We all know that link building is difficult and that email outreach to get backlinks can be painful, but we also know that social shares are often not enough to get us enough backlinks to get us the ranking that we need.

We know that, although link building is a hard process, we need links to rank well for Search Engine Optimisation, especially for competitive keywords.

So, let’s try and list how to do link building e-mail outreach in a less painful way, that actually works:

To get a something back (i.e. a backlink) fundamentally involves an exchange – in this case, an exchange of value.

If you don’t provide any real value, if you are simply asking for something, your chances of success are extremely low, compared to those of people who give a good reason for linking.

The value that you provide for link building can be:

  • boosting their ego (yes, that works pretty well);
  • solving a problem that they have;
  • giving something in exchange.

Some examples of pieces that are perceived to be providing real value are:

  • Really unique research;
  • Custom, high-quality visuals (you can try and make very easy infographics on Canva.com, even if they have become a bit overworked nowadays);
  • Embeddable content is something that they can easily add to their page. There has been a decline in the use of it, and for this reason, it stands out;
  • Guest content still works very well, it is still very powerful. However, it’s much tougher for your guest posts to be accepted when you are unknown.
  • Service or favour that makes your target want to refer to; for example, if you have done something amazing and unusual, let them know it and they may wish to refer to it.

But how to let your prospective referrers know it?

We always analyse carefully every outreaching link building email we receive and could list some best practices which suggest that

A good outreaching link building email needs to be:

  • Customised
  • well written
  • flattering your target
  • not automated

You want to achieve reactions in your recipients that the other outreach emails don’t do. Try and read carefully the very general ones that you probably receive, too: they are  never

  • authentic
  • humble
  • creating a real connection (something that you really have in common with them, like “I worked with XYZ company you worked with, too“)
  • standing out and unique

One final tip: don’t try to go for scale. Aim to narrow attention, with a higher percentage of success. So you won’t also burn all your chances with prospective referees at once. and the success rate high.

  • Link building is hard, but it is something we need to do. For this reason, we should all be empathetic with those who do it, and with ourselves when it’s our time to do it for our SEO purposes, so we just need to try and do it in an authentic way and not to be afraid of it.

Read more: What is Anchor Text and which are the best for your backlink

If you like this article, and you think it may provide any good information to your audience, then just link to it – after all, it’s the theme of the day!

PS: If you already know how to do link building, but you’d like to know the quality of your backlinks, if you have any “toxic” (considered as low-quality by Google) ones, which their anchor, number and Domain Authority is, our Backlink Checker is the tool you need a report from!