Among all variables that offer the greatest SEO value for link building and diversifying resources, establishing meaningful relationships is tops. Creating connections with bloggers, webmasters, and web marketers yields the greatest assets for SEO.
The opportunities that stem from creating relationships for link building come in many forms.
Whether by consistently contributing to high authority blogs or righteously exchanging links on relevant domains, more resources and greater teamwork are attributable to successful SEO campaigns.
In this article, you will learn a few tips and resources to help you create link building relationships. As a result, you can further expand your site’s backlink portfolio and empower your SEO efforts.
If you don’t truly care about the relationships you’re building online, then they will cease to last.
Prospecting for New SEO friends
You must first determine a list of websites that you want to reach out to. These are your prospects, and you typically have something in common with these parties. But how do you find them?
A few good resources I like to use for prospecting are:
RSS Feeds – Staying in-tune with freshly published and relevant content is a great way to tap new relationships. Make your presence known by making a comment, sharing their work, or directly reaching out to these authors.MyBlogGuest.com – I have met a lot of webmasters, bloggers, and fellow search marketers on MyBlogGuest.com. It’s a fine community that deserves more attention in the greater SEO community.Google Blog Search – Here you can search for blogs and blog posts that are relevant to your keywords. ‘Blog Masters’ are sometimes inclined to accept guest posts or set-up link exchanges.Forums – Exploring forums is an awesome way to meet new friends, not only for link building relationships, but other SEO functions too. Spend 30 minutes each day exploring/creating threads. At the least, you can learn a few things to master your SEO craft.
Look for people and sites that are not having the same topical focus, but are complementary.
For instance, if you sell TV’s, look for sites that sell TV stands and home entertainment furniture.In essence, you need to be creative and tap all angles imaginable.
Being Empathetic & Creative
Empathy stems from recognizing the emotions and motives of others, and feeling them as your own. It’s easy to empathize with others whose pursuit is SEO and higher rankings. And in some cases you can enlighten webmasters and more general marketing managers about the benefits of SEO (and the value in your creative proposal.
To construct a compelling outreach message, it’s wise to take one minute to empathize from the perspective of your prospects. What trades, proposals, SEO opportunities, or resources are they possibly interested (and that you can adequately provide)?
Writers and bloggers may be interested guest posts on high traffic blogs, and they’re work in front of new audiences. Do you have a blog that they could write for? (and Vice versa?)Fellow web marketers like relevant high authority backlinks to either their own sites, or their clients. Can you work out link trade with you and/or client’s website?Webmasters like more traffic from all avenues, whether that’s greater search exposure or direct traffic from other sites. Perhaps more comprehensive strategies
Once you’ve pinpointed the “offer” in which you can pitch to your prospects, you must then get creative in how you present it. Honor their time and approach them with care
Propose Fair Trades
Whether you’re trading content for links, link for links, even money for links, it’s important to advocate fair trade relationships. (I don’t actually buy links.) A great deal of respect can be earned based on your first email. Be creative and thoughtful, but concise with your message.
Take some time to review their site and some of its assets. You should also have a clear idea of what they sell, and what keywords they’re targeting. Experienced web marketers can pitch reciprocal ideas to their prospects and land solid relationships that turn into SEO assets.
About the Author
Tyler Tafelsky is search marketing expert who spearheads TC Top of Mind, a local SEO and search marketing firm in Traverse City.
Tyler helps web marketers and small businesses owners think outside the box with their SEO efforts. Ranging from local to ecommerce, he’s proved countless SEO campaigns to be successful.
