How to Use Emotions to Drive Links for SEO

Have you ever noticed that the most emotional posts drive links? Or on the flip side, the posts that strike an emotional chord with the audience… In this post, I am going to give you some insight on how to use emotions to drive links to your posts for SEO.

Write with passion

I think one of the most important things a blogger can do to attract links is to write with passion. People want to hear real perspectives. If everyone sugarcoats every topic online, no one gets any real value. When you tell the real story, maintain transparency and write with a little fire inside, people will link to your post and share it.

Find major issues people struggle with

If you write on a major issue, people will link to it. People are emotionally attached to certain topics. Let me give you a few examples that are some of the hardest things to do in SEO. Because these posts will hit an emotional chord, people will link to them.

• Why your website is not ranking
• How to get .edu links for SEO
• How to get .gov links for SEO
• Why your web developer is destroying your SEO
• Why your competitors are outranking you

By finding topics that resonate with people’s personal frustrations, you can generate shares and links back to your post.

Answer the hardest questions

In any industry, there are certain questions that people shy away from. I will give you an example. Pretty much no SEO professional wants to work on an hourly basis. It’s just not how the industry does business. While that is the case, I took the time to write a post on Search Engine Land on Should You Pay For SEO Hourly, Monthly Or By The Project? Now, this is not my favorite topic, but writing the post gave me a chance to wrap my head around the topic. Also, because it was an emotional topic for some, it received 1,200 shares and a great deal of comments.

Bring a fresh perspective to past topics

There are a lot of older topics that people have done a really bad job answering. For example, “Are Directories Good for SEO?” We took the time to write a solid post on this, looking at the facts surrounding the issue online. This post generated 65 links from 16 referring domains, allowing it to get a very high ranking in Google and contributed to our website’s overall domain authority.

Write on something people are mad about

This certainly works across all industries. Using the SEO industry as an example, think of all the posts people have written on Google penalties and Google updates. These generate hundreds and even thousands of links. These posts hit an emotional chord with business owners everywhere because it directly impacts their bottom line. Also, the penalties can be so frustrating. Whether manual or algorithmic, they are terrible to deal with. If we take a quick look at Buzz Sumo, we can see these type of posts get plenty of shares and links.

Outreach and Traffic

At the end of the day, you can write the best post online. It can totally piss people off, make them cry or make them so happy that they hug their co-worker. However, if no one ever reads that article, none of this occurs. Distribution is critical. After you have created your masterpiece, use online tools like Buzz Sumo, Twitter, Follower Wonk, Majestic SEO and Klout to determine people who will really care about this topic. Find a way to get your post in front of them. If just one influencer shares it, then connects with you and turns into an evangelist, it will mean a big return for your business. While that is the case, make sure it is not a one-sided relationship. For example, if you want me to share your post, make sure you are also sharing a few of mine.

Summing it up

At the end of the day, write on things that people are passionate about, write with passion and bring a voice to your blogs. If you cover things that really matter to people and address them head on, you’ll generate more links for your website.