Today, I'm going to share some new link building tactics that I haven't heard anyone talk about.
And because no one's talking about them, some of these are untapped tactics ripe for the taking.
So let's get started with the first link building tactic and that's guest post updates.
Now, with typical guest posts, you pitch editors and owners of websites to create
new content for them.
And this usually comes with a link.
But the downside is that your content will be on a new URL that has no backlinks,
and therefore, little to no authority.
Now, guest post updates actually solve this problem because the idea in a nutshell
is to ask editors and owners of websites if you can update one of their pages.
This means, you can cherry pick a page that already has quality backlinks pointing at it,
meaning a link from that page will be more impactful because it has more
PageRank to pass.
To find guest update prospects, you can use a tool like Content Explorer which is
a searchable database with billions of pages of content and SEO metrics for them.
For example, if I wanted to build links to our post on keyword research, I'll search
for "keyword research" in quotations to find pages that mention this phrase,
and then I'll add -title:"keyword research" to avoid competing pages.
I'll also add a series of -site: operators to exclude websites that we don't want
to guest post on.
Next, I'll set a Referring domains filter to show pages that have at least 50 referring domains.
Finally, I'll set a Domain Rating filter to a minimum value of 40.
Now, you can't just find any page with a lot of backlinks and ask if you can update it.
Like with all link outreach emails, you want to come to the table with mutually beneficial pitch.
The obvious benefit for you is a link back to your site from an already authoritative page.
And the benefits for them is that a) they'll get great content;
and b) the post's organic traffic and rankings may be able to be revived
if they were previously ranking for freshness-dependent queries.
So there are two ways we can narrow in on these types of pages.
The first is to make a small change to our search query.
I'll add it within parentheses: title:2020 OR title:2019 OR title:2018 OR title: 2017
and you can add more if you want.
Now, with Trends filter set to all time, you can simply skim through the list and look
for pages that used to get a lot of traffic, but then gradually decreased over time.
For example, this page from Buffer was likely updated last in 2019.
And if we look at their traffic trend, they had quite a bit of traffic which died off in 2020.
And because they were getting traffic, it likely means the referring domains are good.
And from a quick spot check, we can confirm that's generally true.
Alright, so now that we have a page we want to update, you need to send
a pitch to the person who's in charge of their blog.
To find this contact, you can go to their team or LinkedIn employees page and
look for a content marketing manager, head of content, or whoever will be in
charge of the blog.
After you've found that person, you just need to send them a pitch.
For example, I might say:
"Hey [name],
Sam here, fellow content writer from Ahrefs.
LinkedIn tells me you're the person in charge of the Buffer blog?
Thought I'd reach out because I saw that your team is updating older content like
this one and this one, but I noticed you didn't get around to updating
this one on free SEO tools.
It looks like it used to get some pretty decent traffic which could probably be
revived with a refresh.
Would you be open to me updating it for you?
I've been in the SEO game for 10+ years and have used dozens of SEO tools in my time,
so I think I could give it a pretty nice revamp.
Can we work together on this?
Cheers, Sam"
Alright, the next link building tactic is redirect link building.
Redirect link building follows similar principles to broken link building, but
instead of 404 pages, you're looking for 301s.
Here's how it works.
You find a page with backlinks that redirects to an irrelevant page, reach out to the people
linking to that redirect and ask them to link to you instead.
And this link building tactic is good for two reasons:
#1. when a page redirects to an irrelevant page, then the context of backlinks pointing
to the redirected page often won't make sense.
And this can help with your pitch angles.
And #2. Because many people quote unquote "fix" broken pages by redirecting
them to irrelevant pages, this means that the opportunities are plentiful
and they're flying under the radar.
Now, to find opportunities, just search for a competing domain in Ahrefs Site Explorer
and I'll set the protocol to just HTTPS.
Next, go to the Best By Links report.
Now, to filter for redirects, just change the HTTP code filter to 301 moved permanently.
Now it's just a matter of comparing URL slugs of the redirected page and destination URL.
For example, this one on the dos and don'ts of marriage proposals
has over 300 referring domains and it redirects to a page on wedding planning.
These are two completely different topics.
Now, to see the previous version of the redirected page, you can click on the caret
and view the latest version on Archive.org.
And indeed, they are on completely different topics.
As a final measure, look at the backlink profile of the redirected page and scan
the anchor and surrounding text of backlinks.
And in this case, you'll see that the context of these links are all
about proposals – not planning.
So if you happen to have a page on wedding proposals, then a ton of these
links could be good prospects for you.
Alright, the next link building tactic is the product feedback technique.
Now, this link building tactic is kind of neat because outreach emails won't
come off as spammy.
In fact, they're more likely to be welcomed.
Here's a high-level view of how the product feedback technique works in action.
You find blog posts that are ranking for queries like "best [product name]"
where your product isn't featured.
Then you reach out to the authors and offer them your product in exchange for feedback.
And if they like your product, you can ask them for consideration to be included
in their article.
Now, this tactic isn't for everyone because a) you'll need to have a product, whether
that's physical or digital and… big "and" here… you'll need to be confident that your product
is better than your competitors'.
So to find prospects, it's easiest to start by brainstorming a list of queries where listicles
mentioning your products will surface.
For Ahrefs, that would be keywords like "best SEO tool," "best keyword research
tool," "best backlink checker," and so on.
Now all you need to do is search for these keywords in Google and visit
some of the pages.
And if your product isn't mentioned on that page and you truly believe
that it's better than others, then the prospect is qualified.
Now as for the pitch, it's technically against Google's terms of service to
exchange anything of monetary value for a backlink.
But something that's perfectly ethical in my opinion is to offer these authors
a sample of your product.
For example, if one of these pages didn't mention Ahrefs, I might contact them and say:
"Hey, Sam here from Ahrefs.
I noticed that you didn't mention Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer in your post on the best
keyword research tools.
I'm wondering if it's because you think the other tools you mentioned
are better or if it's because you haven't tried our tool yet.
If it's the former, I'd love to get your feedback on what you think we can do to improve our tool,
or if it's the latter, I'm happy to give you 30-day access to our Standard Plan ($199 value)
to give it a spin.
Cheers, Sam"
Now, if the person responds with feedback as to why you didn't make the list, then that
can be quality information for your company.
But more likely than not, they'll have a reason like, "My company didn't give
me the budget to try out new tools so I went based on my own personal experience.
Yes, I'd love to try Ahrefs."
In which case, you give them what you promised, and offer as much support as they need.
Now, at this point, it's perfectly reasonable to follow-up with feedback.
And if they love your product, it's natural to ask them if they'll consider adding you
to their round-up.
And if they didn't like it, feedback is valuable too.
Alright, the next link building tactic is to use Google ads to earn links to link bait pages.
Now, this tactic is based on the theory of the vicious cycle of SEO.
This is when people search for a query in Google and read the #1 result.
And because that first result is getting the most exposure because of their ranking
position, they'll naturally earn some links to that page.
And because that page is consistently earning new links, that #1 page maintains
their top-ranking position, creating this vicious cycle.
Now, the good thing with Google search ads is that you can buy your way to the top of
the SERP to become a part of this vicious cycle.
But in order for this to work, you need to have content on
a topic that naturally generates links and has some search demand.
Stats pages are a great example which has worked for us and many others.
So to find these topics, I'll go to Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer and search for seeds
that are relevant to my niche like SEO, keyword research, link building, content
marketing, and blogging.
Next, I'll go to the matching terms report.
Finally, I'll add some modifiers in the include box like "stats," "statistics," 'fact,' and "facts."
I'll also hit the Any word tab, and then hit Apply.
Now, from here, choose a query, and hit the SERP button to see the top-ranking pages.
There's a lot more you can do to optimize stats pages to earn links but I won't get
into that here because we have a 3-part case study where we used this exact tactic for our
SEO stats page, which helped us rank #1 for our target query.
Also, I recommend watching our advanced course on link building
if you want to consistently find unique link building opportunities
and optimize your team's processes.
I'll leave links in the description, and I'll see you in the next tutorial.