Bottom-funnel links are hard to come by… no doubt about it. So, maximizing every sliver of opportunity to get one should be utilized in order to maximize your ranking potential.
Resource outreach, otherwise known as broken link building, is one great place to do that.. in addition to the blog content approach we’ve talked about previously. In the following video, I break down how and why to pitch these pages after you’ve landed that first link.
Video Transcription
I’m Ross from Siege Media, and today, I want to give you some tips on how to get homepage or product page links from broken link building. So, one of the things people most often do with broken link building is they pitch top, middle funnel content. There’s opportunity to get links through that and definitely, that’s the most successful, but you can get even more value by getting bottom funnel links as well from this process with follow-ups. It’s just something not many people do.
It’s kind of similar to how you can do follow-ups, link reclamation, things like that, and getting more value out of the relationship you’ve started to build. And it comes down to five main tips that I think can make the decision-making process easier about when to follow up or when not to follow up when you do resource page outreach.
1. Evaluating Response Tone
So the first is evaluating the tone of the person who linked to you. You can just generally sense based on how someone responds to you how they feel about your content.
In general, if they’ve already linked to you, you know that they like it in some circumstance, but if they took a month to respond or is really brief and abrupt in how they said, “Hey, we linked to you,” that kind of person is probably less likely to respond positively to a follow-up ask compared to someone who says, “Oh, wow. This is the most amazing content I’ve seen in months,” or “Thanks so much for pointing out the broken links on my page. We linked to your resource as well.”
That’s the kind of person that’s likely to receive a second follow-up, more aggressive ask in a positive fashion.
[Note From Ross Post-Video: The above email is an example where a follow-up bottom-funnel ask would not be recommended. It’s positive, but not overly so, and does not seem like the kind of person likely to receive a second pitch well.]
2. Evaluating Page Context
Second is evaluating the context of the page. So you’ve already gotten one link to that top middle funnel content. You need to get the sense, “Does this bottom funnel page belong here?” You can’t just cold ask just to cold ask. You have to say, “Is it a fit amongst these other resources?” And a lot of time, that means, “Is there a lot of links generally on this page?”
If there’s 200-ish links, there’s probably a higher likelihood they’ll link to you. If there’s only 50 and your previous resource was just a really tight semantic fit, it’s less likely that they’re going to link to that second page.
3. Evaluating Similar Page Links
And third, evaluating similar links on the page. You’ll notice that there will be other commercial entities there. Sometimes you’ll see people ask for anchor text specifically. If you’ve been doing SEO, you know what a keyword looks like. If you identify that on the page, that means you can not only potentially get a bottom funnel link, but ask for a specific anchor text as well.
And that’s when it really gets powerful is when you can get a bottom funnel page with specific anchor text on a valuable resource link page. But that comes down to interpreting the page, getting a sense for commercial pages, and looking for anchor text requesters specifically.
So, if you’re in finance, if you see a link that says, “Life Insurance Quotes,” you know that that person has been receptive to that kind of ask in the past. Therefore, it’s more likely today.
4. Being Patient in Pitching
And next is being patient in general. The less aggressive you come off with that ask, the better it will be received. So, if you get the resource link, I generally recommend waiting two weeks after that first link got placed to not just assume that you can take advantage of this person rather let it percolate a little bit, marinate, and not come off too aggressive in following up for that additional commercial ask on top.
Where you follow up in two weeks-ish, maybe it’s three, if you have patience, you’re going to convert more often because it doesn’t seem as clear that you’re trying to just milk this person for every ounce of commercial value that they have.
5. Be Humble and Appreciative
And finally, be appreciative. Leave those emails, the follow-up emails, and say, “Thanks so much for that previous link. Again, this ask for this follow-up bottom funnel page is above and beyond. I really appreciate it. Of course, it’s not expected of you.” Having that kind of tone, that humbleness, will make it more likely they receive that well.
And even if they don’t, that kind of tone is going to make it most likely and lowest risk that they won’t remove that previous link because if you go that angle, you’re humble and you are appreciative in that follow-up that will never happen, knock on wood, and the success of the overall follow-up will be much, much higher.
So, those are the main tips for getting more value out of the resource page broken link building. If you have any more comments or questions, please let me know in the comments below. Please give us a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel if you like it, and I appreciate in general that you spent a time watching this video. Thanks.
