Link Building for extremely niche industry
-
I understand that when getting links into your site, they need to be good authority but, importantly, also relevant to the information on your own website.
I've seen examples for people to find guest posting opportunities on many sites, but these have been for popular industries with mass amounts of people discussing it (travel blogs, fashion blogs), making guest post opportunities more readily available.
The company I work for provide doc storage, scanning and paperless solutions. As you can guess, when following these guides to find blogs on our industry, I have come up short with places to ask to guest post on!
So, how would SEOmozzers approach building quality, relevant links for a very niche industry such as ours?
Also, we'll be building pages for extremely specific types of files (e.g. Microfiche Scanning, A0 Scanning....). For these pages, how will I be able to find relevant pages on these topics to get a link to, because these will obviously be even more niche than doc scanning?
Thank you!
-
Can you write case studies of how a business improved x and increased efficiency and reduced costs by having their company records scanned and available in a digital format? Perhaps subscribe to HARO (Help A Reporter Out) and look for reporters writing about topics where your service could be of assistance.
-
B to B is tough. But there is always a way. Is there a trade magazine or website you can identify ?
If so, the secret is cultivating relationships with the editors. You might start by following them on Twitter and perhaps answering questions. Or you could comment on blog posts.
The idea is that when you ask to do a guest post or send in a press release, it won't be your first interaction.
For one B to B client, we started with a target list of about 10 websites and publications. Initial results were disappointing: no response or rejection. But last week, we kinda hit the jackpot. A guest post was accepted and they asked for a whole series on other topics. And one of my client's experts will be doing some related webinars.
Another often neglected idea is speaking engagements by company executives. I actually look at the SEO value of trade shows and even local business roundtable sites and make suggestions with those in mind. Another client is a graduate student and fitness expert. i suggested he arrange a lecture at his own university that would be listed on the university website.
And what about profiles of company employees? It doesn't have to be the usually sucky profiles of Mr. Big. A sales or customer service rep who has been with the company for years often has great stories to tell about the changes he's seen. Write this up for your own blog, them send it to your new trade pub buddies. They will often do their own interview and story.
Hope this helps.
-
How we look at the site in steps:
A)Relevancy - the site must be as relevant as possible for users (similar terms on the site)
B)Back Links/Natural Linking - then we check to make sure the site has a natural linking profile and not over optimizing.
C)Authority/Page Rank
D)Social Media - does the site have a blog with real interaction, comments, likes and shares.
A and B must be done first and if they are not good proceed to the next link.
If A and B are good, steps C and D will help you evaluate the links actual value.
-
Keri,
Thanks for your input!
The problem is we don't sell scanners, we are a B2B company selling the service of scanning records for companies and turning them into a digital format. It is because of this which makes posting tricky, because we can't post about 'Top 10 Scanners' or 'Top Scanning Companies'.
-
Who uses your services? Libraries? Law firms? Newspapers? Do any businesses and individuals use it for keeping track of their own paperwork?
If newspapers used your services to scan their old issues, seems like you could make your site become the best resource ever on scanning. How to choose which scanner to use, how to hire someone to do it versus doing it inhouse, etc. Make it the place that everyone in that industry would go to for information.
I can empathize with niches. My husband runs a business that sells kits for model warships that shoot and sink each other. The number of people in the world who participate in this hobby is in the hundreds. We do have the "cool" factor going on, but really understand about the fun of being in a niche.
-
Thanks Bryan.
I have read that competitor link analysis is important, and have begun making a list of their back-link profile of competitors ranking highly for the most sought after keyword terms.
That being said, what would be the criteria for a link which is good enough to have coming into us?
(e.g. Minimum PR, Minimum Page Authority......)
I'm asking because high ranking competitors may have links which we could get a link from which on their own might not be very good to have coming into us.
Thanks
-
Maybe you just need to think a little outside of the box. For example, an article about scanning could be an useful resource for students, in a design blog, or even in a photography one, just think of all it's possible uses and stay creative!
Also googling the terms will get you a good place to start, check the SERP for 'Microfiche Scanning' for example, I'm staring at a few good linking opportunities right there.
Good luck!
-
Hi,
Spying on your top competitor, can help. Find out what they are doing that is working, and see how you could add value to the same users.
Find out what social networks they are in (if any) and where they are earning links from.
There are many ways to buld links, have you checked out: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-noob-guide-to-link-building
Hope this helps.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Help on Link Building
Hi, Recently I've dropped two points on my Root Domain Authority for smallhope.com. Not really sure why. I've done as much on page optimisation that I can think of, but what I would really like some help on is Link Building. If this was your domain what would you do specifically and start link building. I've read a ton of stuff but I just dont seem to know a way to begin. Can you offer me any advice? I've dropped 20% in traffic in the last 8 months. Hope you can help, Adam
Link Building | | NaescentAdam0 -
Links Building from contractors on eLance.com
Hi, I never hire somebody to create link building to point to our sites. On eLance.com you can hire a SEO contractor to build link our your domaine. New to SEO, is worth it to do so? Is there things I should should be careful about? Things I need to clarify before hiring somebody? Things I need to confirm or ask before hiring such contractors? Most of those ''SEO Expert'' are from India and some have perfect ratings on this site. I have 2 eCommerce sites and we only have a average of 3 sales a day. I can't afford price companies are asking in North America. For a lot less, eLance maybe the solution for our home base business. What is your advice on this? Thank you BigBlaze
Link Building | | BigBlaze2051 -
Link Building - Where to start and how long to see results
Been working a lot on on-page seo and it mistifies me to observe that when i get A's constantly for search terms for on page but im not on the first 10 pages of Google compared to a competitor on page 1 with on page reports of C, D and even E! So, a lot of hard work "on page" does not equal to a lot of hard work which is obviously link building. my domain and page authority is only 18 and 27 whereas the main competitors are 50's and 60's. Is "link building" or lack of it my main issue? Here is the site http://www.govisitthelakes.com Very new to link building 😞 Anyone know a good place to start? Ive been working through open site explorer and starting to get some of my competitors links. How long to see results from link building to improve domain and page authority? or is it just "how long is a piece of string" and be patient. Thanks Ouji
Link Building | | oujipickle0 -
Two link building proposals, which one is better?
Hi there, Our site has a DA of 73, MozRank 5.40, MozTrust 5.88, and over 45,000 external links. We haven't done any offsite SEO before, we got to where we are today organically. We're thinking about hiring a link building firm to help increase our rankings and we've received two proposals. Firm A offered to build us 30 links from DA 50+ sites over 3 months. The anchor text will most likely just be our domain name. Firm B offered to build us 90 links from PR2+ sites over 3 months. They have control over the anchor text. Given our site's profile, which proposal makes more sense for us? Would either of these initiatives move the needle for us? Thanks.
Link Building | | anonp1 -
I am looking for a link building service, recommendations?
I am looking for a link building service, are there any recommendations or tips I need to consider. With so much to sift through on the web I figured I could get some good advise from the Moz community. Thanks!
Link Building | | d25kart0 -
Which link should I use for link building?
I have an article which have high rank on Google. But recent, I use mod rewrite url so this article have new url. old: mywebsite.com/c1/p-1 new: mywebsite.com/c-e/p-1 Now, google is indexing old url. I want to ask when I build linking to my site, which link should I use for link building? I should build linking for new url or old url. Thanks
Link Building | | sonzin13040 -
Outsourcing Link Building - What Low LEvel Links Should One Start With 1st
Outsourcing Link Building - What Low Level Links Should I start with if my interest is get free immediate traffic as a direct result from placing links or what ever out there and what should I outsource 1st and why ? What questions should I ask my self that will help me determine where I should start with low level links ?
Link Building | | helpwanted0 -
Link Building - I have asked this question but nobody has responded to me
Hi there, I have asked you guys this question already, but nobody has got back to me.. Can you tell me please how to best use your tools to build links to help with SEO? You seem to have a few tools for links, but which one is the best and how do i best use them..?? Can you alos provide me with some link building tips??? Please can you help and repsond, I would be very gratful.. Thanks Gareth
Link Building | | GAZ090