The best link building successes are often won by smart thinking in the discovery phase. This is a peek at my thought process when creating a link campaign for my clients. The spreadsheet I use in research is also linked to for your use. If you find this deck useful please pass it on! Links from the presentation: Events: http://moz.com/blog/the-complete-guide-to-link-building-with-local-events by: Kane Jamison HARO: https://lonelybrand.com/blog/10-tips-for-getting-press-as-a-haro-source/ by: Katherine Leonard Link Assets: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/creating-promoting-linkable-assets-ultimate-guideTactics by: Pratik Dholakiya Web Mentions for Your Brand: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2299968/Link-Building-101-Finding-Web-Mentions by Jon Ball General Quality Link Building Tactics: http://backlinko.com/high-quality-backlinks by: Brian Dean http://moz.com/blog/the-broken-link-building-bible by: Russ Virante

1. Finding Link Targets
The thinking part.

2. What is this document for?
I often find myself and others in the SEO industry looking for a solid process to locate high-quality,
relevant link partners that actually bring in potential clients to a website.
There are lots of good articles about link-building out there, but this is a look over my shoulder into
how I do the research to find specific, relevant link partners for a client. I am focused on opportunities
that will actually provide quality, customer attracting results.
There is link to the actual spreadsheet I use in the research/discovery phase and some of my favorite
recent articles about link building at the end of this short deck.
Enjoy!
-Jake

3. The thought process to guide our link discovery

4. Example for this exercise:
Client: Fertility Clinic
Problem they solve: Help couples have babies
Solutions: Various Fertility Treatments
Specialties: IVF, Egg Donor, Surrogacy, IUI, ICSI
Target Demo: Women 38-45, Higher Income

5. What problems do they solve?
Answers:
Endometriosis, Fibroids, male infertility, egg retrieval, infertility, low sperm
count, low egg count, PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome), fertility diseases
This is a great place to come up with seed keywords for keyword research,
popular blog ideas and good advanced search parameter query subjects.
See this article on Scalabe Link Tactics - http://ow.ly/qBx3g

6. What are their solutions?
Answers:
IUI, IVF, ICSI, PGD, PCOS, Egg Retrieval, Donor Insemination, Donor Eggs,
Surrogacy
This is also good starter searches for keywords, blog content and advanced
search queries.
My favorite link building tool is Citation Labs Link Prospector in case you are
looking for a good one. Worth every penny!
http://linkprospector.citationlabs.com/

7. What can they offer online?
Answers:
Info about infertility (Blog), Resource guide on endometriosis (PDF), Video
interview about IVF from doctor (Video), Monthly Seminar at clinic (Event).
This is where if you have done your homework the wins start to come. If you
know what problem(s) you solve, and the strong way your company addresses
them, then transition that online. Here is a nice article recently about entities
and how they are at the center of search: http://fe.gd/NB3
That is 4 types of entities that can be shared as a value add and gain natural
links from relevant websites and brands on social.

8. Who could use the digital assets?
Answers:
Fertility Support groups online
Medical writers for media outlets
Podcast or Video shows with fertility subjects
Medical University classes and departments
Health Bloggers
Local publications for special features (women’s health month)
This is another area we it takes some thought and creativity to figure out where
to share our resources. The easy ones like sharing a blog post on a Facebook
group can often be played out and less useful.

9. Now What?
By going through this exercise for your client you probably came up with some
killer ideas of new groups, platforms and angles to take when reaching out to
reach your target audience. So here is what to do:
●
●
●
Write those ideas down
Save it somewhere you can execute it soon
Share them with us !!
via: wikimedia.com
Here is the excel spreadsheet I promised to record all the new data in this
process that is in my Google Drive. Feel free to use it: http://fe.gd/NDw

10. Jake Jordan - Marketing/SEO Strategist
I love to participate in the SEO/Online Marketing Community. The best stuff I
find and create are 97% due to conversations with new connections!
Please connect with me on G+:
https://plus.google.com/u/1/+JakeJordan/posts
LinkedIn:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jakejordan

11. Resources:
These are my favorite recent articles about practical and effective tactics to discover and create
relationships and organic “link earns” in a real value building manner. I currently use several tactics
from everyone one of these articles.
Events: http://moz.com/blog/the-complete-guide-to-link-building-with-local-events by: Kane Jamison
HARO: https://lonelybrand.com/blog/10-tips-for-getting-press-as-a-haro-source/ by: Katherine Leonard
Link Assets: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/creating-promoting-linkable-assets-ultimate-guideTactics by: Pratik Dholakiya
Web Mentions for Your Brand:
http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2299968/Link-Building-101-Finding-Web-Mentions by Jon Ball
General Quality Link Building Tactics:
http://backlinko.com/high-quality-backlinks by: Brian Dean
http://moz.com/blog/the-broken-link-building-bible by: Russ Virante