20 Ways to Build Links Using Blogger Outreach

You probably know that an optimized website and great content are an important part of SEO and they can help you get found in the search engines.

At this point in 2019, you’re probably no stranger to the other massively important ranking factor either.

I’m talking about link building.

Why Link Building?

Link building, or gaining backlinks, is the process of getting other sites to link to your site. Google loves quality links. The more credible sites you have linking to you, the better you look to Google, boosting your site in the search engine results. But there’s a catch. Building these links isn’t an overnight thing. Especially if you want to ensure only quality sites are linking to you. So are you wondering how to do blogger outreach? Here are 20 blogger outreach strategies to build quality backlinks.

#1 Expert contributors

One topic, many experts. Get multiple experts to contribute their input and compile a blog post, ebook or physical book. Let all your experts know when and where your big piece of content is accessible; they’ll be thrilled to be featured as an expert and many of them will link to your blog or your website when sharing the good news. Want more? Many of these bloggers will reciprocate, and ask you to contribute when they compile something similar, giving you more opportunities to have your link shared on other websites.

#2 Putting an embed code within an embed code

When you create a valuable infographic, others are going to want to use it. So you typically create an embed code to make it easy for them. But what if you tweak that embed code so that when anyone embeds it on their site, they are actually linking back to your website? Use this form to create your unique embed code.

#3 Add your link to shared photos

Do you have a photo that seems to be getting shared often? Do a Google search, or even set up a Google alert, and find out exactly who is using your photo. Reach out to them and ask if they can put the credit link in the photo’s meta field so any time the photo is clicked, people end up back at your site.

#4 Guest post on turbo

You already know that guest posting helps build backlinks. But here is another way to discover even more places to guest post. Start by finding a guest post done by one of your competitors. When businesses guest post, they typically use the same byline each time. So copy a piece of that byline and use it to search Google. You will find other places your competitor has guest posted, giving you lots of blogs you can pitch as well. Then you can even take it to the next level and scale your blogger outreach.

#5 Research competitor backlinks

Use Ahref’s Site explorer to find a competitor’s backlinks. Plug those links into an Excel sheet, upload it to Google Custom Search to help you find where they have guest posted or had sponsored posts written about their business. Use this data to find your own guest post or sponsored post opportunities. Even if it’s not guests posts, find emails for outreach faster.

#6 Find emails for outreach faster

The first thing you need to do when reaching out to bloggers is find those email addresses. There’s tons of email finding tools out there. We use Email Hunter a ton. You can also use ToutApp for Chrome or try Rapportive. It’s an add-on that gives you LinkedIn profiles right in your Gmail. So how are we going to use it to find e-mails? If you have a company name and a person’s name, you may be able to figure out their work email. Keep plugging in tentative emails until you find on that pops up with a real LinkedIn profile.

#7 Hack your blogger networking

If you have created a network around your business or your blog, create a badge for members to use on their site that shows they’re a member. Then Google reverse search the badge image and see who is using it. Reach out to those people and ask them to embed your link into the badge image.

#8 Create expert infographics

Similar to an expert blog post or book, you’re asking multiple bloggers to contribute to one infographic. Make the infographic using a tool like Venngage, quote the bloggers in the image, make sure your URL is embedded within the infographic embed code, and have the bloggers share it.

#9 Reach out on Twitter

Follow writers and bloggers from your industry on Twitter using best practices. Start interacting and building a relationship with them, that will turn into something more. They may start including your link in their posts, or even agree to let you guest post.

#10 Go a step further on Twitter

Check your mentions to see who has tweeted your content. Now reach out to them, thank them for sharing, and let them know they can link to your post. Not everyone will, but you will find that some people will add your link to their posts, their newsletters or other content. Sometimes it just takes a little nudge to get them moving.

#11 Use IFTTT to find PR opportunities

IFTTT (If This Than That) is a site that lets you create “recipes” that trigger one thing when something else happens. So use it to find PR opportunities on Twitter. Set up a recipe from Twitter to email (or even text if you’d like) so that any time the journalist hashtag #pprequest and your niche is used, you get an email alert.

#12 Use HARO

On the same note, use HARO (Help a Reporter Out) to get more press and links to your site. Sign up for free alerts for your industry and search through them daily to see if any fit your niche and your business.

#13 Run a blogger competition

Bloggers like to one-up their fellow bloggers, but they’re also extremely helpful and cooperative. And they gladly share each others’ posts and blogs, because they know other bloggers will do the same. So make use of this sharing tendency. Create a blogger competition where bloggers must write on a certain topic to enter. But here’s the catch! They also need to spread the word and nominate other bloggers for the competition. It’s a great way to get other bloggers involved, and spread the word about your competition and your link. Leverage technology with a competition engine like Gleam.io to make the process easier.

#14 Remedy broken links

But on other sites. If you come across a broken link on a website, reach out to the blogger. Let them know they have a broken link, and suggest one of your similar posts to replace it with. Chances are they will be so grateful that you pointed out the error in their site, that they will gladly replace the broken one with yours. They have commercial grade tools available to scale this type of outreach but be prepared to kiss a lot of frogs before generating a decent amount of links.

#15 Broken links on turbo

Don’t just stop there with the broken links. Toss that broken link into Open Source Explorer and find other sites that have linked to it. Now reach out to those sites as well, suggesting one of your links to replace it. Make sure you pick one of your links that fits the website or blog post to really boost your chances that they will accept your link.

#16 Get your customers to link to your site

If you have an intake form for your business, include a spot for them to leave their website URL, if they have a site. Keep track of these customers, and create a separate mailing list for those with a website. Send this list links to your most valuable content, free stuff, useful infographics with your link embedded, etc. and let them know they are free to share or use it in their content. You already know they have website, so the more valuable the content you share, the more likely they are to use it on their own site.

#17 Find who is linking to your competitors

Use the Clique Hunter tool offered by Majestic SEO. Plug in competitor URLs to help you quickly and easily find who is linking to them. Use this information to reach out regarding adding your own link, guest posting opportunities, collaborations and more.

#18 Beat the competition

You have an idea of who is linking to your competition. Now, use a tool like BuzzSumo or Ahrefs to you find posts that have a lot of links. Your job is to create a piece of content that is similar but better! We call this the SkyScraper technique. If a post is a top 10 post, create a top 25 list. If a post states some facts but doesn’t back it up properly, create way that is packed full of researched statistics and case studies. Now reach out to the sites that are linking to those other posts and see if they would consider linking to your new article.

#19 Comments on other blogs

It may sound simple, it may even seem like an afterthought. But commenting on competitor blogs is a great way to not only gain backlinks but to gain traffic. Many blog commenting systems allow you to put your website URL into their fields, along with your name and e-mail address. So whenever you leave a comment it automatically links back to your website. Sure, it’s usually a No-Follow link, but this could lead to a more referral traffic, awareness about your product and potentially inclusion in a future article.

#20 Mention bloggers in your posts

When writing a blog post, mention other bloggers, or use their site as an example of something great. You may already do this, but the step you could be missing is letting them know. Reach out through email or Twitter with a simple message saying you mentioned them in your post and your link. They will do the rest. They may share it on social media, on their newsletter or even keep you in mind for future linking to return the favor. Building quality backlinks via blogger outreach that actually raise your status with Google is no easy feat. To help give you some more perspective, we posed this question to SEO agency experts: How do you go about your blogger outreach? Please share any favorite tactics, tools or partners you use to attract quality links for your clients. Here is how the experts weighed in.