Please help me improve this link building strategy
-
Link building is challenging. Can you guys read my process below and offer improvements:
This is for marketing an article that is good for target websites for humanitarian reasons. It helps their readers in a way that they really need it. Not to say that all of these target websites are going to want to reference my article. I'm looking for
A. The target website to write, or let us write, a blog post around my article, of course with a link to the article and no other links to my website (unless they want to)
or B. For our article to be listed in a resource section when appropriate
How I'm doing this now:
1. We're starting with a well written, authoritative article with attractive images, graphs, and even a fancy javascript display area that's useful. The article is 3500 words. There's a big image link at the bottom that goes to the article in PDF version. Due to some hosting problems, the pdf version is disallowed in the robots.txt (it won't help to get links to it) There's 2 versions of the article, the one I'm marketing has all of our ecommerce menu and such removed, so that this version has minimal commercial parts in it. There's also a commercial version, which we are not pushing, and the non-commercial is rel cononicaled pointing over to the commercial. The non-commercial article has only one external backlink so far, and the commercial version has no external backlinks yet. We're just getting started.
2. First I like on facebook and follow on twitter. I spend some time with the target site's facebook page and like several recent posts, sharing one or two things to my own facebook page. I then retweet two good recent tweets put out by the site's general twitter account. BTW, we don't have very many twitter followers yet for our twitter account.
3. Then I read their newest blog post. I read it thoroughly. Sometimes I don't pick the newest if there is another recent one that is more similar in topic to our site. I spend some time putting together a thoughtful and helpful comment for that blog post. I submit the comment. I then go on FB and carefull post how I found the blog post helpful and place a link to their blog post. A lot of these sites, though, aren't accepting blog post comments but I always post on their facebook page.
4. I wait a couple of days in case my activity gets noticed. At that point, I go to linkedin and look for people that work for the site. If I find a content/marketing director, or if it's a small site and I find the owner [still not very good at this part], I search google for their email address and/or twitter account. I'm successful in finding a specific person only about 1/3 of the time. These sites also often have phone numbers.
5. I send out either A. a tweet to a specific person asking if they need help with content, or B. An email to a specific person like:
Subject: Do you need help with content that is very useful to [niche audience]
[their first name]
I hope you are doing well. [add sentence here referencing something I learned about them, I don't know how to do this part well yet]
I'm writing you because we have some content that is useful and important to [niche audience]. It's an article about [our article name and link]. We're wondering if you'd consider, since it would be very beneficial to your audience, to write a blog post explaining and citing that article.
We think our doing this would add to [niche audience] quality of life.
Sincerely,
Bob Weikel
Co-owner
[website]
If I don't find a specific person, I write an email as similar to the above as possible and send it to their general email address or contact form. I send one email, wait 2 or 3 business days, send another email, wait 2 or 3 business days. Then I call. I ask for "Marketing" or whoever is in charge of their blog [I haven't done much of this and am not good at it yet] or if it's a small company I might talk to the owner.
Sometimes I only send one email before calling, especially if I think email's a lost cause. I never leave voicemail. I always keep calling over several days until I reach someone.
When I call and get someone, I say something like, "Hi, I'm Bob from [website]. I was wondering if you would be interested in some content that would be beneficial to [niche audience]."
I know there is a lot of room for improvement. I'm looking for a 10% success rate.
Thanks.
-
Wow, I can say at the very least that your process shows perseverance! The advice that follows comes from a background in sales and marketing, less so in expert link-building.
Your appeal to your target doesn't seem to offer a solution to a problem. You are stating that your product is 'useful,' 'beneficial,' and 'important'. Don't tell them. Show them. Does your article 'explain how to harness the wind so your community has water to drink'? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kamkwamba) Maybe your humanitarian market is not concerned about the lack of drinking water in African villages, but they do have a unique concern, and you need to connect with it.
Keep in mind, more so than a target market of accountants or phlebotomists, humanitarians are moved by emotions. They are who they are and do what they do because they care. Choose your message accordingly.
If I can say one last thing...less is more.
Go get 'em tiger;)
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
-
Footer iframe link
Any idea why someone would put a sitewide non-clickable one pixel wide link within an iframe in the footer to a linkedin profile? It has thrown me.
Social Media | | MickEdwards0 -
Add Tracking Parameters to Website Links on Facebook/Twitter
does anyone know of a way to add tracking parameters to facebook/twitter website links in the about us section so that we can understand what traffic is specifically coming from that page? I already add tracking to posts, but I am more trying to track each standard link on these social channels. I am currently running into character limits or the result looks like a long url that will most certainly deter clicks because it looks suspicious.
Social Media | | dsinger1 -
Are Social Links on Home Page Good for SEO
Hi, I have removed the Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn and G+ links from the top of our home page so as to try and stop users leaving the page. Is this bad for SEO? Thanks
Social Media | | Studio330 -
Pintrest links not showing on Open Site Explorer
Hi, sorry for the 'simple' question, but I have one client who has a Pintrest link which shows up on the Open site Explorer (Page Authority 60, Domain Authority 100) and a second client who also uses Pintrest but their link doesn't show up on Open Site Explorer. I didn't set either of the clients' Pintrest pages up myself, but I can't see why the 2nd client's page isn't showing up in Open site explorer:- http://pinterest.com/unilifestudents/photoshoot-park-house/
Social Media | | bendyman
as it looks to me like it points to the main site http://unilife.co.uk as it should do. What am I misunderstanding here? thanks, Ben0 -
Vibrant Facebook Community around a Business, how to ask for links?
Hello, Helping a friend out with their site: Black Mountain Colorado Dude Ranch. It is an awesome dude ranch (working ranch that has cabins for rent so you can get that 'western experience' without buying a ranch. Yes there are cattle drives). They have a great ~1000k a picture facebook page https://www.facebook.com/blackmtnranch that is fantastic, but I'm completely at a loss on how to get help with our ranking terms from this (as most don't have blogs, websites or any knowledge of what linking is outside facebook). Ideas? tl;dr Asking for links from people without sites is confusing to them, but is there any tips to getting help from them?
Social Media | | andrewhyde0 -
Can Twitter really help your Google Rankings??
Hi Guys, Can anyone tell me if Twitter really does help with your Goolge rankings? If I go to the trouble of setting up a Twitter account for my business will it really help with me getting higher rankings? If so is it a case of me just posting tweets all the time and links to my website? Any help or guidance be grateful guys Thanks Gareth
Social Media | | GAZ090 -
Twitter, Please direct me to background image guide
Hi guys, I'm having trouble coming up with a proper twitter background. I'm just going to start with a simple solid green with branding info in the top left. Do you guys know of an article that gives me the exact dimensions and placement to put things as far as where to put my logo and name in the background image and how wide and tall to make my logo and name. Or you can just tell me, but an article would be fine. The articles I've read are not consistent. Thank you!
Social Media | | BobGW0