Not all links are created equal.<\/p>\n
That means that you can\u2019t just focus on getting the most links possible.<\/p>\n
Instead, you need the\u00a0best<\/em>\u00a0links possible.<\/p>\n A link from Entrepreneur.com is going to dominate a link from JohnsLinkBuildingFarm.com any day of the week.<\/p>\n A site with 100 high-quality backlinks can outperform other sites with more if they\u2019ve only been scraping the bottom of the link-building barrel.<\/p>\n The best links also have another hidden benefit.<\/p>\n Many times, they won\u2019t just give you a little SEO boost. You\u2019ll also get\u00a0increased brand awareness and credibility. You\u2019ll get referral traffic\u00a0back to your site. And you might even get some new customers or clients, too.<\/p>\n So the ROI on an awesome link is definitely worth the extra effort.<\/p>\n Do you want to know how to find those links?<\/p>\n Here are six of my favorite tactics that you can start replicating this week.<\/span><\/p>\n What if I told you that someone, somewhere has already curated and developed a list of the top industry sites and blogs for your niche?<\/p>\n That way, all you had to do was find those \u2018lists of lists\u2019 to instantly get hundreds of high-quality backlink opportunities.<\/p>\n Would you believe it?<\/p>\n You should, because it\u2019s actually a\u00a0common practice.<\/em><\/p>\n Just do a simple Google search for \u201cbest XYZ blogs,\u201d and you\u2019ll see what I mean.<\/p>\n Here, I\u2019ll show you how to tap into this potential gold mine of backlink opportunities to skyrocket your rankings.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s pick \u201cbest nutrition blogs 2017\u201d to find the most recent possibilities in the health field.<\/p>\n Let me explain why this is important.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re a health or nutrition blogger (or even if your product or service remotely touches on the nutrition sector), you can simply pull up \u2018lists of lists\u2019 like this to find that people have already done the hard work for you.<\/p>\n Other bloggers have already curated the results. So all you have to do now is go through them, pull out the ones with the best potential, and instantly gain access to hundreds of targets for potential outreach.<\/p>\n That\u2019s hundreds of new relationships waiting to be kindled and countless links waiting for you to snag.<\/p>\n Next up, let\u2019s click on one of the articles to see how you\u2019d filter through all of these results.<\/p>\n Immediately, you\u2019ll see a treasure chest of data.<\/p>\n Here are 50 of the best blogs in your space with links to their sites and short descriptions.<\/p>\n Now you can assess whether they\u2019d be a good fit (or not) for\u00a0partnering in some way to get a backlink.<\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t even have to be formal or complex. You could simply offer the blogger a free version of your product in exchange for a review. That way, it doesn\u2019t even cost you anything out of pocket!<\/p>\n Here\u2019s how to analyze the website\u2019s potential.<\/p>\n Pull up an SEO tool like\u00a0website authority checker<\/a>\u00a0and plug in the domain to pull up the site\u2019s domain and page authority.<\/p>\n These two metrics are simple quality scores that tell you how \u2018strong\u2019 a website\u2019s link profile looks.<\/p>\n Ahrefs will even tell you how many backlinks the site has and how long it\u2019s been around.<\/p>\n Now, create a spreadsheet with this data so that you can prioritize which ones to start reaching out to. You\u2019ll also use the spreadsheet to track your results.<\/p>\n To avoid sounding needy or greedy, send a \u2018warm-up\u2019 email to encourage the blogger to respond. You can then follow up over time with emails two, three, four, and so on to eventually get what you want.Keep something in mind: Not all bloggers will respond back. That\u2019s okay.Don\u2019t make the mistake of asking for a link during your first email outreach campaign. The key to success lies in building a worthwhile, mutually-beneficial relationship with these bloggers.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t look at it as a one-way street, either. A blogger can help you gain access to a new audience, but you can also help the blogger by promoting his or her site. Make it a give-and-take relationship.<\/p>\n This one is so easy it almost shouldn\u2019t count.<\/p>\n Think about it for a second.<\/p>\n Almost every single person on the internet (92% of consumers<\/a><\/u>) reads online reviews before purchasing items they want or need.<\/p>\n Almost the same number (88% of consumers<\/a><\/u>) will then trust those online reviews as much as they would a referral from a relative or friend.<\/p>\n And testimonials from customers can help \u201cgenerate 62% more revenue from every customer, every visit,\u201d\u00a0according to BigCommerce<\/a><\/u>.<\/p>\n Can you believe those numbers?!<\/p>\n Basically, every company with a website now\u00a0has\u00a0<\/em>to have customer reviews and testimonials.<\/p>\n That\u2019s good news for you!<\/p>\n Because you can help companies whose products and services you already use and love by leaving testimonials. In return, you gain access to one of the easiest ways to skyrocket your high-quality backlinks.<\/p>\n For example,\u00a0HubSpot\u2019s<\/a><\/u>\u00a0known for having a huge case-study section on its website. HubSpot\u2019s always on the lookout for new customer testimonials to show off, like this one:<\/p>\n That\u2019s not a bad backlink for about five minutes of your time!<\/p>\n Are you not a HubSpot customer? No problem, because as I said, almost every single company is on the constant lookout for more reviews.<\/p>\n Just look at HubSpot\u2019s marketing automation competitor,\u00a0Marketo<\/a><\/u>, which has published dozens of in-depth case studies:<\/p>\n Each of these\u00a0case studies\u00a0also features information about the company. So it\u2019s like a built-in sales pitch, too!<\/p>\n You get to include a video and details about how you help other people.<\/p>\n The backlink opportunity is awesome, but these case studies can even help you drive leads.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s one more example for the road on Slack\u2019s website.<\/p>\n Go to the \u201cCustomer Stories\u201d section of its site and scroll down to read the individual case study for one of its customers. We\u2019ll use \u201cTicketmaster\u201d for the purposes of demonstration.<\/p>\n This case study page gives Ticketmaster its own in-depth page on Slack\u2019s site.<\/p>\n So sure, the company gets a backlink. But it\u2019s also getting\u00a0so much more<\/em>\u00a0(for free!) when you think about it.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s check out what it looks like now.<\/p>\n All three examples here (HubSpot, Marketo, and Slack) have extremely high domain authority because they\u2019re huge brands with millions of customers between them.<\/p>\n And we\u2019ve barely scratched the surface on this tactic. You can leave testimonials on almost any industry imaginable to get high-quality (and free!) backlinks.<\/p>\n Some industries are notoriously difficult for generating meaningful backlinks.<\/p>\n For example, let\u2019s say you\u2019re an accountant.<\/p>\n (You\u2019re not, but go with me here for a second.)<\/p>\n How, then, are you supposed to build strong links in a \u2018boring\u2019 niche like this?As an accountant, there are probably not thousands of big blogs out there for outreach (like there was for the \u201cnutrition blog\u201d example).You can probably give a few other companies a testimonial. But eventually, you\u2019ll run out of steam after five or ten good ones.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the same exact problem one of SharpRocket\u2019s\u00a0clients was dealing with. So it turned to one of the tried-and-true backlinks methods for \u2018boring\u2019 companies: Scholarships! First,\u00a0create a scholarship pag<\/a><\/u>e<\/a>\u00a0on your website that lists some of the details (like how much you\u2019re giving away, how someone can enter the contest or giveaway, and how the winners will be picked and notified).<\/p>\n But before you push the page live, make sure to create some official Terms and Conditions.<\/p>\n There need to be some clear instructions for\u00a0who\u2019s eligible and who\u2019s not<\/a><\/u>\u00a0so there are no potential misunderstandings when the campaign goes live and there\u2019s a lot of money at stake.<\/p>\n Now you can look for potential colleges, schools, or universities that might express interest in this new scholarship.<\/p>\n Although that sounds like it would be incredibly time consuming, there are a few tricks you can use to drastically speed up the process.<\/p>\n For example, you can use search operators like \u201cinurl\u201d so that Google becomes your best friend and instantly gives you what you need.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s say we\u2019re giving away a legal scholarship, so you want to get a list of colleges in the state of California that already give away scholarships just like this (that way, it should be a slam dunk to get the school on board).<\/p>\n Easy, right?<\/p>\n Using a few clever search operators can give you a list of countless colleges with .edu domains in California.<\/p>\n Now let\u2019s compile all of those results we\u2019re getting in a\u00a0simple spreadsheet<\/a><\/u>\u00a0so you can start tracking results when you do outreach.<\/p>\n In this example, SharpRocket gave away a $500 scholarship and received 14 high-quality .edu links in return.<\/p>\n That\u2019s only $35 bucks each!<\/p>\n Has your company been around for awhile?<\/p>\n If so, chances are people out there are already talking about you.<\/p>\n That\u2019s obviously great! Strangers are singing your praises without you having to initiate the conversation or conduct any outreach.<\/p>\n If they\u2019re already writing a positive review about you or something you said, chances are they\u2019ll be more than willing to link to you, too.There is one problem, however.Many times, they\u2019ll forget to link to you!<\/p>\n You just need to spot it when it happens and follow up ASAP.<\/p>\n To make sure you don\u2019t miss out on potential backlinks, head on over to\u00a0Google Alerts.<\/p>\n Now you can type in your name or brand terms to get a list of everyone who\u2019s recently used the same.<\/p>\n Of course, not everyone will be you.<\/p>\n For example, the first two results have nothing to do with me. But the last one does!<\/p>\n Now you can click on all of these results to pull them up and see if they liked out to you or not.<\/p>\n Mention<\/a><\/u>\u00a0is an even more powerful tool. You can create feeds to monitor your brand terms over time so it will pull from all different sources across the Internet (including social channels).<\/p>\n That way, you can get a daily update about who\u2019s mentioning your brand and whether they\u2019ve linked out to you (or not).<\/p>\n For example, here\u2019s another one that I found recently.<\/p>\n This person was kind enough to mention some of my content from a video\u00a0but forgot to link out to me.<\/p>\n So now you can go track them down and send a nice, friendly reminder that while you appreciate them mentioning you, a link would really make you love them forever.<\/p>\n If you can\u2019t find their email address, do the next best thing: Reach out to them through a social channel like Twitter.<\/p>\n I alluded to this one earlier, but it\u2019s so powerful that it deserves its own space.<\/p>\n You can (and should) give away your product for free in exchange for a review.<\/p>\n The best part about this strategy (besides the awesome links) is there\u2019s almost no limit or cap on how many times you can do it.<\/p>\n And many times, these product reviews provide additional benefits.<\/p>\n For example, you\u2019ll get a backlink. But more importantly, you\u2019ll\u00a0increase brand awareness, traffic back to your site, and\u00a0new customers.<\/p>\n These reviews can also help explain how your product works, too, so people can see what it looks like without actually signing up themselves.<\/p>\n For example, we can take a software product like\u00a0Kissmetrics<\/a><\/u>\u2026<\/p>\n \u2026 and pitch it to a few bloggers or websites that already review similar products like it.<\/p>\n Simple!<\/p>\n You can even create a link on your website that tells people that you\u2019re more than willing to trade a free copy of your product for an honest review.<\/p>\n That\u2019s what proposal software company\u00a0BidSketch<\/a><\/u>\u00a0does on its pricing page. Scroll down under the pricing plans and look for the simple text link:<\/p>\n Once again, you can do this in almost any niche.<\/p>\n For example,\u00a0Primally Pure<\/a><\/u>\u00a0makes organic skincare products. So it looks for organic bloggers who want natural products as opposed to the \u2018mainstream\u2019 ones that are full of harmful chemicals.<\/p>\n So they reached out to\u00a0Clean Eating with a Dirty Mind<\/a><\/u>\u00a0to get a review:<\/p>\n You can also think of other similar sites that might include your product like this.<\/p>\n For example, subscription sites are popping up in fashion and retail that deliver free samples of products to try (and later buy the full version if they like it).<\/p>\n Stitch Fix<\/a><\/u>\u00a0will act as your own personal stylist, while\u00a0Birchbox<\/a><\/u>\u00a0will send you skin and haircare product samples.<\/p>\n They even have these for dogs now, too, with sites like\u00a0BarkBox<\/a><\/u>\u00a0that will send your pooch free treats and toys.<\/p>\n1. Start by finding pre-curated lists of blogs<\/strong><\/h2>\n
2. Give more testimonials to companies you like<\/strong><\/h2>\n
3.\u00a0Scholarship campaigns for .edu links<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\nHere\u2019s how the plan works.<\/p>\n4. Monitor people using your brand name without linking<\/strong><\/h2>\n
5. Give bloggers your product for free to get a review<\/strong><\/h2>\n