As an internet user, what do you find most satisfying? Fast page load times? Personalized ads? Mobile-friendly websites?
How about a smooth-as-butter user journey? Those times when all you do is one Google search, and then you’re seamlessly moving from one website to another—coming across all the information you need. It’s like the string of web pages was made just for you.
While it may seem serendipitous, it’s an experience that is encouraged and nurtured by search engines—which is why backlinks are still crucial for your SEO strategy in 2021.
Backlinks are links from one website to a page on another website, but not all have the same impact on your SEO. Only relevant, high-quality backlinks will help you increase your organic rankings.
Together, these strings of reputable websites create great user experiences and keep search engines happy. So let’s just say, when it comes to link building, you want to get in with the right crowds.
Source: Backlinko
Resource page link building
So how do you score these precious backlinks?
The answers lie in our latest Link Building Series—a series of blog posts addressing the latest trends and strategies for link building. Today, we’re digging into resource page link building.
In essence, resource page link building is the process of building backlinks from pages that have curated lists of links to other external websites. Users love these pages because they’re efficient at relaying information (and therefore, so do search engines).
Although resource page link building has been an SEO practice for years, it’s making a comeback in 2021—just like 90’s fashion.
But unlike 90’s fashion, resource page link building will be around for years to come. So while you may be able to avoid purchasing a pair of platform shoes, we recommend giving this SEO tactic some attention.
You’ve likely come across these pages many times in your own searches. When I went through a food blogger phase (C’mon, getting paid to eat food? Why the heck not?), I looked for resources on how to get started and came across resource pages like this:
Source: Sweet and Savory
With over 100 links that span general blogging resources to Google Analytics and copywriting help, Shinee (Sweet and Savory’s blogger) has aspiring food bloggers covered.
And if you’re a website owner looking to grow your SEO, your goal is to score backlinks from these well-built, authoritative resource pages—which is why we’re here today. By the end of the article, you’ll be able to incorporate this link-building practice into your SEO strategy.
So put on your best pair of acid wash overalls. Here’s your three-step beginner’s guide to resource page link building.
Step 1: Create high-quality, shareable content
When it comes to link building, it’s all about quality over quantity.
You should be striving for high-quality backlinks. But to get them, you need to create high-quality content, such as blog posts, videos, or infographics. These website owners need to see value in your content. So your link should make their content better.
If you need some inspiration for content, do some research on trending topics:
- Scope out the content your competitors are creating.
- Conduct keyword research.
- Explore community boards on social media and websites like Reddit.com.
Let’s say you work for a fitness apparel company. We’d first tell you to research fitness and wellness trends in 2021.
As you can see, a lot of the results here gravitate towards mental wellness, rest, and virtual classes and therapy. Sure, you can create content that speaks to this demand—but how do you get it to stand out?
There are two ways to go about this.
First, you could find your unique angle. For example, there’s a lot of mention of at-home workouts—but what about outdoor workouts?
Or, you can identify high-performing content and create something bigger and better. Brian Dean of Backlinko calls this the skyscraper technique, and it’s based on three core principles:
- Find popular content that is linked to from other sites
- Create a better piece of content on the same topic and publish it on your site
- Promote your content to the right people and let them know it exists.
Source: Corporate Design Solutions
To be clear, this is not plagiarism. This technique simply guides how to make your content better. For example, if these lists and guides feature a web page that offers five killer ab workouts—create one that offers ten!
Step 2: Find resource pages in your industry
Once you’ve created some killer content, it’s time to find relevant resource pages in your industry to share it with.
Luckily, most of these pages will have the words “links” or “resources” in the title or URL—so a simple search string can get you started. Here are a few common ones to try first:
- [Keyword] inurl:resources
- [Keyword] “best resources”
- [Keyword] “useful resources”
- [Keyword] intitle:links
- [Keyword] “helpful links”
Below, you can see how I did it:
If you swap out different keywords and combinations, you’re bound to uncover many relevant resource pages.
With that said, there are resource pages that will not surface from these searches. Guides and checklists—for example—may not have “links” and “resources” in the title but usually feature a ton of them. To increase your linking opportunities, try these search strings to uncover the less obvious resource pages:
- Keyword “best sites”
- Keyword “best blogs”
- Keyword “blog awards”
- Keyword “places to learn”
But consider your niche. As a fitness apparel company, you may also want to look up “best apparel” or “best workouts,” for example.
Lastly, to kick it up a notch, you can pop your competitors’ websites into Ahrefs’ backlink checker and see if they have any backlinks to resource pages. Take note of any and make sure to reach out to them. If they linked to your competitors, there’s a great chance that they’ll link to you too.
Source: Ahrefs
Step 3: Conduct email outreach
With a list of resource pages in hand, you’re ready to conduct outreach. We recommend reaching out via email. As you may know, writing cold emails is an art form. And when writing a backlink request email, there are even more boxes to check off.
First, make sure you email the person who runs the page.
When someone says they emailed but never heard back, our first question is who they emailed. Unless it’s a small company (say, under five people), sending a general email or filling out a contact form will likely get lost or overlooked.
So before you resort to that, do some investigative digging. Besides taking a look at the contact page, search for a directory. If you still can’t find any relevant emails or numbers, LinkedIn is a good resource for tracking down the right folks and their contact information.
Here’s a good example. I was reading through the Hubspot blog and came across this list of 33 free online design tools. Sure, it’s written by Carly Stec—but it’s unlikely that she’s the one making publication decisions.
Source: Hubspot
So how do you find the person responsible? With over 5000 employees, Hubspot’s website isn’t the place to find relevant contact information. So I scoured the company’s LinkedIn profile instead—and just like that, I found a handful of people I could pitch to, such as the content marketing manager and SEO strategist.
Once you find the right person or people to email, personalize it!
Address them by their name, acknowledge their title, change up the subject line, and inject some personality in the copy! Cracking a marketing joke or throwing in an emoji can go a long way.
Then, make a good case as to why their resource page would benefit from this link.
Return to why you created the content. Tell them about your unique angle. Or, shout from the top of the skyscraper and tell them why your content is bigger, better, and newer than what’s already out there.
Another great strategy is calling attention to any broken links on their resource page.
As they probably know, broken links aren’t great for the user experience, which impacts SEO. Phrase it nicely and use this opportunity to pass along fresh content. (If it wasn’t obvious, I’m talking about YOUR awesome content.)
Lastly, make it easy for them to link to your page. Provide the anchor text. And if their resource page has different sections, identify where your link fits best. The easier it is on them, the higher the chances that they’ll link to you. Just like how Brian from Backlinko does it here:
Source: Backlinko
Ready to launch?
We hope this beginner’s guide provides a launchpad for your resource page link-building efforts.
With that said, it’s always nice to have a supportive team behind you. Reach out to our team of experts to help further your SEO goals. We’ve done this once or twice, and let me tell you, the process is smooth as butter.
