Now it’s time to actively build links to your content.
Specifically, we’re going to tap into 3 link building strategies that are working GREAT right now.
Broken Link Building
Here’s where you find a broken link on someone’s site…
…and offer your content as a replacement.
For example, this is an outreach email that I sent to a blogger in the marketing niche:
(Note how specific I am. I don’t say “Please consider linking to me in a blog post”. I have a specific place on a specific page where my link makes sense.)
And because I helped the person out BEFORE asking for anything, they were happy to add my link:
Competitor Analysis
This strategy is old school.
But it still works.
First, find a site that’s ranking for a keyword you want to rank for.
For example, I’m trying to rank for the keyword “SEO Audit”.
So I grab this result from the first page…
…and look at their backlinks.
I can see that this page has links from 160 domains:
So I should be able to get at least a handful of the same links they have.
To do that, I go one-by-one through their backlinks.
And find pages where my link would add value.
For example, this post mentions the Ahrefs content by name:
There’s no reason to link to my post there. So I moved onto the next opportunity on the list.
And I came across this post:
This time, the link to Ahrefs is part of a big list of resources.
A list that would be even BETTER and more complete with a link to my SEO audit post.
Evangelist Method
This strategy is less about links… and more about getting your content in front of the right people.
(Specifically: people that run blogs in your niche.)
I’ll explain how this strategy works with an example…
A while back I wanted to promote a new Skyscraper Technique case study.
So I used BuzzSumo to see who recently shared content about The Skyscraper Technique.
And emailed everyone a variation of this template:
And when they replied “sure, I’ll check it out”, I sent them a link to the post:
(Note how I DON’T ask for a share. This is a Judo move that makes your outreach stand out.)
Which led to dozens of shares to my brand post:
Step #9: Improve and Update Your Content
This is working amazingly well right now.
You might have read about the time that I used The Content Relaunch to boost my organic traffic by 260.7%:
And I’m happy to tell you that this approach still works.
For example, some time ago I relaunched this list of SEO techniques.
But I didn’t just re-post the same content and call it “new”.
Instead, I went through and removed old screenshots and images:
Added new strategies:
The result?
An 62.60% organic traffic boost to that page:
Now I’d Like To Hear From You
There you have it:
My 9-step SEO strategy for 2021.
Now I’d like to hear from you…
Which strategy from today’s post are you ready to try first?
Are you going to update and relaunch older content?
Or maybe you want to try Broken Link Building.
Either way, let me know by leaving a comment below right now.