If you're struggling to get backlinks, I'm going to show you why people won't link to you
and how to fix that.
Stay tuned.
[music]
What's up SEOs?
Sam Oh here with Ahrefs, the SEO tool that helps you grow your search traffic,
research your competitors and dominate your niche.
Today's video is all about increasing your link conversion rates by avoiding the things
that prevent people from linking to you.
And a lot of this boils down to human psychology.
For example, if you were to walk into Starbucks, make your way to the front counter
and ask for a free coffee, what do you think they'd say?
They'd probably be confused or speechless.
But if you gave them a good reason like the fact that they're dumping out gallons of coffee
everyday or you worked at the restaurant across the street and you'd give them free lunch,
I'm pretty sure you'd have a better chance of sipping on some free java.
Now, link building through outreach is very much the same.
If you're contacting people and asking for links without a good reason,
then you will be and should be ignored.
Now, before we get into the link building and outreach mistakes that prevent good people
like you from getting more backlinks, make sure to subscribe and click the bell button
so you don't miss out on any of our actionable SEO and marketing tutorials.
With that said, let's get into some of the biggest mistakes I see SEOs making time and time again.
The first mistake is that you're not doing email outreach.
I completely understand that you might feel nervous
or feel like you're bothering people by sending cold emails.
But let me ask you this...
If you're not actively promoting your content,
how do you expect people to find it or link to it?
Email outreach is an effective and affordable way to connect with people who can give you backlinks.
And it doesn't have to be disruptive.
In the same way, it would be impossible to get a free coffee from Starbucks
if you don't go or ask for one.
The second reason why you're not getting links is because you're robotically copying and
pasting people's templates.
You can Google something like "link building templates," and I'm sure you'll find a ton of real examples.
But wait a second...
If these "templates" are working so well and consistently, why aren't they working for you?
No, I'm not questioning anyone's moral ethics, but one of two things likely happened.
#1. They used to work super well, but they've lost its effectiveness.
So you're late to the party.
And #2. What works on one person or in one industry might not work on the next.
I'm sure you've received templated emails like this that are basically saying,
Hey, I found your site.
You linked to my competitor.
I published the same article but it's going to take you longer to read.
But believe me… it's worth it.
Now, can you link to me?
Emails should sound like they're coming from a human being.
They shouldn't sound needy or like you're asking a friend for a favor.
Cold outreach means they're not your friends.
So instead, adopt the mentality of starting a relationship.
The third thing preventing you from getting links is that you're sending an email without good reason.
In my opinion, "stumbling across someone's article" isn't a good enough excuse to contact them.
Here are a few reasonable "excuses," you can use to contact someone when it comes to link building.
They mentioned you, but didn't link to you, so you're contacting them to say thanks.
At this point, they know you and probably like you.
They published or linked to inaccurate or outdated information,
so you want to bring new research to light.
They're passionate about a topic and you have something unique to share with them that they'll love.
They have an issue with their page or website like a broken link
that you want to bring to their attention.
This list is by no means exhaustive as outreach is situational,
but they're reasons that I personally think are fine.
In fact, a broken link building campaign I ran a little while back
yielded a 15.5% reply rate on unique contacts where emails didn't bounce.
So of 489 delivered emails, I was able to get 58 known links, which is around a 12% conversion rate.
Also, at Ahrefs, we ran an unlinked mentions campaign a few months ago.
Now, if you're unfamiliar with this link building strategy, it's when you contact people
who have mentioned you but didn't link to you.
So you send an email and ask them to link to you.
Throughout this campaign, we sent 406 emails and got 51 known links as a result,
which is a 12.6% conversion rate.
And if you think that you can't get these results because of brand or experience,
then you're wrong.
The broken link building campaign was done under a name that no one knew in the industry.
And Ahrefs' unlinked mentions campaign was done mostly by two people who had never worked
on a link building campaign in their lives.
Watch our video on broken link building to see the steps I took and emails I sent.
But remember… Don't copy the template ;)
Now, a good reason for contact isn't going to be enough to earn you a link.
There are other parts of your email that will impact your conversion rate.
Most of the ones I receive in my inbox get ignored because of the next mistake.
And that's your email gives no benefit to the prospect, whatsoever.
Or to put it bluntly, your pitch sucks.
Now, I'm not saying you have to offer an incentive like money.
In fact, buying backlinks is against Google's Terms of Service.
In my opinion, if you end your email off with something like… "so can you link to me?",
this can be a factor that makes your otherwise great email, not so great.
Instead, I've found offering something without expectation of getting a link to work best.
And this is because of a social psychology principle called "the rule of reciprocity."
Reciprocity suggests that people want to respond to a positive action with another positive action.
You might offer to share their content on social, provide custom images to go with their
imageless post, or use your talents to get their attention.
For example, I recently received an email from a cartoon artist named Gabe.
He wasn't asking for a link, but simply wanted to connect and show appreciation for my work.
Since he's a super-talented artist, he sent me a link to a custom cartoon drawing,
although much less handsome...
Another example was an experiment I ran trying to convert links on second contact, rather than first.
I sent 30 people an email with the subject line, "is this a good article to share?"
Of the 30 people, 27 people opened the email, and 9 responded.
The three that didn't open the email is because it never reached their inbox.
The email was simple.
It basically said, "I'm filling up my Twitter queue on Buffer, I read post X and liked Y.
Is this one good to share or do you have a better one on [Topic]?"
Although the sample was small, of just 30 people, 3 people linked to me closing the
experimental campaign at a 10% conversion rate.
Now, how did I get a link here without asking?
That leads us into the next link blocker.
You quit when they won't link to you right away.
In many cases, people aren't going to respond emphatically and say that they linked to you.
They might just say, "thanks!"
Other times they'll say they don't update old posts.
So what do you do?
You negotiate.
Negotiation is a critical skill when it comes to link building.
And the best place to start is to try and understand what they want.
For example, are you connected with a person that they've written about or follow on Twitter?
Do you think they would be a good match for an intro?
Now, if they don't go back and edit old posts, will they accept new content such as a guest post?
If you don't offer anything else that could be mutually beneficial,
then you might kill some perfectly good link opportunities.
The next reason why you're not getting links is because you're sending your pitches to the wrong people.
In order to get link placements, you need to find people that can make changes or decisions for their site.
Generally speaking, you'll want to look for the most appropriate contact in this order:
Editors, authors who work for the company, content marketing managers, webmasters,
and then generic emails as a last resort.
If the person can't make changes to the site, then they're probably not the best person to contact.
But this often comes down to the size of the company.
For example, Ahrefs has around 45 people in the company.
If you contact our CEO asking for a link, I don't think he'd respond with an emphatic yes!
He's busy running a successful software company.
Now, if you contact our support email, your message will be sent to our live chat software,
which will probably get archived.
So in order to find the best person to contact, look through About and Team pages
and look for editors or people with the word "content" in their name.
If you can't find anyone appropriate, then look to the company LinkedIn page,
and search through the company directory.
Whereas, if you're contacting a single-author site owner,
contacting the owner would probably be your best bet.
Use your best judgement rather than taking the first email you find.
Next up is that you're sending emails to the wrong email address.
Email finding tools like Hunter are great for email discovery.
But as far as I'm aware, they often work on "patterns," meaning the emails are educated
guesses based on other emails in their database.
You should always validate emails using a service like NeverBounce to ensure your deliverability is high
and that your prospects are actually receiving your emails.
Last but certainly not least, you think your content is great when it's actually not.
Rehashing someone else's information and making it longer doesn't mean that it's great content.
Unfortunately, "quality content," is impossible to quantify since it's somewhat subjective.
And it's also very situational.
But I do want to give my subjective view of objectively good content.
Here's my take on the traits that make content great.
#1. Great content solves problems and fulfills the reason why someone visits your page.
For example, if a user clicks on your article called, "17 Easy Productivity Tips to Save an Hour Per Day,"
they'd probably want to know how these tips amount to 60 minutes
because that's what you're promising.
You're also solving problems and helping them become more productive.
#2. Great content is trustworthy.
Let's say you have an article on investing.
Are you and/or the sources you're linking to credible?
Anything that can impact people's health, wealth, or happiness, should be thoroughly researched
and ideally written by professionals when possible.
Afterall, you could be dealing with a person's livelihood.
I also think this applies heavily to affiliate marketers.
Anyone and everyone can look up the 10 most expensive or popular products on Amazon
and incorporate them into a "best of" post.
But there are companies like the Wire Cutter who are actually buying these products,
setting a list of quantifiable criteria, testing, and then reporting the results.
In my opinion, this should be the standard if you really want to hit top-tier content.
#3. Great content incorporates media that enhances the user's experience.
For example, if you're talking about the ripening process of strawberries,
don't just throw in a stock photo of a strawberry.
Everyone knows what they look like.
Show a supporting gif like this that really illustrates what you're explaining.
On Ahrefs' blog, we often incorporate charts and custom graphics to better illustrate our points.
#4. Great content is unbiased or honestly biased.
A few months ago, we conducted a study on Wix SEO vs. WordPress SEO.
Rather than allowing my personal opinions to come in play, I asked our data scientist
to give me all of the conclusions in plain English.
Since I had bias, I wouldn't be the creator, I'd be the messenger.
I could easily list off another 5 characteristics of great content, but I'll leave at this.
If you're doing any of these things when sending outreach emails for links,
then take these tips and I highly recommend digging through our link building playlist,
where you'll find additional tips to help you get more backlinks.
Now, if you found this video to be helpful, then make sure to like, share and subscribe
for more actionable SEO and marketing tutorials.
And hey, I'm sure you've gotten a whole bunch of bad outreach emails.
So I'd love for you to share your tips in the comments on what to do or what not to do.
So keep grinding away, convert more links, and I'll see you in the next tutorial.