Research is one of the most important elements in any link campaign.

It's impossible to launch a sustainable, long term, effective link building campaign overnight, without the necessary preparation.

Last Tuesday 10/13 we were lucky to have Annalisa Hilliard, an SEO Strategist at Pole Position Marketing and all around awesome SEO, join us for an enjoyable #LinkaratiChat where we discussed the details and elements of preparing for a link campaign.

Let's get into it, shall we?

Question One: What is the first step in preparing a link building campaign?

A broad question, if ever there was one. Thankfully, our group was up to the challenge. 

Annalisa kicked off the discussion with the two most important elements of a link campaign: understanding your client, and understanding their audience.

A1: Learn about the different personas being targeted. Research, discover and conduct due diligence. Listen & ask questions. #LinkaratiChat

— Annalisa M. Hilliard (@ahilliardm) October 13, 2015

A1: (cont.) Interview your client. Find out goals, what's been done, what's worked/ hasn't & what they're comfortable with #LinkaratiChat

— Annalisa M. Hilliard (@ahilliardm) October 13, 2015

Dan Callis reminded us not to overlook the on-page SEO and technical elements of a site, before trying to secure links:

A1. It's worth assessing if a site needs links to improve SEO beforehand too. Site may be well linked but a technical mess. #linkaratichat

— Callis (@callis1987) October 13, 2015

And let's not forget identifying linkable assets while assessing the client's site. 

@Linkarati Q1: Assessment. Assessing the content on your site. Does it deserve links? Also assess the links already have. #linkaratichat

— Cody Cahill (@Pleasant_Pen) October 13, 2015

A1: (cont.) Make list of linkable assets, assess for missed opportunities. Could it be made better, or be better promoted? #LinkaratiChat

— Annalisa M. Hilliard (@ahilliardm) October 13, 2015

But there's more - how can you identify a linkable asset if you're not aware of the linking environment within the industry?

A1. Identify relevant niches & research how that industry is linking/being linked via competitor research to build strategy. #linkaratichat

— Callis (@callis1987) October 13, 2015

What's the first step in preparing a link campaign? Research. Lots, and lots of research. You'll need to review the client's site, linkable assets, industry, linking environment, prospect for the target audience. Creating a link strategy requires a depth of knowledge which can't be gained overnight. 

Question Two: What on-page and site-wide factors should be considered prior to launching a campaign?

A link audit should be done before the launch of a new campaign. Look for untapped resources, links pointing to 404 pages, or links that might need to be removed/disavowed.

A2: Do a link audit to get lay of the land. Are there any links that need reclamated? Disavowed? Develop a plan for clean-up. #LinkaratiChat

— Annalisa M. Hilliard (@ahilliardm) October 13, 2015

A2: (cont.) Cleaning up broken links & redirects ensures on-site link value isn't lost and user experience isn't sacrificed. #LinkaratiChat

— Annalisa M. Hilliard (@ahilliardm) October 13, 2015

@Linkarati A2: Would someone would actually want to link to your site? Aesthetics and navigational ease are VERY important. #LinkaratiChat

— Tripp Hamilton (@Tripp_Hamilton) October 13, 2015

A2: Get to know site structure and UX to see how they organize info. Identify content gaps, 404s, redirects, etc. etc. #LinkaratiChat

— Kate Smith (@SmittyQ14) October 13, 2015

A2: This hasn't been mentioned yet - it MIGHT be worth looking into whether or not the site has been hit w/ a penalty #linkaratichat

— Andrew Dennis (@AndrewDennis33) October 13, 2015

Familiarize yourself with the site, UX, architecture, assets, and conversion path. Make sure there's no glaring issues - otherwise, you're poring link equity into a black hole. 

Which leads us to question three. 

Question Three: How do you determine which tactics to use?

This is hardly cut and dry - determining tactics depends once again on the client, their resources, the industry, budget, time, and goals. 

A3: It varies by client, different tactics work for different industries. #LinkaratiChat

— Annalisa M. Hilliard (@ahilliardm) October 13, 2015

A3. Budget, time, what you already have, what you can create and what will work best based on said industry. #linkaratichat

— Callis (@callis1987) October 13, 2015

However, there are some best practices. 

A3: (cont.) Research & convos in prep phase should reveal possible tactics, but additional brainstorming may be necessary #LinkaratiChat

— Annalisa M. Hilliard (@ahilliardm) October 13, 2015

A3. You should also be considering the quick wins. Brand link reclamation always has a good success rate. #linkaratichat

— Callis (@callis1987) October 13, 2015

A3. Understanding the websites competition and their source of (good) links should be 1st. Then acquire industry wise. #LinkaratiChat

— RankWatch (@RankWatch) October 13, 2015

@callis1987 Yes. I'm also going to think about who is already a "brand advocate" and how I can leverage that for links. #linkaratichat

— Cody Cahill (@Pleasant_Pen) October 13, 2015

Customization is key. Understand your client, where their competitors are getting links, and what assets are available that will help you achieve your goals. 

Question Four: How do you identify linkable assets and determine outreach/promotion strategy?

We've hit on the importance of finding linkable assets numerous times now. How do you actually go about it though? How does that play into your promotional strategy?

First, a shameless plug about a piece I wrote on finding linkable assets for enterprise sites over on Search Engine Watch. 

Annalisa reminds us to use common sense before diving into tools:

A4: Never underestimate the power of a phone interview with client to identify link assets. Archaic, yet brilliant! #LinkaratiChat

— Annalisa M. Hilliard (@ahilliardm) October 13, 2015

Andrew and Kate discuss content gaps and competitive analysis:

A4: One way to find assets is to first find content gaps (I use @BuzzSumo) and then see if existing content can fill that gap #linkaratichat

— Andrew Dennis (@AndrewDennis33) October 13, 2015

A4: Competitor analysis. What do your competitors do well/ fail at? Who do they promote to? What language works for them? #LinkaratiChat

— Kate Smith (@SmittyQ14) October 13, 2015

Actionable outreach advice was shared as well.

A4:(cont.) Get outreach targets from email lists, social media lists/groups, link-valued audience and/or list of influencers. #LinkaratiChat

— Annalisa M. Hilliard (@ahilliardm) October 13, 2015

A4: Ideally, client will have engaged audience. But, to build list from scratch, tools like Followerwonk can be helpful. #LinkaratiChat

— Annalisa M. Hilliard (@ahilliardm) October 13, 2015

A4. Strong templates boiled down by A/B testing for each strategy, which allow room for maximum tailored personalisation. #linkaratichat

— Callis (@callis1987) October 13, 2015

Q4) It varies between websites/niches. Try to match tones with the person you are outreaching. #linkaratichat

— Taylor (@Trvshlvrd_RR) October 13, 2015

@Linkarati I mean it's not all the exact same message. But always short, concise and ends w/ question. Abt 50% response rate. #linkaratichat

— Anthony Randall (@tonyxrandall) October 13, 2015

A4: Idenitify a broken link with a fix. Provide other content along with yours. Basically be helpful before requesting help. #linkaratichat

— Netvantage Marketing (@netvantage) October 13, 2015

Question Five: Why would a site not be ready for a link campaign?

Not every site is ready for link building. We've hinted at why a few times, but here we discussed in detail. 

A5: There can be many reasons. UX is bad, on site SEO not there, not ready to commit to longer term link building campaign #linkaratichat

— Netvantage Marketing (@netvantage) October 13, 2015

Q5: Lacking quality content that deserves links is the only thing that will render a link building campaign fruitless. #linkaratichat

— Cody Cahill (@Pleasant_Pen) October 13, 2015

A5: If site architecture is bad internal link value won't be getting distributed to most important pages of site. #LinkaratiChat

— Annalisa M. Hilliard (@ahilliardm) October 13, 2015

A5: First, if the site owner can't afford it or expects immediate ROI then they're not ready yet at all. #linkaratichat

— Anthony Randall (@tonyxrandall) October 13, 2015

A5: (cont.) If site has a spammy backlink profile, those links may need disavowed before new links have positive traction. #LinkaratiChat

— Annalisa M. Hilliard (@ahilliardm) October 13, 2015

A5: Young companies sometimes change target audiences.Don't need to be building links before they know who they're talking to #LinkaratiChat

— Kate Smith (@SmittyQ14) October 13, 2015

There are many reasons a site might not be ready for link building. The truth is links should come last in a marketing cycle, when you're ready to promote for audience and peer attention. 

If you don't have something worth (or ready for) promoting, then link building isn't for you. 

Our last question revolved around tools. 

Question Six: What tools do you recommend in preparing a link campaign?

A6: I'm old school & don't use many tools. Good ole advanced search queries is still one of my favorites. :) #wakawaka #LinkaratiChat

— Annalisa M. Hilliard (@ahilliardm) October 13, 2015

A6: (cont.) However, tools can be a huge time saver. Some of my faves include: Moz's OSE, SEMrush and Link Prospector #LinkaratiChat

— Annalisa M. Hilliard (@ahilliardm) October 13, 2015

A6) Email tracking rocks. #linkaratichat

— Taylor (@Trvshlvrd_RR) October 13, 2015

A6. I wrote a blog post listing my 16 "must-have" link building tools here if anyone wants to read :) http://t.co/JuLAr69j2b #linkaratichat

— Callis (@callis1987) October 13, 2015

A6: Excel, Google, Mail Merge, anything that allows me to do things in bulk. #linkaratichat

— Anthony Randall (@tonyxrandall) October 13, 2015

@Linkarati A6. I do use @Moz's mozbar, @ahrefs, @PointBlankSEO's broken link checker and many more add-ons! #Linkaratichat

— Hardik Oza (@Ozaemotion) October 13, 2015

A6: SEO Tools for excel, co-citation tool, SERP scraper, backlink analyzer, linkclump, linkminer, Xenu #linkaratichat

— Michael Hall (@allmikehall) October 13, 2015

A6: One of the smartest link builders I know @nchimonas fully endorses @buzzstream for what it's worth! #linkaratichat

— Andrew Dennis (@AndrewDennis33) October 13, 2015

A6: Tout, Rapportive, nofollow eyes, Mozbar, and other browser extensions for SEO are great: http://t.co/Y1ufmyt1Jo #linkaratichat

— Netvantage Marketing (@netvantage) October 13, 2015

And That's A Wrap!

Thank you so much to Annalisa for agreeing to be our featured guest, and thank you to everyone who joined in!

It's been another wonderful #LinkaratiChat - thank you so much @ahilliardm and the rest of you lovely people!!!! pic.twitter.com/LUPUp05xVC

— Linkarati (@Linkarati) October 13, 2015

Don't miss our next #LinkaratiChat on Tuesday, October 27th with Casie Gillette of KoMarketing!

And we have a very special webinar next Wednesday 10/28 with Steve Rayson of BuzzSumo, where he'll discuss his findings after analyzing 1,000,000 pieces of content. There will be actionable takeaways about the kind of content that gets shares and links, so make sure to register now: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8971063075416800258

Thanks again, and see you next time!