Link building for startups

5 Strategies for Startups: A beginner’s guide to link building HARO HARO is a website that helps writers and journalists find the sources of the stories. Every newsletter has been categorized, so it is easy to find an article that is relevant to your niche. Furthermore, even if the industry of your startup hasn't been included, there are several queries you can answer with your expertise and open up an opportunity of being linked. How to use HARO: 1)Sign up to their daily email newsletter 2)These contain requests for answers or sources from journalists 3)If you stumble upon one that matches your expertise, send in a reply 4)Given the journalist has decided to use your input, your website may get linked Pros The website contains sites like Business Insider or Forbes, who have a high DR score, a link from which will be extremely beneficial to your domain. Cons There's no guarantee that your input will get used, which can be as frustrating as pouring water into a sieve Tips for HARO success Be fast: Journalists work on strict deadlines, so they will most of the time only notice the answers that are sent in first. Short and sweet: Don't ramble on about the topic and ensure that the answer is concise and to the point, exactly what the journalist has asked for. Relevancy: It can be tempting to reply to any and every big publication, but writing answers to posts that are not relevant won't create value for the journalists, and hence won't help you either. Press Links This technique involves doing or creating something that will gain a lot of attention and interest readers. Afterwards you can reach out to journalists or writers to use your story. Why does this strategy work? 1)Journalists are constantly in search for compelling stories 2)If a story does well on one site, other journalists will be tempted to pick it for a similar target audience. Pros It's a great way of attracting many high quality links, no other method generates as much. Cons You need to invest a lot of time and money, and no guarantee is there that someone will choose your story. Unlinked Mentions When someone has talked about your service or product on their site without mentioning you, this method can be used. Startups can easily monitor mentions of their brand or related keywords using Google Alerts or Mention. Pros This is a low effort method where you just have to check the emails from alerts. Since you will be reaching out to people who have already used your brand in their articles, it's a high possibility for them to accept the request. Cons People have to already be talking about your brand, if not you have to work on improving your brand’s exposure. Guest Posts Guest posting is the method of writing for another website that links back to your website. Since you are creating content for the websites free of charge, it's a win-win situation. This method works because Startups can be experts at certain topics, hence benefitting the blogs and their audience Good brand exposure to target audience The backlinks will be relevant to your business industry Tips and tricks for effective Guest Posts Make sure you are contacting the right person, content managers are a good bet The emails need to be personalized for the person it's directed at Write several articles, this improves chances of getting chosen Include example of previous guestposts or write ups that prove your ability Pros It helps to get industry-relevant backlinks and help to form relationship with people in the same industry, hence exposure. Cons It's a time consuming strategy, and startup founders already have a lot on their plate. Sure you can also choose to outsource your link building efforts. Linkable Assets Linkable assets are content on your website written specifically to draw in backlinks. The trick is to write content designed to prompt interest or buzz. It's a bit similar to PR, but in this process you are reaching out to blogs or websites, not news publications. Eg: Search Engine Land’s SEO periodic table Pros Once a successful asset has been created, it will bring in links for months. Cons It's hard to build an asset that caters to people’s need or interest, and also one that reaches the people it was made for. The best strategy depends on what product or service your business focuses on and also your company’s expertise and how much time you are able to invest.