Interested in learning everything there’s to know about SEO outreach?
This is the right guide for you.
Inside, you’ll find:
- What SEO outreach is and why it’s important for SEO
- Types of backlinks you can get through SEO outreach
- How to launch a successful SEO outreach campaign
We’ve got a lot to cover, so let’s get started.
Link building cheat sheet
What is SEO Outreach and Why Is It Important for SEO?
First things first, let’s try to define what search engine optimization (SEO) outreach is.
To put it in as straightforward terms as possible, we would say that SEO outreach is basically a combination of activities and processes that target helping a company come closer to its link prospects.
Furthermore, the aim of doing SEO outreach is to acquire high-quality, valuable links from authoritative websites.
In other words, SEO outreach (AKA link building) refers to the process of reaching out to prospects in order to amplify a company’s SEO efforts.
Many companies hire link building and SEO agencies or an SEO outreach specialist to help them, others use their own resources to make their digital marketing moves, whereas many use a combination of the two.
Why is this necessary, or even important?
In one sentence, because backlinks are one of the most powerful factors that help websites rank higher, in relation to what the Google search algorithm is looking for.
According to a 2020 study by Ahrefs, only 5.7% of all pages rank high in the search engines within a year after they’re released.
Having written high quality content or having put great effort in creating your web pages and then watching your content going unnoticed can be disappointing.
That’s where a high-performing and thought through outreach process comes in – to help make sure your high quality content will score well.
Given that quality backlinks help increase a site’s organic search engine ranking, a successful and successful outreach strategy can have a lot of important benefits, such as:
- Acquire white-hat links
- Create valuable content partnerships
- Increase organic traffic
- Boost referral traffic
- Increase your website domain authority
- Maximize social media signals
To mention a few.
Keep reading to find some of the most valuable types of backlinks you can get through SEO outreach.
Types of Backlinks You Can Get Through SEO Outreach
We’ve already given you a bit of context in terms of the benefits of SEO outreach.
Having a closer look at the type of backlinks you can get from reaching out to prospects will make the whole process clearer for you.
Let’s get to the first type we have for you.
Type #1: Broken Link Building Strategy
What is it?
Let’s say that you spot a blog that gets a significant amount of readers, but it has a broken link to websites that are relevant to your website.
In such a case, and because no one likes broken links, you should think of that broken link as an opportunity for you to reach out to the blogger and let them know that one of their links is faulty.
In doing so, it’d be great if you’d have a relevant resource that the prospect could link back to and replace the broken link with, thus enhancing their readers’ experience.
Template to use
Subject: broken link :(
Hi {first_name},
I was on your site and wanted to give you a quick heads up about a page you’re linking on this post – [custom variable: website URL]; looks like it was taken down by the host: [custom variable: broken page]
Also, if you’re interested in suggestions for a replacement, we’ve actually written an extensive [guide/post] on [related topic] here: [your article URL]
Feel free to take a look – this might be a good fit for your readers :)
Either way, I hope it helps!
Thanks,
[Name]
Relevant resource: A Simple (But Complete) Guide to Broken Link Building
Type #2: Infographics
The second type of SEO outreach effort we have for you is the infographics one.
What is it?
Having a wide range of linkable assets on your posts makes it easier and more efficient for you to reach out to people and ask them to give you a link.
In other words, referring to a well-made infographic or other linkable asset, like a study, is one of the most prominent ways to get inbound links to your website.
Template to use
Subject: New Infographic on (Topic)
Hi {first_name},
Just finished reading your [topic] article. Thanks for the awesome post! Shared with our team over at [your company name].
Loved the way you said [insert article summary].
We’ve actually written a few in-depth articles about [topic] in the past and our design team has put together a really neat infographic to go along with it!
Let me know if you want to take a look!
Thanks,
{Name}
Relevant resource: What Are Inbound Links & How to Build Them (Guide for 2021)
Type #3: Guest Blogging
Guest blogging is firmly linked as an SEO activity and that’s why we couldn’t miss mentioning it here.
What is it?
Guest blogging is a great outreach link building strategy.
It’s all about promoting yourself and bringing more brand awareness, while also connecting with people and creating partnerships.
Guest blogger outreach is the process of reaching out to people and asking for you to write a guest post on their blog so you can build links for your brand and your link exchange partners.
This, as you can imagine, is a win-win situation for all parties, given that you get to promote your business and your prospects get to publish an SEO-optimized piece of content on their blog.
As this is a lengthy process, you can use AI for SEO to automate the entire workflow.
Template to use
Subject: suggesting content ideas
Hey {first_name},
My name is {name} and I am a {role} at {company name}—{something about the company}.
This may be a bit out of the blue, but we decided to reach out as we are actively searching for guest posting opportunities.
We’ve been following your blog for a while now, and we think that we could add some value to the {organization} audience through an engaging and well-written guest post.
Everything that we write is SEO-optimized and well-researched.
These are some content pieces we’ve published on websites like {website 1}, {website 2} and {website 3}:
{Title & URL 1}
{Title & URL 2}
{Title & URL 3}
Would you like to hear a couple of topics we have in mind for you guys?
Thanks,
{Name}
Relevant resource: Guest Blogging: A (Complete) Step-by-Step Guide for 2021
Type #4: Unlinked Brand Mentions
The fourth type of outreach link building we need to mention is the outreach you’d do in case of unlinked brand mentions.
What is it?
When someone has mentioned you in one of their blog posts, but they haven’t linked back to you, then you can reach out to them and kindly ask them to give you a link.
This one can happen naturally, given that the prospect already knows who you are and are probably familiar with your business.
Template to use
Subject: unlinked mention :(
Hey {first_name},
My name is {name} and I am a {role} at {company name}—{something about the company}.
I saw that you mentioned us on {page URL} and I just wanted to reach out and say thank you for the shout out! I’ve already shared the post with the rest of our team.
Could I ask you a quick favor?
I’d really appreciate it if you could link back to our website from the text where you mention us.
This will help any visitors interested in learning more about us to directly visit our website.
Let me know if there is anything I can do as a thank you :)
Thanks,
[Name]
Relevant resource: Link Prospecting: Beginner’s Guide for Successful Link Building
Type #5: Link Reclamation
Link reclamation, like the unlinked brand mentions we just discussed, is yet another reason why you’d want to do some effective SEO outreach work.
What is it?
Link reclamation, as the name suggests, is the process of trying to get back a link that’s been removed.
In other words, let’s say that someone gave you a link six months ago but the link isn’t there anymore, although the content is still relevant and your link would still go great in the prospect’s piece.
In that case, all you have to do is use the power of backlink outreach and make sure to get your link back in the game.
I think I might know what you’re thinking right now.
How are you supposed to know what links aren’t there anymore?
The process of finding them can be extremely time consuming.
I hear you, but the process might actually be more straightforward than you think.
In fact, you could simply use the Ahrefs SEO tool, more specifically, their valuable backlink checker:
As shown above, you can simply check the lost links from your backlink profile.
Additionally, you can even define a specific timeframe that you might be interested in knowing about.
We went looking for the last seven days.
Getting your results would probably look something like this:
You can review the links you’ve recently lost and find the ones you think are worth reclaiming.
Here’s a link reclamation email template you can use for exactly that.
Template to use
Subject: thanks for our mention
Hey {first_name},
My name is [name] and I am a [job title] at {company name}—{something about the company}.
I saw that, up until recently, you were mentioning us on {page URL}. Thank you for that — we really appreciate it.
However, I noticed that the link back to our website was recently removed.
Could I ask you a small favor?
I’d really appreciate it if you replace the link.
Here’s the page where you originally linked back to: {lost link URL}
Let me know what you think!
Thanks,
[Name]
Relevant resource: Link Reclamation: How to Easily Find (and Reclaim) Lost Backlinks
Type #6: Resource Pages
The sixth type, and one of the most common for SEO outreach, is the resource pages one.
What is it?
This type is about connecting with and reaching out to prospects’ that have published content that’s relevant to you and your brand, but might have missed mentioning you.
For example, it might be a guide that talks about a number of your competitors and is addressed to your target audience.
In such a case, we can totally reach out to them, explain why we think our business would be worth including, and how it might help enhance their piece of content.
Template to use
Subject: your resource page
Hi {first_name},
I wanted to quickly show my appreciation for your {url_title} resources post: {url}
Thought you’d be interested in including [your post/company/product]?
[A sentence or two about the differentiating factors of your pitch].
I’d be happy to share your post with our [# of followers] followers on social to drive website traffic to the article.
Looking forward to your reply!
Thanks,
[Name]
Type #7: Roundups
Let’s have a look at another prominent type of SEO outreach: roundups.
What is it?
Roundups are all about compiling information on a topic – it can be links to relevant websites or quotes from experts – and sharing it with your audience.
In other words, whether you want to organize an expert roundup with authorities in your industry sharing their opinion about a specific topic, or you want to participate in link roundups other people have published, a well-structured outreach activity will help.
In all cases, you need to reach out to people, connect with them, and give them a very clear idea of what your roundup is about or why you should be included in their link roundup.
Template to use
Subject: your recent roundup feature
Hello {first_name},
My name is {name} and I am a {role} at {company name}—{something about the company}.
I found you on a roundup post you participated a while back:
{referring_url}
We’re organizing an expert roundup post on [topic] and we are hoping to get some quotes from [industry] experts.
Would you be interested in participating?
All you need to do is to say yes and I’ll send through {x} short questions for your reply.
If you feel there’s something important to share, please do!
Look forward to hearing from you!
Thank you,
[Name]
Relevant resource: Link Roundups: Learn How to Get Quality Links Using Them
Type #8: Content and Brand Promotion
Our second to last type is content and brand promotion.
What is it?
Content and brand promotion outreach is basically the process of emailing a prospect and letting them know about a piece of content you’ve published or a service your business is offering.
Such an outreach email is usually in relation or in response to something the prospect has recently published, as we’ll see in the content promotion email template we’re sharing with you here.
Template to use
Subject: your post on (keyword)
Hey {first_name},
[Name] here from [company].
I just finished reading your post on [topic]. Loved the way you mentioned [insert article summary].
I noticed, however, that your post doesn’t present a step-by-step process on how to [topic].
We happen to have a detailed [type of resource] on [topic].
You can have a look:
{referring_url}
Let me know what you think!
Thanks,
[Name]
Relevant resource: Content Promotion: The What, Why & How Behind It (2021)
Type #9: Content Partnerships
The final type of SEO outreach efforts is the content partnerships one.
What is it?
Content partnership outreach is when you go reaching out to people that are in your niche in order to establish a relationship and explore the possibility of a partnership between the two of you.
How many times you thought that collaborating with that influencer, that blogger, or this brand can benefit both you and the other side, right?
Writing a killer email to someone explaining why you’d make a great team in terms of the content you both produce is a great way to start building towards boosting your SEO and bringing more brand awareness.
Template to use
Subject: go at it together?
Hey {first_name},
[Name] here from [company].
We’re really impressed with the work you’re doing when it comes to [topic].
We’re into [topic] as well.
The reason why I’m reaching out is because we could help each other out.
We’re already building links for a growing list of partners and they’re doing the same.
It’s a win-win situation – I guess you know that already.
Would you be interested in discussing this further?
Let me know and we can work something out.
Thanks,
{Name}
Now that we’ve presented some of the most popular types of SEO outreach, we can move forward with a step-by-step process for launching a successful SEO outreach campaign.
How to Launch a Successful SEO Outreach Campaign
First things first, before you dive head-first into outreach campaigns, you need to make sure your sender domain is set up correctly.
We’ve seen a range of different types of SEO outreach and also shared some templates you can use when reaching out to people.
We’re now going to walk you through the most exciting part of the process and show you how you can do SEO outreach with ease using Respona.
Let’s get started with the first step.
Step #1: Prepare your email sequence
To help you make the most out of this step-by-step guide, we’re using a hypothetical scenario and, based on it, we’re building and launching our SEO campaign.
Our scenario is:
Respona’s interested in doing guest posts to acquire white hat links for its website.
More specifically, we’re interested in finding websites that;
a) Accept guest posts
b) Write about topics that are relevant to Respona’s capabilities
Moreover, we have a clear target in terms of the topic we want to write about and, in fact, we know we’re interested in writing about content marketing.
In doing this, we’ll be following a number of simple steps.
The first step is to create your campaign and outreach email sequence.
Respona comes with over a dozen pre-made campaign templates for the most common outreach use cases – so let’s use the Guest Posting one.
You don’t have to use a template and instead go for a custom campaign, but using a template speeds it up in several ways:
- Auto-applies advanced search operators to your target keywords to find relevant opportunities
- Provides AI keyword suggestions to expand your search
- Pre-sets the contact finder to look for the most relevant people to contact depending on what you’re trying to achieve (content managers for guest posting, journalists for news outreach, etc.)
- Picks and personalizes your email sequence based on your inputs in the template
Once everything is filled out, click “Use this template” to get into the campaign editor.
The default template is optimized for a high chance of getting a response, and avoids spam words.
We’re not done here, though. Let’s also add an AI Icebreaker variable.
In addition to “simple” variables like first_name, the icebreaker will come up with unique personalizations for every single opportunity in your campaign, diversifying your messages and increasing your reply rates.
In the next step, you’ll also be able to provide the AI with extra instructions.
Despite Respona’s selection of built-in email sequence templates, we recommend you to experiment, write your own and triet ours as more of an inspiration.
Let’s move on to the next step.
Step #2: Find opportunities and their contact information
Respona comes with a search engine with three search modes (in addition to .CSV import):
- Google search
- Backlink search (Semrush data by default)
- Podcasts (Listen Notes data)
As you can see, it’s already filled out with dozens of search strings for finding pages that have titles like “write for us”, “contributor guidelines”, and so on – as well as our target keywords.
You can also hover your mouse over the queries and click on the preview button to check out the results before ruynning the search automation and using credits.
Click “Continue” and add some SEO filters to narrow down the search to only websites it would make sense for us to collaborate with.
Moz filters are available to all users – but if you also have an account with Ahrefs or Semrush, you may connect it to Respona and use their filters instead.
Click “Continue” again to access Respona’s contact finder and AI personalization settings.
Because we used the guest posting campaign template, Respona is already locked and loaded to find SEO, content, marketing managers and othjer employees who can help us out.
As for the AI personalizer – we recommend providing it with examples of your manual outreach personalizations in order to train it and make the outcomes sound more like you.
Let’s also toggle the search to be recurring. This way, Respona will automatically re-run your search automation and add any new guest posting opportunities that may have popped up in the meantime.
Click “Run automation” to start looking for guest posting opportunities, adding them to your campaign, finding the website owner’s contact information, and personalizing your pitches – all at the same time.
Opportunities will start appearing on the screen as soon as they’re found:
It’s all in the cloud so you can switch to another task and campaign while Respona is running in the background.
Once the search automation is complete, it’s time for the next (and last) step.
Step #3: Review & Launch
Here, personalization is the protagonist!
On this screen, you can review your AI personalizations and make manual edits where necessary.
In addition to email addresseses, Respona also finds LinkedIn addresses – you can find them on the left side of the screen.
We recommend also sending your prospects a connection request on LinkedIn to put a face to your outreach and increase your chances of getting a response.
After having completed all steps and having personalized your outreach emails, you’re ready to launch your killer guest post SEO outreach campaign.
Respona will also run some final pre-launch checks to make sure you’re not trying to reach out to anyone in your unsubscribe list, or opportunities already active in a recent campaign.
This is also where you can pick your sender email, sending strategy, change your schedule, etc.
That was it!
Let’s close our post with a few final words.
Link building cheat sheet
Now Over to You
SEO outreach should be a part of your SEO strategy.
You now have a solid process to follow when reaching out to prospects for link building purposes without having to hire any kind of SEO services.
Keep in mind that, in this process, you’ll need a modern link building outreach software that’s affordable and easy to use.
If you’re ready to launch your first SEO outreach campaign, then you should give Respona a try.
Don’t hesitate to start your 14-day free trial to see what our tool can do for you and take your SEO outreach to the next level.
Thanks for reading!
