seo: white hat link building in 2016

White Hat Link Building in 2016

Karanam Srikanth, Digital Marketing Manager, MGAW.in

July 8, 2016

I’m

Head of Digital Marketing for SpectraForce

Lead Digital Marketing Consultant For MASI Enterprises AU

Founder of MGAW.in (Marketing Genius At Work)

Founder of DigitalSrikanth.com

9 Years of SEO, SEM & SMO Experience

Has Conducted Over 500+ Audits

Managed over 500+ Clients Across 3 Continents

Trained SEO teams in Three continents

Man City fan for life

SEO & SMM trainer at Digital Vidya

Intro to link building: why is it important?

• Link building is the process of getting otherwebsites to link to yours

• Google looks at links like a popularity contest orvotes

• The more reputable votes your website has (i.e.links), the higher you will rank

• At a very high level, the key to link building is:

• Quality of the domain providing the link

• Relevancy of the domain providing the link

• Links are still the #1 ranking factor with

• Google, i.e. they’re important!!!

Intro to link quality: authority

• Not all links are created equal

• We want to aim to get links from websites that have high “authority” with Google

• Authority is built with Google through quality links

• So in a sense, we want to get links from websites that have a lot of links themselves

• 2 tools we use to instantly tell the authority of websites are the Moz and ahrefs (we will cover them later)

Intro to link quality: relevance.

• In equal importance to authority is relevance

• As a marketing agency, I want to get links from websites about marketing, business, web design, etc.

• A link from a website about home improvement wouldn’t do much good because it’s irrelevant

• In fact, Google actually looks at this as spam and could potentially harm my website

Blog About Web Design

Blog About SEO

Blog About Hair

Extensions

Marketing Site

Intro to link quality: Quality.

• Because links are such a powerful ranking signal,SEO marketers have learned how to hack theprocess of acquiring links

• This “hacked” process generally involves buyinglinks from low quality, irrelevant websites

• These low quality links are the #1 reason websitesget “penalized” by Google

• This is also known as “black hat” SEO

• Black hat SEO is generally short lived and not aseffective as white hat SEO

Intro to link quality: white hat SEO.

• Link building done right is all about the exchange of value

• If you want to get featured on someone’s website, you have to add value

• Value comes in a number of forms:

• Guest posting – providing value through adding awesome content to their website

• Blogger outreach – providing value through a relevant pitch / value proposition

• Reporter outreach – providing value through offering a news tip or quote for an article

• Everything we do is based on research and outreach:

• Researching the prospects website, understanding their content

• Outreach via email with a value proposition / pitch

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE LINK.

• At the end of the day, all that matters is securing a link on the target website

• This is what we get paid to do

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE LINK!!!

Meet the link building team.

Lead SEO (LS) Link Prospector (LP) Outreach Manager (OM) Content Creator (CC)

• Website analysis• Content analysis• Keyword analysis• Current link analysis• Set up project tracker• Set up Analytics• Set keyword tracking• Set project plan

• Web research• Find link opportunities• Use “search operators”• Use social media• Basic understanding oflink quality• Record opportunities in

Excel

• Set up Gmail for outreach• Build outreach persona• Set up outreach templates• Contact prospects• Negotiate with prospects• Work with content creator

to get needed value

• Freelance writer ordesigner (or in house)

• On call to write content as needed

• On call to createinfographics as needed

Intro to the link building process.

Setup Workbook

(LS)

Client Site Analysis

(LS)

Assign Targets & Keywords

(LS)

Build Project Plan

(LS)

Find & RecordOpportunities

(LP)

Setup Gmail

(OM)

Send outreach templates to

prospects

(OM)

Communicate content needs to

creators (if needed)

(OM)

Create content, send back to OM

(CC)

Send content back to prospect, Make

edits if needed.

(OM)

Get Link Live

(OM)

Track and Record

(OM)

Hiring a link prospector.

• Lower cost staff, generally in the $4 - $8 / hour range

• Look on sites like Upwork, Fiverr and iwriter

• Our personal writers are in Indonesia and Philippines

• SEO knowledge is ideal, but not necessary

• Rather look for a lower cost worker with good communication skills to train (ahem, give them these videos)

• Can get good use out of 1 well trained staff, upwards of 12 clients at a time (if managed properly)

Link Prospector (LP)

• Web research• Find link opportunities• Use “search operators”• Use social media• Basic understanding oflink quality• Record opportunities in

Excel

Hiring a link prospector.

• I need a white hat link building expert. Tasks will include:

1. Prospecting - I need you to go out and find niche relevant opportunities. This will include:

• Link round up opportunities

• Guest posting opportunities

• Sponsored post opportunities

• Resource page links

• Broken link building

2. Organization – Ability to use Excel, communicate with team members and manage multiple tasks at one time.

Skills required:

• English - Reading

• Editing – Proofreading

• Customer Service & Admin Support - Content Moderation

Hiring a Outreach Manager.

• Mid cost staff, $15 - $30/hour depending on skill set

• Communication skills are key, writing is a plus

• Editing skills is a huge plus as well

• Look on sites like Upwork, Fiverr and iwriter

• I use all US & AU based outreach managers

• SEO knowledge is ideal, but not necessary

• Can use across 5 – 7 clients depending on how they’re trained and managed

Outreach Manager

• Set up Gmail for outreach• Build outreach persona• Set up outreach templates• Contact prospects• Negotiate with prospects• Work with content creator

to get needed value

Hiring a Outreach Manager.

• Fast growing digital agency is looking for someone with excellent writing, communication and organization skills. This position will be managing a number of client projects and a small team of freelancers to make sure everything gets done on time.

• This person must be:

• Based in the US or Australia

• Have tremendous communication skills

• Be able to perform email outreach and manage dozens of emails a day

• Be able to manage small virtual teams

• Be able to communicate with clients via email

• You will be responsible to perform email outreach to a list a prospects and respond when they email you back.

• You must be able to manage dozens of email conversations in a short period of time and still meet the end goals.

• We will need you to build a database of writers you can contact to have content written on request (we will help you do that).

• It will be your job to read through their content, proofread it, edit it if necessary and submit to the blog for consideration.

Intro to the link building process.

Setup Workbook

(LS)


(LS)


(LS)

Build Project Plan

(LS)


(LP)

Setup Gmail

(OM)


prospects

(OM)



(OM)


(CC)


edits if needed.

(OM)

Get Link Live

(OM)

Track and Record

(OM)

The process of finding content writers.

New client comes onboard Hire new content writersPost jobs needs to freelance

sites

Post jobs needs to Social Networks

Find writers from the industry leading websites

Record writers in the client’s excel workbook

Content writers overview

• A large part of link building will come from guest blogging

• To guest blog at scale, we need at least 3 writers for each new client

• Each of those writers must not only write well, but have knowledge on the subject matter

• We need writers of 3 calibers and pricing:

• 1 for lower quality blogs. Ideally we can get articles for $20 - $30

• 1 for quality blogs. Ideally we can get articles for $30 - $70

• 1 for top quality blogs. Ideally we can get articles for $70 - $150

Evaluating writers for quality.

• First, we only want to work with freelancers, NOT writing services (the quality sucks)

• We need to review writers to place them in 1 of the 3 categories

• Ask for samples and read them – straight up, are they any good?

• Ask for samples live on websites – is it a reputable site? Did the post generate comments? Social shares? The more, the better

• How much do they charge per word?

• Look at these factors and decide which category they fall into

Record your authors in client workbook..

• In the “writers” tab of the client’s workbook, record their name, email and rate per article

• In the tag column, assign them a # between 1 and 5 based on the quality of their writing

• If they are the lower cost writers, assigned them a low number

• The high cost, high quality writers get a higher tag

• The tag is used to determine which blog each writer should write for when guest blogging

1. Posting jobs to Upwork.

• Upwork is a platform where you post a job and freelancers bid on it

• As soon as a new client comes on board, post a job on Upwork for niche specific writers

• Upwork writers tend to fulfill our content needs for lower quality /lower cost writing

Elance job template

• We have a client in the [insert client’s niche] vertical who needs 1 - 2 blog posts per week.

• These blog posts will be between 700 and 1,200 words, depending on the post.

• You MUST have in depth knowledge of [insert industry terms] OR be able to write about it highly intelligently.

• In your proposal, please provide:

- Writing samples (finance related only)

- Rate per word / article

- How many articles you could write per week

1. Posting jobs to iwriter.

• iwriter is a platform where you post a job and writers bid on it

• As soon as a new client comes on board, post a job on iwriter for niche specific writers

• iwriter writers tend to fulfill our content needs for high quality /higer cost writing

iwriter job template








1. Posting jobs to Fiverr.

• Fiverr is a platform where you post a job and writers write articles for $5 (Custom gigs offered)

• As soon as a new client comes on board, post a job on Fiverr for niche specific writers

• Fiverr writers tend to fulfill our content needs for low quality writing for $5.

Fiverr job template








Finding writers on top websites.

• To find world class content writers, we need to attack the source

• If you don’t know off the top of your head, do a simple Google search for keyword + blogs

• Click through on a handful of results

• Run SEM Rush and ahrefs to test the quality of the website

Finding articles with a lot of engagement.

• Once you find some quality websites, search the site by client keywords (i.e. stock market, etc)

• Look for articles with high engagement (comments and

• shares)

• Locate the author of the article and click on their name

Contact the writer.

• More times than not, you can find the author’s email

• If not email, find them on social media (preferably LinkedIn)

• Send them either an email or message on social media asking if they freelance

• (Outreach template is to the right)

Hey [Name],

I came across your article on [insert site name]

and really enjoyed it.

I’m in the market for talented writers like yourself

– do you freelance at all?

If so, I’d love to hire you!

Thanks!


• In the “writers” tab of the client’s workbook, record their name, email and rate per article

• In the tag column, assign them a # between 1 and 5 based on the quality of their writing

• If they are the lower cost writers, assigned them a low number

• The high cost, high quality writers get a higher tag

• The tag is used to determine which blog each writer should write for when guest blogging

Deep dive into the link building process.

Setup Workbook

(LS)


(LS)


(LS)

Build Project Plan

(LS)


(LP)

Setup Gmail

(OM)


prospects

(OM)



(OM)


(CC)


edits if needed.

(OM)

Get Link Live

(OM)

Track and Record

(OM)


• We use Google Drive, Sheets and Docs for everything

• It has an open workflow

• Easy to manage freelancers

• Integration with Gmail, Calendar

• Communication

• When a new client/project comes in, create a new folder for that client

• Name the folder after the client Within that folder create a folder and call it “content”

• Within that folder, create a new “Sheet”

• Name it Client – Link Tracker

Intro to Google Sheets.

• Within that Folder, create a new Sheet and add 6 tabs. Title them as follows:

• Project Plan Writers

• Live Links Targets

• Opportunities Passwords

Tab 1: the project plan.

• Serves as command central for campaign

• Outlines each task line by line

• Outlines date for completion

• Dictates who (internally) does the work

• Lets clients know which projects are on track, delayed or completed

Tab 2: live links.

• As we progress through the campaign and links go live, we record them as such here

• Record the date it went live and the URL of the live post

• Cost = how much we (internally) paid for the link (i.e. cost of content, sponsored post, etc)

• Landing page = the page on the client site that the link points to

• Anchor text = the text of the link (i.e. Example link, anchor text = Example link)

Tab 3: opportunities.

• This is where we track link opportunities (aka where the link prospector records their work)

• Status = dated contact updates from link outreach manager (emailed, live, submit, etc)

• Type = type of link (guest post, link roundup, forum, etc)

• Site URL = link to home page

• Guidelines URL = link to more info page (guest post guidelines, advertising info, etc)

• Contact = how to get in touch with the site (ideally email address over contact form)

Tab 4: writers.

• In order to do guest posting at scale, we need content writers on call

• Tag = quality of their work. 5 is best, 1 is lowest. We use this to understand which sites to

• submit their work to

• Name = their name

• Contact = their email

• Rate = cost per article or per word

• later in the webinar, I will show you methods to finding writers of various skill sets

Tab 5: targets.

• This is where we assign landing pages and keywords for link building

• The lead SEO will be responsible to build these out

• The outreach manager will be responsible to communicating these needs to the

• Priority = which pages to emphasize and target first

• Later we will discuss how to build this out in depth

Tab 6: passwords.

• This is where we record any information we need across the team

• Logins to email, logins to tools, etc


Setup Workbook

(LS)


(LS)


(LS)

Build Project Plan

(LS)


(LP)

Setup Gmail

(OM)


prospects

(OM)



(OM)


(CC)


edits if needed.

(OM)

Get Link Live

(OM)

Track and Record

(OM)

Website assessment: content.

• Content makes link building much easier because it allows us to target different types of links

• Clients that aren't willing to invest in content are missing opportunities

• We need to get an understanding of what the client site has available.

• What do we have to work with?

• Are they actively creating content?

• Do they have someone to create content?

• How many social shares does each piece of content get?

• Do they have distribution channels built out (i.e. email list, social following, etc)?

• Are they willing to invest in content creation?

Website assessment: content.

• Create a list of quality available to us:

• Blog posts

• Free guides

• Videos

• PowerPoint documents

• Anything!

• In the “targets” tab, record the URLs of the GOOD content available

• In the “type” column, note it as “content”


Setup Workbook

(LS)


(LS)


(LS)

Build Project Plan

(LS)


(LP)

Setup Gmail

(OM)


prospects

(OM)



(OM)


(CC)


edits if needed.

(OM)

Get Link Live

(OM)

Track and Record

(OM)

Picking which pages we want to rank.

• For the most part, the client will tell us which pages they want to rank

• However, sometimes they are wrong and need a little push from us

• The best way to increase organic traffic is to push up pages that are already ranking well

• We want to find pages that are ranking between spots 6 and 25 and focus on them

• These pages are “low hanging fruit” because Google already likes them (i.e. they are ranking), they just need an extra push.

• 9 times out of 10 that extra push is links

• We use a tool called SEM Rush to find which pages are ranking by keyword

• We find the pages we want and add them to the “targets” tab in the client workbook

Accessing SEM Rush

• Head to http://www.semrush.com/

• Enter the client site into the search bar,

• click “search”

• Click “organic research” on the right hand side

• Click “positions” under organic research

• Scroll down, click “export” to pull the data into a CSV / Excel file

Pulling down keyword rankings

• Open the CSV file and add filters to the top row

• Filter by position – remove anything under a 7

• Then, filter by search volume – remove anything under 400

• You’ll be left with the top ranking keywords with the most search volume

• Take these and add the keywords and landing page URL to the “targets” tab


Setup Workbook

(LS)


(LS)


(LS)

Build Project Plan

(LS)


(LP)

Setup Gmail

(OM)


prospects

(OM)



(OM)


(CC)


edits if needed.

(OM)

Get Link Live

(OM)

Track and Record

(OM)

Building the project plan.

• Serves as command central for campaign

• Outlines each task line by line

• Outlines date for completion

• Dictates who (internally) does the work

• Lets clients know which projects are on track, delayed or completed

• Builds a long term strategy for month over month

The plan is dictated by the client’s needs.

• No 2 websites are the same so each client gets their own plan

• We do the project plan last because we need to understand which types of links we will be targeting based on the client

• Content heavy sites will allow us to get creative

• Non content heavy sites will be a lot of guest blogging and link BUILDING type activities

Setting up Gmail account

• How to set up a new Gmail address

• Setting up Canned Responses (aka templated emails)

• How to properly set up a Gmail account to maximize time spent in there

Nailing the Link Building Basics

“Followed” vs “No Followed” links

• Google “crawls” from website to website through links

• There are 2 types of links:

• “Followed” links

• “No Follow” links

• If a link is “Followed”, search engine spiders WILL crawl it and it WILL pass SEO ranking power

• If a link is “No Follow”, search engine spiders WILL NOT crawl it WILL NOT pass SEO ranking power

• ALL social media links are “No Follow”

• WE DO NOT WANT TO WORK WITH SITES THAT GIVE OUT “NO FOLLOW” LINKS BECAUSE IT WILL NOT HELP US OUT!

“Followed” vs “No Followed” links

• Install a simple browser plugin that will alert you if links on the page are

• “Follow” or “No Follow”

• https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/nofollow/dfogidghaigoomjdeacndafapdijmiid?hl=en

• If a link is outlined in red, it is “No Follow”

• That means we DO NOT want to reach out to that site

• Example of a site that “No Follows” links:

Using SEM Rush to determine link quality

• Not all links pass the same ranking power – we use SEM Rush to determine the potential ranking power of a link

• Head to http://www.semrush.com/

• Copy and paste the URL into the search bar

• Click on “Organic Research” in the left hand navigation bar


• First, look at how many keywords, traffic and traffic cost the website has

• This tells us how much traffic that website has

• The more traffic, the better

• We want to build links that drive traffic – traffic is the #1 sign that it’s a good, quality link

• If it drives traffic, it drives rankings!


• Second, look at the graph to the right

• We want to work with sites that are trending up and to the right

• Big drop offs are a bad thing – this shows the website has had quality issues in the past


• If a website shows a progression of “up and to the right”, it’s a high quality site

• These are the sites that should be the TOP targets for link outreach because they will have the most impact on our rankings


• If a website has low traffic or shows signs of traffic drops, we still want to work with them

•However, we want to note website quality so we can prioritize outreach efforts

•We want to target the high quality websites first because they will have the most impact on SEO rankings


• So, we assigned a number between 1 and 5 to each opportunity

• 1 is the lowest, signifying the link isn't as powerful

• 5 is the highest, signifying the link is powerful and we want to target it first

• Record the number in the “Tag” column in the Link Book

•Resource Pages + Broken Link Building

1. What is a resource page?

A resource page is a blog post or dedicated page that links out to their favorite

stuff or things they think their audience will find helpful (AKA resources).

• We are going to pitch them for inclusion in their post

• Resource pages are a tough pitch, you have to have CONTENT to pitch Them.

• That content has to be relevant to their resource page – if it doesn’t align, it’s a waste of a pitch

• That’s why the client site analysis is so important – we need to understand the content we have available for us to pitch as a resource

1. What is a resource page?

Example of resource pages….

http://indianbloggers.org/

2. What is a broken link (BLB)?

When a website is linking out to a website that no longer exists on the web (AKA 404 page).

• A broken link is bad for the user experience – no website wants to send traffic to a page that doesn’t exist, its not a good look

• We can play on this by alerting the website they have a broken link – this is a huge value add

• Within the outreach email, we can also suggest a replacement link (ours) to replace the dead link

• We target resource pages ONLY for BLB

3. Website assessment.

Does the client have GREAT (resource worthy content) on their site?

• In order to get a link on a resource page, you must have resources on your

• website

• NO home pages, NO product pages

• UNLESS the resource page is things like “best email marketing

• software”

• What makes a good resource?

• Ultimate guides: https://moz.com/google-algorithm-change

• Informative blog posts:

• https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-link-building

• Free (non gated) PDFs, ebooks, videos, etc

• If your website DOES NOT have content, DO NOT waste time with resource page outreach

• OR, find a bunch of good opportunities and create content around it

https://moz.com/google-algorithm-change

https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-link-building

3. Website assessment.

• The content will drive the link prospecting

• For example, if they have a great guide to conversion optimization, we will tell the link prospector to use keywords based on CRO to find resource pages

• This is extremely important, the resource pages have to align with the content we’re pitching, otherwise we will have NO success

• I.e. we can’t pitch a CRO guide to a resource page on SEO, not going to happen Buddy

4. Finding opportunities.

• In the “Search Operators” Excel file, filter for “Resources”

• Enter 1 of the client’s keyword in the orange cell

• Copy the first “search operator”

• Open up a browser tab to Google.com

• NOTE: prospecting for resource pages AND broken links are the same. We do NOT need to find different opportunities for them, we use the same targets

4. Click through, assess results.

• Paste the first “search operator” into Google, click search

• We are looking for websites that are linking out (NOT linking internally)

• Make SURE to click on the links to make sure they are taking you outside of the website

• Analyze the page to make sure it’s relevant to the site we’re targeting

• Verify that it’s truly a resource page

5. Check the page for broken links.

• Before we record the result, we need to check if there are broken links on the page Install the following browser plugin:

• Chrome:

• https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/check-my-links/ojkcdipcgfaekbeaelaapakgnjflfglf?hl=en-GB

• Firefox:

• https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/linkchecker/

• Run the plugin on the page

• We’re looking for broken links within the

• BODY of the article, i.e. we’re looking to see if any of the resources they are linking out to are no longer live

• Broken links will show up as red, good links will show up as green

6. Record what you found.

• IF THERE WAS NO DEAD LINK ON THE PAGE:

• Under type, record “Resource page”

• Record the website URL

• Record the URL of the resource page

• Record the contact email (use http://email-checker.net/)

• IF THERE WAS A DEAD LINK ON THE PAGE:

• Under type, record “Broken link”


• Record the URL of the resource page

• Record the contact email (use http://email-checker.net/)

• In the notes, record the anchor text of the broken link so we can find it

• Go to Yahoo, Bing and Duck Duck Go and use the SAME search operator. Remember, each search engine will bring back different results

7. The resource / BLB value proposition.

• Remember, link building is about the exchange of value. We need to figure out that value exchange before pitching

• Resource pages:

• We’re pitching them the value of content we created

• This can be a tough pitch, so we need to find an extra way to add value

• Do we have a good social following? Email list? We can add value by offering to drive traffic to the page

• Broken links:

• We’re helping them fix a bad user experience and offering a replacement.

• For this reason, we ALWAYS check resource pages for broken links because the value proposition is so much higher

• We also tell them where it is on the page and how to find it

• A suggestion to replace it (since they’re already there…)

•End to End Guest Posting

What is guest posting?

• A number of websites actively accept guest posts

• This is when they seek out writers to create content for their website

• From their point of view, it’s free content and social sharing from the author

• From our point of view, it’s the best way to build backlinks because within the guest post that we write, we can link to whatever we want

• This is also the best way to build authority backlinks, as some of the world’s most powerful sites (HuffPost) accept content

The Guest posting Process

Link prospector goes out and finds

websites that accept posts

Link prospector evaluates the

prospect for quality and records it.

Outreach manager sends an email pitch

to the prospect.

If accepted, outreach manager

assigns content to a writer.

Follow up as needed. Stay

organized!

Land the link! Track, record and move

on.

1. Finding guest post opportunities.

• In the “Search Operators” Excel file, filter for “Guest post”

• Enter a keyword into the orange cell related to the client site





• We’re looking for results from sites that accept content, contributors, guest writers, submissions, etc

• Click through on anything resembling this to verify


• Read through the page – do they accept posts?

• If they do, open up the client Workbook

• Record the type as “guest post”

• Record the root site URL

• Record the guidelines URL (aka write for us or contributor page URL)

• Record the contact info

• Always try and find the email address first

• If not, find the contact page URL and record it

• Leave the tag blank (for 2 seconds), we’re going to talk about it in the next slide

2. Testing for quality.

• Check their blog to make sure they actively update it –we don’t want to contact dead sites

• Run the follow vs no follow plugin to make sure body text links are FOLLOWED

• Dump the website URL into SEM Rush and gauge the traffic

• Write down the value between 1 and 5 for recording in the spreadsheet

3. Contacting guest post opportunities.

• Make sure that the guest posting canned response is set up

• Start by sending 7 – 9 outreach emails to the top priorities

• We want to stagger the outreach emails so we don’t get overloaded with responses

• If we aren’t getting a lot of responses, then we can up the amount of emails sent (and vice versa)

• If/when they respond, we need to manage the inbox (this is where it gets tricky)

• Record your progress in the “status” tab of the workbook

4. Managing positive responses – content ideas.

• When we get a response, we want to make sure we answer in a timely fashion (ideally same day)

• Most responses will ask for a pitch or a draft

• That means we need to come up with content ideas on the fly to either pitch them or give to a content writer to create:

• Study their guidelines page

• Study what is live on their site

• Study similar sites to see what people are writing about

• Use Topsy to get more ideas

4. Managing positive responses – content ideas.

• After we pitch the editor or they’ve asked for a draft, we need to assign a content writer to create it

• We should built out a list of content writers before hand, in the project setup

• This is located in the “writers” tab

• Each writer will have an associated tag

• Match the tag from the guest post opportunity to the tag with the writer

• If the guest post was tagged with a 4, assigned the writer who is tagged with a 4

• Simply send them an email requesting a draft. Also send them the guidelines URL and any other things we need done

• Make sure to tell them to WRITE the link into the content

5. Stay organized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

• Make SURE you are recording which step in the process you are

• Under no circumstances can you EVER LOSE TRACK of an opportunity

• Your main job is to make sure you are managing the relationship with the editor

• Respond to emails on time, meet deadlines

• Record EVERYTHING in the project workbook

• Make sure you are recoding live opportunities, etc

6. Land the link, do it again.

• It’s all about the link

• If/when a link gets stripped, you need to email the editor and ask why

• If we don’t get the link live, we’ve lost time and money

The guest posting process.

Intro to Sponsored Posts

• I generally use sponsored posts as a last ditch effort to score links

• This isn’t borderline, it’s black hat – we’re buying links

• However, it’s still a safer and more effective method than buying links from links farms or PBNs because they are real, active, clean sites that just happen to make money from advertisers (just like Forbes, Inc, etc)

• This method can also get expensive, a lot of bloggers will ask for anywhere between $40 - $500 per post, mostly in the $200 range (I will show you negotiation tactics)

• The key to these is to evaluate the link thoroughly for quality – you have to be overly careful that this isn’t a link farm before

• We want to look for bloggers that are looking for monetization options and give them a simple, native solution


Link prospector builds list of

opportunities


to the prospect.

Outreach manager negotiates pricing and details with

prospect.


on.


organized!

If needed, outreach manager gets

content written.

2. Finding sponsored post opportunities.

• In the “Search Operators” Excel file, filter for “Local Blogs” AND “Sponsored Posts”

• Enter your keywords





• For the “local bloggers”, we’re just looking for bloggers related to our niche (that’s it)

• For “sponsored posts”, we’re looking for sites that actively accept advertisements

2. Recording sponsored post opportunities.

In the client’s Excel workbook:


• Record the URL of the most recent blog post

• Record the bloggers contact email

• Go to Yahoo, Bing and Duck Duck Go and use the SAME search operator

• Remember, each search engine will bring back different results

• The goal is to find AS MANY opportunities as possible

• I’ve given you HUNDREDS of search operators – I expect hundreds of results!

3. Evaluating sponsored post opportunities.

• Before we pitch, it’s important to evaluate to make sure it’s a legitimate prospect

• I’m giving this to the outreach managers because I don’t want to slow down the link prospectors

• It’s your job to look at each opportunity for a number of metrics:

1. Overall domain authority, trust flow

2. Content quality (are they spamming links)

3. Sponsored posts (do they say “sponsored post”? Do they “no follow” links?)

4. Quick SEM Rush check

• If it’s no good, mark it as no good in the sheet and move on to the next one

• If it’s good, send them a pitch

3. Pitching sponsored post opportunities.

• Open up Gmail, insert canned response.

• We are pitching people the value proposition of money. You are going to get a ton of responses, be prepared to go back and forth and negotiate.

The link reclamation method process.

Lead SEO sets up Google Alerts.

Outreach manager monitors mentions for opportunities.


to unlinked mention.


organized!


on.

Intro to Link Reclamation Method

• This is method is geared at picking up brand mentions across the web and turning them into links.

• This generally works better for “brands” or businesses engaging in PR.

• However, if you are doing a good job on social media or creating content this can work for you as well.

• Essentially, we are finding other sites that mention us but do not link and sending an outreach email to include a link.

2. Finding Mentions: Setting up Google Alerts

• Go to: https://www.google.com/alerts

• Create new alert for brand/client.

• Set frequency based on preference, I like to get them weekly.

• Set email that you want alerts sent to.

2. Finding Mentions: Setting up Google Alerts

• Start with your search queries, also commonly your keywords. Some examples of alerts I would and have set up for myself:

• ”DigitalSrikanth" –site:digitalsrikanth.com

• ”karanamsrikanth" –site:digitalsrikanth.com

• ”Karanam Srikanth" –site:digitalsrikanth.com

• ”Karanam Srikanth" Founder OR Digital Marketing Manger –site:digitalsrikanth.com

• " Karanam Srikanth" Digital Marketing –site:digitalsrikanth.com

• " Karanam Srikanth" link building –site:digitalsrikanth.com

• " Karanam Srikanth " SEO –site:digitalsrikanth.com

• " Karanam Srikanth " Site Audit–site:digitalsrikanth.com

• " Karanam Srikanth " Founder OR CEO –site:digitalsrikanth.com

3. Pitching link reclamation opportunities.

• Monitor email for good opportunities.

• A good opportunity is when a mention comes from a website but there is no link.

• When that comes up find their email and send them a pitch asking for inclusion in the form of a link.

•The Synonym Method


Link prospector builds list of

opportunities

Outreach manager evaluates each

prospect for pitch type.


to the prospect.


on.


organized!

If accepted, outreach manager

assigns content to a writer.

Intro to Synonym Link Building Method

• This method works great in competitive verticals like SEO or legal

• The goal is to target websites that:

• Are relevant to our client’s niche

• Are relevant to our client’s location (if applicable)

• OR websites that are in a “synonym” niche

• The value proposition in the pitch is to:

• Offer to create content (guest post) and promote it via social and email

• Offer to do a guest post exchange (you write for me, I write for you)

Niche Relevancy

Local Relevancy

Rankings

2. Finding synonym opportunities – same niche.

• In the “Search Operators” Excel file, filter for “Synonym Method”

• For these link types, you DO

• NOT need to enter a keyword



2. Finding synonym opportunities – same niche.


• We’re looking for results that are in the same niche as the client’s site, but not in direct competition

• For example, if the client site is about immigration law, we would stay away from immigration websites and we would target defense law, criminal law, etc.

2. Recording synonym opportunities - same niche.

• In the client’s Excel workbook:

• • Record the website URL

• • Record the URL of the most recent blog post

• • Record the bloggers contact email

• • Go to Yahoo, Bing and Duck Duck Go and use the SAME search operator

• • Remember, each search engine will bring back different results

• • The goal is to find AS MANY opportunities as possible

• • I’ve given you HUNDREDS of search operators – I expect hundreds of results!

2. Finding synonym opportunities – same location.

• In the “Search Operators” Excel file, filter for “Synonym Method”

• For these link types, you DO NOT need to enter a keyword


• Open up a browser tab to

• Google.com

2. Finding synonym opportunities – same location.


• We’re looking for results that are in the same location as the target website

• For example, if the client is located in Hyderabad, we would want to work with any blogs about Hyderabad

• This also extends to other Telangana cities or regions

2. Recording synonym opportunities - same niche.


• • Record the website URL

• • Record the URL of the most recent blog post

• • Record the bloggers contact email

• • Go to Yahoo, Bing and Duck Duck Go and use the SAME search operator

• • Remember, each search engine will bring back different results

• • The goal is to find AS MANY opportunities as possible

• • I’ve given you HUNDREDS of search operators – I expect hundreds of results!

3. Pitching synonym opportunities – same location.

• Open Gmail, insert canned

• response.

• We are pitching a guest post based on local relevancy.

• Try and relate your pitch based around your city, but also include some mention of their niche.

3. Pitching synonym opportunities – same niche.

• Open up Gmail, insert canned response.

• We are pitching people that do the same thing, but are not in direct competition with us.

• Pitch either a guest post or a guest post exchange. We want to come off as mutually beneficial and not in competition.

Intro to Press / Media Links

• I’m not talking about press releases, I’m talking about real coverage, from real media websites

• I’ve done a lot of networking in the PR space and to land press in major publications, there’s 3 ways to do it:

1. Having an incredible story

2. Relationships with writers, editors, PR people, etc

3. Find someone who writes, pitch them and pay for it

• This training module will touch base on all 3, but will focus mainly on finding regular contributors and tipping them off

• This is an expensive route to take, but it’s far better than paying some service $2,000 for a random placement from a no name overseas writer on Forbes, that’s not the way to go

2. Finding PR opportunities.

• Start by going to the site you want to get featured on (i.e. Forbes, Inc, ABC, etc)

• We want to find sites that publish a lot of content and leverage “contributors”, not just staff writers

• Contributors don’t get paid to write, they do it for their own reasons. Staff writers have morals

• Find the niche on the site related to your target site and find contributors

• Click through on their bios to their personal sites to see if the freelance. Also, follow them on social


• Method 1 – the safe way

• Try and connect on social first, follow them on Twitter, LinkedIn, etc

• Try and add some value to their lives first before pitching

• Once you do, send them a pitch asking if they freelance write (NOT BUYING A POST)

• Pay them to write 2 – 3 articles and get their trust, let them know you’re a good client and can give them good work

• Then, have them write a post and let them know you have nowhere to publish it. Make SURE to pick a topic that’s relevant to what they write about on the site you want to get published on (i.e. if they write about Startups on Forbes, get them a really good topic related to startups)

• “We were going to submit this as a guest post, but it fell through”

• Let them know they are free to submit it to a site they write for AND you will still pay them for the article (make SURE your link is secure in there)

• This adds value to them because hey, you paid them to write AND helped them meet quota


• Method 2 – the straight up way

• Use the same method of getting their trust by hiring them to write a few posts for you

• Then, after you’ve given them some good work, just be honest with them

• “We get paid to post for clients. If you’re interested, I can give you a steady stream of income just posting for us”

• This situation has a better result but it’s harder to maneuver


• This pitch is very simple – we don’t come right out and say “hey we will pay you to post and link to our shit!”

• Offer value to them by hiring them as a freelance writer

• They may be expensive, but you need the content anyways, use it to submit as a high authority guest post to almost any site you want

• After you have their trust, you can negotiate posting on the sites they write for

Intro to Local Blogger Outreach

• This isn’t just a local SEO technique (although is kicks ass)

• It can be used for national campaigns – it’s really just a great way to open up for thousands more opportunities

• Every city has local bloggers – food bloggers, travel bloggers, fashion bloggers, art bloggers, the list goes on

• They won’t register with traditional search engine operators, so we use local modifiers to track them down. We pitch them 1 of 2 value propositions:

• Sponsored posts

• Paid link insertion

• Guest post exchange

• Local bloggers create content for the sheer love of it – they’re ecstatic to get pitched for money or to help promote their blog through exchanges / collaborations

2. Finding local blogger opportunities.

• In the “Search Operators” Excel file, filter for “Local Blogs”

• The keyword should be a city, town, state, etc (LOCATION)


• Open up a browser tab to

• Google.com



• We’re looking for local relevant bloggers, that’s it

2. Recording sponsored post opportunities.



• Record the URL of the most recent blog post

• Record the bloggers contact email

• Go to Yahoo, Bing and Duck Duck Go and use the SAME search operator

• Remember, each search engine will bring back different results

• The goal is to find AS MANY opportunities as possible

• I’ve given you HUNDREDS of search operators – I expect hundreds of results!

3. Pitching local bloggers – intro.

• There’s a number of value propositions we have with local bloggers.

1. Money – offering to sponsor a post OR insert a link into a relevant post on their website.

• This works better with younger bloggers in less competitive niches (food, fashion, travel).

2. Cross promotion – offering to exchange guest posts. This works best if you/your client has a relevant audience (good traffic, social media following, email list, etc). This works better in competitive niches (real estate, legal, SEO) or ANY professional services, as they aren’t going to take money on their website for content.

• You need to evaluate their website, content and presence to get a sense for which of these you will pitch.

3. Pitching local bloggers – Sponsored posts.

• This is a standard sponsored post pitch, with an emphasis on being local business (if applicable).

• This works best in non competitive verticals like fashion, food, travel and similar niches. It doesn’t work well in competitive or service based verticals (real estate, etc).

3. Pitching local bloggers – Paid link insertions.

• Find an old post on their site that’s relevant to your site.

• Send them a pitch offering to pay for link placement.

• This helps to save money and cut to the chase.

• Success rate is lower, expect to explain yourself further/

3. Pitching local bloggers – Guest post exchanges

• Similar to the synonym method, we’re playing the mutual exchange of promotion for each other’s blogs.

• This works best in service based industries.

• You can also increase your success rate by having the content written BEFORE and include it in the pitch.

http://www.digitalvidya.com/webinars/

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