Link Building Guide

Strategies for Sourcing Link Opportunities

1. Start with a niche.

The best way to get started is to choose a specific niche, as specific as possible. Why? There are a few good reasons. First, consider the fact that most "general" publications like The Huffington Post are quite discerning about the authors they onboard—they cover a lot of subjects and have a huge readership, so they want absolute experts on every subject they offer.

A niche blog on the other hand, is much more limited in the experts they have access to, and will be willing to take in a new voice. They tend to run smaller, which means you'll have an easier time getting in contact with a webmaster or editor, though this isn't always true.

But in any case, you can choose a niche very close to your own business, either in terms of industry or geographic location (such as a neighborhood blog).

2. Find several key options.

Don't just settle on the first place you find, however. Dig deep into your research by looking for niche blogs and contributors everywhere—go to Google and type in "[your niche] blog" to find blogs in your niche, and use BuzzSumo to find key influencers within that niche. Take a look at each niche blog you find, venturing into peripheral niches if you have to, and start categorizing them in terms of their advantages and disadvantages.

Some of the key traits you'll want to look for are notoriety within the industry, traffic volume, domain authority, and willingness to accept new material. If you're just starting out, you don't need super high authorities, but you do need someone who's going to accept your work—so consider setting aside your higher-authority or stricter publishers for later.

3. Search for contact information.

At this point, you should have at least one or two key blogs on which you're willing to guest post. From there, you'll need to find the contact information of the editor or webmaster so you can pitch a potential submission.

First, look for a "Submissions" or "Contributors" page—these aren't always there, but if they are, they'll give you everything you need in terms of contact information and content requirements. If not present, check out the blog page and see if you can find contact information for the writers or the editor. If that fails you, a Contact page or Team page may have individualized contact information you can use.

Try using LinkedIn or Twitter search to find the editor at each publication, too.

4. Make a pitch.

Once you have the contact information of the person in charge, whether that's an editor or a webmaster, you're ready to make a pitch. This is simpler than you might think, but it does require some strategic forethought. Remember that this is an exchange of value.

Present yourself in terms of what value you can bring to the publisher. Introduce yourself briefly, and state why you're an expert in the subject and why you think you'd be a valuable contributor. Don't get too fancy or go over-the-top here; I've provided a sample pitch below that has worked well for me:

While the broken link building email sample itself may seem fine, I would definitely do a bit more A/B testing on the subject. Also, be sure to proofread your work multiple times before sending. There is nothing worse than a broken link building outreach email with errors.

As you send outreach emails, we recommend using Pitchbox, Mailshake or Boomerang for Gmail.

5. Get published.

If the editor or webmaster accepts your outreach for links, they'll probably ask you for some specific ideas on what you'll contribute. Send along some ideas that fit the industry as well as their readership, and once you agree on an initial article idea, you can get started writing it. There are just a few more items you'll need to bear in mind during this process. Remember that each publisher is going to have their own formatting and writing requirements.

They may require that you adhere to a specific word count minimum and/or maximum, a specific number of images to include in the piece, or a different style of writing than what you're used to. Be sure to ask and clarify what editorial guidelines they have before you make your formal submission—this will help bring a smooth start to your relationship.

From there, it's a simple matter of getting your work published. Once published, you can start syndicating and following up on that post (commenting, etc.) to promote it even further.

6. Maintain a relationship.

Even one post on a new publication can be a valuable addition to your link building strategy, but if you can post more content through building a relationship with that editor or publication, by all means, do so. Try to maintain an ongoing relationship with your publishers, providing new pitches for approval every so often.

Ask them what types of content they'd like to see more of, what they think of your past pieces, how those pieces have performed for them, and how their audiences are reacting to the content they're currently publishing. Again, you want to bring each publisher as much value as you're taking from them, so remember that this is a two-way relationship.

Adding New Publishers to Your Link Building Arsenal

You'll probably start with two or three decent publishers, but those won't last you forever.

Eventually, you'll need to add more, higher-authority publishers if you want to be successful with your link building campaign in the long run.

This is due to the law of diminishing returns when it comes to links coming from the same external domain.

When you first earn a link from a new domain, that link will pass significant authority to your site. However, earning a second link from that domain will only pass a fraction of that original authority to your site.

Posting your 10th or 12th link will pass an almost insignificant portion of that original authority, and so on until each link passes almost nothing. This is because you've essentially already "won" that domain's third-party vote for your site's trustworthiness.

These links will still generate brand visibility and referral traffic, so they're often worth building, but eventually, this law will force you to seek out new sources or start forfeiting the long-term compounding results of your campaign.

This is how you're going to do it.