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The following excerpt is from the book by Garrett French and Eric Ward Ultimate Guide to Link Building, 2n/a Editing. Buy it now at Amazon | Barnes & Noble | itunes or click here to buy it directly from us and SAVE 60% on this book when you use code MARKET2021 through 04/24/21.
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We discovered six big factors that impact the reach of a link building campaign. Ideally, during the campaign design phase, your link builder will have ample time to consider all of these factors. In doing so, they will likely uncover a few additional factors unique to your organization’s situation. The more factors you can consider and design, the more unique and effective your campaign will be.
Factor 1: What is already working well for you?
We like to start customer discussions with a question about what is already working well – and not just in link building! For example, we may ask how our customers are currently generating their leads. Recently, it turned out that one of our clients had an email list of 10,000 subscribers that he had built a great relationship with over the past 10-15 years! They estimated that at least 10% of their list included active web content publishers, making this list the perfect place to start designing a campaign.
On the more link-focused side, we recently went through a few questions with a prospect to find out their linkable assets. They didn’t have the time or resources to create content, which is the strength of our organization’s linked asset. When we asked what worked, they mentioned that they had products they could give away to nonprofits and bloggers to use as prizes in raffles and other types of contests. This understanding then informed the link opportunities we uncovered for them in that we were able to consistently uncover a massive number of pre-qualified leads.
We encourage you to think about what is already working well and keep that in mind when building links. Sustaining and growing from what works can be much easier and more economical than trying to create something entirely new that doesn’t grow out of existing strengths.
Factor 2: Your business and marketing goals
Specific business and marketing goals are often missing in the design of link building campaigns, especially when a campaign is designed in a vacuum without input from other departments.
Because link building has the ability to impact far beyond your search engine results page rankings, we strongly recommend that your link building campaign supports specific business and marketing objectives. of your business during the design phase. You might even discover a unique solution on the market.
Related: The secret to creating a site worthy of links
Factor 3: Your assets that can be linked
What about your organization that can be linked? This can include internal “social media celebrities”, your organization’s brand, your organization’s history, your free tools or widgets, your unique and useful content, your available creative talent, your actual budget and more. Also, consider that your industry’s definition of “linkable” may and will differ from other industries. If all of your competitors have free web tools, that’s no longer a strong differentiator and may not generate interest or links.
Factor 4: Link opportunities in your space
The linking opportunities that exist from market to market can be quite different. For example, if you are targeting a consumer market, working from home dad bloggers might be a key segment for you. But if you’re selling specialty dozer parts, hiring blogging dads might not make as much sense.
Your market – specifically the publishers that cater to your market from whom you want to earn links – determines the scope and type of opportunities available to you. Remember to always search for list results. They will save you hours of research. Moreover, the presence of lists indicates a strong publishing niche.
Factor 5: Departments requiring your contribution and influence within the organization
As a link building agency, we find ourselves working primarily with the search engine optimization (SEO) department within an organization. Our methods typically involve content creation and the engagement of industry experts. Sometimes that means we have to get approval from departments like PR, content strategy, social media, marketing, or even the CEO before the campaign can really kick off.
We typically try to identify which department our contact is most embedded in, which department they have the most influence in, and then work to keep the campaign under their control so we can have the fastest impact. . The more departments that require input, the more work the link builder will have to do to arbitrate cross-departmental concerns.
However, for long-lasting and ongoing link building campaigns (and often these can not be called in-house link building campaigns), you will need to work the political scene within your organization and be constantly on the lookout for ways to “build links” which others are already doing.
Factor 6: Your available resources
Ultimately, your link building campaign will depend on how much time and money you can devote to it. Knowing how much time you can devote to yourself and how much work you can ask or require of others can help you define the full scope of the project. Often – and rightly so – your available resources depend on your abilities as a link builder, as well as your abilities to effectively communicate probable and actual ROIs.
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