A simple guide to link prospecting

Link discovery is the process of finding quality websites that may link to your content. This is an important step in any link building campaign.

For link exploration to be effective, you need to build your marketing campaign around the specific type of content you want to promote. This determines who you will contact, request the link, and how you will proceed.

Here are six connection prospecting methods that can work wonders, but there are also methods that aren’t as effective anymore.

1. Digital PR

Digital PR is about creating content that journalists can use in the stories they cover and then promoting it to them.

It is up to each journalist’s discretion whether to use your content to support their article. If they do, you’ll likely get a link without having to beg.

There are a few ways to make it work for you:

1. Become the expert they go to for quotes
2. Discover interesting story angles
3. Provide new insights into popular stories

Here is an example of a law firm getting links from: News reports on Australian protection visas By providing expert quotes:

They do this by developing partnerships and becoming trusted sources for journalists.

This is another example from the VPN overview. it earned many links from journalists Five UK banks revealed where customers are most vulnerable to fraud:

Their process is simple:

• Come up with an interesting story angle
• Find data to support it
• Share on Roxhill with journalists covering this topic

The key to the success or failure of your digital PR campaign is the newsworthiness of your story. If it’s not something you see in a news publication, you need to redesign it and make it newsworthy.

2. Data journalism

Data journalism is journalism that uses data as a key component of reporting, storytelling, and analysis.

It combines traditional journalistic practices with the use of digital tools, data analysis and visualization techniques to present information in a way that is easy for audiences to understand.

There are two main ways you can get links through data journalism:

• Work with publishers to produce exclusive stories
• Become a source that helps journalists research and narrative

For example, BridgeDetroit partnered with NBC News to develop Data journalism article about segregation in Detroit. They get a link at the very top of the article:

Another example comes from Practica, a consultancy that links anthropology with marketing and business. It gets a link from a data-driven story New Zealand’s extinct species:

Data journalism differs from regular PR in that it focuses on visualizing complex data. Data journalism often includes interactive maps, charts, and graphs.

look at these Nine examples of outstanding data journalism Seek inspiration.

This method of link exploration is great for:

• non-profit organization
• research institute
• Consulting agencies and institutions
• Companies with research departments
• Small businesses with rich local data

What most people don’t realize is that you don’t necessarily need to own your own data for this technology to work.

You just have to be the first to organize your existing data in a format that journalists can use to visualize newsworthy stories.

It’s similar to digital PR, if your data can’t be used to tell stories that people care about, then this technology isn’t for you.

Once you have a newsworthy angle and the data visualization to support it, you will need:

• Carefully select publications to market exclusive stories, or
• Use platforms like Roxhill to send mass messages to journalists in your industry

3. Statistics page

Statistics pages provide a list of facts and figures about a specific industry or topic. These pages are great for attracting evergreen links.

For example, check out Ahrefs’ post SEO Statistics Since its launch in 2020, it has continued to gain links:

Every few years, the author of this post updates the statistics to stay relevant:

That’s why it naturally gains connections year after year.

This is an easy way to get links. Start by checking Ahrefs’ keyword browser for topics in your industry that people are actively looking for statistics on:

Then, curate interesting facts and statistics for writers, journalists, and journalists to use in their content.

You can get some initial links by contacting authors who frequently write about your topic. However, long-term success will come from updating your posts with the latest data.

4. Authentic thought leadership

Thought leadership is the practice of establishing yourself or your brand as an authority in a specific field or industry.

Content is a common tool for becoming a thought leader. In particular, thought leadership content shares:

• unique insights
• valuable expertise
• Innovative ideas
• Thought provoking comments

The more innovative, helpful, and thought-provoking your content is, the more likely it is to make an impact and earn links.

For example, Basecamp wrote a short article about “a manager“:

In this article, they define a new concept, offer strong opinions on it, and pave the way for others to follow in their footsteps.

This article is less than 300 words long, but has generated over 900 links from 200 referring domains:

The power of Basecamp’s brand supports its content. As such, anything it publishes has the potential to be considered thought leadership.

But what if you don’t have the authority that a big brand or influencer has?

In this case, the strategy’s success comes from consistency. Thought leadership cannot thrive in isolation, especially when you are laying the foundation for your brand.

For example, look at how Animalz continues to publish thought leadership content that attracts links:

This is a great example of thought leadership Content link building in action.

The more thought leadership you publish, the greater your reputation in the industry will be. This is how you get consistent links using this strategy.

However, you need to keep innovating. The creativity in your ideas and the way you express them will elevate your content into true thought leadership.

You can’t simply rely on rewriting what others have already said to make it work.

5. Network + relationship building

Networking and relationship building are the foundation of good marketing from the beginning.

They are designed to connect with people in your network and industry so that you can support each other to achieve common goals.

As a connection exploration strategy, it helps develop relationships with:

• reporter
• Other businesses in your area
• Partners, customers + suppliers

For example, HammondCare is a local aged care facility. It gained a coveted education and government linkwhich can be challenging for many local businesses:

It earns these links by:

• Announcing a partnership
• List their volunteer plans
• Create official directory listing
• Share research findings with local communities

For example, here is HammondCare’s announcement of a partnership with the University of Sydney, which earned it high-quality links:

Many small and local businesses can use similar strategies to win connections from other businesses in the local community.

Other ways you can get links online include:

• Provide a recommendation and get a link below it
• Request to appear on community events website
• Demonstrate philanthropy and community involvement
• Cross-promote adjacent businesses (not direct competitors)

You can also build relationships with journalists. The great thing about cultivating a relationship is that you can get multiple links from the same reporter.

Some even write for multiple publications, so you can gain links to many websites through fruitful relationships.

6. Create linkable assets

Linkable assets are content or resources specifically designed to attract backlinks from other websites. Some of the strategies mentioned above are examples of linkable assets, such as creating statistics pages.

You may also consider creating:

• In-depth guide
• Useful infographics
• research or data study
• interactive tools
• case study
• template or checklist
• free resources

For example, my all-time favorite data research example comes from the marketing agency Yard, which went viral and attracted many links.

In 2022, they launched a data study that shared Private jet companies rank worst celebrity offenders₂ Emissions:

Many reporters and news publications covered this, focusing on Taylor Swift’s top spot:

Every time a story about Swiftjet emissions appears in the news, Yarde’s research gets a link:

This data study is an example of a linkable asset.

Another example I like is Love the Garden’s video about The best plants to improve indoor air quality:

This image summarizes data discovered by NASA in 1989.

Not bad for an infographic!

It links to news sites and sites like Atlassian and Shopify, with posts sharing ideas for improving indoor home and work environments.

To earn links, your assets must be uniquely helpful, interesting, and naturally shareable. This is what you want the audience to say, “Hey, look at this.”

The more you promote a linkable asset, the more links you’re likely to receive.

5 connection prospecting methods that no longer work as well as they once did

If you’ve been doing SEO for a while, you’ve probably heard of many other link prospecting methods that are more popular than the ones mentioned above.

The problem is, the SEO landscape has changed and many links that once worked no longer work. Here are five that no longer work like they used to.

Broken link activity

In the early days, broken links could be found on other sites, notify the site owner and add your link as an alternative.

Using Ahrefs’ Broken Backlink Report is a very simple strategy:

However, nowadays, most website owners completely ignore such emails, so they are no longer as effective as they once were.

Guest Post

Guest posting is a very common tactic. It involves consulting with website owners to write the articles they publish. In the article, you include a link to your website in exchange.

As a strategy, guest posting still works. But now, if the editorial team doesn’t know you, it’s increasingly difficult to get them to agree with you.

AI spam floods editorial teams with generic, poor content and even worse promotion.

Hello

HARO stands for “Helping Journalists.” On this platform, journalists can tag content or industry experts they are looking for to publish specific stories. But it no longer exists, officially closed.

You can also check out other platforms such as:

However, this is usually the first best-dressed scene to occur. Writers and journalists often receive many responses and will settle for the first one that meets their needs and ignore the rest.

If you choose to use this strategy, make sure you respond proactively to new requests.

link request

There are always questions about the success rate of link-seeking via email or social media outreach. Too many link builders treat it like a numbers game and relentlessly spam people’s inboxes.

Potential website owners have become intolerant of frivolous link building outreach, making it difficult to achieve decent results.

Paid link

Purchase links are valid, at least for a while. But they can be very dangerous.

If Google detects that you are buying links, you may lose all rankings. Not to mention that such links can easily devalue Google, so you’re spending your money without getting any SEO benefits.

If you use an agency for SEO, you also want to make sure they don’t put your site at risk by buying links without telling you.