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LINK BUILDING QUICK HITS

1. LOOK FOR LINK OPPS TO EASILY REPLICATE While you’re reviewing a blog to see if it fits qualifications, (if it does fit qualifications) skim the

bios of authors or search “guest post” within the site to see the bios. You’re looking for

something like this:

Note what’s circled in order to help you perform a search - name, fact that he guest blogs and

the links included. Then either conduct a Google search using the name and key words (ex:

“Andras Deak” “home solar panels”) and/or use Open Site Explorer to search each link to see

where else this guest blogger has posted. It’s recommended to use Open Site Explorer

because the author may not always use the same name per post or there may be more than

one author for the same link.

You can also do a basic Google search of “guest blogger” and “keyword” to see what you find

there as well.

This is effective because you know where these people are posting already takes links and

guest posts - so you can get a lot of opportunities for minimal effort.

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HINT: Blog post aggregator sites like AllTop, Regator and PopURL seems to pull in blog posts

from a lot of blogs that take SEO-y posts - and you can search posts on these aggregators by

topic or even subject.

2. SEARCH FOR COMPETITOR’S LINKS/LINKBUILDING EFFORTS Similar to the above, this is another way to replicate linkbuilding opportunities- with a twist.

Gather the URLs of the client’s competitors. Put them into Open Site Explorer, click on the

‘Linking Domains’ tab, and go beyond by who’s just linking to main page by also filtering by

links to “pages on this subdomain” and “pages on this root domain.”

Once you’re past the basics - wikipedia, google, etc. that are on the main page, you’ll get to

some domains you can contact to post on. Make sure they aren’t partners of the competitors.

Otherwise- you’re good to go, and the competitor’s team has already done the work for you!

3. SEARCH TOPSY AND OTHER REAL-TIME SOCIAL SEARCH ENGINES Publishers who are actively searching for guest posts often use social as a bulletin board for to

request guest posts.

With Topsy, you can perform a real-time search of links, tweets, photos, etc on both Google+

and Twitter. Other social search engines, such as Whos Talkin and Social Mention (see this

list for more social search engines). There are several different searches you can do.

Search terms that would be included in a request for posts: “guest post” “guest blog” “wants to

blog” “write for” etc. This will show you who is actively searching. Even if you aren’t using

social for outreach, you can still go to these user’s profiles, on which they should have a link to

their blog.

Search a relevant client keyword with terms like “guest blogger” “guest post” etc: This will tell

you sites that are relevant to your client that already take guest posts. You can also use the

results of this to look for link opportunities to easily replicate (see previous tip).

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4. CORPORATE BLOG OUTREACH Creating content for a company’s blog is often an afterthought or just difficult to coordinate for

larger organizations. Offering free, relevant content is appealing to whoever’s job it is to keep

the blog updated on a regular basis.

Search for partners of the client or relevant brands (THAT ARE NOT COMPETITORS). If their

sites qualify, contact either someone from that company who has written on the blog previously

(not the CEO, but a consultant or someone less high up) or whoever is listed with “social” or

“marketing” in their title on the site.

Be concise and include ideas for your post - aka, pitch right away. Make your pitches timely

and relevant to their brand, in the same tone of the brand/brand’s blog, but not overly

promotional on your or their end. DO NOT MAKE IT SOUND LIKE YOU ARE GOING TO

HAND OFF THE POST TO SOMEONE ELSE TO WRITE.

If possible, to seal the deal, offer them the opportunity to guest post on the client’s blog (more

exposure) in exchange.

Generally this tactic works best for non-branded links, unless the company you are contacting

actually is a partner of the brand.

5. BLOGGING COMMUNITIES The worst part about guest posting sometimes is waiting for what seems like eternity for a

publisher to respond to you, or, worse - when you’ve sent them a post and they’ve

disappeared.

Finding blogging communities where you can create a profile and submit posts that either 1.

post right away or 2. get approved (or rejected) by an admin right away both save time and

take a lot of the guessing out of the process. What’s an example of a blogging community?

SBNation, BridalTweet and any other site that lets you create your own profile and posts blog

posts to your own or a community page. Note: these are NOT forums.

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SEARCHES TO USE TO FIND THESE: “keyword” “create your own blog”

“keyword” “community”

“keyword” “post your”

“keyword” “blogging network”

Keep the keywords broad to a vertical your topic fits in. For the second term, use any wording

that these types of communities use to get users to sign up to write posts.

Make sure the links on user pages in the community are do-follow. Skim other posts to make

sure your idea is timely/relevant. Review the terms you have to agree to to post (you may not

want to use branded terms for this) and ensure that the link you are using actually is a RESOURCE (admins aren’t afraid to kick you out) not just there to exist. Articles should

generally be reactions to what’s posted, something unique or an opinion/perspective on a

topic.

Create a profile/get a login. Make sure to fill it out completely (photo and all) and believably. If

it’s quick and easy to do so, every so often comment on others’ posts or connect with others so

there is activity beyond just posting. There may be a waiting period until you can actually post

full blog posts, so before that time you can interact with the community to build up reputation.

If your posts are good enough, you may be asked to blog on the main page of the site or your

posts will be promoted by the site- so make sure they’re interesting to all readers as well as

creative since they will be evaluated for authenticity and creativity against others.

6. REVERSE IMAGE SEARCH Use the Google Reverse Image Search add-on or one of the various reverse image search

engines available to search popular (or notable) images from the site, infographics or even the

brand logo. For those that haven’t credited the site, request they credit your client for the

image with a link.