Why Outreach is the Hardest Part of Link Building

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For as long as SEO has been a thing, the central focus has been link buildingLink building is a process of acquiring links pointing to your website. These links are obtained by creating content, participating in social media or commenting on other blogs. – increasing the number of inbound linksHyperlinks, also known as links, are the connection points on a webpage that take you to other webpages. to pages on your site. There are plenty of ways to do this, and some are undoubtedly more effective than others. In the early days, “marketers” would use spammy tactics like flooding blogs with comments, leaving backlinks scattered across the web like pieces of unwanted litter. However, as search engines have got better at recognising genuine effort vs. mass-generated spam, it’s become increasingly difficult to build links naturally without being penalised. Luckily, blogger outreach has remained an effective method, but it’s also the hardest kind of link building you can do, and here’s why:

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1. You’re Dealing with Humans, Not Algorithms

When you reach out to a blog or site owner in an attempt to network with them and hopefully land an appropriately placed link on their site, you’re not tricking an algorithm, you’re trying to impress an actual person. Furthermore, many of these webmasters have seen just about everything you can pitch at them, so it can be a tough crowd to cater to. In a way, just getting a spot on a blog or convincing someone to let you put your link on their site is a form of selling, so it’s obviously more complicated than slapping a link in a forum signature or listing your site in a directory.

2. There’s Lots of Research and Correspondence Involved

We’re way past the stage where general and rehashed topics are approved and passed. In order to get the attention of a blog owner nowadays, you have to do your research to propose something that stands out from the sea of mediocrity. Furthermore, oftentimes the person you’re trying to collaborate with will respond and ask you to either pitch a different idea or make adjustments to your current topic before they’ll allow it on their site, so there’s also flexibility required to facilitate the back and forth communication that’s often necessary.

3. You Actually Have to Produce Something of Value

You can’t just email someone and say “hey, will you put this link on one of the pages on your site?” and expect them to slap the link on a page by itself with no content surrounding it. Instead, you’re going to need to find a way for the link to make it on the site in a natural way that provides value for the site’s visitors. This typically involves putting the link in a piece of quality content that the webmaster will want to post. Of course, whether you can come up with something good enough will depend on how strict the blog is about their content policies, but in general the ones you stand to gain the most SEO authority from will be the most difficult to impress.

It Takes Time and Things Don’t Always Go as Planned

Finally, blogger outreach isn’t an exact science. Oftentimes it takes weeks for a blog post to be published, and in that time, there can be a lot of uncertainty and second-guessing whether it was actually worth your time and effort. Also, a percentage of the time you’ll find that your attempts are rejected altogether, and those instances can be discouraging to say the least. However, even with all of the aforementioned hardships and challenges associated with outreach, it remains the best way to spread brand awareness and build legitimate links in today’s competitive marketing landscape.

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James Owen

James has been involved in SEO and digital marketing projects since 2007. James has led many SEO projects for well-known brands in Travel, Gaming and Retail such as Jackpotjoy, Marriott, Intercontinental Hotels, Hotels.com, Expedia, Betway, Gumtree, 888, Ax Paris, Ebyuer, Ebay, Hotels combined, Smyths toys, love honey and Pearson to name a few. James has also been a speaker at SEO and digital marketing conferences and events such as Brighton SEO.