Link Building at Scale: Big Links with a Tiny Team

Sam Oh
Director of Product Education @ahrefs
Link Building at Scale
Big Links With a Tiny Team
@samsgoh
ahrefs

@samsgoh
9
Goliaths by Industry
Health
Marketing
Wordpress
Personal finance
Recipes
Healthline
Hubspot
WP Beginner
Nerdwallet
AllReceipes

I haven’t quite “made it”
Majority = Davids
My networks are small
My team is small
My budget is limited
[Insert excuse here]

3,000+ RD in 1 Month (Finance – 2 person)
PR campaign through meaningful relationships

Ahrefs Blog Link Profile (8 person)
5 x ~1 guest post per week + natural link growth

Health Hub (Labor = ~$12/link)
Sam: 1 hr/week
QA: 5 hours per week

Health Site (Labor = ~$12/link)
Sam: 1 hr/week
QA: 5 hours per week

Sam Oh
Link Building at Scale
Big Links With a Tiny Team
@samsgoh

@samsgoh
17
Why Links Matter
ahrefs.com/blog/search-traffic-study/

@samsgoh
18
Why Links Matter
ahrefs.com/blog/search-traffic-study/

@samsgoh
19
Prospecting Find Emails Outreach Tracking
Basic Link Building Process

scaling follows the exact same process

Your best links will come from helping people.

@samsgoh
25
This Presentation is NOT about
• PBNs
• Link exchanges
• Anything blatantly against Google’s ToS (Paid links)

@samsgoh
26
This Presentation is about
• Process and workflows
• Link building strategies (prospecting)
• Team (members & training)
• Efficiency

@samsgoh
27

@samsgoh
28
The Framework (Trello)

@samsgoh
29

@samsgoh
30
Invest in Documentation
• Turnover won’t kill your link building campaigns
• Easily make modifications to your SOPs

@samsgoh
31
• Board = client / website

@samsgoh
32
• Lists = Stage of the link building process + documentation

@samsgoh
33
• Lists = Stage of the link building process + documentation
• Cards = link building campaign

@samsgoh
34
Each card moves down the list (step) until it reaches the end

Link Prospector
Find relevant pages, people and websites that will likely link to you.

36
@samsgoh
Link Prospector
Team Member #1
Project lead
Experienced
Analytical
Strategic
Knowledgeable
Tools
Google Sheets
Ahrefs
Scrapebox
Google Search
Screaming Frog
Traits

Responsibility
Find and qualify link opportunities

Guest posting
Link Building Strategies
Broken link building
Unlinked mentions
Observation

They get content > you get a link back to your site.

@samsgoh
42
Method #1: Google
1. Google > Settings > Search Settings
> Set top 100 results in Google

@samsgoh
43
Method #1: Google
2. Install Scraper Chrome extension
3. Add this XPath code
//div[@class="srg"]/div/div/div/div/a/@href
4. Copy to clipboard and add to Excel/Sheets

@samsgoh
44
Method #1: Google
2. Install Scraper Chrome extension
3. Add this XPath code
//div[@class="srg"]/div/div/div/div/a/@href
4. Copy to clipboard and add to Excel/Sheets
Problem:
No SEO metrics

@samsgoh
45
Method #1: Google + SEO Toolbar

@samsgoh
46
Method #1: Google + Ahrefs SEO Toolbar

@samsgoh
47
Method #1: Google + Ahrefs SEO Toolbar

@samsgoh
48
Method #2: Scrapebox
1. Get and test proxies

@samsgoh
49
2. Add footprints to Harvester
• “guest post by” [topic]
• inurl:write-for-us [topic]
• inurl:contribute [topic]

@samsgoh
50
3. Run, deduplicate, export

@samsgoh
51
3. Run, deduplicate, export
4. Run list through Ahrefs’ Batch Analysis or
Screaming Frog (with Ahrefs API) to get SEO
metrics

@samsgoh
52
Method #3: Content Explorer

@samsgoh
53

@samsgoh
54

@samsgoh
55

@samsgoh
57
Guest Posting
Pros
• High hit rate (pitch to link)
• Control which pages you want to link to
Cons
• Time consuming – outsource content
• $$$ at scale

@samsgoh
59
Animation of broken link building

Help fix a UX issue > you get a link

@samsgoh
61
Site Explorer > Best By Links
1. Search for a competitor’s domain
2. Best by links

@samsgoh
62
2. Best by links
3. HTTP status code to 404

@samsgoh
63
2. Best by links
4. Analyze backlink profiles of 404s

@samsgoh
64
2. Best by links
5. Find more competitors in search
- Competing domains report

@samsgoh
65
2. Best by links
5. Find domains with similar keyword rankings.
- competing domains report
6. Rinse and repeat steps 1-5

Find more pages by checking your external links

@samsgoh
67
Look at Outgoing Broken Links

@samsgoh
68
Access Latest Archive.org Page

@samsgoh
69
Access Latest Archive.org Page

@samsgoh
70
Scalable Process
2. Best by links
5. Find domains with similar keyword rankings
6. Rinse and repeat steps 1-4
7. Look at your broken outbound links.
8. Look at your competitors’ outbound links

They like you > you get a link

@samsgoh
74
Step #1: Content Explorer
1. Search for your brand name and variations
“ahrefs” OR “a hrefs” OR “a herfs” OR
“ahref” –site:ahrefs.com

@samsgoh
75
2. Set some filters (date, language, DR)

@samsgoh
76
2. Set some filters (date, language, DR)
3. Export results

@samsgoh
77
Exporting For Larger Brands

@samsgoh
78
Exporting For Larger Brands

@samsgoh
80
Step #2: Crawl for Unlinked Mentions
1. Open Screaming Frog
2. Configuration > Custom > Search

@samsgoh
81
2. Configuration > Custom > Search <a
[^>]*bhrefs*=s*"([^"]*domain.com[^"]*)

@samsgoh
82
3. Run your crawl

@samsgoh
83
3. Run your crawl
4. Custom tab > Export

Observation will take you farther than any link
building “tactic,” ”technique,” or “hack.”

@samsgoh
87
Linkable content type (industry)
1. Search for a competitor’s domain or
subfolder.

@samsgoh
88
Linkable content type (industry)
1. Search for a competitor’s domain or
subfolder.
2. Best by links report + analyze content
types that generate links.

@samsgoh
89
What type of content attract links for us?

@samsgoh
90
Data studies & Big Guides

Create “link-bait” based on your competitors’ most
successful content

“A highly effective link building tactic”
(not real)
Scenario: The Bulldozer Technique

What / who does this remind you of?

Brian Dean’s Skyscraper Technique

@samsgoh
95
Analyze competitor’s page anchors
1. Search for a competitor’s page in Site
Explorer.

@samsgoh
96
1. Search for a competitor’s page in Site
Explorer.
2. Skim through the anchors report.

@samsgoh
97
1. Search for a competitor’s page in Site Explorer.
2. Skim through the anchors report.
3. Look for lots of links from specific anchors.
• Branded anchors (skyscraper technique)
• 110%

@samsgoh
98
Dig Deeper
Site Explorer > Backlinks
> Search for a footprint

One segment of people who are interested in
results/case studies.

Double Down on What’s Working

@samsgoh
102
Disqualify Pages
1. Forums
2. Web 2.0s
3. Direct competitors
4. Links you don’t want (PBNs, link/content farms)
5. Anything else that would disqualify them (ie.
Remove already linking pages from an unlinked mentions campaign)

@samsgoh
103
Unlinked mentions example
Filter for pages already linking to your domain (4494 pages)

@samsgoh
104
Delete these rows (2555 pages remaining)

@samsgoh
105
Filter for unwanted footprints (1497 pages remaining)
• /jobs/
• /job/
• /forum/
• /forums/
• /viewthread/
• /comments
• [domain names]
• .ru, .pw, or other TLDs
• Anything else you observe

@samsgoh
106
Sort by domain name > choose one page per domain (724 pages remaining)

@samsgoh
107
Delete pages you don’t want a link from (use openallurls.com)

@samsgoh
108
Final Results:
• Start: 4494 pages
• Unlinked mentions: 2555
• Qualified pages: 590 (one link/domain, quality metrics)
Time Taken:
• 1 hour of my time (mostly on documentation)
• ~22 hrs from someone who’s never worked on a link building campaign in his life

Email Finder(s)
Finding contact details for each qualified page.

110
@samsgoh
Email Finder
Team Member #2
Efficient with time
Sustained attention
More sustained attention
Sustained attention
Decision maker
Tools
Google Sheets
Hunter
Neverbounce
Clearbit
LinkedIn
Traits

Finding the “right” people can be the difference
between 3% and double digit conversion rates.

@samsgoh
112
Who do I contact?
1. Editors
2. Author
3. Owners of single author sites
4. Content marketing managers
5. Marketing managers
6. Webmasters
7. Generic email if no marketing team

@samsgoh
113
But it depends on the size of the company
1. Small / mid-size companies – any editor is
generally fine.
• + content marketing managers
• + [title] marketing
2. Large companies (ie. Popsugar)
• editor of [category]
• assistant editor
• associate editor
• Editor in chief is usually too busy
Assistants/associates get less outreach emails.
BUT, they may not have the authority to add
your link.

@samsgoh
114
Step 1: Determine the size of the site
• Look at the about / team page.
• Search for the company on LinkedIn

@samsgoh
115
Step 2: Find the contact name and email
• Filter for positions on LinkedIn
• Editor
• Content
• Marketing
• webmaster

@samsgoh
116
Step 3: Find Email
• Use Hunter or Clearbit to find the
person’s email

@samsgoh
117
Step 4: Verify the email
• Use NeverBounce to verify whether
the email is valid.
• Valid = good
• Invalid = bad
• Unknown = mostly bad
• Catchall = manually review

! Use Sheets + APIs (or Zapier) !

@samsgoh
120
The 10 Minute Campaign Starter
• Export 4,000 URLs from Content Explorer for a guest posting campaign
• ~25% have authors = 1,000 potential contacts
• 20-30% are “the right” person = 200-300 link prospects in ~ 5-10 minutes
• Vet whether it’s worth your time/money

@samsgoh
121
Content Explorer Exports Authors

@samsgoh
122
Parse Author First & Last
• Parse First: =IFERROR(LEFT(D3,FIND(" ",D3)-1))
• Parse Last: =IFERROR(TRIM(RIGHT(SUBSTITUTE(D3," ",REPT(" ",100)),100)))

@samsgoh
123
Find Emails and Verify with API
• Scripts using Hunter and NeverBounce’s API
• Or create “zaps” in Zapier (non-programmers)

@samsgoh
124
Start Your Campaign in < 1 hr
• Email all valid contacts (filter in sheets)
• Send it to outreach manager
• Validate catch-all emails
• Continue finding the rest

@samsgoh
125
Tip: Add LinkedIn Hyperlinks
• Create a hyperlink to search for the company’s LinkedIn page
• =HYPERLINK("https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Alinkedin.com+inurl%3A/compan
y/%20"&[DomainCell],"LinkedIn")

@samsgoh
126
Add LinkedIn Hyperlinks
• Create a hyperlink to search for the company’s LinkedIn page
• =HYPERLINK("https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Alinkedin.com+inurl%3A/compan
y/%20"&[DomainCell],"LinkedIn")

Outreach manager
Reach out and build relationships with link prospects

128
@samsgoh
Outreach Manager
Team Member #3
Communication skills
Organized
Relationship builder
Adaptable
Tools
Google Sheets
Buzzstream
M
ailshake
Pitchbox
Google Apps (Gmail)
Traits

@samsgoh
129
Contact Link Prospects

! Individually emailing takes way too long !

“personalized” vs. static emails

@samsgoh
133
“Personalized”
Hey Chris,
I’m Sam, a fellow diehard content marketing advocate and angel investor. I’m contacting you because [reason
for contacting].
Hope the weather in Orange County/SF is treating you well. At 68.9°, I’m sure you’re staying warm (unless
you’re in Utah at 12° Brrrrrrr ).
Cheers,
Sam
PS. My wife also uses my Pinterest account. Funny how much we have in common!

@samsgoh
134
These can all be found through APIs
Hey Chris,
I’m Sam, a fellow diehard content marketing advocate and angel investor. I’m contacting you because [reason
for contacting].
Hope the weather in Orange County/SF is treating you well. At 68.9°, I’m sure you’re staying warm (unless
you’re in Utah at 12° Brrrrrrr ).
Cheers,
Sam
PS. My wife also uses my Pinterest account. Funny how much we have in common!

It’s “semi-automatable,” but it’s creepy…

@samsgoh
136
Static Email
Hey there,
I was reading through your blog post and found that you link to Ahrefs’ guide on keyword research. It was
great, but I created an article that takes a unique approach.
[link]
Might be a good addition to your site.
Cheers,
Sam

but that’s impersonal and lazy

@samsgoh
138
Context: “The Bulldozer Technique”

@samsgoh
139
Context: “The Bulldozer Technique”

@samsgoh
141
Personalized on context
Hi Josh,
Sam here from Ahrefs. I’m contacting you because of a new SEO strategy that I used to increase organic traffic by 833% to
our blog.
I’m sure you’ve heard of (and appreciated) Brian’s Skyscraper technique. Not sure if you’ve tried it recently, but I’ve
personally found link conversion rates are getting worse (~3-5% on a good day). Perhaps because of spammers?
So I built on it and created the “Bulldozer technique:” [link]
We used it at Ahrefs for the past 14 months and convert links at 15-20% on any given campaign. I’m quite certain that’s the
reason why our organic traffic has had the “hockey stick” effect.
Pretty confident you’ll love the strategy :) If interested, I’m happy to send you a few pages on 97th Floor’s blog where I can
see this producing killer results.
Cheers,
Sam

@samsgoh
142
Use Merge Tags
Hi {{first}},
Sam here from Ahrefs. I’m contacting you because of a new {{topic}} strategy that I used to increase organic traffic by
833% to our blog.
I’m sure you’ve heard of (and appreciated) {{comp_name}} {{comp_tactic_name}}. Not sure if you’ve tried it recently,
but I’ve personally found {{comp_disadvantage}}.
So I built on it and created the “Bulldozer technique:” [link]
We used it at Ahrefs for the past 14 months and convert links at 15-20% on any given campaign. I’m quite certain
that’s the reason why our organic traffic has had the “hockey stick” effect.
Pretty confident you’ll love the strategy :) If interested, I’m happy to send you a few pages on {{company_name}}’s
blog where I can see this producing killer results.
Cheers,
Sam

@samsgoh
144
What happens next?
1. No response
• Up to one follow-up in 5-8 days
2. Agrees to add a link / open a conversation
• Thank them / help
3. Asks you to pay for a link
• Thanks but no thanks
4. Asks for a reciprocal link
• Up to you
5. Asks you to guest post
• Up to you

Tracking/reporting
Track link campaign progress / create reports for clients

146
@samsgoh
Project Manager / Outreach Manager
Team Member #3/4
Leader
Organized
Networker
M
otivator
Tools
Google Sheets
Data Studio
Buzzstream
Pitchbox
Your tool of choice
Traits

Tracking/reporting is a personal thing
(agency vs. affiliate networks etc.)

@samsgoh
148
Setup “Backlinks Alerts”
• Alerts > Backlinks > New Alert
• Enter your domain/subfolder/URL

@samsgoh
149
Setup “Backlinks Alerts”
• Alerts > Backlinks > New Alert
• Enter your domain/subfolder/URL
• Get email notifications of new backlinks

@samsgoh
150
(Task Oriented Systems) (APIs / Repeatable process) (Segmentation + Deepen Rel.) (Personal Choice)

Help more people = build more links

Sam Oh
Thank you
@samsgoh
ahrefs

Link Building at Scale: Big Links with a Tiny Team

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Similar to Link Building at Scale: Big Links with a Tiny Team

Similar to Link Building at Scale: Big Links with a Tiny Team (20)

More from 97th Floor

More from 97th Floor (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Link Building at Scale: Big Links with a Tiny Team