It’s pretty well known that using your client’s already existing contacts for link building is a great place to start. Your client already has their foot in the webmaster’s door, which makes asking for a link or continuing to grow the relationship much easier.
However, some businesses/clients don’t always know when they have been mentioned on the Web or that they have a potentially powerful relationship right in front of them. SEOs are more than capable of handling the task of finding our brand’s mentions and where we have already influenced webmasters. Sometimes it just takes some digging, and this pays off nicely.
I. Payoffs (Easy and Big Wins)
Unfortunately, sometimes webmasters can mention you, your Twitter handle, your YouTube channel, your brick-and-mortar store, and still not link to your website!
Twitter. Youtube. Guest Article. No link?
Finding these missed opportunities and correcting them for your client is an easy-win, and we should all be taking advantage of it. Start with an email complimenting (ego-baiting) their website, and that being mentioned there was an honor for your brand. This gesture is a great first step in building a profitable relationship and picking up the almighty link juice.
Once you’ve gotten the link (72 percent personal success rate, email examples later), always send the webmaster/brand a thank you tweet and/or message. It helps build the relationship, and the conversation can always help you build additional followers on social media.
Thank you @radbrownbeauty for the awesome mention on your blog!So happy you’re happy with your treatment!!ow.ly/dmdZv
— Bobby Buka MD (@bobbybukamd) August 30, 2012
II. Advanced Searches for These Link Prospects
Finding these opportunities is fairly easy, especially in the hands of an SEO. Basically, you’re looking to find mentions of your brand/client from post-penguin, link-worthy assets. There are three main types of searches I personally use to find my client + link-worthy assets.
1. General Search Query
“client name” –site:client.com –site:yelp.com
2. Blog Posts Mentions
“client name” –site:client.com –site:yelp.com blog OR post
3. Partnerships, Testimonial Pages, or About Us
“client name” –site:client.com –site:yelp.com about OR testimonial OR partnership
III. Connecting and Establishing Relationship with Prospects
After you have compiled a list of link prospects, it’s time to do what link builders do best: targeted outreach. The respondent is already familiar with our product or services, thus we already have something to discuss, ultimately making the respondent more likely to reply.
1. General Search Query
The general search query will comeback with a plethora of link prospects, and it is critical to send a personalized email to them during your outreach. For example, if you run this query and find a negative mention about your brand, send out your apologies and ask how you can fix their perception. Take care of your client/brand’s online presence, folks!
2. Blog Posts
While using the advanced blog posts search, the team at Vector found an authoritative site linking to every online asset of ours except our website. Seriously. They had even personally tweeted to us in the past:
Learn about some triggers for #Rosacea with @bobbybukamd ar.gy/1WA0
—HealthiNation (@HealthiNation) July 31,2012
It was a no-brainer to contact the folks over at healthination.com and ask for a link, and here is how we went about it:
Hi Raj,
Our SEO folks keep complaining that our site (bobbybukamd.com) does not boast enough “back links” from other sites compared to our competitors. Apparently, these backlinks lead to better Google rankings. Would you be willing to turn my name that’s already on the site into a hyperlink that leads to the Practice? I can’t see a downside for HN and it would really help us get more Page 1 traction.
Thanks, Raj,
Bobby
This type of message works extraordinarily well. Unfortunately, using SEOs as a scapegoat has continuously scored links for our clients. Bonus: the referral traffic scored eight goal-conversion rates (appointment bookings) in the following three days.
3. Partnerships, Testimonials, About Us
These are the easiest opportunities you’re going to get as a link builder. It is common Web practice and etiquette to link to anyone supplying a testimonial. The advanced testimonial search came up with the following result:
Bobby Buka MD is our client. And UV Bio Tek didn’t link to us – not cool =)
Here is the link-scoring message:
Hi Sean,
Our SEO folks have noted that our site (bobbybukamd.com) does not boast enough “back links” from other sites compared to our competitors.
They mentioned the UVBioTek testimonial page (http://www.uvbiotek.com/testimonials.htm), and having a link to our website, like the other testimonials, would help us increase traction in Google.
Can you guys do this?
Thanks,
Bobby
IV. Take advantage. Prosper. Let Us Know How It Goes!
Go. Execute this method and begin scoring some easy links for your clients. Feel free to ask any questions or let us know how it goes in the comments below!
Latest posts by James Piper (see all)
- Are You Taking Advantage of Your Easy Link Building Wins? Probably Not. Start To! - September 20, 2012
Yes these simple rules help small business websites rank well .But do these tactics help in Post penguin Link building.
Great question! It really depends on the quality of links you’re finding from the advanced search queries.
If you’re finding DA 40 link opportunities on a /testimonials page with only 50 links present on the page (including nav), then definitely. On the other hand, if you’re finding your brand incorrectly being mentioned on a low DA, resources page, with 200+ outbound links, I would let that go.
If you folks had to give a DA link prospect cutoff, what would it be?
Thanks for the informative post. I have a query. Few days back I created my own blog. but I am not experiencing any traffic from search engines is it due to lack of backlinks or my posts are not good. as my blog is in its initial stage so on which I should give more preference creating backlink or lots of posts (of course not compromising the quality), please dont say 50-50. Sorry for my stupid question, if it is!
Thanks in advance for your reply
Stupid question? No way!
There is definitely a priority on creating high-quality content on your own website first. While at first rankings will suffer because of your low domain authority, focusing on producing quality content is a much better start .
When visitors do you land your website, they’ll stick around, share (link, tweet, bookmark) your content, and are far more likely to convert (email sign-ups, contact forms, etc).
Hope this helps!
Thanks again James for the useful tips, I will use all the tips to make my blog as good as SEJ.
I set up Google Alerts for my company name, and every know and then I catch another blog or site referencing us (sometimes with and without a link). If there is no link I often do exactly what you’ve outlined here–they are already talking about you, so why not ask for them to drop on branded link in there?
I really like this post James! I noticed your Twitter and blog link in the bio have errors in them so get those fixed for sure :)
Ahhh! I did notice that with Chrome’s check my links extension… It’ll be updated ASAP! =) – Thanks!
Wow! I really should pay more attention to these link building tactics. You’ve listed great tips here, James. I’ll be sure to start with my mentions. Twitter is gold!
How can we request the blog owners who mentioned us to Link back to us???/