When it comes to link building, everything is still a theory until you get a rejection email in the inbox. You can have a thousand great ideas but the link-building process crumbles if the link outreach strategy is incorrect. Unfortunately, small and large businesses alike are dependent on the link-building outreach process, but the advice online is few and far between.

What’s Link Outreach?

Over the years, we’ve learned of many ways to improve one’s position on popular search engines. As well as keywords and adding value to the reader, link building plays a role. If an authoritative website links back to your page, it will gain authority and climb the rankings.

No matter how great the idea of link building might be, it’s impossible and irrelevant if you don’t know how to build relationships with authority websites. By ‘authority websites’, we don’t mean the likes of Google. Firstly, Google is unlikely to link back to your website. Secondly, good performance isn’t guaranteed even if it did. Instead, you need authority websites within your niche. This way, you know that people clicking through have an interest in the brand/products.

In short, link outreach is the process of contacting other websites and asking them to add hyperlinks back to your content within their articles and pages.

Why is Link Outreach Important?

For one thing, you cannot complete your link-building strategy if you aren’t willing to send a few emails. Link outreach is the line that connects the dots – you build relationships with other websites, they link back to your content, you receive lots of clicks, and you even get a boost on the search engine rankings.

Often, people think that link building is all about including links in their content. However, the more important side is other parties linking back to your content, and this is forgotten. Not only is link outreach important, but correct link outreach is a game-changer. With the wrong strategy, you’re only going to cause frustration and harm the reputation of the brand.

Tips for Successful Link Outreach

If you want to succeed with link outreach this year (who doesn’t?), consider reaching out to the King Kong direct response marketing team. They understand that the secret is to build a relationship and offer value to others. If you just ask for a link, you probably won’t even get a reply (let alone the link itself!). Instead, help the website or give something before you expect anything back.

‘But this will take lots of time’ – absolutely, it will. But the reward is a healthy relationship with various website owners, lots of clicks, and a stronger search engine performance. Here are some ways to help other website owners before asking for a link:

• Redesign of banner or logo
• Broken links
• Spelling or grammatical errors
• Engage on social media
• Share content on social media
• Team up to produce content (written, audio, or visual)
• Answer a question

Once you’ve helped the website in some way, they will be more inclined to link back to your content. Link outreach is all about building relationships, and you wouldn’t keep asking friends or family for something without giving something else in return.

Some other tips for successful link outreach include:

• Never grovel or plead
• Always be professional
• Remain polite and courteous (even if a website rejects your request after helping them)
• Never talk down to others
• Keep messages short (don’t send a long essay detailing the reasons why website owners should link to your content)
• Send tailored messages rather than a blanket email to everyone
• Don’t stalk others across every social media channel
• Be genuine and develop a relationship