The Definitive Link Building Guide

4 PROVEN STRATEGIES FOR 2019

The Definitive Link Building Guide

 Introduction
If you want to increase your rankings and get traffic from search engines (a.k.a. Google), it’s not
enough to create high-quality content. You need to build links from relevant and authoritative websites.

In this guide, we’re going to show you four powerful link building strategies
that work in 2019 and that you can start implementing immediately.

A lot of people shy away from link building, and we get it: it’s one of the hardest parts of SEO
Reaching out to other website owners and asking them to add a link to your site can feel weird.

To make things worse, hiring someone to build links for you is just as challenging:

» Most people offering link building » Legitimate (“white hat”) link

services use methods that either builders are hard to find and
don’t work or are against Google’s incredibly expensive
terms of service (“black hat”)

3
The Definitive Link Building Guide
Below, you’ll find extremely detailed walkthroughs In fact, we’ve used these exact strategies to rank
for four linkbuilding strategies that work in 2019. our small website, ClickMinded, for some extremely
You will be able to: competitive queries:

» Take link building into your own hands and launch

massively successful campaigns that translate into
higher rankings and more traffic.

» Easily delegate link building to an in-house employee

or virtual assistant (even if they don’t have any SEO
experience).

» Create a scalable process to build links to

your clients’ websites.

Let’s get started.

4
The Definitive Link Building Guide
 Strategy #1

Reverse-Engineer Your Competitors to

Acquire Links to Your Existing Content

About this strategy

This link building strategy consists of leveraging the strengths of your existing
content and links your competitors have already built, to get highly relevant links.

Environment setup
You’ll need a few tools to achieve each step: You can use whatever you
have in your SEO toolbox but,
1 Prospecting: Hunter Chrome Extension for the purpose of this ebook,
or RocketReach Chrome Extension. we’ll demonstrate how to
2 Finding link opportunities: implement this strategy using

ahrefs or SEMRush. Hunter, ahrefs and BuzzStream.

3 (Optional but recommended) Running

outreach campaigns: BuzzStream or
Mailshake.

5
The Definitive Link Building Guide
Perform keyword research and find competing content

1 Open the “Link building Opportunities Worksheet” 3 Write the title of each page / post in
document, go to “File  Make a copy” to create column B of the “Research” sheet.
your own copy of the worksheet.

4 Determine the topic / searcher intent that you want

to build links around for each of those blog posts or
pages. If you are not sure about how to perform this
step, check out out Keyword Strategy Masterclass.
2 Determine the blog posts or pages on your site
that you wish to build links to. Add the URL to each For example:
of those to column A of the “Research” sheet.
» “Who creates emojis” and “unicode consortium”
have a similar searcher intent.

» “Who creates emojis” and “emoji chrome

extension” have different searcher intents.

6
The Definitive Link Building Guide
5 Write the target keyword for each post » If you have better content: this means that it’s likely that
in column C of the “Research” sheet. people who linked to competing content will want to link
to your content too (or instead). If this is the case, write
down the URL of the competing content in column D of
the “Research” sheet (add rows if necessary). Next, write
the rationale for why your content is better in column F.

» If you don’t have better content: it’s unlikely that people

will link to your post instead of the competing content.
Either improve your content or skip this opportunity.
6 Using Google Chrome, open an incognito
window (Ctrl+Shift+N if you use PC,
or Cmd+Shift+N if you use Mac), and
perform a Google search for each of the
target keywords—this will show you the
best-ranking content for your target
keyword or, in other words, the content
you’re competing against.

7 Open each of the organic search results

8 Repeat steps 6 and 7 for all of the blog posts / pages
(those below the ads) in the first page.
from column A that you wish to build links to.
You job will be to determine whether
your content is better than the one
Learn more about keyword research in our HubSpot
provided by the competitor and why:
Podcast on optimizing for search intent.
7
The Definitive Link Building Guide
Find link opportunities (prospecting)

Note: If you can afford it, hire a freelancer or virtual assistant

to perform this step for you as it can be very time-consuming.

1 Log into your ahrefs account. 3 Open the links in column E, this will bring up the
ahrefs page for all pages linking to each competitor
2 Open your copy of the “Link Opportunities (one page per domain)
Worksheet” on the “Research” sheet.
4 Click “Export”, select “Full Export”, and click “Start Export”

8
The Definitive Link Building Guide
5 After a few seconds, the export will be ready on 7 Open the new sheet you just imported and keep
the small tray icon on the top right. You can click only the “Referring Page URL”, “Referring Page
on it to download: Title”, and “Link URL” columns—delete the rest.

6 Go back to the
“Link Opportunities”
spreadsheet, click File 
Import, upload the CSV
you just downloaded from
ahrefs, under “Import
Location”, pick “Insert new
sheet” and click on
“Import data”

9
The Definitive Link Building Guide
8 Update the name of the sheet by changing it to 10 Open each of the URLs in column A of the “Link
“Link Opportunities - [Target keyword]” with the targets” sheet.
target keyword you selected for the campaign
(column C of the “Research” sheet).
11 Make sure it makes sense for you to
ask them for a link. For example:

» If it’s an automated digest like this one

or this one, it probably won’t make sense.

» If the page belongs to a competitor,

it probably won’t make sense.

9 Add columns titled “Author name”, “Contact 12 Write down the name of the author of
name”, “Email address”, “Status”, and “Notes” the post in column D.

10
The Definitive Link Building Guide
13 Try to find contact information for the webmaster 1. You might get contact information for the author,
or content manager: but sometimes it will be someone in the company’s
marketing team or the website’s webmaster.
» Look for a “Contact us”, “Contribute to our
2. Always try to reach out to an actual person instead
blog”, or similar link in the top navigation,
of a catchall email address (e.g. info@domain.com,
sidebar, or footer of the site.
marketing@domain.com, hello@domain.com)
» If you find the name of the website owner/
3. If there are several contacts, default to the
editor, try looking for their Twitter profile
one in which hunter shows the most sources
and check if they have an email listed on
4. In the interest of being GDPR safe, avoid personal email
their profile.
addresses that end in @gmail.com, @yahoo.com, etc.
» Use the Hunter Chrome extension. If you are
5. Make sure to check your CRM (be it HubSpot,
using the free version of Email Hunter, only Buzzstream, etc), to see if you’ve already reached out to
use this as your last option since you get the contact in the past.
only 150 requests per month.

14 Add the contact name and email address to columns E and F the “Link targets” sheet, respectively.

15 Repeat steps 10-14 for each URL in column A.

11
The Definitive Link Building Guide
Launch your outreach campaign

1 Open Buzzstream and create a new project » Add the URL you are building links to.

» Choose to track links only to the specified URL.

Note: This is the preferred option for this type of

campaign because you will be building links to
just this specific URL.
2 Set up your project:
» Make sure that the option to receive a backlink
» Name of your project: Use the following
report is selected.
nomenclature “Link Building Campaign -
[target keyword]”

» Select the team members for the project:

1. If someone else will be helping you

perform outreach, you can choose
to share the project with them (you
can also add them later.)

2. If you are performing outreach 3 Click on “Create Project”

yourself, you can just leave the
default option selected.

12
The Definitive Link Building Guide
4 Go back to the “Link Opportunities Worksheet”, 6 Choose to upload a CSV and select the
navigate to the “Link targets” sheet, and click on “Match My CSV” option.
“File  Download as  Comma-separated values
(.csv, current sheet)” to download a .csv file.

5 Go back to Buzzstream and click on “Add Websites.”

13
The Definitive Link Building Guide
7 Once you have uploaded the .csv file, you will have to » Except for the columns that are already matched
match your columns with the content in each of them. 100%, you will most likely have to choose
This allows BuzzStream to pick up the information “-New Field-” for each of the other columns.
and use it to customize your emails, according to
your instructions (as you will later on see). » Furthermore, you will most probably not need
the last two columns (“Status” and “Notes”), so
you can just ignore them.

» To import your data into BuzzStream, click

the “Import” button in the bottom right side
of the screen.

14
The Definitive Link Building Guide
8 When your data is imported, you can move
on to creating a sequence of emails that will
be sent according to the aforementioned data
and your specific instructions.

Go to Outreach  Manage Outreach  Create

New Sequence (if you don’t have one which is
already created and you want to use).

9 Name your sequence. Our suggestion is that you name it: “Link
Building Campaign” + target keyword (e.g., in our example, this
became “Link Building Campaign - social media automation”).

15
The Definitive Link Building Guide
10 On the right side of the screen, you will see the dynamic fields BuzzStream
provides. You can use these fields in your email templates to automatically
add data you imported with your .csv file (e.g. the names of the editors).

» In the example above, you can see how we added the the
“[Contact name]” dynamic field into the email template.

» Pay attention: the template used here is a general example.

Create a template of your own with each email outreach campaign.
Doing this will add a unique voice to your emails, making them
more personal (and thus, more likely to receive a reply).

16
The Definitive Link Building Guide
 » Furthermore, in the given example, you
However, if you need inspiration,
will see text marked with “[ ]”. That is where
here’s the template we created for our example:
you should enter the necessary details,
according to your particular data (e.g. in our
Subject line: Quick Question example, the “[topic]” was replaced with
“social media automation”)
Hey there,

I was looking for some information on [topic] this morning » Also, you should keep in mind to use
when I found something pretty awesome you created: [URL] the [User First Name] dynamic field as a
signature, especially if there are multiple
This is great, thank you for putting it together!
people using the same BuzzStream account.
Just a heads up, you’re linking to something that [was a bit Doing this will allow everyone on your team
outdated / could be better / could be more actionable]. to use the same template and still have
It was this post by [name of the site they’re linking to]. them customized with their name when they
have to run an outreach campaign.
We recently created a resource that, unlike the post above,
[rationale]. Here’s the link to it: [URL of your post]

If you think this would be useful for your users, feel free
to add a link to it in your post. If not, no worries at all. Just
wanted to make a suggestion that your users might find
helpful :)

Thanks,

[User First Name]

17
The Definitive Link Building Guide
11 Once done with the first email, you should add a 12 The process stays the same as with the first
follow-up email as well. BuzzStream allows you to do outreach email, but the copy should change, so
this easily and even set up very precise parameters that it’s adapted to the situation. Following, you
(e.g. sending the first follow-up email if the recipient will see the copy we used. Again, same as with the
doesn’t reply in 3 days). original email, our suggestion is that you use copy
created by your team, as this will make the entire
campaign more credible.

“Hey [name],

Just following up on my last message.

I found this great post on your site and noticed

you linked to a resource that’s [a bit outdated /
could be better / could be more actionable].

If you think this would be useful for your users,

we just created a resource you could link to
that, unlike the post above, [rationale]. Here’s
the link to it: [URL of your post]

Thanks,

[User First Name]”

18
The Definitive Link Building Guide
 » Make sure the “Send follow-ups as replies” box is ticked
because this will make your emails look more natural
(and it will make editors and site owners trust you more).

13 When your email templates are all set up, it is time for you
to begin the actual outreach. You can do this two ways:

» Send individually. This is the recommended option

if you are using this outreach campaign for the first
time (or if you are using BuzzStream for the first
time, for that matter). To do it, follow these steps:

1. Select the sites you want to outreach to.

2. Click on Outreach Send Individually

3. Click on Start Outreach.

4. Check to see if all the details and the text are correct.

5. Click on Start sequence now.

» Repeat the same process with all the websites on your list.

19
The Definitive Link Building Guide
» Bulk Send. This is an easier, less time-consuming method,
but it is generally recommended if you are already familiar
with your campaign and/or BuzzStream. To go on this path,
follow these steps:

1. Click on Outreach  Bulk Send.

2. Choose a sequence or template.

3. Check to see if everything is correct.

4. Click on Next: Review.

5. Check again to see if everything is correct.

6. Click on Next: Confirm.

7. Check to see if the settings are correct (in case you

modified anything in the previous steps). And yes, this
is the last check - we can see the eye rolls from here! :)

8. Click Send Now.

20
The Definitive Link Building Guide
Replying to emails

Simply launching an outreach campaign isn’t the magic ticket— 1 Reply to emails as soon as you receive them.
you have to make sure to actually get your links on other, You want to show editors and site owners you
high-ranking websites. are genuinely interested in working with them.
Plus, leaving these emails “for later” can be
Once your outreach emails are sent, you should be ready to reply
quite risky—chances are they’ll soon get lost in
to whatever replies you get. Here are the steps to follow if you want
a sea of random newsletters and chain emails.
to make the most out of this stage of the link-building stage:

2 Most of the times, the replies you receive will » No reply: If your outreach email recipients
fall into one of the following categories: don’t reply, they will receive a follow-up email
via BuzzStream, according to the sequence you
» Positive reply: your outreach email recipients replies
created and the settings you chose for your
saying they would like to link to your content. This is the campaign.
best-case scenario. All you need to do is follow-up to
make sure that they actually added the link. 3 Update the “Link Opportunities Worksheet”
with their replies as the campaign progresses
» Negative reply: one of your targeted site editors
(the “Status” and “Notes” columns in your “Link
or site owners replies with a negative answer.
targets” sheet.)

» Charging you: your recipients want to charge you for

That’s it! Using this technique, you will be able
adding a link, politely turn down their offer. This goes
to acquire links from sites already linking to your
against Google’s terms of service and the risk is usually
competitors.
not worth it. It’s also against the Inbound Methodology.

21
The Definitive Link Building Guide
 Strategy #2

Resources Page Link-Building

About this strategy

This link building strategy consists of finding pages that are already linking
to resources within your niche—these sites are significantly more likely to link
to your site too.

Environment setup
You’ll need a few tools to achieve each step: You can use whatever you
have in your SEO toolbox
1 Prospecting: Hunter Chrome Extension
but, for the purpose of this
or RocketReach Chrome Extension.
ebook, we’ll demonstrate
2 Estimating Traffic: SimilarWeb Chrome how to implement this
extension or ahrefs SEO Toolbar. strategy using Hunter,
SimilarWeb and BuzzStream.
3 (Optional but recommended) Running
outreach campaigns: BuzzStream or
Mailshake.

22
The Definitive Link Building Guide
Perform keyword research

If you are not sure about how to perform this step, These are some recommended specifications for this content:
you should check out our Keyword Strategy Masterclass. The blog post must be highly relevant to the searcher intent
you identified in the previous step. These are a couple of ways
1 Determine the topic / searcher intent that you you can achieve that:
want to build links around. Each of these link
• Your blog post can answer all or most of the
building campaigns will be limited to a single
questions a reader might have about a specific
searcher intent. For example:
topic in a user-friendly way.
» “Who creates emojis” and “unicode
• Your blog post could approach the topic with an
consortium” have a similar searcher intent.
original or creative angle (using humor, data,
» “Who creates emojis” and “emoji chrome graphics, etc.)
extension” have different searcher intents.
• In summary, your post has to be significantly better OR
different than anything that’s already ranking in Google.
2 Create a list of all the keywords associated
with the searcher intent you selected.
» The blog post should be at least 800 words long.

3 Create content that is good enough to be a » Include external links and references to authoritative
resource that people would want to link to. Make sources—don’t just link to your own site.
it valuable for your prospects and customers. » When possible, reference relevant data or statistics.
To increase your success rate when building links » Improve readability of the post by keeping paragraphs
from resources pages, you need to provide other
short (no longer that 3-4 lines per paragraph.)
websites with high-quality and original content.
» Include relevant images and graphics for visual storytelling
23
The Definitive Link Building Guide
Find link opportunities (prospecting)

Note: If you can afford it, hire a freelancer or virtual assistant to perform this step for you as it can be very time-consuming.

1 Open the Resources Page Link- 3 Update the name of the file by changing “[Searcher Intent]”
Building Outreach Campaign with the searcher intent you selected for the campaign.
Control Sheet.

2 Go to “File  Make a copy” and

make a copy of the spreadsheet.

4 In the “Keywords” worksheet, add the list of keywords

associated with your campaign to column A.

24
The Definitive Link Building Guide
4 In the “Keywords” worksheet, add the list of 6 If you want to add more query columns, simply
keywords associated with your campaign to add a new column, copy one of the existing ones,
column A. and paste it into the new column. Be sure to edit
the query formula as well! You can do this by
clicking on any of your new column’s empty cells
and editing the formula from the formula bar (just
replace the green text with your own search query).

» Some of the queries you could use include the

following: “resources”, “useful resources”, “links”,
“useful links”, etc.

» If you want to only find resource pages with

your keyword in their URL, use “inurl:” format.
(e.g. “inurl:resources” or “inurl:useful links”). The
same goes for finding resource pages with your
keyword in their title, but this time you will have
to use the “intitle:” format.

7 Open Google.com
5 Verify that columns B, C, D, and E were
automatically populated/updated (as 8 For the first keyword, copy the cell under the “Query
shown above.) #1” column, and paste it in the Google search field.

25
The Definitive Link Building Guide
9 Visit the first 50 search results (pages 1 through 4
of Google’s search results) and use the following
criteria to qualify an opportunity:

» You haven’t included this root domain in your

prospecting campaign yet.
» The page does not belong to one of your » Check that the site receives at least 5,000 visits per

competitors. month. You can do that by using the Similar Web Chrome
extension and checking the “Estimated Visits” metric.
Important: If you hired someone else to do
prospecting for you, make sure to give them a Important: If the page does not meet ALL of these

comprehensive list of competitor’s websites. criteria, skip it and move on to the next result.

» The page is a resources page (and not a sales » Some pages also provide readers a “Suggest a new

page for a product, a website’s homepage, a blog resource” link on the page. In this case, this is a clear

directory, a contact page, a social media post… you sign they’re accepting link suggestions and you should

get the point.) definitely add the website to your list.

» The content of the resources page is relevant to

your query and your own content would be a good
fit for the page.

» There is some indication that the resources page

has been updated recently (i.e. the date of the last
update is not several years ago)

26
The Definitive Link Building Guide
10 If the page meets all of the criteria above, look for the email of the site owner or editor
(DON’T look for the contact information of the author of the post, because they will be
guest authors.) Here are the 3 things you can do to find this information:

• Look for a “Contact us”, “Contribute to our blog”, or similar link in the
top navigation, sidebar, or footer of the site.

• If you find the name of the website owner / editor, try looking for their
Twitter profile and check if they have an email listed on their profile.

• Use the Mail Hunter Chrome extension. If you are using the free
version of Email Hunter, only use this as your last option since you get
only 150 requests per month.

Important: Don’t spend more than 3-4 minutes attempting to find the email address of the site
owner or editor. If you can’t find it quickly using the three methods above, skip the site and
move on to the next one.

27
The Definitive Link Building Guide
11 If a page meets the selection criteria » Editor / owner first name: this is an optional field,
(prospecting step #8) and you’re able to find if the name is not available, then leave the field
contact information for the site (previous empty. Use proper capitalization as well.
step), then record the data for the page in the
» Editor / owner email: the email address of the
“Prospecting / Outreach” worksheet. You will
contact you found in the previous step.
need to input the following information in
that sheet: You don’t need to fill out the “Status”,
“Notes”, or “Guest post URL” columns yet.
» Page URL

» Blog post title: be sure to write this down

using title capitalization (i.e. capitalize words
with five or more letters), you can use this
simple online tool to easily obtain the proper
capitalization.

» Blog post author: full name of the person

12 After you’re done with a query, move on to the next
who wrote the blog post, with proper
one on the same row. After you’re done with all the
capitalization.
queries in a row, mark the keyword as used in column
» Website name: the name of the site where
F, and move on to the next row.
the blog post was published. Use proper
capitalization as well.

28
The Definitive Link Building Guide
Launch your outreach campaign

1 Open Buzzstream and create a new project » Add the URL you are building links to.

» Choose to track links only to the specified URL.

Note: This is the preferred option for this type

of campaign (guest blogging) because you will
be the one placing the links in the post.

2 Set up your project: » Make sure that the option to receive a backlink

» Name of your project: Use the following report is selected.

nomenclature “Resources Page Link Building

Outreach Campaign - [Searcher Intent]”

» Select the team members for the project:

1. If someone else will be helping you

perform outreach, you can choose to
share the project with them (you can
also add them later.)

2. If you are performing outreach yourself,

you can just leave the default option
selected. 3 Click on “Create Project”

29
The Definitive Link Building Guide
4 Go back to the campaign control sheet, 5 Go back to Buzzstream and click on “Add Websites.”
navigate to the “Prospecting/Outreach”
sheet, and click on “File  Download as 
Comma-separated values (.csv, current sheet)”
to download a .csv file.

6 Choose to upload a CSV and select the

“Match My CSV” option.

30
The Definitive Link Building Guide
7 Once you have uploaded the .csv file, you will have to match your columns with the content in
each of them. This allows BuzzStream to pick up the information and use it to customize your
emails, according to your instructions (as you will later on see).

» Except for the columns that are already » To import your data into BuzzStream, click
matched 100%, you will most likely have the “Import” button in the bottom right side
to choose “-New Field-” for each of the of the screen.
other columns.

» Furthermore, you will most probably not

need the last three columns, so you can
just ignore them.

31
The Definitive Link Building Guide
8 When your data is imported, you can move on
to creating a sequence of emails that will be sent
according to the aforementioned data and your
specific instructions.

» Go to Outreach  Manage Outreach  Create

New Sequence (if you don’t have one which is
already created and you want to use).

9 Name your sequence. Our suggestion is that you

name it: “Resources Page Link-Building Outreach
Campaign” + the search intent you want to work
on (e.g., in our example, this became “Resources
Page Link-Building Outreach Campaign - Who
creates emojis”).

32
The Definitive Link Building Guide
10 On the right side of the screen, you will see the dynamic fields BuzzStream
provides. You can use these fields in your email templates to automatically add
data you imported with your .csv file (e.g. the names of the editors).

» In the example above, you can see how we added the the
“[Editor/ owner first name” dynamic field into the email template.

» Pay attention: the template we used is a general example. Create

a template of your own with each email outreach campaign.
Doing this will add a unique voice to your emails, making them
more personal (and thus, more likely to receive a reply).

33
The Definitive Link Building Guide
However, if you need inspiration,
here’s the template we created for our example:

» Furthermore, in the given example,

you will see text marked with “<< >>”.
“Subject line: Question about your site
That is where you should enter the
Email copy:
necessary details, according to your
Hey [Editor / owner first name], particular data (e.g. in our example,
the “<< SEARCH INTENT >>” was
I was researching content about <<SEARCHER INTENT>> and I
replaced with “emoji marketing”.
stumbled upon this awesome resource page on your site: [Page URL]

Soooo helpful! I was able to find a bunch of information because of it.

» Also, you should keep in mind to
I recently published a piece on this same topic. <<INSERT use the [User First Name] dynamic
SOMETHING INTERESTING ABOUT YOUR CONTENT>> field as a signature, especially if
You can find it here, if you want to check it out: <<YOUR PAGE there are multiple people using the
URL>>. same BuzzStream account. Doing
this will allow everyone on your
If you think it would be helpful to visitors of your site, I’d be super
team to use the same template and
grateful if you added my resource to your page.
still have them customized with their
Thanks for your time! name when they have to run an
[User First Name]” outreach campaign.

34
The Definitive Link Building Guide
11 Once done with the first email, you should add
two follow-up emails as well. BuzzStream allows Follow-up 1:
you to do this easily and even set up very precise
“Hey [Editor / owner first name],
parameters (e.g. sending the first follow-up email if
the recipient doesn’t reply in 3 days). Just following up on my last email. Would love to
hear your thoughts about my resource: <<YOUR
PAGE URL>>.

Cheers!

[User First Name]”

Follow-up 2:

“Hey [Editor / owner first name],

I thought I’d reach out one last time and ask if you
think my resource would be a good addition to your
page: [Page URL]

Best,
12 The process stays the same as with the first outreach
[User First Name]”
email, but the text should change, so that it’s adapted
to the situation. Following, you will see the copy we
used for the first, respectively for the second follow-up.
Again, same as with the original email, our suggestion
is that you use copy created by yourself, as this will
make the entire campaign more credible.
35
The Definitive Link Building Guide
 » Make sure the “Send follow-ups as replies”
box is ticked because this will make your
emails look more natural (and it will make
editors and site owners trust you more).

13 When your email templates are all set up, it is time for you to begin the actual outreach. You can do this two ways:

» Send Individually. This is the recommended

4. Check to see if all the details and the text are correct.
option if you are using this outreach campaign
for the first time (or if you are using BuzzStream 5. Click on Start sequence now.

for the first time, for that matter). To do it, follow

these steps:

1. Select the sites you want to outreach to.

2. Click on Outreach  Send Individually

3. Click on Start Outreach.

6. Repeat the same process with all the

websites on your list.

36
The Definitive Link Building Guide
» Bulk Send. This is an easier, less time-consuming method, but it is
generally recommended if you are already familiar with your campaign
and/or BuzzStream. To go on this path, follow these steps:

1. Click on Outreach -> Bulk Send. 3. Check to see if everything is correct.

4. Click on Next: Review.

5. Check again to see if everything

is correct.

6. Click on Next: Confirm.

7. Check to see if the settings are

correct (in case you modified
2. Choose a sequence or template.
anything in the previous steps).
And yes, this is the last check - we
can see the eye rolls from here! :)

8. Click Send Now.

37
The Definitive Link Building Guide
Replying to emails

Simply launching an outreach campaign will » Positive reply: If one of your outreach email recipients replies

not help your website’s SEO—not if you don’t saying they would like to publish your link in their list, you should

actually get your links on other, high-ranking first (and foremost) thank them for the opportunity. Also, ask if

resource pages. there’s anything you can do to make this easier for them (e.g.
write a custom summary of the resource you have just submitted).
Once your outreach emails are sent, you
should be ready to reply to whatever replies » Negative reply: If one of your targeted site editors or site

you get. Here are the steps to follow if you want owners reply with a negative answer, mark them as rejected in the

to make the most out of this stage of the spreadsheet.

link-building stage: » Charging you: If your recipients want to charge you for publishing
the guest post, politely turn down their offer.
1 Reply to emails as soon as you receive
» No reply: If your outreach email recipients don’t reply, they
them. You want to show editors and site
will receive a follow-up email via BuzzStream, according to
owners you are genuinely interested in
the sequence you created and the settings you chose for your
working with them. Plus, leaving these
campaign.
emails “for later” can be quite risky—
chances are they’ll soon get lost in a sea of
3 Update the tracking sheet based on their replies (the “Status”
random newsletters and chain emails. :)
and “Notes” columns in your tracking spreadsheet).

2 Most of the times, the replies you That’s it! If you follow this procedure, you will definitely land at
receive will fall into one of the least a bunch of good links on high-ranking websites. It is a bit of
following categories: hard work until you get things going - but trust us, it will pay off
in more traffic and higher rankings!
38
The Definitive Link Building Guide
 Strategy #3

“Guestographic” Link Building

About this strategy

This link building strategy consists of providing value to other websites
by offering a high-quality design asset in exchange for a link.

Environment setup
You’ll need a few tools to achieve each step:

You can use whatever you have

1 Prospecting: Hunter Chrome Extension or
in your SEO toolbox but, for the
RocketReach Chrome Extension.
purpose of this ebook, we’ll
2 Estimating Traffic: SimilarWeb Chrome demonstrate how to implement
extension or ahrefs SEO Toolbar. this strategy using Hunter,
3 (Optional but recommended) Running SimilarWeb and BuzzStream.
outreach campaigns: BuzzStream or
Mailshake.

39
The Definitive Link Building Guide
Perform keyword research Find/create a share-worthy infographic

1 If you are not sure about how to Creating infographics is usually more time-consuming than creating articles,
perform this step, you should but it can also reap more benefits (e.g. they are much more likely to be shared
check out our Keyword Strategy by other websites, especially if they look good and provide genuinely useful
Masterclass. information). To make sure your infographic is share-worthy, follow these tips:

Determine the topic / searcher » Avoid branding your infographic—or at least keep it to a minimum. Most
intent that you want to build editors and site owners will say “no” to an infographic that’s filled with
links around. Each of these link your logos, simply because it makes it very obvious that you’re trying to
building campaigns will be promote your business, rather than provide useful information.
limited to a single searcher
» Think of topics that are interesting to readers. Most of the times, a bland
intent. For example:
infographic about your own company is not really that interesting (or at
» “Who creates emojis” and least not to most people).
“unicode consortium” have a
» Use small paragraphs and bits of information. The longer your chunks
similar searcher intent.
of text are, the less likely it is that people will actually enjoy acquiring
» “Who creates emojis” and information through your infographic.
“emoji chrome extension”
» Make sure your text is easy to read and include graphics that are easy
have different searcher
to understand and leave enough empty space between the different
intents.
elements on an infographic. Basically, your entire design and content
2 Create a list of all the keywords need to feel “light” and very well organized.
associated with the searcher Try to create infographics on topics that are currently trending - they
»
intent you selected. tend to have a higher acceptance rate among editors and site owners.
40
The Definitive Link Building Guide
Find guest posting opportunities (prospecting)

Note: If you can afford it, we recommend that you hire a freelancer or virtual
assistant to perform this step for you as it can be very time-consuming.

1 Open the Guestographic Link Building 4 In the “Keywords” worksheet, add the list of keywords
Campaign Control Sheet. associated with your campaign to column A.

2 Go to “File 
Make a copy” and make a
copy of the spreadsheet.

5 Open Google.com
3 Update the name of the file by changing
“[Searcher Intent]” with the searcher intent you 6 Copy the first keyword in your spreadsheet

selected for the campaign. and paste it into the Google search field.

41
The Definitive Link Building Guide
7 Visit the first 50 search results (pages 1 through 4 of Google’s search
results) and use the following criteria to qualify an opportunity:

» You haven’t included this root domain in your » The website has published at least one new blog
prospecting campaign yet. post in the last 3 months.

» The page does not belong to one » Check that the site receives at least 5,000 visits per
of your competitors. month. You can do that by using the Similar Web
Chrome extension and checking the “Estimated
Important: If you hired someone else to do
Visits” metric.
prospecting for you, make sure to give them a
comprehensive list of competitor’s websites.

» The page is a blog post (and not a sales page

for a product, a website’s homepage, a blog
directory, a contact page, a social media post…
you get the point.)

» The content of the blog post is relevant to your

query. For example, if my query is “who makes Important: If the page does not meet ALL of these
emojis” a blog post about “the coolest emoji criteria, skip it and move on to the next result.
t-shirts” would NOT be a relevant result.

42
The Definitive Link Building Guide
8 If the page meets all of the criteria above, look for the 9 If a page meets the selection criteria (prospecting step
email of the site owner or editor (DON’T look for the #8) and you’re able to find contact information for the
contact information of the author of the post, because site (previous step), then record the data for the page
they will be guest authors.) Here are the 3 things you in the “Prospecting / Outreach” worksheet. You will
can do to find this information: need to input the following information in that sheet:

» Look for a “Contact us”, “Contribute to our blog”, » Page URL: self explanatory.
or similar link in the top navigation, sidebar, or
» Blog post title: be sure to write this down using
footer of the site.
title capitalization (i.e. capitalize words with five or
» If you find the name of the website owner / editor, more letters), you can use this simple online tool
try looking for their Twitter profile and check if to easily obtain the proper capitalization.
they have an email listed on their profile.
» Blog post author: full name of the person who
» Use the Mail Hunter Chrome extension. If you are wrote the blog post, with proper capitalization.
using the free version of Email Hunter, only use
Website name: the name of the site where
this as your last option since you get only 150
the blog post was published. Use proper
requests per month.
capitalization as well.

Important: Don’t spend more that 3-4 minutes » Editor / owner first name: this is an optional
attempting to find the email address of the site field, if the name is not available, then leave the
owner / editor. If you can’t find it quickly using the field empty. Use proper capitalization as well.
three methods above, skip the site and move on to
» Editor / owner email: the email address of the
the next one.
contact you found in the previous step.

43
The Definitive Link Building Guide
 You don’t need to fill out the “Status”, “Notes”, or “Guest post URL” columns yet.

11 After you’re done with a query, move on to the next one on the same row. After you’re done with
all the queries in a row, mark the keyword as used in column F, and move on to the next row.

Launch your outreach campaign

1 Open Buzzstream and create a new project 2 Set up your project:

» Name of your project: Use the following nomenclature

“Guestographic Link Building Campaign - [Searcher Intent]”

» Select the team members for the project:

1. If someone else will be helping you perform

outreach, you can choose to share the project
with them (you can also add them later.)

2. If you are performing outreach yourself, you can

just leave the default option selected.

44
The Definitive Link Building Guide
» Add the URL you are building links to. 3 Click on “Create Project”

» Choose to track links only to the specified URL.

4 Go back to the campaign control sheet, navigate
Note: This is the preferred option for this type of to the “Prospecting/Outreach” sheet, and click on
campaign (guestographic) because you will be the “File → Download as → Comma-separated values
one placing the links in the post. (.csv, current sheet)” to download a .csv file.

» Make sure that the option to receive a backlink

report is selected.

45
The Definitive Link Building Guide
5 Go back to Buzzstream and click on “Add Websites.” 7 Once you have uploaded the .csv file, you will have to
match your columns with the content in each of them.
This allows BuzzStream to pick up the information
and use it to customize your emails, according to
your instructions (as you will later on see).

6 Choose to upload a CSV and select the

“Match My CSV” option.

46
The Definitive Link Building Guide
» Except for the columns that are already matched 8 When your data is imported, you can move
100%, you will most likely have to choose “-New on to creating a sequence of emails that will
Field-” for each of the other columns. be sent according to the aforementioned data

» Furthermore, you will most probably not need the and your specific instructions.

last three columns, so you can just ignore them.

» Go to Outreach -> Manage Outreach ->
Create New Sequence (if you don’t have
one which is already created and you
want to use).

» To import your data into BuzzStream, click the “Import”

button in the bottom right side of the screen.

47
The Definitive Link Building Guide
9 Name your sequence. Our suggestion is that you
name it: “Guestographic Link Building Campaign”
+ the search intent you want to work on (e.g., in our
example, this became “Guestographic Link Building
Campaign - Who creates emojis”).

10 On the right side of the screen, you will see the dynamic fields BuzzStream provides. You can use these fields in
your email templates to automatically add data you imported with your .csv file (e.g. the names of the editors).

» In the example above, you can see how we » Pay attention: the template we used is a general example. Our
added the the “[Editor/ owner first name” advice is for you to create a template of your own with each
dynamic field into the email template. email outreach campaign. Doing this will add a unique voice to
your emails, making them more personal (and thus, more likely
to receive a reply).

48
The Definitive Link Building Guide
If you need inspiration, here’s the template we created for our example:

» Furthermore, in the given example, you will

see text marked with “<< >>”. That is where
“Hey [Editor / owner first name],
you should enter the necessary details,
I was researching content about <<SEARCHER INTENT>> according to your particular data (e.g. in
and I stumbled upon this post by [Blog post author] on our example, the “<< SEARCH INTENT >>”
your site: [Page URL] was replaced with “emoji marketing”.

Soooo helpful! I really enjoyed it.

» Also, you should keep in mind to use
Upon looking a lot into this and I recently found that
the [User First Name] dynamic field as a
<<SOMETHING SURPRISING OR INTERESTING ABOUT
signature, especially if there are multiple
THE TOPIC>>.
people using the same BuzzStream
I'm just finishing an infographic that includes all of this account. Doing this will allow everyone
information. on your team to use the same template

Let me know if you want to check it out—happy to share it and still have them customized with their

with you. name when they have to run an outreach

campaign.
[User First Name]”

49
The Definitive Link Building Guide
11 Once done with the first email, you should add two
follow-up emails as well. BuzzStream allows you to do
Follow-up 1:
this easily and even set up very precise parameters
(e.g. sending the first follow-up email if the recipient “Hey [Editor / owner first name],
doesn’t reply in 3 days).
Just following up on my last email. Would love
to know what you think of the info I found.

Cheers!

[User First Name]”

Follow-up 2:

“Hey [Editor / owner first name],

I thought I’d reach out one last time and share

12 The process stays the same as with the first outreach my infographic about <<TOPIC OF THE
email, but the text should change, so that it’s adapted INFOGRAPHIC>>. Would love to get your
to the situation. Following, you will see the texts we thoughts on it!
used for the first, respectively for the second follow-up.
Best,
Again, same as with the original email, our suggestion
[User First Name]”
is that you use texts created by yourself, as this will
make the entire campaign more credible.

50
The Definitive Link Building Guide
 » Make sure the “Send follow-ups as replies” box
is ticked because this will make your emails look
more natural (and thus, it will make editors and
site owners trust you more).

13 When your email templates are all set up, it is time 3. Click on Start Outreach.
for you to begin the actual outreach. You can do
this two ways:

» Send Individually. This is the recommended

option if you are using this outreach campaign
for the first time (or if you are using BuzzStream
for the first time, for that matter). To do it, follow
these steps: 4. Check to see if all the details and the text are correct.

5. Click on Start sequence now.

1. Select the sites you want to outreach to.

2. Click on Outreach -> Send Individually

6. Repeat the same process with all the websites on your list.

51
The Definitive Link Building Guide
» Bulk Send. This is an easier, less time-consuming method, but it is generally
recommended if you are already familiar with your campaign and/or
BuzzStream. To go on this path, follow these steps:

1. Click on Outreach -> Bulk Send. 3. Check to see if everything is correct.

4. Click on Next: Review.

5. Check again to see if everything is correct.

6. Click on Next: Confirm.

7. Check to see if the settings are correct (in

case you modified anything in the previous
steps). And yes, this is the last check - we
2. Choose a sequence or template. can see the eye rolls from here! :)

8. Click Send Now.

52
The Definitive Link Building Guide
Replying to emails

Simply launching an outreach campaign will not do anything for your website’s SEO - not if you
don’t make sure to actually get your links on other, high-ranking websites.

So, once your outreach emails are sent, you should be ready to reply to whatever replies you get.
Here are the steps to follow if you want to make the most out of this stage of the link-building stage:

1 Reply to emails as soon as you receive them. You want to “If you want to add this infographic to your
show editors and site owners you are genuinely interested site, feel free to do so! I can write a custom
in working with them. Plus, leaving these emails “for later” intro for you—just let me know.”
can be quite risky—chances are they’ll soon get lost in a sea
of random newsletters and chain emails. :) • If they want a custom intro, make sure you
send them one that includes a link back to

2 Most of the times, the replies you receive will fall into one your site (e.g. “This infographic was created

of the following categories: by ClickMinded, a unique place on the

Internet focusing exclusively on emojis - and
» Positive reply. If one of your outreach email recipients everything they mean”)
replies saying they would like to host your infographics, they
• If they don’t want a custom intro, ask them to
will most likely provide a process of their own you’ll need to
please mention your website as a source for
follow to submit it. Our suggestion is this: when you reply
the infographic they are sharing.
to a positive email, attach your infographic and add this (or
something along the same lines) to your email as well:

53
The Definitive Link Building Guide
 » Negative reply. If one of your targeted site editors or site
owners reply with a negative answer, mark them as rejected
in the spreadsheet.

» Charging you. If your recipients want to charge you for

publishing the guest post, politely turn down their offer.

» No reply. If your outreach email recipients don’t reply, they

will receive a follow-up email via BuzzStream, according to
the sequence you created and the settings you chose for
your campaign.

3 Update the tracking sheet based on their replies

(the “Status” and “Notes” columns in your tracking
spreadsheet).

Using this technique, you will be able to use a single

design asset to acquire dozens of links!

54
The Definitive Link Building Guide
 Strategy #4

Guest-Blogging Link-Building

About this strategy

This link building strategy consists offering other websites to create
high-quality, relevant content for them—which will give you access to
place a link to your own site.

Environment setup
You’ll need a few tools to achieve each step: You can use whatever you
have in your SEO toolbox but,
1 Prospecting: Hunter Chrome Extension
for the purpose of this ebook,
or RocketReach Chrome Extension.
we’ll demonstrate how to
2 Finding link opportunities: SimilarWeb
implement this strategy
Chrome extension or ahrefs SEO Toolbar.
using Hunter, SimilarWeb,
3 (Optional but recommended) Running BuzzStream and Text Broker.
outreach campaigns: BuzzStream or Mailshake.

4 (Optional) Outsourcing content creation:

Text Broker or Upwork.

55
The Definitive Link Building Guide
Perform keyword research Find / create content that you
can repurpose multiple times
If you are not sure about how to perform
this step, you should check out our To increase your success rate when guest posting, you need to pro-
Keyword Strategy Masterclass. vide other websites with high-quality and original content, since most
webmasters/editors will require the content you provide to be unique.
1 Determine the topic / searcher
For this to work at scale, you have to create or select an exist-
intent that you want to build
ing high-quality blog post that will be repurposed or rewritten by
links around. Each of these link
third-party writers.
building campaigns will be limited
to a single searcher intent. These are some recommended specifications for this content:

» “Who creates emojis” and » The blog post must be highly relevant to the searcher

“unicode consortium” have a intent you identified in the previous step.

similar searcher intent. » The blog post should be at least 800-words long.

» “Who creates emojis” and » Include external links and references to authoritative
“emoji chrome extension” have sources—don’t just link to your own site.
different searcher intents.
» When possible, reference relevant data or statistics.

2 Create a list of all the keywords » Improve readability of the post by keeping paragraphs

associated with the searcher intent short (no longer that 3-4 lines per paragraph.)
you selected. » Include relevant images and graphics.

56
The Definitive Link Building Guide
Find guest posting opportunities (prospecting)

Note: If you can afford it, we recommend that you hire a freelancer or virtual
assistant to perform this step for you as it can be very time-consuming.

1 Open the Guest Blogging Campaign spreadsheet. 4 In the “Keywords” worksheet, add the list of
keywords associated with your campaign
2 Go to “File 
to column A
Make a copy” and
make a copy of the
spreadsheet.

3 Update the name of the file by changing “[Searcher Intent]”

with the searcher intent you selected for the campaign.

5 Verify that columns B, C, D, and

E were automatically populated/
updated (as shown above.)

6 Open Google.com

57
The Definitive Link Building Guide
7 For the first keyword, copy the cell under the “Query » The content of the blog post is relevant to your
#1” column, and paste it in the Google search field. query. For example, if my query is “who makes emojis”
a blog post about “the coolest emoji t-shirts” would
NOT be a relevant result.

» The website has published at least one new

blog post in the last 3 months.

» Check that the site receives at least 5,000 visits per

month. You can do that by using the Similar Web
8 Visit the first 50 search results (pages 1 through 4 Chrome extension and checking the “Estimated Visits”
of Google’s search results) and use the following
criteria to qualify an opportunity:

» You haven’t included this root domain in your

prospecting campaign yet.

» The page does not belong to one of

your competitors.

Important: If you hired someone else to do

prospecting for you, make sure to give them a
comprehensive list of competitor’s websites.
Important: If the page does not meet ALL of these
» The page is a blog post (and not a sales page for a criteria, skip it and move on to the next result.
product, a website’s homepage, a blog directory, a
contact page, a social media post… you get the point.)
58
The Definitive Link Building Guide
9 If the page meets all of the criteria above, look for the Important: Don’t spend more that 3-4 minutes
email of the site owner or editor (DON’T look for the attempting to find the email address of the site
contact information of the author of the post, because owner / editor. If you can’t find it quickly using
they will be guest authors.) Here are the 3 things you the three methods above, skip the site and
can do to find this information: move on to the next one.

» Look for a “Contact us”, “Contribute to our blog”,

or similar link in the top navigation, sidebar, or
footer of the site.

» If you find the name of the website owner /

editor, try looking for their Twitter profile and
check if they have an email listed on their profile.

» Use the Mail Hunter Chrome extension. If you are

using the free version of Email Hunter, only use
this as your last option since you get only 150
requests per month.

59
The Definitive Link Building Guide
10 If a page meets the selection » Page URL: self explanatory. » Website name: the name of the site
criteria (prospecting step where the blog post was published.
» Blog post title: be sure to write this
#8) and you’re able to find Use proper capitalization as well.
down using title capitalization (i.e.
contact information for the site
capitalize words with five or more » Editor / owner first name: this is
(previous step), then record
letters), you can use this simple on- an optional field, if the name is not
the data for the page in the
line tool to easily obtain the proper available, then leave the field empty.
“Prospecting / Outreach” »
capitalization. Use proper capitalization as well.
worksheet. You will need to
Blog post author: full name of the » Editor / owner email: the email
input the following information »
person who wrote the blog post, address of the contact you found in
in that sheet:
with proper capitalization. the previous step.

You don’t need to fill out the “Status”, “Notes”, or “Guest post URL” columns yet.

11 After you’re done with a query, move on to the next one on the same row. After you’re done with
all the queries in a row, mark the keyword as used in column F, and move on to the next row.

60
The Definitive Link Building Guide
Launch Your Outreach Campaign
1 Open Buzzstream and create a new project » Add the URL you are building links to.

» Choose to track links only to the specified URL.

Note: This is the preferred option for this type of

campaign (guest blogging) because you will be
the one placing the links in the post.

» Make sure that the option to receive a

backlink report is selected.
2 Set up your project:

» Name of your project: Use the following

nomenclature “Guest Blogging Campaign -
[Searcher Intent]”

» Select the team members for the project:

1. If someone else will be helping you perform

outreach, you can choose to share the project
with them (you can also add them later.) 3 Click on “Create Project”

2. If you are performing outreach yourself, you

can just leave the default option selected.

61
The Definitive Link Building Guide
4 Go back to the campaign control sheet, 6 Choose to upload
navigate to the “Prospecting/Outreach” a CSV and select
sheet, and click on “File Download as the “Match My
Comma-separated values (.csv, CSV” option.
current sheet)” to download a .csv file.

7 Once you have uploaded the .csv file, you will have to match your
columns with the content in each of them. This allows BuzzStream
to pick up the information and use it to customize your emails,
according to your instructions (as you will later on see).

5 Go back to Buzzstream and click on

“Add Websites.”

62
The Definitive Link Building Guide
» Except for the columns that are already matched 8 When your data is imported, you can move on
100%, you will most likely have to choose “-New to creating a sequence of emails that will be sent
Field-” for each of the other columns. according to the aforementioned data and your
specific instructions.
» Furthermore, you will most probably not need the
» Go to Outreach -> Manage Outreach -> Create
last three columns, so you can just ignore them.
New Sequence (if you don’t have one which is
already created and you want to use).

» To import your data into BuzzStream, click the

“Import” button in the bottom right side of
the screen.

63
The Definitive Link Building Guide
9 Name your sequence. Our suggestion is that you
name it: “Guest Blogging Campaign” + the
search intent you want to work on (e.g., in our
example, this became “Guest Blogging Campaign
- Who creates emojis”).

10 On the right side of the screen, you will see the dynamic fields BuzzStream » In the example below, you can see
provides. You can use these fields in your email templates to automatically how we added the the “[Editor/
add data you imported with your .csv file (e.g. the names of the editors). owner first name” dynamic field
into the email template.

64
The Definitive Link Building Guide
» Pay attention: the template we used is a general example. Our advice is for » Furthermore, in the given
you to create a template of your own with each email outreach campaign. example, you will see text
Doing this will add a unique voice to your emails, making them more marked with “<< >>”. That is
personal (and thus, more likely to receive a reply). However, if you need where you should enter the
inspiration, here’s the template we created for our example: necessary details, according
to your particular data (e.g. in
our example, the “<< SEARCH
INTENT >>” was replaced with
“Hey [Editor / owner first name],
“emoji marketing”.
I was researching content about <<SEARCHER INTENT>> and
I stumbled upon this post by [Blog post author] on your site: » Also, you should keep in mind
[Page URL] to use the [User First Name]
Soooo helpful! I really enjoyed it. dynamic field as a signature,
especially if there are multiple
I'm actually working on <<TOPIC OF THE BLOG POST>>and would
people using the same
be super interested contributing to your site—if that's at all possible.
BuzzStream account. Doing
Specifically, I'm thinking about writing a post <<SPECIFIC POST this will allow everyone on your
PITCH>>. Of course, this would be a brand new and original post team to use the same template
(only published on your site). and still have them customized
Let me know if this sounds interesting! with their name when they have
to run an outreach campaign.
[User First Name]”

65
The Definitive Link Building Guide
11 Once done with the first email, you should add two
follow-up emails as well. BuzzStream allows you to
Follow-up 1:
do this easily and even set up very precise param-
eters (e.g. sending the first follow-up email if the Hey [Editor / owner first name],

recipient doesn’t reply in 3 days). Just following up on my last email. I'd love to
contribute to your blog :)

I can send you a draft of the post in the next

few days if you're interested! Also happy to
accommodate to any editorial guidelines you
want to me follow.

Cheers!
12 The process stays the same as with the first
outreach email, but the text should change, so that [User First Name]

it’s adapted to the situation. Following, you will see Follow-up 2:

the texts we used for the first, respectively for the
Hey, [Editor / owner first name]!
second follow-up. Again, same as with the original
email, our suggestion is that you use texts created Thought I'd try to reach out one last time. I'm

by yourself, as this will make the entire campaign super excited about working on this post and, if

more credible. possible, would love to publish it on your site.

Thanks for your time!

[User First Name]

66
The Definitive Link Building Guide
 » Make sure the “Send follow-ups as replies” box
is ticked because this will make your emails look
more natural (and thus, it will make editors and site
owners trust you more).

13 When your email templates are all set up, it is time for
you to begin the actual outreach. You can do this two ways:

» Send Individually. This is the recommended option 4. Check to see if all the details
if you are using this outreach campaign for the first and the text are correct.
time (or if you are using BuzzStream for the first
5. Click on Start sequence now.
time, for that matter). To do it, follow these steps:

1. Select the sites you want to outreach to.

2. Click on Outreach -> Send Individually

3. Click on Start Outreach.

6. Repeat the same process with all the

websites on your list.

67
The Definitive Link Building Guide
» Bulk Send. This is an easier, less time-consuming method, but it
is generally recommended if you are already familiar with your
campaign and/or BuzzStream. To go on this path, follow these steps:

1. Click on Outreach -> Bulk Send. 3. Check to see if everything is correct.

4. Click on Next: Review.

5. Check again to see if everything is correct.

6. Click on Next: Confirm.

7. Check to see if the settings are correct

(in case you modified anything in the
previous steps). And yes, this is the last
2. Choose a sequence check - we can see the eye rolls from here!
or template. :)

8. Click Send Now.

68
The Definitive Link Building Guide
Replying to emails

Simply launching an outreach campaign will not do anything for your website’s SEO - not if you
don’t make sure to actually get your links on other, high-ranking websites.

So, once your outreach emails are sent, you should be ready to reply to whatever replies you get.
Here are the steps to follow if you want to make the most out of this stage of the link-building stage:

1 Reply to emails as soon as you receive them. You » Negative reply. If one of your targeted site
want to show editors and site owners you are editors or site owners reply with a negative answer,
genuinely interested in working with them. Plus, mark them as rejected in the spreadsheet.
leaving these emails “for later” can be quite risky—
» Charging you. If your recipients want to charge
chances are they’ll soon get lost in a sea of random
you for publishing the guest post, politely turn
newsletters and chain emails. :)
down their offer.

2 Most of the times, the replies you receive will » No reply. If your outreach email recipients don’t
fall into one of the following categories: reply, they will receive a follow-up email via Buzz-
Stream, according to the sequence you created
» Positive reply. If one of your outreach email
and the settings you chose for your campaign.
recipients replies saying they would like to
host your guest post, they will most likely
3 Update the tracking sheet based on their replies
provide a process of their own you’ll need
(the “Status” and “Notes” columns in your tracking
to follow to submit your article (see more on
spreadsheet).
how to create content below in this SOP).

69
The Definitive Link Building Guide
(Optional) outsourcing the guest posts

We highly recommend writing the content yourself for better results and to build trust with
the websites you’ll be publishing on. However, you can also outsource this step if necessary.

1 Go to Text Broker and log in (create an

account if you haven’t yet.)

2 Create an open order for a blog (click on

“Place Order” under the “Open Order”
column, then click on “Blog” from the
options that appear on screen.

3 Create a folder for the project and name it.

Our suggestion is to name it “Guest Blogging
Campaign - [Searcher intent]” and follow the
same structure for the future as well.

70
The Definitive Link Building Guide
4 Select the category your blog post belongs to. 7 Under the order briefing, copy and paste our
reusable guidelines (you can just copy and
paste these in the order briefing, but make
sure to customize the fields in yellow with
your particular needs.)

<b>Overview:</b>

We need an existing blog post rewritten and

adapted to a specific industry.

Need this article rewritten to target

5 Enter the order title. Our suggestion is to use a standardized
<<THE GUEST SITE’S TARGET AUDIENCE>>:
nomenclature that will allow you to organize all of your future
<<LINK TO THE BLOG POST YOU WANT TO
guest blog orders. For example, you could use “Guest Blog -
REPURPOSE>>
[Name of site]”.
The content must be adapted and rewritten
6 Enter the target keyword you want to use in this article.
entirely to target <<THE GUEST SITE’S TARGET
AUDIENCE>>

<b>Purpose of the Content: </b>

<<OBJECTIVE OF THE POST>>.

71
The Definitive Link Building Guide
<b>Target Audience:</b> <b>Formatting Requirements:</b>

The target audience is <<THE GUEST SITE’S The structure should be the same as in the text
TARGET AUDIENCE>> and the objective of the provided (i.e. divided into 7 steps)
post is to <<WHAT IS THE POST ABOUT>>
Use short sentences: Many online readers
The audience whose background is varied and skim articles. No more than 3 sentences per
may not be up to date on the latest acronyms, paragraph.
buzzwords and trends, but is engaged, curious
Add lots of subheadings: Break your sections
and eager to learn.
using bolded Subheads.
The reader is likely a <<DEMOGRAPHICS OF
Please bold, or italicize key points you are trying
GUEST SITE'S TARGET AUDIENCE>>
to make. Feel free to mix the use as needed.

Add links to at least 3 authoritative sources /

<b>Voice:</b>
websites.
1st person singular.
End the article with engaging questions or an
action request to encourage discussion.
<b>Style/Tone:</b>
By accepting this order, you agree that I may
Friendly tone, similar to the one on the text name myself and/or others as the author of the
provided. text you write, including any modifications to or
derivative works from such text.

72
The Definitive Link Building Guide
8 Submit the order.

9 When you receive the order, check it for

coherence, style, and readability.
Learn more about conversion
10 If you need changes, submit edit
requests to the writer. optimization in HubSpot Academy.
11 When the article is final, download it
LEARN MORE
and add a link to your website.

12 Submit the article to the website you

negotiated your guest post with.

13 If the site owner or editor asks for

edits, perform them and submit the
article again.

14 Once the guest post is fully published,

remember to update the “Guest 10x your traffic from Google
post URL” column in the tracking with this free SEO mini-course.
spreadsheet.

Now, just keep going! START FOR FREE

73
The Definitive Link Building Guide