Advanced link building queries, for the link builders who use them extensively, remain a closely guarded secret. It’s easy to understand why. For one, they want to protect a valued link source from getting flooded with link requests from the general link-seeking public. Secondly, there are some choice opportunities out there that would lose their value if the entire SEO community happened to learn about them.

Another complication with discussing and sharing link building queries is that they’re often tailored towards the linkable and shareable assets of a particular organization. Further, two businesses within the same vertical may have widely different linkable assets, and therefore will need to seek different link targets, which requires different queries.

Despite their link-protecting reticence and the complexity of communication, the 21 link builders I surveyed delivered a highly-valuable array of advanced link building queries. Thank you to all who participated!

Framing the process

In my questions, I asked link builders to respond within this framework:

1. Linkable Asset. Definition: what’s “linkable” varies from vertical to vertical. Cash is almost always a linkable asset, as are available jobs, events, expertise for interviews and many other forms of great content.
2. Link Target. Definition: what types of sites, pages, and people seek this linkable asset?
3. Link Prospecting Query. Definition: what queries uncover great targets for your linkable assets?

This framework couldn’t possibly suit every link builders’ style and expertise. I mention it because you’ll see it in some cases below.

Last notes before digging in – I missed getting queries from some great link builders due to time constraints imposed by my late start (apologies to those I missed!). If you want more sample queries from link builders please say so in the comments (and/or add your own) so I can build the case for a follow-up article. And in closing, I’d like to extend a thank you to the SEO Dojo for their warm welcome and link query suggestions.

Link building queries from 21 link builders

Query #1

Ken McGaffin, Keywords and SEO Blogger for Wordtracker Academy:

Here is a mini case-study on our Firefox plug-in ‘SEO Blogger’ which shows how we create linkable assets, queries and approach people for link building.

The link building project

‘SEO Blogger’ Firefox plug in from Wordtracker

At Wordtracker, we wanted to target anyone who published a blog and we were especially interested in business bloggers. We did a reasonable amount of research on the project and it kicked off with doing queries on Google.

We were interesting in identifying sites that had published articles on ‘business blogging’ or advised people how to blog. We identified our prospects using “intitle” queries on Google.

At the last count, this piece of work netted us over 1,000 links in just a few months.

The queries we used were quite simple but they produced an excellent list of target sites.

Here are the queries I used:

• intitle:”business blogging”
• intitle:”business blogs”
• intitle:”blogging tips”

For each query, I’ll look at the first 100 results and then look to compile a list of what I think are the top 50 or so. I concentrate on the top 50 because it’s cost effective. If I get editorial coverage and links from among the top 50, then I know hundreds will follow their example.

You’ve got to have superb content and publicize it through multiple channels. That’s where we put in the bulk of our efforts. For ‘SEO Blogger’ we had a 7-step process:

1. Created a top notch, free plug-in.
2. We created a section on our Academy specifically to offer free blogging articles as well as a blogging download.
3. We also commissioned an e-book from Chris Garrett, “Blogging for Business” that would generate revenue.
4. About 4 days before launch, we contacted our top 50 researched targets, gave them some copy and invited them to be the first to try our new plugin – we asked them to write about it or tweet it if they found it useful. We gave people a strict embargo.
5. We wrote a series of customized press releases that went to the press list we’ve built up over the years. Note that we suggested how to link to us in all our communications.
6. This is the most important step – we responded to questions and queries almost immediately. That meant assigning people to take on that task. I’m convinced our quick responses helped build trust and relationships.
7. Finally, on release, we tweeted about the launch. Many of the bloggers journalists who we had contacted also tweeted at the same time. The results were fantastic – the synergy we got from these multiple channels is always what I’m after.

In summary,  I think you need to have a commitment to create great, free stuff in order to tap into these link targets.

Query #2

Shaun Anderson, of Hobo SEO Company in Scotland.

One of the simplest ways I use to build links for any business is finding colleges and universities who link degree students and alumni to to job opportunities, and promote their student discount partners online. I consider links from very real sites like these as authority building links.

Obviously the first thing to do is get used to publishing your job vacancies and any offers on your site, and then telling potential linking partners about them. TIP: never take these jobs offline either – just mention “Role Filled” and strike out the text.

• Target Asset = Job Vacancy / Internships For (with your important keywords of course)
• Key Link prospects = Universities and colleges, alumni sites
• Link prospecting queries (in Google) = jobs degree site:.ac.uk, careers opportunities site:.ac.uk, careers advice site:.ac.uk, jobs degree site:.edu, careers degree site:.edu, careers advice site:.edu + variations
• View this example page typical of what you might find.

Another variation of this query occurs with colleges and universities who publish links to sites that offer their alumni special student discounts (so effectively, all you need is a student discount for products or services). This is useful even for small businesses in a very tight catchment area.

• Target Asset = Student Discount For (with your important keywords of course)
• Key Link prospects = Universities and colleges, alumni sites
• Link prospecting queries (in Google) = student discount partners site:.ac.uk, student discount partners site:.edu + variations
• View this example page typical of what you might find.

Of course, in every case you need to dig around the site in question but offering a student discount to all colleges and universities and building a list of marketing communications offers at unis and colleges and contacting them asking for a link in their newsletter (which many have) in return for a student discount is going to be more rewarding than sending out 1000 unsolicited spam link request emails. TIP – don’t be cheap. The better your offer for students, the better chance you’ll get a link.

Ultimately these kinds of educational links are a win win – they are not hurting either site, and students get a good deal too. If you have good content on your site, you can just go right on and ask them to link to it if they already have a habit of linking out to similar sites to yours, or even send them articles about “How to get a job in {keyword} services” for their careers newsletter or resource section.

Query #3

Eric Ward, content link builder since 1994

Understanding how to use what Google will give you via advanced syntax queries is one of those private strategies where I don’t tell my exact approach, I only sort of hint at it. The specific queries I use are typically client/subject specific.

That said, I could share some vertical/marginally useful ones, say, if the content I am building links for is PBS’ content on volcanoes.

Then, an example target site would be this one.

And, I would have found that target site via a Google query string like this: [volcano learn diagram useful demonstration other links].

Now, this is a beautiful example, and it’s a real example, and it resulted in a topical link obtained, but…most folks who are building links are not doing so on behalf of PBS content about a vertical like “volcanoes”. So, while my example may look nice, and it worked for me because my clients are content creators like PBS, most folks will see my example and crucify me/it as being “unrealistic” for their purposes, since their content is not as “linkworthy” as PBS’s.

Query #4

Wiep Knol, newly of Linkbuilding.nl

Here’s a list of a few queries that I often use or have used in the past to find interesting websites. I left the most obvious ones out, because I assume that most people already know and use these.

Content targeted:

• {keyword} “guest blogger” OR “guest post” OR “guest article” OR “guest column”
• {keyword} “become a contributor” OR “contribute to this site”
• {keyword} “write for us” OR “write for me”
• {keyword} inurl:category/guest

You can refine these queries by using {keyword location} in stead of {keyword}, or by switching to just {location}.

Resource/ research targeted:

• {keyword} “top * [tools/ articles/ websites/ etc.]” -> refine search to ~1 year ago. Contact anybody who shows up and ask if you can help with the 2009/ 20** edition of the article
• {keyword} research -> see explanation above
• {keyword} {location} resources OR “useful sites” OR links
• {keyword} {USP} intitle:resources -> Use ‘green’, ‘cheapest’ etc as USP
• .edu targeted: {keyword} site:.edu “planned research” OR “upcoming project” -> might return upcoming research/ project/ whatever that can be useful (both for info and for links)

To find specific types of websites:

• {keyword} “Powered by phpBB” OR “powered by vBulletin”
• {keyword} “Blog powered by TypePad” OR “powered by Wordpress”

Additionally, one thing that always works very well for me is asking the client what the most important industry related websites and blogs are, and which ones his or her favorite are. Then I do some searching in the LinkedIn connections and Twitter followers of the client and some of his colleagues, and look for connections with these websites. If I find a match, explain to my client how he can use that connection and turn it into a link. This not only results in links to the client website on highly relevant websites that he likes (=a happy client), but it also makes sure that he is building connections that will be useful in the future as well (= life time value).

Query #5

Ann Smarty, SEO Consultant, SEOSmarty.com

• target asset = new low-calorie chocolate product
• key link prospects = mommy bloggers
• link prospecting queries = [pr welcome], [submit * review], [pr friendly], [pr contact], [pr info], [get * reviewed], [allintitle:get * reviewed], [reviews inurl:submit]

• target asset = a contest by fitness equipment store
• key link prospects = bloggers who cover web contests with a link back to the host
• link prospecting queries = [intitle:submit intitle:contest], [allintitle:submit * contest], [blog contests], [submit * giveaway]

Also from Ann: Link Building Search Queries Collection How to Use Google Wildcard Operator for Link Building and Baiting

Query #6

Debra Mastaler of Alliance-Link, link building services and training

We begin all custom campaigns by sending surveys to the client’s customer base, which cuts our prospecting time in half and pinpoints the sites and/or types of businesses we need to look for. From there, it’s a simple matter of doing basic research to match sites with our client’s demographic. I depend less on queries for this and more on tools like Quantcast and Compete. If I do need to query, I use all four engines (Google, Ask, Yahoo and Bing) plus DMOZ, Hoovers, Lexis Nexis and local directories. My goal is to find businesses with street and algorithmic credibility to pitch my promotions and content to.

Query #7

Melanie Nathan, consultant for Canadian SEO

Footprints: A footprint is simply common text than can be searched for thereby revealing all the places that use the same text.

For example, a Google search for [Allowed HTML tags:] will bring back all the sites and blogs that allow you to use custom anchor text when commenting.

If you happen to come across an authoritative site that allows you to automatically post content with dofollow links (for example, a classified ad), take note of the form they’re using as footprints left by the form software are easily trackable and can allow you to find other sites that are using the same form.

Some examples of common footprints:

Dofollow blog comments:

Corresponding Footprint search: ["Notify me of follow-up comments?"+"Submit the word you see below:"]

Result: Over 60,000 new prospects (ie. sites that use the same dofollow form software)

Dofollow classified ads:

Corresponding Footprint search: ["drupal classified ads courtesy of exodus development, INC"]

Result: Over 40,000 other sites that use the same dofollow classified ad software.

Take it a step further with “drupal classified ads courtesy of exodus development, INC”+health and you’ve narrowed it down to only the sites that mention (for example) health.

Keep in mind that these are just 2 very basic examples. Get creative and you’ll be surprised at what you might uncover.

Disclaimer: I am in NO way suggesting that you spam these types of sites. However, if you’re going to spend the time interacting and engaging with other sites and blogs in your industry (for reals!), I AM suggesting that you maximize your efforts by making sure to interact on sites which will offer the most benefit to your organic goals.

Query #8

Wil Reynolds of the ThinkSeer SEO Agency

• Linkable Asset: A prize (product or service of course ;)
• Link Target: The target is charity web sites where we can give something away and be listed as an in kind donor
• Queries: ["in kind donations" list], ["in kind donors" list]

Query #9

Tom Demers of WordStream, the keyword management software company responsible for The Free Keyword Tool.

A couple of things I’m frequently promoting are videos and free tools or widgets. Here I’ll use some pretty generic queries like:

• target asset = Video Content
• link prospecting queries = intitle:[{target keyword} videos], intitle:[{target keyword} clips]

• target asset = Free tool/widget
• link prospecting queries = intitle:[{target keyword} tools], intitle:[free {target keyword} tools], intitle:[list of free {target keyword} tools], intitle:[list of {target keyword} tools]

Then I’ll use SEO for Firefox to export the data and de-dupe and triage the link prospects based on PageRank.

Beyond just pulling down places linking out, you can also identify a few sites that are on multiple lists. From there, pull down their backlink profiles and sort by page rank (using SEO for Firefox) or find sites that are linking to them multiple times using the Hostname Occurrence Counter. At the end of the process I usually have a nice list of potential link profiles.

Query #10

Gab Goldenberg of SEORoi.com

For queries,  I try to find less commercial sites based on insider jargon, insider topics or thinking about communities. So if you are kindergarten related, I’d look up jargon related to parenting or issues like whether you should carry your kid in a sling or if strollers are better. This works better for B2C than B2B, since I can’t see professionals being up for selling links on their sites, vs the general public. I could be wrong though.

For prospects, I target bloggers, members of the said communities.

Building links to B2C sites that can have a related community. It’s harder when you’re selling stuff like toothpaste or ordinary drugstore items without associated communities.

The upside to this is that if you have the budget, you can saturate the key sites in the community with these paid links and build a brand. In which case, you can thumb your nose at Google because you’ll eventually build direct traffic as a key source as well as referral traffic, reduce their ability to penalize you, etc. I wrote somewhere about my friend Rachel who surfs Wikipedia for entertainment. That’s where you want to get to. Where people bypass Google to get to you directly. It’s ironic, but the best SEO will get you to the point you don’t need search traffic any more.

Check out Gab’s 101-tip guide to buying text links.

Query #11

Arnie Kuenn of Vertical Measures link building service.

Here are a few for you that I have saved in a our database of queries we use for link building:

• “keyword phrase” sponsor charity
• “public library” “useful links” keyword phrase site:.gov
• “useful keyword phrase sites” library –clientwebsite site:.edu
• “helpful keyword phrase sites” library –clientwebsite site:.edu
• “favorite keyword phrase sites” library –clientwebsite site:.edu
• “best keyword phrase” site:.edu OR site:.org
• keyword phrase resources public library site:.us
• keyword phrase site:.edu

Query #12

Members of the Huomah SEO Dojo, SEO Training for Search Warriors.

Many thanks to the fine community at the SEO Dojo for their contributions to this article!

member: fedem of http://www.buyandwalk.com/

• linkdomain:competitor1.com; linkdomain:competitor2.com; -linkdomain:mysite.com

This will give you a landscape of which sites are linking to 2 or 3 of your competitors but not your site. This increase the chances of finding partners willing to link to your site.

Query #13

Ken Lyons of WordStream.

I use search operators to find personal email addresses for link outreach. some of my favorites:

• site:[companywebsite.com] + [name] + email
• site:[companywebsite.com] + [name] + contact
• site:[personalblog.com] + [name] + email
• site:[personalblog.com] + [name] + contact

From 12 Ways to Find Anyone’s Personal Email Address

Query #14

Craig Parker of Soula.com

Social Media Based queries are obviously useful for commenting and scoping out competition so: site:{SN} {keyword}

Where SN (social network) is digg.com, delicious.com or twitter.com etc. and {keyword} is one of your keywords or brands/competitor brands.

The other one I find quite useful is narrowing down themed directories so:

• {keyword} + “add a site”
• {keyword} + “submit url”

Obviously there are literally loads of combinations of these utilizing different words for directory i.e. “suggest url” or “submit listing”

You can also combine it with the intitle or inurl command for extra fun! Again throw in different words for directory like “list” and you can make lots of combinations on this.

• {keyword} + “intitle:directory”
• {keyword} + “inurl:directory”

They are basic ones but can be often overlooked by those not used to this stuff.

Query #15

Jon Santillan of SEO Dubai

I used search operators to find potential links for my link building campaign using footprinted Scripts. This varies from directory, blog commenting, forum, social media directories and competitors.

• Target Asset = Red Widget
• Strategy – A combination of standard text or content that usually can see in a website
• Ex: Directory = inurl:submit.php intext:Powered by “Directory Name” intext: red widget
• Blog Commenting = intext:red widget intext:blog comments powered by “Comment Plugin”
• Social Media = intext:”Submit A New Story” intitle:Register intext: “Name of Social Media Script”
• Forum = inurl:forum intext:red widget

My favorite: Competitors Footprints. Following competitors Backlinks is the most exciting one, you can use link:competitorsdomain.com and check a potential link partner. By following competitors footprints, you can sometimes see the strategy of their link building, for example, if they are using Directory, Blog Commenting, Social Media or Forum. If by any chance you got the name of a Directory Script, Social media script, plug commenting plugin that is not in your list, you can add that in your arsenal.

Once you have figured out the competitors pattern how they are building their backlinks plus your link building strategy I think that will be easier for you.

In my opinion, combining different search operators and website content pattern is one of most effective link building strategy you just need to be more creative to combine and try different combination.

Query #16

Navin Poeran

I’m using advanced queries in combination with Google alerts, to receive mails, whenever there is somewhere i can drop a link.

I just create a new alert with: OR -mysite.com inurl:links

Query #17

Andy Murd of MMMeeja.

I use this query in Google Image Search to find the little “U Comment – I Follow” logo:

• “MY KEYPHRASE” inurl:ifollow*.gif

For deep links to your blog posts, you can add “CommentLuv Enabled” to find the popular Wordpress plugin.

I make RSS feeds from link-building searches so my feed reader nags me to post a few comments per day.

Query #18

David Harry (The Gypsy) of the Huomah SEO Blog

When reverse engineering link profiles, we use stuff like:

• [linkdomain:huomah.com site:.com "SEO Blog"]
• linkdomain: – searches for links to Huomah.com
• Site; – tells it to look for results from ‘.com’ extensions.
• “SEO Blog” searches the KWs on the page (or hopefully in the anchor text)

Or

• [linkdomain:example.com site:.edu "keyword"]
• [linkdomain:example.com site:.gov " keyword"]

Or maybe if we’re looking for relevant pages, we can track the TITLE

• [linkdomain:huomah.com -huomah.com intitle:SEO]

Page URLs are strong also, so we might do something like:

• [linkdomain:huomah.com -huomah.com inurl:"search engine optimization"]

We also can use a variety of low level link trolling with dorks related to:

• [add-links, last-updated 2000 inurl:.edu]

Query #19

Julie Joyce, of the link development firm Link Fish Media

“You can find particularly interesting sites geared towards a very specific interest, by using an organic thought process in which you have no major agenda. This all sounds very New Age but it has led us to some of our best inbound links.

I’ll give you an example for this one, since it’s the only method that isn’t exactly what it sounds like. When working for a site that sells punk rock concert videos, we may search for “punk videos” to start with, then we’ll see a long-tailed search phrase somewhere down in the SERPs on page 3, so we’ll then type that phrase in, then click on the first result, see something on the site’s homepage that triggers an idea, and we’ll end up on a fan site that is devoted to the music of Stiff Little Fingers.

We see that this site seeks to list all online stores that happen to sell Stiff Little Fingers items, and our client has one of these sites. Therefore, it’s a great place to get a link, and it was a somewhat random method of discovery. It’s also relevant but we still go about it in a slightly more haphazard way.”

Excerpted from: 6 Discovery Methods For Finding Ideal Linking Partners

Query #20

Brian Gilley of SocialSEO.com

Drupal Powered Websites (most allow comments links and/or dofollow)

Targeting Drupal sites with the keyword phrase “home mortgages” with comments turned on and that allow HTML links to be added and are almost always followed.

Want to get more specific and search for the keyword in the title. Try the “intitle:” search operator on for size.

Want to get freaky with it and go the broad route and not including Drupal websites or any specific CMS platform? Just search for sites allowing the HTML tag, which usually means a followed link and brings up endless possibilities.

See more tips from Mr. Gilley on how to find backlinks with search queries.

Query #21

Brian Chappell, Search/Social Marketer

Finding people who will want to share your content (…including linking to it…) can be much simpler if you know how to search quickly through the major social networks.

• Linkedin: [site:linkedin.com inurl:in “social media expert”]
• Bebo: [site:.bebo.com inurl:profile inurl:bebo “social media expert”]
• CafeMom: [site:www.cafemom.com inurl:cafemom.com/home/ “stay at home mom”]
• Facebook: [site:facebook.com/people “led zeppelin”]
• Flickr: [site:flickr.com/people “@gmail”]
• Twitter: [site:twitter.com -inurl:statuses -inurl:status “social media expert”]
• MySpace: [site:profile.myspace.com inurl:myspace inurl:fuseaction “go to nc state”]
• YouTube: [site:youtube.com/user “social media expert”]

From: How to Target Users within Social Networks

Additional link query resources:

Two Link Prospecting Query building tools:

• SEOBook Link Suggest Tool
• Link Search Tool by SoloSEO

10 Articles on Advanced Queries for Link Building

1. Long List of Link Searches
2. Five Search Queries to Find Sponsorship Link Opportunities
3. 13 Search Operators for Ultimate Link Building
4. Advanced Link: Operator to Explore Your Competitor’s Backlinks
5. The Power of Search Queries for Link Building: The Basics and Beyond Part 2
6. Link Building Tip: Easily Find DoFollow Blogs Search String
7. Search Engine Query Cheat Sheets
8. Google Hacks for Dorks and SEO prowlers
9. Getting Links From Known, Quality Linkers
10. Eric Ward Queries from Print Search Marketing Standard Interview

A single highly-linkable article can attract tens – sometimes hundreds – of links from relevant and valuable sites. Make that article *sell* and you’ll drive a similar number of leads that come pre-qualified and ready to talk business. This article outlines how to merge the practice of linkbait (we call it linkable content) and the strategies of content marketing to maximize the value of your content creation and publishing efforts.

Aim for the middle and create content that:

Here’s how:

• Content must appeal to your market: the audience of potential buyers
• Content must attract links from relevant, influential sites
• Content topics must sell your company

Content must appeal to your market: the audience of potential buyers

This is the sphere in which linkbait, in its “purest” form, often misses the mark. Especially when folks target Digg and other mass market distribution networks for attention acquisition. Building links with content that isn’t relevant to your target market can lead to brand confusion and short, ineffectual visits. Though you may not always “get links quickly” through creating and distributing content that appeals to your target market, you ensure an experience that resonates with your company’s brand, values and capacity for meeting your market’s needs.

The core task of appealing to your market with content is to understand its needs. Thinking about market needs in terms of content, and not goods or services – can sometimes prove tricky. Here are some thoughts to get you started.

Your content must:

1. Help meet an aspect of your market’s needs through information or guidance
2. Remain relentlessly factual and helpful (think engagement if you’re a lifestyle brand)
3. Target key stages of the buy cycle

Recommended approach

Ask your customers what online (and offline)  publications they read. Ask why. Then research these publications and see who’s advertising – if the advertisers are players in your space, this is an indicator that you’ve found a relevant site. Identify what kinds of content gets published there, and the questions this content answers. Could you tailor content to fit here?

Revisit your FAQs and emailed questions – what gets asked over and over? These concerns represent the needs of your market and could provide you inspiration.

Any questions that repeatedly come up in forums and Q/A sites can represent your market’s needs as well.

Content must attract relevant links from targeted sites

Addressing your market’s needs with informative content increases the likelihood that it will be linkworthy. However, just because a piece is informative doesn’t mean it will be highly-linkable. It’s important that your content appeals to the most important and influential linkers in your space. This means you need to determine who these individuals are, and identify what gets them linking. The good news is that if your content meets market needs, then you’re well on your way. The bad news is that your 10 tips article might be 90 tips short of earning you lots of links.

Recommended Approach

1. Research your space and identify what content types and topics frequently attract links.
2. Conduct SERPs Analysis Research to see which sites shows up frequently. These websites that frequently occur in the SERPs may lead you to an understanding of “highly-linkable” for your space.

Keep an eye out and a spreadsheet open to capture information such as:

• Which bloggers, media and other publishers appear the most often in your target SERPs?
• Which bloggers, media and other publishers link most frequently to your competition? Why?
• Are there key informational resource pages that appear frequently in the SERPs?
• Write down contact information for the sites that appear to be influential in the SERPs and the market.

Content must create leads or fulfill other business objectives

Creating linkable content that meets your market’s needs is a good start, but you must be sure to sell your company. Please don’t take this as encouragement to pitch your products and services, but rather to write on topics that illustrate your professional competence, domain of knowledge, authority of expertise along with the core values of your organization. If you’re writing to meet market needs, then you’re likely going to demonstrate your capacity to meet them. You may find that in the process of communicating the values that make your organization distinct you end up with content that’s more linkable and more likely to generate leads anyhow.

Brainstorm content topics that:

1. Demonstrate or illustrate authority of knowledge space (thought leadership)
2. Illustrate core values of service/product and company
3. Demonstrate capacity to deliver results
4. Demonstrate core competencies
5. Remain relentlessly factual
6. Describe the process of inventing or making your processes or services.

Next steps: publish content onsite; place content offsite

Publishing your linkable, branded content onsite, combined with link request outreach, generates links. We also recommend, as this article demonstrates, placing content offsite for the purposes of generating relevant traffic, qualified leads, link equity and the benefits of brand association. If you know of sites that engage your target market with content that answers their concerns, we highly recommend that your content appear there. Striking a balance between on and off-site publication is an ongoing balancing act, as demonstrated by colleagues such as Aaron Wall, Eric Ward and Debra Mastaler.

Extensive backlink prospecting and qualification, even with automated research processes and crawlers, can take days. Creating highly-linkable content can take even longer. Because of this significant investment, we often recommend conducting your organic link building outreach in a way that maximizes conversion rates, grows relationships with both linkers and link decliners, and ensures that any future link building campaigns are faster, easier and more effective.

Here’s how in five steps:

1. Identify link prospects suitable for outreach
2. Gather information and tools for link building outreach
3. Craft effective link building outreach emails
4. Manage the 4 possible responses: Accepts, Declines, Counters and Ignores
5. Add value to future outreach efforts: 17 trackable data points

Step 1. Identify link prospects suitable for outreach

We assume at this point that you’ve already prospected and qualified a list of link opportunities for your site. Not every link prospect on that list will be suitable for such extensive link building outreach as described below. Directories, for example, are one type of link opportunity that typically don’t require specialized outreach or negotiation. Here are six examples of link opportunities that require more finesse.

Requesting resource additions to previously-published lists and roundups

Finding lists and roundups related to your subject matter can be as simple as adding the word “list” or “roundup” to your link prospecting queries. If you’re building links to a new Twitter-related app, you should have no problem finding previously published lists written by folks who may add your site. If you’ve written some highly-linkable content, we hope you paid attention to the content already mentioned on lists and roundups pages. Now, when you reach out to these prospects you have a much higher likelihood of earning a link.

Suggesting new, alternative page for now-dead links

Using a broken-link finding tool you may be lucky enough to discover a formerly valuable page of content that was widely linked, but has since gone dead, out of date or now contains only affiliate links. If this formerly useful page contained relevant content that your target market would find useful, it makes sense to research, rewrite and reach out to folks who linked to similar content.

Requesting that company mentions become live links

If your company or organization is written about frequently, then consider making a link request to sites that mention you favorably but don’t link. Majestic SEO data can help you to identify the pages on which your site or company is mentioned, but not currently linked to.

Inclusion in actively curated resource aggregations

In the days before the Yahoo directory (and long before Google) individuals curated lists of links (such as library resource pages) that helped users find their way into deeper knowledge of a hobby, industry or practice. Some of these folks remain, still actively curating and aggregating the best information in their space, and typically all from one page. If your industry is blessed with such curators, then it’s worthwhile seeking links for high quality, highly-linkable content.

Seeking mention in upcoming industry coverage/story roundups

If the media (bloggers, industry news sites, etc) in your market consistently point to new resources, then outreach can prove highly-valuable. Look especially for bloggers who create roundups of latest news and resources.

Identify upcoming information needs

While conducting outreach, especially linkable-content outreach to industry media, it’s wise to ask them about any upcoming info needs they may have. This runs the gamut from potential data needs for analytical verticals, expert input/executive access for news sites, to guest posts for high-traffic, high-trust, highly-relevant blogs. If you haven’t yet created highly-linkable content, this approach can help you begin building great links if you have sought-after expertise in your organization.

Step 2. Gather information and tools for link building outreach

Preparation is key to an efficient outreach campaign. Though the level of outreach customization we recommend makes automation impossible, there are many bits and pieces of information you can gather that will help you streamline your process.

The link building outreach worksheet

A link building outreach worksheet (you can download one here to use as a template) is the second-most valuable outcome of a link building campaign, placed just after the links themselves. By capturing appropriate and relevant data, you can make all your future efforts more effective. This worksheet should include the following items:

• Qualified link prospects suitable for high-touch outreach – Add your link prospects to column one in the Link Building Outreach Worksheet (linked above).
• Title + URL(s) you’re building links to – Having these handy, all in one place, means you don’t have to scramble for them when you’re crafting your outreach pieces. It might occur to you that a given prospect may be interested in more than one piece of content. Keep them in one place for the duration of a campaign for easy reference.
• List of potential link offers - Can you offer highly-linkable content? Data? White papers? Expert access? Free tools? Offers in this article refer to anything you’re trying to exchange for links. Some offers, such as data or access to executive insight may not involve your current URLs. Some offers may not involve URLs that your client/boss initially requested you build links to. Brainstorm as many offers as possible before you begin outreach so that you can be flexible and even spontaneous while writing your outreach.
• A range of ideal keywords for anchor text – Know your ideal anchor text keywords and use them when describing your offers. Request that people use them, but only if you’ve developed rapport that makes the request appropriate. In unpaid, organic link building asking for specific keyword anchor text can be like adding a favor on top of a favor. Sometimes you just have to be happy with what you get. That said, it’s worth knowing and using your anchor text in your outreach. In those rare, high-control situations, use anchor text that aligns both with the content on the page and the page on your site you’re linking to. If you sell electronics and you’re requesting a link on a page about iPods, link to your iPod page with iPod in the link text.
• Descriptive snippets of the core value/benefit of URLs – Go into the outreach phase with a bulleted list of the core value/benefit of your offers. This is not for you to copy and paste, but rather to guide and inspire you when writing your individual outreach emails. This enables you to better align your requests with the values you perceive in the folks you’re writing to.
• Contact info and qualifications for internal experts – If you’re a go-getter, well positioned in your company and/or have gotten proper authority, then having contact info for your organization’s internal experts and executives can make outreach for links much more fruitful. Make sure all the names are spelled correctly and that you do indeed have the correct contact information.
• Working knowledge of company history and key founders – Sometimes a basic knowledge of company history and its key founders can help you to craft stronger outreach emails. This might be something you recognize you need after a couple hours of outreach. Have it handy and be ready to work it into your outreach to better demonstrate your organization’s authority and link-worthiness. For example, knowing that your organization’s CEO founded and still chairs a notable industry association could be compelling information to include in your outreach.
• Preparedness to identify needs not expressed in your current range of link offers – You can’t really stockpile this, but remember that link building combines equal parts prep work, perspiration and perspicacity. Preparing for sudden insights can be as simple as the “notes” column in your outreach worksheet. Sometimes it can mean adding a long-shot request in the form of short P.S. such as “hey would you guys be open to a guest post?” There’s something about being in the thick of an outreach campaign that opens the creative mind to other possibilities and potential opportunities. Make sure you watch for and capture any patterns or trends as you revisit and act on your link opportunities.

Step 3. Crafting link building outreach emails

Your email brings all the pieces together, preferably with a dose of value proposition, customization and spontaneous observation. There are several “moving parts” in email outreach such as the email address you send from, subject line and opening line of the email. Tracking and optimizing these parts can lead to higher link acquisition rates.

Link outreach subject lines

Email marketing has studied the science of subject lines since the beginning of the tactic. In link building outreach, first pay attention to email subject lines that compulsively make you open them. Then think about conveying the core benefit of your link offer in the subject. Further, consider whether or not it makes sense to carefully include your anchor text to pre-seed the potential linker’s thinking. For example, while conducting outreach in a media space with lots of blogs and numerous weekly resource roundups, we included variations on “Great Roundup Material.” But only to bloggers who actually published roundups, as demonstrated by site: searches or just a quick ctrl+f of the home page. We also recommend tracking subject lines in case you can discern a lift in eventual conversions when using certain words or offers. For a bit more about subject lines, check out Subject Line Best Practices and Crafting a Must-Read Email Subject Line.

Using customized opening lines

Sincere compliments. Relevant, insightful observations. Sincere gratitude for the work they put into their site. New ideas. Tech-error discoveries. Shared personal experiences. Questions. There are many paths to a powerful opening line for your link building outreach email. To keep things focused, I typically lean on observations that relate to the core value of the URL I’m requesting links to. If seeking links to a resource piece on saving money, I’d admire the money-saving prowess exhibited by other content pieces on the site, then transition to the request based on shared value. For deeper perspective on opening lines, go and read Opening The Sale.

Demonstrating value

What benefit will adding your link bring to their visitors? This is the key question that any publisher will ask. First and foremost, think about conveying your URL’s value in terms of saving time or saving money; illustrate how your URL does either or both. Other benefits can include having early information, becoming more thorough and resource-inclusive, so visitors have a better sense of all their options, and providing a novel or extreme experience worthy of a brief break from work. Values to your link publisher might include the perception of affiliation, building the perception of “connections,” and your potential for distribution and linking reciprocation if it makes sense. Bear in mind that there is much to leverage in any link building outreach campaign.

Our link building outreach roundup below contains several links to resources on the actual outreach email. We highly recommend you read them all.

Step 4. Managing the 4 possible responses

We’ve identified four primary outcomes for any link request: accepts, declines, counters and ignores. The value in identifying these outcomes upfront is that you can prepare for them.

Accepts offer ways to grow the relationship

We hope that you view a link as just the beginning of a relationship. Here are some ideas on growing link relationships from initial accepts. Please add any others you have found effective to the comment section below.

• Send a thank you for linking email
• Ask about any content/information needs
• Ask about any what distribution help they may need
• Request an interview with their resident expert
• Request a review
• Offer them a subscription to your newsletter, blog feed or twitter account
• Subscribe to their newsletter, blog feed and/or twitter account
• A simple: How do you think my/our knowledge could help?

Declines: ways to grow beyond the “No”

A no, that is, an emailed response in which someone rejects your request, is fairly rare. They’re valuable though because they show that someone actually considered your request and then further offered you the consideration to respond. Your job now is to learn how to grow this no into a future yes in a way that doesn’t irk your rejector. We suggest:

• Keep a gracious, scientifically curious mindset
• Identify their objection
• Learn what content they WOULD link to, but keep questions short and sweet
• Gently seek a commitment: “So if I/we do XYZ, you would link to it if/when we add it to our site?”

If you can learn what content they would link to, congratulations – now you have a content idea for your next blog post!

Counters are rare, but be prepared

Counters, in which your link prospects state what they require in order for you to earn a link from them, are even more rare than a “no.” However, they do happen. Cash and reciprocal links are fairly common counters. Be prepared with other offers such as coupons, discount codes for their readers, products for review, etc, and be ready to approach your client or boss to negotiate for this particular link if it’s worth it.

Ignores: know when to say when

An ignore can mean many different things. Maybe your subject line isn’t as effective as it could be. Maybe your prospect is on vacation. Maybe you pitched your URL ineffectively. For whatever reason, you got no response. When following up with an ignore, we always make sure to write a new comment or observation in the opening. In some cases, we mention who else has linked or tweeted the URL as a way to indicate that others found it valuable. If it’s an especially juicy link, then sometimes we may look for other contact info on the site. Tread lightly, though: if they’re deliberately ignoring you, you may be spamming them!

Step 5. Add value to future outreach efforts: 17 trackable data points

Second to the links you earn from outreach, the data you gather and retain delivers you the most recurring value in any link building campaign. Track relentlessly, especially on large-scale outreach projects, and you’ll find that each successive outreach campaign you conduct will be that much easier. We’ve identified 17 trackable data points and include these in our Link Building Outreach Worksheet. There are more, but these should help get you started.

1. Targeted Hostname/Link Page
2. Contact’s Name
3. Email Address
4. Date of 1st Contact
5. Date of Follow Up
6. Link Placed? Y/N
7. URL of Placed Link
8. Date Link Placed
9. Linked URL
10. Anchor Text Used
11. Site Type
12. Email Subject Line
13. Opening Line
14. Offer Made
15. Growing the Relationship
16. Twitter Address
17. Notes

Bonus tips for advanced link outreach

For those of you who made it this far, why not take your link building outreach a little further? Here are some additional tools and resources to check out before embarking on your next outreach campaign.

Relationship management applications

There are a number of emerging link building relationship management tools emerging. Here are all the companies (to our knowledge) in this exciting space. We have not yet extensively tested any of them in our link building outreach, despite our enthusiasm.

• BuzzStream
• Raven
• SearchReturn
• BuzzGain

15 more link building outreach articles

We consider the following articles and resources to be required reading. There are enough situational tips and nuanced suggestions in the links below to inform link request pros and newbies alike.

• Divide and Conquer: Creating and Managing Your Link Campaign
• What Your Link Request Should Contain and Why
• The Perfect Link Request
• The Perfect Link Request Email Template
• The Best Link Request Email Yet
• Bad Link Requests: Get Your Targeting Right
• A Resource Guide to Writing Quality Link Requests
• The Do’s & Don’ts in Link Request Emails
• How NOT to Request a Link Via Email
• Link Building Etiquette
• How to Request a Link Without Sounding Like a Spammer
• Why your link exchange request failed (and what you can do instead)
• Email is Still the Key to a Successful Link Building Campaign
• Good SEO: How to Request Links From Picky Sites
• How Getting a Link is Like Picking up a Woman

Without an ordered approach, careful research and custom tools, it can be difficult for link builders, writers and content strategists to know what content will attract links in a target market.

Here, we’ll provide a process and tools for developing and distributing linkable content, based on the content that has proven to attract links in your target keyword space. You should be able to answer these questions using the accompanying tools for your market:

• What content topics receive the most links?
• What are the attributes of the most-linked content?
• Who is the “linking audience” of your keyword space?
• Who links the most frequently to content in your keyword space?
• What are the attributes of mid-linkable content?
• What reoccurring topics and themes suggest possible content directions?
• What content is missing (eg: top 10 or 100 lists, resource collections)?
• Who links to topics similar to content you’ve already created?

Now that you know what you’re looking for, it’s time to begin the linkable content research phase. In this article, we investigate the link building content space using two keywords: [link building] and [link building blog]. Though we’re pretty familiar with the space, we’re going to approach it as if we were not.

Here are the tools we recommend for this exercise:

• The Linkable Content Analysis Worksheet (3rd Download)
• URL Occurrence Counter Tool + SERP Dominators Analysis Guide
• The Link Qualification Worksheet + Guide
• Yahoo Site Explorer (YSE)
• SEO for Firefox

Process for gathering linkable content data for analysis

Read through the process first and then follow along from home with your Linkable Content Analysis Worksheet.

Step 1. Identify the top information sources in your keyword space

First, you must identify which content is considered most valuable in your target keyword space. Our [link building] example is fairly simple because so many people have written so much about it. If you’re in a less-discussed content space, you may need to look at more keywords, or perhaps look at more informational keyword phrases [how to + target keywords].

Google search: [link building] Google search: [link building blog]

You could also use the URL and Hostname Occurrence Counter Tool on the SERPs of resource oriented queries for finding more of your top info sources. Further, we’ve used the blogrolls of highly-prominent bloggers as a starting point for analysis of unfamiliar spaces. The goal here is to find your industry’s most prominent, important and trusted resources.

Step 2. Extract resources from the Top 20 results

Next, you’ll need to extract non-salesy resource URLs and hostnames from the top 20 results. You’re looking for how-to resources, thought pieces, entertainment pieces – anything that’s ranking and doesn’t have a “buy now” button on it (unless of course, you’re investigating highly-linkable product pages).

Capture both sub-pages and hostname results from the resources you find. Any sub-page titles and URLs can go right in your worksheet. Use SEO for Firefox to find and record inbound link count to these pages into sheet 2, the Highly-Linked Content sheet.

For each of these sub-pages (and only the sub pages, we don’t want site-wide inbound links here) export the inbound links as detected by Yahoo. Paste these inbound links into the “link tank” sheet of the Linkable Content Worksheet (sheet 4).

Also, be sure to copy and paste out the hostname of the sub-pages that appear. For example, the URL for Aaron Wall’s How to Build Links Fast: 101 Tips & Strategies (#1 for [link building]) looks like this: http://www.seobook.com/archives/001792.shtml. You’d want to record that URL on sheet 2, and the hostname, www.seobook.com onto sheet 3.

Copy the hostnames into sheet 3 – they need more processing.

Step 3. Identifying linkable content from the top resource domains

Take your top hostnames and explore them with Yahoo Site Explorer (YSE). In our experience, YSE shows pages from sites *roughly* in the order of the number of links that they have acquired. In a new tab, open up 10 or 15 pages that appear high in the list and that have promising titles.

For example, here’s Debra Mastaler’s old blog in YSE. The second page listed is her classic Help! I’m New, I Need Links, What Can I Do? post. Using the SEO Toolbar, we can see clearly that this particular page has 260 inbound links. This article is clearly a giant of the link building content space and so title, URL and inbound link count all went into our work sheet. Next, we export the 260 inbound linkers to her article and paste them into sheet 4 – many of these links are from people who appreciate high quality content, and we want to get to know them better.

From the first page of YSE for Ms. Mastaler’s blog, we can see a number of articles – to keep this exercise manageable by hand, we only selected the top 10 or so. For more thorough linkable content analysis, you could go to 20, 30, or even export the top 1000 results into a TSV file if you’ve got the tools, time and talent to handle that much data.

To reiterate: copy title, URL and inbound link count into sheet 2 of the Linkable Content Analysis Work Sheet. Copy inbound links (only inbound links) to that URL, excluding the domain itself – into sheet 4, the link tank.

Repeat hostname analysis with YSE until you’ve worked through your list of hostnames (from sheet 3) that appeared in the top 20 results for your keywords.

Linkable content analysis and strategy creation

Once you’ve gathered your highly-linked content and the pages that link to it in the Linkable Content Analysis Worksheet, you can begin the work of identifying your linking audience and charting out your content creation strategy.

What topics receive the most links?

When you sort your Linkable Content Analysis Worksheet based on number of inbound links, you’ll easily determine the “big head” of linkable content. We put 58 pages into our Linkable Content Analysis Worksheet based on the two searches above, along with the processes outlined. The top 5 most-linked content breaks down like this:

• 101 Link Building Tips to Market Your Website (2760 IBL)
• Link Building Wiki (864 IBL)
• Link Value Factors (608 IBL)
• Link Building Strategies: 69 Solid Tactics For 2009 (408 IBL)
• Five Link Building Strategies that Work (362 IBL)

(Congrats, Wiep…you showed up twice!)

Now, even if we were new to the industry, we’d know some of the most-linkable documents within its keyword space.

What are attributes of the highest-linkable content?

What exactly makes these 5 articles the most-linked articles within the keyword space of [link building] and [link building blog]? That’s the question of a good linkable-content strategist! While we have our own ideas based on our experience in link building and SEO content in general, here are some things you could measure if you were new to a space:

• Core topic
• Number of words
• Reading level of content
• Embedded media (images, video, podcast, etc…)
• Outbound links on the page? Are they reciprocal?
• Scope/thoroughness of content
• Information structure (top 10 list, “ultimate guide,” info aggregation, etc…)
• Apparent target audience
• Apparent target audience skill level (basic or advanced?)
• What stage of the buy cycle does it target?

Look for patterns that might be significant for your space. For example, when it comes to link building content, it appears that having large numbers in the title may incite links. These large numbers (101 and 69) further indicate that the linking audience for this content prefers thorough coverage, and a quick read shows this to be true. A quick comparison of word count for each of the top-linked pages shows an average of over 4000 words per article, with 2000-3000 being the most represented. That’s a lot of words for one article.

We would not recommend that everyone begin writing content pages that are 3000 words long. But we would recommend that everyone check out the attributes of highly-linkable content in their keyword space (including but not limited to word count) and consider that as a starting point.

Who is the “linking audience” of your keyword space?

By now, sheet 4 of your Link Qualification Worksheet should contain a powerful audience of inbound linkers – people who link to specific, high value sub-pages and not just the home page. Begin looking for opportunities to build relationships with the owners/operators of these sites. Ideally, they become a vital part of how you distribute your content and build links.

Your opportunities may look like:

• Guest posts (note: this article is a “guest post” on SEL)
• Blogroll link requests, blogroll link exchanges
• Add to RSS for comment conversation participation
• Contributions to existing resource pages
• Contributions to email newsletter
• Distribution through Twitter, StumbleUpon, Digg, Etc…

For more thorough link prospect qualification, follow the process outlined in “Qualifying Link Prospects for Relevance, Value and Potentiality.”

Who links the most frequently to content in your keyword space?

Conduct a host name co-occurrence analysis of your inbound linking URLs from sheet 4 using the Hostname Occurrence Tool. Paste your results into sheet 5.

The sites that occur the most frequently are the sites that link out most often to highly linkable content. Those with a higher value as measured by the Link Qualification Worksheet and that demonstrate a high propensity for linking typically represent the most important sites for establishing a relationship. Sites that link frequently but don’t display a high value metric may be sources of quick and easy links that may not convey much search influence.

What are attributes of mid-linkable content?

Now remember, not all of your content needs to be a grand slam, or even a home run. Base hits are great. In our quick survey, we found 58 highly-linked URLs. By grouping and evaluating the mid-level players, it’s possible to identify a “linkable-enough” level of content, as well as a “core linking audience.”

Consider this: the top 5 most-linked articles will have links from sites not typically interested in link building. The sites linking to the top 5 will be less likely to link to other link building resources especially if they are more narrowly focused. The sites linking to articles with more moderate levels of inbound links are likely to represent a “core linking audience” of link building.

Our inquiry into 10 mid-linkable link building resources with 100 links or less showed Wiep.net and Search Engine Land, along with a high frequency of bookmarking and social sharing sites at the top, so not super fruitful unless you’re looking for social sharing and bookmarking sites.

What reoccurring topics and themes suggest possible content directions?

By spending some time with your Linkable Content Analysis Worksheet you can begin to tease out some potential article topics. What’s wonderful is that a) part of your research for the article is already done for you and b) once the article is done you’ll know exactly which sites to approach to share your new content and request links.

Based on our quick survey data, we identified a few topic trends, or reoccurring topics and themes. You can do this simply by looking at the titles. A more thorough dig would mean reading and categorizing all the highly-linked content in your space. We highly advise this.

Here are some examples of reoccurring topics we could now use for creating adjunct content, trump content, follow up commentary, etcetera.

Link bait

• Linkbait, Linkbait, Linkbait (170 IBL)
• Link Baiting: Which Hook Attracts the Right Fish? (125 IBL)
• Link Bait Kool-Aid? (61 IBL)

Directory analysis

• Is That Directory Worth Submitting To? (67 IBL)
• Hi I’m Debra And I’m A Directory Addict. (65 IBL)

Assessing Site Linkability

• What Makes a Web Site Link-Worthy? (95 IBL)
• Dude, Your Site Is Boring No Links For You (84 IBL)

When you pick the topic of your next article, create a Link Qualification Worksheet and add in all the pages linking to the resources that you use and cite. Further, let’s say we wrote an article on link bait. We could start with collecting inbound links to the link bait articles we found above, but then conduct some searches on [link bait] and [link bait guide] and gather backlinks to any high-ranking subpages. This article would look something like: 17 Ways to Accelerate Links to Your Link Bait (and Other Highly Linkable Content).

What content is missing?

Finding “missing link” content is easier if you have a good editorial sense and/or you know a space well. If you’re starting with content expertise in the woodworking space and want to create highly-linkable content in, say, the link building space, perhaps you’d begin with an article on link building tips for woodworking magazines (or forums, blogs, etc.).

If the content/keyword space you are investigating lacks massive numbers (100 ways; 1,000 tips…) then perhaps this could be a good direction too. Also, check if anyone has extensively aggregated the top resources in your space. Now that you’ve done all this research, you’re pretty well positioned to do so. Keep your eyes open and work to aggregate or trump what’s proven to attract links elsewhere in the space.

Ideally, the unique, informative content you’re creating also helps to sell a product or service your company offers. Can your content differentiate along the lines of your products and services? We think so.

Who links to topics similar to content you’ve already created?

If you’ve already created a body of content, look for article or content titles that suggest some similarity to yours. Visit the pages and see for yourself. Can your content compete on linkability? Further, does your content provide good counterpoint, or fill in missing material or viewpoints? If you think so, begin commenting, emailing or even calling linkers to simliar content and let them know that there’s more to the story.

Finally, for distribution, reach out to the sites that link frequently to top content in your space. Wiep puts outreach very nicely in The Perfect Link Request Email Template.

What’s missing from this article is a broader look at content marketing and how informative content can help you reach business goals. This article could compliment the research process for any content strategists seeking to add value to their content by making it more linkable and distributable by a target audience.

In our article on link prospect qualification, we downplayed the difficulty of finding link prospects. Here’s why: the time you spend finding a link prospect pales in comparison to the time it takes to analyze that prospect for its relevance to your keywords, its overall value to your link building goals and the potential it will convert into a link.

However, because it takes so long to qualify link prospects, we decided to create a tool and a worksheet for “pre-qualifying” link prospects based on the sites that occur most frequently in the search engine results pages for a given set of keywords – SERPs Dominators. This article walks you through the tools, processes and strategies for identifying the most powerful players in your keyword space, and then analyzing their link sources and link building tactics.

Who are SERPs dominators?

SERPs Dominators are the sites and individual URLs that appear most frequently in the SERPs for your target, most-profitable keywords (you know which ones these are, right?). In aggregate, analyzing hostname and URL SERPs occurrence can reveal a great deal about an industry. We also use the term SERPs Dominators below to describe the sites that rank frequently in the top 10 of the SERPs.

Why do SERPs Dominators matter to link builders?

First and foremost, they are also your SERPs competitors – if you’re building links to impact your presence in the search engines, for the same target keywords, then they matter. Secondly, because they appear frequently in the SERPs, these pages exert influence on the segment of your market that uses search engines. By selectively examining backlinks of your SERPs Dominators you can quickly and efficiently identify many of the links that most influence your SERP.  In “5 Reasons Why Rankings Are A Poor Measure Of Success” Jill Whalen outlines why the SERPs can be misleading indicators of success, and a tricky place to derive actionable data. We believe that, in aggregate, the SERPs can reveal quite a bit, especially if the keywords you target are proven to bring in visitors who convert.

Further, many of the SERPs Dominators themselves will be great targets for link requests, guest post/article pitches, social profile creation, comment campaigns, etc depending on the site type and whether its an ally or a competitor.

What tools do you need for SERPs Dominator analysis?

Identifying your SERPs dominators is simple… Here’s what you need.

1. SEO for Firefox. With SEO for Firefox installed and operational you can download to CSV files the top 100 URLs in the SERPs for your keywords. This is the data required for this particular form of analysis.
2. The SERPs Dominator Analysis Worksheet. This worksheet makes it easy to track, sort and analyze the hostname and URL frequency of your SERPs.
3. Hostname and URL Frequency Counter Tool. This tool counts the occurrence frequency of hostnames and URLs within the SERPs, and outputs data you can copy and paste into the SERPs Dominator Analysis Workbook for further processing.
4. SEOBook Toolbar. The toolbar enables you to quickly drill down into exportable backlink data.
5. Yahoo Site Explorer. Yahoo Site Explorer not only enables you to export backlinks, but it orders a site’s pages in a general order of their importance (according to our anecdotal explorations – we haven’t conducted tests).
6. The Link Qualification Worksheet. Once you have gathered link prospects you must undertake the link qualification process. Read the Link Qualification Guide and then download the Link Qualification Worksheet.

SERPs Dominator data gathering for link builders: Step-by-Step

Here’s a suggested process for identifying your SERPs dominators so that you can conduct deeper analysis related to link building.

Step 1) Keyword selection and keyword set size

When picking keywords for SERPs Dominator analysis – especially since you plan to use this information for link building – it’s vital that you choose the commercial and/or most-competitive keywords that are most relevant to your business. Picking the keyword set size – whether it’s 3 or 3,000 will depend on your goals and the number of words commercially and thematically relevant to your industry.

In this example, we’ll look at “camping gear” related queries.

Choose 3 “Tip of the Iceberg” keywords. If you’re in a hurry or you’re only interested in a narrow slice of the SERPs then select around 3 of your “highest-level” keywords. For a site that sells camping gear, this could look like:

• camping gear
• camping equipment
• camping supplies

Expanding to 10 keywords is approximately 20% of the iceberg. For a deeper, more thorough investigation of a larger keyword grouping, try looking at around 10 keywords. Here are 10 closely-related keywords with high search volume in the camping equipment keyword space:

• camping gear
• camping hiking gear
• camping tent
• camping equipment
• camping hiking equipment
• camping supplies
• camping accessories
• camping stove
• camping shop
• camping store

Ideally, you’re bunching up your keywords and getting tight, highly-related groupings.  While 10 is an arbitrary number, it’s a decent target and a size that’s easily manageable by hand over the course of an afternoon.

Building up to 250 keywords (or more) almost covers the whole iceberg. To understand an entire industry, you may need to expand your investigations even deeper, into the hundreds of keywords, and in some cases into the thousands of keywords or more. If you anticipate your research having to go this wide, we would recommend creating discrete keyword groupings so that you get meaningful, highly actionable data sets.

To follow from the camping store example, we could begin including specific product searches, brand searches as well as longer tail 3 and 4 keyword searches based on [camping equipment]. We highly recommend that you get a feel for the process with 3-10 keyword groups before diving into a 250 keyword analysis.

For a comprehensive view of all the link opportunities available to you however, you will need to investigate “the Whole Iceberg…”

Step 2) Search a keyword with SEO for Firefox engaged

If you’re following along from home, then you have already downloaded and installed SEO for Firefox. Now when you conduct searches you should see more information for each search you do.

Click the small little “100″ text link beneath the search box.

Then click CSV, which exports a text file that can be easily turned into a spreadsheet.

Step 3) Populate the “Raw 100s” sheet

The first sheet of the SERPs Dominators Worksheet is for what we call the Raw 100s. This is the sheet where you hold the top 100 results for the keywords you’re analyzing. By hand, this method works well for smaller scale keyword sets in the 10-25 range. At larger scale, it starts to get unwieldy and requires automation, or at least macros.

You will be referring back regularly to the Raw 100s as you conduct your SERPs Dominator Analysis, so keep it neat!

Once you have pulled the top 100 rankings for the keyword set in which you’d like to increase your rankings you can begin analysis.

Slice and dice your data to find link opportunities

Once you have gathered all your top 100s for the keywords you’d like to analyze, you can begin using the Hostname and URL Frequency Counter Tool to reveal the SERPs Monsters (top 3s), Dominators (top 10s), Players (top 20s) and Participants (top 100s).

In the analysis section below, we concentrate our analysis demonstration on a single SERPs Monster: REI.com. We omit much of this analysis for the top 10s, 20s, and 100s. Please use the analysis framework for REI as a guide for any other site you’d like to investigate from a competitive link building example.

Step 4) Identifying SERPs Monsters by hostname frequency across keyword set

The SERPs Monsters for a given set of keywords are those sites that appear over and over again in the top 3. These sites control the most important, above-the-fold results for your keyword set. These sites also get the majority of the search traffic. These sites have demonstrated to the search engines that they will satisfy the searchers’ intent.

For our [camping gear] keyword set above, I went through my Raw 100s list and copied out the top 3 results for each search into the “Scratch Pad” sheet for temporary storage. Then I copied and pasted this list of 30 URLs into the Hostname and URL Frequency Counter Tool to reveal the SERPs Monsters for these terms.

Here are the top occurring hostnames for our 10 keyword [camping equipment] set in the top 3 results:

• www.rei.com: 9 Occurrences in the Top 3 SERPs
• www.campingworld.com: 5
• www.coleman.com: 3
• www.cabelas.com 3
• www.campmor.com 2
• www.consumersearch.com 2
• www.google.com 1
• www.camping4less.com 1
• www.backcountry.com 1
• www.hikingandbackpacking.com 1
• www.familytentcamping.com 1
• www.usoutdoorstore.com 1

Step 5) Pull backlinks from top performing competitors

The SERPs Monsters, especially in such a competitive space like camping equipment, have done the long work of proving to their market and to the search engines that they are highly relevant to [camping equipment] searches. Their backlinks are often in the multiple hundreds of thousands or even millions, in the case of REI.

Export their backlinks using Yahoo Site Explorer (YSE). Search for the site: [www.rei.com] then click the “Inlinks” tab. Set the first drop down to “Except from this domain” and set the second drop down to “Entire Site.” Then click the “TSV” link to export the first 1000 inbound linking sites.

These can go into your link qualification worksheet for further processing.

Investigate the highly-linked pages

It’s important during link building analysis to identify highly-linked pages on frequently occurring sites. Do this using Yahoo Site Explorer. YSE defaults to an analysis of the pages on a website. We make the assumption that YSE displays pages in order of their importance, most likely based on quality and quantity of inbound links.

Since YSE limits backlink exports to 1000, it often makes sense to investigate highly-linked pages that are related to the pages you’re building links for. Many times they are under 1000 and will give you a more granular look at what types of sites are interested in linking to your specific pages.

Example: Here’s REI in Yahoo Site Explorer >>

Many of REI’s highly ranking pages in YSE are there – we assume – because of links from the REI.com domain. Digging down through the list begins to reveal some interesting pages with lots and lots of links from off the REI site.

#10 in YSE) Dome Tent Product Page: http://www.rei.com/product/728308 300+ inlinks from outside domains

Linkability analysis

Why did REI’s product page for their Half Dome tent attract 348 links? It’s obviously a popular product, but are there any other on-page reasons that this page attracts links? Link builders for a camping equipment site should take special interest in this page if they’re working to build links to their dome tent pages.

Further, the attention that this page has earned should get content link builders’ wheels turning. How about a dome tent comparison page? How about purchasing that REI tent and taking it apart, seam-by-seam to show how it’s made? How about setting it on fire and making a video of it? You now have 300+ high quality link prospects for dome tent related content.

Example: #11 in YSE – http://www.rei.com/stewardship 500+ inlinks from outside domains

Linkability analysis

Stewardship attracts links. Each linker is a prospect for a camping equipment site’s stewardship program. Create a stewardship and then start with REI’s 500 backlinks as a link prospect list. Look for other similar programs on other sites and pull their inlinks as prospects for your own stewardship program.

Example: #13 in YSE – LED Headlamp http://www.rei.com/product/751757 150+ inlinks from outside domains

Linkability analysis

Many of the inlinks come from blog reviews. Has REI done anything to encourage its shoppers to write reviews of products they sell and link to their product pages? Could you? Again, like the dome tent above, is there anything special about this product page? If you want to drill down further into linkability then do a search for this product [Petzl Tikka Plus LED Headlamp] and compare other product pages. What gives REI’s page the linkability advantage?

Example: #15 in YSE -  http://www.rei.com/bikeyourdrive 3000+ inlinks from outside domains

Linkability analysis In a similar vein to stewardship, note this passion-oriented and highly-linkable content created by REI to inspire people to bike to work.

Note the “Savings Calculator” for determining the money and emissions impact of riding your bike to work instead of driving. Also notice the basic how-to videos with instruction on riding in traffic, fitting helmets and basic roadside repairs. This is a lot of content to create, but see how well it helps to drive people to sales with the product navigation on the left? And for 3000+ links it’s certainly something to consider.

Though off topic for strictly [camping equipment] searches, consider how you could create similar content related to the products you’d like to sell more of…

Other opportunities for link building

Keep an eye out for other link building opportunities as you dig into the most frequently-occurring SERPs Monsters. For example, some of the top [camping equipment] sites have forum sections. We’re not suggesting that you go and drop links in your competitions’ forums, but it could make sense for you to feel out the community by reading through the threads and determining whether or not they would be receptive to your linkable content and ongoing contributions of expertise.

As another example, directly from the [camping equipment] SERPs Monsters: check out the presence of ConsumerSearch.com. Consumer Search – owned by NYTimes – is similar to MetaCritic.com. It aggregates and evaluates product reviews. In another vertical, I’ve gotten a link from ConsumerSearch for an unbiased review of a product. Let’s dig into ConsumerSearch a little deeper, and pretend you’ve created a 2 person dome tent comparison page that evaluates all the top dome tents.

First, check out Consumer Search’s sources – the publications from which they gathered their tent review data. Some of these pages have comment potential. Further, you could check to see who’s linking to these tent reviews… they may be good link prospects for your dome-tent comparison content (see Backpack Gear Test). Finally, you could write directly to the ConsumerSearch editors and let them know about your new review or comparison.

Evaluate frequently occurring URLs

Hostname frequency is one thing… but when non-homepage URLs begin appearing frequently – it’s time to really take notice, especially in competitive spaces and with high-level keywords. Within the SERPs Monsters, one non-homepage url from REI occurs three times: http://www.rei.com/category/4500001. Who are that URL’s 178 linkers? Why are they linking? Because this URL occurs frequently it requires further YSE investigation of the nature described above. These could be great linkers for a camping equipment site’s home page.

Reviewing SERPs Dominators by Top 10 hostname frequency

The SERPs Dominators are the hostnames and URLs that appear frequently across the top 10s for your target keywords. They include, obviously, the SERPs Monsters. The difference now is that you have a broader view of the SERPs and more of your competition emerges.

Select the top 10 from each of your keywords in the Raw 100s and paste them into your scratch pad. Once you have assembled all the top tens, copy and paste the whole group into the into the Hostname and URL Frequency Counter Tool.

Here are the results I got for my [camping equipment] data set that had more than one occurrence in the top 10s.

• www.rei.com 10 Occurrences in the Top 10 SERPs
• www.cabelas.com 8
• www.coleman.com 8
• maps.google.com 6
• www.altrec.com 6
• www.amazon.com 5
• www.summitcampinggear.com 5
• www.campingworld.com 5
• www.hiking-gear-and-equipment-used-for-camping.com 4
• www.google.com 4
• www.camping4less.com 4
• www.campmor.com 4
• www.backcountry.com 3
• www.consumersearch.com 3
• www.campingcomfortably.com 2
• www.basspro.com 2
• www.cascadedesigns.com 2

Comparative SERPs frequency analysis

The benefit of conducting SERPs analysis at different ranking levels is the understanding you can gain through comparison. You’ll notice that Cabelas shot up in top 10 frequency… they are stronger players who could be considered threats to the SERPs Monsters. Coleman sees a sizable increase as well. Notice, too, the appearance of Altrec in the top 10s. They don’t appear in the top 3s and should also be considered a strong rising threat to the SERPs Monsters.

If you analyze the major players in the top 3 SERPs first, your work is halfway done. Conduct similar analysis on Cabelas, Coleman and Altrec. Summitcampinggear.com in particular is one I’d pay close attention to as a link builder because they have solid presence in the top 10s, but not the top 3s. They are either new competitors gaining, or old competitors waning. Either way, they can show you what to do or not to do in terms of link building.

The content site www.hiking-gear-and-equipment-used-for-camping.com appears for the first time in the top 10 frequency analysis. For content-related camping equipment sites, this should be very interesting from a linkability and link building perspective. It’s interesting to see that a site with only 2000 links (compared to REI’s millions…) displays competitive frequency within the top 10s.

Reviewing SERPs Players by Top 20 hostname frequency

The SERPs Players are those sites that appear with frequency in the top 20 results: the first two pages. Top 3 is great, but you (usually) have to dig deeper into the top 20. Looking at the sites that appear with frequency here show you possible up-and-comers, plus may help establish a backlink baseline for climbing into the SERPs.

You will have to sort a bit deeper to get past the top 3s and top 10s to find new sites for analysis.

• www.rei.com 12
• www.cabelas.com 10
• www.coleman.com 10
• www.altrec.com 8
• www.campingworld.com 7
• www.amazon.com 7
• maps.google.com 6
• www.summitcampinggear.com 6
• www.campinggearguide.com 5
• www.abc-of-hiking.com 5
• www.campmor.com 5
• www.hiking-gear-and-equipment-used-for-camping.com 4
• www.camping4less.com 4
• www.google.com 4
• www.backcountry.com 4
• www.campingequipmentworld.com 3
• www.consumersearch.com 3
• www.ultralighttowels.com 3
• www.camping-gear-outlet.com 3
• www.basspro.com 3
• camping-gear-outlet.com 3
• campready.com 3

Comparative SERPs frequency analysis

Two sites appear from nowhere: www.campinggearguide.com and www.abc-of-hiking.com, both with 5 occurrences in the top 20s. Both should be investigated to see what up and coming sites are doing to earn presence in the SERPs. In the case of ABC-of-Hiking, notice that it’s a social media site related to camping. This may be a good site to build links through distributing content or even profile creation and content contribution.

Reviewing SERPs Participants byTop 100 hostname frequency

The SERPs Participants are the sites that appear in the top 100. While being #67 for a single search term may not signify much at first, appearing consistently in the top 100s for a themed grouping of keywords can reveal a great deal for link builders.

• www.rei.com 16
• www.cabelas.com 13
• www.altrec.com 12
• www.coleman.com 12
• www.ems.com 12
• www.amazon.com 11
• www.trails.com 10
• www.campingworld.com 10
• www.backcountry.com 10
• gorp.away.com 9
• www.summitcampinggear.com 9
• www.hiking-gear-and-equipment-used-for-camping.com 9
• www.google.com 8
• www.bizrate.com 8
• www.abc-of-hiking.com 8
• www.thecampingoutfitter.com 8
• www.campready.com 7
• www.campmor.com 7
• www.basspro.com 7
• shopping.msn.com 6
• maps.google.com 6
• www.usoutdoorstore.com 6
• camping.about.com 6

Comparative SERPs frequency analysis

Notice here the strong emergence of pure content sites such as gorp.away.com, www.trails.com, and camping.about.com. Though these sites don’t rank well for the target group of phrases, they are none-the-less highly relevant to [camping equipment]. These are prime targets for value-added commenting, PR outreach to suggest interviews or story ideas, guest post content submission and more. Though these few sites don’t comprise all the content sites you should reach out to in this way, they should certainly be considered high priority content sites for evaluation.

Also see EMS.com. Wow! Where did they come from and what sent them marauding up into the top 100s? The site looks great and they have a highly competitive number of links (34k). They are either ferocious up and comers or have recently gotten dinged. Either way, they warrant close observation by link builders in the [camping equipment] space.

More methods for finding backlink prospects

There’s more than one way to find backlink prospects, and our method above may be too involved for some link building projects. Further, our method only gets comprehensive at very narrow and/or very large scale, meaning you won’t find all your link opportunities until you look at the SERPs for all of your keywords… or for very narrow thematic groupings.

Here are some other resources you may find useful for finding backlink opportunities:

• Link Search Tool
• Long List of Link Searches
• Link Building Search Queries Collection
• Using Search to Help you with Search Engine Optimization
• SEOBook Link Suggest Tool
• Link Value Factors

“Get more links” is not an effective goal, even if it’s the directive you’ve received from clients or management.

This article proposes ten different link building goals along with prospecting suggestions. Further, you’ll find suggestions for using the Link Qualification Work Sheet we created for the Guide To Qualifying Link Prospects For Relevance, Value & Potentiality to reach your goals as quickly as possible.

The goals:

1. Broaden/deepen relevant keyword portfolio
2. Increase targeted referral traffic
3. Steady high-flux rankings
4. Increase market awareness
5. Move from 2nd to 1st page for proven keywords
6. Own your brand name & top keyword searches
7. Naturalize your link profile
8. Get new pages/sites indexed
9. Show results quickly: build link count by X
10. Improve geo-specific rankings

Before digging into the link building goals, here are a couple of quick refreshers. Recommended link building tools and related resources follow the article.

A Refresher on “RVP” metrics for link building. The core measurements we use for analyzing link prospects are Relevance, Value and Potentiality (RVP). Relevance (R) is the measurement of a page’s relevance to your keywords, Value (V) is an approximation of the amount of link juice a page is capable of directing to yours and Potential (P) is the likelihood that a particular link prospect will actually “convert” into a link to your site.

Sorting is done in a descending order. Sorting by PRV, for example, sorts by Potentiality, then by Relevance, then by Value, all descending.

Manipulating RVP data in the link qualification work sheet. A quick review of how to sort your link prospects, for users of the Link Qualification Worksheet:

1. Highlight the rows that you wish to sort
2. From the File menu, click “Data”
3. Then choose the “Sort” option
4. Toggle, in order, which measurement is primary, secondary and tertiary
5. Click “descending order” for each

In the current version of our work sheet, Relevance corresponds to Column C, Value corresponds to Column D and Potentiality corresponds to Column E. We suggest a number of sorts for each of the goals below. Remember that in every case these sorts are in descending order.

1) Broaden/deepen relevant keyword portfolio

You’ve achieved rankings for a core set of relevant keywords—congratulations! Now it’s time to broaden and deepen your organic keyword portfolio.

Objectives:

• Diversify your targeted search audience
• Increase long tail organic search engine rankings
• Increase revenue/conversions from highly-targeted search engine rankings

Tactics:

• Build deep links to existing pages using longer tail anchor text
• Create new content pages targeting long tail keywords

Link Prospect Sources:

• Backlinks to pages that rank well for your new target phrases
• Relevant, ranking content pages
• Conversation threads on relevant social media

Find qualified prospects by sorting the Link Qualification Worksheet by RPV and VRP. Sorting your link prospects by RPV lifts prospects that will demonstrate relevance to search engines and have a higher likelihood of converting to links—for longer tail keywords value is not always as important. Sorting by VRP shows you the prospects that will deliver the most “link juice” and relevance for your new targeted phrases. They may take longer to acquire but will cement your new rankings.

2) Increase targeted referral traffic

Sometimes link building is about generating targeted traffic from the linking site rather than search engine rankings.

Objectives:

• Grow sales, leads and brand awareness
• Join influentials in conversation within social media comment threads

Tactics:

• Conduct ongoing content distribution to key media (guest blog posts, etc)
• Engage in ongoing conversation contributions in key media comment threads
• Develop expertise-based relationship with relevant, influential media

Link Prospect Sources:

• Media/resource sites that rank for your keywords
• Relevant conversation threads on influential social media

Find qualified prospects by sorting the Link Qualification Worksheet by RVP, VRP and PRV. Sorting by RVP will reveal the articles and blog posts where the most relevant conversations are happening. Sorting by VRP shows you the pages and sites that search engines have decided are the most important within your keyword space. Sorting by PRV shows you the relevant comment threads for joining or starting conversations.

3) Steady high-flux rankings

Due to the eternal quest for relevance conducted by search engines, we will always see fluctuations in search rankings. Pursuing the right links can help to reduce the yo-yo effect.

Objectives:

• Steady fluctuating rankings

Tactics:

• One-off link bait and distribution
• One-off content created for distribution
• Niche directory and resource/links page requests

Link Prospect Sources:

• Backlinks to pages that rank well for your target phrases
• Relevant, ranking content pages
• Relevant links/resource pages
• Article/content submission opportunities

Find qualified prospects by sorting the Link Qualification Worksheet by VRP and RPV. Sorting by VRP shows you the pages that will confer more link juice to your page, helping search engines interpret your trustworthiness. Sorting by RPV helps you to find highest relevance pages most likely to provide links—high relevance to your target keywords again helps search engines trust that your pages are indeed about what you say they are.

4) Increase market awareness

Sometimes link building is about PR more than search rankings. Sometimes you just need to get the word out and show people where they can learn more about you.

Objectives:

• Product/service launch
• Distribute company news

Tactics:

• One-off link bait + distribution
• Content distribution to influential media—guest posts/guest submissions
• Conversation participation in influential media

Link prospect sources:

• Conversation threads within relevant social media
• Influential media/resource sites

Find qualified prospects by sorting the Link Qualification Worksheet by PVR and RVP. Sorting by PVR shows you the prospects with the highest linking potential, followed by the most link juice value (which can in some cases be assumed to confer overall market influence value). Sorting by RVP will show you the sites and pages most likely to have an audience that’s interested in your message or news.

5) Move from 2nd to 1st page for proven keywords

Your second page rankings can provide quick boosts in relevant, valuable traffic. If you rank on the second page for a term that provides even a trickle of traffic, sales or conversions, jump on this opportunity with both feet.

Objectives

• Get more traffic from high value keyword hovering on page 2

Tactics:

• Niche directory + resource/links page requests
• One-off content created for distribution
• Comment contributions on keyword relevant media pages

Link prospect sources:

• Backlinks to pages that rank well for your target phrases
• Relevant, ranking content pages
• Relevant links/resource pages
• Article/content submission opportunities

Find qualified prospects by sorting the Link Qualification Worksheet by VRP and RVP. Sorting by VRP shows you the pages that will confer the most link juice, which is useful in getting pages up and over that second page hump. Sorting by RVP helps you to find highest relevance pages most likely to provide links—high relevance to your target keywords helps search engines trust that your pages are indeed about what you say they are.

6) Own your brand name & top keyword searches

Sometimes you have to duke it out for competitive and highly-valuable organic rankings. Though it can be costly to get there—and stay there—high rankings for some terms can be necessities in some industries.

Objectives:

• Rank for competitive phrases that result in high returns

Tactics:

• Ongoing link bait + distribution that targets home page
• Ongoing content distribution to key media – guest posts/guest submissions
• Ongoing conversation participation in key media
• Niche directory + resource/links page requests

Link prospect sources:

• Backlinks to pages that rank well for your target phrases
• Relevant, ranking content pages
• Relevant links/resource pages
• Conversation threads on relevant social media

Find qualified prospects by sorting the Link Qualification Worksheet by VRP and RVP. Sorting by VRP shows you the prospects that will increase your target page’s perceived value to the search engines—the more you can get the better for highly competitive spaces. Building links from prospects that appear in the top for RVP sorts will help demonstrate your page’s relevance to those phrases.

7) Naturalize your link profile

Some people buy links. Some people bulk up on links from certain types of content management platforms known for their dofollows. There are many paths to unnatural link profiles…

Objectives:

• Ward off potential link buy penalties
• Diversify profile to attain longer term rankings

Tactics:

• Moderate your link velocity from month to month
• Adjust your home page vs. deep link ratio
• Vary your anchor text

Link prospect sources:

• Varies based on your current profile

Find qualified prospects by sorting the Link Qualification Worksheet by RVP, VRP and PRV.

8) Get new pages/sites indexed

Links can help to get new pages—and new sites—indexed.

Objectives:

• Get new pages indexed

Tactics:

• Conversation participation in targeted dofollow media
• One-off content created for directory distribution

Link prospect sources:

• Search for relevant conversation threads on relevant social media
• Search for relevant article/content submission opportunities

Find qualified prospects by sorting the Link Qualification Worksheet by PRV. Sorting by PRV in your worksheet reveals the prospects with a high potentiality for converting into links – just what you need to urge those spiders over to your site.

9) Show results quickly: Build link count by X

Sometimes, certain conditions necessitate the rapid accumulation of inbound links.

Objectives:

• Stall clients/managers who expect unreasonably quick demonstration of “link building” while your other efforts come to fruition

Tactics:

• Conversation participation in targeted media
• Directory/niche directory submissions
• One-off content created for directory distribution

Link prospect sources:

• Conversation threads on relevant social media
• Article/content submission opportunities

Find qualified prospects by sorting the Link Qualification Worksheet by PRV. Sorting by PRV in your worksheet shows you the prospects that have demonstrated a high potentiality for converting into links – in certain circumstances these are the only prospects that matter.

10) Improve geo-specific rankings

Even though you may rank for your target keywords in New York, you may not rank at all in Los Angeles. One way to improve your geo-specific rankings is to build links from sites associated with the region you’re targeting.

Objectives:

• Improve regional rankings for valuable keywords
• Ranking well in one region indicates opportunity to rank well in others

Tactics:

• Regional link bait
• Regional blog/news site comment participation

Link prospect sources:

• Find local blogs, then search [site: + keywords] to find most relevant pages
• Find local news sites that allow comments then search [site: + keywords]
• Create relevant, strategic content that appeals to local sites
• Local directories/review sites

Find qualified prospects by sorting the Link Qualification Worksheet by RVP, VRP and PRV. Go for the faster opportunities revealed by a PRV sort. Acquire these links and wait to see if they have enough impact. If not, go for the RVP links next and then the VRP prospects.

Recommended link research tools

• SEO Toolbar
• SEO for Firefox
• Link Suggest Tool
• Link Acquisition Assistant
• The Link Qualification Worksheet

Related link building resources

• A Guide To Qualifying Link Prospects For Relevance, Value & Potentiality
• Why Just Build a Link When You Can Build Deep Links?
• Building A Natural Link Profile
• Different Links Have Different Goals
• If You Don’t Rank, Did You Fail?
• Link Baiting: Which Hook Attracts the Right Fish?
• 7 URL Selection Tips for Link Builders: How to Choose Which Pages to Build Links Into
• Second Page Keyword Targeting
• Tracking Referrals from Second Page of Google in Google Analytics
• 17 Ways to Accelerate Links to Your Link Bait (and Other Highly Linkable Content)

The core problem of link building—assuming you’ve maximized your site’s linkability—is not prospecting for sites that may potentially link to yours. The problem lies in rapidly identifying the link prospects whose links will provide the fastest and largest impact on your search marketing goals.

With tools like the SEO Toolbar and SEO for Firefox, every URL from every domain that ranks for your keywords reveals a wealth of inbound linking pages, each of which is a link prospect. Add in opportunities from the link suggest tool, and several .edu site searches and a determined link builder could find thousands, if not tens of thousands of link prospects in less than a day.

Based on our experience in automating link research and link prospect qualification for millions of URLs, we wrote this article—and created a free, downloadable worksheet—to enable motivated link builders to quickly identify the most relevant, valuable and likely-to-link prospects from thousands of potential link opportunities.

The core metrics for link prospect evaluation

When building links to influence search rankings we look at three key metrics for evaluating link prospects: relevance, value and acquisition potentiality.

To illustrate the link prospect metrics of relevance, value and potential we created the following Venn diagram:

Let’s walk through the metrics, how they’re derived and discuss their importance to your link building process.

Measuring link prospect relevance

Relevance in link building is the measurement of a page’s relevance to your keyword(s). Relevance should measure whether the keywords are present or not as well as where they appear on the page or in the tags, as these factors will have shadings of influence on the search-rank impact of a link prospect.

Here are some factors to measure that will indicate a link prospect’s relevance to your target keywords:

• Keywords in the Title tag
• Keywords in the body of the text
• Keywords in H1 tags

As you visit each link prospect, put a “1” in the appropriate column for that page’s relevance to your keywords.

Measuring link prospect value

The value of a link prospect—for the purpose of influencing search rank—lies in the amount of link juice the page is capable of directing to yours. For these purposes, no-followed links have little impact. As a primary measure of value we recommend looking at the PageRank for the hostname as well as PageRank of the specific page. Many hold that the PageRank that Google displays is not an accurate measurement. While this is true, PageRank represents the only page value measurement currently available from a search engine. Further, PageRank makes identifying penalized sites easy. We propose that by combining the measurement of a link prospect’s relevance with its value, one can make faster decisions regarding acquisition priority.

Here are some factors to measure that indicate a link prospect’s value:

• PageRank of hostname
• PageRank of page
• Outbound links followed/no-followed

As you visit each link prospect, put a “1” in the appropriate column for that page’s value to your search marketing goals.

Note: If your link building goals include increasing community involvement and referral traffic from relevant sites then no-followed links should be considered. Read this for more information about measuring the value of no-followed links.

Measuring link prospect acquisition potentiality

Acquisition potentiality is the likelihood that a particular link prospect will actually “convert” into a link for your site. We look at link potentiality based on your ability to add a link to a page yourself and secondarily your ability to impact or influence the page’s creator to add a link.

Here are some factors that indicate a link prospect’s acquisition potentiality:

• Is it a competitor?
• Ability to submit, add or comment
• Relationship with someone at that domain
• Publication date
• Can you make a valuable addition or correction to the page?

As you visit each link prospect, put a “1” in the appropriate column for that page’s acquisition potentiality. Note: link buyers may not have as much of a need for this metric. Keep the column in the worksheet, though—it could represent likelihood of accepting a reasonable offer.

Using the Link Building Worksheet

We created a spreadsheet – freely available for download – to accompany this article and assist motivated link builders seeking to grow their current capacity for rapidly and effectively qualifying their link opportunities. Not only does this worksheet streamline work flow and keep your team more organized, it comes pre-programmed with equations derived from the ones we use in our automated link prospecting and qualification process.

Download the Link Building Worksheet.

All you or your team has to do is evaluate 9 elements of each link prospect URL and mark a “1” in the appropriate column of the spreadsheet if that element is present. The spreadsheet does the rest for you.

Remember – the link building worksheet works best with large numbers of link prospects. The more you can evaluate the better. We prefer working at a scale of hundreds of thousands of prospects. If you’re working by hand, try and get up into the high hundreds, if not thousands.

In future articles we’ll cover methods of slicing the link prospect data you add to your worksheet as well as advanced link research methods that will ensure that you find only the best opportunities for your link building campaigns.

More link qualification resources

Link prospecting by-hand would be significantly more tedious and difficult without the tools created by Aaron Wall of SEOBook. We highly recommend the SEO Toolbar and SEO for Firefox.

Our Link Building Guide has a section called Link Opportunity Qualifiers Within Large Scale Link Prospect Data Sets that will give you more ideas for add-ons or modifications to your spreadsheet.