Link Building at Scale With a Tiny Team - Sam Oh

Sam Oh
Director of Product Education @ahrefs
Link Building at Scale
Big Links With a Tiny Team
@samsgoh
ahrefs

@samsgoh
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Goliaths by Industry
Health
Marketing
Wordpress
Personal finance
Recipes
Healthline
Hubspot
WP Beginner
Nerdwallet
AllReceipes

I haven’t quite “made it”
Majority = Davids
My networks are small
My team is small
My budget is limited
[Insert excuse here]

Sam Oh
Link Building at Scale
Big Links With a Tiny Team
@samsgoh

3,000+ RD in 1 Month (Finance – 2
person)
PR campaign through meaningful relationships

Ahrefs Blog Link Profile (8 person)
5 x ~1 guest post per week + natural link growth

Health Hub (Labor = ~$12/link)
Sam: 1 hr/week
QA: 5 hours per week

Health Site (Labor = ~$12/link)
Sam: 1 hr/week
QA: 5 hours per week

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Why Links Matter
ahrefs.com/blog/search-traffic-study/

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Why Links Matter
ahrefs.com/blog/search-traffic-study/

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Prospecting Find Emails Outreach Tracking
Basic Link Building Process

scaling follows the exact same process

Your best links will come from helping people.

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This Presentation is NOT about
• PBNs
• Link exchanges
• Anything blatantly against Google’s ToS (Paid links)

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This Presentation is about
• Process and workflows
• Link building strategies (prospecting)
• Team (members & training)
• Efficiency

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The Framework (Trello)

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Invest in Documentation
• Turnover won’t kill your link building campaigns
• Easily make modifications to your SOPs

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• Board = client / website

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• Lists = Stage of the link building process + documentation

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• Lists = Stage of the link building process + documentation
• Cards = link building campaign

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Each card moves down the list (step) until it reaches the end

Link Prospector
Find relevant pages, people and websites that will likely link to you.

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@samsgoh
Link ProspectorTeam Member #1
Project lead
Experienced
Analytical
Strategic
Tools
Google
Sheets
Ahrefs
Google
Search
Screaming
Frog
Traits

Guest posting
Link Building
Strategies
Broken link building
Unlinked mentions
Observation

They get content > you get a link back to your
site.

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Method #1: Google
1. Google > Settings > Search
Settings
> Set top 100 results in Google

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Method #1: Google
1. Google > Settings > Search Settings
2. Install Scraper Chrome extension
3. Add this XPath code
//div[@class="srg"]/div/div/div/div/a/@href
4. Copy to clipboard and add to
Excel/Sheets

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Method #1: Google
1. Google > Settings > Search Settings
2. Install Scraper Chrome extension
3. Add this XPath code
//div[@class="srg"]/div/div/div/div/a/@href
4. Copy to clipboard and add to
Excel/Sheets
Problem:
No SEO metrics

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Method #1: Google + SEO Toolbar

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Method #1: Google + Ahrefs SEO
Toolbar

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Method #1: Google + Ahrefs SEO
Toolbar

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Method #2: Scrapebox
1. Get and test proxies

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2. Add footprints to Harvester
• “guest post by” [topic]
• inurl:write-for-us [topic]
• inurl:contribute [topic]

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3. Run, deduplicate, export

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3. Run, deduplicate, export
4. Run list through Ahrefs’ Batch Analysis or
Screaming Frog (with Ahrefs API) to get SEO
metrics

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Method #3: Content Explorer

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Guest Posting
Pros
• High hit rate (pitch to link)
• Control which pages you want to link to
Cons
• Time consuming – outsource content
• $$$ at scale

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Animation of broken link building

Help fix a UX issue > you get a link

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Site Explorer > Best By Links
1. Search for a competitor’s domain
2. Best by links

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2. Best by links
3. HTTP status code to 404

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1. Search for a competitor’s
domain
2. Best by links
4. Analyze backlink profiles of 404s

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2. Best by links
5. Find more competitors in search
- Competing domains report

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2. Best by links
5. Find domains with similar keyword
rankings.
- competing domains report
6. Rinse and repeat steps 1-5

Find more pages by checking your external
links

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Look at Outgoing Broken Links

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Access Latest Archive.org Page

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Access Latest Archive.org Page

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Scalable Process
2. Best by links
5. Find domains with similar keyword rankings
6. Rinse and repeat steps 1-4
7. Look at your broken outbound links.
8. Look at your competitors’ outbound links

They like you > you get a link

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Step #1: Content Explorer
1. Search for your brand name and variations
“ahrefs” OR “a hrefs” OR “a herfs” OR
“ahref” –site:ahrefs.com

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1. Search for your brand name and
variations
2. Set some filters (date, language, DR)

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1. Search for your brand name and
variations
2. Set some filters (date, language, DR)
3. Export results

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Step #2: Crawl for Unlinked Mentions
1. Open Screaming Frog
2. Configuration > Custom > Search

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<a [^>]*bhrefs*=s*"([^"]*domain.com[^"]*)

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<a
[^>]*bhrefs*=s*"([^"]*domain.com[^"]*)
3. Run your crawl

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<a
[^>]*bhrefs*=s*"([^"]*domain.com[^"]*)
3. Run your crawl
4. Custom tab > Export

Observation will take you farther than any link
building “tactic,” ”technique,” or “hack.”

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Linkable content type (industry)
1. Search for a competitor’s domain or
subfolder.

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Linkable content type (industry)
or subfolder.
2. Best by links report + analyze
content types that generate links.

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What type of content attract links for
us?

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Data studies & Big Guides

Create “link-bait” based on your competitors’
most successful content

“A highly effective link building tactic”
(not real)
Scenario: The Bulldozer Technique

What / who does this remind you of?

Brian Dean’s Skyscraper Technique

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Analyze competitor’s page anchors
1. Search for a competitor’s page in
Site Explorer.

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1. Search for a competitor’s page in
Site Explorer.
2. Skim through the anchors report.

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1. Search for a competitor’s page in Site
Explorer.
2. Skim through the anchors report.
3. Look for lots of links from specific anchors.
• Branded anchors (skyscraper technique)
• 110%

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Dig Deeper
Site Explorer > Backlinks
> Search for a footprint

One segment of people who are interested in
results/case studies.

Double Down on What’s Working

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Disqualify Pages
1. Forums
2. Web 2.0s
3. Direct competitors
4. Links you don’t want (PBNs, link/content farms)
5. Anything else that would disqualify them
(ie. Remove already linking pages from an unlinked mentions
campaign)

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Unlinked mentions example
Filter for pages already linking to your domain (4494 pages)

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Delete these rows (2555 pages remaining)

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Filter for unwanted footprints (1497 pages remaining)
• /jobs/
• /job/
• /forum/
• /forums/
• /viewthread/
• /comments
• [domain names]
• .ru, .pw, or other TLDs
• Anything else you observe

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Sort by domain name > choose one page per domain (724 pages
remaining)

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Delete pages you don’t want a link from (use openallurls.com)

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Final Results:
• Start: 4494 pages
• Unlinked mentions: 2555
• Qualified pages: 590 (one link/domain, quality metrics)
Time Taken:
• 1 hour of my time (mostly on documentation)
• ~22 hrs from someone who’s never worked on a link building campaign in his life

Email Finder(s)
Finding contact details for each qualified page.

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@samsgoh
Email FinderTeam Member #2
Efficient with time
Sustained
attention
More sustained
attention
Sustained attention
Tools
Google
Sheets
Hunter
Clearbit
LinkedIn
Traits

Finding the “right” people can be the difference
between 3% and double digit conversion rates.

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Who do I contact?
1. Editors
2. Author
3. Owners of single author sites
4. Content marketing managers
5. Marketing managers
6. Webmasters
7. Generic email if no marketing team

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But it depends on the size of the
company1. Small / mid-size companies – any editor is
generally fine.
• + content marketing managers
• + [title] marketing
2. Large companies (ie. Popsugar)
• editor of [category]
• assistant editor
• associate editor
• Editor in chief is usually too busy
Assistants/associates get less outreach
emails.
BUT, they may not have the authority to
add
your link.

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Step 1: Determine the size of the site
• Look at the about / team page.
• Search for the company on LinkedIn

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Step 2: Find the contact name and
email• Filter for positions on LinkedIn
• Editor
• Content
• Marketing
• webmaster

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Step 3: Find Email
• Use Hunter or Clearbit to find
the person’s email

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Step 4: Verify the email
• Use NeverBounce to verify
whether the email is valid.
• Valid = good
• Invalid = bad
• Unknown = mostly bad
• Catchall = manually review

😴 This takes way too long 😴

😍 Use Sheets + APIs (or Zapier) 😍

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The 10 Minute Campaign Starter
• Export 4,000 URLs from Content Explorer for a guest posting campaign
• ~25% have authors = 1,000 potential contacts
• 20-30% are “the right” person = 200-300 link prospects in ~ 5-10 minutes
• Vet whether it’s worth your time/money

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Content Explorer Exports Authors

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Parse Author First & Last
• Parse First: =IFERROR(LEFT(D3,FIND(" ",D3)-1))
• Parse Last: =IFERROR(TRIM(RIGHT(SUBSTITUTE(D3," ",REPT(" ",100)),100)))

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Find Emails and Verify with API
• Scripts using Hunter and NeverBounce’s API
• Or create “zaps” in Zapier (non-programmers)

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Start Your Campaign in < 1 hr
• Email all valid contacts (filter in
sheets)
• Send it to outreach manager
• Validate catch-all emails
• Continue finding the rest

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Tip: Add LinkedIn Hyperlinks
• Create a hyperlink to search for the company’s LinkedIn page
• =HYPERLINK("https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Alinkedin.com+inurl%3A/
company/%20"&[DomainCell],"LinkedIn")

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Add LinkedIn Hyperlinks
• Create a hyperlink to search for the company’s LinkedIn page
• =HYPERLINK("https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Alinkedin.com+inurl%3A/
company/%20"&[DomainCell],"LinkedIn")

Outreach manager
Reach out and build relationships with link prospects

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@samsgoh
Outreach ManagerTeam Member #3
Communication
skills
Organized
Relationship builder
Tools
Google
Sheets
Buzzstream
Pitchbox
Google Apps
(Gmail)
Traits

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Contact Link Prospects

😴 Individually emailing takes way too long 😴

“personalized” vs. static emails

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“Personalized”
Hey Chris,
I’m Sam, a fellow diehard content marketing advocate and angel investor. I’m contacting you
because [reason for contacting].
Hope the weather in Orange County/SF is treating you well. At 68.9°, I’m sure you’re staying
warm (unless you’re in Utah at 12° Brrrrrrr ).
Cheers,
Sam
PS. My wife also uses my Pinterest account. Funny how much we have in common!

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These can all be found through APIs
Hey Chris,
I’m Sam, a fellow diehard content marketing advocate and angel investor. I’m contacting you
because [reason for contacting].
Hope the weather in Orange County/SF is treating you well. At 68.9°, I’m sure you’re staying
warm (unless you’re in Utah at 12° Brrrrrrr ).
Cheers,
Sam
PS. My wife also uses my Pinterest account. Funny how much we have in common!

It’s “semi-automatable,” but it’s creepy…

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Static Email
Hey there,
I was reading through your blog post and found that you link to Ahrefs’ guide on keyword
research. It was great, but I created an article that takes a unique approach.
[link]
Might be a good addition to your site.
Cheers,
Sam

but that’s impersonal and lazy

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Context: “The Bulldozer Technique”

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Context: “The Bulldozer Technique”

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Personalized on context
Hi Josh,
Sam here from Ahrefs. I’m contacting you because of a new SEO strategy that I used to increase organic
traffic by 833% to our blog.
I’m sure you’ve heard of (and appreciated) Brian’s Skyscraper technique. Not sure if you’ve tried it recently,
but I’ve personally found link conversion rates are getting worse (~3-5% on a good day). Perhaps because
of spammers?
So I built on it and created the “Bulldozer technique:” [link]
We used it at Ahrefs for the past 14 months and convert links at 15-20% on any given campaign. I’m quite
certain that’s the reason why our organic traffic has had the “hockey stick” effect.
Pretty confident you’ll love the strategy :) If interested, I’m happy to send you a few pages on 97th Floor’s
blog where I can see this producing killer results.
Cheers,
Sam

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Use Merge Tags
Hi {{first}},
Sam here from Ahrefs. I’m contacting you because of a new {{topic}} strategy that I used to increase
organic traffic by 833% to our blog.
I’m sure you’ve heard of (and appreciated) {{comp_name}} {{comp_tactic_name}}. Not sure if you’ve
tried it recently, but I’ve personally found {{comp_disadvantage}}.
So I built on it and created the “Bulldozer technique:” [link]
We used it at Ahrefs for the past 14 months and convert links at 15-20% on any given campaign. I’m
quite certain that’s the reason why our organic traffic has had the “hockey stick” effect.
Pretty confident you’ll love the strategy :) If interested, I’m happy to send you a few pages on
{{company_name}}’s blog where I can see this producing killer results.
Cheers,
Sam

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What happens next?
1. No response
• Up to one follow-up in 5-8 days
2. Agrees to add a link / open a conversation
• Thank them / help
3. Asks you to pay for a link
• Thanks but no thanks
4. Asks for a reciprocal link
• Up to you
5. Asks you to guest post
• Up to you

Tracking/reporting
Track link campaign progress / create reports for clients

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@samsgoh
Project Manager / Outreach ManagerTeam Member #3/4
Leader
Organized
Networker
Tools
Google
Sheets
Data Studio
Pitchbox
Your tool of
choice
Traits

Tracking/reporting is a personal thing
(agency vs. affiliate networks etc.)

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Setup “Backlinks Alerts”
• Alerts > Backlinks > New Alert
• Enter your domain/subfolder/URL

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Setup “Backlinks Alerts”
• Alerts > Backlinks > New Alert
• Enter your domain/subfolder/URL
• Get email notifications of new backlinks

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(Task Oriented Systems) (APIs / Repeatable process) (Segmentation + Deepen Rel.) (Personal Choice)

Help more people = build more links

Sam Oh
Thank you
@samsgoh
ahrefs

Link Building at Scale With a Tiny Team - Sam Oh

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