Waking up to a link from the New York Times is unlikely unless you:
- Make something worth sharing
- Identify the right people to contact
- Inform publishers with an engaging message
What is Outreach SEO and how It will help your business?
Outreach SEO means getting other websites to link back to your site. It’s a key part of digital marketing, and if it’s not done well, it can affect a business’s SEO efforts negatively. These backlinks can improve a business’s position in search results.
Also, new links can introduce the business to new people, possibly bringing in more visitors and referrals to the company’s website.
We will explain everything about SEO outreach and its significance for your business’s website and reputation. We’ll also guide you on how to conduct outreach ethically and provide practical advice to improve your SEO outreach efforts.
SEO Outreach Process In 5 Steps
Before beginning the outreach, setting your objectives is crucial. Analyzing the link gaps on your site can clarify these goals for you.
This analysis can point you towards the best place to start your outreach work.
Prospecting
The initial step in any SEO outreach campaign is to identify potential contacts, meaning individuals and platforms likely interested in linking to your website. Look for well-known sites related to your area and your audience.
Spot key influencers and notable sites in your field. It’s also crucial to figure out the best person to reach out to, like the website owner, content manager, marketing person, or other key figures in a company.
Preparations
Before you start contacting your potential contacts suddenly, you need to take some steps first. Make a detailed plan and outline everything to ensure your outreach effort doesn’t fail before it begins.
Begin by researching the people or platforms you want to contact. Use what you find out about them in your messages, so they see you’ve made an effort to understand their work. This can make a good impression and might make them more willing to work with you.
There are also useful tools to help with your prep. For instance, Woodpecker is a tool for email marketing that can help you find and check the email addresses of potential partners. At Ethical, Apollo is used for this. These tools can provide contact details for the site’s owner, admin, or the person allowed to change the site’s content. Getting in touch with the correct person directly is key to a successful outreach.
Pitching
Email is the most effective and common way to reach out, so our advice mainly focuses on using email. With email, tools like Pitchbox and Lemlist can help you automate your marketing and track your performance for better results.
There are other ways to reach out as well, but you need to be cautious with them. For example, a potential partner once contacted me through my personal LinkedIn because they had the wrong email for me. It was fine by me, and it even led to a good partnership opportunity. So, this approach can be beneficial, but I wouldn’t suggest using it for a big SEO outreach effort.
Content Creation
Work out how you like to write and tell your potential partner about it. Doing a keyword or content gap analysis can reveal topics they haven’t covered yet, making them more likely to accept your work. Some sites also share a wishlist of topics for guest writers.
If they’ve given you any rules, be sure to stick to them. For instance, some websites have specific requirements for how to format your piece, how to structure paragraphs, the style of writing, and more.
Include useful images, facts, data, and links to other sites to enrich the reader’s experience. Look through your partner’s site and add links to their own content where it fits. This extra step shows you’re eager to contribute value to their site too.
If the site you’re partnering with has a schedule for posting, be respectful of it. Pressuring them to post your contribution right away can only harm your relationship with them.
Tons Of Follow Ups
Some potential contacts might not respond to your first email, but it’s not always because you did something wrong. They could have overlooked your email due to urgent tasks or might have simply forgotten to answer. It’s fine to try contacting them again if they don’t reply the first time.
Yet, there are proper ways to send follow-up emails. It’s okay to send a second or third email, but avoid bothering the contact or becoming a nuisance. A good rule is to limit yourself to three follow-up emails before stopping.
Shotgun or Sniper? Choose Your SEO Outreach Tactic Carefully!
What Is Shotgun SEO Outreach Approach?
The shotgun method involves sending a generic outreach email to a large number of potential links without any personal touch. You only need an email account to begin.
In this approach, you wouldn’t even use the recipient’s name in the email.
This approach might seem like spam and get overlooked by those who receive it. Using this tactic too much with the wrong targets could hurt your brand’s image.
What Is Sniper SEO Outreach Approach?
The sniper method is the exact opposite of the shotgun strategy. Instead of sending lots of emails with hardly any customization, the sniper way is completely hands-on and focuses on specific targets.
The sniper approach is hard to expand because it needs a lot of customization and research. It also demands good negotiation skills to get a link from a contact and often needs more emails to make sure you secure the link. This makes it very time-intensive.
Let’s be clear: The goal of SEO outreach is to obtain links.
However, to receive links, you must provide something valuable in exchange. If not, you’re simply losing time. And if your request is just “link please,” expect no response.
Need help with your outreach campaign?
Get in touch with us and we will make it easy peasy for you.
