Today I’m gonna show you exactly what link insertions or building techniques work today. But what I’m gonna do differently? Most of the time, you’ll get a list of basic, link building strategies like guest posting, broken link building, and skyscraper outreach. But I’ll straight up tell you right now, that the vanilla basic versions of these link building techniques do not work anymore.
Upgrade Your SEO Link Insertions
Techniques like guest postings, still work but they need to be upgraded to be effective in today’s dynamic SEO environment. My name is Mian Ahsan Raza and I build links for a living, literally. The techniques I’m about to show you have helped me land links or link insertions, like from The New York Times, a DR 94 paid or free backlink websites, Forbes, also a DR 94, and Inc., a measly DR 92, and also free backlink websites or link insertions.
Guest Post Insights and Myths Unveiled
Most dynamic SEO content creators will tell you how things work at a high level. What is a guest post? It’s when you reach out to paid or free backlink websites you want to link or link insertions on and offer to write free content for them in exchange for a link in that content. Here’s an example of a guest post pitch I received in my inbox, not too long ago. But I have a feeling that people who teach basic stuff like this don’t actually do building or link insertions.
Upgraded and Elevate Your Link Insertions Building
Vanilla link building approaches don’t work. You get thousands of emails a day with boring link requests, don’t you? In order to be effective, you need to stand out and need to be different. You need to be better. “Simply asking someone to link insertions to you because their audience might find your content valuable, works great”, said no one ever.
If we talk about which link insertions techniques work the best today. How to execute them step by step, including the email scripts that you can copy to get great results. These are techniques, I typically save for my students at Tech Donor or ones that we use for getting links for our clients. But today I’m opening things up for you. Now make sure to stick around to the end because the last technique is one of my favorites.
SEO Shift From Guest Posts to Link Insertions Rescue
The first SEO technique that I want to fix for you is guest posting. You know what it is already. It’s when you offer to write content for someone for a link in exchange. And you already know that this sad piece of waste of an email doesn’t convert at all. The reasons why this doesn’t work are totally clear. First, it’s not unique. 99% of all guest post pitches look like this.
Second, why would I let this person, whom I don’t even know, write for my site? I’m more likely just to link to them than to have to worry about their crap content on my site and have to edit it.
The Art of Fixing Broken Links
You’re gonna find sites with outdated content that need to be updated. And you’re gonna offer to fix it for them. Let’s say you wanted to get a link from Shopify, a tasty, DR 92, treat of a paid or free backlink websites.
Google Shopify in title 2020″ to bring up a list of articles on Shopify that have 2020 in the title, meaning that they’re probably not up to date. We found the Best Markdown Editors of 2020 article. When I checked it, I realized that the article was out of date A. Some of these editors don’t even exist anymore.
Revive Outdated Shopify Content
Figure out the right contact email address at Shopify with a tool like Hunter, which gives you 25 free requests per month. Then send them a template like the following:
Hey James,
Thanks
I was just reading your ‘Best Markdown Editors of 2020’ article and saw that it’s become out of date. A couple of the tools you’re recommending are end-of-life, and some of the features of others have expired. I’m well-versed in markdown editors. How about I write this article for you for free and get you all sorted out for this year? I’ve done this before for with. Let me know when you’re ready to proceed.
A template like this works because you’ve just saved someone’s garbage from referencing content that isn’t true anymore. Plus they probably need to get this rewritten anyway. Now, just sneak in your link and you’re good to go.
HARO Link Building with Three-Way Boost
I actually covered two more, outside-the-box, guest post angles in another article. The next link building technique that still works today, HARO but definitely needs a revamp, is responsive editorial link building with HARO. What is HARO? HARO stands for Help A Reporter Out.
It’s a platform that allows journalists to request quotes from experts to use in their articles. Let’s say that a journalist is publishing an article on American Express on millennial entrepreneurship and wants a quote from an actual millennial on how they got started in business.
The HARO Grind with Common Struggle
Well, where you step in and tell them about this awesome guy, Mian Ahsan Raza, who got you turned onto this super cool thing called SEO. Let’s say, they use your quote. When they quote you, they’ll link back to your website. The main issue with HARO is that any link building technique that gets this good of links and is free will get flooded with bazillions of dynamic SEO trying to tap into that sweet, free, link juice.
When that opportunity to get an MX link comes up, literally thousands of quotes roll in. Because of this HARO is a grind. Sure, it’s free, but you’ll trade your time, and a lot of it, because you’ll just get drowned out most of the time. You’re lucky if you even see a 5% success rate.
Diabolical Sneaky Technique with HARO
Now what you’re gonna do instead, that literally flips the script. To do this, you’ll need two paid or free backlink websites in the same niche. We’re gonna set up a three-way link exchange. You’re, instead, gonna take the role of a journalist looking for expert quotes on your site. You do this at HARO’s Submit Query page.
Let’s say you have an affiliate site promoting golf equipment. You’re gonna write an article on the best places to golf in the United States for beginners and gonna have HARO help you get expert quotes from golfers on their favorite beginner courses. You’re gonna get a bunch of quotes, tons of them, from people who are looking for links to their golf sites. But, what you’re gonna reply, instead?
This is diabolically sneaky because it converts crazy as hell. If Bob doesn’t give you this link, then he knows he just wasted his time crafting a quote. To him, there’s nothing to lose and a link to gain. I first heard about this technique when I was judging WPX Hosting’s Best Affiliate Tip contest.
HARO with a Strategic: The Three-Way Link Exchange
Ahrefs is an all-in-one dynamic SEO tool that many search engine optimization professionals, including myself, use to get their job done. It really does do more things than I can count. But for me particularly, I use it for site audits, which help me evaluate the technical dynamic SEO health of my websites.
Google will love them, competitor research in particular, reverse engineering the keyword research and dofollow backlink websites strategy of my competition, and Content Explorer, which helps me figure out high search volume, low competition, and topics to write about. This kind of data is absolutely critical for doing dynamic SEO these days. And it’s nearly impossible to get by yourself. And best of all, Ahrefs is offering a free version, called Ahrefs Webmaster Tools.
Pitch and Secure Link Insertions Effectively
The next technique I’m gonna tell you is how to beast mode, which is link insertions. Link insertions are when you ask someone to update an existing article with link insertions to your article.
Here’s an example of a link insertion request, fresh from my inbox.
“You linked to one of our competitors.” Cool story. Why does it matter to me? “We’re trying to build a bunch of backlinks.” Again, cool, so am I, what’s new? “It would really help us if you placed a link to us.”
What? – Sorry, threw up in my mouth a bit. The reason this doesn’t work, it’s because it’s all about them. They’re so focused on their own link, that they forget that it’s me they’re asking a favor from. So how can we make this work? When we pitch, how can we make it about them, and not us? Money talks.
Making Link Insertions Game-Changing Approach
Note that this technique requires you to spend a bit of money, but let me tell you it converts like crazy. Here’s what you’re gonna do. Write a typical pitch for a guest post. The reason you’re mentioning guest posts is because everyone knows what that is. Not many people know what link insertions are.
In the first line, ask how much the price is. This is what’s gonna get people’s attention. As soon as you mention money, your response rates skyrocket. As soon as they reply, no matter what their price is, say that it’s too expensive.
Ask them if they can do quick link insertions, instead, for half the price. They’ll do it because they’ve already spent time responding, and they realize, that updating content with a link takes 1% of the time compared to reviewing and editing guest post content.
The Art of Broken Link Insertions
The next building or link insertions technique that still works, extremely well, but literally everyone is doing wrong, is broken link building. And yes, I’ll repeat, that it still works very well. Broken link insertions building is when you identify when a site links out to another URL. The URL they’re linking to is dead. Maybe the other paid or free backlink websites deleted that post, or the website completely shut down itself.
Either way, the link is broken and that’s bad for dynamic SEO. So typically you see a pitch like this.
You know what’s wrong with this pitch? Absolutely nothing at all. It’s perfectly fine. The problem is that people don’t care about the old articles they wrote in 2018. They wrote it ages ago and they could give two it’s on whether its links are perfect or not. But if they recently wrote an article and it’s incorrect, they’ll actually care.
Unique Approach to Broken Link Insertions
Find broken link opportunities on recent articles with tools like Ahrefs or Semrush. Find a big site, in your niche, that has a lot of links going to it. So, for me, let’s use dofollow backlink websites Backlinko. Plug them into Site Explorer and search “Best by links”. Then set up the HTTP filter to “404 not found”. This will bring up a list of articles that don’t exist anymore, ordered by how many domains are linked to them.
This “prevent Google penalties” article at the top has 32 domains linking to it. Clicking on that number, you get a list of all those referring domains. If you order by “first seen”, you get the most recent articles first. These are your target sites.
Potential of Unlinked Brand Mentions
Next, we have unlinked brand mentions. This still works very well, in this day and age, if you do it the right way. An unlinked brand mention is when someone references your name or your brand, but they just don’t link to you. Like who only ranked me 18 on this list of best dynamic SEO blogs.
Terrible, I know. So at this point, you expect me to write an email to him saying, “Bro, you used my name. Please give link insertions to my site.” But the reason this doesn’t work is because if they would’ve linked to you, they would’ve done it in the first place.
Twist to Unlinked Brand Mentions
So again, we’re gonna flip the script. I’m gonna have my VA create a complete list of someone else’s unlinked brand mentions. Someone I want a link insertions from. Then, I’m gonna deliver this to them as a favor, and ask if they could do me a favor back. After all, I did all this work for someone, it would only be polite.
Unlinked Brand Mentions & Craft Winning Outreach
Here’s how to get a quick list of unlinked brand mentions. Go to dynamic SEO tools content explorer. Type in the brand name at the top. Then, minus the URL. Then highlight unlinked domains. Now down below, you’ll have a list of sites that mention HubSpot, but don’t link insertions to them. Now send HubSpot this script.
“Hey, Bob, Being a fan of HubSpot and the dynamic SEO you do over there, I wanted to do you solid. I created this list of unlinked brand mentions where people used your quotes, expertise, and research, but didn’t give you credit via the link. I hope this helps. If you could do me a quick solid back, I could use link insertions to my site.” This script converts super nice.
Conclusion
In the dynamic SEO landscape of today, traditional strategies for link insertions and building like guest posting, HARO, broken link building, and unlinked brand mentions can still be effective but they must be done in a contemporary and tactical way. Thus, rather than using stereotyped approaches that are too general, one needs to personalize his or her methods and make them more meaningful.
There are several ways that this can be achieved such as upgrading guest posting by way of offering to update outdated content, and three-way link insertions or exchanging through creative use of HARO. Link insertions with a monetary angle, and targeting broken links on recent articles. This means that one has to adapt and innovate these proven techniques in order to succeed in the dynamic world of dynamic SEO.
