How do I link build?

[Samsam1978]

After terrible serps and https disaster I am going to have to link build. Does anyone have any tips on building links? I don't think direct e-mail will be that successful, those I get I ignore them. I am going to use SEMrush but if you have any tools or tips please share.

[keyplyr]

Hi Samsam1978

I would start by reading some of the discussions in this Link Building Forum [webmasterworld.com]

Most of the information you need has been discussed before.

[martinibuster]

those I get I ignore them.

I agree with you about it being a tough slog. It can be difficult finding the right niche and context for the link building for certain types of businesses.

Think about what makes those emails so bad. It's the emails most people use. They're templates.

Then think about context. The situation that makes for a positive outcome. Context is everything.

[piatkow]

The flaw is to think of link building as a mechanical operation. It involves building relationships with the owners of the linking sites, requiring a mix of subject matter and marketing expertise.

It also means occasionally getting away from the screen and actually meeting people. It is far easier to get a link if you have shared a drink.

[nicolayap]

I graduated as a public relations major and joined the SEO industry. I was surprised to see the principles overlapping. Be friendly and believe in your product. Find your niche. Study other great content and see how you can implement it on your own pages. Start one page at a time until every page on your website is linkable. Then your work is cut out for you. It is easier said than before, so you need to have patience and be ok with making mistakes along the way.

[Stiglitz]

why would direct, cold emailing not be successful?

[lucy24]

why would direct, cold emailing not be successful?

... because your email will go straight into the recipient's trash?

[Stiglitz]

Why would sending an email go straight to a recipient's trash? If that is your experience, then it seems like you don't know how to form a subject line/email copy. I build hundreds of links a month from pure, cold outreach and nothing more.

[robzilla]

A well-crafted e-mail can go a long way, but building "hundreds of links a month" that way would not be realistic in any of the niches (large or small) I am or have been active in. Unless maybe I'd spend all my working hours on that and nothing else (not worth it), and even then, unwilling to sacrifice quality for quantity, I think I'd run out of appropriate targets pretty quickly. Building hundreds of links requires thousands of approaches, as well as above average content. It's not like a perfectly crafted e-mail guarantees you a link. Sometimes you get lucky, of course.

I agree with the others that the highest quality links are usually gotten through building meaningful and mutually beneficial relationships.

[Stiglitz]

The discussion was if direct, cold emailing is effective. To say it isn't is just ludicrous and disconnected. Sure, the best links may be built by meaningful relationships (still up for debate) but how will you reach them (sure calls, social media connections, etc)? But why is cold emailing not a good way to build a good relationship? We build solid relationships everyday.

[martinibuster]

Why would sending an email go straight to a recipient's trash?

Lots of reasons. Email services have algorithms that flag emails with specific subject lines. Sometimes a recipient marks an email as spam, which begins the process of that email/ip address joining spam block lists.

[robzilla]

I don't get a lot of those e-mails, but most times reading just a few words is enough to send them to the trash. Boilerplate stuff, even when they try to sprinkle it with some personalization. A truly personalized and targeted e-mail I will probably read, maybe even reply to, but you're still going to have to offer something very relevant and helpful for my users for me to give you that link. And that's what I keep in mind when I reach out for links myself, unwilling to waste my time or that of others. Whenever I enter a new niche, I'll look for pages where it would make sense for my content to be linked, then figure out the best means of approach. This is time-consuming so it doesn't scale very well, and the success rate isn't great (depending on the niche and where I draw the line for what "makes sense"), so it doesn't result in hundreds of links, but I've found it's often a good start for a new website with no backlinks. E-mail is fine for reaching out, just not always the most effective.

I'm sure a less personalized, high-volume approach could be "effective" to some extent, and in some industries, in the same way that spam is apparently still effective enough to send, but the quality of links is likely to be too low for them to be effective long-term or send any valuable traffic.

[Samsam1978]

Thanks for your thoughts really insightful. I would like to write really meaningful content for someone but I doubt they will accept a link, as whats in it for them? Maybe I should just offer to write minus link and this is optional until I build up a relationship? Has anyone taken that approach?

[tangor]

The discussion was if direct, cold emailing is effective. To say it isn't is just ludicrous and disconnected.

Ordinary marketing 101 suggests that for every 100 attempts, perhaps 10 will return.

Links are something the webmaster wishes to acquire. In which case it is NOT like having a sale (think brick and mortar) advertised to the public in the newspaper ... a cold call email is a direct "invasion" of privacy to an individual.

Most folks these days have spam filters in place that deal with this in an expeditious manner... and that marketing email is never seen.

On the other hand, a fan letter MIGHT result in an open conversation which MIGHT lead to a relationship (ie, a link).

Shotgun/scattergun emails can produce "10 percent" results, but will they be the right results?

[tangor]

Meant to add that 10 years back link request emails were pretty common. Crafted my filters to make most disappear. That said, since G (and I suspect B as well) devalued a whole slew of linking practices and began noting neighborhoods the amount of link request emails has dropped to maybe MAYBE once a month.

[georgewatson]

Ahref and Majestic SEO are also too good tools to check competitors links and make the same links to the site in order to get good results. Direct Emailing is also part of Link building, but there are many other off page activities, focus on them also.

[System]

The following message was cut out to new thread by martinibuster. New thread at: link_development/4913842.htm [webmasterworld.com]
8:00 am on Aug 2, 2018 (utc -5)