by testing against other top players and experimenting. This is a great feedback loop, but attending workshops and industry events to learn is another indicator.
Rarely updates skills.
Attends occasional courses.
Regular self-learning.
Frequently attends courses/workshops.
Lifelong learner often seeks new knowledge.
Feedback & Adaptability
As you can see by Ryan’s continued dominance as the sport changes, responsiveness to feedback and the ability to adapt will keep an expert’s knowledge relevant and practical. An expert should be open to feedback and continuously refine their approach, especially in a fast-paced industry or niche.
When someone applies knowledge in real-world situations with a constant feedback loop and proves adaptability, they will produce continued results. That’s why the fifth level is active feedback:
Rarely accepts feedback.
Sometimes considers feedback.
Often adapts based on feedback.
Seeks out feedback.
Actively integrates feedback into their approach.
Innovative Contributions
Ryan and Danaher’s continuous learning and evolution through feedback & adaptability have created breakthroughs, new methodologies, and new tools introduced to the sport. Novel contributions demonstrate high expertise.
Not all experts need to be such pioneers; making notable contributions can significantly influence how others perceive their expertise.
Again, this scale is straightforward and is based on the level of and how significant the contributions are:
No contributions.
Minor contributions.
Some notable contributions.
Several major contributions.
Pioneering contributions in the field.
Solidify Knowledge By Teaching
Many of you reading this will know Eric Enge, founder of the SEO and digital marketing firm Stone Temple Consulting, which was later sold and merged into a global digital consultancy, Proficient.
Enge is President of Pilot Holdings, advising startups, founders, or companies as a board member or consultant on anything that can help build businesses.
Screenshot from LinkedIn, December 2023
Eric is extremely generous with his time. The first time I met him was at a search engine event in San Diego, I believe, about five or six years ago. I had just started my latest company, PureLinq, and was trying to talk to anyone about how they founded and built their company.
So, in my usually unusual fashion and probably with a wild look in my eyes, I asked Eric if I could talk to him about how he built Stone Temple. Like so many times before, I expected a quick answer or to be shrugged off.
However, Eric sat down with me for about thirty minutes to one hour and answered every question I threw at him. I think he was late for a meeting as a result.
I learned a lot from that interaction. First, to be very generous with my time. But also the importance of teaching and mentoring others.
No wonder when I looked at the link profile for his LinkedIn page in Ahrefs, it had almost 190 referring domains linked to it. Teaching others is a way to solidify your knowledge and build a strong network of peers.
Screenshot from Ahrefs, December 2023
Eric has also shown me the importance of the following three factors in proving expertise:
Teaching and mentoring.
Problem-solving and consultation.
Communications skills.
Teaching And Mentoring
Experts who teach or mentor are often deeply knowledgeable in their subject. If an expert offers their knowledge to others and they are not well received, then it can demonstrate that the expert’s knowledge isn’t valued.
Additionally, teaching others can help an expert examine their expertise in relation to other experts. This is a great feedback loop.
A teacher doesn’t necessarily have to design the course material, but a renowned teacher will have a great understanding of the material and be able to make it clear and easy to apply to the real world.
Eric is known for teaching classes on technical SEO based on his real-world applications and case studies. Here’s an example of Eric’s analytical style of presentation using real-world data.
Eric regularly teaches and mentors people so influencers and experts are comfortable sharing his work. However, I might not categorize him as a renowned teacher as he doesn’t teach at Stamford or other elite universities. Sorry, Eric!
Michael Porter is considered a renowned expert, as nations consult with him and are influenced by his research. The teaching and mentoring scale is as follows:
Rarely/never teaches.
Occasionally mentors.
Teaches a few courses.
Regularly teaches or mentors.
Renowned teacher or mentor in the field.
Teaching others and allowing the students to answer questions can demonstrate or improve problem-solving.
Problem-solving And Consultation
Experts should offer actionable solutions to real-world issues.
When faced with a real problem in the field, an expert can troubleshoot. On the low end of the scale, an expert might be unable to solve problems and tend to write a lot about them.
You may see this in certain influencers who write a lot but don’t have any long-term clients or products that people buy.
An expert who is regularly consulted and professionals who continue returning to them for advice tend to have proven their usefulness to others.
The level of complexity is open to interpretation based on the field’s niche. Here is the scale I follow here:
Struggles with real-world problems.
Can solve basic problems.
Regularly consulted for advice.
Known for innovative solutions.
Go-to expert for complex problems.
Communications Skills
Experts should be able to convey complex information understandably to communicate their knowledge effectively to different audiences. Journalists will, of course, want this attribute. This also indicates that they know the subject matter well.
I recently bought the book “How to Read a Book” by Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren. It highlighted that a practical book, or any how-to content, should be evaluated by how actionable the content is in the real world to accomplish a specific goal in a very specific scenario.
This can only be evaluated by applying the information to solve a problem.
I think about communication in the business world as how the content creates a particular outcome with clear steps and actions. So, this scale is based on communicating helpful information in a way that applies to a specific situation:
Struggles to explain concepts.
Can convey basic ideas.
Communicates clearly to peers.
Can break down complex ideas.
Excellent communicator at all levels.
Start Uncovering And Developing Your Expertise
To become an expert source for journalists and editors, it is crucial to understand and communicate one’s expertise in their field. The expert evaluation tool helps in identifying and enhancing these attributes.
Becoming a recognized expert involves more than just knowledge, as we see in some influencers who teach but don’t execute; it requires proven expert knowledge, developing influential assets, evolving with change, and improving and proven communications by teaching.
With the evolving media landscape, there’s a growing need for credible experts. Proper assessment and development of expertise can position individuals and organizations as expert media resources.
Achieving media recognition as an expert involves genuine contributions to one’s field with continuous improvement, not just chasing superficial metrics like reach or likes.
If you want to design a link building initiative that is goal-focused and adheres to the Google Search Essentials guidelines, read these books that have nothing to do with link building.
The ideas in these books have had the most transformational impact on my approach to link building – and learning in general.
The impact was not because they helped me understand how to build links but because of the following:
“Loved: How to Rethink Marketing for Tech Products” shows that a “great” link builder should be a strategist, ambassador, storyteller, and evangelist.
“Made to Stick” frames how you communicate ideas and concepts so they resonate with the audience. This book has a model to demonstrate your expertise and experience.
“Mastery” provides a model to master skills by learning from the “master” and then customizing your approach with influences from other passions (e.g. learning Jiu-Jitsu or writing).
Before getting to the meat of the article, it’s important to understand why you should use the information in these books.
“I love some of the things I see from digital PR, it’s a shame it often gets bucketed with the spammy kind of link building. It’s just as critical as tech SEO, probably more so in many cases.”
Why These Books?
Did you know that the best link building strategies aren’t found in SEO guides but in books about communication and mastery?
To become great at something, you must know what “great” looks like.
In the link building space, there are not many clear examples of “great,” that genuinely follow the Google Search Essentials guidelines.
This lack of “what great looks like” is the biggest challenge for many link builders. Thus, these books have examples of what great looks like and a model for becoming great.
Great link building used to look like “how do I build links to improve ranking?” but now it’s “how do I secure links as a consequence of strategic communication for a specific customer archetype?”
Imagine the satisfaction when your content is genuinely appreciated, shared, and linked, not because of a direct ask but because it resonates with the audience.
These books are for professional beginners and advanced in link building. And if you genuinely seek to understand these books, every part of your link building game will evolve into strategic off-page communications.
Think of link building as a bridge. On one side, you have content creators; on the other, you have audiences seeking valuable content.
Your role? Be the architect of that bridge, ensuring it’s sturdy, valuable, and genuine. That bridge is easier to build when you have content and products that are loved.
Loved: How To Rethink Marketing For Tech Products
Product marketing is the new link building!
Historically, a link builder’s role has been to perform outreach or content strategy to obtain links to a site.
For example, a link builder will reach out to a site with listicles of similar products to theirs. The outreach can be a simple request to list the company and link to the homepage. This is a typical link builder tactic.
However, this book provides insights that can change the very essence of link building.
The book “Loved,” by Martina Lauchengco, is rooted in product management, providing insights into marketing great products. Link building is the marketing of great content or guiding the creation of great content based on the market’s needs.
Although the book provides many tools and guidance for product marketing, the four key disciplines provide inspiration to become a great link builder.
Ambassador
An ambassador understands the market and customers inside and out. They must also be able to articulate the product’s value proposition in a way that resonates with customers.
Strategist
A strategic thinker who can develop and execute marketing plans that align with the product’s business goals. They must also be able to track and measure the results of their marketing campaigns to ensure that they are effective.
Storyteller
Must be able to tell a compelling story about their products that will capture the attention of customers and persuade them to buy. They must also be able to adapt their story to different audiences and channels.
Evangelist
Inspire customers to become evangelists for their products. They do this by providing excellent customer service, creating valuable content, and building customer relationships. So, an Evangelist enables the users to tell the brand or product’s story.
Even great content doesn’t always succeed in the marketplace of ideas. One reason is that competitors have superior content marketing. Effective content marketing can make a significant difference in the success of a campaign.
How To Use This Book
Historically, the link builder’s role has focused on a simple request based on outreach, with the goal of obtaining links directly from that outreach. However, this approach can lead one to build links in a way that doesn’t align with the Google Search Essential recommendations.
Thinking about the link building role, based on the disciplines above, can lead you to build skills for digital PR and not just link building.
A link builder should be a link building strategist and an ambassador who uses storytelling to create evangelists for the content or experts.
The link builder then becomes an ambassador for the content team to guide content production as a result of the feedback.
This new role sets a link builder as a storyteller. Instead of asking for a link, the outreach can tell a story about how their product or content fits into the prospective site’s narratives.
This new description of a link builder’s role should guide your strategy and tactics, from building a link to distributing a message that results in links as a consequence.
Your role is to develop communications about the company or its content that are sticky.
Made To Stick: Why Some Ideas Thrive And Others Die
This book by Chip Heath and Dan Heath is one of the first books I bought for myself after college and has changed how I handle all communication planning.
This concept of making things “sticky” improved everything from short emails to long-form articles.
“Made to Stick” explains why some ideas are memorable with a lasting impact while others are forgotten. By understanding and applying these principles, anyone can craft more effective and memorable messages.
For an idea to stick, it must have SUCCESs:
Simple: Distill the message to its core essence.
Unexpected: Capture attention by surprising the audience.
Concrete: Make sure the idea can be easily grasped and remembered.
Credible: Give the idea authority and believability.
Emotional: Connect with people on an emotional level.
Stories: Use narratives to make the message more relatable and compelling.
How To Use This Book
Realistically, the idea of SUCCESs should vibrate throughout every method of communication. However, I’ve found a few areas in communications for link building where this framework can change your entire approach.
Link building strategy is the process of planning the direction and steps of your approach to link building. One way the book can change your strategy is to widen your link building tool kit (i.e., techniques that can be used).
A successful campaign uses emotion to tell a simple, unexpected story supported by credible and concrete evidence.
For example, a standard guest posting strategy involves outreach to sites for guest post opportunities, which results in a link from your article back to your site. However, this strategy alone goes against the Search Essentials guidelines.
Instead of using the guest posts to generate an individual link, use the article contribution to share a message or content that is shared because it has “unexpected” insights that are currently relevant.
Email outreach for link building, by many, is defined as a process to email a content creator or webmaster (who owns the site) to “secure a link.”
This definition sets the link as the goal. But a SUCCESs approach to outreach focuses on sharing a message that people can easily understand, recognize and share. The goal isn’t’ the direct link but all the links and conversations around your sticky idea.
Linkable asset planning and design is the process of creating a sharable piece of content that can generate links on the merits of the content being shared with the right audience. A piece of content will be more linkable if it has all of the elements of SUCCESs.
With an example of “great” from “Loved” and a way to be great with “Made to Stick”, now you have to figure out how to master this new model.
Mastery
The book “Mastery,” by serial author Robert Greene, suggests that mastery is a process to find our potential.
Greene explains that the first step in the process is to discover a calling; a passion for that calling is critical to truly mastering a skill.
This couldn’t be more true.
When I started link building, I simply emailed sites and asked for a link through resource pages, broken links, or guest posting.
However, I found my passion was for crafting stories and messages that resonate with the audience. My passion came because of my background in integrated marketing communications and design.
I looked into my background to find a passion, naturally leading to advanced digital PR.
As you’ll see in the mastery process below, discovering your calling is a foundation for achieving mastery.
Here’s a simplified overview of Greene’s process:
Discover your calling: People have a unique inner force or inclination towards certain activities or subjects.
Find mentors: A good mentor can provide guidance, feedback, and ways to avoid pitfalls.
Apprenticeship: Skill acquisition through deep observation and experimentation.
Social intelligence: Learn to navigate the culture. As anyone learning a new skill will see, the experts tend to have unique cultural norms and idioms that can sometimes be difficult to accept.
Creative-active phase: After the apprenticeship, one enters a phase where they start producing original work from a deep foundation.
Achieve mastery: True mastery is the synthesis of knowledge, skills, and intuition. It’s when one’s work becomes an art.
How To Use This Book
Master link building by finding your passion, a mentor, and then making it your own. Greene’s process for this is a simple way to learn from experts by integrating into their culture and then creating something that’s your own.
However, I have personally found that finding the right mentor, developing social intelligence, and creating a unique strategy are the most difficult parts of mastering link building.
These recommendations are from my personal experience of finding a path to mastery.
Identifying The Master
Understand Google’s Search Essentials as the foundation for what link building techniques to avoid and generate links on the merit of the content.
Find link builders, SEO professionals, PR experts, and Google Search Advocates that get links as a consequence and not as the goal.
With the masters identified, you must now learn to fit in with the culture.
Social Intelligence
Traditional link builders tend to clash with Google Search Advocates or SEO professionals who follow their guidance. But, any link builder should have empathy for these SEO and search advocates.
By truly listening, you will quickly discover that certain content marketing, digital PR, and influencer marketing techniques can be valid.
Additionally, by learning from traditional link builders, you’ll find a culture of growth hackers. Link builders are wildly efficient at building simple processes to get placements.
After finding a master and then learning to operate inside that community to learn the necessary skills, it’s time to get creative.
Creative-active Phase
Using everything learned from master link builders, PR, SEO, and search advocate professionals, test unique approaches to build links that fit your passions.
“Discover your calling” is an important step in designing creative strategies, which coagulates in this creative-active phase.
I discovered one of my callings (I have many) when studying Integrated Marketing Communications at the Roy H. Park School of Communications & Journalism. However, I didn’t even realize it until years later.
At the Park School, I was exposed to journalism, graphic design, communication strategy, advertising campaign development, media planning, and even financial management.
Later in life, I was exposed to product management, which further fueled my passion for product planning and marketing.
This background always tainted my approach to building links. I found that content marketing, design, and digital PR techniques changed how I approach link building.
Becoming Rounded
The evolution of link building requires a shift in perspective.
While traditional tactics may have their place, the true essence of effective link building lies in understanding the broader landscape of digital communication and marketing.
By drawing inspiration from outside the realm of SEO, one can craft strategies that both align with Google’s guidelines and resonate deeply with audiences.
Books like “Loved,” “Made to Stick,” and “Mastery” provide invaluable insights that can redefine the way we approach link building. They emphasize the importance of storytelling, emotional connection, and continuous learning.
As the digital landscape continues to evolve, it’s crucial for link builders to adapt, innovate, and strive for mastery in their craft.
Only then can they truly harness the power of links as genuine endorsements rather than mere SEO tactics.
Topic authority is recognized expertise on a given subject. A company, publication, or person can possess it.
In May, Google published an article in its Search Central Blog titled “Understanding news topic authority.” The article explains how Google assesses expertise for responding to News and Search queries.
Here’s what we know about topic authority and its impact on rankings.
Topic Authority, per Google
The May article listed Google’s prominent signals for topic authority:
How notable a source is for a topic or location.
How original reporting is cited by other publishers.
A source’s history of high-quality reporting or recommendations from expert sources, such as professional societies.
In other words, the primary signals are:
A source’s location (e.g., a local news site) or evidence of expertise (a knowledge panel).
Links from other trusted publications.
Connection to other trusted entities — awards, professional associations, more.
Google’s Nov. 2023 edition of Search Quality Rater Guidelines (PDF) refers repeatedly to topic authority. For example, the Guidelines explain why “Marriott” ranks prominently for a query of “hotels”:
Page Quality. The Marriott website gives information on Marriott Hotels, a popular chain. Marriott has a good reputation and is an expert on hotels, making the information on this page highly authoritative. High+ to Highest is an appropriate rating.
The Guidelines also suggest checking the backlinks of higher-ranking pages.
Thus the Search Central Blog article and Quality Rater Guidelines both suggest Google’s requirements for top rankings:
Reputation as a trusted resource,
Recognizable brand or entity within that niche,
References (links) from trusted sources such as Wikipedia, professional news outlets, more.
In 2013 Google obtained a U.S. patent (PDF) called “System and method for determining topic authority.” It identifies key factors of any web page for assigning expertise on a topic, which the patent calls the “authority signature value.” The patent states that authors’ expertise grows as they publish more articles on that topic.
Searching Google helps understand topic authority. For example, a query of “ann smarty” produces my knowledge panel with associated entities (“People also search for”) and my “Articles” in Google News.
Searching on “ann smarty” produces the author’s knowledge panel with associated entities (“People also search for”) and her “Articles” in Google News.
Google’s image search also reveals how it classifies a source. An image search for “ann smarty” reveals multiple associations, including:
“internet marketing,”
“seo analyst,”
“interview,”
“marketing ninjas,”
“blogger.”
An image search for “ann smarty” reveals the author’s associations, per Google.
Hence topic authority is a collection of signals (on-site and off) that help Google identify expertise and trust for a query.
Establishing Authority
To establish topic authority:
Publish consistent content on your area of expertise. Cover all angles, problems, and solutions. Use internal links to help Google find the pages and associate them with your company or authorship.
Obtain links to your content from trusted resources. Connecting with journalists and posting on social media can put your content in front of authoritative publications and personnel.
Deploy Schema.org markup to assist Google in understanding your expertise. Use “knowsAbout” and “sameAs” properties in the “Person” or “Organization” types to point Google to relevant external channels, such as a Wikipedia page on your topic.
Overall, connecting with other known entities is a good way to become trusted by Google. For example, search for an event name when considering sponsoring or speaking at it. Does it trigger a knowledge panel? Perform the same search for a potential brand collaboration.
If you’re aiming for prominent rankings, Google’s assessment of authority matters.
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Planning and executing link building strategies that are based on Google’s best practices is very complex.
Why? The only links that do not violate Google’s spam policies are ones where links are a consequence and not the goal.
So you’ll have to use that concept to guide the policy for planning any link building campaigns.
This is where strategy steps in.
However, we don’t need to figure out how to design strategy alone.
Strategy has been studied in marketing and business planning for a long time. In 2004, a cool little book called “Blue Ocean Strategy” changed the strategy planning process.
When the book launched, the theory caused a buzz among marketers who wondered how to differentiate themselves from the competition.
Although the Blue Ocean Strategy wasn’t originally designed for link building, there’s an undeniable need for link builders to seek inspiration beyond their immediate strategies and guiding policies.
This article serves as a tool to think about link building differently.
What Is The Blue Ocean Strategy?
The “Blue Ocean Strategy” is a business planning approach developed by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne.
It focuses on carving out new, unexplored market territories, termed “blue oceans,” rather than vying for space in existing, crowded markets, termed “red oceans.”
In red oceans, businesses face intense rivalry, often resulting in reduced performance results.
On the other hand, blue oceans symbolize fresh market areas ripe for innovation and devoid of fierce competition.
This strategy pushes companies to introduce novel solutions, providing unparalleled value to consumers, sidestepping traditional competition, and fostering growth and, in theory, increased returns.
What Is The Blue Ocean In Link Building?
This application of the Blue Ocean means moving away from overused and saturated link building tactics and venturing into innovative, less competitive, and more value-driven approaches to earn backlinks that build your site’s reputation.
The Skyscraper technique is a good example of a link building strategy that found a blue ocean when many link builders were playing in a red ocean.
If you want to create a strategy like the Skyscraper, then examine these areas.
Examining these “levers” (i.e., controllable variables to take action against) will help you find a path to the blue ocean.
Innovative Content Creation
Instead of creating content that everyone else in your industry is producing, focus on unique, helpful content that addresses gaps in the market.
The skyscraper technique uses innovative content creation to build links. This method focuses on creating content that surpasses the quality of existing top-ranking content on a particular topic.
The general process for this way is to find popular content, make something better, and then reach out to relevant sites for links.
Untapped Platforms
Instead of focusing solely on traditional link building techniques like guest blogging, explore methods that haven’t been saturated by competitors.
This could include linkable content distribution on niche forums, emerging social media platforms, or collaboration with industries that are complementary but not direct competitors.
Building Relationships
Instead of transactional link building practices (like paid links or link exchanges), focus on building genuine relationships with industry influencers, bloggers, and even competitors.
This can lead to organic link building opportunities in the long run.
Value-First Approach
Offer undeniable value when reaching out for link building opportunities.
This could be in the form of original research, expert insights, or exclusive content that the linking site’s audience would find beneficial.
Diversification
Instead of relying on one or two methods, diversify your link building tactics to explore multiple blue oceans. This could involve a mix of digital PR, collaborations, podcasts, and more.
Why Use This Strategy?
Psychology Today says, “openness to experience is the most fundamental attribute of creative individuals.”
When you perform easy link building techniques, you limit your creative mind to a small set of problems to solve.
For example, if you want to focus on paid link building, then you’ll be focused on solving problems of staying just ahead of Google’s algorithm.
Thus, you’ll need to study algorithms and AI to stay ahead of the latest updates.
Although a fun subject, the complexity of analyzing and testing a moving target will take up valuable time. You’re better off being an engineer if you want to do that.
However, Google already provides some direction about how to maximize visibility in your topic area with the Google Search Essentials:
“The Google Search Essentials make up the core parts of what makes your web-based content (web pages, images, videos, or other publicly-available material that Google finds on the web) eligible to appear and perform well on Google Search.”
My interpretation is that to maximize visibility in search engines, you have to create helpful content from experience and expertise that is trusted by the “authority” (using this phrase broadly) on the topic.
Thus, keep your creative mind focused on that problem.
The blue ocean strategy is a growth hack inside Google’s parameters for ranking.
How To Apply With Link Building: Broad Steps
The following is my own process and steps for link building in a way that helps you find your niche method.
Step 0: Get Perspective
This step is almost universally overlooked – but start by setting your intentions for the campaign.
This means you establish that: Links are the consequence of the creative marketing of your content, and the goal is not the direct links from outreach.
Thus, a well-run campaign will result in both direct links and latent links.
Step 1: Find Your Place
Begin with an area where a compelling win is achievable.
Analyze content to identify 1) existing pieces that are distributable or 2) new content that takes a reasonable amount of time to create.
When determining what type of strategy to use, I try to balance the following:
Level of effort: How much time will it take to complete?
Level of complexity: Is it an easy step-by-step process or complex moving parts that are loosely interrelated?
Level of experience: Has anyone on the team executed a similar strategy?
The “achievable” strategy will be a manageable effort & complexity, with some internal experience.
Step 2: Build A Cross-Functional Team
Build an internal advisory team of PR, content, SEO, and tech that can consult on the approach to either request tasks, collaborate on the approach, and provide tips to optimize their workflow to include links or types of mentions.
Link building is not isolated from other marketing teams.
Thus, transparently share your approaches with this team to ensure no conflict of interest.
Step 3: Understand The Current State
Create a list of strategies that direct or search engine competitors are searching for.
This is something I excel at and enjoy deeply. I love asking questions to find the pain.
Most of us don’t understand our own pain. What does this mean?
Hard problems need to be well-defined. But it’s challenging to define the actual problem.
To find the pain points:
Create a user story map: This may seem excessive, but understanding the story that the user is going through will help identify the specific pain points.
Ask questions: Have an expert create/ask many really specific questions.
Create a problem statement: Write out the specific problem and say it out loud in front of a group of peers or experts. They will tell you if the problem is real.
Pro tip: The real pain isn’t always known and needs to be uncovered through a robust investigation. A strong problem statement can uncover a lot of pain that people didn’t know they had.
That’s A Wrap
The Blue Ocean Strategy offers a unique perspective on link building.
By shifting from overused “red ocean” tactics to innovative “blue ocean” methods, businesses can tap into new growth avenues.
The Skyscraper technique exemplifies this, highlighting the importance of unique content and diverse strategies.
This isn’t a new technique; it’s a mindset shift towards creativity and problem-solving.
In summary, applying the Blue Ocean Strategy to link building is not its intended use case – but it’s a philosophy that encourages innovation through your content strategy.
At first, link building may not come easy, but you will build trusted links as you refine your approach.
One of the fundamental skills of link building is email outreach and email message design. Many consider outreach for link building a volume game, but when done the right way, it can help you build impactful links from reputable websites and creators.
I created this guide to ensure someone new to link building has early and long-term success, maximizing responses from outreach to reputable blogs and influencers.
Below we’ll explore how to be helpful to creators, building backlinks or brand mentions as a result.
To this end, the guide contains a non-spammy approach to outreach, tips to get responses from email, an email builder spreadsheet template, and details on running campaigns with link building tools.
This approach offers a different perspective on link building outreach and requires a very different definition from common understandings.
What Is Link Building Outreach?
Link building outreach is a strategic phase in the link building process where individuals or organizations actively initiate contact with other websites, bloggers, influencers, or content creators.
The primary objective is to cultivate an authentic reputation by fostering collaboration, enhancing brand visibility, or disseminating valuable content.
A successful outreach campaign will naturally result in both inferred (e.g., brand or content mentions) and direct backlinks, with an emphasis on building meaningful connections and enhancing the site and content creator’s reputation.
While email remains the most commonly used medium for outreach, advanced link building strategies may incorporate social media engagement, phone calls, or even direct mail to establish rapport and facilitate mutually beneficial partnerships.
How To Approach Outreach The Right Way
Approach each email pitch as if it were coming from an expert contributor, passionate about creating helpful content or resources around their topic areas.
A creator’s biggest concern is creating content that is valuable to the reader, so they read, engage, and return.
When planning content for niche readers, would you rather be sold an idea? Or would you rather collaborate with experienced, expert peers to create high-value content for the readers?
In this scenario, you’re at an event with a group of peers talking about SEO. The group all have personal experiences trying to rank commercial pages, but failing. One peer explains how he figured figured out how to rank those pages, with internal linking. The peer has the solution to your problems. But then a non-SEO interjects to say, “Can’t you just buy a few links to the page,” without understanding the group has a philosophy.
This is what a trusted content creator feels like when they receive a templated email pitch.
An expert has to use the email to show proof that they are an expert, through experience and insights. Show your proof by:
Researching the creator: Read or listen to their content around a topic.
Understanding them: Understand their perspective and knowledge gaps, and use that to craft the email.
Establishing a reputation: Show how authoritative sources trust your content, people, or the company behind it.
When crafting an email, use your experience to be helpful to the readers.
How To Craft An Email So It Gets Opened And Read
Just prove that you read, understand, and can improve the prospective site’s content around a topic.
As long as the content gaps identified are substantial, the email becomes about showing your passion and understanding of the topic.
Below are the primary email fields and examples that an outreach specialist could write. Ensure each field mentions the gaps or how to improve the content.
The Anatomy Of A Helpful Email
Subject: A subject line is a short introduction to the preheader or email body.
The Marketing Blog is Missing Important Facts
Preheader: A preheader shows on some email clients and mobile email apps.
I found a faily large gap in your marketing strategy content around SEO specifically.
Helpful Body: This is the primary copy of the email.
Hi Jenny –
When reading through your content around marketing strategy, I noticed that the argument could have been stronger for SEO in marketing excluding supporting statistics.
I’m Kevin Rowe, Head of Strategy for Example.com, and have been planning & executing SEO strategy for 10 years.
It makes sense to include this study to close the gap for your readers.
Digital marketers reading about marketing strategy would want to know: – SEO generated 59% of total site traffic – The ROI of SEO programs that include Link building is 50% higher
By adding additional details about SEO, you can make your content much more helpful for digital marketers.
Please let me know if you’re interested or think a custom piece can make it a better fit, and happy to create a new article around this topic.
cheers,
Expert Signature: At the bottom of an email is the signature, and this is drastically underutilized. Include items that can enhance your reputation or trust.
Kevin Rowe
Founder & Head of Strategy
PureLinq
Publications:
Fast Company, Forbes, Search Engine Journal
Sample clients:
Coca-Cola, Siemens, The Hartford, Hyatt Hotels, Vmware
Speaking:
Search Engine Journal webinar series
Pro Tips
Avoid generic and overused templates, and customize to the topic.
Explain the content findings of the content analysis.
Identify how you will fill any topical gaps.
Demonstrate experience, expertise, authority, and trust.
How To Get A Response To Your Outreach Email
The success of link building outreach hinges on three key factors: relevant content pitches, you have expertise, and that person understands and needs your content.
Be relevant: Select topics based on current relevance with trending topics or the maturity of the news cycle.
Demonstrate expertise or experience: Succinctly show, don’t tell, how your experience is valuable and has provided you with unique insight.
The right message to the right person: If an email is overly technical, but you are dealing with an editor with a broad knowledge base, then the reader might get confused and move on to a more straightforward email to understand.
Common contact types include:
Expert creator: Blogger with experience and expert-level knowledge of the subject.
Editor: Highlight polished, high-quality content.
Writer/Contributor: Offer unique perspectives or content gaps.
Webmaster: Be direct, focusing on technical aspects.
Marketing Team: Emphasize potential traffic or engagement benefits.
But if that email doesn’t get a reply, a friendly follow-up might be the right solution.
How And When To Follow Up Your Email
A follow-up email needs to account for why the contact didn’t reply and focus on nurturing a relationship.
Link building outreach often faces challenges, from trust issues to timing mismatches. Recognizing these challenges and addressing them systematically can significantly improve your response rate.
Here’s a breakdown of common obstacles and a sequence to overcome them:
Common Obstacles:
Trust: “They don’t know me.” Building trust is crucial, especially when reaching out to someone unfamiliar with your work or brand.
Busy: People have packed schedules. Your email might get lost in the shuffle, making follow-ups essential.
Wrong Time: Your topic might not align with their current content calendar or interests.
Wrong Person: Sometimes, you might reach out to someone who isn’t the decision-maker or the right contact for your pitch.
Relevancy: Ensuring your topic is relevant to the recipient’s audience is paramount.
The follow-ups should address real obstacles. This email sequence is a safe and non-spammy way to do that.
Strategic Email Sequence for Nurturing Relationships:
Email 1 (Day 1): Start by identifying opportunities where your content can enhance their platform. Make it about them, not you.
Email 2 (+3 days): If you don’t receive a response, send a gentle follow-up. Address potential timing issues and offer alternative content angles that might be more suitable.
Engage on Social (+1 week): Before sending another email, engage with their content on social platforms. Like, comment, or share their posts to get on their radar.
Email 3 (+1 week): Offer a fresh perspective or another angle on the topic you initially pitched. This shows flexibility and a genuine desire to provide value.
Email 4 (+1 month): Highlight a current industry trend that aligns with their audience. This showcases your awareness of the evolving landscape and offers timely content.
Email 5 (+1 month): Pitch another trending topic. By now, they should recognize your name, making them more likely to consider your proposal.
Optional step: Make a call to the contact to really show you’re serious.
How To Manage Your Link Building Outreach With Spreadsheets
For those new to link building outreach, spreadsheets offer a simple and effective way to organize and track efforts. Before investing in specialized software, it’s wise to familiarize yourself with the outreach process using spreadsheets.
Once you’ve honed your strategy, you can transition to a dedicated tool that aligns with your newly uncovered needs. This will save a lot of wasted hours trying to work in the standardized steps.
Types Of Spreadsheets For Effective Outreach
Owned asset library: Catalog all the content and assets you own, such as articles, infographics, videos, etc. This is a quick reference and shares your assets during outreach.
SOPs and process library: Document your standard operating procedures (SOPs) for outreach. This includes step-by-step processes, guidelines, and best practices. These types of templates ensure consistency in your outreach efforts and make onboarding new team members easier.
Pitch tracking and mapping: Keep track of who you’ve contacted, their response, and any follow-up actions. Helps to avoid duplicate outreach and helps refine your approach based on feedback.
Outreach manager/tracker: Organize your outreach campaigns, including targets and contact info, timelines, and results. Provides a clear overview of your outreach efforts, helping you identify what’s working and what needs adjustment.
Email template builder: Store and refine email templates for different outreach scenarios. Speeds up the outreach process and ensures you’re always sending polished, effective emails.
In the outreach templates, use the email template builder tab to generate outreach emails based on an analysis of a site’s content.
As you can see in the screenshot, the template has fields to enter the insights and supporting content.
Screenshot from author, August 2023
Once you’ve established a solid process, you can transition to specialized software to further streamline and enhance your outreach efforts.
Tools For Email Outreach
For beginners, Pitchbox and Buzzstream are user-friendly tools for managing link building outreach campaigns.
While other tools offer email templates and standardized workflows, these can be limiting for beginners. Pitchbox offers more advanced features, but Buzzstream is more affordable and suitable for beginner to intermediate outreach.
The key to using these tools effectively is analyzing site content and personalizing emails from templates. If this process is too cumbersome, campaign performance may suffer, resulting in lower link placement rates.
Here’s how to use Pitchbox for beginner outreach with a random site selection:
Find ways to be helpful: Select a site from the Inspect tab, then click the Preview or Open in new tab. Read through the blog content, then add to Personalize.
Screenshot from Pitchbox, August 2023
The preview feature will open the website in Pitchbox, so you don’t have to spend time opening and tracking a new tab.
Screenshot from Pitchbox, August 2023
Build a personalized strategy: Select from a standard outreach strategy above (e.g., guest blogging) and design your own template.
To get started, just build the general email template above, then identify specific ways to improve the prospective site’s content around a topic.
Screenshot from Pitchbox, August 2023
Strategy execution: In Pitchbox, click Preview & Send for a final glance, then hit Send to execute.
Screenshot from Pitchbox, August 2023
Test & Analyze: Use the default campaign analytics to evaluate the response rate and wins. “wins” is the most critical metric in Pitchbox.
Screenshot from Pitchbox, August 2023
Pitchbox Pro Tips
Use “custom fields” for uploading your content.
Key features for a beginner are:
Upload a custom list of sites and contacts.
Blacklist of sites that have been contacted or should not be contacted.
Alternatively, you can use Respona or Buzzssumo. Both have their own individual merits and can be used for beginners.
How NOT To Do Email Outreach
When a creator realizes that you actually read their content, some outreach best practices can be a hindrance.
The response rates will likely be lower if the email doesn’t communicate that you read the content. Here are some ways you can guarantee
Here are some of the biggest mistakes made in link building outreach.
Generic praise: Say, “I read this article,” but mention nothing about the topic or what was mentioned.
Lack of analysis: Don’t analyze the content on the site to have a conversation about the content gaps.
Over personalization: Many email templates will have a single area to insert text next to generic statements. This standard personalization can output an email that reads like a template.
Send individual emails: If the content has broad market segment interest, then you can send it to many people.
Always keeping it short: Emails should be scannable, and easy to spot the critical points. Short emails can seem insincere.
Your Next Moves
Link building outreach is a strategic process of initiating contact with other websites, bloggers, influencers, or content creators to establish authentic relationships and enhance brand visibility.
The goal is to create meaningful connections, not just acquire links. Successful outreach involves analyzing a site’s content, identifying gaps, and offering valuable assets to fill those gaps.
Personalized emails that demonstrate an understanding of the recipient’s content and show how you can enhance it are crucial.
Targeting the right person, with the right topic, at the optimal time increases the chances of getting a response. Follow-up emails and social media engagement are also key.
Beginners can use spreadsheets to manage their outreach efforts, and as they become more experienced, they can transition to specialized tools like Pitchbox or Buzzstream.
Avoiding common mistakes, such as generic praise and lack of analysis, is essential for successful outreach.
Step 1. Gather Information About Your Own Website.
Before you start analyzing others, let’s make sure you have enough info about yourself and your own site.
You are going to need it to compare against your competitors.
Here’s what you will need to use:
Your ranking keywords (both the ones you are using and are planning to use).
Your current ranking positions in Google and other search engines.
Your site visitor traffic: how much you are collecting, where it comes from, how well it converts.
Your page metrics from all social media platforms where you advertise your business.
Your location (if you are running a brick-and-mortar business).
What exactly your niche entails – and what it does not.
Who exactly makes up your target audience – and who doesn’t.
This is the bare minimum needed to describe your current SEO situation and is your starting point.
When you collect the same information about your potential competitors, you will be able to weed out the websites that don’t pose a threat to you – and thus don’t need to be analyzed.
As you can see, most of this information is easy to collect and needs only a pen and paper. But some points will require tools to prepare: for example, Google Analytics to see your current traffic situation.
Step 2. Find Your Direct Competitors.
Before you start looking for competitors, consider the following:
How many competitors should you actually analyze?
How do you distinguish competitors from non-competitors?
Which websites do you pick to compete against?
Do you compete against the same websites forever? If not, when do you stop?
Do you need to add new competitors? If yes, how often?
Let’s address these questions one by one.
How Many Competitors Do You Actually Need To Analyze?
Obviously, one is not enough (way too little data), and a hundred is too many (nobody’s got time to handle them all). Also, nobody can tell you in advance how many competitors you will find.
However, a dozen well-chosen competitors is plenty, as long as they provide you with enough information to improve your SEO strategy.
How Do You Distinguish Competitors From Non-Competitors?
Not every website you will find through analysis is going to be your direct competitor.
Here’s how you know you’ve found one:
They rank for the same keywords as you.
They target the same audience as you.
(For local businesses) They operate in the same location as you.
Which Websites Do You Pick To Compete Against & Do You Compete Against The Same Websites Forever?
Let’s answer both of these questions at once.
You may find countless sites that fit the above criteria. But if you want to make a list of websites you want to outrank in the nearest future, then there’s no need to pick them all.
You can start with the ones who aren’t outperforming you by a lot – they should be the easiest to outrank. Then, you can proceed to compete against stronger opponents.
But do keep an eye on the sites you’ve defeated. They can make a comeback anytime.
Do You Need To Add New Competitors For Analysis? If Yes, How Often?
The top dogs in your (or any) niche are not easily dethroned.
Once you discover them, it’s safe to assume they’ll stay at the top for a long time – until someone ambitious like you catches up to them. At the very least, it cannot happen without causing a stir, so you won’t need to run another competitor search to make sure.
But other websites in the niche will be constantly trying to uproot each other, and some may climb the ranking ladder while others may drop. New challengers may appear, too. Therefore, it’s a good idea to check the overall status of your competition once every few months.
How To Easily Find Competitors
With those questions answered you can finally start looking for competitors. Open WebCEO’s Dangerous Competitors tool.
Screenshot from WebCEO, September 2023
It doesn’t require much work. It’s all in the Settings.
Enter your ranking keywords in the Keywords tab.
Enter your preferred search engines with targeted locations in the Search Engines tab.
Enter some of the competitors’ URLs you already know about in the Competitors (If you don’t know any yet, just skip this step.)
Press Save, and the tool will generate a list of potential competitors for you.
Visit their websites one by one and choose the ones that fit the criteria we’ve covered above – in other words, those that are your direct competitors. Click on the flag icon next to the domain’s URL to start tracking their websites in the next steps of this analysis.
Step 3. Find Their Content’s Strong & Weak Points.
In order to successfully outrank your competitors, you need to know three things:
Who.
What (You are here.)
How (We’ll cover this in step 4.)
By now, you should have an answer to who.
The next question is: what exactly are you going to outrank?
As you know, content is king, and competitors are ranking higher than you thanks to their good content.
Fortunately, no content is perfect. That’s where you can strike.
Research your competitors and discover:
The types of content they produce: blog posts, articles, case studies, images, videos, podcasts, and so on. Chances are, a competitor you are currently analyzing doesn’t produce every type at once, or maybe one of the types is of lower quality than the others. It’s a weakness you can exploit: create your own content of this type and make it better.
Their best ranking pages. They are your competitors’ main breadwinners and will be the hardest to depose. There’s no shame in trying your luck with weaker pages first, such as the following two points.
Pages that don’t rank as well as they probably could. In fact, it’s the case for most pages with good content out there, and your competitors aren’t an exception.
Pages that don’t rank well for obvious reasons (for example, their content is outdated). They will be the easiest to outrank.
How To Get Full Information About Your Competitors’ Site Rankings
Create a separate project for their site in WebCEO.
Check the By Page tab of the My Site Rankings report.
Screenshot from WebCEO, September 2023
Pro Tip: Subscribe to your competitors and receive their emails. Organic traffic is great, but a well-done email campaign can be just as effective as SEO. Get a few emails from each competitor and see what you can do better; these things always have room for improvement.
Step 4. Analyze Your Competitors’ Keywords.
Now, we are entering the how territory.
In this step, you are going to discover your competitors’ keywords and decide what to do with them.
It’s not as simple as “just use what they are using.” The correct approach is a bit more nuanced, but it starts with looking up their keywords all the same.
Enter any website’s URL and see what keywords it uses. Generate a list of a competitor’s keywords, and then:
Find the keywords you are using on your own site. Do it to confirm you are indeed competing for the same keywords and the same target audience. A large overlap between your keyword pools means beating that competitor will be very hard, so you might want to prioritize competitors who have fewer keywords in common with you.
Find the keywords you are not using, but may want to. Specifically, mid- and long-tail keywords that have a high number of monthly searches (ideally a few thousand) and clearly display user search intent.
Find the keywords which your competitors aren’t ranking high for. As long as these keywords are relevant to your own site, using them will be the easiest way to outrank your competitors. Check their rankings for specific keywords in the Competitor Rankings by Keyword report.
Screenshot from WebCEO, September 2023
Competitor keyword analysis can give you plenty of new ideas, but you’ll have to be picky. In fact, it applies to competitor SEO in general.
Step 5. Use Their Link Profiles To Build Your Own Backlinks.
Link building is probably the hardest part of SEO, but it rewards you handsomely. Backlinks from websites with high authority and relevant content offer the best ranking boosts – and your competitors can point you in the right direction. Without them even knowing.
First, you need to peek inside their link profiles.
This tool will show you the pages that have links pointing to your competitors’ sites. Those pages are automatically sorted by their authority, which lets you pick the juiciest domains right away.
Of course, in order to be effective, a backlink needs to be surrounded by relevant content and have a relevant anchor text. That means picking the first page you see is a no-no. You will need to make sure it’s a valid candidate for adding a link to your site.
Next, explore the overlap in backlinks between your competitors.
Dig through the table, and you will notice that competitors often share backlinks from the same pages. Sometimes there will also be blank fields, which means no backlink points to your competitor from that page. If that page hasn’t linked to your competitor yet, then it will be easier for you to beat them to the punch and place your own backlink there.
That’s how you find potential websites for link building. As for actually building links, there’s a large variety of techniques ranging from easy to nigh impossible.
To name a few of the most accessible ways:
Offering websites to replace broken links.
Offering to replace links to outdated content.
Asking to add a link to an unlinked mention of your site.
And some of the hardest ways are:
Making truly unique content that nobody else has.
Showing off your expertise in an interview.
Having your content go viral.
Whatever you pick, it all boils down to preparing high-quality, up-to-date content first.
Want To See Steps 6-10?
To learn how to use your competitors and make your site even more powerful, download the full guide below, exclusively available to WebCEO users. Sign up free and get the tools for each step of your competitor SEO analysis!
