• Read chapter 1 now and get an introduction to link building and SEO.
• You are here
• Read chapter 3 now and learn white hat vs. black hat link building and SEO.
• Read chapter 4 now and learn guest posting for links.
• Read chapter 5 and learn about bad links SEO, get rid of them fast (here is how).
• Read chapter 6 now and learn email outreach and link building for SEO.
• Read chapter 7 now and learn going viral with backlinks.
• Read chapter 8 now and hear 23 experts provide their link building strategies.
• Read chapter 9 and get a weekly guide to building backlinks.
• Read chapter 10 and learn 70 backlinking resources you need to know. 

In the last chapter, we covered some of the link building basics.

Here we are going to explore content marketing for link building.

Specifically, we are going to cover the content marketing basics, and then get into how to use content to build links.

Content marketing basics

Really there are two ways to look at content marketing for link building.

1. Creating content for other websites that links back to your site
2. Creating content on your own website, for others to link to

Both methods are very effective.

For both methods, you want to write content that revolves around your core product and services. In some cases, I will literally just grab all the main service or category pages from a websites navigation and create topics around that.

For example, here is our navigation and our services and these are the main things I write on.

A good place to start is to identify the type of business (and links) you want to attract and create 5 topics around each.

For example:

• Search Engine Optimization
  • 5 Ways To Weed Out a Terrible SEO Company
  • How is Enterprise SEO Different than Local SEO
  • How to Build The Best Links for SEO
  • Etc.

Gearing up for great content

Once you have your sub-topics, perform a competitive analysis using several brands in your niche that are already succeeding with content marketing.

1. Use BuzzSumo to find their most shared content.
2. Used SEM Rush to find their highest ranking content
3. Used Majestic to find their most linked to content.
4. Compile all your data in one sheet.

While we are focused on content marketing for link building here, you never want to forget about the visitor and their conversion path.

Identify their core message and sub-topics, and then note what kinds of content they create. Study how each piece of content relates back to their core message and topics. Look out for their calls-to-action and how they’re used in different kinds of content.

For example, Neil Patel is using all of this content marketing to attract business to his webinar.

Look for gaps in competitors’ coverage of niche topics, differences in personality and style that you bring to the table, new angles and approaches, more depth you can bring to existing topics, and your value proposition as you seek to differentiate your content.

This was a quick and dirty overview of content strategy, but you need at least that much in place to get the most out of your content-based link building. For a truly in-depth look at content marketing, check out my ultimate guide to content marketing.

Content-based link building

Blog posts

Blog posts drive traffic (assuming your blog posts are optimized) and people link to them.

Here are a few notes from my blog promotional checklist.

• Write 5 titles and then pick the best one, the title is the most important thing. Make sure it pops!
  
• Make sure blog is optimized for a term. Use main keyword in first few sentences and throughout the post
  
• Focus both on broad terms for optimization and long tail terms just in case
  
• Make sure post is 1,000 words to 6,000 words, about 2,000 is ideal
  
• Make sure blog has one optimized image for each 200 words, the more the better
  
• Make sure share buttons are visible and commenting is possible
  
• Make sure to mention people and business in your post that are relevant to the topic 
  
• Link to people you want to do business with, to authoritative sites, posts/pages on your site that you want to rank and posts/pages around the web that you want to rank

You can also do things like

Tweet blog post

• 3 times day 1
  
• 1 time day 2
  
• On weekend in weekly review
  
• Once every two weeks following
  
• Make sure to use hashtags
  
• Tag all people mentioned and let them know they are in the post
  
• Do a promoted Tweet
  

Promote on Facebook

• Share post
• Make sure it is a good photo
• Add relevant text
• Make sure to use hashtags
• Tag all people mentioned and let them know they are in the post
• Do a Facebook promoted Post
• Share in Facebook groups
• Post to Facebook as an instant article

Share on LinkedIn

• Post to main profile
• Post to LinkedIn Groups
• Post as LinkedIn post and link to full article
• Do a linked in sponsored post

You can also

• Share on Pinterest
• Make sure it is a great image
• Pick a relevant category
• Do promoted Pin
• Submit on StumbleUpon
• Run stumbelupon ads
• Submit on Reddit
• Run Reddit Ads
  

Blogging is really an art form and getting people to link to your blogs requires lots of work.

Courses, interviews, lectures, workshops, case studies, and other educational content

Any way you provide information and value counts as content and provides an opportunity for link building.

These less common formats are also great ways to repurpose your existing content. For example, you can turn a great, comprehensive guide into a mini-course or how-to workshop. Check out the final update to my live case study on how to become a digital influencer as an example.

To build links to your free educational content you’ve got multiple options.

Mention and link to your educational content whenever you blog or guest post. You’ll also want to link to them in other forms of related content like white papers, newsletters, and even infographics. Share your educational content on social media, and make sure people know they can get their free lessons, lectures, or whatever it is by using your links.

Contact social sharers, bloggers, and linkers in your industry and let them know about your educational content.

You can also request links from .edu sites, and when you get them, they’re very valuable.

Just look for topical sharers, bloggers, and .edu sites that are a good fit with the content.

Edu links are some of the hardest to get. Here are a few ideas.

1. Help a student or professor with a research paper
2. Reach out to an author on an Edu blog and ask if you can contribute on a topic
3. Create a scholarship program

Ebooks, programs, and books

Especially for those who want to establish themselves as influencers, ebooks and books are the perfect way to build trust and authority and really show people what you have to offer.

It is simple to create a short ebook and offer it for sale on Amazon. You can also sell or give PDF copies through your website or blog for subscribers or anyone else.

Here’s my latest ebook on Amazon, Digital Influencer. One added benefit of writing a book for Amazon is that you get to create an author profile. Author profiles allow you to add an RSS feed and your website, which helps you get links back to your site.

 

Keep on top of this area by reading new and best-selling books in your niche. Look for ways the ideas in these books intersect with your core message. And if you don’t have time to write your own ebooks, if you can always hire a ghostwriter.

Infographics

Everyone loves infographics, and no wonder. They’ve creative, visually appealing, and great sources of facts and figures in a short, concentrated dose. They’re also a highly sharable place to build links. For more on what makes an infographic awesome, here’s my post on ten of the best infographics of the past year.

To build links using this kind of rich-media content, you have several options. As with everything else, share heavily on social media and when guest posting. This should be a go-to for almost any kind of content. Also, with infographics, use embed codes. This makes it that much simpler for people to share and link back to your site. Finally, try pitching your infographics to journalists and bloggers in your industry; if you’ve got a lot of great data in a small, visually appealing package they may want to use it.

Articles and Columns

Like a guest blog post, you can use an article in a digital or print magazine or news outlet to share your thoughts on a topic that relates back to your core message. Seek out trade magazines, industry association websites and newsletters, and consumer outlets such as Entrepreneur, Inc., Time, Fortune, and many others.

Newsletters

Newsletters are a great way to maintain relationships, keep a presence in your customers’ inboxes, and make email offers regularly. They’re also a great way to get your content in front of other people so that they link to it later.

Email is one of the most powerful marketing methods online.

You can use email to promote your blog content.

People become fans and start linking to your content from their blog.

Podcasts and Videos

Podcasts are a fantastic way for highly motivated people to save time. I have been on many of them, but have never had my own because my focus is on other areas.

These audio shows can be published in iTunes, Blubrry, Stitcher Radio, and many other places.

Give your customers and fans a way to hear what you have to say even when they don’t have time to sit down a read—in the car as they commute or at the gym, for example.

Videos are always hot content, and they’re not as hard to create as you might think.

Building links with podcasts and videos is a great strategy.

You can embed and incorporate podcasts and videos when you guest blog and blog on your own site. This will help boost your authority and give people something to link to.

For example, I created this video as part of our learning SEO with Ignite Visibility playlist.

1. Every video I make goes on our website
2. People link to the content because of the increased quality due to the multimedia
3. I can add a link in the YouTube video to my website
4. People link to the YouTube video and that increases the quality of that YouTube link
5. That video gets embedded on other sites and people link to Ignite Visibility as a referrence

It all works together…

As always, share your podcasts and videos socially, but don’t stop there. Also use tracking tools such as Socialmention.com, Ahrefs or Topsy to see which users are sharing your content and target them when you create new podcasts and videos.

Build relationships as you reach out and ask them to link and share.

Powerpoint presentations

Remember, if you’ve created a great PowerPoint, don’t waste it. Turn it into a video or upload it to Slideshare, and link back with each incarnation of it.

Tutorials, guides and lesson plans

You can create a lesson plan on your website by providing a road map for learners in your area of expertise. Simply show them how to understand new information, and give them authoritative links and resources—including more of your awesome content.

Include a section on how they should proceed if they get stuck and need help; remember, you’re building your authority.

White papers

White papers are some of the easiest content to get links to. You can see a few we have done in the sidebar of this blog.

Its a good idea to also make an infographic to go along with your white paper launch. Usually, I like to create an Infographic that summarizes the whitepaper. Moz has done a good job of that here. When you make a mini-infographic to go along with your whitepaper, it is easy to get embed links.

Additional advanced content-based link building strategies

Here are a few other advanced strategies for content-based link building and what to do for each one.

Awards and contests

If you create and maintain and award program you can get great links back to your site in several ways:

• Embeddable widgets. Create embeddable widgets for finalists, nominees, and winners to embed to their blogs and sites so they can link back to their award on your site.

• Media mentions. Identify members of the press, bloggers, and content curators who might cover your awards event. Focus on those who spotlight the industry and pitch a newsworthy angle for better results. Offer to guest post on the awards for bloggers and curators.

• Social sharing with finalists, nominees, and winners. Encourage finalists, nominees, and winners to share their award socially and engage with them when they do.

Build apps and browser-based tools

Any useful app or tool you create is well worth distributing, sharing, and knowing about. It’s also a major linkable asset:

• Experiential reviews. Reach out to bloggers in your industry to see if they will try out and review your app or tool. Give them all of the information they need so they’ll be interested; show them how much it can do for users.
• Guest blogging. Create advanced tutorials for your app or tool. Write targeted pieces about how using it can improve productivity or save time, and submit your work to relevant, high-traffic blogs.
• List pages for apps and tools. Identify resource pages that list apps and tools in your industry and submit your app or tool for consideration. Engage with the list manager and ask them to give your app or tool a try.
• Each major update or version of an app or tool is newsworthy. Publicize yours through blog posts, social media, and press releases.

Coin a phrase

Influencers coin phrases and technical terms in their industries, and when they do, they are linkable assets—something others will use and credit you for over and over again. When you coin a phrase, build links as follows:

• Build a definition page. Make sure your page defines it clearly and explains its usage and history (and, of course, how and when you coined it).
• Use it whenever you can in your content. Link back each use to your definition page within your domain whether you’re guest posting, commenting in a forum, or distributing your latest white paper.
• Create a Wikipedia page. Your definition and any other articles and pages with high-authority that have cite the phrase should serve as your references.
• Create a Google Alert for your phrase. Track who uses it and ask for link attribution.

Job boards

It’s easy to create a job board on your site, and they are an excellent link building tools when used correctly:

• Blog links. Look for blogs with tutorials on getting jobs or acquiring skills in your field and ask them to link to your site’s job board.
• Job listing links. Businesses who post jobs on your board can link back to your site.
• Social sharing. Encourage users to share their job board find or listing socially to get more usage and signal high activity to search engines.
• Request .edu site links. Many .edu sites list job openings from various businesses as a support for students and recent graduates. Use Google to find .edu sites with job resources pages and ask about inclusion. Be specific about why your job board will be useful to those students or graduates for more success.

Conclusion

Now we’ve explored the ins and outs of content marketing for link building, including content marketing basics, using content to build links, and advanced content-based link building strategies. In the next chapter I’m going to cover the differences between white hat and black hat techniques and advise you on which to use in your link building efforts.

• Read chapter 1 now and get an introduction to link building and SEO.
• You are here
• Read chapter 3 now and learn white hat vs. black hat link building and SEO.
• Read chapter 4 now and learn guest posting for links.
• Read chapter 5 and learn about bad links SEO, get rid of them fast (here is how).
• Read chapter 6 now and learn email outreach and link building for SEO
• Read chapter 7 now and learn going viral with backlinks.
• Read chapter 8 now and hear 23 experts provide their link building strategies.
• Read chapter 9 and get a weekly guide to building backlinks.
• Read chapter 10 and learn 70 backlinking resources you need to know.