link building through outreach
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LINK BUILDING THROUGH OUTREACH
What is outreach? And how can you use it to boost your website's success?
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‘Keep away from link building. Don’t do it. It’s rankings poison.’
That is one of the more printable sentiments that were floating around the internet when Google released its Penguin algorithm update back in April 2012.
The change was designed to hit webmasters where it hurt – right in the unethical paid link.
Link building has always been one of the most effective ways to achieve good rankings in search engines but it’s little wonder that there was so much widespread panic over Google Penguin.
Google alone completes 12.477 billion searches per month and has the biggest slice of the global search market by a country mile. Ranking well in Google’s results pages for search terms relevant to your products or services is incredibly important to a lot of people running businesses looking to attract organic traffic.
Link building used to be one of the most effective ways to climb up Google’s rankings, with many employing long-term link placement campaigns over a number of years to boost their chances of getting noticed.
For some of them, the introduction of Google Penguin presented a significant problem.
Contents1 // The algorithm epoch
2 // Quality over quantity
3 // The past, present, and future of link building
4 // Off-page perfection
5 // What is outreach?
7 // Social media influencers
11 // Our final thought
The algorithm epochGoogle estimated that Penguin affected close to 3.1 per cent of English language search queries when released.
That may not sound like a lot, but considering that billions of searches are made each month through Google, it actually represented an enormous number of websites that suddenly found their rankings had dropped significantly.
Google has continued to refresh the algorithm while releasing updates in the shape of content adjudicator Panda and what’s been heralded as the future of mobile search, Google Hummingbird.
To understand the need for and importance of ethical, organic link building, you have to understand the reasons behind Google releasing algorithms that changed the entire landscape of search marketing forever.
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Quality over quantitySearch engines exist to provide people all over the world with the best information possible.
It’s why you use Google, isn’t it? If you were to use it a few times and not get instant access to the information you wanted, it wouldn’t take long before you decided to find another search engine.
Google felt the search results they were providing were in danger of being compromised by low-quality sites trying to gain an unfair advantage through excessive link building and link spam.
Is it fair that a site that provides a fantastic user experience is outranked by a site that doesn’t offer anything like the same quality, but is able to afford a huge number of backlinks?
Of course not. What’s more, Google’s guidelines are pretty clear on the subject of ethical link building and content creation.
These algorithm updates were released to reinforce that point and help shape the future of search.
The future is quality.
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The past, present, and future of link buildingWell, if you’ve been doing it right then quality is the present and the past, too!
Whatever profession you’re in it’s essential to offer a high-quality user experience that benefits visitors and encourages them to come back for more.
That means sites that load quickly. Sites that are easy to navigate. Sites that search engine spiders find easy to crawl. Sites that are informative and meet the needs of the user. Sites that are entertaining. Sites that make it easy for people to order things.
You owe it to your users to provide them with the best experience possible online.
Think in terms of a real, physical shop on the high street. When you enter one you expect to be greeted with the best customer service and incredible attention to detail.
Why should the online experience be any different?
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Off-page perfectionAs good as your online experience may be, links are still an important part of improving your online search visibility – along with 200 other factors Google takes into consideration.
And, like the amazing experience you’re looking to provide on-page, your off-page portfolio needs to be just as compelling.
That includes high-quality links which have been earned naturally, pointing back to your site. But with Google’s Penguin algorithm, how can you tell which links are safe to build and how should they integrate into your long-term strategy?
The answer is with an outreach strategy that works for you, your online reputation, and your site.
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What is outreach?Outreach is all about offering great content to be used and/or shared by interested parties online.
You should always be looking for quality when link building. A few links from relevant sites of real importance are likely to have a far more beneficial effect than lots of low-quality links on suspicious sites.
With an outreach strategy you’ll be looking to target not just relevant sites to spread your content, reaching a wider audience, driving traffic and hopefully gaining a link from, but also appropriate influencers on blogs, online communities and social media networks, your target audience, prominent bloggers, the press, and more:
Guest blogging
Guest blogging is another form of link building that has received a rough ride of late. We mentioned Google Panda earlier – it’s an algorithm similar to Google Penguin, but instead focuses on content and its quality.
Site full of stitched content? Blocks of text full of keywords? Google Panda won’t be happy…
Panda and Penguin combined have been busy over the last couple of years exposing poor-quality links cultivated by paid-for blogs, content with links found on irrelevant sites, and more.
Again, the problem centres around quality as opposed to quantity. Guest blogging is fine when and where appropriate.
It’s only appropriate when the blog posts offer something of value to the reader, answer questions or meet needs. Content for content’s sake is not something Google encourages.
And with good reason. Not only are you not doing your site any justice with poor guest blogging but you’re not doing yourself any favours either if you’re the one creating the content.
It’s part of the reason why Google Authorship was created, to give content creators more authority and prominence. They’re less likely to associate themselves with poor-quality content, you see...
So how do you guest blog properly? You need to incorporate the same mindset that we mentioned in the press example.
Locate blogs relevant to your industry (sell car parts? Locate blogs that have an interest in the motoring world) and build relationships with the owners.
We’re talking real relationships here. Get to know them on a personal level and share your common interests. Read their blog and get a grasp of their editorial style, and point them to the work you’ve created on your own site.
Over time, discuss the possibility of becoming a contributor and pitch some ideas that will grab attention, that are creative, unique, original, and haven’t been featured anywhere else.
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Social media influencersYou may be noticing a theme developing here?
Social media is the perfect way to reach out to the right people, attract attention to your own content, and approach industry influencers.
Influencers are, well, people who hold a lot of influence. Richard Branson and Alan Sugar are obvious examples in the business world, but there are a huge amount of other influencers out there who will likely have more time to respond to your emails and social messages and have real sway with your target market.
Remember, quality is the watchword when link building. Search for people that have a prominent voice in your industry and are well connected.
Contact influencers and look to build a relationship with them by engaging with their posts/tweets, actively contributing to discussions and only when established as part of that community can you start pointing them to your content and showing them that you have something important to say in regards to your industry.
8The beauty of social media is that there can be a number of different influencers using different mediums. Some may prefer to tweet while the more business-focused may spend the majority of their networking time on LinkedIn.
Connect with them and show them your value as a thought leader in the industry and a unique content creator before asking for any retweets/shares/re-posts or links.
Press awareness
Just imagine, paparazzi knocking on the door, reporters and TV cameras putting word of you and your site across the airwaves…
That’s not the goal of press awareness. Your overall aim is to construct press material for local news and trade organisations to try and build a relationship and, hopefully, get some write-ups here and there.
That doesn’t mean creating a press release about every little thing with a tenuous news angle – that will have the exact opposite to the desired effect and will “cry wolf” to journalists, so when you have “real” news then you will struggle to achieve any significant pickup.
That’s not the way to reach journalists and writers looking to cover relevant news. You need to be as transparent as possible and create stories and convey information that really matter to the right people.
Local press, for instance. Does the information you’re sending out have a relevant, interesting local angle that can benefit and excite people in the community?
Or trade press – what is your site and organisation doing differently than everybody else? Are you being honest and transparent with your figures and information?
9Take time to discover the right sites and publications – trade, local, or otherwise – and the staff writers and news team that work for them.
Introduce yourself with an introductory email, get in touch, and let them know what you’re about and if theirs is the right place to send your media alerts.
With the right relationships, not only can you get your site and brand in the public eye, you can also get a few links back to your site at the same time.
Create your own content
Still by far and away the most effective way of link building is by creating your own unique, original content that’s full of imagination. Why would people want to share, link to or tell others about content that says the same thing as everyone else and doesn’t offer anything of value to the reader/audience?
Consistency is key when creating content, so it’s crucial to create an editorial calendar full of ideas that span blogs, videos, images, infographics, and anything else within your creative means.
Use your social channels, email lists, and other data to share that content on a regular basis with the right people who will share it with their friends and their family.
They’ll share that content across the internet, on their own blogs and other social sites with links back to your site.
Competitions
A competition is a fantastic way to not only generate some links but also attract a lot of traffic and attention for your brand.
You’ll need to familiarise yourself with Facebook’s terms and conditions when it comes to creating competitions if you want to use this channel to promote and spread the word. Once you’re up to speed, however, you’ll have the knowledge and skills to create some truly effective backlinks.
Create a set of terms and conditions and choose your prizes wisely; the better or more unusual the prize, the more buzz your competition will create. Once ready, post the information on your site, via email, across your social media channels, and any other relevant places to put the word out.
The online buzz generated should ensure word of the competition spreads on social media and people will start posting links back to your site on their blog or other places online.
Remember though that when running a competition you have to be as ethical and transparent as possible, so make it clear how you choose your winners and that everything was conducted in a fair manner.
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Our final thoughtSome say that link building has become harder than ever since Google has released algorithm updates such as Penguin.
However, we believe that it was exactly what the search industry needed to encourage site owners to use their creativity in a positive manner to provide something unique to their visitors and cultivate an ethical link profile.
Creativity has been at the forefront of marketing for decades, with the best campaigns catching the eye and really making people think.
By injecting some of that creativity into your content and outreach strategy you can potentially earn great links and help ensure your content gets seen by the right audience, attracting the right kind of traffic and engaging with online communities that are willing to share everything unique and interesting about your brand.
Contact Click Consult
Do you need any further assistance with your search marketing strategy? Our Click Consult website features an online resources section, full of useful how-to guides. We also write a blog, where you can find an abundance of search marketing tips. If you’re feeling social, get in touch on Google+, Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. Alternatively, if you’d like to speak to us over the phone, you can give us a call on 0845 205 0292.
We look forward to hearing from you.
As always, we’d like to wish you the best of luck with all your search marketing efforts.
The team at Click Consult
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