Three Ways to Evolve Your Link Building in 2023 — Whiteboard Friday

Welcome to 2023! Within the first Whiteboard Friday of the brand new yr, Paddy walks by means of three strategies to evolve your hyperlink constructing efforts — not reinventing the wheel, however by enhancing what you at the moment do.

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Video Transcription

Hello, Moz followers. Welcome to a different version of Whiteboard Friday. I am Paddy Moogan. I am the CEO of Aira. In the present day, we’ll speak about hyperlink constructing and methods to evolve your hyperlink constructing to its subsequent part and to enhance what you do for the time being.

So we’ll speak by means of three strategies to enhance your hyperlink constructing and evolve it and enhance the outcomes you get for purchasers. 

1. Use the shopper journey to generate concepts

So firstly, primary, there’s a little bit of a problem typically with hyperlink constructing and the relevance of the content material that we produce for hyperlink constructing. So a method we are able to truly enhance that and make our content material as related as doable is to make use of the shopper journey to generate hyperlink constructing concepts.

Now, there’s a lot of alternative ways of excited about the shopper journey, completely different funnels, completely different methodologies. One factor we use at Aira for that is the notice, consideration, and determination phases, the place the shopper goes from being conscious of the issue, the ache factors, one thing they wish to repair, then taking a look at their choices and attempting to determine, “Okay, who ought to I select to unravel that drawback?”

After which, lastly, perhaps getting their bank card out, selecting up the telephone, emailing, that type of stuff to really determine who they will go together with. Now, we are able to use this mannequin to really provide you with hyperlink constructing concepts. I will share how we do that at Aira. So there’s 4 pillars we are able to use to try to determine content material concepts which can be related to our prospects. Firstly, we begin with the viewers themselves.

So who’re our viewers? Who’re we attempting to talk to? Who’re our ideally suited consumers for the services that we promote? In order that’s the place we begin. We then transfer on to the ache factors of our viewers. So what sorts of issues do they wrestle with? What sort of triggers can truly make them begin to search for a product corresponding to yours or a service corresponding to yours?

After which thirdly, what options do you provide as a model or an internet site to try to repair these ache factors for these prospects and attempting to attach these issues collectively? Fourthly, what key phrases are you attempting to rank for? What are you attempting to rank for in Google? How does that join again to your service and your product? And what that means that you can do is to tie collectively these phases into precise rankings, precise key phrases that you simply’re attempting to enhance together with your hyperlink constructing and your content material.

The good factor about utilizing these 4 areas to try to provide you with content material concepts for hyperlink constructing is that it forces relevance. It is actually arduous to really do that. When you stray too distant from it, you provide you with concepts that are not very related. So in case you stick actually nearer to it, it is a bit more durable. That is type of the purpose. What you are attempting to do right here is strike that steadiness between concepts that may get hyperlinks, but additionally content material concepts which can be very related to your viewers and who you are attempting to promote your merchandise or your providers to.

So try to use these 4 factors right here to provide you with your concepts, and ensure the concepts you provide you with are really related to your buyer and never simply being accomplished purely for hyperlink constructing. 

2. Transfer past campaigns

Second level, second factor we are able to do to evolve our hyperlink constructing is to maneuver past massive, shiny, interactive hyperlink constructing campaigns. Now, we have constructed a whole bunch of those over time at Aira. We are going to proceed to construct them.

I really like a very good, shiny, interactive hero marketing campaign. However I consider there’s extra we are able to do in terms of content-led hyperlink constructing. So there’s 4 issues we are able to do right here. So firstly, try to make any campaigns, any content material that you simply provide you with evergreen. What I imply by that’s it should not be a begin and a cease marketing campaign, the place you launch a marketing campaign, do your outreach, after which neglect about it and transfer on to the following one.

Try to create concepts and campaigns that you could outreach and promote over and again and again. If you are able to do that, it continues to be related all year long, throughout a number of years. It is not only a one-off marketing campaign that you simply’re hoping will get hyperlinks earlier than you progress on to the following one. The second factor you are able to do is definitely to not cease the outreach. So most SEOs truly will outreach a marketing campaign after which cease as soon as that marketing campaign is completed and transfer on to the following one.

What try to be attempting to do as a substitute is create campaigns that you could all the time outreach and all the time promote. So attempt to not cease your outreach, and what occurs over time is you construct up a number of campaigns, a number of content material items, and you find yourself with a pleasant, massive financial institution of content material that you could regularly outreach and get hyperlinks to. It is not relying upon one marketing campaign after one other to get hyperlinks. 

3. Purpose for hyperlinks you did not ask for

Third level we are able to do is to have a look at current content material.

So once more, once you’re excited about creating hyperlink constructing campaigns, the pure tendency is to think about one thing new, to consider, “Okay, what can we create that is model new, hasn’t been accomplished earlier than, fully new marketing campaign for an internet site or a shopper?” Nicely, truly, that is completely high-quality, however there could also be some current content material on that web site that’s link-worthy. So make sure that, once you begin working with an internet site or a brand new model, take a look at what they have already, see which content material they have that may be link-worthy, might have gotten hyperlinks prior to now, and try to outreach and promote that content material while you are constructing new campaigns.

This works rather well notably for businesses, as a result of once you’re launching a marketing campaign, it takes a little bit of time to provide you with concepts, do the manufacturing, do the design. While you are doing all of that, if you will discover current content material on that web site that’s link-worthy, you may promote that and get hyperlinks to that while you are constructing the large marketing campaign. And also you’re offsetting the chance there as effectively and getting hyperlinks within the quick time period in addition to the long run.

Fourthly, simplify your execution. Not each content material piece must be massive, shiny, interactive, full-page takeovers. It may be so simple as a weblog publish. It might be a small, mini infographic. Attempt to not fear an excessive amount of about massive, fancy executions. Let the thought lead the execution. And if that implies that you write only a very, quite simple weblog publish with a few photographs, perhaps a lot of copy and bullet factors, that is completely high-quality.

If that is the easiest way to execute your concept, then that is what you need to go together with and never fear an excessive amount of about making one thing interactive or massive only for the sake of it. So thirdly, the third factor we are able to do to raise our hyperlink constructing is to intention for hyperlinks that you simply did not ask for. So a whole lot of the time with hyperlink constructing strategies they depend on outreach, and outreach means sending emails, attempting to get in contact with site owners and hyperlink prospects and get hyperlinks from them.

That is completely high-quality. We should always proceed doing that. However one place you wish to try to get to is to create content material the place it naturally will get hyperlinks by itself. So it’s possible you’ll effectively do outreach and get hyperlinks for that content material. However in addition to that, you are additionally getting individuals who hyperlink to that content material naturally, so you are not relying an excessive amount of simply on the outreach. Now there’s three examples right here of content material you may create that really will do that. Now the very first thing to recollect is definitely content material that ranks tends to get hyperlinks, as a result of when individuals are doing analysis into completely different areas and attempting to put in writing about sure industries, they could search for content material they will additionally hyperlink to.

So, for instance, in case you have a web page that is about statistics and tendencies in your business, and somebody is writing an article about your business and tendencies in 2022, in the event that they discover your content material, there is a good probability that they are going to hyperlink to it as effectively within the content material they’re producing. But when it ranks, they have extra probability of discovering it. The second space is long-form guides, actually in-depth, actually detailed content material. If you will discover some good matter concepts to put in writing about within the long-form means, long-form guides are inclined to rank for lots of long-tail and mid-tail key phrases.

Once more, if it ranks rather well, it’s extremely detailed, very techy, this works rather well for very technical merchandise and really technical providers. When you can create content material about your services or products that is fairly technical, it is bought a very good probability of rating effectively and likewise being referenced and linked to by different web sites. And thirdly, business experiences. So truly, we do that ourselves at Aira.

We produced a State of Hyperlink Constructing Report a couple of months in the past. It is a report that will get referenced so much by our business as a result of it is an ordinary within the business for hyperlink constructing and other people consider it after they’re writing their very own content material. So in your business, in case you can create business benchmark experiences, state of business experiences, surveys, that type of stuff, that really shares data and shares data with the business, it is easy for individuals to reference that in their very own content material that they produce as effectively.

However once more, it must rank effectively for individuals to search out it within the first place. So there’s 3 ways to really evolve your hyperlink constructing and attempt to elevate it to the following stage past campaigns, past outreach, and truly attempting to get hyperlinks that you simply did not ask for. In order that’s Whiteboard Friday for me. I am Paddy Moogan. When you’ve bought any questions, drop them into the feedback under. I will be blissful to get again to you.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com