Thread by @Nick_zv_

Link-building is easy.

Let’s cut the BS.

We’ve built 2,000+ links and counting this year for clients.

Here are 5 PROVEN link-building strategies that work every time. 🧵

Need help building links on autopilot?

We can take care of the whole process for you from scratch!

If you’re a 6-7 figure business looking to DOMINATE your search…

DM me “links” and claim your free SEO consultation now!

This thread will be super actionable. I’d recommend bookmarking it now so you come back to it.

Here are the 5 proven strategies I’ll be covering below:

1. Competitive backlink audits
2. Guest posting w/ real value
3. Partnerships
4. Terkel (Featured)
5. Reverse link-building

1. Competitive backlink audits

Not sure where to start with link-buidling? This one’s for you!

With this tactic, you’ll be auditing your competitor’s backlinks and slowly start stealing them like a ninja!

Involves 2 steps:

1. Audit
2. Outreach

Let’s take a look.👇

First, you take your competitor and look at their backlink profile with your favorite SEO tool.

The first thing you might see is that they have A TON of backlinks.

Seems scary. But in reality, they have WAY less than this.

So, let’s cut out the irrelevant ones first.

Apply:

- Active
- Follow
- English

Right off the bet, this cuts down the total number from 6,300+ to 2,300+.

Now, you need to extract this as a spreadsheet file and cut out irrelevant pages such as:

- Backlink farms
- 404 pages
- Irrelevant niche links

Then, you use an email tool like Snov or Hunter to find the point of contact in the companies linking to the competitor.

This is going to be time-consuming, yes.

So, if it sounds like too much work, consider hiring an agency that knows what they're doing (or hey, just DM me)!

Your outreach sheet should include:

- Keyword searched
- Article title
- Article URL
- Author name
- Author contact (email)

Fill it up with more prospects as you go.

Then, you prepare for outreach.

Here, I WISH I could give you a proven template that works every time and let you go.

But unfortunately, things are not that easy.

The truth is most templates don’t work.

Or the minute an SEO influencer puts them out, they stop being effective.

My approach. 👇

When doing backlink outreach, I aim to come across as actually PERSONAL and AUTHENTIC.

It’s almost 2024.

Everyone with a blog knows how important backlinks are.

And NO ONE is going to give it to you just because you asked nicely.

Instead…

Here’s an email that worked for me in the past because it’s:

- Super niche-specific
- Personal and human
- Not greedy
- Reciprocal

Here’s another example.

- Funny intro to disarm the recipient
- Very conversational, yet direct
- Focuses on what they get first
- Focuses on building a relationship

Not sure what this might look like for your niche?

No problem!

Use ChatGPT with this prompt to get started.

Remember, you have to stand out AND consider what’s in it for them.

2. Guest posting with value

Key word here being value.

Because, when it comes to guest posts, most SEOs submit a 500-word post just to claim the link that comes with it.

If you want to stand out and improve your guest post pitches, do this instead. 👇

Whenever I do guest post outreach, I tailor the pitch for the specific website.

I want to provide as much value as possible and I do this by:

- Using my experience
- Creating long-form content
- Optimizing for SEO

You can also:

- Decide on a guest post site
- Find 3 keywords their competitors are ranking for but they’re not
- Pitch an SEO-optimized guest post based on 3 potential topics

The keyword gap feature can help with this.

Always keep in mind:

What’s in it for the recipient?

You can offer:

- Your unique, experience-based writing
- An SEO-optimized guest post
- An outside backlink to them
- Sharing their article to your audience
- And so on

3. Partnerships with other link-builders

This is probably one of the best ways to build links at scale.

Essentially, you:

- Partner up with 5-8 other link-builders
- Include them in a guest post you’re writing
- Ask for them to link back to you in return

This way, from ONE guest post, you can get up to 7+ links in return.

Not bad, right?

Just make sure the links you’re including are niche-relevant and provide value.

If you link to the competitors of the blog you’re guest posting on - they probably won’t appreciate that very much.

So, make sure you do your due diligence here.

Where do you find link-builders to partner up with?

Good question… 👇

The answer: Facebook groups!

If you DO partner up with other link-builders, you have to make sure they’re legit.

I run a group for this, which has a rule that only quality sites are allowed.

Check out “Link-Building Boost Group” on Facebook!

4. Terkel (now Featured)

This is a tool like HARO where publishers send in questions and as a subject expert, you answer them so you can get featured in their content.

Here’s how I got 45 backlinks with Featured in ~1 month.

When publishers are looking for expert contributions, they want content that’s DIRECT and ACTIONABLE.

No fluff, no long essays, no BS.

Typically, I keep my answers around 80-130 words.

When looking at the questions, you can filter via source, domain rating, attribution, and deadline.

Typically, if a question's been available for a while, they probably already got a TON of replies.

So, try to filter for new questions to be more likely to stand out.

Once I secure a backlink from a site, I try not to submit there again.

With the "Make your debut" filter, you can sort places you've never been published on.

This can be a great way to build more links across different sites and DA.

Now, here’s how I approach my contributions.

First, you need to consider:

- What they’re writing about
- What the context of your answer is
- Who the audience is
- And what they know or don’t know

Then, after reading the question, look up the site and consider:

- What their articles look like
- What kind of content they’re publishing
- What other kind of sources they’re featuring on their website
- And then, model your answer accordingly

In this case, I saw the source site had a lot of similar listicles and contributions around 100 words that feature real numbers or actionable steps.

This makes it easier to model my answer, knowing what the live version looks like.

To recap, Featured gives you the names of the publisher sites for a reason.

- Go there manually
- Study their blog
- Analyze what successful features look like

Then, use unique expertise and insights, and start writing better link-winning answers over time.

5. Reverse link-building

Finally, this is a link-building tactic that doesn’t include ANY outreach.

Instead, you build links organically over time.

Here’s how. 👇

Consider that there are writers looking for statistics, trends, and data reports out there every day.

So, what do they do?

They look up trending topics or statistics in their niche to link to.

Then, you do this…

Create “journalist-bait” content so that writers include them in your articles and link to your organically.
For example:

- CRM Trends 2023
- Marketing statistics
- SEO trends for 2024

And so on.

You can also go a step further and create “linkable assets” such as infographics, interactive pages, first-hand studies, and so on.

Journalists love this stuff and often borrow them while linking to you.

For one of our clients (resume maker SaaS), we created a resume infographic of Elon Musk (you can look it up) with a talented designer and promoted it online.

Over time, this landed them over 600+ backlinks!

Here’s how you can replicate this. 👇

The “how” of infographics is straightforward.

- Use Ahrefs content explorer to find infographics that got links in the past
- Come up with unique infographic ideas
- Work with a designer
- Promote to bloggers and journalists

Just try to approach this tactic with the context of what’s trending today.

Because, that’s what’s going to catch on like wildfire.

Also see what’s viral right now and what journalists are looking up.

Now, that’s a wrap.

To recap, the link-building strategies are:

1. Competitive backlink audits
2. Guest posting with real value
3. Partnerships w/ link-builders
4. Terkel (Featured)
5. Reverse link-building

Alternatively, need someone to take care of the entire process for you?

If you’re a 6-7 figure business looking to DOMINATE your search…

DM me “links” and claim your free SEO consultation today!

Learned something new about link building?

If so, be sure to:

1. Follow me @Nick_zv_ for more proven SEO content

2. RT the tweet below to share this thread with your audience

3. Comment or DM if you have any link-building questions!

https://twitter.com/Nick_zv_/status/1726617615127167089