You can’t build good, relevant links to your website unless you have at least one linkable asset.
In the old days of link building, you could spam directories and engage in every link scheme under the sun in order to increase your search engine visibility, even though you had absolutely nothing on your website link-worthy.
These days, you have to create something worth linking to.
Keep that in mind while you consider the following scenario:
Imagine you’re a model train enthusiast and an exclusive invitation arrives in your mailbox for a private model railroading event.
The invite is printed on nice cardstock, and you’re intrigued by what it promises: free hors-d’oeuvres, fancy cocktails, one of the largest model train setups in the country, and a chance to chat with some of the world’s foremost model railroad hobbyists.
When you arrive at the event, it’s not in a hotel ballroom or a swanky bar. Instead, it’s a dingy basement that smells like mold, with a few folding chairs wobbling in each dark corner.
There are scattered cans of store-brand cola and some vienna sausages on a three-legged card-table, along with a plastic train someone bought at a flea market.
The only other person in attendance is a marketer in an ill-fitting polo shirt, who looks at you sheepishly. How would you feel in that situation?
You’re Not Ready for Link Building Without Linkable Assets
When your site has no linkable assets, that’s the exact feeling webmasters have when they open your outreach, read your link request and then visit your website.
You have nothing to offer them.
Not only have you wasted their time, but their trust has been violated. They’re probably a bit weirded out, too.
Unless you’re a sociopath, you don’t want to make anyone feel like that.
You don’t want to waste anyone’s time. So, what’s the solution?
Creating a linkable asset.
What is a Linkable Asset?
I’m glad you asked. If you don’t already know, a linkable asset is a piece of content on your site that’s worth linking to. Just as most people don’t share photos of their garbage or upload videos of paint drying to YouTube, most webmasters aren’t interested in linking to blank space or junk.
And for the most part, they also aren’t interested in linking to your product or service pages, or pages where you’re telling the world how awesome you are.
Basically, a linkable asset is any part of a website or organization that its target audience will genuinely perceive as worth citing/referencing to. It could be people, content, events or anything that can be really interesting to a specifically targeted market.
Linkable assets accomplish the following:
- They keep attracting links to your website
- They strengthen your expertise, authority and brand presence
- They generate an audience, leads and brand advocates
- They increase your search engine visibility, social media visibility and website traffic
You’re already providing a great product or service and you’re ready to grow your business. You want more leads, and you want to get them directly through your website. That requires traffic, which in turn requires search engine visibility.
Search engine visibility requires healthy, relevant links, and you can’t get those links if you don’t have anything to link to.
You can reach out to other webmasters until your fingers grind your keyboard into a fine layer of plastic powder, but no one’s going to link to you unless your site offers something valuable to your audience beyond your product or service.
How Can I Create Linkable Assets?
If you’re just starting out and your resources are limited, you could start with something relatively simple.
Consider your audience and your customers to discover:
- What are their common questions?
- What problems can you solve for them?
- How can you make them into better versions of themselves?
- What advice can you offer them?
As Eric Ward puts it, “useful content gets linked” and “the less useful your content is, the less likely you are to ever receive a link to it”.
Usefulness can include content that is helpful, educational or entertaining. A linkable asset should never be overly self-promotional, which is a common mistake many people make.
- If you own a record shop or other retail outlet, you could put together a ‘diary series’ chronicling funny, strange and absurd experiences you’ve had with your customers. People love stories. This would fall under the ‘entertainment’ category. If it’s memorable and it makes people laugh, they’ll link to it.
- If you run an automotive repair shop, you could put together a series of short videos about common problems you see all the time. The kind of stuff your potential customers might be inclined to fix themselves. Those videos would fall under the ‘helpful’ category, and people would gladly link to it. It would also establish you as a generous person and an expert.
- If you run a veterinary clinic, you could interview a wildlife biologist, zookeeper or a TV personality from Animal Planet. That’s interesting content, and it also falls into the ‘educational’ category. People love interviews, and they love hearing from people with fascinating jobs. People share and link to content that makes them think and teaches them something.
It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in. Start small and create something cool.
4 Types of Linkable Assets
Example 1: Infographic
First, let’s take a look at one of the most common forms of linkable asset– the infographic.
This is a good looking and informative infographic, and the subject matter is good– model trains are a niche hobby, to be sure, but model railroad hobbyists are passionate people who are always seeking to learn more about their favorite subject.
To top off a good infographic, ModelBuildings.org also produced a great piece of written content to accompany it. It expands on the infographic, and I imagine it would be a good starting place for the budding hobbyist.
You could realistically produce an infographic like this, too.
Even if you had to hire a designer, it still wouldn’t be a big resource sink if you did the research. And you could also do a nice writeup like ModelBuildings did, which includes added value to the page itself– you’re more likely to get a text link to the page instead of just an infographic embed.
But it seems pretty obvious to me that ModelBuildings didn’t put too much time into link building. According to Ahrefs, this infographic has about 100 links from 6 different domains.
Every link is hyper-relevant, so people appreciate it– they’re just finding out about it on their own, more likely than not.
Breaking It Down: This infographic is good because it shows the history of model trains, and also shows how they changed along with technology. It’s aesthetically appealing, simple, and easy to read. It’s relevant to model hobbyists, people who like trains in general, people who enjoy toys and collectibles in general, and history buffs.
They also added real value with the written content on the page.
Inspiration: So, what can you take away from this?
Obviously, you can see that infographics are still good content. But, you can also dig a little bit deeper.
This website sells model buildings, which are generally purchased by model railroading hobbyists. But instead of making an infographic about model buildings, they thought a little bit bigger and broader– they made an infographic about the history of model trains. This appeals beyond their audience of people who build intricate model railroad setups.
If they want links, this is a good way to go. They didn’t try to outdo any other model train infographics. Instead, they put their own spin on it, added some extra value, and made a good piece of content.
They also link to all of their other linkable content assets on the infographic page, just to get you more invested. Those are more focused on people who might buy some of their model buildings. So, it works from a digital marketing perspective, and it could work very nicely from a link building perspective.
So, how does this apply to you?
Really, a historical infographic can work well in any niche.
Let’s say your website sells bedding and pillows. You could easily do an infographic that focuses on how on-screen beds in movies and TVs have changed over the years. You could keep it simple for the infographic, citing famous shows and movies. Then, you could create a 750 word piece of content for the infographic page, explaining how textiles have become both more affordable and more comfortable over time. And, if you wanted to sleep like Audrey Hepburn, you could just head over to a product page.
This goes broader because it will appeal to fans of films and television, but it will also appeal to people who are always window shopping for newer, more comfortable bedding. Mommy bloggers, lifestyle bloggers, beauty bloggers, fashion bloggers, and health bloggers.
All potentially good links for a bedding-focused eCommerce site, or a local store that sells the same.
Now, do a quick Google search for “(your niche) infographic” and see what you find. Select a good one, and then think about it in the context of this model railroad infographic.
Getting any ideas?
Other examples:
Example 2: 101 Guide
Next, let’s take a look at another popular form of content– the 101 guide.
These guides help total beginners get started on any given project. It could be sewing, macro photography, blogging, basket weaving, or playing keno.
If you try to out-skyscraper any one of these guides in a saturated niche, you’re going to be disappointed with the amount of links you get.
Still, 101 guides are worth taking a look at because they can provide us with inspiration, and because they can encourage us to try in a different direction.
I recommend taking a look at a guide not related to your niche at all.
Let’s check out Timothy Sykes’ Pennystocking 101, which is about as far away from link building as you can get.
But I love this guide. Timothy does a great job with his sales pitch, to be sure. He lets you feel like he’s letting you in on a secret. He makes you feel like he’s going to help you. And he just might. I don’t know for sure since I’ve never actually traded penny stocks. But I do know this is a good guide.
Breaking it Down: If you’re seeking out this guide, you probably don’t know much about penny stocks, either. But you want to learn.
Timothy Sykes knows the secret to a good 101 guide– making your audience feel comfortable. With any 101 guide, you’re getting in over your head. You’re trying to learn about something complex, and you’re trying to learn it well enough to actually do it.
This guide is comprehensive, and it’s broken down into easily digestible parts. It’s well designed and it’s not hard to understand, even for a pretty esoteric subject.
But what sets it apart is that you have a full guided tour of penny stocking. Through this 101 guide, you get to know Timothy, and he personally guides you through everything. It’s not dry or stuffy.
In fact, it’s downright linkable.
You don’t feel like you’re on a leaky boat in uncharted waters with this guide. You feel like you’re in good hands.
And that’s why this guide has so many links.
Inspiration: First, look up “(your industry) 101 Guide” and see what you come up with. Skim through a few of them, and then go back to Timothy Sykes’ guide.
Chances are, the guides you found are impersonal and boring compared to his.
What’s something you could realistically, personally help someone accomplish?
If we go back to the bedding store, maybe that something is just folding a fitted sheet, or finding a good textile for every sleeping style. The subject matter doesn’t have to be super exciting, because that’s where you come in.
Write your 101 guide like you’re the tour guide. Make your readers feel comfortable plugging ahead with something they’ve never tried before. Let them get to know you, and let them trust you.
Impart your knowledge to them, even if it’s just about something small. You can build something linkable by taking a personable, easily digestible approach like Timothy Sykes does.
Your job is to hold your reader’s hand through complex, possibly intimidating material. Make them feel comfortable and confident, and you’ll have yourself a stellar linkable asset.
Keep it simple, not stuffy.
Other Examples:
Example 3: Ultimate Guide
Next, we come to ultimate guides.
Many people think of these as the “be all, end all” of linkable assets.
You also have to know the difference between 101 guides and ultimate guides. A 101 guide is for beginners. An ultimate guide is for people who are already hardcore about any given subject– they just want to do it better than everyone else. They know the basics, and they want to dominate.
Let’s use Android Central’s Pokemon Go: The Ultimate Guide as an example.
This is how they start the guide:
“If you’re here, it’s because you want to become the best Pokémon trainer that you can be. If you’re just getting started with Pokémon Go, then you should check out our guide to getting started before diving in here. This guide is for those of you who are grinding levels, capturing Pokémon and taking over Gyms.
As you know by now, there is a lot going on with Pokémon Go, and we’re going to detail most of it out for you here.”
They also provide a link, right up front, for parents whose kids are playing the game. They’ve covered all of their bases, and they’ve identified their audience right out of the gate.
Breaking it Down: This guide succeeds from the start because Android Central does something most ultimate guides don’t do, and they do it in the first two paragraphs– they identify who the guide is not for.
This lets the hardcore Pokemon Go players know they’ve found the right bit of content, and it means they’re more likely to share it with their friends.
If you were doing outreach for this guide, it would be a breeze. Seasoned gamers, Pokemon fanatics, mobile gamers, anime fans, and obsessed kids all feel like they’ve struck gold. It could earn links from geek culture blogs, mobile game blogs, anime blogs, Pokemon blogs, general game blogs, and more.
This guide keeps it simple, but it doesn’t pander and it doesn’t waste time. I don’t know much about this game, other than remembering when it was on the news 24/7, but this guide goes at a brisk pace and is full of actual details from people who have succeeded playing Pokemon Go.
It’s long and detailed, but there’s no fluff. It respects the reader’s time, so they can find what they need and get back to the game.
Inspiration: So, how do you find inspiration in this? Making something like this ultimate guide seems pretty overwhelming, right? It does to me.
Instead of getting overwhelmed, do a search for “(your industry) ultimate guide” or “(your hobby) ultimate guide.” Read a few pages, and then ask yourself– what do you wish they’d addressed?
What was missing?
Figure out what the guides in your industry haven’t covered, and then make an ultimate guide that answers those questions.
Identify who the guide is not for. The guide is not for the people who were satisfied with those other guides– it’s for the people who cared enough, who are hardcore enough to have the same questions you did.
Just like the Pokemon Go guide isn’t for beginners, yours shouldn’t be a 101 course. It should dig deeper into the unexplored, and ignore the already-covered territory entirely.
Back to the bedding retailer example– if you dug through several textile guides but found their coverage on certain skin conditions lacking, you could put together an ultimate guide to help people with Rosacea find an ideal pillow, blanket, and sheet combination to fit both their skin condition and sleep style.
Other Examples:
- The Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Money-Making Blog in 47 Minutes
- Ultimate Guide to Plant-Based Nutrition
- Ultimate Guide to Healing Back Pain
Example 4: Resource Page
Finally, we’ll take a look at the venerable Resource Page.
Creating a resource page is actually fairly easy, especially compared to the other linkable assets above.
As humans, when we’re interested in something, we want to consume every bit of knowledge about it that we can. That goes for hobbies, but it also goes for mastering our trades and professions.
We want to know more and get better, and that’s where a good resource page can earn some major links.
Let’s look at Medassure Services’ “The Definitive Guide To Medical Staff Training.”
Though it is a guide in many ways, it’s also an excellent resource page.
It contains links to everything you need to know about HIPAA compliance, OSHA standards, customer service, creating training programs, and much, much more.
It’s more attractive than your average resource page, and it’s also better organized. It’s still a killer resource page where you can find everything you need to know about training a medical staff, all in one place.
Breaking it Down: This resource page succeeds because it leaves no stone unturned. It also succeeds because it breaks this huge wealth of information down into bite size chunks.
If there’s something you want to know about training your medical staff, it’s probably in here.
A good resource page is thorough, and this one is as thorough as you can get.
Many resource pages are just random collections of links. It seems like someone with a short attention span just adds links whenever it strikes their fancy, and there’s no real end goal.
A thorough, goal-oriented resource page is much more formidable than a haphazard, amateur resource page.
Inspiration: The bedding store could build a resource page for healthy sleep supplements, or it could build a resource page that helps people keep pets off of their beds. It could combine those two resources with other ideas, as well.
Resource pages are a living document. You can always add and subtract links as you go.
But always keep your resource page focused and goal-oriented. Identify exactly how it should help your audience, and then you’ll have a linkable asset. This is one scenario where you probably can outdo your competitors without overextending your resources.
Other Examples:
- Parents of Children with Food Allergies
- National Association of Automobile Museums List
- 21 Amazing Sites With Breathtaking Free Stock Photos
Conclusion
When you’re thinking about creating a linkable asset, know you don’t have to break the bank.
Poke around and see what people in other industries are up to.
The bottom line is that you can’t build links unless you have something valuable to link to, but people try regardless. When you don’t have any linkable assets, you’ll spend hours on outreach and promotion without achieving any results.
If you want other websites to link to you, you have to give them a reason.
Comments
Great post David. We blog twice a week, but this got me thinking that maybe we should focus more on a really high quality linkable asset instead of posting often.
Thanks Susan, and that sounds like a great plan!
Another great post Dave, so true!
Thanks Jamie 🙂
I did a video showing my plumbing client installing a tankless water heater. Nothing fancy. No sales message. It’s pushing 40,000 views. he’s sold a lot of water heaters because of that video over the past 5 years!
Sounds like a cool video, Bob. One thing that’s important to keep in mind is that views don’t automatically translate into links, and for that you’ll need to have an outreach strategy.
This couldn’t be more true. From someone that runs an online marketing agency in Australia I find that clients are still struggling with the need to produce good content let alone linkable assets.
At some stage in most campaigns it’s likely that some form of offsite or link building will be required and if you have linkable assets it makes it so much easier. I find however that as a third party operating on their behalf you can either a) content mentor or b) content market. If you go option B and do it on their behalf then it’s more challenging to create a linkable asset without the input of the business owner.
Good point Byron, creating something worth linking to isn’t a walk in the park, but there really isn’t any alternative to building quality links.
To those that struggle I recommend starting small and keeping it simple. As an expert in your industry you’ll be surprised how much you can help out others with your knowledge base. You can even just come up with an FAQ page where you list the most common questions you get from your customers and your answers and tips.
Byron – Agreed, getting the content message across is still a tough sell and often met with “can’t you just fix our site so Google ranks it”.
I blog once a week regularly. Consistency blog experts say is a must in order to attract loyal readers and search engines. Once a week posting of an article will give you a lot of time to improve any deficiencies your article will have but link is very hard to come no matter how well you put efforts into your articles.
Sounds like you’ve got something good going, Bigwas!
Sticking to an editorial calendar is great AS LONG as the quality is there.
And links won’t appear magically no matter how good your content is. You’ll need to be pro-active in finding and asking relevant sites to link to you. I wrote about this in detail here http://10.0.0.111/upperrank/site1/ask-for-links-because-you-cant-rank-without-them/
Keep me posted on your progress.
A fantastic post – tweeted, shared on my FB page and Google+.
In my own business, I’m on a crusade to STOP what I’ve termed “mindless blogging” because I know there’s better way to get qualified increased traffic to websites and a better use of people’s time.
And I prefer to free people of their editorial calendar because I think that’s been the problem – people think they need to blog regularly when it can do more harm than good.
The most valuable links and shares will be earned due to deserving content. The problem is most people don’t create “deserving content.” So much stuff is regurgitated and filler content.
In this era of masses of content and competition, I believe for entrepreneurs and business owners to stand out from the crowd, they MUST produce outstanding, exceptional content. No exceptions.
Glad you enjoyed Shae, and thanks for sharing!
Great comment and I couldn’t agree more, that it’s more about the quality then the quantity. It seems like a lot of people get caught up in this craze to churn out mediocre content just for the sake of creating content or satisfying search engines or some other reason. I look forward to hearing from you again 🙂
I never thought an article on ‘link building’ could be interesting, but you proved me wrong, Nicholas! #HUGSS
LOL, thanks buddy 🙂
Nice post David, and you make good points. The fist thing I’d suggest doing before considering writing a blog post is, ask yourself, would YOU be interested in the post you’re about to write if you found it?! If the answer’s ..erm.. nah not really, don’t write it.
Thanks for the tip Chris!
Hi David,
Great article and I love to reading some of the comments as well. I think a lot of people get advised to “start blogging” as a way to great content but invest a lot of time and effort in content that never makes it to the top of the rankings.
In my opinion the lack of good keyword research, knowledge of search intents and the lack of understanding the value of linkable content are the main reasons people keep on investing in this type of content. Besides that a lot of people think they keep their website “fresh” this way, although those ranking signals only apply to an certain type of search intentions.
After reading the article I was wondering, do you link from your linkable assests to the sales pages / the pages with a buying intention as an way to deliver more linkjuice to them? At this moment I do add those links if they seem appropriate, but they always give me the feeling they make my linkable assest less linkable. What’s your point of view on this?
Best regards,
Bob
Bob, It’s essential to keep linkable assets non-promotional.
I suppose if you’re able to naturally link to a product without it appearing as an ad, that should be fine.
I’ve been talking about “linkable assets” a lot lately. So glad to see someone sharing the same sentiments.
John – Glad we’re on the same page 🙂
This article is exactly what I tell clients on a daily basis. I work with local based clients usually in the service industry, so a lot of the industries could be considered ‘boring’ or ‘difficult’ to create content for.
Informative, how-to content is always great and with a little thought, effort and creativeness, you can always come up with ideas that will work for your business.
Absolutely Liam!
This is absolutely amazing post and very help full to buld linkable assets
I appreciate the kind words, Zemen!
This article does a great job at articulating the importance of a linkable asset. Well done David.
Glad you enjoyed it, Carmelo.
Wow, this post is excellent and I really love reading your articles.
A lot of people are searching for this type of content and you can aid them greatly. Keep up the good work!
Thank you for your vote of confidence!
Precisely! Once in a blue moon, I get an email asking me to link to somebody’s website. Then I look at the website and can only wonder, “Why?” There’s nothing of value for my users, so why would I do that? How does wasting my people’s time increase my credibility?
This degree of honesty is what’s killing my own efforts at link building before they start. I’ve got a Resources page, and I happen to think they’re brilliant resources. I wrote them all, so I’m probably biased, but still…
I know that lack of incoming links are the single greatest weakness in my website. This blog post encapsulates why it’ll probably stay that way. Thanks for writing it!
Glad you like it and found it helpful, Michael! Best of luck with your link building efforts!
David! Thanks for your nice post. I think Infographics is the best way to get more and more Quality Backlinks.
Thanks, Anwarual and I totally agree that infographics, when done right, can make for awesome linkable assets!
Imagine if businesses took to building linkable assets like they took to buying links back in the day… WOW! We’d have a lot of great content out there versus a sea of spam.
Haha, you’re absolutely right about that, Ryan! Apparently, the lure for short-cuts and tricks is more tempting than just doing things the right way =)
Thank you for sharing this David and looking forward to building high-quality links to my website 🙂
Best of luck, Austin!
Hey David,
Love the way this article is structured and enjoy the examples of linkable assets you have.
Feedback means a lot, Dru, and glad you enjoyed it!
Good job David! Awesome tips here.
Thanks so much for stopping in, Emmerey!
Appreciate the article David. Curious if you have any suggestions for good infographic designers that can be used as linkable assets? Either DIY sites or agencies.
Not off the top of my head, Gary – sorry about that!
You definitely put a brand new spin on a
subject which has been discussed for years.