Creating an Effective Backlink Outreach Strategy

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Over the years, backlinks have become an increasingly important element of SEO.

The organic nature of these links is crucial because it represents independent, third-party confidence in the content to which the link connects.

The Importance of Backlinks

Search engines see these links as legitimate confirmation of your content, and worthwhile and valuable in the eyes of potential customers or interested parties. As a result, search engines make the logical determination that your content is likely worthy of a higher-ranking position than, say, your competitor’s site with no backlinks.

In a perfect world, all of your third-party backlinks would come from high traffic, high-authority sites but in the real world these links are hard to come by unless you have something of real value or interest for these sites to share with their audience. For that reason, you shouldn’t discount less authoritative sites that have a good following and an engaged audience as part of your strategy to generate exposure that can lead to larger sites linking to you.

Granted, there are many other factors that come into play with respect to actual SERP and backlinks alone won’t get you to page one of Google but overall, backlinks will positively impact your ranking position. However, generating these valuable backlinks requires a clear plan and a well-defined outreach strategy.

Creating Your Backlink Outreach Strategy

Identifying Your Targets

Generating effective backlinks from third-party partners takes a commitment of time and resources. To begin, you’ll need to identify a series of sites that rank well for the keywords you are targeting. You’ll want to analyze other pages, blogs etc. that link to that site and determine how and why their information was worth linking to. A combination of manual search combined with the backlink identification features found in tools like SEM Rush or MOZ will deliver the best results when it comes to creating your own outreach targets and strategy.

The Outreach Approach

Once you’ve identified the sites you’d like to connect with, there are a number of key steps to follow if you want your outreach to be seen and given serious consideration. Without a clear plan of action, the likelihood of receiving a reply from your outreach efforts is slim at best.

  1. Develop Communications that are Genuine and Relevant
    When you reach out to a potential partner, be clear about who you are, the research that leads you to contact them, and why your proposal is good for both parties. An email that asks for a backlink only benefitting your site will end up in the trash folder every time.
  2. Indicate a Clear Connection Between Your Content and the Content on the Target Site
    It should be inherently obvious that if you are a fashion retailer you probably shouldn’t be reaching out to a car dealership to ask for a backlink, but many businesses take this approach – just reach out to as many web sites as possible and ask for a link. Keep in mind that Google analyzes your backlinks and they’ll know if the links make sense for the target audience or if they are more spammy in nature.
  3. Identify the Best Way to Connect with Your Target Site
    Take the time to determine the best way to communicate with the site you are trying to reach. Don’t just send a templated email to “info@” because it’s fast and easy. Figure out if the company uses a contact form or perhaps LinkedIn or social channel outreach are the way to go. You’ll see much better results with a personal approach.
  4. Provide Your Contact Details
    If you are reaching out to a potential backlink partner, be sure to include all of your relevant contact details (email, phone, LinkedIn profile, social channel links) thereby making it easier for them to reply and verify the legitimacy of your request. And make sure your contact details are consistent. If you are connecting by email, make sure the business URL is the same as your email address and that all of your other contact details follow suit.

Overall, be genuine and transparent in your outreach. Start small and build credibility before moving on to bigger targets where you can then show proof of how your backlink program has been beneficial to both you and your partners.

Google Moves Into Real-Time Translation

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Google Assistant now offers the ability to translate conversations in real time. What’s next?

Google is no stranger to futurist initiatives. They have been consistently leading the way when it comes to artificial intelligence and virtual assistant technology. Recently, Google announced that Google Assistant will offer real-time translation capabilities for 27 languages. That on its own is pretty impressive. But when you think about what the applications are for this kind of development, it can lead to a major boost in Google’s Android platform edge over the competition.

Real-Time Translation

According to The Verge, “You’ll be able to say things like, ‘Hey, Google, help me speak French,’ or ‘Hey, Google, be my French interpreter,’ and Google Assistant will show text across a smart display that translates your words as you speak. Afterward, it will open the microphone for the second person to be able to speak in their language and words will be translated across the screen at the same time. Google Assistant also plays back the words in your native tongue.”

This is a big step towards real-time translation in speech, and that is where Android has the potential to further its position as the top mobile software platform in the marketplace today.

Real-Time Conversation Translation

Once Google opens up calls through Assistant with the ability to implement translation, users on both ends of the call will be able to have a full conversation in their native tongues while hearing responses in their preferred language. Skype unveiled a similar function, but if Google does it right, they will blow Microsoft’s attempts at this kind of translation out of the water – easily.

When this will come – and it is almost certain to happen – is still a mystery. But if some traction picks up with the use of these translation services, we can expect to see this new service offered sooner rather than later. The world is getting smaller and Google wants to be at the forefront of that process.

Google to Expand Worldwide Ad Blocking on July 9th

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Google has announced that it will be extending Chrome’s ad blocking functionality worldwide on July 9th.

This is a part of Googles ongoing effort to improve and enhance the user experience across the web from the perspective of those who provide content and those who consume it.

google ad blocking

Ad growth and the resulting revenue streams have allowed websites to provide content for free, but the proliferation of onsite advertising has led to an increase in the use of ad blockers to prevent ads from being displayed. The ability to implement ad blocking impacts a site owners’ opportunity to generate revenues from online ads and ad networks and reconciling ad revenue generation with relevant ad content that meets user expectations has been an ongoing challenge for years.

While the majority of sites have taken steps to be in compliance, it’s important to note that Google’s ad blocking is based on the Better Ads Standards from the Coalition for Better Ads and not a random desire to replace third-party advertising with Google’s own ad networks. In fact, Google will also block abusive ads originating for their own platform if they are not compliant.

As explained on the Coalition’s site, “The Coalition for Better Ads will leverage consumer insights and cross-industry expertise to develop and implement new global standards for online advertising that address consumer expectations.” Overall, the intent of the Coalition is to improve the user experience when it comes to online advertising in the context of a website visit.

In order to know if your site meets these standards, you can use Google’s Ad Experience Report tool. This feature is designed to help site owners know if Chrome has identified any ad violations on your site and provide guidelines with respect to correcting them. Web site administrators who have been notified of ad violations have 30 days to fix the infractions and achieve compliance before ads are blocked.

Part of this expanded implementation is an effort by Google to reduce and eventually eliminate ads that are scams, phishing attempts and click-baiting while focusing on ad content that meets user expectations.

While this more aggressive move towards controlling the advertising experience may be seen by some as an infringement into a site owners personal or corporate assets, the large number of properties who have updated their practices (according to Google, two thirds of all reviewed publishers who were previously in violation are now complaint) indicates that there is widespread agreement and acceptance of practices designed to balance the ad experience with the on-site user experience.

Google’s overall objective is to create a better web experience for all users by incentivizing all content providers to offer improved advertising legitimacy. This ensures that organic and paid or sponsored content meet the criteria of relevance for the audience.

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