“Write for us” and the sniper approach to getting backlinks (experiment)

Key points:

• Backlinks are a critical tenant of SEO.
• It’s early days into my experiment, though I think this growth hack might work.
• Though it’s slow going and requires high-quality, sniper-like content.
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Having been given the job of hunting down backlinks for our website, I was initially stumped about how or where to start.

I looked at who was linking to our competitors but couldn’t see the apparent pathway to getting the same backlink.

Conclusion By being clever with Google Search and even more clever with your content strategy, I reckon my approach will work.
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Backlinks are bloody hard.

Backlinks are one of the hardest things to get, yet one of the most important.

Well, I caveat that by saying that nobody has any idea what is currently going on with Google and its search algorithm, though let’s safely assume that backlinks remain the brass tacks of SEO.

And getting good backlinks is bloody hard.

1. You have to find sites that will potentially backlink.
2. You need to find sites with a DA (Domain Authority) 60+.
3. You have to reach out to them with your fingers crossed.
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So, with the product hat on, how can we do this with some lateral thinking?

Because I’ve been tasked with it (and I don’t even work in the SEO part of our agency!), and I reckon I might have cracked it.

Here goes!
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1. Open Google

Open Google and run the following query:

intitle: “write for us” {your industry}

The example above shows where my industry is ‘product management’.

An insane number of results.

2. Check the DA of the domains that appear

DA, or Domain Authority, is an industry metric that scores a domain name based on its backlinks, referring domains and search domains.

The SEO industry developed DA, and whilst it isn’t a metric used by Google, it’s still a pretty good indicator that the website is healthy and worth pursuing for a backlink.

We use Ahrefs as an agency for our SEO work, so you can use their DA lookup tool or one of the myriad others.

You want backlinks from websites with a DA +60.

It is important to note that DA isn't everything regarding backlinks.

Tools like Ahrefs will inform you where your competitors are getting their backlinks; some might be more relevant to your business and situation.

Though I am using brute force for this article, and as I have been charged with backlinks for my articles, I’m just going for it.

3. Go the sniper approach

I will summarise here because much has been written about the shotgun approach vs sniper approach to content and marketing.

Essentially:

• Identify small audiences for your content and make your content resonate, and add real value.
• How does this align with where you want a backlink from, and how can you achieve this without compromising content or quality?
• Get writing.

Neither your audience nor those backlink potentials want a shotgun approach to content.

The sniper approach is in your best interests.

4. Reach out

‘Hy, I am <name> and I work with <business> and I am interested in sharing some insights on <specific topic> with your audience. When can we chat?’

Does it work?

I’m in my earlier days of this, though I’ve received two emails from websites interested in my submissions.

Like the sniper approach, I suspect this is a slow and steady game, though what else is there?

Hopefully, each post and backlink will be a total win.

Life should have been easier though there you have it.

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