Recipe 013: Build links for existing content
Follow this recipe to identify your ideal target keywords, identify link opportunities, and implement a method that is not only scalable but maximizes your chances of acquiring those links.
Last Updated / Reviewed: 05/17/2022
🚀 Goal: To identify the keywords that you should be aiming to rank for, find relevant link opportunities and reach out to the respective sites to grow your external links.
🤔 Why this is important: Link building is an essential element of SEO. If you want to rank for competitive queries, you will need to build links.
🗓️ When this is done: Whenever you want to build links to your site. The frequency will depend on how many resources you have, how competitive your niche is, and how much content you have.
👨 Who does this: The person in charge of SEO / link building for your site.
__⚠️Prerequisites or requirements: __Some sections of the SOPs are performed using tools like Ahrefs, KWFinder or Buzzstream, but similar steps can be performed using competing tools.
Click here to get the most up-to-date version of this Recipe
Step 1 - Identify keywords your content could rank for
Click here to view this SOP 011: How to Do Keyword Research for SEO (web version).
Outcome: You have identified the most promising keywords that you want to rank for.
Special instructions: In an ideal scenario you would have performed keyword research first, and then you would have created content based on the result of your research.
Since that is not always possible when you start working with an existing website, you will use this SOP but with a small variation, instead of searching for keywords relevant to your business in general, you’ll search for keywords relevant for that page (while still being relevant for your business, of course).
Step 2 - Identify and reverse-engineer your competitors and reach out to relevant sites
Click here to view this SOP 071: How to launch a link building campaign for your existing content (web version)
Outcome: You have sent relevant, bulk-outreach emails to publishers that were linking to your competitor’s content, and provided them reasons to link to your existing content instead.
Special instructions: If you are trying to rank a single page, you will only be adding one blog post to your Template 025: Link Opportunities Worksheet (web version).