This document provides a 3-step process for creating content that generates its own links: 1) Research the type of content needed, potential topics, and how to make the content better; 2) Produce the content by collecting data, visualizing it, and optimizing the content; 3) Establish visibility for the content by reviewing, refreshing, and outreaching to other sites for links. The overall recommendation is to focus on building valuable assets rather than directly seeking links, and to use multiple strategies for visibility rather than relying on just one.
BrightonSEO: How to generate 8 million SEO test ideas - Will CritchlowWill Critchlow
In this talk, delivered at BrightonSEO in April 2023, Will Critchlow, founder and CEO of SearchPilot covers a method for generating practically-unlimited SEO A/B test ideas.
Going on a journey from what SEO has been to what it needs to become, Will covers the mindset and strategy shifts needed, as well as the tactical implementation details. Download resources including detailed guides to SEO testing, and the free tool he uses to generate the ideas (plus explainer video).
Brighton SEO - Luis Bueno Tabernero - How to do an ASO Audit like in the 90's...Luis
Do you want to learn how to do an ASO Audit? Luis Bueno Tabernero, SEO & ASO Consultant, tells you step by step how to analyse an app from ASO perspective thanks all he learned watching 90's movies.
Product, service and category page links (and how to get them) - Rebecca Moss...Rebecca Moss
Rebecca heads up the Digital PR team at JBH, delivering creative digital PR strategies for lifestyle brands. After working in SEO for more years than she would care to admit, Rebecca's presentation reveals how the SEO industry has fallen out of love with large-scale hero campaigns, and shifted back to fundamentals of earning links using content marketing techniques.
The Best Execution for your Digital PR and Link Building CampaignsPaddy Moogan
Presented by Paddy Moogan at BrightonSEO, learn how to execute your digital PR and link building campaigns and to take the step from idea to production without losing focus.
BrightonSEO: How to generate 8 million SEO test ideas - Will CritchlowWill Critchlow
In this talk, delivered at BrightonSEO in April 2023, Will Critchlow, founder and CEO of SearchPilot covers a method for generating practically-unlimited SEO A/B test ideas.
Going on a journey from what SEO has been to what it needs to become, Will covers the mindset and strategy shifts needed, as well as the tactical implementation details. Download resources including detailed guides to SEO testing, and the free tool he uses to generate the ideas (plus explainer video).
Brighton SEO - Luis Bueno Tabernero - How to do an ASO Audit like in the 90's...Luis
Do you want to learn how to do an ASO Audit? Luis Bueno Tabernero, SEO & ASO Consultant, tells you step by step how to analyse an app from ASO perspective thanks all he learned watching 90's movies.
Product, service and category page links (and how to get them) - Rebecca Moss...Rebecca Moss
Rebecca heads up the Digital PR team at JBH, delivering creative digital PR strategies for lifestyle brands. After working in SEO for more years than she would care to admit, Rebecca's presentation reveals how the SEO industry has fallen out of love with large-scale hero campaigns, and shifted back to fundamentals of earning links using content marketing techniques.
The Best Execution for your Digital PR and Link Building CampaignsPaddy Moogan
Presented by Paddy Moogan at BrightonSEO, learn how to execute your digital PR and link building campaigns and to take the step from idea to production without losing focus.
How to Implement Machine Learning in Your Internal Linking Audit - Lazarina S...LazarinaStoyanova
In this talk, Lazarina will break down the key areas that an internal linking audit should look into and go over opportunities for embedding machine learning in a way that is beginner-friendly for SEOs without extensive coding experience. Lazarina will share:
– How to analyse a site’s existing internal linking structure using machine learning
– What machine learning techniques can you implement to help you create content clusters?
– How to find user-friendly, in-content linking opportunities
– How to prioritise and measure the impact of internal linking initiatives
Lazarina will also touch upon how to use this process to identify other opportunities for site optimization, which can improve the user experience and search potential.
Related Blog post published at: https://lazarinastoy.com/how-to-incorporate-machine-learning-in-internal-linking-audits/
GretaMunari - The redemption of content automationGretaMunari1
In this presentation, you'll be walked you through how Trainline scaled high-quality human written content to 4M + pages without using AI tools and created customer-oriented pages while improving rankings along the way.
In this presentation at #BrightonSEO, I presented how I scaled content to help a travel brand called Omio, grow organically. I've also covered some other good cases of automating SEO FTW!
The Big SEO Migration - Learnings from a first time hiker ReneHarris7
In this presentation Rene will cover the highs and lows of managing a large Ecommerce website migration for the first time. Migrations can be overwhelming so in this talk Rene will cover how to tackle the SEO essentials, stakeholder and developer management as well as how to to gain key learnings. Of course, redirects, how to change the URL structure for the better and server-side rendering will all feature. This is a high level inspirational talk centered around the highs and lows of the hike to the migration finish line with hopefully some key take-aways along the way.
How to get your SEO work prioritised in house - Maddie McCartney.pptxMaddie McCartney
How to get your SEO work prioritised in-house. A look at how the different ways of working in-house can determine whether or not your SEO initiatives are implemented.
Tasked with a content audit? It can seem impossible when you have thousands of URLs to sift through alone. But in this talk, Lucy will provide actionable steps on how to do a content audit, walking you through what to cull and what to keep, plus providing methods to quickly break down pages by different search intents to simplify your work. Built on past experience, Lucy will also offer advice on how to get clients on board with your content audit, plus top tips to get your recommendations implemented.
How to be the ultimate double agent- PR and Link Builder Isa Lavahun BTNSEO S...Isa Lavs
Traditional PR professionals are doing a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to link building – without even realising it. This presentation reveals some practical tips on how to tweak ‘traditional’ PR practices, that will help supercharge securing those valuable links and show the SEO value of their work.
Google Sheets For SEO - Tom Pool - London SEO Meetup XLTom Pool
First delivered at London SEO Meetup XL on May 4th, 2022.
This talk focuses on a number of different tips and tricks that can be used to help improve the overall analysis of data within Google Sheets.
A number of formulae are covered within this talk, including:
REGEXMATCH & REGEXREPLACE
TRANSLATE
COUNTIF
VLOOKUP
INDEX MATCH
IFNA
The talk finally touches on the usage of the =QUERY formula, and how it can aid in a number of different situations. An example of creating a top ten dashboard is provided.
A sample Google Spreadsheet with all formulae discussed can be seen here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vMZIh6NWm8gRwIP-SkTP0N6BWEpYmFFge7FBR4Wqqtg/edit#gid=0
Data Driven Approach to Scale SEO at BrightonSEO 2023Nitin Manchanda
With the help of my favourite case study, I'm showcasing how I took a data-driven approach to scale SEO for a travel brand.
I've covered how I collected data, found trends, and converted them into opportunities. Those opportunities were tested before the grand deployment, which resulted in multifold growth in SEO visibility and revenue.
How to Use Search Intent to Dominate Google DiscoverFelipe Bazon
In this talk you will learn how search intent can help you benefit from the growing popularity of Google Discover. You’ll get actionable tips, a case study example and exclusive data from SEMrush.
Automate The Technical SEO Stuff by Michael Van Den Reym
In this talk, Michael will show you how to automate technical SEO tasks. You will learn how to schedule and compare crawls to spot technical errors faster, how to use RPA to speed up technical SEO audits and how to automatically optimize images. You will get inspired to execute technical SEO better and faster.
The Ultimate Maturity Audit _ Brighton SEO.pdfGrace Frohlich
Maturity Audit framework which determines a site’s organic maturity in an industry. She will take you through the 7-step process and how you can use this to identify the greatest opportunities for your site. She will also show you how to use this to develop strategies and keep stakeholders in the loop.
[BrightonSEO 2022] Unlocking the Hidden Potential of Product Listing PagesAreej AbuAli
E-commerce websites’ product listing pages contain untapped hidden potential. This talk is all about unlocking the magic of your listing pages by making the most out of filters and internal linking. Instead of being fixated on those landing page head terms, let’s turn our attention to the indexability of long-tail pages with high conversion. Whether you work in e-commerce or not, we’ll also cover how to embed yourself within Tech teams and analyse impactful changes.
Data-driven SEO & content strategy to reduce your customer acquisition costsadlift
With digital marketing spends soaring, there’s now an even bigger need for reducing costs per customer acquisition. On average, a brand can reduce its acquisition costs by 55% if they drive significant traffic and transactions via organic search and great content marketing. This session will provide you with tactics to implement a robust, data driven content and SEO strategy that drives ROI.
Digital Strategy - Insurance Broker Expo CoventryDave Hazlehurst
Slidedeck from my presentation to the Insurance sector on the 14th November on the 4 pillars for Digital strategy and what they need to do win online. Includes info on Google Hummingbird, SEO, Socials Media, Content Marketing, CRO, Experience
Google Discover Optimisation with Google Web StoriesFelipe Bazon
How to drive thousands of visits from Google Discover using Google Web Stories and other techniques that you will learn only if you watch this talk. With proven case studies and validated results.
How to Implement Machine Learning in Your Internal Linking Audit - Lazarina S...LazarinaStoyanova
In this talk, Lazarina will break down the key areas that an internal linking audit should look into and go over opportunities for embedding machine learning in a way that is beginner-friendly for SEOs without extensive coding experience. Lazarina will share:
– How to analyse a site’s existing internal linking structure using machine learning
– What machine learning techniques can you implement to help you create content clusters?
– How to find user-friendly, in-content linking opportunities
– How to prioritise and measure the impact of internal linking initiatives
Lazarina will also touch upon how to use this process to identify other opportunities for site optimization, which can improve the user experience and search potential.
Related Blog post published at: https://lazarinastoy.com/how-to-incorporate-machine-learning-in-internal-linking-audits/
GretaMunari - The redemption of content automationGretaMunari1
In this presentation, you'll be walked you through how Trainline scaled high-quality human written content to 4M + pages without using AI tools and created customer-oriented pages while improving rankings along the way.
In this presentation at #BrightonSEO, I presented how I scaled content to help a travel brand called Omio, grow organically. I've also covered some other good cases of automating SEO FTW!
The Big SEO Migration - Learnings from a first time hiker ReneHarris7
In this presentation Rene will cover the highs and lows of managing a large Ecommerce website migration for the first time. Migrations can be overwhelming so in this talk Rene will cover how to tackle the SEO essentials, stakeholder and developer management as well as how to to gain key learnings. Of course, redirects, how to change the URL structure for the better and server-side rendering will all feature. This is a high level inspirational talk centered around the highs and lows of the hike to the migration finish line with hopefully some key take-aways along the way.
How to get your SEO work prioritised in house - Maddie McCartney.pptxMaddie McCartney
How to get your SEO work prioritised in-house. A look at how the different ways of working in-house can determine whether or not your SEO initiatives are implemented.
Tasked with a content audit? It can seem impossible when you have thousands of URLs to sift through alone. But in this talk, Lucy will provide actionable steps on how to do a content audit, walking you through what to cull and what to keep, plus providing methods to quickly break down pages by different search intents to simplify your work. Built on past experience, Lucy will also offer advice on how to get clients on board with your content audit, plus top tips to get your recommendations implemented.
How to be the ultimate double agent- PR and Link Builder Isa Lavahun BTNSEO S...Isa Lavs
Traditional PR professionals are doing a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to link building – without even realising it. This presentation reveals some practical tips on how to tweak ‘traditional’ PR practices, that will help supercharge securing those valuable links and show the SEO value of their work.
Google Sheets For SEO - Tom Pool - London SEO Meetup XLTom Pool
First delivered at London SEO Meetup XL on May 4th, 2022.
This talk focuses on a number of different tips and tricks that can be used to help improve the overall analysis of data within Google Sheets.
A number of formulae are covered within this talk, including:
REGEXMATCH & REGEXREPLACE
TRANSLATE
COUNTIF
VLOOKUP
INDEX MATCH
IFNA
The talk finally touches on the usage of the =QUERY formula, and how it can aid in a number of different situations. An example of creating a top ten dashboard is provided.
A sample Google Spreadsheet with all formulae discussed can be seen here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vMZIh6NWm8gRwIP-SkTP0N6BWEpYmFFge7FBR4Wqqtg/edit#gid=0
Data Driven Approach to Scale SEO at BrightonSEO 2023Nitin Manchanda
With the help of my favourite case study, I'm showcasing how I took a data-driven approach to scale SEO for a travel brand.
I've covered how I collected data, found trends, and converted them into opportunities. Those opportunities were tested before the grand deployment, which resulted in multifold growth in SEO visibility and revenue.
How to Use Search Intent to Dominate Google DiscoverFelipe Bazon
In this talk you will learn how search intent can help you benefit from the growing popularity of Google Discover. You’ll get actionable tips, a case study example and exclusive data from SEMrush.
Automate The Technical SEO Stuff by Michael Van Den Reym
In this talk, Michael will show you how to automate technical SEO tasks. You will learn how to schedule and compare crawls to spot technical errors faster, how to use RPA to speed up technical SEO audits and how to automatically optimize images. You will get inspired to execute technical SEO better and faster.
The Ultimate Maturity Audit _ Brighton SEO.pdfGrace Frohlich
Maturity Audit framework which determines a site’s organic maturity in an industry. She will take you through the 7-step process and how you can use this to identify the greatest opportunities for your site. She will also show you how to use this to develop strategies and keep stakeholders in the loop.
[BrightonSEO 2022] Unlocking the Hidden Potential of Product Listing PagesAreej AbuAli
E-commerce websites’ product listing pages contain untapped hidden potential. This talk is all about unlocking the magic of your listing pages by making the most out of filters and internal linking. Instead of being fixated on those landing page head terms, let’s turn our attention to the indexability of long-tail pages with high conversion. Whether you work in e-commerce or not, we’ll also cover how to embed yourself within Tech teams and analyse impactful changes.
Data-driven SEO & content strategy to reduce your customer acquisition costsadlift
With digital marketing spends soaring, there’s now an even bigger need for reducing costs per customer acquisition. On average, a brand can reduce its acquisition costs by 55% if they drive significant traffic and transactions via organic search and great content marketing. This session will provide you with tactics to implement a robust, data driven content and SEO strategy that drives ROI.
Digital Strategy - Insurance Broker Expo CoventryDave Hazlehurst
Slidedeck from my presentation to the Insurance sector on the 14th November on the 4 pillars for Digital strategy and what they need to do win online. Includes info on Google Hummingbird, SEO, Socials Media, Content Marketing, CRO, Experience
Google Discover Optimisation with Google Web StoriesFelipe Bazon
How to drive thousands of visits from Google Discover using Google Web Stories and other techniques that you will learn only if you watch this talk. With proven case studies and validated results.
Estrategias de captación y herramientas esenciales del SEO WorkFlowIñaki Tovar
Presentación realizada para el evento Digital Agency Day http://www.digitalagencyday.es organizado por SEMRUSH, UNBOUNCE y HUBSPOT.
Un repaso a las claves de nuestras estrategias de Inbound Marketing y a las herramientas de cabecera SAAS que implementamos en nuestro flujo de trabajo SEO tanto interno como con nuestros clientes
Robots: Txt, Meta & X - The Snog, Marry & Avoid of the Web Crawling World - B...Chris Green
Methods of blocking/restricting Google's crawl of your site are so often confused or incorrectly selected - in this presentation Chris outlines a deceptively simple method for picking the right tool for the job.
Negative SEO appears more real than ever after Penguin. However, not everything you call "Negative SEO" really is negative SEO. Is it possible to identify negative SEO campaigns and what can you do to minimise the damage?
This year marks 10 years in SEO for Patrick who will be reflecting on some of the (many) mistakes he’s made over the years, and what he’s learnt from each and every one. He’ll be openly sharing the realities of managing and growing an agency with the audience, showing warts and all the challenges he’s faced in the last 10 years. The audience can learn the lessons from these mistakes and take away some actionable tips too.
Wheelhouse DMG at GrowCommerce - not your father's searchWheelhouse DMG
Learn about how optimizing to a ROAS target rather than a fixed budget can supercharge your online revenue. We show digital marketers how CRO can supercharge your PPC campaigns and how to drive improved AOV through loyalty programs.
How To Leverage SEO When Your Brand Site Doesn't Actually Sell Anything [Brig...Jake Gauntley
Download my slides for free at https://www.reprisedigital.co.uk/brighton
Whilst many SEO conference talks tend to focus on tips, insight and advice on how to increase visibility and drive more sales from eCommerce, what should those of us who don’t work in eCommerce do?
For those brands that sell mostly from the supermarket shelves, making the case to invest in a brand site is no easy task but when you get it right, search marketing goes from being seen as a cost to something that can drive huge incremental value.
Jake will explain how brands can use SEO to deliver engaging, value-add experiences to consumers for even the most ‘digital-less’ of products, using SEO as a platform from which brand content, CRM, paid media and advertising becomes much more effective. So even if you aren’t selling anything directly to consumers, you’ll still be able to deliver – and demonstrate – bottom-line value from brand site SEO.
Download at https://www.reprisedigital.co.uk/brighton/
Presentation by Freya Jones at Brighton SEO 2021 about how to brushing up on your Instagram SEO skills can give your reach, discoverability, and engagement on Instagram a serious boost.
EP.2 of When Marketers Code. Antoine Eripret explains how you can use Python to help keep you content marketing strategy SEO fresh!
Check out the marketerscode.com community if you're interested in learning to code to help improve your process and performance.
The Inhouse and the Agency SEO should be Friendsmaxormark
If you have a client with an experienced Search Manager in place you should be thanking your lucky stars. The inhouse SEO can be your best asset, so don't make them your worst enemy. PLUS, the hidden dangers of having a client with no in-house expertise.
Whats Happening in SEO in 2013 - WordCamp Boston 2013Casie Gillette
Casie Gillette's presentation from WordCamp Boston 2013. Learn what's happening in SEO and get the tools and wordpress plugins to help you be successful.
Similar to How to Generate Content that Builds it's Own Links (20)
The session includes a brief history of the evolution of search before diving into the roles technology, content, and links play in developing a powerful SEO strategy in a world of Generative AI and social search. Discover how to optimize for TikTok searches, Google's Gemini, and Search Generative Experience while developing a powerful arsenal of tools and templates to help maximize the effectiveness of your SEO initiatives.
Key Takeaways:
Understand how search engines work
Be able to find out where your users search
Know what is required for each discipline of SEO
Feel confident creating an SEO Plan
Confidently measure SEO performance
When most people in the industry talk about online or digital reputation management, what they're really saying is Google search and PPC. And it's usually reactive, left dealing with the aftermath of negative information published somewhere online. That's outdated. It leaves executives, organizations and other high-profile individuals at a high risk of a digital reputation attack that spans channels and tactics. But the tools needed to safeguard against an attack are more cybersecurity-oriented than most marketing and communications professionals can manage. Business leaders Leaders grasp the importance; 83% of executives place reputation in their top five areas of risk, yet only 23% are confident in their ability to address it. To succeed in 2024 and beyond, you need to turn online reputation on its axis and think like an attacker.\
Key Takeaways:
- New framework for examining and safeguarding an online reputation
- Tools and techniques to keep you a step ahead
- Practical examples that demonstrate when to act, how to act and how to recover
When most people in the industry talk about online or digital reputation management, what they're really saying is Google search and PPC. And it's usually reactive, left dealing with the aftermath of negative information published somewhere online. That's outdated. It leaves executives, organizations and other high-profile individuals at a high risk of a digital reputation attack that spans channels and tactics. But the tools needed to safeguard against an attack are more cybersecurity-oriented than most marketing and communications professionals can manage. Business leaders Leaders grasp the importance; 83% of executives place reputation in their top five areas of risk, yet only 23% are confident in their ability to address it. To succeed in 2024 and beyond, you need to turn online reputation on its axis and think like an attacker.
Key Takeaways:
- New framework for examining and safeguarding an online reputation
- Tools and techniques to keep you a step ahead
- Practical examples that demonstrate when to act, how to act and how to recover
Short video marketing has sweeped the nation and is the fastest way to build an online brand on social media in 2024. In this session you will learn:- What is short video marketing- Which platforms work best for your business- Content strategies that are on brand for your business- How to sell organically without paying for ads.
For too many years marketing and sales have operated in silos...while in some forward thinking companies, the two organizations work together to drive new opportunity development and revenue. This session will explore the lessons learned in that beautiful dance that can occur when marketing and sales work together...to drive new opportunity development, account expansion and customer satisfaction.
No, this is not a conversation about MQLs and SQLs. Instead we will focus on a framework that allows the two organizations to drive company success together.
How to Run Landing Page Tests On and Off Paid Social PlatformsVWO
Join us for an exclusive webinar featuring Mariate, Alexandra and Nima where we will unveil a comprehensive blueprint for crafting a successful paid media strategy focused on landing page testing.With escalating costs in paid advertising, understanding how to maximize each visitor’s experience is crucial for retention and conversion.
This session will dive into the methodologies for executing and analyzing landing page tests within paid social channels, offering a blend of theoretical knowledge and practical insights.
The Pearmill team will guide you through the nuances of setting up and managing landing page experiments on paid social platforms. You will learn about the critical rules to follow, the structure of effective tests, optimal conversion duration and budget allocation.
The session will also cover data analysis techniques and criteria for graduating landing pages.
In the second part of the webinar, Pearmill will explore the use of A/B testing platforms. Discover common pitfalls to avoid in A/B testing and gain insights into analyzing A/B tests results effectively.
Most small businesses struggle to see marketing results. In this session, we will eliminate any confusion about what to do next, solving your marketing problems so your business can thrive. You’ll learn how to create a foundational marketing OS (operating system) based on neuroscience and backed by real-world results. You’ll be taught how to develop deep customer connections, and how to have your CRM dynamically segment and sell at any stage in the customer’s journey. By the end of the session, you’ll remove confusion and chaos and replace it with clarity and confidence for long-term marketing success.
Key Takeaways:
• Uncover the power of a foundational marketing system that dynamically communicates with prospects and customers on autopilot.
• Harness neuroscience and Tribal Alignment to transform your communication strategies, turning potential clients into fans and those fans into loyal customers.
• Discover the art of automated segmentation, pinpointing your most lucrative customers and identifying the optimal moments for successful conversions.
• Streamline your business with a content production plan that eliminates guesswork, wasted time, and money.
Digital Money Maker Club – von Gunnar Kessler digital.focsh890
Title One is a comprehensive examination of the impact of digital technologies on
modern society. In a world where technology continues to advance rapidly, this article delves into the nuances and complexities of the digital age, exploring Its implications across various sectors and aspects of life.
In this presentation, Danny Leibrandt explains the impact of AI on SEO and what Google has been doing about it. Learn how to take your SEO game to the next level and win over Google with his new strategy anyone can use. Get actionable steps to rank your name, your business, and your clients on Google - the right way.
Key Takeaways:
1. Real content is king
2. Find ways to show EEAT
3. Repurpose across all platforms
Digital marketing is the art and science of promoting products or services using digital channels to reach and engage with potential customers. It encompasses a wide range of online tactics and strategies aimed at increasing brand visibility, driving website traffic, generating leads, and ultimately, converting those leads into customers.
https://nidmindia.com/
Come learn how YOU can Animate and Illuminate the World with Generative AI's Explosive Power. Come sit in the driver's seat and learn to harness this great technology.
AI-Powered Personalization: Principles, Use Cases, and Its Impact on CROVWO
In today’s era of AI, personalization is more than just a trend—it’s a fundamental strategy that unlocks numerous opportunities.
When done effectively, personalization builds trust, loyalty, and satisfaction among your users—key factors for business success. However, relying solely on AI capabilities isn’t enough. You need to anchor your approach in solid principles, understand your users’ context, and master the art of persuasion.
Join us as Sarjak Patel and Naitry Saggu from 3rd Eye Consulting unveil a transformative framework. This approach seamlessly integrates your unique context, consumer insights, and conversion goals, paving the way for unparalleled success in personalization.
5 big bets to drive growth in 2024 without one additional marketing dollar AND how to adapt to the biggest shifting eCommerce trend- AI.
1) Romance Your Customers - Retention
2) ‘Alternative’ Lead Gen - Advocacy
3) The Beautiful Basics - Conversion Rate Optimization
4) Land that Bottom Line - Profitability
5) Roll the Dice - New Business Models
Hello!! I’m Liz. I’m a senior content marketing executive at MacNaught Digital which is a small SEO agency based in a field in the middle of nowhere. We’re far enough out of Manchester that the biggest drama to have unfolded at the office in the time I’ve been there is when
a sheep escaped from the field behind our building and me and Christopher had to try and usher it back to its pen before it got itself into too much mischief
But yeah, when I’m not chasing sheep around the car park I am in the wonderful world of SEO working with clients in a really wide range of sectors. I’ve been doing this role for around 2 and a half years now since I finished uni and I absolutely love it. I focus mainly on producing passive link building pieces that continue to generate links over a long period of time but I also do the odd bigger PR piece and some expert comments and on site copy.
Today I’ll be talking you through what I enjoy the most which is producing these quieter, sneakier dark horses really when it comes content pieces that as the the title says, generate their own links! So let’s get started!! Not headlines, not winning awards, they’re just building links quietly whilst you crack on with the next thing.
They’re going to work in the background long after your outreach is finished. Or even before you’ve sent a single email.
So firstly I thought I’d share some examples to give you a feel for what these pieces are like and the kinds of results that can be achieved through using this strategy. Here are 3 examples, one 3 and a half years old, one that went live around a year and a half ago and another more recent piece that we published in March this year.
One older piece that we created 2 or 3 years ago now is this Stress Statistics piece that we created for a client who sells home blood testing kits for all sorts of different health markers. So the topic idea for this came from us thinking about the cortisol blood testing kit that they sell which is the hormone our bodies produce when we’re stressed. So once we’d come up with the idea we made a start on the research, conducting a study asking 2,000 UK adults how often they experience stress. This allowed us to create a pretty all encompassing piece explaining things like what causes us to feel stressed, how often people in the UK feel stressed and what age groups, genders, cities and regions are the most stressed.
So this piece took around X days to put together, the survey costed a couple of hundred pounds, and we initially worked with the lovely Hana from Shout Bravo on this who did some outreach for us back in 2018 when the piece first went live which helped generate the first 15 to 20 really solid links from some great sites. But then, after the outreach this piece continued to build links whilst we weren’t touching it. And now 3 years on, it’s built links from over 150 domains. And is still building links even though it hasn’t been updated and we’re not even working with this client anymore.
It was a PR piece but now it just does its own thing. This piece is still building links right now and we havent’ touched it since 2018. It hasn’t been updated or tweaked or pitches out since! Pattern of links building overtime is key.
Another example is this piece I wrote around a year and half ago for an internal project of ours Micro Biz Mag on the topic of Freelancers. This piece literally took a couple of hours to put together. (Don’t include dates in URLs lol)! Time live 1 year. Time taken to out together: half a day. Links generated: 112 Outreach emails sent: 0
Did some keyword research using the tool Keyword Finder to see which freelance skills were most sought-after, we also included some third party data and a couple of interviews with freelancers
As you can see, this piece literally built like no links in the first few weeks, and then after a few months it started getting picked up naturally and overtime it just organically built and built and built.
And the links were great quality as well! Again really relevant sites that I wouldn’t have even known how to pitch really such as Tide banking company, People per hour and then the likes of money magpie, the Independent etc
Another more recent example is a piece we created for the nutraceutical company Formulate Health 6 months ago. Their brand and website was only created last year and we came up with the idea of creating a piece centered around sleep, as one of their best selling supplements helps with things like relaxation and sleep. We had a look at what was out there already and couldn’t see many strong pieces of content that weren’t just roundups of other peoples statistics from previous years. So again we conducted a survey and asked 2,000 UK adults about their sleep habits and did some keyword research on the topic of insomnia and also had a look at some prescription data to find out which parts ofthe UK were being prescribed insomnia medication the most.
This piece ended up generating links from really great selection of sites like these with no outreach whatsoever. Once we secured the first link it helped the piece to rank for terms such as insomnia statistics and sleep statistics and we found that other publications just picked it up naturally. We don’t need to pitch it out and try and convince a journalist that it’s a good idea to cover. They’ve already decided they’re interested in the topic and want to create a piece on it, they’re just using your data as a resource to help them tell their story.
So first thing’s first, come up with your idea. I haven’t put a lightbulb on these slide because these types of content don’t require a lightbulb moment. It doesn’t have to be a groundbreaking idea that’s really creative and inventive and going to make the headlines. That’s not our goal here. And instead of staring at a blank canvas like this, hopefully the next few slides will help you find a go-to formula that’s right for you and that you can go back to and keep using time and time again.
People define relevance is different ways. Our definition is mainly Product servie and market, and we often go on to look at motivators and triggers for purchase
Go beyond whatyou do. Motivatersand triggers for purchase. People don’t buy supplements because they love supplementst hey buy them because they want to
Another tip is to have a think about the type of content you want to produce. So like I mentioned earlier, these passive link building pieces can take a variety of forms. So have a look online at things that could be relevant to your industry or sector. Look specifically for assets people look for when their search intent is to find a source to cite. Because when people are looking for assets to cite, they’re also very likely to be the people who will link.
Have a think about your industry or sector and have a think about relevant assets that could work for you. One example for an accountancy or finance company or maybe a business magazine or something along those lines could be an income tax calculator.
Take a look at what’s already out there and if there is something out there already, have a think about if and how you can make it more unique, more relevant, more up-to-date piece more suitable for journalists with a stronger methodology plus if there’s search volumes
Not only has it got links from over 500 domains, but the links just keep on coming! 40 of these links were generated naturally in the last 7 days. And this piece has been live and building links organically for more than 8 years.
So there you go. You’ve identified areas for potential. You’ve found one of the forms of passive link building pieces that could work for you and that are being linked to most. Now you might start looking at other areas of potential in this sphere.. Things like pension calculators or redundancy letter templates.
So we had a look to see what’s already out there and found that this piece was ranking in the number one spot for ‘beauty statistics’. We had a look and saw that the site wasn’t 100% relevant (sleep advice website), the piece was relatively well optimised and featured a lot of great global statistics. But all of the statistics were taken from third party sites and many of them were out of date. So really this piece wasn’t great, but it had the number one spot and had links from over 160 different domains! Just think what an up-to-date version, from a relevant site with loads of proprietary data could do. Have a look at what’s ranking and maybe even run it through a tool such as SEMRush to see what keywords the piece is ranking for (or isn’t ranking for that it could be) and create a better version!
Decide how you’re doing to do it - what do you need and how will you get it? If it’s a statistics piece look at ways of obtaining data - surveys, crime statistics from the government, FOI requests, prescription data, keyword data, instagram hashtag data etc. Plan out your research to ensure you have a sound methodology that journalists can rely on.
Keyword finder, Google trends which are great for finding out which countries, states or cities are most interested in a certain topic or most worried about a certain thing, the same goes with instgram and twitter hashtags you can see what kind of things are trending. And then some of my favourite ways to collect data are these huge databases such as ONS and Open Prescribing . net that allow you to have a look through tonnes of really interesting crime statistics or prescription data etc so you can find out which are the most most dangerous parts of the UK for cyclists for instance by looking at cyclist injuries and bike thefts or you could use Open Prescribing to discover which city is the most depressed perhaps, having a look at where the highest rates of certain drugs are prescribed.
These do often cost a couple of hundred quid but it depends on your sample size, the number of questions you ask, the criteria etc so obviously it depends on your budget as to whether or not you want to give these a go
Freedom of information requests are also great ways of gathering data. Go ahead and ask all of the councils in England how much they spent on cycling infrastructure for instance last year, or ask the NHS how many people were admitted to A&E because of heart attacks in 2019, ask your local police department how many burglaries took place in a certain period of time.
Include the option to request the raw data. Include an email address
Transparency, credibility, etc. Always include caveats, limitations etc. This is your opportunity to convince the reader that your study or data is credible.
Optimise it like you would one of the most important service or product pages on your website. So first, before you press publish, check it’s fully optimised, even for lower volume longer tail keywords, because collectively these can add up to a lot of traffic. The amount of times I’ve seen absolutely cracking pieces of content that have tonnes of potential and their titles and meta descriptions haven’t been optimised!!! So they haven’t ranked nearly as well as they otherwise would have and as a result, haven’t built the links they could have. It just makes me really sad. As well, optimising your headers and the copy throughout to really concisely answer questions and so on can be hugely beneficial for helping get your piece picked up. Do what you’re already doing! Optimise it with your catchy headline if you’re using it as an outreach piece and then you can go back and make it more well-optimised as a passive link building piece.
Formulate Health link from the Times came when the piece was only generating impressions from a really obscure keyword (sleep statistics uk 2021) so the link must have come from that. This is even more of a reason to make sure your methodology is sound because that’s probably one of the things that a good journalist will be looking for (and is willing to look far for).
Step 3. Establish Visibility. This is the bit where we ask ourselves okay, the piece is now live - How do we make sure it’s going to generate its own links?
Is the back link profile starting to grow organically? And you ranking for the queries you want to be ranking for? What queries could you be ranking for that you’re not already? What links could you be getting that you’re not already? At first you might want to measure this every few weeks but then once the balls rolling you can just check in on these pieces every month or so. Have a look in search console at what’s driving traffic to your site. Can you optiise it better? Do this now! Go and have a look on Monday at what content on your site is performing well and how you can make it perform even better.
Go back and look at mid-tier sites who are linking to competitor sites whose content is out of date or not as relevant. Contact them and suggest updates using your data! Very cheap! No commercial intent, just informational. You’re bidding at a considerably lower price than for competitive queries. Not very competitive. You’re looking for people whose intent is to find a resource, not someone who's looking to buy.
And once you’ve done all these steps, go and make a brew! Put your feet up and watch some cute dog videos on Youtube whilst all the links come rolling in. (hopefully)
Play the long game. Focus on building assets not links! Thinking you’ll generate loads of excellent links within a couple of weeks is not going to set you up for success in the long term.
There’s a lot of noise to break through when it comes to Digital PR and outreach. And as we know, soo many link building campaigns are unsuccessful. I know I’m a baby in this industry having only been doing this for 2 and a half years, but putting all your eggs in one basket and relying solely on one tactic for anything is to me, too risky. And can end up being really costly in the long term. Instead, find a way to build links by just existing and having these pieces on your site that rank naturally and require minimal time, effort and money. So go and do it now! This doesn’t require starting from scratch with these pieces either Go and have a look at some of your PR pieces now that you can update and reoptimise as stats pieces / passive link building pieces.
So see how you get on! I really hope that some of this has been useful and that you feel like you can go and give this a go! By the way, this is my little puppy Dougie who we’re going picking up tomorrow.. So this is my reward to myself for being brave and giving a talk at Brighton haha! Thank you so much for listening, not egging me or heckling me or booing me off the stage and if you have any questions or there’s anything I can help with just give me a shout on Twitter :) Thanks!