Off Page SEO

While everyone has the ability to outreach sites and ask for a link, I felt that I need to find a more efficient method to reach out to better sites that don’t get +50 requests for guest posts on a daily basis. I have nothing against that method, in fact, I’ve been using it for over 5 years and still do but I need to point out that the site quality isn’t like it was before and the sites are now charging an arm and a leg for a link. So without any further ado, I’ll explain in short steps how I have been able to get free guest posts (80% of the time) that are highly relevant to my niche. 1) Find a niche Facebook group For example – Facebook Keto Facebook Sleep Facebook Dating Facebook Anxiety & Stress Facebook Crypto You should only join groups that are very active and that are sharing blogs here and there. I remember back in the day when I had my WordPress blog I managed to get a lot of free guest posts on niche-related sites and also free traffic by sharing my posts in that Facebook group which also helped with rankings because of the post receiving real visitors. Keep in mind that these days Google is evaluating even more User Signals. Here is proof that I am not talking BS This screenshot was captured while writing this post.  2) Be well known in the group – Most of the groups you’ll try to join will ask if you’re just looking to join to promote your stuff. They do that because they are very suspicious of guys like us and want to keep the group non-promotional stuff. I know that from my personal experience as I’ve got banned from more than 8 Facebook groups promoting from the beginning. That’s why first you should interact with other members and provide some value here and there. Believe me, it will be worth it. 3) Reach out to the admin – This highly depends from a Facebook group to group. If you already see that other members are requiring guest posts, then this step is not a must. However, if the group is not highly focused on guest posts, then you definitively should contact the admin and let him know exactly what you will be posting. 4) Post your requirement about guest post – Your focus here should be to get the attention of the group from your post. Collect some articles that were already viral within the niche. I use Buzzsumo to find viral articles, you can use whatever tool that shows that the article has been shared on Social Platforms. I’m also upfront that I want an attribution link. I always make sure that the content I share with them is well-written and contains multiple images. Most of the time they share the post within the group and to their social accounts. Wait for people to comment requesting more info.

This is a list of sites where you can share your blog/website and get a backlink from powerful domains. Most of the sites are free but there are some paid ones as well. Keep in mind that this is not the average list you find on Google. The list doesn’t consist of garbage sites, but well-maintained ones where you can find well-funded startups being shared.  

For many clients, you may encounter that a corresponding blogosphere does not exist to get links from. Eg: A signboard maker. You won’t find sites fully dedicated to signboards. Yes, you can get links from blogs that talk about promoting your business, branding, etc but you will only get page-level relevance, not domain-level relevance. What can you do in this case? Well, a strategy I use is to guest post at sites of the same businesses in other cities. This works wonders because sign board makers in other cities are not competitors of your client hence do not hesitate in accepting your guest posts. Mind you – most businesses don’t know what a guest post is so you will have to position it as “collaboration” So just Search for – intitle:Business type + “other city” in google and scrape the results. Get a list of results for at least 10 cities and send them an outreach email. This strategy never fails to work. I have scored hundreds of relevant links this way for clients where there is no passionate blogosphere in the niche.

Guest posting was and is one of the most used to acquire backlinks to increase your rankings. However, many do it wrong and even after spending ton of $$$ they barely see any increase on rankings. That’s why I decided to create this post and show you the criteria stuff you should know while doing your guest posting campaign. Reducing risk starts with the sites you pick. Not using sponsorship tags guest post tags not picking sites that only accept all paid posts not picking sites that have crazy OBL, write for us tag huge downward trend ie 50+ percent traffic drop. Anchor text distribution we like to mix it up and use anchors like branded, brand plus generic, longer-form anchors, click here. I remember a Google search quality employee tweeted years ago to make the anchors “look like you are not doing SEO”. I think the risk is also the type of page you build links to example are you linking to an info content piece or a money page. It’s so easy to look non-natural with money links. Another thing we always do with info content looks at who’s already ranking top 5 and pick natural anchors from the pages. We have some clients who are very aggressive in competitive verticals 200 plus links acquired per month don’t have issues. But they already have good link velocity and have a good number of RD in the profile. That said it seems Google is devaluing a lot of low-quality sites these days. If you desire lower risk links look into resource page links as a first option. In my eyes, they are lower risk and one of the safest options. Google could be looking at the “industry average” for a specific vertical. If your competitors are all getting 20 links a month and you acquire 200 it’s a vertical spike. Links that send traffic and are niche relevant are always going to be the best type of link to acquire. The last patent would allude to using safe anchor text such as the ones mentioned. PR is always good to help diversify the link profile. Yeah, it’s always good to have a healthy ratio of branded anchors in some spaces we aim for 90% branded. Exacts are a very small amount of profile. You can also do a NewsWire for a release yet focus on the quality ones is my advice. Dafont Sans Serif Fonts

When doing link building there are many questions that flow up on your mind like should we use the same site to link us twice? What kind of anchor text should we use? I decided to make a post and answer some of the most important things you should know. To that end… when building links to your/clients’/employer’s web properties, how do you feel about the following: Referring Domain (RD) diversity, i.e. never a repeat backlink from the same RD? Or, a different page on the same RD is a-okay forever and ever? Or… somewhere in between 2-3 repeats is okay, but you believe in a “law of diminishing returns”? What are your most preferred metrics in evaluating sites to secure backlinks from? TF, CF, DR, DA, PR, Ahrefs est. traffic, GA traffic, rankings analysis… or? With respect to your backlinks’ anchor text, what is the ratio of branded anchors: keyworded anchors: naked URLs? Also with respect to your backlinks’ destination URLs, what is the ratio of home page: money page: pillar content: other? With regards to niche relevancy, do you believe a referring domain must be relevant to your site, or you will earn a penalty? Or, do you care more about the referring *page*’s relevancy? Or, neither? Or, both? Answers RD Diversity – Probably highly important. Chances are, it’s one of the things I went into a campaign looking for, especially with a paid vendor. The big annoyance with vendors is it feels like theft if someone has an author account (or another way to reliably post within a few days.) It seems like a month isn’t going to hit the link goal… then magically 3 links appear in the last week, all on repeat sites Traffic est from aHrefs or SEMRush – it’s basically a snapshot at how their rankings have been doing. There are so many DR40 domains selling links that get like 300 visits a month. If the site actually had the trust that DR was looking to model, it would have way more than 10 visits a day. Traffic – and traffic trend – above all else. (Trend-wise – I am super not interested in a link from a site that’s lost 70% of the est traffic it was getting. You’re tanking, bro – a link from you isn’t going to help me.) I do heavy branded – something like 50%, and then a good chunk of generics, and then longer phrases that contain my term – so ‘great dog food options’ not ‘dog food’ Overall – something like 30-40% home and then everything else mixed. But if I’m working with a specific vendor they may be just a piece of the puzzle and I want only links to money pages from them, etc. Ideally, it would be a relevant + strong domain, the next best is a relevant page on a strong domain, and then a lower authority but relevant domain. Everything else is a distant second.  Stuff like roundups on a high DR domain but no connection to the topic of the site getting the link may be good at pumping DR/DA/etc SEO-stats and not much else)

Hey everyone, I thought I’d start a thread that showcases some good examples of content that has earned a bunch of backlinks. I’ve listed out the URL of the content, the number of backlinks (by domain), some notable links and then a quick reason why I believe it has done well. You can use this as a source of inspiration for thinking about the assets that you might build out yourself. And if you have any other examples that you think are really strong, just drop them as a single reply in this thread using the same format as me Hope this is useful URL: https://www.divorce-online.co.uk/blog/is-fortnite-becoming-a-relationship-wrecker/ Title: Is Fortnite becoming a relationship wrecker? Linking Domains: 616 Links From:: Bloomberg, Quartz, CNET, CNBC, plus many more. Why it Earns Links: Very timely, provocative, and easy for publications to create stories around. URL: https://www.staveleyhead.co.uk/blog/news/nine-superbugs-found-on-london-public-transport Title: London: Under the Microscope Linking Domains: 57 Links From:: The Guardian, London Metropolitan University, ITV, BBC, + more. Why it Earns Links: Highly emotional/shocking, original data, regionally focused. URL: https://www.spaseekers.com/spa-blog/dream-summer-job Title: Become our official spa-ologist and professional hot-tubber this summer Linking Domains: 42 Links From:: The Sun, Fox News, Metro, The Irish Post, + more. Why it Earns Links: it’s a job listing purely created to earn links/coverage – I put this in the ‘too good to be true’ bucket that triggers a lot of people to share and discuss (covers the perfect range of emotions). It’s also regional, which makes it easier to pitch local news outlets. URL: https://www.unilad.co.uk/food/you-can-now-get-paid-to-be-a-yorkshire-pudding-taster/ Title: You Can Now Get Paid To Be A Yorkshire Pudding Taster NOTE: this is one of the pieces of coverage that this link asset got, not the link asset itself (it’s just easier to explain with this). Similar to the above, this is a job listing built for coverage/links. It was done by Airtasker, where you could become a “Yorkshire Pudding Taster” (if you don’t know what this is, you’re both not British enough and absolutely missing out). Airtasker has now 301d the listing, but what I love about this is that they hosting the job application on Airtasker, so you had to sign up for an Airtasker account to apply, creating new user signups as well as links – genius. This is the original listing URL: https://www.airtasker.co.uk/tasks/need-help-perfecting-my-yorkshire-puddings-12224037/ Linking Domains: 33 Links From:: Marie Claire, Lad Bible, OK! Magazine, Pretty52, + more. Why it Earns Links: It’s another emotion-fueled, highly shareable piece that makes for a great headline with very little effort on the journalist’s side. URL: https://www.plumbworld.co.uk/blog/shy-bladder-plumbworld-launches-the-privi-pee-cape Title: Shy Bladder? Plumbworld Launches the Privi-Pee Cape Linking Domains: 39 Links From:: HuffPo, Maxim, Metro (and was also discussed on US national tv news). Why it Earns Links: it’s a fake product that’s just about believable. It sounds utterly ridiculous but is just within the realm of possible that it makes for a funny and quick headline for a journalist. This is all about how easy it is to cover it. They also made it look as legitimate as possible, while keeping lighthearted still. URL: https://appinstitute.com/pokemongo-realtime-stats/ Title: Pokemon Go App Downloads and Revenue Linking Domains: 215 Links From:: Android Authority, The Next Web, Games Radar, CNET, + more. Why it Earns Links: collates ‘real-time’ data, was launched very timely around the hype of Pokemon Go, it provides a great way for a journalist to write a headline from without needing to do a lot. URL: https://fleximize.com/from-millionaires-to-billionaires/ Title: From Millions to Billions Linking Domains: 133 Links From:: CNBC, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Business Insider, + more. Why it Earns Links: Provocative, data-backed with great design, and it’s easy for a journalist to reference it in a story (in particular as it pits one person against another). URL: https://www.folly-farm.co.uk/news/sloth-retirement-home/ Title: New sloth arrives at Folly Farm Linking Domains: 48 Links From:: Boston 25 News, Cheezburger, + more. Why it Earns Links: highly shareable and may for a regional outlet to pick up the story and run a piece on it. URL: https://animagraffs.com/how-a-handgun-works-1911-45/ Title: How a Handgun Works Linking Domains: 257 Links From:: Gizmodo, Wikipedia, + more Why it Earns Links: at the time it was a unique way of presenting the content and was highly shareable. You won’t get news pickup, but it will easily get into highly relevant, topical publications. URL: https://www.discover.com/credit-cards/resources/the-american-idea-of-success/ Title: The American Idea of Success Linking Domains: 74 Links From:: CNN, Fox, Entrepreneur, + more. Why it Earns Links: credible brand, unique data, regional spilt – all makes this very easy for a publication to create a story around it. URL: https://drugabuse.com/featured/instagram-drugs-and-rock-n-roll/ Title: Instagram, Drugs, Rock & Roll Linking Domains: 107 Links From:: Vice, The Daily Beast, Billboard & more. Why it Earns Links: for the time it was a unique content format, it was unique data (even though it was collated), and pits a number of festivals against each other that also have a controversial angle that will get pickup and be easy to create catchy headlines to. URL: https://www.injuryclaimcoach.com/analysis-of-the-florida-man.html Title: An Analysis of the Florida Man Linking Domains: 24 Links From:: NPR, University of Florida, Miami Herald. Why it Earns Links: timely and has a strong regional angle to it, making it perfect for local news outlets.

A link building secret we have been using at our link building agency to land DR 60+ links for free: Join the B2B bloggers group. Writers here are actively looking for digital marketing experts for quotes in their articles. Here is the Facebook group for you to join Peace out

One very basic tactic I’ve used for years which still works for link building ideas today. Looking in different global markets at competitive verticals. 1. Pick a term let’s say “website hosting comparison”. Usually go with high CPC terms from Ahrefs also look at difficulty scores. 2. Use Google Ad Preview tool, you can also see organic listings https://adwords.google.com/apt/AdPreview sure you can use a VPN as well. 3. Check different markets – U.K, US, AU, CA, EU. 4. Pick the top 10 results and start prospecting in each region for link ideas and patterns. One thing many link builders do is they don’t think Global they only look in the local market.

The first time I tried Shotgun Skyscraper technique, it was a failiure. I hardly got any links from a couple of hundred emails that I sent. But this time I used it again for a client in a different niche(meditation niche) and it worked great. First of all I made sure that the piece I was promoting was the best one. And it was. Way more comprehensive and detailed than the rest. Secondly, I incentivized to link to us by saying that we gonna share their piece with our decent social following. From the 300 odd recipients, we got 15 links and 3 guest post opportunities. The number of links would have been higher if the mailing tool that I used did not fuck up. It sent the follow up as a separate email instead of replying to the original email so people were asking me what I was following up for So yeah the tactic works in noncommercial niches. Not so much in commercial niches!

Linkbuilding tip to get 100% relevant backlinks: For many clients, you may encounter that a corresponding blogosphere does not exist to get links from. Eg: A signboard maker. You won’t find sites fully dedicated to signboards. Yes you can get links from blogs which talk about promoting your business, branding etc but you will only get page level relavance not domain level relevance. What can you do in this case? Well, a strategy I use is to guest post at sites of same businesses in other cities. This works wonders because signboard makers in other cities are not competitors of your client hence do not hesitate in accepting your guest posts. Mind you – most businesses dont know what a guest post is so you will have to position it as “collaboration” So just Search for – intitle:Business type + “other city” in google and scrape the results. Get a list of results for atleast 10 cities and send them an outreach email.This strategy never fails to work. I have scored hundreds of relevant links this way for clients where there is no passionate blogsphere in the niche.