This document discusses how to effectively scale and manage a brand's link building strategy. It recommends benchmarking SEO goals against the link building strategy by identifying objectives, performing a link gap analysis against competitors, and analyzing topics. It also suggests running successful campaigns by focusing on creative content, asking questions to improve processes, and measuring success through metrics like traffic, conversions, and rankings. Benchmarking different types of links helps evaluate their contribution to SEO value. The key takeaways are to strategize link building according to objectives, thoroughly analyze the competitive landscape, and showcase success through benchmarking and reporting.

1. BUILDING A CONSISTENT
LINK STRATEGY
How to effectively scale and manage your brand’s link building
activity
SARAH FLEMING | HEAD OF CREATIVE | KAIZEN | @SARAHHFLEMINGPR

2. A quick introduction...
● Head of Creative
● Been working in the PR/Marketing industry since I
was 17
● Have worked with brands like adidas, Lovehoney,
Moonpig, eBay and more
● Singapore-born / London-based / Filipino & British

3. Link building is still a very effective way
to influence organic search rankings
Page-level link features:
● PageRank
● TrustRank
● Quality of links
● Quality of link sources
● Anchor text distribution
RANKING
FACTORS
Backlinks
Content
Relevance
Technical
Factors
User
Signals
Local

4. But knowing how to scale and measure your
activity can be complex

5. Today, learn how to...
Benchmark your
brand’s SEO goals &
build trust across
target topic entities
Run successful
link building
campaigns
Measure the value
of your link
building activity

6. Benchmarking SEO goals &
building trust across target
topic entities

7. SEO value is clearly our biggest concern
when measuring link impact
What is the primary KPI you use to measure the
effectiveness of link building?
Data from Aira

8. How to benchmark your SEO objectives
against your link building strategy
Market
Research
Identify SEO
Goals
SERP &
Competitor
Analysis
Market Content
Analysis
Creative Brief

9. Identify specific
brand/SEO objectives
For example:
● Increase page 1 keyword rankings for key terms
above key competitors
● Create content that targets building a new
community of customers
● Improve overall brand visibility in more key
markets ie. UK/DE/FR
● Increase the velocity of links and coverage in
publications that competitors have links on

10. 2. Perform a link gap
analysis to understand
extent
Three Mobile, EE and O2 have
45,000+
sites linking to them that
GiffGaff does not have.
127
are from sites with DR +75
Some untapped top-tier
industry, relevant and
national publications include
the following:
Data from Ahrefs’ link intersect tool

11. 3. Analyse your industry competition to
benchmark success
Reports, whitepapers & guides
Comment & data-lead blog posts Trends & Predictions
Reports, whitepapers & guides
Comment & data-led blog posts
Listicles
Trends & Predictions

12. 4. Perform a KW/topic entity content analysis
Remote Working Contractor Management Employer of Record
Contactless Card Processing Card Reader
UK
FR
BE

13. 1 2 3
Grow authority for the brand
through consistently gaining
high quality and relevant
backlinks internationally
Utilise creative formats to
generate newsworthy content
and stand out from
competition
Widen reach through
keyword informed & targeted
campaign activity
5. Solidify your goals

14. How to run successful link
building campaigns in your
industry

15. You don’t need a huge budget to drive
links

16. The Creative Process
Solidifying brand
objectives &
audience insight
Strategy
Approach
Ideation
Research &
Content
Execution
Creative Design Outreach Reporting
Final Product
You need a clear process

17. The Creative Process
Solidifying brand
objectives &
audience insight
Strategy
Approach
Ideation
Research &
Content
Execution
Creative Design Outreach Reporting
Final Product
Focusing on creative = less time in outreach

18. Focusing on creative = less time in outreach
Links - 84
Coverage - 186
Average Domain Rating - 62

19. Here are 7 questions to internally
ask when reviewing the state of
brand and strategy insight across
digital PR teams

20. 1. Are my internal teams consciously
targeting our audience personas with
campaign ideas?

21. 2. Are we running enough brand
immersion exercises for new team
members (internal/agency side)?

22. 3. Do we have a brand guideline
document that clearly showcases
editorial do’s/don’ts?

23. 4. Are we revisiting running competitor
analyses to stay on top of trends &
reporting?

24. 5. Are there enough campaign formats to
leverage an ‘always on’ approach to
building links? ie. reactive, proactive,
static, blog

25. 6. Are ideation participants clued up on
link building brand objectives?

26. 7. Are we relying too much on the same
way of ideating ideas?
Does my team come up with better ideas
in an office/outside setting?

27. Constantly improving and being curious
about improving processes is key to a
successful link building strategy!

28. How to measure the
success of your link building
strategy

29. Benchmark against success metrics
Primary KPIs
Traffic Conversions
Rankings
Secondary KPIs
Conversion rate Dwell time
Site speed Pages per visit
Create a bespoke Data Studios dashboard to visualise reporting and
create standardised reporting across the following channels &
metrics:
Page
accessibility
Bounce Rate
Content
Engagement
Email Sign up
Your reports will help drive key business decisions and provide
insight into the performance of your SEO campaign

30. Benchmark against success metrics
Client keyword dashboards help proactively identify underperforming & opportunity
keywords to build campaigns around and track performance

31. Uplifts in keyword rankings against links
2.8M WFH & Our Bodies Campaign -
Estimated Views*
2.0M Body Inclusivity Campaign -
Estimated Views*
670K
Sustainable Fashion And
Fitness Campaign - Estimated
Views*
2.7M Global State Of Fitness Campaign
- Estimated Views*
Reebok’s primary goal was to grow its SEO presence in the
European market. They were having problems ranking for highly
competitive generic terms relating to their products, primarily
their sustainable, home workout and sports product ranges.
Results:
● Overall we achieved 286 pieces of coverage and 205
links, smashing our initial KPI of 160 by 28%.
● The campaigns also generated nearly 8.2M views based
on audience reach and engagement to Reebok’s sites
across Europe.
● Reebok’s brand sentiment increased for terms relating to
inclusion, women, and sustainability by 256%.
● Tangible impact: We also positively impacted SEO
performance by internally linking through to target PLP’s
on our campaign pages; the links built contributed to
Reebok ranking for 98 new keywords across the UK, DE,
FR, BL, ES and IT markets.
*Based on a prediction of lifetime views of coverage,
based on audience reach & engagement rate on social
tools

32. Valuation of the types of link that
contribute to SEO value
Kaizen ran an experiment by setting up two almost identical sites, with one site
only receiving follow links and the other only nofollow. The nofollow site
outperformed the follow site.
Nofollow site
Follow site
*Search visibility score from AWR cloud

33. Key takeaways from today

34. Identifying and strategising for your link
building activity against objectives is key

35. Understanding the scale of activity requires an
in-depth and technical analysis against
competitors and brand goals

36. Showcasing success to key stakeholders for
continued link activity requires benchmarking
and thorough reporting

37. Thank you for listening!
Lets connect:
Tweet me @sarahhflemingpr
Add me on linkedin.com/in/sarah-fleming/