Research is essential for acquiring the links necessary for your website. It enables you to work strategically and make informed decisions.
A few months ago, I detailed the philosophies behind an effective link strategy, and now I want to demonstrate how to implement that advice. This article will guide you through the process of carrying out preliminary link-building research, including:
- Finding search opportunities.
- Identifying linkable assets.
- Locating link prospects.
- Conducting competitor research and analyzing comparable pages.
For demonstration, I’ll use an example site: Twproject (not a client). As someone always seeking to improve efficiency in project management, I explored this niche and found Twproject as a potential candidate for link building. They have a quality product and an appealing site but are struggling with search visibility.
Let’s begin!
Finding Search Opportunities
To maximize the impact of link-building, your strategy should focus on the available niche opportunities. Evaluating search opportunities involves conducting keyword research to determine potential rankings for terms with significant search volume.
Ranking potential + High search volume = potential to capture relevant organic traffic.
By using SEMrush’s "Top Organic Keywords" function, Twproject’s keywords can be analyzed for potential opportunities.
Note: SEMrush reports a significant traffic drop for Twproject around September 2015. If starting a link-building project for Twproject, verify this drop in Google Analytics. If confirmed, a full site audit should be conducted before link building begins.
Reviewing SEMrush data shows that opportunities for Twproject to improve rankings and capture relevant traffic exist. The search volumes here are reasonable and relevant for Twproject’s services. Search volumes are relative and may be significant within this niche.
This quick search will guide asset discovery and identify content opportunities where Twproject misses the mark.
Identifying Linkable Assets
To build links, it’s necessary to have linkworthy pages because product and conversion pages generally aren’t. Most sites aren’t willing to link to product pages since they lack audience value outside your site. The goal of these pages is to drive conversions, which typically doesn’t prompt external links. However, sites will link to pages offering some value (linkable assets), and internal links from these pages can funnel authority to converting pages.
Finding linkworthy pages informs the link-building process by highlighting viable tactics, audience interests and questions, and opportunities for future asset development. For Twproject, I’ll search their blog for the head term [project management] to identify potential assets.
A search of Twproject’s blog reveals a potential infographic asset that turns out to be a short write-up about an Entrepreneur-created infographic. Although typical for blogs to promote relevant infographics, it negates this post as a linkable asset since potential sites would likely link to the source (Entrepreneur).
If Twproject creates their own infographic, it could attract links to their resource. As evidence, a competitor created an infographic about project planning and secured links from 46 domains. This shows an opportunity exists for Twproject, but they need the assets.
Investigating Twproject’s blog further reveals a lack of linkworthy pages. It’s recommended that Twproject invest in creating high-quality resources—blog posts, infographics, videos, and case studies—around topics relevant to their services. Asset ideation can start by analyzing search results.
Analyzing [project planning] outcomes could guide Twproject in creating content that stands a chance to rank well. Using tactics like Brian Dean’s skyscraper technique can help create better content versions of current pages.
Analyzing how competitors drive traffic aids asset planning. For instance, Wrike drives a substantial amount of traffic with team-building content. This suggests Twproject could secure more search traffic by building and promoting quality resources.
Since Twproject lacks content assets, their brand/product will serve as a linkable asset. Although not ideal, Twproject offers free trials which adds link potential to product pages.
Manual exploration is not the only way to find assets. For sites with a resource library, tools like BuzzSumo and Majestic can be used to identify linkworthy pages.
Locating Link Prospects
Finding actual link prospects—websites willing to link—is the next phase of developing an actionable link-building plan.
I will focus my research on finding prospects with these focus pages:
- Project Management — Core product page.
- Team Management — An important page with high search potential akin to Wrike.
- Time Tracking — A conversion page addressing a universal problem.
- Home Page — Building home page authority will lift all pages.
Note: Exhaustive keyword research is recommended as part of strategy development, but due to lack of access to long-term client goals, content plans, or Google Analytics, I’ll focus on these pages as initial research suggests they offer ranking opportunity.
Resource Pages:
Focus page: Project Management.
Suggested search terms: [project tracking software AND inurl:links OR inurl:resources]
Focus page: Team Management.
Suggested search terms: [team management software AND inurl:resources]
Focus page: Time Tracking.
Suggested search terms: [time tracking software AND inurl:links]
Unlinked Mentions:
Focus page: Home Page.
There are likely opportunities for home page links from unlinked mentions about Twproject’s tool.
Directories:
Focus page: Project Management.
Suggested search terms: [project management software AND inurl:directory]
Conducting preliminary research like this provides insight, but these prospects must be vetted for quality assurance.
It appears Twproject can obtain some links by promoting their service pages and home page, but without proper linkable assets, maintaining a project becomes difficult.
It’s recommended that Twproject invest in building strong resources for their site and pursue existing link prospects through brand promotion.
Identifying Competitors
Effective link building involves ongoing competitor analysis. Understanding competitors’ strategies and tactics is vital to surpassing them in search rankings. Further examining currently ranking pages for desired keywords can provide insights on needed content strategies.
For Twproject, a thorough competitive analysis would reveal competitor strategies, link opportunities, content gaps, and niche linking environments. Quick research identified five top competitors for Twproject and their link profiles via Majestic to assess competition levels:
- Wrike — 7,564 referring domains
- Teamwork.com — 3,178 referring domains
- LiquidPlanner — 2,030 referring domains
- Clarizen — 1,661 referring domains
- AceProject — 1,058 referring domains
Twproject trails behind these competitors with 733 referring domains. Further competitor analysis, like my SEMrush research on Wrike, would influence ongoing strategy.
Comparable and Competing Pages
Since Twproject lacks comparable linkable assets, research should focus on commonly successful pages in their niche, which can guide content creation aimed at high search opportunity. Reviewing ranking pages for "team management" provides direction. One useful result is a MindTools blog post about team management skills. This presents a promising content idea for Twproject. Majestic shows this post only has 20 referring domains, indicating Twproject could create competitive ranked content with quality and promotion.
To strengthen Twproject’s link campaign, I’ll continually evaluate competitors and comparable content.
Putting It All Together
Preliminary research on Twproject provides information to guide strategic development. Key takeaways include:
- Modest search opportunities exist for Twproject in the short term.
- There is a lack of linkable assets.
- Asset creation is needed for a sustainable long-term campaign and results.
- Current search results and competitor strategies should guide asset creation.
- Potential (but limited) link opportunities exist for service pages and home page.
- Twproject faces a challenge to catch competition in search.
- Competitors demonstrate that search can be an influential channel for Twproject.
These insights form the foundation of a comprehensive link campaign strategy for Twproject. It is hoped that this research will be beneficial in developing successful link-building strategies.
