The One Killer Secret to Link Building Outreach

David Farkas 30 comments
[toc]For most people, link building outreach is undoubtedly the hardest part of the link building process.

Unfortunately, it’s also the most important part.

Sure, there are virtuosos. Those who just seem to nail it from the beginning. Every email gets a reply and every reply is positive.

They’re not the norm.

Most suffer rejection and unanswered emails until they learn the ropes. The problem is, though, not everyone is interested in learning the ropes.

Instead of crafting friendly messages, they want to cram as much template-based blunt force trauma into an hour of outreach as they can.

However, I have one link building outreach secret most link builders don’t even think about.

It’s not 100% foolproof because humans aren’t 100% predictable, but it works.

Walking a Mile

Before we get to the secret, you need to understand why it’s important.

Think of this as your version of Daniel-san waxing Mr. Miyagi’s car before he learned the secrets to karate.

Do you ever have days when you’re overwhelmed, and it just feels like everyone around you wants something from you?

Your friends, your family, your colleagues, your neighbors, strangers on the street– they all want a piece of you.

Remembering that, put yourself in the average webmaster’s shoes and then walk a mile.

People they don’t even know are asking them for favors multiple times a day.

Even a webmaster who runs a simple Blogspot site about marathon training will find tons of clumsy, non-personalized outreach emails in their inbox every day.

Some will ask her to post an article about life insurance. After all, with all the intense training, you should probably have life insurance, right?

Some will want a link to their product page, or they’ll ask her to embed a terrible infographic about infographics.

They don’t even get her name right, or they don’t use her name in the first place, even though it’s clearly listed in her ‘about me’ section.

Ugh.

So, she’s understandably already suspicious when you contact her. No, she won’t help you move this weekend.

Now that you understand the webmaster mindset, are you ready to learn that killer secret to link building outreach?

Not quite!

Before I unleash the secret, we need to have a word about etiquette. You can’t use the secret without using proper etiquette.

Focus on the following with every email you send:

  • Be Polite – Don’t make demands. Don’t be presumptuous. Don’t insult anyone. Think of yourself as a guest in their home.
  • Be Professional – If you think it’s TMI, it’s TMI. Remember the last fun conversation you had with your boss, your grandmother or your child’s teacher? Have fun and be yourself, but carry yourself in that same way.
  • Don’t Talk Down – People are smart. Webmasters are smart. Don’t talk down to them or condescend, even when you think you know more than they do.
  • Don’t Beg or be Forceful – Just don’t do it. You can’t strong arm anyone over the internet. At least not until Apple releases the iPunch in 2018.
  • Keep it Short – Say what you need to say and get out. Respect their time. Save your lengthy correspondence or love letters for someone else.
  • Talk About Them – Don’t just talk about yourself. Find a popular post on their site and tell them why you liked it. Find one you like. Don’t lie.
  • Don’t Be a Creep – This is self-explanatory. Don’t be a creep or a stalker.
  • Accept Rejection Gracefully – You’re going to hear “no” sometimes. It is the webmaster’s right to reject you. It’s their site, after all. Accept it and move on.

Okay, you’re ready for that secret now.

The Secret: Help. Give.

Do something valuable for the webmaster, and do it before you ask for a link.

Why?

Because it’s human nature that when we receive something from someone, we feel compelled to give back and reciprocate something in return.

If you’ve read even a little bit about SEO, link building, or content marketing in the last two years, you’ve heard the term “relationship building” flung around a lot.

Like you’re just supposed to magically make friends with the owner of an authority site. Networking and making friends are well and good, but helping someone out in a genuine way is one of the best ways to make those connections. And get your link.

Don’t offer help while you’re asking for a link or after you ask for a link.

Find a legitimate way you can help that webmaster and do it before you ask for anything. Does it take extra time? Sure.

However, when was the last time anyone scored a good, relevant, no-effort link?

Link building is hard work. Period. Also, remember that link building outreach is a process. Unless you already have a relationship with a webmaster, it’s not just a one-and-done email.

I love this quote from Sharon Flaherty, founder of BrandContent, from a post over at BuzzSumo. She has great perspective:

“The most important point to not lose sight of is that outreach is an on-going process. You shouldn’t design a campaign and then contact your influencers, bloggers or journalists to seed it just when you need them to. You wouldn’t ignore your personal contacts or friends all year until you needed them to help you with something and the same goes for influencer relations. If you know you have a campaign coming up that will involve targeting a certain niche of people, you should be building those relationships before the campaign is off the ground and while it is just an idea.”

So yeah, help people before you ask for anything.

Now you might ask “How do I help them, David?”

That’s a good question. The secret’s no good if you can’t apply it correctly.

I’ve put together a few suggestions. Every website is different, every business is different, and every industry is different– but this should give you a good starting point.

Broken Links and Site Issues – No one likes having a broken website. Finding broken links and site issues is one of the easiest ways you can help a webmaster. It’s not hard, either. You can use this Chrome Extension or run their site through a tool like URL Profiler. You can check for broken links, SEO errors, code errors or just anything that looks out of place. Not every site has errors, though, so sometimes you must move onto something more creative.

Logo or Banner Redesign –  I got this one from Jon Cooper’s link building strategies post several years ago, and it works like a charm. If your target site is great, but needs to update their logo or even a banner, offer one up. If you’re a designer or have an in-house designer, go to town. If not, you can always try finding a designer on Fiverr.

“Let Me Know” – Many blog posts have a “let me know” or “if anyone knows” question in them. Essentially, the content creator couldn’t find an answer to their question and is looking for audience input. Offer them a good answer. You can always do a Google search for ‘(keyword) “let me know”’ or something similar if you can’t find any such opportunities from eyeballing a website.

Answer Questions – Similarly, many blog posts end with a question to the reader. This encourages comments. Answer the question through a comment, a tweet or even an email. If you answer in an email, it might spark a conversation.

Feedback and Conversation – Webmasters and bloggers are often creative people, and creative people love feedback on their work. Sometimes, they want that more than any code or broken link fix you could ever provide. If you have feedback, make sure it’s genuine and make sure it can lead into a conversation. Tell them why a certain piece of work is good and what it meant to you. Kind words are sometimes the best kind of help.

Social Shares – This one is easy. If you like something they wrote, share it on Twitter or Facebook. You’re helping them promote their content. It’s a great lead-in to a conversation, too. “Hey, (Webmaster), I just want to let you know that I enjoyed your blog post about (blog post title) and tweeted it out to my followers the other day. Keep up the great work”. Wait until they reply and then you can let them know about your resource or ask for their feedback.

Lend an Image – If you notice a target site has a severe lack of images, or uses bad stock photos, offer to give them a few of your own. If you take photos of your product, projects or service regularly, offer some images. If a blogger doesn’t have many images, offer them a few images from your own stock photo account or find great free stock photos for them. Try this list and this list of free stock photo sites.

Hacked Link Building – This one requires more work, but if you follow through, you’ll have a very grateful webmaster on your hand. Giuseppe Pastore wrote all about it here, but it entails finding sites inadvertently linking to hacked or spammy sites.

Add to a “How-To” Post – How-to posts are super popular, and for good reason. When prospecting for relevant links in your niche, you’ll naturally know something about the webmaster’s subject. If you can think of an item they left off of their how to or list post, write up an addition and send it over.

So, now you know the secret, and you know how to apply it. You’ll come up with your own ideas too, I’m sure.

Conclusion

Offer help before you ever ask for a link, and you’ll be “building relationships” just like those vague blog posts tell you to– quickly.

Maintain those relationships after you’ve asked for a link, too. Don’t ignore people until you need something from them.

I’ve found great success in helping people. It’s usually really simple, and I’m not just blindly asking for something and not giving anything in return.

Lending a helping hand turns suspicious webmasters into friends and colleagues.

If you want to be a great link builder, stay away from blunt force trauma and develop a great outreach strategy.

Comments

  • James Maloney

    Great article David. “Walk a Mile”….absolutely. It really helps to craft an outreach email that lets them know you understand what they do and value their time and effort.

  • Carmelo

    Very cool post David and great tips. Thanks.

  • Arjun Sharma

    A great post for me and I learn everything by this post
    thanks David

  • Robin Jennings

    Great article. I’ve accidentally picked up some work by going to several small business websites looking for a product and my firewall blocks their site as its been hacked. I’ve then contacted them to let them know and bang I got a new client when all I wanted to do was buy something off them.

    • David Farkas

      Excellent ‘practical application’ right there, Robin and thanks for sharing!

      I’ve had similar encounters where my by browser will alert me of a security threat unbeknownst to the webmaster. They are usually super grateful for making them aware of the risk and that’s definitely a great way to help!

  • Megan Newnham

    Great post! Thank you for the advice!

  • Sam

    Hi David,

    SEOs (which don’t obey the practices you published over here) send automated emails and seriously, they look so funny, that recipients don’t delay in calling them out socially and publicize it. On a serious note, that’s a big threat to the reputation of Client as well as theirs (whatever they’ve in their Signatures).

    Outreach will do nothing for those who don’t take it the right way. As you said the real thing – It is a relationship building, and it requires efforts 🙂

    But thank you for your post. Your points are strong enough to move the needle in right direction.

    Thanks

  • ABDELHAK BAHI

    Nice article David !

    I’ve actually loved that statement “you should be building those relationships before the campaign is off the ground and while it is just an idea.”

    THAT WAS ACTUALLY the missing piece of puzzle in my outreach formula !

    Thanks and have a nice day !

    Regards,
    BAHI

  • Emmerey Rose

    Awesome read David! Great article. Do you also suggest guest posting? Do you think it still works nowadays?

    • David Farkas

      Appreciate that, Emmerey!

      As for guest posting, I believe they can be used as part of an overall link building strategy— when they’re done right. Hope that helps!

  • Michael LaRocca

    So one day I received an email that thanked me for all the helpful advice I give away on my website, then nicely pointed out three typos in my roughly 20,000 words. Since typo-free copy is my product, that was a big deal. I gave her a link that she didn’t even ask for and she’s actually a competitor. So read David’s advice again. “Help. Give.” Oh, and if any of y’all hear about the iPunch release before I do, let me know. I need half a dozen. Thanks.

  • Boni

    David,

    Thank you for your post. I agree with your points.

    It’s important to add value to prospects. We shouldn’t expect anything in return without adding any value.

    Anything that we get without adding any value can is a bonus 🙂

    Quick Question – how do you justify the time invested in personalized outreaching vs the cost?

    Manual outreach is time consuming and in a time when client’s budget aren’t great – how do you manage?

    Please let me know your thoughts

    Boni

    • David Farkas

      Good question, Boni and part of the challenge of being successful at link building outreach is finding a good balance between customization and getting out as many emails as you can. I’d just continue A/B testing till you find a sweet spot that works best. Best of luck!

  • SportzCraazy

    Very well written post. Link Building is not easy specially if you are talking about quality backlinks. We should try to focus on quality of the site. If you provide better quality content in your site than your competitor than google will automatically outrank your site. Focus on getting backlinks from the authority sites as well.

  • John

    Funny addition about the “blunt force trauma” thing. I do believe that’s a possible mental condition given the amount of spam and crap these webmasters receive on a daily basis.

    Help each other out, a simple, yet effective strategy that can be applied in every aspect of life. Thanks for this post David!

  • John

    I just reviewed this post again because I will be applying the same tactic on my campaign. I do have a question David if you don’t mind. How long do you build relationships with people until you know its the right time to ask for that link or anything for that matter? I’m curious. Thank you again for the guide.

    • David Farkas

      Don’t have any sort of set time, a lot of it is really just to forumalte your outreach in a way that makes the people you’re reaching out to feel like you care and like they are gaining as well, as opposed to just asking a stranger for a favor.

  • Zsdigital

    Thanks for sharing. It is a great article.
    Keep going.

  • Azizul

    The detailed statistics of the “Link Building Outreach” part were of great help. Thank you for sharing this info.

  • Nabil

    I’ve stuck around for the secret. This was the article I needed to read. So many webmasters make the mistake of forcing and begging through their emails, it’s just ineffective and brings you more stress.

    Building relationships with webmasters is the best and most effective way of increasing your website authority.

    Thanks for this amazing article.

  • Chadwick G. Clark

    Hello David

    As a brand new link builder, I found this article quite helpful and informative. Very explanatory and easy to read. Great job, man!
    It seems the article was published a few years ago, but I believe it is still very relevant. Thanks and I hope everything is going well in these crazy times!

    -cgc

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *