Outreach link building is an effective SEO strategy used by SEO professionals. When done correctly, it can deliver real SEO results. However, outreach link building is not an easy-win situation.
The process involves contacting website owners and managers to pitch content ideas. The reality is that you should expect at least as many failures as successes.
The ratio between success and failure will depend on the quality of your approach.
Specifically, it’s important you avoid making the following mistakes.
1. Sending Generic Emails or Emails Based on a Generic Template
Sending generic emails with generic content pitches will not get you very far. It can even be regarded as disrespectful.
After all, the individuals who will receive your email probably receive loads of similar link building requests every day. They have to decide which to accept and which to reject, and they are likely to have other pressures on their time.
So, as you are sending outreach link building emails to individual people, you should personalise them as much as possible.
Personalising your outreach link building emails doesn’t mean sending a generic email with a few parts personalised. To stand out from everyone else and to capture the attention of the person reading your email, you need to write customized emails that show you have taken time to familiarise yourself with what the website looks for when it comes to content pitches.
2. Pitching Topics That Have No Relevance or That Have Been Done Loads of Times Before
This point follows on from the previous one as you not only have to personalise and customise the emails you send, you also have to personalise the pitch.
The first thing to avoid is pitching topics that are not relevant to the website. Don’t assume anything when considering this point, either. The only way you can determine whether your idea is relevant is to read through any guidelines the website offers and to also browse through previously published posts.
Another mistake you should avoid making is pitching a topic that has already been covered multiple times. Instead, you need to come up with something different. This could be a different topic completely or something that offers a fresh perspective, a new angle, or new ideas on an existing topic.
3. Sounding Unprofessional and/or Failing to Give Enough Information
The tone and style of the emails you send are very important. To start with, they need to be professional and well-written.
You should also include clear and concise information on who you are and what you are proposing. This information includes:
- The name of your company and what you do
- Links to your company’s website
- Details on why the author has credibility or is an authority on the topic
- A brief and descriptive summary of the article and the topics that will be covered
- Your business contact details, including a business email address
In other words, don’t leave the recipient guessing about any of the above information. Give it to them upfront.
You should also give examples of websites that have previously published your content. When including these examples, only include the highest quality websites and make sure all the links still work.
It is also helpful to include writing samples, but make sure they are relevant to the pitch you are making.
Be careful with your subject line, too. You should avoid making it sound spammy, and don’t over-promise. Instead, make your subject lines for outreach link building emails concise and to the point.
4. Creating Sub-Standard Content
After you have gone through the process of getting your pitch for a link building article accepted, you need to deliver on your promises. This means never sending content that is sub-standard or that deviates from your original pitch.
Your goal should be to build a relationship with the website owner so you can go back to them in the future to have new link building articles published. Sending sub-standard content, however, is likely to end the relationship.
5. Not Following Up
As mentioned previously, not all of your article pitches will be successful. In fact, you are likely to have more rejected or ignored than accepted. This is important to understand, but it is also important to follow up.
You can’t send one email and hope for the best. The people receiving your emails are busy, or they could have been off on the day you sent the email. Sending creative and professional follow-up emails can also demonstrate enthusiasm.
So, always follow up if you don’t hear anything back. Make sure you leave enough time before you send a follow-up email as you don’t want to come across as pushy. If you still haven’t heard anything after one or two follow-ups, it’s probably best to move on.
Bonus Tip: Analyse and Improve
When it comes to guest outreach link building, the thing that usually separates SEO professionals from others is the desire to continuously improve. In other words, whether your content outreach campaign is successful or not, you should always analyse what you have done, and the results achieved, to identify areas you can improve.
Going through this analysis process will improve the success rate of future outreach link building efforts, helping deliver the real and long-lasting SEO results that you want to achieve.
Author Bio: Having over 8 years of experience in Search Engine Optimization, Areesh is working as a SEO projects manager in New Zealand Top SEO Firm Kiwi Website Design. Areesh loves to write informative content and spreading worth-sharing information about SEO and Digital Marketing.
