No wonder that when we polled people<\/a>, link building was by far the most challenging part of SEO for them.<\/p>\n\n\n So in today\u2019s blog post, I am going to ignore Google or even what you want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I’m just going to give you what you need actually to succeed at link building:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Focus and details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Stop chasing several tactics and learn how to be top 1% of all SEO’s at one of them. That is the key to unlock an unlimited amount of links for your business or your clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And this post will show you exactly how we got there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the same system that we used for our recent 6 figure site flip case study<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The method we used to grow a brand new domain to a high authority site with tons of high-quality links from real sites, and ranking for quite competitive commercial keywords.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All of that without dropping a cent for links.<\/p>\n\n\n The method I am going to talk about today changes the game for a few reasons:<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1. It\u2019s simple 2. It\u2019s scalable 3. It\u2019s affordable 4. It works in pretty much every niche 5. It\u2019s outsourceable Sound interesting?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cool, let\u2019s get to it\u2026after a short history lesson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For those of you who don\u2019t know, Gael and I used to run a digital marketing agency<\/a> in Budapest many moons ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The SEO scene there was booming, and we were doing pretty well for ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We had an overpriced office, a whole gaggle of people working for us, and about 90 clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our link building process back then was grey hat, but then that\u2019s what everyone else was doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The formula we used for creating links was super basic:<\/p>\n\n\n\n And we weren\u2019t using anything posh like in-house PBNs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oh no, we used services like Linkvana, Article Marketing Robot and Build My Rank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was so easy and worked so well, we didn\u2019t see any reason to change<\/strong> our approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So we didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then in April 2012 Google Penguin showed up and turned the world of SEO on its head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It actually felt a bit more like SEO got thrown down a few flights of stairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A lot of our clients got hit, which resulted in them quitting our agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thankfully clients were easy to replace \u2013 the market was overflowing with panicked businesses looking for a solution to Penguin.<\/p>\n\n\n Now we had to find a new way to build backlinks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We had two choices:<\/p>\n\n\n\n We chose #2 because trying to stay ahead of a multi-billion dollar company with near-infinite resources just…well…seemed like a lot of work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our next foray into link building was to use guest blogging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We promised ourselves we\u2019d stick to being a white hat SEO agency, no matter what.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We built systems for everything we did and got our clients lots of links on other sites via guest blogging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But…<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anyone who has ever done outreach for guest posts will know that blog owners aren\u2019t shy about asking for cash<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Initially, we paid for some posts but negotiated for the rest of our link placements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The problem was our outreach team figured out that we were willing to pay for links.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So instead of hustling, they\u2019d just offer to pay the blog owner for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They got lazy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But we were also facing client deadlines that we couldn\u2019t afford to miss, so we subconsciously turned a blind eye to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It didn’t take long before we were paying for most of our links.<\/p>\n\n\n That put us squarely back in grey hat territory, and at risk of pissing Google off, again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, the market became saturated with companies selling guest blog posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Everyone was trying to undercut everyone else – it got vicious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead of charging $50 for a guest blog post, some bottom-feeder would charge $10, and then somebody else would ask for $7.50.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The race to the bottom had begun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then it turned out Google didn\u2019t like paid link placements<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n Who knew\u2026apart from absolutely everyone!<\/p>\n\n\n\n By this stage in our marketing career a few things had happened:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gael and I always kinda knew we’d eventually move away from agency work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Client working is exhausting<\/em> and we’d had enough of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That’s why we\u2019d started building authority sites as a side project while still running the agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We then sold the agency once our sites started making a 4-figure income<\/strong> per month, and went full time with building authority sites instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Link building was still an issue for us though because we didn\u2019t have a system we could scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And without that system, our authority sites were going to need a lot of time and money invested in them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was around this time that a worrying number of white hat SEOs started perpetuating the myth of, “Oh, just publish great content and you’ll rank because Google loves great content”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We initially fell for that line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Until we tested their theory (they always have theories) and proved it was wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our grey hat Spidey senses had been right all along.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then Brian Dean dropped his famous Skyscraper method article<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We tested his idea, Authority Hacked it and came up with our own version of it – one that worked for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, it worked so well that it put every other link building system to so much shame they should have been marched naked through the streets of King\u2019s Landing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But I digress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gael and I had created the Shotgun Skyscraper Method<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n Before we go any further let\u2019s take a moment to put a myth to bed, forever:<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are no secrets to building white hat links<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We hate to burst anyone\u2019s bubble, but it\u2019s the truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet people spend months (or years) searching for some kind of silver bullet that will just magically create links for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It doesn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Professional link builders do well because they identify and master one link building strategy<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You don\u2019t see them continually jump from one link building method to the next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n No, instead they continually refine and improve their process until it\u2019s absolutely fluid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The truth is most people have no idea how to build good backlinks at scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We see it over and over again \u2013 people hear about a link building tactic, talk about it passionately, test it for a bit and then stop using it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It didn\u2019t work straight away, so they stomp back to the forums and Facebook groups looking for \u201cthe secret\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n But there are no secrets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s no magic formula or push button software.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s all crap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They\u2019re a dream peddled by marketing gurus on YouTube \u2013 the same guys who would sell their own mother to pay for their next webinar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Everything you need to know about link building can be summed up in one sentence:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pick one method and execute on it until you master it.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s exactly how we perfected the Shotgun Skyscraper system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And we\u2019ll show you exactly how to master it (in detail), but keep reading for now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Skyscraper method involves first finding a piece of content with lots of links pointing to it.<\/p>\n\n\n You then create a piece of informational content that is better than the original e.g. more in-depth, more media, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n The next step is to reach out to the people linking to the original piece of content, asking them nicely to link to your new blog post instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are many variants of the Skyscraper method, but the most commonly used is the “Sniper” approach.<\/p>\n\n\n Using the Sniper Method involves sending personalized emails to every single site owner linking to your competitor\u2019s content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This method works, but it’s extremely time intensive!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even if you only spend 10 minutes per email, that means you\u2019ll max out at 48 emails per day, assuming you can dedicate 8 full hours to the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Shogun system is different from the Sniper method because we automate our outreach emails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Basically, we use templates (via Mailshake<\/a>) to send 50x as many emails, but they’re semi-personalized.<\/p>\n\n\n This allows us to send hundreds of emails per day where others struggle to send dozens if they\u2019re lucky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While the \u201csniper\u201d might spend hours lining up the perfect email \u201cshot\u201d, we\u2019ve been busy with the email marketing equivalent of an AA12 semi-auto shotgun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Does this mean we have a lower response rate when compared to personalized emails?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sure, but it also means we get 1667% more links because we take a volume approach.<\/p>\n\n\n It also takes up far less of our time, so we can invest more time with each warm link prospect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Theories are all well and good, but the only way to really test any link building process is to implement it on a brand new website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So that\u2019s exactly what we did.<\/p>\n\n\n As you can see, it worked like a charm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The prevailing wisdom when it comes to keyword research is to choose keywords with very little competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How competitive keywords are is typically referred to as their keyword difficulty (KD) score.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A keyword with a lower KD score is usually easier to rank for in Google.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Shotgun Skyscraper means doing things differently.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019re actually looking for keywords with a high KD score.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Keyword Difficulty is a measurement of the number of links pointing to the top 10 results in the SERPs for a given keyword.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shotgun Skyscraper is most effective when we have lots of sites to contact<\/strong>, and a keyword with a high KD score means our competitors have tons of links.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Note:<\/strong> Our focus is not to rank our Shotgun Skyscraper content – we\u2019re using it to get more links to our domain so we can then funnel that \u201cjuice\u201d to our money pages.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n We use Ahrefs<\/a> (review<\/a>) for our Shotgun Skyscraper research, so we\u2019d recommend you do the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s not cheap if you\u2019re just starting out, but it speeds the entire process up so much it becomes invaluable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We start our keyword research using a broad keyword as the basis for finding \u201cQuestion\u201d keywords with a high KD score later on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Note:<\/strong> You\u2019ll need to use the V2 version of KW Explorer to be able to follow along with what we\u2019re doing here.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n Our broad keyword is \u201cacid reflux\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n It has a KD score of 64 which is at the higher end of difficulty, but that also means our competitors\u2019 pages will have a ton of backlinks to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s exactly what we\u2019re looking for<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now we need to make sure this keyword has plenty of informational content published on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The reason we\u2019re looking for informational content is that it\u2019s easier to get links to than \u201cmoney\u201d pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The quickest way to check for this type of content is the \u2018Questions\u2019 section of Ahrefs Keyword Explorer:<\/p>\n\n\n One keyword that looks interesting is \u201cHow to get rid of acid reflux\u201d<\/em> because:<\/p>\n\n\n\n And as you can see, the competing blog posts have a large number of backlinks<\/strong>, but not so many that it would take forever to contact them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Basically, a few hundred backlinks are ideal, but a few million…no…just no.<\/p>\n\n\n The data above is just for the top 10 results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What we suggest is that you export the top 100 results from Ahrefs as a .csv file.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You then take each URL and run it through Ahrefs Site Explorer to find exactly what sites are linking to it.<\/p>\n\n\n After all, if these pages are linking to a competitor’s article, they’re quite probably willing to link to your article on the same subject.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Or at least they will be if your content is worth linking to, which we cover in the next section.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once Site Explorer displays its results, click on \u2018Backlinks\u2019 from the left-hand menu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then to refine your results choose \u2018One link per domain<\/strong>\u2019 and also filter the links by \u2018Do Follow<\/strong>\u2019:<\/p>\n\n\n That leaves us with 87 websites to contact simply by analyzing a single URL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now click on \u2018Export\u2019, \u2018Quick Export\u2019 and then \u2018Start Export\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n Once you\u2019ve opened the .csv file, the column you\u2019re interested in is \u2018Referring Page URL\u2019 – these are the pages linking to your competitor\u2019s article.<\/p>\n\n\n Repeat this process for the top 100 URLs you exported earlier on, and then assemble all those \u2018Referring Page URLs\u2019 into a \u201cmaster\u201d sheet or document.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the most overlooked aspects of the Skyscraper method is content quality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Far too many marketers skim articles on how the Skyscraper method works, but without truly understanding it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A typical example is when the average content publisher thinks they can put out a 5,000-word piece of fluff, and people will fall over themselves to link to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That’s never going to happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your skyscraper page needs to be a valuable piece of informational content<\/strong> that is significantly better than your competitor’s page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It should touch on all the key points mentioned in your competitor’s blog posts but expand on them where necessary, as well as providing current information on the topic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The additional “value” you provide can also come from providing content that’s easier to read through improved formatting, by adding relevant images, or maybe even including a short video.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Every element of your content should say, “I’m definitely worth linking to because I’m the best post you’ll find on this topic”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are a few pointers to keep in mind:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your next job is to find the email addresses for the several hundred sites you identified in our last step.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can choose to do that manually, which means checking out key pages of websites (contact, about, personal), and sometimes going as far as checking the source code for \u201cmailto:\u201d tags.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hint: You\u2019ll be amazed at how many email addresses you\u2019ll find on the \u2018About\u2019 section of business Facebook pages<\/p>\n\n\n But once you\u2019ve harvested a few hundred addresses manually, you\u2019ll start to feel a bit like this:<\/p>\n\n\n So we needed to make our email discovery process way more efficient…to avoid meltdowns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Each email only took about 2 minutes for us to find.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But when you have to find 1,000 emails those 2-minute blocks turn into 33 hours (or 4 days) of mind-numbing work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s why we use Hunter<\/a> \u2013 it does in seconds what it used to take us days to do.<\/p>\n\n\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Image-2019-03-06-at-12.51.01-PM-3.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Ahrefs](\"https:\/\/www.authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/ahrefs-referring-domains-graph-1024x398.png\")
<\/strong>we focus on executing a simple process well rather than trying to land a rocket.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong>you can obtain tens of thousands of links with this method.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong>not only do we not pay for links but operational costs are low as well.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong>if your competitors have links, so can you.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong>and no, I\u2019m not talking about Harvard graduates here, just regular VA\u2019s.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nOur Agency Days<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
![\"Analytics](\"https:\/\/www.authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/analytics-penguin-hit.png\")
\n
Guest Blogging 1.0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"What](\"https:\/\/www.authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/what-could-possibly-go-wrong.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Matt](\"https:\/\/www.authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Matt-Cutts-twitter-coment.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
![\"Authority](\"https:\/\/www.authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/authority-site-started-making-money.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nAuthority Site Shenanigans<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Link](\"https:\/\/www.authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/link-building-system-alive.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nAvoiding Shiny Object Syndrome<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"We](\"https:\/\/www.authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/we-want-the-link.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nShotgun Skyscraper Overview<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What Is Skyscraper Link Building?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Find](\"https:\/\/www.authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Find-other-peoples-content-with-lots-of-links-pointing-to-it-1024x775.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Great](\"https:\/\/www.authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Great-a-better-version-of-that-content-yourself-1024x699.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Sniper](\"https:\/\/www.authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Sniper-Outreach-Heavily-customized-outreach-to-few-targets-1024x628.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nHow Shotgun Skyscraper Works<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Shotgun](\"https:\/\/www.authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Shotgun-Skyscraper-automates-semi-personalized-outreach-to-many-targets-1024x702.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Lots](\"https:\/\/www.authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Lots-of-Prospects-Lots-of-Links-1024x628.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Analytics](\"https:\/\/www.authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/analytics-graph1-1024x423.jpg\")
Shotgun Skyscraper keyword research<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
How to find good keywords<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Keywords](\"https:\/\/www.authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/keywords-explorer-switch-interface-o9hzx9b6n6fulrc4d1vowy6uuecuoqft75z7xe083a.png\" "\\"Keywords")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Ahrefs](\"https:\/\/www.authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/ahrefs-keyword-difficulty-o9i01q1lkihie0k8ire07xknh0jfut18gme1cwvzmy.png\" "\\"Ahrefs")
![\"Ahrefs](\"https:\/\/www.authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/ahrefs-question-keywords.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
![\"Ahrefs](\"https:\/\/www.authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/ahrefs-potential-link-prospects-1024x583.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Ahrefs](\"https:\/\/www.authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/ahrefs-site-explorer-url-o9i00d5z8goyzctn7w8annypj91j4prvajm01bee0c.png\" "\\"Ahrefs")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Ahrefs](\"https:\/\/www.authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/ahrefs-dofollow-backlinks-1024x380.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Ahrefs](\"https:\/\/www.authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/ahrefs-baklinks-export-1024x374.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Master](\"https:\/\/www.authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/master-database-with-links-1024x525.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nCreating skyscraper content<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
How to find email addresses<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Thepointsguy](\"https:\/\/www.authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/thepointsguy-facebook-page-1024x677.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/the-simpsons.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
![\"email](\"https:\/\/www.authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/hunterlogo.png\")
<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n![\"Hunter](\"https:\/\/www.authorityhacker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/hunter-bulk-domain-search-o9hzydq8t1z6gzpet1cne5zodytmvpw9oq13kacd06.png\" "\\"Hunter")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n