The importance of off-page SEO has diminished. Still, it’s an important factor, and if you operate an SEO agency, it’s likely to come up in conversations with potential customers. I have several sites and constantly get inquiries for link exchanges. In addition, I have completed many comparable tasks for both my clients and myself. I’ve done enough outreach to know what works, what doesn’t, and what will make the individuals you email very, very mad.
7 Tips For Backlink Outreach
Make your outreach more personal
Every day, between five and fifteen people ask me to connect to their site. You’d assume there’d be a wide range of individuals and perspectives, but in reality, 99.9 percent of them are identical and make the same mistakes. The main problem is that they all use identical, copied-and-pasted spam emails that tell lies about the site, disobey rules, and bombard me with pointless requests.
Make sure each inquiry is specific to the website you’re addressing. Don’t be lazy and include their domain in a form message. It’s so clear what they’re doing, but it still drives me crazy to see it in almost every message.
Be Sincere
If you are genuine, you will receive more responses. Despite receiving hundreds of requests, not a single one has ever been genuine. It’s unbelievable, but if they showed up, they’d get their wish.
“I’ve been a fan of your site for X months” is the biggest lie I hear. The time frame can range from a few months to several years, but it is never less than six months. If my sites weren’t on average only three to five months old, I could see this making sense. Every webmaster will disregard it because it doesn’t sound natural and smells like spam.
Don’t Pay Someone Else to Handle It
You should only hire one individual whose sole responsibility is outreach for one site if you want to avoid the risk of them making mistakes and spamming other sites with requests. If you want good results, you shouldn’t skimp on hiring an expert.
One website in particular has emailed me more than 300 times across all 20+ of my domains combined. They consistently use the contact forms on my websites to submit the same generic request, all while using a different email address and a different name. I would have been more receptive to the site’s requests if they hadn’t employed spammers to bombard my inbox. Even after telling them I can’t help them and writing the business directly, the spam requests kept coming in, so I finally had to report them to their ISP.
These “marketing” firms could care less about your good name. They will send out spam emails to every website they can locate. You’ll be the one to feel the pain, so save them the trouble.
Forward Complete Articles
While outreach can be tricky, I’ve found the best way to get hits is to write and submit a few lengthy pieces. First of all, even if it is required by the rules, I can guarantee that 99 percent of the other submitters will not follow them. Therefore, those who do submit complete articles will be noticed.
Second, websites like me will give these requests top priority because we know the person making them has put in a lot of effort. If we’re going to reject, we’ll let them know right away so they can submit elsewhere and not waste their time; if we’re ready to approve, having a physical copy of the article will sway our decision in their favour.
Never Succumb to Begging
When people would ask me to write guest posts, I’d always respectfully decline. Do you remember what took place next? They expressed gratitude for my reaction and good wishes.
To put it another way, they were relentless in their pursuit of a connection from me. They took my response as a sign of vulnerability and an invitation to pursue their goals at my expense. They assured me of the impossible, offered lame justifications, and flat-out lied, with one even claiming that their recently deceased friend desired this backlink more than anything in the world. It’s completely absurd and it makes webmasters crazy.
Be Concise and Skillful in Your Writing
You don’t have to send a novel-length text. It’s a red flag that the content was probably copied and pasted. Maintain brevity while ensuring a high-quality, expertly written document. Be polite, use correct English, and avoid making requests. Since you are seeking assistance, your tone should be supplicating and grateful rather than insistent.
Learn the Facts
If they had read my guidelines, they would know I don’t take guest posts, but 90% of the requests I get are for the wrong genres. Webmasters may find this absolutely infuriating. My inbox is flooded with requests for casino links and stories about gambling, despite the fact that my site focuses on health, pets, and food.
In the short run, spending more time doing research will be inconvenient, but in the long run, you’ll get more views and annoy far fewer webmasters. You have some leeway, but you must explain your actions.