Updates for the week of February 11, 2022

This week we continued to improve our link building processes (and a little update to the keyword research process).

In Curious Ants, I outline several strategies for link building. For one, you can search for branded opportunities. Another is similar: look for how people talk about your competitors and get those links. Lastly, you need to talk about topical link building– which is much harder but very effective.

This week, however, I updated a couple of specific processes that fit within these broader categories of link building.

For one, what do you do if you have no brand mentions from which you can get links? Well, start thinking like a public relations professional and use Help a Reporter Out to get links. This is a services that connects you (the expert) with media who need sources (you again) for their articles. It’s a great way to get quality links- even if nobody is talking about you- yet.

The other process we improved is about guest blogging. This isn’t a step in the game plan as much as a way you can get more links from the existing processes. For instance, let’s say you learn (thanks to the competitor link building process) is mentioned by another website. Why would they mention your business? Perhaps you could write for their website. In another example, let’s say you need to start getting some topical links to your website? How can you do this? Guest blogging is a great way to do it- just be careful!

No matter how you build links to your website, you will need to pitch another website. While I have a distinct process for pitching websites, I added some example emails within each of these examples, to help you send a better pitch.

Link building is important but you should always start with keyword research. That’s why I made a small update to the keyword research process: use the existing website as a starting point. Now- don’t limit yourself to what they currently mention- they may overlook important opportunities- but it’s a good idea to start there.

One of the outcomes of your keyword research is an SEO blueprint– which I also updated this week. This is where you determine a focus for each page and see where you need to add new pages on your website. Organization is one of the keys to SEO success so it’s important for you to keep track of what page is focused on which idea. This also prevents you from trying to optimize several pages for the same keyword or topic. If you do that, you’re only working against yourself.