Weirdly, super niche content. I'm not saying it's the BEST way, but it was definitely surprising. I got links for super niche article by being one of the only sources available. For example, I had some content on SEO for an Airbnb business; let me tell you, there aren't 300 results about that topic, and being better than the other 4-5 results wasn't that hard. Add missing information that can be important or, my favorite, add a calculator in the article. Honestly, you can always add calculators everywhere and people love them; we're simple creatures. Those types of articles will get you 3 to 4 links a year. I told you it wasn't the best, but... they're 100% passive. Create a couple of super niche blogs that are easy to rank for, and you'll see yourself collecting links automatically.
I study the recent publications of the prospect and find the gaps they never covered in the previous six months and construct the pitch to cover that gap with the verified and exclusive information. This is effective since the majority of journalists and bloggers like stories that will enable them to stay ahead without duplicating stories that can be found elsewhere online. In case of blockchain projects, I tend to provide unpublished use-case information or first hand observations of beta testers and this provides something that they cannot get through public channels. It means that such pitch will be more valuable than any generic announcement. In the case of resource page owners, I test the links posted by the page owners to determine whether it is outdated or a broken link, before approaching them. In the pitch, I provide recent and correct information to replace the old source, usually with research data that can be used by their readers or a working tool that they can utilize at once. It increases the likelihood of receiving this pitch due to the fact that it presents a solution to their problem and this also leads to better quality of their resource.
1. What signals do you look for when deciding if a topic has good potential for attracting links? A: Whether the topic can provide value to others determines if it has good potential for attracting links. The more value it provides and the more users can benefit from it, the more links it will attract. 2. Can you share a time when you found a surprising content topic that earned far more links than expected? A: We write a "Data Loss Statistics Report 2024" about the statistics of the data loss in organizations, the primary causes of data loss, the financial impact of data loss, etc. And after 2 months, it earns 28 backlinks based on Ahrefs. 3. How can you improve on existing content to make it more linkable? Please share examples from your experience. A: Add more values to the existing contents. For example, we have an article "3 Quick Ways to Get a List of All Worksheet Names in an Excel Workbook". To make it more linkable, I add another 9 new methods to it, make totally 12 effective methods to list sheet name. 4. In your experience, which content formats get the most organic backlinks in your niche/industry? A: Statistics report will get the most organic backlinks in data recovery industry, since they offer the most value and many will use its data when writing their own articles.
Creating an online tool is the best way to earn links, but the most important thing that most ignore is that the page must be free, without ads, and without aggressive email capture popups that destroy user experience. The moment you add aggressive monetization elements, journalists and bloggers mostly stop linking because they don't want to send their readers to what feels like a commercial landing page. I've seen identical tools where the clean, ad-free version gets hundreds of links while the monetized version gets ignored, even when the monetized one has better functionality. And, of course, the tool you create must be interesting and shareable. Nobody wants to link to another generic "mortgage calculator" or "ROI calculator" that adds nothing new to the thousands already online. The tools that earn links solve problems people are actively complaining about on Reddit, X, or in Slack communities.
The best content topics with killer link potential blend genuine local knowledge with hyper-specific action-oriented tips that travel writers and bloggers can't naturally find through regular research means. It is a more useful and long-lasting version of the "neighborhood-specific-content" that gets churned out only to see short-term traffic gains. — An example: Our post Hidden Gems in Osaka (paper girl in action) It brings about 20,000 organic views per month. Our Osaka guide provided information on family-legacy led traditional establishments, when to time Karaoke — and when not to — for an "authentic" experience, as well as the neighborhoods themselves by giving an understanding of local history turned travel-from-above consultations into a true cultural education. Our Osaka hidden gems content hilariously became a surprising link building win since we built backlinks outside of our community; Japanese cultural organizations, study abroad programs and food blogs linked out to our genuine local secrets only because we successfully shared traditional family-run establishments and neighborhood festivals for under-the-radar wanderlusts. The best way for our outreach efforts to take shape is when we share the true cultural stories with journalists focusing on culture preservation, community development or authentic travel trends so that they consider us not as mere tour operators but as cultural experts. Produce unique locally-guided content with irreplaceable local knowledge by guides deeply connected with their communities, so that your recommendations have the necessary specific timing, cultural framing and authentic experience which generic travel information cannot provide — making you a go-to service whose recommendation other publications would naturally wish to cite and share.
In your experience, which content formats get the most organic backlinks in your niche/industry? In terms of the digital marketing world, the content that answers questions would most probably attract backlinks. To illustrate, the creation of a step by step guide to the establishment of Google Ads campaigns will involve backlinks of not only the smaller bloggers but also the large industry sites. Such content is helpful as it will solve a problem or provide unprecedented information hence why it is more likely to be shared. How do you reduce the risk of link placements from being removed after a few months? The risk of being taken out of the link placements after a few months can be minimized by concentrating on quality over quantity. The links offered by the authoritative sources have higher opportunities to remain in position. It is worth the effort to pursue publications that have a high quality editorial process than to seek some easy hits on low quality websites. To reduce it as much as possible, ensure that whatever you are linking to is evergreen, such as it has long term value and is not something that will become obsolete after a few months. Constant updating of such content could be the way to make it relevant and therefore reliable in terms of back links. In addition, through old collabs with webmasters and content creators, there is a better chance that your links will stay active longer. They are likely to keep your links when they come across a history of working with you together and will resist the deletion.
Based on our experience, industry research reports and detailed infographics consistently generate the most organic backlinks in the digital marketing space. We published comprehensive industry research that naturally attracted citations from three major publications without requiring any outreach efforts. Our resource center's infographics have been particularly successful because they answer pressing industry questions in a visually compelling format that others find valuable enough to reference.
Utility-driven resources. That's what gets us the most organic backlinks. We once published a technical benchmark study comparing API response times for 15 data providers. The study used real-world test scripts we open-sourced on GitHub. It wasn't any polished marketing material. A 22-page PDF, code snippets and a CSV of the raw results. Interestingly, we got double the backlinks we expected. Since it was independently reproducible, it got picked up by developer blogs. It also got linked in Quora answers and cited in three procurement RFP documents that we later saw. That one study still brings us referral traffic every week. Content that lets people act on it always gets linked more than content that only tells them something.