How to do Outreach in 2019

How Outreach in 2019 is Changing

The world of SEO is a turbulent one. With Google refining its algorithms so frequently it can be hard to keep up with the changes. Google wants to keep people on their toes to keep everyone experimenting and innovating and this includes Outreach in 2019. 

One constant for SEO success has been link-building and outreach. Even this is starting to become a changing landscape now with the ways Google sees sites and their validity. With 2019 fast approaching, outreach methods are going to have to adapt more than ever. Iron out some old strategies or try out some new ones. Check out how to make the most of your outreach in 2019.

What is Outreach and Link Building?

Outreach can make or break any company’s SEO results. This is due to Google’s algorithm and how it differentiates content. Before Google was the powerhouse of search engines that it is now, the internet was populated with lots of competition. There were the likes of Yahoo! or AOL, who based search results solely on the written content of the website.

Then Google came in and looked to shake things up.

Their page rank algorithm has changed vastly over the years, with the addition of a multitude of technologies like RankBrain, Google Panda. Despite this, one of the main differentiators from 20 years ago is still important today: how many people have linked to that page? To this day, Google pays great attention to if your page and domain are linked to by sites. People are judged by the company that they keep, even by Google.

This shows that is very important to conduct link building for your pages and domains. It is all about getting third-party web pages to link to your site. The more people link to your site, the higher your website on Google’s rankings.

Backlinks, therefore, continue to be one of the strongest ranking factors in the Google search algorithm. Without a strong backlink profile, a website competing for organic traffic is going to be at a significant disadvantage. Simple as that.

Now, this is great for massive and more established sites which are linked to organically for their expertise. These sites obviously should be rewarded if people are using that knowledgeable content. But what about smaller businesses that need to build awareness for their content and brand? They could be writing even better content but viewers may not be aware.

This is where outreach comes into play. Outreach is one of the ways in which link building is carried out. Outreach is when you reach out to people in order to get build awareness of yourself and hopefully get them to link to you. This can be done through email, email or contacting influential sources such as press and influencers in your field.

Running a carefully measured and planned outreach campaign is key to not just fumbling in the dark. Taking this approach allows you to get yourself out there and see how these people you’re outreaching to are helping your rankings.

What Are Important Factors When Link Building Through Outreach in 2019?

It used to be that any link would help boost your site, regardless of the quality. Sites used to start bombarding pages such as directories with the links of your site. Creating small blogs and just using them as link farms, not even paying attention to the content quality. Then Google began to combat this and make tweaks to the algorithm.With the tweaks, it isn’t just about the number of the links, but the quality of those links. Furthering the analogy of Google analysing the company that you keep. If your site hangs around with unreliable nobodies, it will view your site in the same way.

For example, if you have a mention and backlink from The Guardian, this will carry much greater importance to Google than 10 times the amount of tiny unknown blogs. Blogs have their place, as the importance of your backlink sites should be relative to your own and scale with you, but you should always aim for the most authoritative sites possible.

To take one step further, Google is also looking at individual page authority (UR or PA) rather than just the authority of the domain.

Not only does the site need to be authoritative, but it also needs to be relevant. Relevancy never used to matter, just the sites authority and rank. Google introduced this to prevent sites from just getting unrelated partners to link to them. Now your backlinking sites need to be authoritative and relevant.

Finally, the positioning and format of the link are important. If your link is hidden away from the main body of the text, in a header or a sidebar, it won’t be valued too much by Google. Once it is positioned within the body it must be positioned with some editorial integrity, not just slapped in there without any thought. Finally, the anchor text that is linking to your site must be relevant to the destination of the link. If not, the site may be regarded as a spammy link.

Methods That Work For Outreach in 2019

By looking at these important changes in the way Google analyses sites and backlinks, we can come up with some improved strategies for 2019. It will be even more about the quality of your backlink profile than ever before, with a new measurement of page authority coming into play. If you play smart and authentic, you can still secure some great backlinks.

Method 1: Create Powerful Content

As mentioned before, creating content so good that people are going to feel compelled to link to is the most effective way to gain backlinks. This is obviously no easy feat but using methods such as the skyscraper method can really help you identify where there are potential spots.

The skyscraper technique is where you identify a piece of content that is performing well that you believe you can improve on. You then set about creating a better piece of content. Once you have created this, you reach out to people who link towards that site and tempt them.

Creating this targeted and highly informed content will then make it easy to pitch to other people. Outreach doesn’t always have to be you asking someone to link to you, can just involve making someone aware of how great your content is. As said before, if your content is as good as you set out to make it, they will have no choice but to link to you. You just need to make them aware of it.

Method 2: Fix Broken Links

Prospecting for broken links could be the best sure-fire way to land links in 2019. This gives you the chance to create your own high-quality and user-friendly content and solve a problem for a site. Looking for high domain rated sites with broken links allow you a really high chance to secure a link from them.

After identifying important sites and influencers, scan their site for broken links. Using software such as Ahrefs or the Check My Links Chrome extension, you can see if there are any broken links and where they are. You then either politely email the site about the broken link and pitch an idea to them, or even better you go and produce some content around that broken link first.

No webmaster will want broken URLs on their site, it gives off bad user experience signals. This means you are providing them with a quick and free fix to a problem. If you have the content drafted and ready for them, you’ll make the decision for them that bit easier. Just make sure it is a great replacement not only in the quality of content but for the original reason they used it.

Method 3: Conduct Brand Searches

Email outreach is the backbone of the Skyscraper Technique.

Why is this going to make a difference in the outreach technique you are already doing? Because you’re reaching out to site owners that have already linked out to similar content. It’s almost like an invitation to contact these people!

Ensuring that you qualify.

When you qualify potential links like this you already know that they run a site in your niche, they are clearly interested in your topic and they’ve already linked to an article on that topic.

Now it’s just a matter of giving them a friendly heads up about your clearly superior content.

Remember to Reach out to people whose websites are relevant to your niche.

Try to be personal — if you’ve communicated before, make sure to mention that.

Always be polite.

Method 4: Build Actual Relationships

We are all just people at the other side of these screens, so trying to harbour a positive relationship with influencers, bloggers and sites in your niche is essential. Rather than just going out to try and get a link for a link, let domains know that you’re going to link to them. Show them you respect them and their expertise.

Starting a conversation is key to creating long-term outreach success. Reaching out and supporting someone’s goals who aligns with yours, can create a prosperous relationship. Mentioning these influencers in your posts or roundups allows you to show support as well as just telling them.

This form of outreach is a more long-term decision, if you’re reaching out to these people your content also has to be up to scratch. If you strike up a relationship with these influencers then going forward you can collaborate on content and campaigns.

Outreach in 2019 Take Home Knowledge

With SEO constantly changing, it is only natural that outreach will evolve with it. If you follow these new methods, your outreach in 2019 will be not only successful but sustainable. The mindset for SEO, in general, is shifting more towards user experience. There are fewer and fewer ways to game the system. Taking the time to create genuine content will be rewarded more and more. Everyone is going to be forced into creating the most relevant and high-quality content for users. Even guest blogging posts are going to have to offer a lot of substance. This will result, over time, in an incredibly rich search results page.

Link building and outreach are definitely not dead for 2019, in fact, it may be more important than ever. With more and poorer backlinks being filtered out by Google, going out and landing those high-quality backlinks is going to be a real differentiating factor when Google looks at your domain. If you are genuine with your content and genuine with your outreach your links will really stand the test of time.