In the competitive realm of digital marketing, effective link building can significantly enhance a website’s authority and search visibility. In a recent experiment, we embarked on an outreach initiative involving 515 emails aimed at acquiring backlinks for a newly created statistical content page. This article delves into our findings, the methodology behind our outreach efforts, and essential takeaways that can guide your own link-building strategies.
Understanding the Objective
In the first episode of our series, we focused on developing linkable content centered around SEO statistics, theorizing that well-researched data could attract backlinks. Having identified around 4,200 potential outreach targets, it was critical to execute our outreach without bias from our existing audience. To do this, we made the page virtually invisible to existing followers by noindexing it and hiding it from our blog index, ensuring that any backlinks acquired were genuinely the result of our outreach efforts.
Outreach Campaign Results
Out of the 515 emails sent, we discovered that 473 were deliverable, while 42 bounced back. The results we achieved were compelling:
- Reply Rate: 17.55%, indicative of the interest in our campaign.
- Conversion Rate: 5.75%, translating to 27 links from unique domains.
- Unexpected Success: An additional five referring domains linked to our content organically, driven by external discovery and social shares, bringing our total to 32 referring domains, or a 6.8% conversion rate.
- Cumulative Editorial Links: We ultimately secured 36 editorial links from distinct posts, underscoring the value of our outreach template.
Quality Over Quantity
Looking at the quality of the links we acquired, we focused on editorial links situated within contextually relevant pages. The distribution of Domain Ratings (DR) showcased a healthy spread:
- DR 70 or greater: 28.1% of our referring domains.
- DR 40 to 69: 37.5%.
- DR 4 to 39: 34.4%.
Additionally, we monitored the domain-level search traffic, which highlighted that six linking websites received over 10,000 monthly visits, with one site attracting over a million visitors.
The Outreach Process
Our outreach strategy involved several methodical steps:
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Link Prospect Research: We began by analyzing the backlink profiles of top-ranking pages related to "SEO statistics." This allowed us to identify potential sites and their existing link anchors.
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Segmentation and Targeting: Our approach was to identify specific statistics that were commonly referenced yet outdated on the existing websites. This provided two angles for outreach — emphasizing the lack of recent data or the age of the statistic mentioned.
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List Compilation: Using tools like Google Sheets and Ahrefs, we collated and deduplicated a list of viable link prospects, narrowing it down to 902 URLs.
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Email Automation and Vetting: By employing APIs, we collected author names and email addresses efficiently, cross-referencing them for deliverability. This allowed us to focus on quality, ultimately resulting in 168 valid emails ready for outreach.
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Crafting Personalized Email Templates: Personalization was key in our outreach communication. Each email was tailored to reference the specific statistic mentioned in the recipient’s existing content. This strategy fostered a more genuine connection, ensuring that emails were not perceived as generic spam.
Sample Outreach Email
To illustrate our approach, here’s a sample of our email outreach template:
Hi [Name],
I noticed you referenced that 93% of online experiences begin with a search engine on your page about ecommerce SEO. That statistic is actually 14 years old. More recent research suggests that this number has dropped to 68%.
We published updated SEO statistics that might be worth checking out: [URL]. If you’re actively editing posts, this could be an opportunity for an update!
No pressure :)
Cheers,
[Your Name]
Evaluating the Results
Our reply rate of 17.55% exceeded industry standards, which average around 8.5%. However, whether our results qualify as good, bad, or average largely depends on the specific contexts of your own outreach campaigns, such as niche, target websites, and email strategies.
Final Thoughts
Link building remains a vital and often challenging endeavor in digital marketing. By sharing our insights and methodologies gained through this experiment, our hope is to empower you as you pursue your own link-building efforts. Success is often born from strategy, personalization, and continuous learning, and we encourage you to share your thoughts or queries as you navigate this intricate landscape of digital outreach.
Stay tuned for the final episode, where we will explore more strategies to enhance your link-building campaigns effectively!
