For most of the people out there, link building outreach is probably the most challenging part of the link building process. Sadly, it’s also the most crucial part. When you check the analytics for top ranking links, you will notice numerous inbound links which interestingly contributes to the top ranking.
While improving the rankings on the SERPs depend on a few vital factors – time, money, and effort, it is crucial to evaluate if:
- You require more link prospects.
- You have to revise the existing templates.
- You have to follow up with the prospect.
Top search engine spots face severe competition in all sectors of business, and search rankings play a pivotal role in the success of the overall digital marketing strategy. A link building outreach campaign requires you to locate a prospect with excellent domain authority who would be interested in a guest blog.
It is no doubt an on-going process and can get pretty frustrating when you don’t get the results you were aiming for. That’s why; we have enlisted five simple steps that you must assimilate in your link building strategy.
Step 1: Understand the requirements and set goals:
The primary motive of a link building campaign is to boost your business rankings. So before you start with the campaign, there are three crucial questions you must ask yourself.
- Do you need more prospects for the campaign?
In SEO, having too many links is never an issue. You can always acquire more links from the prospects. However, if you already have a sufficient number of connections or if you are at a good place in the search ranking, then you should shift your focus to improving other aspects of SEO.
- Do you have to revise your existing templates?
In link building campaigns, same templates don’t work for all prospects. Even if you feel okay to continue with the existing templates, having unique and customised templates for different opportunities would undoubtedly prove to be beneficial.
- Do you have to follow up with your prospects?
Many often ignore this step after closing the deal because they don’t find the necessity to follow up. However, it’s crucial to maintain a cordial relationship with the prospects for future reference.
You have to analyse these questions carefully to come to a right conclusion. However, remember that answers will vary from campaign to campaign. So, explore the situations precisely before setting your campaign goals.
Step 2: Discover the right prospects:
Locating a prospect who is interested in guest blog posting is a challenging part of a link building outreach campaign. Although you may feel like giving up after hitting a couple of roadblocks, there are effective ways of finding the right prospect.
- You cannot find the right prospects in your very first SERP. While using Google, don’t only rely on a particular keyword and waste your time going through pages after pages for good prospects.
- Consider using some different keywords and use online tools to find your link prospect.
- Take advantage of social networking – especially Twitter. Most prospects actively participate in chats with their followers which make it easier for you to connect with them.
- Don’t only stick to Google for your searches. Consider search engines like Bing or DuckDuckGo to build your chances.
Step 3: Creating the link outreach template:
Design a template while conducting a link building campaign. It helps you to analyse the process in a systematically and identify the areas for improvement. The Prospects tab is one of the several features that house your potential prospects. You can edit it manually and include the Domain Authority boosting the outreach. There’s a corresponding status column with five stages to help you keep track of your prospects during the process.
- Stage 1: Use the “Need to Reach Out” status to mark your prospect for future use.
- Stage 2: Use the “Email Sent” status after sending your first outreach email to your prospects.
- Stage 3: Use the status “Received Response” once you get a response from your prospect’s end
- Status 4: Update the “Topic Approved” status after your prospect approves your guest blog post topic.
- Status 5: Lastly, update with “Link Acquired” after you’ve received the link from the prospects.
Once you update these stages on your “Prospects tab” the other tabs automatically gets updated.
Step 4: Maintain a record of the opportunities and track your progress:
Another advantage of using the link outreach template is to track your progress. It will help you identify the opportunities so that you can take the necessary steps to achieve better results. While analysing your data, try to focus on determining the weak areas – where you lack with your efforts. For instance, it may happen so when you received a response from a prospect, yet you failed to acquire a link.
That’s why tracking your prospects based on the status in your outreach template will help you gather a better understanding of your efforts and its efficiency. As the transition depends on your actions, all the details available on the “Link pipeline” tab help you draft a better strategy for your campaign.
Step 5: Update the spreadsheet regularly:
As you already know, you have to manually edit the “Prospects” tab in the spreadsheet of your link building outreach template. Make it a habit of updating the tab whenever you receive a response from your prospects. Keeping the sheet updated will help you to analyse the effectiveness of the current digital marketing strategies. It also allows you to make necessary real-time changes to your approach for better results.
Wrapping it up,
Link-building is the, unfortunately, a difficult task that you will encounter in your SEO career. However, it is not impossible. Backlinking can influence the searching ranking of your page. Get familiar with Google’s latest SEO requirements to make the most out of your link building campaigns. Organise your “Prospects” spreadsheet to track your progress for maximising your link building efforts. When you are aware of the low-performance stages, you can target the areas and adept necessary strategies to boost your overall efficiency.
Author Bio:
Gracie Anderson is a professional web developer and a part-time blogger. She is also a subject matter expert at MyAssignmenthelp.com, a reputed online assignment help provider where students reach out to subject matter experts for Math, Science, Law assignment help services.
