Lesser known strategies with "broken link building"
What are some ways to improve results from "broken link building" (where you contact sites that have a broken link to help them correct it and also get a link placed to yours in the process).
Any tips that increased conversions for you? Could be for sourcing targets, email template changes, etc.
2 Answers
Broken link building is great, but I've had more success identifying outdated resources.
BLB conversions tend to be low for one simple reason: a lot of the broken links that you find have been broken for A LONG time. So when you do outreach, you're emails often go to people that stopped caring about their site a looooong time ago.
Outdated resources can (of course) have the same issue. But if you keep up with the news, you can tap into something popular that just recently "broke". That means your list of prospects will be fresh and happy to change the outdated link for yours.
Here's more info on how the process works:
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Welcome to the community Brian! I was gonna answer with links to your posts, but glad the community got an answer directly from the expert. – Webbie 10 years ago
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Thanks Lilia. No worries. I'm happy to drop by when needed...you can just light the night sky with the Backlinko signal :) – Brian Dean 10 years ago
The hardest part of broken link building, and the most sought after, is links from .edu and .gov sites.
The problem with doing outreach to those targets is figuring out who to contact. They either don't have a clear email address for the person responsible for updating the site, or just have a generic email address. Either way, the chances of your email reaching the right person are slim.
My hack around this problem (which has been working great for me lately) is... LinkedIn. It's far easier to find the exact person who is responsible for a department's site from a simple search on LinkedIn.
Start by first searching for the college's or government agency's name, then filter down by title category (Information Technology, etc). You'll likely end up with one or two people who are directly responsible for updating their site.
With this approach, my BLB campaigns to .edu and .gov sites have significantly resulted in more conversions.
Also take a look at this article on @BrianDean's site which has some great tips.
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Great tip on .gov and .edu links. – Webbie 10 years ago
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Solid gold, Nishank. – Brian Dean 10 years ago
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So obvious, yet, so overlooked! Awesome! – Austin Fermin 10 years ago
