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White Hat SEO:The Definitive Guide

This is a complete guide to white hat SEO.

So if you want to rocket your site to Google’s first page (without breaking the rules), you’ll love the strategies and tips in this guide.

We’ve got a lot to cover, so let’s get started.

White Hat SEO: The Definitive Guide

About The Author

Hey, it’s Brian Dean.

When I launched my first website back in 2010, I used 100% black hat SEO.

Keyword stuffing.

Shady links.

And strategies that were designed to “trick” Google.

Even though these shady tactics worked temporarily… they didn’t last.

That’s why I eventually switched over to a white hat SEO approach.

(In other words, Google-approved SEO strategies)

Introduction: Author, Brian Dean

And it worked!

Today, thanks to the strategies in this guide, my site ranks on Google’s first page for thousands of different keywords, including competitive ones like, “keyword research tools”:

"keyword research tools" SERPs

And now it’s time for me to share these strategies with you.

Chapter 1:Keyword Research

Chapter 1: Keyword Research

In this chapter you’ll learn exactly how to find keywords that your customers search for every day.

Specifically, I’ll walk you through 5 proven keywords strategies that I personally use to find keywords.

Let’s kick things off with our first strategy…

Find Awesome Long Tail Keywords With Google Suggest

This couldn’t be simpler:

Just type in a keyword that you want to rank for…

Weight loss search

…and jot down the keywords that Google suggests.

Weight loss suggest

Why is this important?

Well, most people struggle with SEO because they target keywords that are too competitive.

(I can’t tell you how many people email me saying: “I want to rank #1 in Google for ‘weight loss’.” #facepalm)

That’s why Google Suggest is so darn powerful:

These suggested keywords are “long tail keywords” that aren’t insanely competitive.

But because Google is suggesting them, you know that people actually search for them.

Copy Competitors’ Keywords

Honestly, this is my go-to keyword research strategy right now.

You can easily spend HOURS hunting around for the right keyword.

Or you can just steal the exact keywords that your competition is targeting.

Here’s how it works:

First, find a competing site that’s doing really well with its SEO.

Then, pop that site into a keyword research tool like SEMrush.

Semrush – Input website

Bam! You get a list of the exact keywords that the site already ranks for.

Semrush – Backlinko – Keywords

Online Communities

This strategy is simple:

First, head over to an online community where your audience hangs out, like Reddit.

Paleo subreddit

Then, pay attention to the words and phrases people use over and over again.

(Especially when asking questions)

Paleo subreddit questions

These questions make GREAT keywords.

If you want to automate this process, check out Answer The Public.

Answer The Public

It’s a free tool that analyzes the web for questions that people ask around your topic.

Answer The Public – Results

Google Search Console

Here’s one of my favorite ways to find new keywords.

First, head over to the “Performance Report” in the new Google Search Console.

Google Search Console – Performance Report

By default, you’ll see keywords sorted by number of clicks.

The thing is:

These are keywords that you already get traffic from. So sorting by clicks isn’t super helpful.

Instead, sort the queries by “impressions”:

Google Search Console – Sort by impressions

And take note of any keywords that you could create a great piece of content around.

Good keywords

Why?

Well, if you already “accidentally” rank for this keyword…

…imagine how easily you could rank if you actually tried!

Speaking of ranking with content, that’s what the next chapter is all about.

Chapter 2:Amazing Content

Chapter 2: Amazing Content

When it comes to search engine optimization, content is EVERYTHING.

In fact, when you consistently publish great content on your site, you’re well on your way to the top of Google’s first page.

Fortunately, publishing amazing content isn’t as hard as it sounds.

All you need to do is make sure that every piece of content that you publish has the three features I’ll outline below:

Feature #1: Long, In-Depth Content

If you want to rank higher on Google, you need to STOP publishing generic, “me too” content.

(Like: “5 Tips for X” or “7 Reasons to Start Y”).

Why?

A recent study of search engine ranking factors found a strong correlation between in-depth content and rankings:

Content and rankings correlation

In other words:

Content that ranks well today covers an entire topic on one page.

For example:

Earlier this year I found a keyword that I wanted to rank for: “Mobile SEO”.

Instead of a generic list post, I created a massive 4,000+ word guide:

Mobile SEO Guide

And because my guide shows you EVERYTHING you need to know about mobile optimization, it very quickly climbed up to the top 3 in Google:

Mobile SEO SERPs

Feature #2: Satisfies User Intent

Thanks to an AI technology called Google RankBrain, Google can measure whether or not searchers are satisfied with a particular set of search results.

In other words:

If your content gives searchers what they want, Google will rank you higher.

For example, check out this piece of content that I first published a few years back: 21 Actionable SEO Techniques That Work GREAT.

SEO Techniques

My primary keyword for that page is: “SEO Techniques”.

So before I wrote a single word, I asked myself:

“What would someone searching for this keyword want to read?”.

In this case, the answer was pretty obvious: they want to get a list of no-nonsense SEO methods.

So I didn’t start my content off with a lots of background information. Instead, after a very short intro, my post dives right into tip #1:

SEO Techniques – Immediate information

And because my result makes people happy, Google WANTS to show it to more people.

(Which means more website traffic for me!)

Feature #3: Great User Experience and Readability

Like I just mentioned, Google closely tracks how people interact with your site.

Specifically, Google pays VERY close attention to one thing:

The amount of time that people stay on your page.

If Google notices that people leave your site after a few seconds, you can expect a rankings drop.

Pogo stick effect

(Want to see a real-life example of this happening to my site? Check out the video below)

So: how do you keep searchers on your site longer?

Here are two simple tips that work great:

First, write an introduction that gets straight to the point.

For example, check out the brief intro from this post on my blog about SEO tools:

SEO Tools – Intro

Next, make sure your content is SUPER easy to read.

That means…

Big font (15px+):

Font size

Lots of subheadings:

Subheadings

And short paragraphs (1-2 sentences MAX):

Short paragraphs

Now that you’ve published a piece of awesome content, it’s time for chapter 3.

That’s where you’ll learn how to keyword-optimize your content.

Chapter 3:On-Page SEO

Chapter 3: On Page SEO

Here’s the deal:

There’s a lot more to on-page SEO than just “optimizing your meta tags”.

And in this chapter I’ll show you four of my favorite on-page SEO strategies.

So if you’ve ever wondered: “How do I actually use keywords in my content?”, you’ll LOVE the tactics and case studies in this chapter.

Strategy #1: Descriptive URLs

Google uses your page’s URL to understand what your content is about:

Google Guide

That’s why you want your URLs to be:

  1. Short
  2. Keyword-rich

For example, my target keyword for this blog post is “ecommerce SEO”:

Ecommerce SEO post

So I made the URL for that webpage: /ecommerce-seo:

Keyword in URL

Simple.

Strategy #2: Internal Links

Why is internal linking important?

Two reasons:

First, these internal links help Google understand your content better.

How? Google looks at the anchor text that you use in your internal links.

In other words:

Keyword-rich anchor text helps Google understand the topic of the page that you’re linking to.

Keyword rich anchor text helps Google understand

For example, this internal link helps Google understand that the page I’m linking to is about “RankBrain”:

Internal link

Second, internal links send link authority to pages that need it, which can give them a rankings boost.

Internal links rankings boost

Strategy #3: Use Keywords Strategically

In the old days of SEO, you could rank your site using a black hat technique known as “keyword stuffing”.

(This meant cramming keywords into your content 1000 times)

Today, search engines are MUCH more sophisticated.

Which means that keyword stuffing doesn’t work anymore.

What does?

Using your target keyword (and close variations of that term) a handful of times on your page.

Like in your title tag:

Title tag

The beginning of your content:

Beginning of content

And in H1 or H2 tag:

In heading

Strategy #4: Optimize Images With Alt Tags

Remember:

Google, Bing and other search engines can’t “see” your images.

Instead, they rely on the text they see in “alt tags”.

And when you optimize your images using descriptive alt tags, Google can get a full grasp of your content’s overall topic.

(Which can help it rank for more keywords)

For example, check out this image from my post about getting more traffic to your website:

Increase in traffic

What does that image show? An increase in traffic.

So I made my alt text for that image: “increase in traffic”.

Image alt text

Who said SEO had to be complicated 🙂

Chapter 4:Link Building

Chapter 4: Link Building

There’s no doubt about it:

If you want to rank your site to the top of Google’s search results, you need backlinks.

(And lots of ‘em)

The question is:

How do you build backlinks to your site WITHOUT resorting to black hat link building strategies?

It’s simple, actually: just stick to the four white hat link building strategies in this chapter.

Strategy #1: The Skyscraper Technique

The Skyscraper Technique is as white hat as it gets.

First, you evaluate Google’s first page for content that’s already ranking well.

Next, you figure out what that content has in common.

Finally, you write a post that’s similar to what you just found… but WAY better.

For example:

A while back, I wanted to create something around the topic of: “how to optimize videos”.

So I did a search for terms like “video SEO”:

Video SEO search

And I analyzed each piece of content that was ranking in the SERPs.

SERPs sample

(By the way, SERP = Search Engine Results Page)

Anyway:

I noticed that most of the content I found were list posts and guides.

To me, a guide made the most sense for this keyword. So I went with that.

Specifically, I wrote a guide that CRUSHED the other guides about video SEO:

Video SEO Guide

And because my content deserves to rank on Google’s first page, it now ranks in the top 3 for my target keyword:

"video SEO" SERPs

Strategy #2: Broken Link Building

This is one of my favorite white hat SEO tactics.

Here’s how it works:

First, find a page on the web that you’d like to get a link from.

Page you want a link from

Next, use a tool like Check My Links to scan the page for broken links.

Check my links

Lastly, let the person that runs the site that their page has a broken link:

Broken link outreach

(And if you have a page on your site that could replace the broken link, suggest that they replace that content with the dead link)

Strategy #3: Industry Studies and Original Research

This strategy definitely takes some work.

But when done right, an industry study can land you LOTS of backlinks.

For example, earlier this year we published a study about ranking signals that impact voice search SEO.

Voice Search SEO study

Even though this content is only a few months old, it’s already racked up an impressive 521 backlinks.

Voice Search SEO study – Backlinks

Strategy #4: Guest Posting

When it comes to guest posting, you have two options:

You can write guest posts for any site that will publish your content (even if the site isn’t remotely related to yours).

OR

You can publish guest posts on authority sites in your niche.

And make no mistake:

When it comes to SEO, these two approaches are VERY different.

In fact, Google considers spammy guest blogging a “link scheme” that can get your site penalized:

Google Policy Guestposting

In my case, I ONLY write guest posts for sites in my niche, like this one that I wrote for the Buffer blog:

Brian Buffer guest post

And I recommend you do the same.

Chapter 5:Technical SEO

Chapter 5: Technical SEO

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:

Technical SEO can make or break your entire site’s SEO efforts.

Really.

Fortunately, thanks to lots of helpful tools, you don’t need to be a coder to master technical SEO.

And in this chapter I’ll show you four of the most important technical SEO best practices:

Speed Up Loading Time

Google is usually secretive about the factors that go into their algorithm.

But there’s one factor they’re not shy about:

The importance of your site’s loading speed.

Loading speed importance

So:

How do you know if your site is fast enough?

First, use a Google tool called PageSpeed Insights.

Google PageSpeed Insights – Homepage

If you have bloated code or huge images slowing down your page, this tool will tell you about it:

Google PageSpeed Insights – Results

If you want to dig deeper, try WebPageTest:

WebPageTest

Unlike Google’s PageSpeed Insights, WebPageTest gives you A LOT of details on your site’s performance…

WebPageTest results

…and hooks you up with actionable things you can do to reduce your site’s loading time.

WebPageTest recommendations

Use a Smart Site Architecture

When your site is brand new with only a few pages, your site architecture doesn’t matter that much.

But as your site grows, your architecture becomes REALLY important.

What do I mean by “site architecture”, exactly?

It’s how the pages on your site are organized and arranged.

The goal is to keep your architecture “flat”. That way, it only takes 3-4 clicks to go from one page to any other page on your site.

Site architecture

Why is this important?

Flat architecture helps link authority “flow” from one page to another… which can improve the search rankings for every page on your site.

Fix Errors

Next, use the uber-helpful Google Search Console to find errors and problems with your site’s technical SEO.

Just head over to the “Index coverage report”.

Index coverage report

And see if Google has trouble finding your important pages (which can happen if you blocked Googlebot by mistake).

Google Search Console – Errors

As you can see, everything is A-OK for me.

But if you do run across errors, I recommend checking out Chapter 2 of my guide to the Google Search Console, which breaks down errors that you might run into.

Be Mobile Friendly

You might have heard that Google has largely moved to a new “mobile-first index”:

Mobile-first index

Let me be the first to tell you:

This is a VERY big deal.

For the first time ever, Google considers the mobile version of your site the only version that matters.

That’s why it’s important to use a tool like the “Mobile-Friendly Test” to make sure Google considers your site easy to use for mobile searchers.

Mobile-Friendly Test results

Now that your technical SEO is all good, it’s time for something cool:

A bonus chapter where I walk you through a real life case study of someone that used white hat SEO to rank #1 in Google for his target keyword.

Keep reading…

Chapter 6:Case Studies

Chapter 6: Bonus Chapters

In this chapter you’re going to see two white hat SEO case studies.

First, you’re going to learn how Emil rocketed his site to the #1 spot in Google.

Then you’ll see how Richard boosted his organic traffic by 348%… in 7 days.

Case Study #1: How Emil Ranked #1

Today you’re going to learn how Emil rocketed his site to the #1 spot in Google using ethical, white hat SEO.

(And a good amount of content marketing)

Let’s walk you through the specific steps that Emil used…

Step #1: Find an Awesome Keyword

Emil’s company sells snacks to offices.

SnackNation homepage

And didn’t take Emil long to figure out that VERY few people searched for healthy office snacks.

For example, a keyword like “healthy office snack ideas” gets only 10 – 100 searches per month.

"healthy office snack ideas" low monthly searches

But here’s the interesting part:

Emil realized that people interested in healthy office snacks are ALSO interested in the broad topic: “employee wellness”.

So he popped “employee wellness” into the Google Keyword Planner

Employee wellness Google Keyword Planner search

…and voila! — he found this gem of a keyword:

Wellness program ideas

Step #2: Find Content That Already Ranks for That Keyword

Once you’ve found a keyword, it’s time to get a feel for what’s already out there…

…so you can destroy it.

(Yes, I let out an evil laugh when I wrote that ????)

So:

How do you find content that’s already done well?

A simple Google search.

Simply search for your target keyword (and a few closely-related keywords), and see what comes up.

Wellness program ideas search

For example:

Emil Googled “employee wellness program ideas”, “wellness programs” and “corporate wellness programs”:

Corporate wellness programs

And he noticed a few trends in the results.

(Namely: most of the results were lists of program ideas, they lacked visuals, and they didn’t provide any details of how to actually implement each program)

Lists lacking visuals

Step #3: Create Something That Deserves To Rank #1

Here’s the truth:

First page rankings have NOTHING to do with “keeping your site updated with fresh, quality content”.

Instead, your ability to hit the first page (and stay there long-term) depends on ONE thing:

Creating something that deserves to rank #1.

Here’s how Emil did exactly that:

1

Emil’s post listed more wellness program ideas than any other guide

Most of the content that Emil found only talked about 5-10 wellness program ideas:

Bad wellness example

So Emil went crazy and listed a whopping 121 ideas (more on that later).

2

Emil asked experts to contribute ideas

Emil’s company partners with dozens of healthy snack companies.

And Emil guessed that these health-obsessed offices would be happy to share the wellness programs they used.

And he was right.

Emil got his team to ask their partners to send their best creative ideas:

Emil – Team outreach

And, as you can see, these partners were happy to lend a hand:

Response to Emil
3

Emil split up his content into sections

Let’s face it:

Sifting through a huge amount of items on a list can be a real a chore.

Despite that fact, many of the articles ranking in Google didn’t organize their ideas into sections:

Bad wellness site – No sections

That’s why Emil decided to organize his list of ideas into 7 categories:

Emil – Sections

Not only do these sections make Emil’s content easier to skim, but they got him nifty sitelinks in Google:

Emil – Sitelinks
4

Emil added multimedia to make his content more visually appealing

Like I mentioned earlier, most of the articles ranking on page 1 had VERY few visuals, like images, charts, or videos:

Lack of competition

That’s why Emil peppered his post with eye-catching images…

Emil – Post with images

…and helpful videos:

Emil video in post

And after a few tweaks, Emil’s kick butt post was live: “121 Employee Wellness Program Ideas For Your Office“.

Emil – Finished post

Now that Emil’s post was live, it was time to celebrate right?

Wrong.

I probably don’t need to tell you that hitting “publish” is just the beginning.

That’s why I want to show you the exact content promotion strategies that Emil used to get the word out about his new guide.

Step #4: Promote Your Epic Content

Here’s how Emil promoted (and built links) to his content.

Emil Used “Pre-Outreach”

Once Emil put the finishing touches on his post, he knew he had something special.

That’s why he decided to promote his post…

…before he even published it.

(This is known as “Pre-Outreach”)

Here’s how it went down:

First, Emil found blogs that wrote about employee wellness. And he sent them this message:

Emil – Outreach message

Because he didn’t beg for a link or share, they were happy to hear from him:

Emil – Outreach message response

In fact, one of the people that Emil reached out to linked to him later that day:

Emil – Link

(And several people shared his blog post on social media)

Emil Promoted With “The Content Roadshow”

Next, Emil promoted his content with “The Content Roadshow”.

Let me show you how The Content Roadshow works:

First, Emil searched for bloggers that wrote about employee wellness, human resources and other related topics.

Emil – Search

And when he found a piece of great content like this one…

RecruiterBox site

…he emailed the author:

Emil – Email to RecruiterBox

In this case, Kristi asked Emil to submit his content to her roundup:

Emil – RecruiterBox response

He did… and got a sweet backlink in return:

Emil – Backlink

Emil Emailed Brands

Next, Emil emailed the other companies that he referenced in his post.

For example, Emil mentioned Authority Nutrition here:

Authority Nutrition

And sent them a message to let them know that they’ve been featured:

Emil – Authority nutrition email

As you can see, they happily shared his post:

Authority Nutrition response

Emil Built Backlinks

Now that Emil had some social proof going, it was time to get down and dirty with link building.

Here’s the exact process that Emil used:

First, he searched for his target keyword in Google…

Emil – Target keyword Google search

…and popped the top 50 results into a spreadsheet:

Emil's spreadsheet

Next, Emil found out who linked to the top 50 results.

He popped each URL into a backlink analysis tool:

Emil – Ahrefs URL

And went one-by-one through the results.

Emil – Ahrefs results

Then he emailed each of those people to let them know about his new, superior resource.

Let’s take a look at a real life example of Emil’s outreach in action…

Here’s his first email:

Emil's first outreach email

Her response:

Emil – First outreach email response

His second email (with a link to his content)

Emil – Second outreach email

Boom! A link:

Emil – Another backlink

All of these links led to a solid uptick in traffic:

Emil – Traffic increase

And a #1 Google ranking:

Number one in SERPs

(Because Emil didn’t do anything shady, these rankings should last over the long run)

Case Study #2: How Richard Got 348% More Traffic

Now it’s time show you how Richard boosted his organic traffic by 348%… in 7 days.

The craziest part?

Richard got these results in a SUPER competitive niche (digital marketing).

Here’s what went down:

Step #1: Richard Found a Keyword

As an SEO newbie, Richard wanted to know which white hat SEO tools the experts used (in other words, not automated black hat tools).

And when he typed “link building tools” into SEMRush, he noticed that this keyword got a decent amount of searches every month.

Richard – SEMRush

Step #2: Richard Sized Up The Competition

When Richard went through the first page results for “link building tools”, he wasn’t super impressed:

Link building tools – SERPs

Most were lists of tools, like this:

Tools list

Sure, a list like this can be pretty helpful.

But lists like these don’t answer the fundamental question: “Which link building tools should I use?”

That’s when he decided to create something that DID answer that question.

Step #3: Richard Created an Awesome Piece of Content

Like I said, Richard was brand new to SEO.

So he wasn’t about to write a post like: “Here’s the best link building tool on the planet”.

Instead, he emailed 115 influential people in the SEO space…and got 47 replies (that’s a 41% conversion rate).

Richard outreach

The end result is Richard’s expert roundup post, 55 SEO Experts Reveal 3 Favorite Link Building Tools:

Richard – Post

Step #4: Richard Promoted His Content With Email Outreach

Specifically, he used Broken Link Building (which I outlined in Chapter 4).

First, he found pages with broken links.

And he sent the author of that page this script:

Richard outreach email

When they replied saying “What’s the broken link?”, he sent them this email:

Richard's outreach reply

And he was rewarded with a handful of high quality backlinks:

Outreach response

Including links from:

  • SearchEngineLand.com (DA92)
  • An authority resource page
  • A popular digital marketing firm’s blog

And those links led to a HUGE spike in organic traffic (an increase of 348% to be exact):

Richard – Traffic spike

Now, Over To You...

Your Turn

What did you think of my new guide to white hat SEO?

Or maybe you have a question about a strategy or technique from the guide.

Either way, I’d like to hear what you have to say.

So go ahead and leave a comment below right now.

811 Comments

  1. Dannnng Richard is PERSISTENT. But in all seriousness, I really liked that he refined his outreach technique to be more efficient and the fact that he actually saw far better results.

    Nice work Richard and thanks for the write-up Brian!

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      I know, right? But that’s what it takes to grab the attention of the ballers in any industry. Thanks for reading, Nathan 🙂

    1. Thanks Nathan! It was a huge relief to discover that short, snappy emails worked better!

  2. Brian Clapp Avatar Brian Clappsays:

    Brian – great article and I already have an idea I can execute this technique on… but I have one question – how do you discover broken links on other sites that are relevant to your article? If you’ve written on this in the past, can you point me toward the resource?
    all the best,
    Brian Clapp

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Glad you enjoyed it, Brian. That’s a great question. I actually use a Chrome extension called Check My Links. It finds all the broken links on a page VERY quickly. To help automate the process of finding pages and checking for broken links, I’ve also used the (paid) tool at BrokenLinkBuilding.com, which I really like.

      1. Joe Avatar Joesays:

        I’m sure you’ve heard of it Brian, but the Domain Hunter Chrome extension is another great tool.

        1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

          Thanks Joe. I have tried their tool and REALLY like it. I just prefer Check My Links because I found that it works a bit faster. But you’re right: that’s another great tool to use.

      1. If I am not mistaken, Brian was wondering how to find contextual broken links on websites other than his own? Check My Links only verifies pages that you open in your browser. For 404 discovery you would need to use tools such as brokenlinkbuilding.com that was mentioned by Brian, right?

    1. Sure you guys know this but the real power of the Check My Links extension idea is not only being able to see broken backlinks on for example with Kendal’s situation UK job related resource pages, but what you can then also do is grab the backlink profiles of those broken link sites from say Ahrefs or Majestic, and ALL those links will be broken too :).

      So each broken link can yield possibly hundreds more prospects if you can that’s site’s link profile as well, which can be kinda cool.

  3. Adam Roseland Avatar Adam Roselandsays:

    Great post. Looking forward to SEO That Works!! Tried to sign up and find out when it launched and the realized I was already on the list! NICE!!!

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks Adam! I can’t wait to get the course out to everyone. And I’ll definitely have to stop by for another podcast session in a few weeks 🙂

      1. Adam Roseland Avatar Adam Roselandsays:

        I’m looking forward to it!

  4. Great stuff as usual, Brian, but he missed my favorite SEO tool. It’s called Brian Dean.
    Thanks!

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks Kathy! That means a lot to hear 🙂

  5. Damn Brian, You rock like mad, this is simple to implement though it requires a huge amount of energy. But it’s worth the effort. Signing up for your article is really worth it. I give you a thumbs up.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks Peter! You’re 100% right: it’s simple but not easy. Let me know if you give it a try.

  6. Hey Brian, thank you so much for doing this case study and for all your guidance over the last couple of weeks 🙂 The Skyscraper technique is earth shatteringly powerful! I can’t recommend it enough and will continue using it for many future posts.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      My pleasure, Richard. Glad to see that the technique worked out so well for your site.

  7. Brad Avatar Bradsays:

    Very detailed article. I especially like the sample emails. I’d be interested to see the email which ‘gently encourages them to share’.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks for reading, Brad. I’ll see if Richard will send me that email template (even though it didn’t work especially well in his case).

      1. Brad Avatar Bradsays:

        In that case, I’d be interested in knowing what you’d suggest for copy to get the best possible success rate.

        1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

          For straight up link begging, I’ve found that something simple and straightforward works. My script is something like: “I found your list of resources. I also have a good one. It’d be great if you could add mine to the list”. There are a few tricks to make it more effective, but that’s the basic gist.

  8. I was wondering how you could apply the same type of method with local businesses. For instance a hotel, most have a corporate face where you cannot exactly email the web guy or whatever seo firm is in charge of their social marketing

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Good question, Rob. This can definitely work for local businesses. But you’re right: it takes a slightly different approach. One of the hardest parts of doing outreach for brick and mortar business or large sites is finding the right person to get in touch with. If you dig deep you can usually find the right email address somewhere on the site. If not, I recommend using the general “contact us” page and asking them to forward your message to the right person.

      1. When I published 151 Things to Do in Carmel CA, I wanted to contact the businesses/places that I had referenced in the article. Many just had a contact form on their site or something like info@yadayada.com. I just sent my generic intro email and 100% responded positively that they wanted the link to the article. In most cases I got a ‘real’ email address and name when they replied. That’s the beauty of using Brian’s strategy of sending an intro email first (without the link), asking them if they would like to have it. It forces them to reply, versus if you simply send over the link.

        1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

          Great tip there, Heather. That’s a great way to squeeze some helpful info out of a generic email.

  9. Excellent case study, Brian/Richard. I have bee blogging for a few years and just recently found out how important promotion really is. Like Derek Halpern says, “20% of your time should be focused on writing and 80% should be focused on promotion”.

    Richard obviously spent a ton of time on this one post, but it should work FOR him for the long time. Well done, Richard! Way to take action and as always, thanks for the tips, Brian!

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks for reading, Adam. I 100% agree with Derek’s take on blog growth. I’d even go as far to say — especially when you’re first starting out — that you may even want to spend 90%+ of your time promoting the content you already have.

    1. Cheers Adam! It was indeed an incredibly time consuming process and I lost a lot of sleep over it, but in the end it was totally worth it 🙂

  10. Old school beating the pavement and finding content holes! Great read. I plan on trying to do the same for my niche which is selling niche websites based on Adsense monetization. I can see the hardest part is going to be the initial outreach, luckily I can use the short and sweet approach you posted with a little modification to suit my topic. This will be interesting to see how it goes. As always, great post bro, keep em coming.
    -Jay

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Absolutely, Jay: this is the type of SEO people were doing back in the 90s. And as you can see, it still works well today! Let me know how the technique works out for your site.

  11. Ryan Cote Avatar Ryan Cotesays:

    Another great post Brian – thanks for pointing me to Richard’s post which is also very insightful. The lesson is simple – write epic content and then tell people about it. Good luck with your SEO That Works course – I’ll be buying it!

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks Ryan! That’s a great takeaway message from this case study: write epic content and tell people about it.

    1. J.G. Avatar J.G.says:

      I agree, good content will practically share itself, with a little nudge.

  12. Hi Brian, I typically love your advice and posts, but there were 2 things about this post that didn’t thrill me:
    1. All those 100-300% improvements look good in a headline, but they are quite dependent on working with super low traffic to begin with – a few hundred visits! Of course the technique works, but it will not produce the same % lift for sites with traffic in 5-6 digits. Need to set realistic expectations.
    2. I read about the skyscraper technique on QuickSprout blog by Neil Patel about a month ago – you and him applied the same technique while writing about it and the outcome is – the content isn’t unique!

    Thank you for all the advice. If you think getting 200% traffic lift in less than 6 months is possible for a content rich (200K indexed pages in Google) site with 100K+ visits a month, please contact me for a lucrative consulting gig 🙂

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks for your feedback, Lilia.

      You’re totally right: that kind of dramatic change isn’t possible for a site already getting traffic. But as you said, it can still give them a significant boost.

      Yes, Neil and I covered The Skyscraper Technique in our Advanced Guide to Link Building. But I thought it’d be cool to show people a real life example of the strategy in action 🙂

  13. Gabriel Avatar Gabrielsays:

    I think it work because is about seo – so everyone want to know more info. Hmm how about surveillance camera niche? Will this tehnique work? Let me think… No? I guess!

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks for your comment, Gabriel. You’re right: this works really well in the SEO niche. But it can work in almost every niche. Every niche has content that’s performed well and could use an update or improvement.

  14. Extremely smart way of generating compelling content, obtaining high quality links and helping to establish both yourself and your website as an authority source!

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks Nathan!

    1. Emil Shour Avatar Emil Shoursays:

      Thanks Nathan! This post was pivotal in establishing us as an authority in the employee wellness/engagement space. As we’ve done more and more high quality posts like this, our audience has grown tremendously and get more natural shares/links without us having to do as much promotion.

  15. James Avatar Jamessays:

    Thanks for this. Please could you explain how to use “Check My Links” more. Just say for instance that I have a great article that I want to promote and I am looking to do this by suggesting it as a replacement for a broken link (as described in your article above.) How do I find relevant web pages that might have relevant (but broken) links? Thanks.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Sure thing, James. That’s actually the hardest part of broken link building. One way is to find resource pages in your niche (because they tend to have a lot of links and therefore are more likely to have a few broken ones). When you find one, run Check My Links on it.
      Another strategy is to take a site in your niche and run it through brokenlinkcheck.com. That will show you all of the broken links on a site without having to use Check My Links.

      1. James Avatar Jamessays:

        Cheers, Glen & Brian. Very, very helpful

  16. Fantastic results with such a simple technique. Thanks for the post Brian!

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      My pleasure, Robert! Thanks for reading.

  17. There are so many to do as a SEO these days. Back in the old days, all we do is track competitors’ link profile and build slightly better links than them. Now, we need to post extraordinary content, reach out industry influencers, help others find broken links, etc. Some say the method you mentioned in this post is simple; I don’t think so. You need a lot of creativity to pull this one off; and creativity is not something you can learn by working hard.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks for your insights, Jerry. Good stuff 🙂 I also remember the days of “match and exceed” SEO. You’re right: Richard definitely put a lot of creativity into his guide. And his success was due to a combination of creativity and hard work.

  18. Kirk Avatar Kirksays:

    Awesome strategy, I know it works, after all i am on your site due to that reason, Great content!

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks Kirk! Let me know if you decide to try the strategy or have any questions.

  19. This is killer as always Brian! Seriously, with your blog posts and link building course I’ve learnt and successfully implemented more in the last month than I have this whole year. One day when I’m rich I’m gona buy you a shiny red race car to say thanks 🙂

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      That means a lot to hear, Glen. I work really hard on my blog post and course content, so it’s great to know that you’re getting so much value from it 🙂

  20. Martin Harris Avatar Martin Harrissays:

    Great article and well done Richard.

    Tbh, The SEO community is usually very willing when it comes to outreach (for obvious reasons). In some niches it can be a lot harder to gain rapport with industry influences that are willing to share your content, But still that’s nothing to take away from the hard work and persistence put into this.

    Well done Richard.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      That’s a good point, Martin: not all industries are receptive to outreach. I’ve found that the SEO community is a mixed bag. On one hand, there are a lot of people in the community really open to outreach (as you pointed out). The flip side of that is that they know every trick in the book. So have to be REALLY creative to get your links.

    1. Thanks a lot Martin!

      I’ve indeed found the SEO community to be an amazing group of people. The support I’ve had from outreach has been phenomenal. A few people even went the extra mile and helped nudge some of their friends to get a response back to me 🙂

  21. Mikk Avatar Mikksays:

    Brian you are the beast. Keep it up.
    I have been extremely busy lately therefore I haven’t managed to contact you. However, I’m going to give you a “small” donation in the next few months for being helpful through e-mails and helped me in every single possible way. By the way, what theme are you using? Is it genesis?
    Cheers!

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Good to hear from you, Mikk. A donation, huh? Sounds interesting. I use Thesis theme here at Backlinko.

  22. Matthew Ortner Avatar Matthew Ortnersays:

    That was truly incredible techniques for marketing, not just for SEO but it’s also great for social media optimization too. Thanks a billion for sharing such great insight and would love consume more information from you in future.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks, Matthew.

  23. carl Avatar carlsays:

    Thanks Carl for the heads up about this post. I love it and its eye opening.

  24. Really love the write up, love the commitment shown, love the results… But I think I love the Pokemon image outreach emails the best! (Shame that they’re the less effective approach 🙂 )

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Those emails were cool, right? They actually worked OK for them but he wasn’t able to send them out in bulk. Thanks for reading, Rob.

    1. Hey Rob, glad you liked the funny images.

      It was a shame they didn’t get a good response rate, but, after thinking about it, I reckon it’s because I fixed the link in the first email. It would have been better if I’d just used the images to alert them to a broken link first and then fixed the link later once they replied.

      Since revisiting many of the sites I gave the “heads up” to I’ve noticed that most people did in fact fix their broken links, so it might be worth trying images again with this change in strategy and see what happens.

  25. Wow!
    Brian,this article is amazing!!!
    What’s a perfect method which I never think about!
    Find the gap,fill it and then tell to the world,it’s really simple concept but always be overlooked,thanks,I will try it!

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks Allen! Give me a heads up if you decide to try it out.

  26. Great article … really interesting! However there’s a small typo here:
    “In total, he emailed 115 influential people in the SEO space and got 47 replies (that’s a 54% conversion rate).”

    There’s something wrong with the math 🙂

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks Massimo. You’re right: that’s a typo. I just fixed it 🙂

  27. Great stuff Brian and I guess Richard was spot on with his technique of reaching out to influencers and get their thoughts.
    I also co-host #SEOTalk Twitter Chat and it happens on Monday 10AM EST (it’s scheduled to suit some Indian audience), would be glad to have you as guest some time and talk about this or some other SEO techniques. Let me know!

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Glad you enjoyed it Malhar. I’d definitely like to stop by as a guest. I’ll send you an email to arrange that.

  28. This case study has shown some very true fact of SEO that works , and which anyone can follow to win the race with it. Thanks @briand sharing this great piece of white hat SEO guide !

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      You’re 100% right Rambabu: this is a strategy that almost anyone can follow for higher rankings.

  29. Brian, thanks for this great post. I gave me a great idea for my next article. Will try to do similar thing in Forex niche.
    Thank you once again.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Sounds good, Rimantas. Let me know if you have any questions along the way.

  30. Brian , once again a nice way to build backlinks. You always come with creative ways thats why i like your blog. I am gonna use Skyscraper Technique for my blog.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Glad you liked it. Let me know how The Skyscraper Technique works out for you.

  31. Charly The Pearl Avatar Charly The Pearlsays:

    Hi Brian,
    That was cool. I am going to try it. I think the promotion piece will be the most challenging for me. But I am all in. Thanks so much.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Glad you enjoyed it Charly. You’re right: the promotion part is the definitely where the rubber meets the road. But I’m sure you’ll crush it 🙂

  32. Very good, Enjoyable peace of content.. great way of building high quality back links.. thanks for the tips

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks for reading, Bolivar.

  33. Such a wonderful article to understand the core of what we actually miss when we do SEO. rather focusing on keyword, answering what the users need should be the primary concern, but many times we miss that part totally and stick to back link building.

    Tweeting it right away.

    Robin.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Glad you enjoyed it, Robin. That’s true: writing content that your target audience loves is priority #1.

  34. Manthiramurthy Avatar Manthiramurthysays:

    Nice idea. Actually until today I never realized the importance of content. Will make sure I take time in posting the best content using your strategy and links should pour like rain 😉
    I have question. How do you get to target the right keyword for your promotion.? I mean how does Google know when your content goes live?

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Content is HUGE for branding, SEO, and referral traffic. Keyword research is important, but a bit too complicated to explain in a blog comment. I just use the Google Keyword planner and find keywords with decent search volume. Google knows when your content goes live from Twitter, your sitemap etc.

  35. Spook SEO Avatar Spook SEOsays:

    Hey Brian thanks for the comprehensive post. I’m a huge fan of guest posting and thy skyscraper technique.

    Are there any other techniques you can share than can bring in the easier wins on traffic?

    Thanks.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Glad you liked it. In terms of easy traffic wins, you’d be hard pressed to beat forum marketing. In my experience it’s one of the best (and fastest) ways to drive targeted traffic to your site.

  36. Brian for link out reach we can also use topsy and know who are sharing that post(1st position on Google for keyword) on Twitter or Google+ and mail them or contact them on twitter about the new resource.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      That’s a good tip, Sachin. I’m a big fan of finding people that have already shared similar content. They tend to convert really well.

  37. Nice post and its true that at times we caught under black hat techniques as at times we are getting fast results through this method but frankly speaking if you want to sustain for longer period of time in SEO World then one should avoid Black hat techniques and adopt white hat techniques as soon as possible…….

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Glad you liked it, Harsh. You’re right: this strategy gives you short-term and long-term results.

  38. Wow! Great article, I read a few SEO articles and don’t usually get much from them, but this one I am actually going to give a go, seems simple although requires the time and effort, but well worth it!

    Many thanks for sharing with us!

    George

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Sounds great, George. Let me know how the strategy works out for you or if you have any questions.

  39. Excellent article again 🙂 After reading your article now I learned how to promote articles. And increase backlinks to articles.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks Nilesh! Let me know if you have any questions about the process.

  40. Danny Avatar Dannysays:

    Very well written and refreshing post, Brian.
    I like the way you approached gaining big traffic increases via the white hat route, and sprinkled some insightful tips on what looks like a very effective method.
    Agree that, just throwing up post after post and hoping for that great visitor increases will magically arrive, is probably not a very good long term plan for any website.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Glad you enjoyed the post, Danny. That’s a good point: when I first started out I posted twice a week because that’s what most bloggers recommend. But it didn’t work very well for me. When I posted less often — and spent more time promoting the content I already had on my site — I saw MUCH better results.

  41. People think that if they post great content, users will magically appear and backlink them. There is so much more to Whitehat SEO than just great content. Great article!

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      That’s definitely a common myth. Glad to hear you agree that promotion is key 🙂

  42. Aaron Avatar Aaronsays:

    Hey Brian,

    A big pat on the back has to go to Richard for his implementation, we are working on a very similar thing (entirely different niche), I will keep you posted on how it goes… Real-life case studies like this are hugely encouraging for everyone trying to do SEO well and white-hat so thanks 🙂

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Glad you enjoyed the post, Aaron. I’d definitely love to hear how that works out for you. Keep me posted 🙂

  43. Venkat Avatar Venkatsays:

    Hey Brian, Awesome post. I thoroughly enjoyed it and really appreciate your time for this case study. It helps many a lot. I just came here at the right time considering the way Google is against many link building techniques.
    @Richard – A great idea well executed. Great stuff. Thanks for sharing the idea.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks for reading, Venkat. You’re right: it’s a good time to start learning these types of powerful (but safe) techniques.

  44. Mark Trueman Avatar Mark Truemansays:

    Hey Brian,

    This is one epic post. Like all your posts 🙂

    I love how you broke it down into easily repeatable steps. I generally email bloggers who wrote about similar topics after each of my posts. I get a decent response rate but you’re right, it takes forever to personalize. The process usually takes up a whole day.

    My emails are usually only about 4 lines long, but it still takes forever. I’m going to give the one liner emails a shot and see how it effects response rates.

    Awesome post again. Backlinko posts do a good job of getting me excited.

    – Mark T.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Thanks for your kind words, Mark! I’ve found the same thing: personalizing emails (even short ones) take forever. That’s why that initial “feeler” email works so well. You still have to personalize it, but it takes MUCH less time :-). Thanks again for stopping by, Mark.

  45. Rajiv Avatar Rajivsays:

    Incredible information, I learn many new point related to SEO. its quite informative post. Thanks for sharing huge information.

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Glad to hear my post taught you some new tricks, Rajiv.

  46. This is a great post on the case study, It’s quite hard work to get along with so many SEO’s from different areas and get information on their knowledge

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      Great point, Raheel. It’s not easy to get responses from so many busy people. But Richard did an amazing job.

  47. Hey Brian, great post! How would I use this technique in a blue collar industry? (Installing kitchen cupboards). Most if not all of our competitors/colleagues in this niche puts up a 5-10 page website with just a few pictures with very little linkbait content. I’m therefore stumped on ideas for content I can improve on and also who to message to promote it. [My competitors surely wouldn’t].

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      That’s a really good question, Raymond.

      You have two options:

      1. Come up with something truly original. You don’t always have to use another piece of content as inspiration. If you have a content idea that people would love to share and link to (like a tutorial on installing kitchen cupboards or a flowchart that helps people choose the right cupboards) you can use that.

      2. Look at other related industries (like DIY blogs) and see what type of stuff they’ve published that’s performed well. It doesn’t have to be perfectly niche-related. Something about woodworking or interior design is relevant enough.

      Hope that helps 🙂

  48. Sure! These are the techniques that really works. I like that and use them to seo of my client projects.

  49. If white works that fast, then imma go white!

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      That’s what I’m saying! I used to do 100% black hat SEO back in the day. Once I learned how to do white hat, I never went back.

  50. Good content and link building to good traffic. Nice information
    Thanks for sharing 🙂

    1. Brian Dean Avatar Brian Deansays:

      My pleasure. Give me a heads up if you have a question.

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