If you’re like 95% of modern consumers, it’s to check out online reviews. 

After all, it would be a shame to waste your hard-earned money on subpar products or services. Reviews act as a form of social proof that something is actually worth it, which is why they’re so popular.  

Among the countless reviews you can find online, Google hosts 73% of them. 

That means you have a very real incentive to generate lots of Google reviews. 

If you have mostly positive reviews on your Google Business Profile, your prospects will see lots of first-hand accounts demonstrating how your brand outshines the competition. 

Does this mean you should pay writers to make up glowing reviews with 5-star ratings while deleting every slightly negative review?

Not at all! 

In fact, users often see a flawless review profile as a red flag for manipulation. 

Fake reviews are a very real thing, which is why people crave authenticity above all else.  

In this guide, we’ll teach you how to consistently generate honest, positive Google reviews. We’ll also show you how to turn negative reviews into wins, so you shouldn’t shy away from occasional negative feedback (it’s all about how you handle it). 

As a reminder, this is part 5 of our 5-part learning series on Google Business Profile (GBP). 

In previous chapters, we covered:

• The importance of Google Business Profile 
• How to Optimize Your Google Business Profile Listing 
• How to Claim Your Google Business Profile Listing
• How to Use Google Posts 

For now, let’s dive into why Google reviews matter for your business. 

Why Do Google Reviews Matter?

There are more than a few reasons why your GBP listing needs reviews, including:

1. Earning your customer’s trust 
2. Improving your SEO 
3. Boosting conversion rates 

These are significant benefits, so let’s take a closer look at them. 

Benefit #1: Build trust with your target audience 

The main reason why you need positive reviews on Google is to earn the trust of potential customers. 

As stated in the intro, practically everyone looks at reviews for a business before becoming a paying customer.

It’s important to note that this is unanimous, so it doesn’t matter your target audience or geographic focus. 

If your GBP listing has mostly positive reviews coming from authentic customers, your audience will trust that you’re a real brand that provides truly helpful products. 

The importance of negative reviews 

What about if your profile has a few less-than-stellar reviews?

That’s totally fine, as long as you respond to each one. 

We live in the real world, and mistakes are bound to happen. What matters most to prospective customers is how your brand reacts to bad experiences. 

If they see an honest, respectful response that provides a solution (like offering a gift card in response to an extra long wait time), they’ll know that you value your customers. 

Surprisingly, research shows that the occasional negative review can make your audience trust you even more. 

52% of buyers claim that they trust a product more if it has a few negative reviews. 

Why is that?

It comes back to what we mentioned before about valuing authenticity. 

By including the bad with the good, it’s a sign that you aren’t manipulating your reviews. As a result, customers will believe your positive reviews even more (and will forgive negative ones if you respond). 

Benefit #2: Improve your SEO for better online visibility 

Whenever you search for a local business, you don’t want to settle for just any old company, do you?

Of course not, which is probably why you begin every local search with the word ‘best,’ which is an extremely common search habit. 

For example, if you want to search for a dentist in St. Petersburg, Florida, you’d likely search for ‘best dentist st. petersburg.’

Well, whenever Google’s algorithm sees ‘best’ in a local keyword, it will only display Google Business Profile listings that have a rating of 4.0 or above. 

So, if you want to capitalize on ‘best (your product or service)’ searches (and you DO, believe us), you need lots of Google reviews. 

If your GBP listing has mostly positive reviews, you’ll show up in ‘best’ searches on the Google Map pack (also called local pack). We’ve covered this in previous chapters of the guide, but as a reminder, the local pack is a powerful search feature that looks like this:

Map packs appear for 93% of local searches, and 42% of users will click on one of the businesses listed in them, so you definitely want your site to qualify. 

By improving your online visibility, you’ll funnel more traffic to your website, which leads us to our next benefit. 

Benefit #3: Boost your conversion rates 

This benefit is a direct result of the other two. 

With more organic traffic and increased customer trust, you’ll likely see an uptick in sales (assuming that your website is designed to convert). 

For online businesses, organic visitors will get directed to your landing and product pages, giving you the chance to convert them into customers. 

For brick-and-mortar businesses, a healthy review profile can lead to more foot traffic. 

The proof?

Research shows that 76% of users who conduct a ‘near me’ search will visit the business within a day. 

Best Practices for Accruing Google Reviews 

Okay, now that you know Google reviews are nothing but good for your business, how do you get them?

After all, you’ll have to generate a ton of reviews to achieve a balance of mostly good with a few bad eggs thrown in. 

This means you’ll need a few hacks for attracting reviews from your customer base. 

Here are some effective tips for generating Google reviews. 

Tip #1: Have excellent customer service 

This tip may be the most obvious but it’s one of the most potent. 

It should go without saying that the better service you provide, the better reviews you’ll generate. 

Stellar service inspires customers to leave reviews simply because they want to share their amazing experience. Here are a few ways you can improve the customer service at your business:

• Personalized support. Don’t load up a basic AI chatbot and call it a day for your customer service. Instead, offer live agents who provide support that’s tailored to your client’s needs. 

• Collect customer feedback. Make a habit of gathering feedback from your customers through brief surveys, suggestions, and comment cards. 

• Train your team. Do some in-house training to ensure your team A) knows how to solve common customer issues and B) treats everyone with respect and manners. 

Also, it’s important to personalize your interactions with customers. In today’s age, customers expect companies to not only know who they are but also to be familiar with their preferences and past purchases. 

Doing small things like referring to customers by name and reviewing their profiles before interacting with them will help you personalize their experience. 

Tip #2: Create or claim a Google Business Profile listing 

In order for your reviews to appear on Google directly, you must claim or create a Google Business Profile listing. 

Otherwise, your customers will have to visit third-party websites to see reviews for your brand, which you’ll have far less control over. 

The good news is that creating a GBP listing isn’t difficult at all. 

As long as you’re the true owner of the business, you’ll be able to complete Google’s verification process to prove ownership. There are several ways to go about this, including email, recording a video, and sending a postcard. 

A previous chapter in this guide on claiming a Google Business Profile contains a step-by-step breakdown for getting set up on the platform, so defer to it for more detailed instructions. 

Once you have a GBP listing up and running, you’ll be able to start encouraging customers to leave reviews. You’ll also be able to respond to any review that you receive, positive or otherwise. 

Tip #3: Optimize your Google Business Profile 

It’s not enough to simply create or claim a GBP listing. Once the basic setup is complete, it’s time to optimize your profile by filling out each section. 

Most importantly, you need to ensure your business’s contact information is accurate and up to date. You should start with your business’s NAP (name, address, and phone number), and then work your way down. 

GBP is pretty extensive, so it’s easy to miss a section if you aren’t thorough. 

Sections you should fill out include:

• Products and services. You’ll get the chance to showcase your products and services through GBP, so include your hardest-hitting product descriptions and photos. 

• From the Business: This is essentially your ‘About Us’ section on GBP. Provide a brief yet compelling overview of who you are, what you do, and why the customer should care. 

• Q&A section. GBP gives you the ability to create a Q&A section to answer the questions that you hear from customers the most. A thorough Q&A section will cut down on the number of service requests you receive, and it will show customers that you care about answering their questions. 

• Business category. You get to select one primary category and up to 9 secondary categories that best describe your business. It’s important to select all the secondary categories that apply in order to expose your content to the right audiences, but just ensure they’re truly relevant. 

Another chapter of this guide is solely dedicated to optimizing your GBP, so check it out if you want to learn more. 

Tip #4: Make sure you know Google’s policies 

Next, it’s crucial to know Google’s guidelines surrounding reviews. If you skip this step, you risk accidental violations that could result in removed reviews or a suspended account. 

To quote Google on fake reviews, “Where reviews distort the truth, we will remove content.”

They go on to say, “Your content should reflect your genuine experience of a product, and should not be posted just to manipulate a product’s ratings. Don’t post fake content, don’t post the same content multiple times, and don’t post content for the same product from multiple accounts.” 

In other words, they have a very similar policy for reviews as they do for SEO: anything that tries to artificially boost ratings (rankings for SEO) is considered a violation. 

This means you should not inflate your review profile with fake or solicited reviews. 

Instead, follow the guidelines on this list to generate positive reviews, and respond to the less-than-flattering ones. 

Tip #5: Ask your real-world customers to leave reviews

Asking for reviews is very natural and a widely accepted practice, so you shouldn’t shy away from it. 

Truthfully, a direct and personal request is often the best way to elicit genuine positive reviews from customers. 

Stick to regular customers that you know on an almost personal basis. Since they’re clearly a fan of what you do, politely ask them if they would write an honest review of your brand on Google. 

Here are some tips for asking customers for reviews:

• Timing is everything. The trick is knowing when to ask, even with your most coveted regulars. Only ask for reviews after a positive interaction or purchase. The last thing you want to do is ask a customer for a review when they’re having a terrible day (or if your business screwed something up for them). 

• Who to ask. As stated before, it’s best to stick with loyal customers who avidly use your products and services. However, you can also ask recent buyers who show high levels of satisfaction with their purchase. 

• Make it easy for them. You shouldn’t simply ask a customer for a review and leave it at that. After all, everyone is busy, so they’ll likely forget that you asked after a few minutes or on the ride home. To ensure leaving a review stays on top of their minds, hand them a printed business card that has the QR code for your GBP review page. This makes it incredibly easy for them to leave a review, and they may even do it on the spot. 

If you’re not sure how to generate a QR code for your Google reviews, check out this detailed guide. 

Tip #6: Run a Google review email campaign 

Your mailing list is another potential source for Google reviews, so you should definitely leverage email. 

It’s as easy as sending out an email to past customers asking for their feedback. Embedding a link to your Google review page will make it quick and easy for your customers to leave an honest summary of their experience, which is what you want. 

Here’s a template for such an email:

Hey (first name), 

Thanks again for being a recent customer of (your brand). In our continuous effort to improve, we’d like to politely ask for your honest feedback on your most recent interaction with our brand. Here’s a link to our Google review page. We greatly appreciate your time. 

Best, 

Your Brand

Tip #7: Include a link to your Google review page in your email signature 

While we’re on the subject, here’s another email-related tip for generating Google reviews: include a link to your review page in your email signature. 

Doing so will transform every email into an opportunity for a review on your GBP listing. 

All you have to do is include a line like, “We appreciate your feedback! Please leave us a review on Google.” Don’t forget to include a hyperlink to your Google review page! 

Tip #8: Include a CTA on your website that encourages users to leave a review

You should also use your website as a magnet for generating reviews by including a CTA on one of your web pages. 

Ideally, you should include the CTA on your homepage or another one of your high-traffic pages. You need to put it somewhere that the majority of your users will see it to increase the chances of landing reviews. 

The copy doesn’t have to be fancy here, just let your users know that you value their feedback and would appreciate a review (and include a hyperlink to your review page, of course). 

You can also embed a few glowing testimonials to the page to add social proof (this can encourage customers to leave positive reviews). 

Tip #9: Ask for reviews on social media 

You can also turn your social media profiles into review-generating machines. Post updates where you ask users to provide reviews and share some of your more positive reviews from the past to encourage them. 

The best part about this tactic is that you can use every social channel you have. 

Whether it’s Instagram, Facebook, X, TikTok, or YouTube, you can always post reminders for your audience to leave you reviews on Google. 

Common Mistakes to Avoid 

Before we wrap things up, there are some common mistakes and beginner pitfalls that you should avoid at all costs. 

These mistakes could draw the ire of Google down upon you, which is the last thing you want. 

Here are the top things to avoid when trying to generate Google reviews:

• Buying reviews. Fake reviews are never worth it, as they tend to stick out like a sore thumb. This isn’t good because Google actively cracks down on fake reviews (remember the quote from before). Therefore, you should stick to honest reviews that your customers write for you instead of hiring a service. 

• Ignoring negative reviews. A negative review is only a loss if you fail to respond to it. Negative reviews that go unaddressed will have dire impacts on your brand’s reputation, so always respond to your critics. 

• Being pushy with review requests. You shouldn’t get pushy with your customers when asking for reviews. Treat it as a special favor your customers are doing for you, not something that they owe you. 

• Not following up. Certain methods, like email campaigns, require you to follow up whenever you don’t hear back from your prospects. If you don’t follow up at least once, you’ll miss out on valuable opportunities to gain genuine feedback. 

Also, it can seem spammy to Google if you suddenly receive a huge batch of positive reviews. Do your best to space things out when requesting reviews to avoid suspicion of manipulating your ratings. 

Start Generating Google Reviews to Gain Your Customer’s Trust 

To recap what we’ve covered so far:

• The vast majority of users online look for reviews before they make purchases 
• Google reviews build trust with your customers and can boost conversions 
• There are a wide variety of ways to get reviews, such as email, social media, and your website
• You should avoid buying reviews or being too pushy when asking customers to write reviews 

As long as you follow Google’s guidelines and use the techniques mentioned in this article, you’ll have a robust, healthy review profile before you know it. 

Do you need help forming a winning local SEO strategy for your brand?

If so, HOTH X is calling your name. It’s our managed SEO service where we take the entire process off your hands so that you can dominate the search rankings in your sleep. 

Also, don’t wait to check out our SEO Learning Hub to continue your digital marketing education!       

The post How to Get Google Reviews: A Local Business Guide for 2024 appeared first on The HOTH.

Or is your head chef about to reveal an exciting new dish that’s only available on Saturdays?

Both are perfect scenarios for using Google Posts, which is a feature of Google Business Profile. 

Using it lets you inform and engage with your target audience, such as letting them know about a new dish or an upcoming service.

If you’ve ever posted a status update on literally any social media platform (which, who hasn’t at this point?), then you’re familiar with how Google Posts works. 

It allows you to post updates, pictures, videos, and even CTA (call-to-action) buttons to drive conversions. 

As a quick reminder, this is part 3 of our ongoing Google Business Profile (GBP) series. 

In previous chapters, we learned about the importance of GBP for local SEO, and how to optimize GBP listings. 

Now, it’s time to discover how to fully leverage the Posts feature for your SEO benefit. 

In this guide, you’ll learn:

1. The benefits of using Google Posts 
2. The different types of posts you can make 
3. How to create a new post 
4. Post ideas 
5. Best practices for creating posts 

Let’s get started! 

Understanding the Google Posts Feature 

First, let’s learn a bit more about what Google Posts is and how it relates to GBP as a whole. 

Google Posts is a feature within GBP that lets business owners create brief ‘posts’ to communicate with the general public. 

Where do your customers and prospects actually see these posts?

They show up in your official Google Business Profile, which appears whenever a user clicks on your business in Google Maps or the local pack in the search results (which is a series of relevant businesses listed at the top of the page). 

Here’s a quick example of the local pack:

As you can see, the names of a few local businesses appear alongside an image, their address, and their location on the map. 

If we click on one of the results, we get to view its Google Business Profile listing:

If we keep scrolling down under the Overview tab, we’ll eventually reach the Posts section:

These are the brand’s Google Posts, and they appear in the carousel underneath From Orange Tire. 

Google Posts also appear in the Knowledge panel which appears on the right-hand side of the search results page whenever a user searches for your brand name directly.

Here’s what happens whenever someone searches for ‘The HOTH’ on Google:

Sure enough, our complete GBP listing appears in the knowledge bar on the right-hand side. 

If you scroll down, you will see our most current Google Posts:

This means users are likely to see your Google Posts whenever they search for your business, whether they’re using Google Maps or not. 

Because of this, you should use Google Posts to your advantage. 

What are the Benefits of Using Google Posts?

If you don’t yet see the importance of using Google Posts, this section will change that. 

We’ll say it right now: every business should use Google Posts. 

Why is that?

Let’s elaborate! 

Benefit #1: Google Posts are searchable 

First, Google Posts are beneficial because they appear directly in search results and Google Maps. 

Since SEO is all about boosting your visibility on Google, it should go without saying that you should leverage the Posts feature. 

After all, the more Posts you create, the more your brand will show up on relevant SERPs (search engine results pages). 

For example, if you’ve optimized your GBP listing to where you appear in the local pack AND rank well in the organic results, you’ll appear on page one of the SERPs twice instead of just once, giving prospects double the chances to engage with your brand. 

Also, your posts will appear in Google Maps searches, meaning your customers will have the chance to learn about current promotions, deals, and other types of events. 

This is huge because a majority of users will visit the businesses they look up not soon after. 

According to Google, 88% of smartphone users who search for local businesses will visit a related store within a week. Also, 76% of users who conduct ‘near me’ searches will visit the businesses they discover within one day. 

That means the prospects who do view your Google Posts will likely pay you a visit in person, which we think is reason enough to use the feature! 

Benefit #2: They will expand your reach 

There are over 5 billion searches on Google every single day, which is why improving your visibility on the platform has the potential to skyrocket your business into stardom. 

Since the Posts feature increases the chances of users interacting with your brand, it will help you expand your brand’s online reach. 82% of users turn to search engines to find out local information, all of whom are likely to come across some of your posts. 

With this increased exposure, Google Posts also comes in handy for keeping new customers informed of:

• Any changes to your hours of operation (like on holidays) 
• Location changes
• Ongoing sales, promotions, and discounts 
• Live events happening at your store 

This ensures that the newcomers who discover your brand don’t show up on a holiday or at the wrong address, which is yet another reason to use the feature. 

Benefit #3: They are included in keyword searches 

Next, it’s crucial to know that Google Posts are included in keyword searches related to your business. 

If a user searches for a keyword that you included in one of your posts, it will appear in the search results. For this reason, you have a very real incentive to include target keywords in your Google Posts just as you would a blog. 

Doing so has the potential to increase your traffic, leads, and conversions – so there’s no reason not to give it a go. 

Benefit #4: They impact your ranking on the SERPs 

Believe it or not, Google Posts DO have an impact on your search rankings. 

How is that possible?

It’s because the activities you engage in through Google Posts are direct ranking signals. 

For example, reaching out to your audience with informative posts is a ranking signal (audience engagement). 

The same is true for sharing and responding to positive reviews. 

Therefore, regularly posting through GBP will actively help your search rankings. 

Benefit #5: They help you connect with your customers directly 

Lastly, Google Posts provides a quick, easy, and effective way to communicate directly to your customer base. 

In particular, you can:

• Notify your audience whenever you change locations or phone numbers 
• Let patrons know that you’ll be closed on an upcoming holiday 
• Get the word out about special promotions and events 

Also, responding to reviews (both positive AND negative) shows that you truly care about your audience, which will elicit a sense of brand loyalty among your customers. 

Google Posts also lets you add CTA (call-to-action) buttons to your posts, which will help you increase conversions. 

Simple buttons that say things like ‘Book a call’ or ‘Act now’ go a long way toward convincing users to click through to one of your landing pages. 

In fact, evidence shows that clear CTA buttons can increase conversion rates by 161%. 

The Different Types of Google Posts 

The team at Google gives you a few different types of posts to try out, including updates, offers, events, and more. 

It’s important to know when to use which type in order to maximize the effectiveness of your posts. 

For instance, if you wanted to let your audience know about an upcoming promotion, you wouldn’t want to use the What’s New template. Instead, the Offer template is the way to go. 

Here’s an in-depth look at the different types of Google Posts. 

What’s New: Update posts  

You should select What’s New on Google Posts whenever you want to notify your target audience about something. 

It could be a change of location, closing during the holidays, or whatever else is happening at your company that you feel is worthy of sharing with your customers. 

Here’s an example of a What’s New post where a museum lets its patrons know that they will remain open during Labor Day, which is definitely useful information:

As you can see, this post is brief yet informative. If they hadn’t released this post, it could have caused would-be museumgoers to stay home under the false impression that they were closed. 

This means they could have salvaged some business that they would have lost otherwise, so it’s crucial to keep your customers informed through Google Posts. 

Events: Letting customers know what’s happening at your business

The next type of post is Events, which you should use to let your audience know whenever something big is happening. 

In fact, you can think of this type of post as being similar to a press release. 

It’s your way of notifying the public that:

• You’re launching a new department 
• There were changes to your C-suite (like getting a new CEO) 
• Special events/gatherings are happening soon 
• You’re coming out with a new product or service 
• Your company is moving to a brand-new building 

These are all event-worthy posts to make, and they can help you generate some hype for upcoming events and major changes in your business. 

Here’s an example of an event post where an establishment lets its customers know that they’ll be open on Easter for a special get-together:

Once again, this is important information for their customers to know, as they likely would have stayed home if they hadn’t read this post. 

Offers: Let customers know what they’re missing out on 

The next type of post you can choose is Offer, which lets customers know about promotions, discounts, and other special offers. 

This is the template you should use whenever you’ve got a big sale happening at your business or online store. 

Offer posts should be quick, enthusiastic, and to the point, with the value offer appearing as large as possible (such as ‘everything is 25% off!’). 

The goal is to trigger your audience’s FOMO so that they’ll show up to avoid missing out on something amazing. 

To achieve this, remind them that the deal is only for a limited time. 

Phrases like ‘the clock is ticking’ or ‘only two days left to act’ are effective FOMO triggers that will have audience members reaching for their wallets. 

The proof?

A study by CXL discovered that adding a simple countdown timer to a sale increased conversions by a whopping 332%. 

So, if you play your cards right with your offer posts, you should see a noticeable uptick in your conversion rates. 

Here’s an example of an offer post in Google’s search results:

Here, we have all the elements we just discussed. 

The value proposition is front and center, and the ad doesn’t waste any time getting to the point. Moreover, they mention that the promotion is only available for a limited time to elicit a sense of urgency in their audience. 

Products: Showcase your products and services 

You can also use Google Posts to show off your products and services to your customers. 

This is an especially smart move for E-commerce businesses, as it gives your audience a chance to view some of your products without having to click through to your website. 

If you offer services, you’ll have the option to add a special button to your GBP listing that lets your customers book appointments straight from Google’s search results. 

Yet again, this saves your audience the trouble of having to click through to your website and navigate to your scheduling page. 

Don’t forget to include high-resolution of your products (and services, if applicable) to entice prospects to want to learn more (or make a purchase right then and there). 

Seasonal: Notify your audience of seasonal changes 

Seasonal posts can take several different forms, such as A) notifying your audience that you’ll be closed during the holidays and B) mentioning seasonal promotions and events. 

For example, let’s say your business offers special menu items or drinks during fall time only (*cough pumpkin spice latte *cough). 

In this scenario, you should definitely make a Google Post declaring that your coveted menu items are soon making a return. 

This is another effective way to trigger the FOMO in your audience – as there will only be a few precious months when they can enjoy certain menu items (or products) from your business. 

Other types of Google Posts 

That covers all the basics, but there are still a few other types of posts you can use through GBP. 

These include:

• Restaurant menus. Restaurants have the option of sharing menu items directly through Google Posts, which can spark interest in their offerings (and cause search users to drop what they’re doing and grab some food). 

• Services. You can advertise services through Google Posts, and, as mentioned before, add a ‘Book Now’ button to your GBP listing. 

Now that you know which types of posts you can create, let’s learn how to create a new post from scratch. 

How to Create a New Post Using GBP 

It’s time to get to the nitty gritty and learn how to actually write and publish posts using Google Business Profile. 

The good news is the platform is extremely straightforward and easy to use, so you should be able to get the hang of it in no time. 

Here are the steps you’ll need to take to create and upload a brand-new post type of your choosing. 

Step #1: Decide which type of post you want to make 

The first step is to determine which type of post you want to create, which will vary depending on your needs. 

An easy way to find out which type you need is to state the goal of the post to yourself (in your head, of course, unless you want to look like a loon). 

Do you want to notify your audience about something, or are you here to raise awareness about a new promotion?

This will help you know which post to choose. 

To get started, head over to the GMB dashboard and log in. From there, navigate to Posts, and select the type of post you decided to use. 

As a quick review, the four available templates are:

• What’s New 
• Offers 
• Events 
• Products 

The other types (like seasonal and services) are contained in these primary categories. For example, if you want to make a seasonal post, you would select the Events template. 

Step #2: Add images to your post 

Google Posts that contain images see a TON more engagement than those that do not. 

Research proves that adding pictures to your Google Posts can increase the revenue you generate per visitor by 17%, which is pretty significant, to say the least. 

Yet, you should follow these image guidelines to find the most success:

• Aspect ratio: Use 4:3 to minimize cropping.
• Image size: 1200px x 900px are recommended. Avoid uploading images larger than 1200px wide to prevent compression.
• Format: Use JPG or PNG for images.
• Video specs: Minimum 720p resolution, up to 30 seconds long, and 75 MB per video.

Step #3: Write your post 

Okay, now it’s time to create the lifeblood of your Google Post: the copy. 

As you likely noticed in the examples from before, each Google Post was snappy, informative, and very brief. 

In other words, you’re not here to write a novel. 

Instead, your goal should be to convey the necessary information in as few words as possible. 

While this may seem easy at first glance, shorter does not always mean easier. In fact, it can be more difficult to write a concise sentence than it is to write a never-ending one. 

If you’re having difficulty being brief yet effective, remind yourself that simpler is better. 

After you write a lengthy sentence, read it to yourself a few times and decide which words are unnecessary. 

Here’s an example of a sentence that’s too long for Google Posts:

From now until December 1st, a purchase of one extra-large pepperoni pizza makes you eligible for 50% off your next order. 

Here’s a condensed version that’s way shorter but doesn’t lose any of the messaging:

Act now: One extra-large pizza nets you 50% off your next order. Offer ends Dec 1st. 

Boom, that’s all you need! 

You should also include relevant keywords to improve your chances of ranking higher. 

Copywriting best practices 

Here are some writing tips that will improve your Google Posts:

• Engaging Content: Use action-oriented language and compelling headlines.
• Visual Appeal: It is essential to use high-quality images and videos (recommended size 1200x900px).
• Keywords: Use relevant keywords for better visibility.
• Calls to Action (CTAs): Effective CTAs to drive engagement include ‘Learn more,’ ‘Sign up,’ or ‘Order now.’
• Short and sweet: Keeping posts concise and easy to read within the 1,500-character limit.

Step #4: Publish your post 

At this point, you should have the final draft of a compelling, visually appealing Google Post. 

All that’s left to do is publish it for the world to see, so let’s learn how to make that happen. 

• Log into your Google Business Profile: You can access your profile through the Google Business Profile Manager or the Google My Business app.
• Navigate to the “Posts” section: You’ll usually find this under the Promote or Create section.
• Choose a post type: Select the type of post you want to create (e.g., Offer, Update, Event, Product).
• Fill out the details: Add the relevant information for your post, such as title, description, images, start and end dates (for offers), and a call-to-action button.
• Preview and publish: Preview your post to see how it will look. If everything is correct, click “Publish” to share it with your audience.

Once these steps are done, your post will be live and ready to go! 

Step #5: Track and monitor your progress 

The final step is to keep track of your progress to see if you’re achieving your goals. 

Also, don’t forget to regularly check your posts to engage with your audience. You should make a habit of responding to reviews and comments to encourage interactions and a sense of brand loyalty. 

Key metrics to track include: 

• Click-through rates (CTRs) 
• Total post views 
• Engagement (likes and comments) 

Also, you can use UTM links to track your progress and gain insights for future campaigns. 

Google’s campaign builder will let you create UTM links to use for this method. 

You will want to make sure that you include a unique identifier for the listing on Google Analytics. That’s why creating a link is an important step, especially if you are a multi-location business. 

Also, make sure you fill out the following categories:

• Website URL (or landing page)
• Campaign source
• Campaign medium

With Google Analytics, you can view various performances such as new users, bounce rate, page per session, and goal conversion information. 

To be able to see the traffic from a specific post inside of Google Analytics, you will want to open the Source Medium Report and use Campaign as the first dimension, and Ad Content as the secondary dimension.

Start Boosting Your SEO with Google Posts 

To summarize, Google Posts is an extremely useful feature within GBP that helps you:

• Engage with your audience 
• Rank for more keywords 
• Answer commonly asked questions 
• Get the word out about upcoming events, promotions, and major changes 

Leveraging Google Posts is a must for any business, especially those with physical locations. 

By following this guide, you’ll create Google Posts that are captivating, helpful, and designed to convert. 

While this concludes this chapter, there are still two more sections in our guide on GBP, which are How to Claim Your Google Business Listing and How to Get Google Reviews, so check them out to learn more! 

Do you want to form a winning SEO strategy without having to do the legwork?

If so, HOTH X is perfect for your needs. It’s our fully managed service where we develop and enact an expert SEO strategy for you. 

If you aren’t sure what your SEO needs are yet, don’t wait to book a free SEO consultation with our experts to narrow things down!     

The post Using Google Posts to Boost Customer Engagement and Traffic appeared first on The HOTH.

This is because backlinks, which are links on other sites that ‘point back’ to yours, serve as credibility votes for the accuracy and quality of your content. 

What proof do we have?

It’s been proven that top-ranking pages on Google have considerably more backlinks than lower-ranking pages, and Google’s recent leak proved that backlinks are still a hugely important ranking factor. 

Yet, obtaining high-quality backlinks is challenging, involving countless hours of outreach, research, and content creation. 

This is why link insertions are becoming more popular amongst link builders, which is where you request that a website owner ‘insert’ one of your backlinks into an existing piece of content, hence the name of the tactic. 

Link insertions are exploding in popularity because:

1. Link insertion outreach is simple. 
2. You don’t have to create any original content like a blog or press release. 
3. You’re inserting a link into a web page that’s already in Google’s index (meaning the backlink will take effect quickly). 

However, there’s still a lot to know about link insertion outreach, which is why we put together this guide containing 5 steps that break down the process – so read on to learn more.  

Why Are Link Insertions Worth Pursuing?

Until fairly recently, link insertions weren’t considered a real link-building tactic and were scoffed at by serious SEOs. 

Back then, the technique went by the not-so-flattering name link begging. 

The thinking was that asking website owners to just insert backlinks into their old content would annoy them and get in the way of building positive relationships. 

This negative stigma went away once a handful of SEOs began acquiring high-authority backlinks through basic link insertion outreach. 

Rather than ‘beg’ for links when reaching out to site owners, these savvy SEOs found ways that the link insertions would add value to aging content. 

When handled this way, link insertions provide the following benefits. 

Less work involved 

With link insertions, far less outreach and effort is involved in acquiring backlinks, but you have to ensure that the links you add are valuable for the site owner.  

A reliable way to do this is to strategically add backlinks that update and enhance older pieces of content. 

How do you do that?

Let’s drum up a quick example to illustrate how this is possible.

Imagine that you run a digital marketing blog covering the latest SEO news and updates. You’re trying to target link insertions for an article that contains all the recent Google algorithm updates. 

Next, you look up blogs mentioning Google core updates on related websites, and focus on the outdated ones. 

After that, the outreach is as simple as letting the site owner know that adding the link to your algorithm update page will refresh the old post and make it relevant and rankable again. Voila, now you’ve created a situation where adding one of your backlinks is mutually beneficial for you and the site owner. 

This is just one way that you can use link insertions to build backlinks with minimal outreach (and no content creation) required. 

Quicker indexing 

As a bonus, link insertions feature faster indexing. This is because you’re not creating a new web page from scratch that Google has to crawl and index (which can take a long time). Instead, you’re adding a link to a web page that already exists in Google’s index – meaning the backlink will impact your search rankings far quicker. 

Compare the example we just covered to targeting a guest post. In that scenario, you’d have to A) find websites in your field that accept guest posts, B) craft a pitch that gets attention and a response, and C) write a brand-new blog post. 

That’s an awful lot of effort to generate one backlink (this isn’t to say that guest posting isn’t worth it in its own right, as it provides benefits beyond building links). 

Still, it’s undeniable that link insertions provide a quicker and easier way for site owners to build high-authority backlinks. 

Ways link insertions can provide value to website owners

The big challenge with link insertions is how to provide something of value for the site owner in exchange for inserting one of your backlinks in their content. 

That’s because adding a single backlink to an existing post typically isn’t enough to make it relevant and rankable again. 

You’ll have to get creative when convincing website owners to add a link insertion. 

The easiest and most obvious way is to offer money in exchange for the link insertion, but that’s not always the best option. 

Instead, here are some popular value propositions you can use to obtain link insertions:

• Find ways to update the existing post. If you’re adding one of your links to an aging blog post, try to find ways to make it relevant again. That could be updating old information, adding new insights, or including a supplementary video. 
• Add value with a free tool. We have a ton of free SEO tools on our website, and they generate backlinks for us all the time. If you have a free tool on your website that pertains to your target audience, then pitching link insertions for it will be a total breeze. Tools can be enormously helpful when done right (and they can be as simple as planning calendars), so don’t be shy about making some.  
• Offer a free trial of a service or product. Do you offer a SaaS platform or another type of service? If so, offering a free trial (or a free product) is a great value proposition for link insertions. 

What’s Link-Building Outreach?

Outreach and link-building are intrinsically connected, so there’s no getting away from it.

If you want to build backlinks (and if you want to rank higher on Google, you do), then you’re going to have to rub elbows with prominent website owners, bloggers, journalists, and influencers in your field. 

While email outreach is the most common, outreach over the phone and in person (assuming you live near your prospects) are also options. 

Whenever you discover a backlink opportunity, you’re going to have to reach out to the website owner and hit them with a pitch for why they should link back to your content. 

Why is outreach necessary?

It is because backlinks aren’t something website owners hand out willy-nilly. 

Instead, they need a solid reason (i.e., something that benefits them) to link out to your website. Site owners will also want to vet the quality of your website to ensure they don’t hurt their user experience. 

Email outreach is the solution to both of these problems. 

It lets you instantly:

1. Convey how adding one of your backlinks will benefit their SEO and user experience 
2. Vouch for the quality and accuracy of your content 
3. Potentially form a long-lasting relationship that leads to more link placements in the future 

These are all reasons why outreach and link-building are forever joined at the hip. 

At its heart, link-building outreach is a form of networking, meaning it will also help you build brand awareness and loyalty while simultaneously boosting your search rankings. 

Outreach email best practices

There’s a right and wrong way to approach link-building outreach. If you constantly nag site owners with poorly written emails outright begging for links, you aren’t going to gain much traction (if any at all). 

Also, generic outreach templates stick out like sore thumbs, so don’t use them unless you’re going to add your own spin to make them more original and enticing. 

Here’s a quick look at some of the best practices associated with link-building email outreach:

• An attention-grabbing title. Titles like ‘Requesting a Backlink’ are boring and will likely get ignored. Instead, frame it as an ‘exclusive offer’ or a question. If possible, include the primary benefit for the site owner in the title (as well as their company name). 
• Display knowledge of the website. Make it clear that you’re a fan of their website and are very familiar with what they do. If possible, highlight a recent article/video of theirs that you consumed and found helpful (without going into too much detail; remember to keep it short). 
• Highlight the benefits. Include how you plan on providing value to the website owner, either through a valuable guest post, money, or freshening up their old content with new insights. 
• Make it personalized and exclusive. The last thing you want is for your outreach emails to read like form letters that you send to countless website owners. Instead, personalize each message and frame the link-building opportunity as exclusive to them. Mention the site owner’s name, and bring up any common interests that you may share. 

These best practices apply to all link-building emails, not just link insertions – so be sure to include them when conducting outreach for guest posts, broken links, case studies, and link exchanges. 

How to Conduct Link Insertion Outreach in 5 Steps 

Okay, now it’s time to learn how to target link insertions using the email outreach best practices listed above. 

While it’s true that link insertion outreach is simpler than guest post outreach; it still requires a degree of nuance. 

Why is that?

It’s because you need to know A) what you’re looking for and B) how to get it. 

Going with exhibit A, if you pick up a link insertion on an irrelevant website that has a low domain authority score, it will have little to no impact on your search rankings. This is why you need to know which websites are worth targeting for backlinks in the first place. 

Considering exhibit B, you still have to craft a pitch for why the site owner should add one of your backlinks to an existing post (we’ll cover some specific strategies for this in a bit). 

Let’s start by learning how to lay the groundwork for proper outreach. 

Step #1: Lay the groundwork

Before you start emailing every website owner in your industry, you need to make your current SEO and backlink profiles as attractive as possible. 

After all, nobody wants to link out to a low-quality website with a questionable backlink profile. Just as you only want to target high-quality websites for link opportunities, other site owners do, too. 

This means you won’t find much success with outreach if your website offers poor content that doesn’t provide much value to users. 

Here’s a look at a few steps you should take to lay the groundwork for a successful link insertion outreach campaign.  

Audit Your Existing Content

First, you should take a long, hard look at your existing content to ensure that it’s link-worthy. When reading one of your blogs or watching one of your videos, ask yourself:

Would I link out to this content if I were a site owner in this field? Does my content offer any unique insights or first-hand experiences that users can’t find anywhere else? Is my content filling my audience’s needs by answering their questions and solving their problems?

If the answer to any of these questions is no, it’s a sign that you need to improve your existing content before moving any further. 

Also, certain types of content attract more links than others. 

According to a survey by the Content Marketing Institute (CMI), link-builders find the most success with the following content formats:

1. Original data and research (70%) 
2. Videos (66%) 
3. Infographics (61%) 
4. Whitepapers (60%) 
5. Webinars (56%) 

As you can see, original data and research generates the most backlinks. Not only does it rank #1 on the survey, but we also just linked to original data from CMI to illustrate the point! 

This exemplifies why surveys and studies are such powerful link-building tools. They naturally attract links from content creators eager to back up their claims with hard evidence and provide their audiences with real-world data.  

Coming in at #2 and #3 are videos and infographics, both of which are massively shareable due to their visual natures. 

Lastly, whitepapers and webinars are excellent for attracting links from professionals in your field, and they make fantastic lead magnets (i.e., requiring readers to enter their email addresses before accessing webinars and whitepapers). 

Before you get started conducting outreach, ensure that you have lots of link-worthy content on your website that you can use to gain link insertions. 

Review Your Current Backlink Profile

Next, you need to audit your backlink profile to ensure you don’t have any spammy or toxic links pointing at your domain. 

If you have a poor domain authority score, don’t expect site owners to line up to link out to your content. Instead, your best bet is to improve your authority score as much as possible to make your website attractive to potential outreach targets. 

How can you find out which links are currently pointing at your content?

After all, it’s normal for websites to accrue backlinks without even trying. For example, you may have backlinks coming from domains that you weren’t even aware of, which may be a good or bad thing. 

To get a grasp of your backlink profile, you can use our free backlink checker tool. It’ll provide you with a list of backlinks pointing at your content. 

Here’s what you need to look out for:

• Are the links coming from authoritative websites?
• Do the sites hold contextual or topical relevance to yours?
• Does the anchor text use relevant keywords and phrases? 
• Do you have lots of referring domains, or are your backlinks primarily from the same website?

If you notice that you have some backlinks coming from potentially spammy domains, it’s typically not something to worry about. Google’s algorithm automatically devalues these types of links, so they won’t negatively impact your rankings (or positively, they’re completely neutral). 

However, if you had a hand in building these links, such as paying for them or building a private blog network (PBN), you could get into trouble. 

These could cause you to receive manual actions from Google, and they’re red flags to potential outreach partners. As long as you didn’t take part in any black-hat link-building techniques (i.e., tactics aimed at manipulating search rankings), you should be fine. 

Still, it’s worth knowing what your backlink profile looks like to potential link partners. 

Review competitor backlinks

This step will help you identify qualified websites to target for link insertions, so you shouldn’t skip it. 

Identifying your competitors and then analyzing their backlink profiles is a tried and true way to build high-quality links. 

Here’s how you can quickly identify your top competitors:

1. Take to Google and search for the top keywords that you target for your website (i.e., industry keywords, product/service keywords, etc.). 
2. Identify the websites currently outranking you. 

From there, you can pop their URLs into our free backlink checker tool to peek under the hoods of their backlink profiles. 

When looking at their backlinks, ask yourself:

Where are they getting their strongest links from? Are they guest posting on certain websites, or are they listed on resource pages and directories that you aren’t?

Make a list of all the websites they’re getting backlinks from, as you can and should target them for link insertions, guest posts, and other types of backlinks. 

Gap Analysis

Before you close out your competitor’s backlink profiles, write down all the websites that link to them but not you. 

These will serve as your most qualified prospects for link insertions. When analyzing each website, try to determine why the other website was able to obtain a backlink from them. Does their content have something that yours doesn’t, such as first-hand experiences or rich visual content? 

Would it be possible to create a piece of content that’s 10x better than theirs? Or are there angles to cover that the original piece doesn’t?

These questions will help you determine if you can outdo a competitor and poach their backlinks in the process. For example, if you notice a website linking to a competitor’s free tool, why not create a free tool that works even better?

After that, you can reach out to the site owner and show off your new and improved tool. Let them know why your tool outdoes the old tool, and you may be able to snag the link placement for yourself! 

Step #2: Vetting websites for link insertions

Now that your SEO ducks are all in a row, it’s time to start pinpointing ideal websites for backlink placements. 

For a link insertion to benefit your search rankings, it must have two qualifying factors, which are:

• Relevancy 

• Authoritativeness 

If you insert your backlinks on relevant, authoritative websites, you’ll see a positive impact on your search rankings. 

To ensure a website is relevant to yours, it must hold topical or contextual relevance. 

Topical relevance means the website covers the same topics and themes as yours. An example would be placing a backlink on a gardening blog if you run an eCommerce store that sells gardening tools. 

Contextual relevance refers to instances when a backlink is relevant in context. For example, if your gardening store received a backlink from a technology company, ordinarily, that wouldn’t make sense. However, if the page in question is about gardening technology, then it suddenly makes sense contextually. 

Authority-wise, you want to ensure you’re inserting backlinks on websites that are trusted by Google and other search engines. This is why SEOs use metrics like Moz’s Domain Authority and Ahrefs’ Domain Rating. 

Both scores feature numerical scores ranging from 1 – 100 – with 100 being the most authoritative. 

Realistically, sites with DA scores of 80 or above are legacy websites that have millions of backlinks. For this reason, it’s okay to target websites that have a minimum DA score of 20, as they can still positively impact your search rankings (although it’s best to shoot for the 40 – 60 range if possible). 

To quickly learn the ranking power of a website, you can use our free domain authority checker tool. 

Finding relevant websites to target for link insertions 

Now that you know the metrics required for vetting the quality of websites, here’s a trick for finding relevant websites in your field.

Google is your best friend in this regard, as you can use the basic search operator formula (wrapping a keyword in quotations) to hunt down link insertion opportunities. 

For example, let’s say you run a website that sells pet supplies, and you want to build link insertions that point toward some of your product pages. 

In that case, buyer’s guides on pet lover websites are what you need to find, so you could search on Google for phrases like pet lover “buyer’s guides.”

Here’s what that looks like:

These are only a few of the search results provided, but we can already see some potential link insertion prospects, especially for the pet turf buying guide and most ‘paw-pular’ dog gifts. 

Step #3: Finding webmaster contact information 

By now, you’ve got a list of relevant websites to target. 

You’re ready to start sending out emails now, right?

Not quite.

You don’t have the contact information for each site owner, which is an issue. The good news is that finding webmaster contact information doesn’t have to be complicated. 

Step #1 is to search the website, particularly the About Us page and website footer. 

You can also check the domain registration history to uncover the owner if you can’t find anything there. 

The WHOIS records hosted by ICANN contain each domain owner and their contact information, which is a huge help. 

By going to the ICANN Lookup and typing a domain name into the search bar, you’ll see who owns it and their contact information. 

Sometimes, finding contact information is as simple as looking for the author of a blog post and then looking them up on LinkedIn (which is a fantastic place to find specific individuals from companies). 

Hunter.io can also be a massive help when looking for webmaster email addresses. It’s an email finder tool that you can use to discover the email of most professionals online, and the free version lets you conduct 300 searches per year (there are also paid options). 

Step #4: Craft effective backlink outreach emails 

Now that you’ve got the contact information for each site owner, it’s time to actually get started conducting outreach. 

As stated before, generic templates aren’t the way to go. Instead, you’ll want to craft unique outreach emails that are fully personalized and engaging. 

However, this doesn’t mean that you can’t use templates to speed things up a little. 

It’s perfectly okay to create a handful of basic templates to use as starting points for each outreach email. This ensures that you aren’t always starting from scratch. It’s crucial to personalize the template, though, or site owners may catch on that you send out form letters. 

Here are some tips for drafting stellar outreach emails. 

Personalize the opening

The first few lines are the most important part of the entire email. 

Take the time to make every opening unique and personally tailored to the recipient. Here’s how:

• Write a compelling subject line: Keep it short while hinting at the value you offer, and consider mentioning their site’s name if possible.
• Address the recipient by name: If you can’t find it, a simple “Hey there” is fine, but avoid generic terms like “Webmaster.” Authority Hacker found that including someone’s name in an email led to a 50% higher conversion rate, so it’s worth the trouble of hunting down individual names. 
• Demonstrate genuine interest: Reference a recent article, social media post, or something from their “About” page. Be specific to show you’ve done your research.
• Use a professional email: Ditch outdated personal addresses – a business domain shows you’re serious.

Have a clear value proposition

This is the ‘why’ for your prospect. In other words, why should they add one of your backlinks on their website? 

Be upfront, and remember that nobody owes you anything. Focus entirely on showing them how this collaboration will benefit them.

• Discuss the mutual benefit: Whether it’s guest posting or link exchange, frame it as a win-win scenario.
• Reference their content: If your content complements something they already have, use this to your advantage.

Have a clear CTA

Don’t leave them guessing what you want.  Be specific and make your request easy to fulfill with a call to action (CTA). 

Here are a few examples of strong CTAs:

• Asking to share your content on their social media
• Embedding a snippet (great for infographics or videos)
• Requesting a follow-up video call to discuss the opportunity further 
• Asking for a link insertion on a specific piece of content 

Lastly, sign off with a proper email signature. Provide the website owner with your full name, job title, the URL of the blog or website you represent, your phone number, and links to your business’s social media accounts (wherever applicable).

Email outreach template

Here is an example of an outreach email template that you can personalize:

Subject: Heads Up! I found a broken link on your website

Hi [Name],

I’m a big fan of your site, especially your article on [article title].  I noticed a broken link to [original resource].

I’ve created a similar resource on my site ([link]) that could be a replacement.  Would you consider updating the link?

Thanks!

[Your Name] | [Job Title]

[Website URL] | [Phone Number]

[Social Media Icons + Links]

Step #5: Follow-up! 

Sending an outreach email isn’t a one-and-done process. 

As you can likely attest to, professionals receive hundreds of emails a day, and it’s entirely possible to miss a few messages here and there (especially if they don’t know you yet). 

Netomi’s Customer Service Benchmark Report for the telecommunications industry found that approximately 65% of all emails were ignored. 

This reinforces the need for follow-up messages, which bring your ignored messages back to the top of a prospect’s inbox. 

There’s no need to be verbose when following up, as a simple, “Just following up on this,” will suffice 9 times out of 10. At the same time, space out your follow-ups so that you aren’t constantly nagging link prospects. 

Authority Hacker’s research found that they built 40% more backlinks by following up with unanswered messages, so the practice is definitely worth it. 

Besides following up with site owners who haven’t gotten back with you yet, you should also keep in touch with your regular link partners. 

Link-building is all about building relationships, so it’s important to remain in touch with your link partners. If you haven’t heard from them in a while, checking in with them through email is a good idea. Who knows, you may stumble upon a new backlink opportunity when doing so. 

The Wrap-Up: Conducting Link Insertion Outreach 

A big reason link insertions are so popular is how easy they are to target, but that’s not to say that link insertion outreach is a cinch. 

This type of outreach can be even more challenging due to how creative you have to be with a value proposition. 

Guest posts have a built-in value prop, but you have to think outside the box with link insertions. 

Do you need help conducting link-building outreach at your organization?

Then don’t wait to check out our stellar Link Outreach services from The HOTH. Our link-building gurus will handcraft a winning outreach campaign for your backlink profile, so don’t wait to get in touch now.  

The post Link Insertion Outreach: 5 Steps to Master the Process appeared first on The HOTH.

Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming the world of SEO, and ChatGPT is at the forefront of the revolution.  

It turns out it’s an extremely useful tool for streamlining tasks like keyword research, content creation, and even link-building (which is notorious for eating up tons of marketers’ time). 

Imagine this: Instead of spending countless hours conducting cold research, you use ChatGPT to:

• Brainstorm winning backlink opportunities in your niche
• Craft and edit compelling email pitches 
• Generate original content for guest posts 

The kicker?

You’ll be able to knock out these time-consuming tasks at remarkable speed, allowing you to focus on more important things. 

If you’re ready to unlock the potential of AI-powered link-building, this is the guide for you. 

Stay tuned to learn the best ways to prompt ChatGPT to secure backlinks, find untapped keywords, and produce high-quality content that attracts links. 

A General Overview of ChatGPT

First, it’s essential to understand the basics of how ChatGPT works to get the most out of it for your SEO strategies.

ChatGPT is a large language model chatbot developed by OpenAI. It uses advanced artificial intelligence (AI) to understand and generate human-like text.

The chatbot can understand natural human language, meaning you can talk to it just as you would a person on the street. 

Initially, OpenAI released ChatGPT in November of 2022, and the platform acquired over 1 million users during its first five days of release. 

People were immediately blown away by the chatbot’s ability to engage in natural conversation, generate engaging content, and answer complicated questions (it even displayed the ability to write code and solve complex programming problems). 

Initially, ChatGPT had more than a few limitations. 

In particular, its training data contained outdated information (pre-September 2021), and it had no direct internet access. 

However, OpenAI has since addressed both issues, as ChatGPT is now online and contains up-to-date data. 

ChatGPT 3.5 and GPT-4

GPT-3.5 and its successor, GPT-4, showcase the growing impact of AI on SEO and digital marketing. These powerful Large Language Models (LLMs) offer significant benefits for marketers, including:

• Content creation: Generate diverse content like blog posts, product descriptions, and social updates.
• Content optimization: Analyze content for SEO, suggesting keywords and improving readability.
• Keyword research: Find long-tail keywords, understand search intent, and track trending topics.
• Translation: Generate and translate content across languages, expanding your audience.
• Personalization: Tailor content and recommendations based on user data for better engagement.
• Competitor analysis: Monitor competitor strategies, identifying strengths and weaknesses to refine your own.

While GPT-3.5 offers a free entry point, GPT-4’s advanced capabilities are available through subscription. Remember, fact-checking remains essential – even in spite of ChatGPT’s internet access and current database. 

‘Hallucinations’ (where the chatbot fabricates information it doesn’t have answers to) remain a persistent problem. 

In fact, OpenAI has admitted that ChatGPT hallucinates and that they currently don’t know how to stop it. Specifically, ChatGPT has a bad habit of making up information about individuals. 

This means you’ll have to take the extra step of fact-checking ChatGPT’s content before publishing it. 

Now, let’s examine how ChatGPT can revolutionize your marketing efforts.

What are the Benefits of Using ChatGPT for SEOs?

Once ChatGPT launched in 2022, it didn’t take long at all for SEOs to begin experimenting with it. They quickly discovered that it’s an incredibly helpful tool for assisting with and speeding up many aspects of search engine optimization. 

There are two main benefits of using AI for SEO professionals: efficiency and cost reduction. Let’s take a closer look at each one.

Efficiency gains

Using ChatGPT will provide an enormous boost to your SEO team’s productivity and efficiency. The chatbot can complete tasks that used to take hours in seconds, and its capability for data analysis far exceeds humans. 

Here’s a glimpse at the top ways ChatGPT will boost your efficiency:

Accelerated research and content creation: AI tools can instantly analyze search trends, gather competitor data, and generate content outlines or drafts. This frees up time for high-level strategy and analysis that only a human expert can provide. 

Streamlining workflows: LLMs can automate repetitive tasks like keyword clustering, meta tag generation, or basic content formatting. This allows SEO professionals to focus on more pressing tasks – like maintaining relationships with link partners and media outlets. 

Advanced data-driven insights: AI can sift through large datasets more quickly than humans, which could reveal patterns or opportunities that you may have missed otherwise. This informs better decision-making and provides more targeted optimization efforts. 

Reduce overhead costs 

Speaking of ChatGPT being free, another perk is that it’ll reduce your overhead costs significantly. 

You’ll still need one of your team members to fact-check everything generated by ChatGPT, and you’ll also need a few SEO tools (because the chatbot doesn’t have access to key SEO metrics like search volume and keyword difficulty) – but you’ll still save money due to the increased productivity of your team. 

Also, with ChatGPT and a few other free SEO tools (like our Google keyword planner tool from The HOTH), it’s now possible for startups and smaller businesses to conduct basic link-building campaigns with just a handful of team members.

Of course, working with a top-tier digital marketing agency with an existing link infrastructure is still the most reliable way to acquire high-authority backlinks. 

However, it’s entirely possible to develop a winning link-building campaign using only free tools, especially for niches that don’t have a lot of competition. 

How To Use ChatGPT To Simplify Link-Building

Okay, now that you’re up to speed with ChatGPT and its SEO benefits, it’s time to get to the good stuff. 

Here’s how you can use ChatGPT to streamline your link-building campaign. 

Content generation

One of ChatGPTs most useful features is its ability to create virtually any type of written content on the fly. 

It can generate blog posts, meta descriptions, social media posts, FAQs, and more within seconds – all you have to do is tell it what you want. 

Also, you can continue to prompt ChatGPT based on previous prompts to uncover even more useful features and tools. 

For example, let’s get ChatGPT to generate 10 keywords for us related to gardening:

Let’s not stop there, though. To build on the original prompt, let’s ask it to write a short blog using the 10 keywords it just generated:

Voila, we now have a short blog post containing 10 relevant gardening keywords. 

This is a very simple example of how you can use ChatGPT to aid with content creation, which is one of the most difficult aspects of link-building. 

For instance, experiencing writer’s block is no fun, and it’s extremely common (78% of business professionals struggle with it). 

With ChatGPT by your side, you can say goodbye to spending hours staring at a blank Google Doc trying to come up with yet another guest post. 

Using ChatGPT to brainstorm new angles and unique perspectives on a topic 

If you’ve been creating content for your business for a while, then you know how difficult it can be to keep it fresh, relevant, and unique. 

You’ve likely covered the same handful of topics in an exhausting amount of ways, which is enough to fry anyone’s brain. 

ChatGPT is a great secret weapon in this regard.

Let’s ask it to come up with a unique approach for a post about common gardening issues (which is a topic gardening bloggers have covered ad nauseam):

ChatGPT recommends that we frame the post as a dialogue – granting you the opportunity to weave a fictional yet relatable narrative into the article. 

Let’s say that you aren’t happy with this suggestion. In that case, you can simply ask for a different idea, and ChatGPT will come up with something else:

From here, rinse and repeat until you land on a unique angle that you think will work. 

Creating an outline and first draft 

Once you have a suitable idea, you can continue to use ChatGPT to develop an outline and create a first draft. 

For the purposes of this example, we’ll go with the idea of framing the post as a series of letters between a garden and its caretaker. 

Next, we need to ask ChatGPT to create an outline of the post for us. 

Carefully review each subheading to confirm that they’re relevant and factually accurate. After that, you can move on to the first draft. 

Now, you have a first draft to work with, even if it’s a bit too poetic. Speaking of tone, it’s crucial to continue to prompt ChatGPT to ensure you wind up with the right voice for your audience.

Here’s what it came up with after we requested something a bit more practical:

This is better, but it still needs some work. 

For the best results, you should A) keep prompting ChatGPT until it gets as close to the tone you want as possible, and B) edit the piece to include your own expertise and experiences (which is essential for Google E-E-A-T). 

Also, don’t forget to fact-check each piece of content before publishing it to avoid inaccuracies. 

Keyword research 

Keyword research, while not as time intensive as link-building, is still something that takes hours when done properly.

Once again, ChatGPT speeds things up in a big way. 

We’ve already demonstrated how easy it is for the chatbot to generate relevant keywords for your target audience. 

However, ChatGPT can also classify keywords based on search intent and category, match keywords with buyer personas, and more. 

Let’s run a few examples to demonstrate how you can use ChatGPT for keyword research. 

Brainstorming seed keywords 

Seed keywords are short phrases that broadly describe a topic or niche, and they serve as the starting point for keyword research. 

In the previous example, we had ChatGPT generate 10 keywords for us based on the seed keyword ‘gardening,’ but let’s try another industry this time – something more niche-specific, like project management software. 

These keywords are nice, but let’s push ChatGPT a little further and ask for some related terms. Let’s say that you sell Kanban board software, and you want to focus on related keywords. 

That’s not bad; now we have some additional keywords to explore. 

Generating long-tail keywords and commonly asked questions 

Now, let’s start honing in on some topic ideas for content. Let’s ask ChatGPT to generate some relevant long-tail keywords and commonly asked questions about Kanban board software. 

These are all juicy suggestions that can lead to some excellent pieces of content. However, don’t forget to vet each keyword and topic idea through SEO tools to ensure they’re viable. 

Why is that?

It’s because ChatGPT doesn’t have access to real-time search data, so you’ll need to use it in tandem with SEO tools (like our free offerings). 

Despite this, ChatGPT is still an excellent tool for brainstorming keyword ideas that you may not have stumbled upon otherwise. 

Identifying each keyword’s search intent 

Even though ChatGPT can’t access real-time search data, it’s still quite adept at identifying the search intent behind keywords. 

This is extremely useful since misinterpreting the search intent behind a keyword can have negative results on your SEO (and conversion rates). 

Here’s what happens when we ask ChatGPT to provide the search intent for project management software keywords. 

Analyzing competitor keywords

Lastly, you can use ChatGPT to peek behind the curtain of your competitor’s SEO strategies. In particular, you can ask it to analyze a snippet of their content and pick out the keywords they’re using. 

This will help you find out if your competitors are using any keywords that you aren’t. 

Sticking with the project management example, here’s what happens when we ask ChatGPT to analyze a snippet from project management software company Asana’s blog:

Brainstorm new link-building opportunities 

Link-builders are constantly on the hunt for fresh, new strategies for picking up backlinks, which is one of the reasons why the process takes so long. 

ChatGPT is a tremendous help here. 

It will analyze your niche online and suggest specific strategies like unique content marketing ideas and websites for guest post opportunities. 

This gets rid of a major time and creativity bottleneck, which is yet another reason why ChatGPT is a link-builder’s best friend. 

Here’s a look at the top ways we’ve found to leverage ChatGPT for your link-building.

Finding the best link-building opportunities for your niche 

First, let’s look at how you can get ChatGPT to find the most reliable link-building strategies for your field of expertise. 

In this example, we asked ChatGPT what the best link-building opportunities for project management websites were, and here’s what it gave us:

Its suggestions include guest blogging, creating content like whitepapers, and listing your business on relevant resource pages and directories – all of which are viable tactics in the project management space. 

It’s crucial to note that this isn’t a generic list that ChatGPT generates for every question related to link-building. 

Instead, it’s a niche-specific list of tactics likely to work.

Once again, you shouldn’t rely on ChatGPT to develop your entire link-building strategy, but it’s certainly a helpful tool, and its suggestions make for an excellent starting point. 

Don’t forget that you can continue to prompt the chatbot based on previous prompts. 

Let’s see what ChatGPT has to say if we ask if it has any other link-building opportunities related to project management software. 

And voila, ChatGPT was able to provide us with even more ideas. While it feels that the original list contains the strongest link-building opportunities, expert roundups and industry events are two great (and often underused) tactics.

Find powerful influencers in your niche 

Influencer marketing is another method for acquiring high-authority backlinks, and ChatGPT can tell you which influencers are in your field. 

This is another huge time saver, as it can take hours browsing social media sites like Instagram and TikTok trying to find relevant influencers to spark a relationship with  – and even then, there’s no guarantee that you’ll score any backlinks out of it. 

That’s why it’s best to ask ChatGPT which influencers are prominent in your field, reach out to them, and then move on to other tactics. 

Here’s what ChatGPT generated for us when we asked it who the top influencers were in the project management software space:

Whenever you use a similar prompt, don’t forget to ask for the top online influencers in your niche; otherwise, you may wind up with a list of influencers that are too big to reach (i.e., TV show hosts, celebrities, mainstream authors, etc.). 

In the example provided, ChatGPT listed online influencers that have websites and blogs, which is what you want. 

Assist with writing outreach emails 

Outreach is another area where ChatGPT is an enormous help. In particular, it makes writing outreach emails easier than ever. 

You can use it to brainstorm ideas for outreach emails, or you can get the chatbot to write complete emails for you from scratch. 

Remember, ChatGPT is a permanent cure for writer’s block.

To give you an example of what the chatbot is capable of, we got it to generate an entire outreach email for us to a project management software website. 

This is an excellent template, but it’s crucial to edit and rephrase it to make it your own. People are able to tell if something is written entirely by AI, so don’t forget to add your personal touch to it.  

The more details you can add about your website, the more specific ChatGPT will be when writing outreach emails. 

So whenever you’re conducting outreach for backlinks, make your prompts detailed and highly specific.  

Important Considerations when Using LLMs for Link Building

By now, we’ve looked at all the net positives involved with using ChatGPT for link-building. 

Yet, like anything else, there are some potential downsides to using LLM chatbots, so let’s take a look at the top things you should avoid.  

Potential penalties

Google’s guidelines stress high-quality, original content. 

Overusing LLM output may raise flags in the future, especially if it’s low-value or detectable as AI-generated. 

As stated several times throughout this article, ChatGPT is an excellent starting point and brainstorming tool – but you shouldn’t let it generate 100% of your content. 

Quality control 

We’ve already gone over how chatbots ‘hallucinate,’ so it’s crucial to ensure everything ChatGPT spits out is correct. 

Always fact-check rigorously before using a chatbot’s output. Credibility is vital in link building, and inaccurate content will undermine your efforts, so beware! 

Ethics

Using LLMs to generate outreach disguised as fully human-written content could be deceptive, particularly in guest posting. 

The risk here is that if people find out you are solely using AI, you could potentially damage your reputation.

For example, a site owner may discontinue providing you with backlinks if they discover that you’re using AI to generate all your outreach emails. 

Originality is crucial

LLMs excel at streamlining repetitive tasks, but unique insights and genuine value propositions come from human experts. Generic content offers no compelling reason for sites to link back to you. 

Also, Google’s 2024 March Core Update began cracking down on purely AI-generated content in a big way, so you’ll need to add original insights and experiences to your content to avoid manual penalties. 

Here are some best practices for creating original content: 

• Prioritize human-led outreach: Let the LLM handle the first draft, but leave space for personalization, original insights, and first-hand experiences.
• LLMs as ideation partners: It’s best to use ChatGPT exclusively for brainstorming unique link-worthy content ideas or angles but not for final output without significant editing.
• Quality always wins: Never compromise content quality for speed. If you want to find true, lasting success with your SEO, then you should focus on creating content that truly provides value to your audience.

This is not to say that you shouldn’t use ChatGPT or that it won’t significantly speed things up for you. It’s an extremely useful tool for link-building, but it still has some limitations that may land you in hot water if you don’t know what you’re doing. 

Wrapping Up: Using ChatGPT for Link-Building 

By now, you should have a solid understanding of how to use ChatGPT for link-building and better search engine rankings. 

The AI chatbot will uncover link-building opportunities, help write guest posts, assist with outreach, and discover relevant websites and influencers in your niche. 

As long as you combine ChatGPT’s speed with your own expertise and experiences, you should have a positive experience with the tool. 

Do you need expert help with link-building at your business?

Then don’t wait to check out HOTH X, our five-star managed SEO services. Not only that, but our link outreach services are second to none, so don’t wait to try us out today.        

The post How to Use ChatGPT for Link-Building (2024 Update) appeared first on The HOTH.

In fact, it’s been discovered that the #1 ranked page on Google has an average of 3.8x more backlinks than the other results. 

The catch?

Link-building strategies tend to be extremely challenging and time-consuming. It can take months of outreach to acquire just one guest post opportunity, not to mention the time it takes to create the content. 

That’s why niche edit links have become so popular recently. 

What are niche edits?

A niche edit (also called a link insertion) refers to placing one of your backlinks into an existing article on a relevant website. 

It differs from a guest post in that you’re placing the link into an older blog post instead of creating a new one. 

The good news is that you don’t have to create any original content to acquire niche edits, and they will provide the same amount of link juice as a guest post (assuming you target an existing page that has relevant content and high authority). 

Niche edit backlinks also benefit website owners too, so you won’t be begging for a handout. 

Adding new outbound links can help freshen up older content, giving site owners a chance to generate more organic traffic from an existing blog post. 

There’s a lot to know about niche edit link building, so stick around to learn more. 

It’s different from a guest post because you insert the link into an existing piece instead of writing a new article. 

You don’t have to create any original content to acquire niche edits, and they provide the same amount of link juice as a guest post (assuming you target an existing page that has relevant content and high authority). 

Since the payoff is equal, niche edits are a quicker and easier way to obtain valuable backlinks. They’re a true embodiment of the phrase ‘work smarter, not harder.’

Niche edit backlinks also benefit website owners too, so you won’t feel like you’re begging for a handout. 

Adding new outbound links can help freshen up older content, allowing site owners to generate new organic traffic from an aging blog post. 

What are Niche Edits Used For?

You can use niche edits to boost your domain authority, acquire quality link placements, and increase the number of links for your website.

Also, there’s a reason why more than 63% of businesses choose to outsource their link-building to third-party agencies – they don’t have the time or capabilities to build high-quality links. 

Link-building services have established networks and infrastructures they use to target guest post opportunities, citations, fix broken links, and more. 

They also use niche edits to acquire high-authority backlinks for their clients.

The good news?

Niche edit link building is less time-consuming than other methods, and it doesn’t involve creating anything new. 

That’s not to say that niche edits should comprise your entire link-building strategy, but they can help startups and small businesses establish their link profiles without having to spend too much time or money (especially if their niche doesn’t have much in the way of competition). 

Once their efforts start to gain some traction, then they can consider outsourcing link-building to continue growing their online presence. 

What are the Benefits of Niche Edits?

Why should you focus on niche edits instead of (or alongside) guest posting and other link-building techniques?

While a mix of link-building tactics works best, niche edits can help you obtain powerful link placements without doing too much outreach or creating new content. 

For this reason, niche edits are an extremely cost-effective way to drive more traffic to your website. 

Niche edits also provide plenty of other benefits, so let’s take a look at them all.

They’re easier than guest posts 

While guest posting remains one of the most popular link-building techniques, it’s certainly not the easiest. 

For one, you need to find relevant blogs in your niche that accept guest posts in the first place, which is tough if you’re in an obscure niche (like selling jumpsuits for Elvis impersonators). 

After that, you have to conduct intense outreach to contact webmasters and persuade them to allow you to write a guest post. 

Once you land an opportunity, you’ve got to produce high-quality content that gains the webmaster’s approval, which can be easier said than done. 

If your content is subpar, inaccurate, or just doesn’t catch the webmaster’s fancy, they may reject your guest post, and all your hard work was for nothing. 

With niche edits, all you need is a link, some relevant anchor text, and perhaps a new line or two to add to the original piece. 

Not only that, but you can conduct outreach to any blog or website within your niche, not just ones that accept guest posts. 

That makes a lot more websites viable targets, increasing your chances of landing a quality link placement. 

Of course, ensure the website’s content directly relates to yours – but other than that, any piece of content is fair game. 

Conducting white hat outreach will take a bit longer and involve more effort since you’ll need to identify ways to improve an aging piece of content. 

The upside is that you’ll have followed the rules and won’t have to worry about receiving any penalties. 

You decide on the anchor text 

The anchor text you use for a link has a significant impact on its authority and ranking power. In particular, Google values highly relevant anchor text that previews the page it links to. 

Generic anchor text won’t earn you any favors, as Google explicitly dislikes generic phrases like ‘click here’ or ‘buy now.’

Instead, you should provide a few more words that add context to the page in question. 

Additionally, squeezing in your target keyword will boost the power of your anchor text, so include it whenever possible. 

What’s great about a niche edit is you have full control over the anchor text you use for your backlink. 

Two anchor text rules to live by are A) the text must directly relate to your web page, and B) it needs to contain the target keyword. 

For example, if you’re using a niche edit to promote a product page selling motorcycle wheels (target keyword) to enthusiasts, your anchor text could look something like this:

Check out our premium-grade motorcycle wheels.

The anchor text previews what the user can expect and even includes a CTA (call-to-action), letting the user know that you want them to click on the link.

They’re excellent for building authority 

To rank higher on search engines, your content needs to have a high domain authority rating, and acquiring high-authority backlinks is the best way to raise it. 

Niche edits rock because they’ll raise your authority equally as much as guest posts and other tactics but are less labor-intensive. 

For instance, if you find a relevant website in your niche, it’ll be much quicker to just add a backlink to one of their existing posts instead of creating a new one from scratch. 

Not only that, but the result is the same – a backlink pointing to your content that exists on their website. 

The amount of link juice it will generate depends entirely on the domain rating of the website in question (and the relevancy/quality of your anchor text). 

It doesn’t matter to Google whether your backlinks come from guest posts or link placements, which is why niche edits are such a powerful link-building tactic. 

An extra perk is that the website you’re placing a link on already appears in Google’s index, so you won’t have to wait long for your link to appear in the SERPs (it can take months for new pieces of content to get indexed). 

The Different Types of Niche Edits 

There are a few different types of niche edits, including:

• White hat niche edits 
• Black hat niche edits 
• Gray hat niche edits 

Each involves different tactics and will have varying effects on your link profile, so let’s learn more about them.

White hat niche edits

White hat niche edits involve reaching out to high-quality websites in your niche to request a link placement in one of their existing pieces. 

In return, you must offer something valuable to the website in question. 

The preferred white hat method is to point out ways to enhance and update their existing blog post.

How do you do that?

Here are some recommendations for niche edit outreach:

• Provide current metrics and statistics to update the post to the current year 
• Create an infographic that enhances the existing piece 
• Find areas where you can add new insights or go into further detail 
• Add a supplementary video if you have one (another link opportunity)

You should offer whatever you can do to update and enhance the post to encourage the webmaster to add your backlink. 

This is the best way to acquire quality niche edits, and you won’t attract any negative attention from Google.

Black hat niche edits 

A “black hat niche edit” violates search engine guidelines, particularly Google’s. 

Black hat SEO practices are used to manipulate search engine rankings in ways that are frowned upon by search engines.

That’s because they interfere with the ultimate goal of a search engine, which is to match user queries with the highest quality results. 

Black hat tactics throw that idea out the window, as they resort to spamming the internet with useless websites that only exist to superficially inflate link profiles and SERP rankings. 

There’s no shortage of black hat niche edit techniques out there, although we highly recommend that you avoid them at all costs. 

Not only will they tank your SEO profile through penalties and manual actions, but black hat practices also tend to negatively affect users and website owners. 

What do black hat tactics look like?

Here are a few black hat niche edit techniques: 

Unauthorized changes: Adding links to existing content without the permission or knowledge of the website owner. This can involve hacking into a site or exploiting security vulnerabilities to insert links.

  Spammy links: Overloading articles with irrelevant or low-quality links that do not add value to the content or reader experience. These links are solely intended to manipulate search rankings.

SAPE links: These are link schemes where links are bought and sold explicitly to improve page rank. This often involves placing links in low-quality content farms or using automated programs to insert links across various sites.

For the sake of your SEO and link profile, we strongly recommend staying away from all black hat niche edit techniques.

Karl Urban, as the character “Black Hat” stares ominously through a notch in said hat, “Priest” October 7, 2009

Gray hat niche edits

There is a third type of niche edit that’s neither white hat nor black hat – hence the name gray hat. 

Gray hat niche edits aren’t explicitly black hat tactics, but they aren’t a pure white hat strategy, either. 

A gray hat niche edit is when you bribe a webmaster for a backlink with money or another incentive. 

Most of the time, this involves paying a site owner to insert one of your links in an existing article. 

It’s also common to offer discounts or free products as leverage. 

While this is also against Google’s Webmaster Guidelines (technically, all link-building tactics are frowned upon by Google in one form or another), it’s less abrasive than using hacked sites, and it’s harder to track. 

Gray hat niche edits are popular because they’re easier and less time-consuming to acquire than white hat links.

Having said that, we don’t recommend using gray hat tactics either, as there’s still some risk involved. The safest way to snag niche edits while safeguarding your traffic is to become a law-abiding, white-hat-wearing SEO. 

Targeting Niche Edits

Here are some quick yet effective white hat techniques for acquiring niche edits.

We won’t go over any black or gray hat tactics since we don’t want you to receive any manual actions or penalties.

Broken link-building

The tried-and-true process of broken link-building counts as a niche edit. 

It’s where you find broken links (pages that no longer direct to anything) on relevant websites and then offer to replace their broken link with a similar piece of your content. 

It’s a win-win because they get to fix a broken link (which isn’t good for their SEO or user experience), and you pick up a backlink. 

Press mention niche edits

Regardless of how notable your business is, there are probably sites that mentioned your brand but forgot to add a link to your content. 

These are golden niche edit opportunities, and you can set up Google Alerts to find them. 

Creating an alert for your brand name and URL means you’ll get a ping every time someone mentions your brand online, enabling you to pursue the link opportunity.

You can also use Ahrefs to track your unlinked brand mentions. 

Getting in touch with a website owner

If you do uncover an unlinked brand mention, reach out to the person who wrote the content. Check their website for their email address or use their contact form to get in touch. 

If you’ve scoured their site and social media profiles but still come up empty handed, a tool like Hunter.io will help you find their email address. 

Resource page link building  

Resource page link building is a strategic way to secure high-value niche edit links on influential sites. 

You not only gain a powerful backlink but also the potential for generating high-quality traffic by getting your content featured on a resource page.

What are resource page niche edits?

Many website owners maintain a page dedicated to providing useful resources for their audience. It’s an SEO best practice, and a resource page will help establish topical authority. We do it with our Learning Hub, which provides a comprehensive crash course on digital marketing.  

A resource page niche edit involves getting your content listed on these kinds of pages, usually managed by a blogger or influencer in your field.

Here is how to achieve this: 

Create a list of potential websites

Start by finding related websites that have resource pages. Use Google searches like:

“[Your niche] + “resources”

“inurl:[your niche] + resources”

Google will display websites in your niche that have resource pages. Compile these into a spreadsheet.

Filter the list so the websites are:

• Relevant to your niche
• High-authority
• Offering valuable, do-follow links

This guarantees you only focus on quality websites that boost your ranking power through their links.

Reach out to website owners

While outreach templates are fine (and often a necessity, we even provide you with one below), you should still personalize your outreach emails to achieve the best results. 

Evidence shows that personalized subject lines yield much higher open rates (35.69% compared to 16.67%) – so do what you can to track down your prospects’ names (and maybe a little bit about their interests, too). 

Consider what valuable offer you can make, such as a free trial, discount, exclusive access, or a guest post on your site. Your offer should appeal to the prospect or their audience (or both, if possible).

Track down the website owner’s email address and use the following template for your pitch (don’t forget to personalize it):

Hey [First Name],

I’ve been exploring [topic] for some time and found myself at a standstill until I discovered your resource page. The information I learned from the links there really helped me achieve [desired outcome].

I want to give back for the assistance I received. I have [created/written] a [product/article] on [topic] that I believe would be an excellent resource for your audience and a valuable addition to your resource page.

[Your link]

Thanks for all the great work you do. I eagerly await more of your content.

Best regards,

[Your Name]

You’ll need to repeat this process for all your prospects while ensuring you personalize them accordingly. 

Concluding Thoughts: What are Niche Edits?

Niche edits (also called link placements and contextual links) are excellent for building domain authority and ranking higher on search engines.

Do you need help acquiring high-authority backlinks for your company?

Then don’t wait to check out our five-star link-building services at HOTH Link Insertions. Our link-building gurus have a ton of experience with taking link profiles to the next level, so get in touch with us today.        

The post What are Niche Edits, and How Do They Affect SEO? appeared first on The HOTH.

Although a show like The Flintstones ended its original run back in 1966, re-airing those episodes on various networks (syndication) made the cartoon iconic for many generations to come. 

Had the show not entered syndication, its original run in the ’60s would have been people’s only chance to experience it – and it would have likely faded into obscurity. 

In other words, kids who grew up in the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s would have no clue who Fred Flintstone was if there were no reruns. 

What the heck does this have to do with SEO?

Just as The Flintstones used syndication to gain a wider audience, you can do the same thing with your blog posts, videos, infographics, and other forms of content. 

Content syndication is where you republish your existing content on other websites and publications. 

You’ve probably read an article or watched an online video that said, ‘This piece was originally published on blahblahblah.com.’ 

That’s the telltale sign of syndicated content, and it’s a fantastic tactic for broadening your online reach and generating backlinks from other sites. 

After all, you work your tail off on your content, so why should you only publish it once in one location?

Instead of taking a one-and-done approach to publishing content, read on to learn how you can copy The Flintstones’ success and syndicate it to enjoy a much larger audience. 

What About Duplicate Content?! Understanding Proper Content Syndication 

Trained SEOs are hard-wired to avoid duplicate content, which is why the thought of syndicating content raises a red flag. 

However, duplicate content and syndicated content are two different things. 

As long as you syndicate your content correctly, you’ll never have to worry about Google flagging your content as duplicate. 

How do you do that?

Canonical tags are your best friend here, as they’ll let Google know which version of your content is the original (and that you want Google to include in their index/search results). 

For instance, if you syndicated one of your blog pieces on a related website, you wouldn’t want Google to index that version, as the other site will receive the traffic. Instead, you want Google to index the original version that appears on your website. 

A canonical tag is a brief snippet of HTML code that defines the primary version of a web page. 

It looks like this:

<link rel=”canonical” href=”https://examplesite.com/preferred-primary-URL-here”>

So, whenever another website agrees to publish one of your pieces, politely ask them to include a canonical tag that points back to the original version on your site. 

Pro tip: Google’s John Mueller has confirmed the effectiveness of including self-referential canonical tags for your content. That’s where you include a canonical tag on your content’s original version that references its own URL. 

This is useful because it helps Google know for sure which version of your content you want it to include in its index. 

Including links in syndicated content 

Your syndicated pieces should always include a link back to your original piece. 

Not only does this create a backlink for you (score!), it’s also what Google recommends you do to help avoid duplicate content. 

Besides that, another major perk of content syndication is that if you get the green light to include internal links in your syndicated pieces, you can drive a lot of traffic to other pages on your site. 

You should always check with your syndication partners beforehand to confirm that they’re cool with including links that point back to your site, as it’s never wise to assume. 

If they’re okay with it, you’ll score even more backlinks to your website, and your syndicated articles will transform into traffic-generating machines. 

How to Make Content Syndication a Reality 

If you want to start syndicating your content, you’ll need to build a network of syndication partners. 

These are other websites in your field that accept syndicated posts, and they’re not always super easy to find (although we’re about to show you how). 

You can also syndicate your content through social media and platforms like Quora and Reddit. 

Tips for finding syndication partners

There are plenty of syndication networks out there, which are groups of related sites that syndicate similar content. 

Typically, a parent site will own dozens (or hundreds) of media outlets that syndicate the same articles. 

These networks are amazing because they enable you to syndicate your content across multiple websites (and most of the time, you only have to maintain a single relationship to do so). 

Besides syndication networks, you should also target non-competitors. 

These are other websites that don’t directly compete with your business but share the same target audience. 

Let’s say that you sell custom-made guitars online. 

In this case, your non-competitors would be guitar blogs, guitar lesson & tablature sites/video channels, and websites that sell guitar accessories like straps and clothing. 

Here are some quick tips for finding syndication partners and non-competitors:

• Use our free backlink checker tool to analyze the backlink profiles of your competitors. Look out for links from local media outlets and non-competitors to use for your syndication strategy. 

• Pull up Google search and look up terms like “originally published on” (niche keyword), “republished from” (niche keyword), and “syndicated from (niche keyword)” to find sites that accept syndicated articles. 

It’s crucial to include quotations in these queries, as that tells Google to look for that exact phrase in the search results. 

Syndicating on social media and other platforms

Even if you find a ton of syndication partners, it’s still a good idea to put your social media profiles to good use and syndicate your content there, too. 

The catch?

Certain types of content perform better on social media sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. 

In particular, syndicate short-form videos, infographics, and condensed blogs that fit into carousels on social media. 

Question/answer-based platforms, like Reddit and Quora, are also useful for syndicating content. 

However, you’ll usually want to include brief excerpts along with a link to the original piece to avoid being too verbose. 

Let’s not forget about self-publishing websites like Medium and Substack, either. These are great places to syndicate your most entertaining and thought-provoking pieces to gain exposure and loyal readers. 

Syndicating through social media and platforms like Medium won’t cost you a dime, so it’s worth using them as syndication channels to expand your influence even further. 

Becoming a Thought Leader Through Syndication 

Content syndication is a powerful way to bolster your backlink profile while expanding your influence online. 

The more websites and publications that feature your content, the more members of your target audience will get the chance to notice you and become loyal readers/customers. 

One of the best things about content syndication is that virtually anyone can do it by using social media and platforms like Medium. 

That means you can start syndicating your strongest pieces today while working on a greater content syndication strategy, like targeting networks and non-competitors. 

To cut straight to the chase and enjoy content syndication on 300+ trusted media outlets ASAP, don’t wait to check out our Content Syndication service from The HOTH.    

The post Blog Reruns: How Content Syndication Helps SEO & Link-Building appeared first on The HOTH.

Content creation, guest posting, and link insertions are a few examples of how we improve SERP (search engine results pages) rankings for our clients. 

Yet, quite a bit of confusion surrounds two of our SEO offerings: article syndication and press releases. 

While some may think the two are interchangeable, many noticeable differences exist between press releases and syndicated blogs. 

The common ground is that they both improve SEO and online visibility by earning backlinks from trusted media websites. 

However, the similarities end here, as they’re two completely separate link-building tactics. 

Read on to learn more about the difference between syndication and press releases and how they will improve your website’s search engine rankings when done correctly. 

Understanding Press Releases for SEO 

Traditionally, a press release is an official statement by a business’s PR department to inform the public about a new development – such as new hires, mergers, product launches, and other noteworthy events. 

Press releases for SEO are a tad different. 

How so?

It’s because the primary goal of an SEO press release is to acquire backlinks and boost your online visibility. 

That’s not to say that SEO press releases aren’t informative or that they don’t contain important new information about your business. 

It just means that press releases for SEO aren’t meant to inform the public of time-sensitive things like promotional offers. 

However, your press release must still be newsworthy to appear on news websites. 

For our HOTH clients, we can create new SEO-friendly content for a new press release or help distribute existing press releases.

From there, our fulfillment team selects a group of relevant, authoritative news sites in our network to target for distribution.

Once the press releases go live, our clients gain increased brand visibility. 

Thanks to our 300+ distribution channels, we can consistently boost brand awareness and online visibility for clients from virtually every niche. 

Press releases for gray niches 

A common question is whether we can provide our press release services for gray niches. 

What are those?

A ‘gray’ niche is a business or activity that, while technically legal, features strict regulations.

An example would be a casino. 

While gambling is legal in 48 states (the exceptions being Utah and Hawaii), federal and state laws determine when and where it can happen and the types of gambling that are allowed. 

The good news is that we can provide our press release services to all gray niches except illicit drugs. 

However, you’ll likely receive fewer links than you would for a traditional niche, but we can still deliver at least 300 links for most gray niches. 

Understanding Article Syndication for SEO 

Whenever you watch a rerun of an old 90s sitcom like Seinfeld on TBS or Comedy Central, you’re viewing a syndicated piece of content. 

In other words, it’s a repeat airing after its original run, allowing more people to see the episode. 

Well, you can do the same thing with the blog articles on your website. 

Even though it originally ‘aired’ on your blog, you can show a ‘rerun’ of it on other websites to increase exposure to your brand. 

For instance, let’s say that you wrote a stellar piece about B2B marketing on your blog, and you also syndicate it to LinkedIn to take advantage of their large B2B audience. 

At The HOTH, we offer article syndication to clients as a way to build backlinks and increase online visibility. 

Once again, we utilize our vast network of news sites and media outlets to syndicate existing blog articles. 

There are three ways you can syndicate a piece of content on another site, including:

• Exact copy. This is where you include a copy of the original post that’s word-for-word. The only thing that changes is the URL since it will be housed on a different website. 
• Partial copy. Here, only a few sentences or paragraphs from the original article are featured. Partial copies can work whenever you only want to include the most relevant part of a piece. 
• Edited copy. In this case, the original article is edited to include a different headline or certain sections may have been removed. 

Syndicating articles is one of the easier link-building tactics because it doesn’t involve the creation of any new content. 

Instead of outlining and developing new posts, your strongest and most popular blog articles will regain relevance and start generating traffic for you again via syndication. 

How does Google view syndicated content?

Do syndication right; a syndicated article may even outperform the original article in the search. 

Do it wrong, and Google may view your syndicated content as web spam. 

If you don’t want your content to get flagged as spam, avoid using these two techniques:

• Scraping RSS feeds to create auto-generated content 
• Publishing automated ‘scraped’ content that adds no value or doesn’t modify the original content 

You’ll be golden if you only syndicate high-quality articles that genuinely add value to relevant platforms and media outlets. 

Also, ensure you link back to the original article somewhere in the syndicated version. 

Google will display the version of your article that it feels is most appropriate for the search term, which may or may not be your preferred version. 

If you only want Google to index one version of your syndicated articles, use a noindex tag or no-follow tag on the others. 

While Google claims to ‘not count’ no-follow links toward SEO, there’s a lot of evidence to support that this isn’t true. If you can only obtain no-follow links, they’ll likely still boost your SERP rankings. 

At The HOTH, we only syndicate articles to the most relevant distribution channels in our network and at an optimal frequency to avoid appearing spammy. 

Anchor text ratios 

Lastly, mixing up the anchor text you use for the links you insert in your press releases and syndicated articles is crucial. 

Ideally, you should mix partial match, exact match, branded, and natural anchors. 

Check out our extensive guide on anchor text ratios to learn more. 

Syndication vs. Press Release: Knowing When to Use Which 

To summarize the key differences (and one similarity) between press releases and article syndication:

• Press releases involve creating original content about something that’s happening at your business (not time-sensitive because you don’t always know when they’ll gain traction)
• Syndication involves publishing existing blog articles on other websites. 
• They’re both very effective for building backlinks and improving online visibility. 

If your business has a newsworthy announcement, creating a press release will help you acquire high-authority links and raise brand awareness. 

If you have an existing blog article that you believe will help establish you as a thought leader, syndicating it will help spread its influence and diversify your link profile. 

If you want to vastly improve your link profile and outrank your top competitors, don’t wait to check out our Press Release and Article Syndication services.      

The post SEO Syndication vs. Press Releases: What’s the Difference? appeared first on The HOTH.

Here are a few eye-opening statistics on cold outreach emails:

• The average response rate to cold emails is a measly 8.5% (which translates to roughly 8 replies for every 100 emails sent).
• The average open rate for cold emails is only 23.9%.
• 50% of cold email outreach campaigns contain a response rate of under 10%.

So if you’re still spending hours sending generic outreach emails you got from a template, you need to find a new way to build links, especially in today’s age. 

While basic outreach email templates were perfect for the early 2010s, many website owners have grown tired of random backlink requests filling up their inboxes. 

As a result, it’s become increasingly more difficult to obtain high-authority backlinks with a DR (domain rating) of 50 or higher with cold outreach methods. 

The solution?

You should engage in relationship-based link-building instead of conducting cold outreach to dozens of random site owners. 

It involves focusing on building positive, long-lasting relationships with other brands, influencers, and thought leaders in your niche. 

Relationship-building is so effective in this regard because it will help you generate many desirable backlinks through personal connections. 

Read on to learn how to leverage this new way to build links for your website. 

Is Relationship-Based Link-Building Really Worth It?

First, let’s compare relationship-based link techniques with traditional link-building tactics. 

Going the standard route, you would either spend countless hours cold emailing random website owners or you would outsource the work to someone else. 

Either way, you’ll inevitably end up wasting most of your time considering the statistics mentioned in the intro. 

For example, if you work your butt off and send 100 emails in a day, you’ll likely only receive a handful of replies if you’re lucky – and even that’s no guarantee of a link placement. 

Not only that, but random outreach tends to only work for low-DR backlinks (50 or below), which won’t have that much impact on your SEO profile – even in higher quantities. 

When it comes to link-building, links from reputable, trusted websites with high domain ratings have the most impact. 

How do you get those?

The best way is to focus most of your energy on forming relationships with the site owner and key decision-makers at the business/website. 

If you’re able to form a partnership with one of the leading websites in your industry (think DR ratings of 80 and above), you’ll see a far more positive impact on your SERP rankings. 

Not only will you land backlinks from their site, but you can get connected to their pipeline of other high-authority sites, too. 

Besides making it easier to acquire high-authority backlinks, relationship-based link-building provides many other benefits, so let’s take a look at the cream of the crop. 

Earn repeated business 

Arguably the biggest benefit of forming link-building relationships is the ability to keep obtaining high-authority links well into the future. 

Instead of getting a one-and-done backlink from a random email, a positive relationship with a link partner can yield you dozens or even hundreds of links past the point of initial contact. 

For instance, let’s say that you form a lasting bond with one of the top websites in your industry. 

It starts with you offering a backlink placement on your website for one of their posts. From there, the two of you regularly trade guest posts for more traffic and brand awareness. 

After that, you start to share your best link sources with one another, granting you even more backlink opportunities. 

The fact that one partnership can lead to so many desirable links is one of the top reasons why relationship-based link-building is more than worth your time. 

Stand out from the crowd 

The last thing a website owner wants to see in their inbox is another generic email template requesting a backlink. 

More often than not, your message will likely blend in with the other spam and cold outreach emails in your prospect’s inbox, causing them to ignore it. 

This is another reason why forming relationships is the superior link-building option.

Think about it, who would you reply to first – a trusted colleague that you work with to build links or some rando that didn’t even mention your company name in the subject line?

By forming a relationship with another website owner, replying to your emails will shoot to the top of their priority list. 

Even in the early stages of forming relationships, a friendly, personalized email is more likely to receive a response than a generic template. 

Develop a vast link-building network 

The more connections and partnerships you can form for your link-building strategies, the better. 

If you can rub elbows with the top thought leaders in your field, developing a rock-solid backlink profile for your website will be a breeze. 

While it’ll certainly take some time to build such a network, once it’s up and running, you won’t have to waste so much time conducting cold outreach trying to build links. 

Relationship-Based Link-Building Guide 

Now that you’ve seen the light on the new way to build links, it’s time to learn how to start forming link-building relationships in your niche. 

Just like traditional link-building methods, it starts with finding and vetting relevant prospects online. 

From there, you need to engage each prospect and start building the relationship. 

Another great way to break the ice and kickstart your correspondence is to be generous and offer something valuable from the get-go. 

Here’s a closer look at each step of the process. 

Discover relevant prospects online 

You need to uncover companies and websites in your industry to form relationships with, and there are several ways to do so. 

Also, you should be picky about who you choose to correspond with, as not all sites in your niche will be worth reaching out to. 

Here are the criteria you should look for when vetting websites:

• A domain rating of 50 or above 
• Consistently high levels of organic traffic 
• A positive reputation in your industry 
• Large social media presence & following 

To ensure that a website is able to tick all these boxes, you can use our free SEO Audit Tool. 

It will provide all the key SEO metrics that you need to determine if it’s worth pursuing a relationship with the site owner or not. 

If you aren’t sure who the top thought leaders are in your field, you can take to social media platforms like Instagram to find out. 

Enter specific hashtags related to your niche, and then check the most popular posts to discover relevant influencers and brands. 

Another option is to analyze your competitor’s backlink profiles to see if they have any powerful connections that you’re lacking. You can use our free Backlink Checker Tool to view the link profiles of the websites currently outranking you on the SERPs. 

Check to see if they have any backlinks from prominent brands with high DR scores. If so, it could be worth reaching out to them so you can start building relationships of your own. 

Find out who to contact

Once you have a list of websites/brands to start building relationships with, you must uncover their key decision-makers’ contact information. 

Instead of digging for webmaster email addresses, try to reach out to CMOs, SEO Managers, Link Builders, and Content Strategists on social media. In particular, look for their LinkedIn profiles and Twitter handles.  

Engage and build rapport 

Remember, you’re not there to shamelessly beg for a backlink on your first point of contact with a new prospect. 

Instead, you’re there to engage and interact with them to start building rapport. 

Start reading their LinkedIn and Twitter feeds to get a feel for their interests and the type of content they publish. 

After that, comment valuable insights on their posts to encourage conversation. 

Don’t be too eager to introduce the idea of being link partners, either. Let the relationship naturally grow for a while before you bring backlinks into the equation. 

Another tactic is to offer them something of value without expecting anything in return. For instance, you could reach out to a website offering them a backlink simply because you really enjoy their content. 

Not only can this lead to a backlink in return, but it’s also a great icebreaker to begin building a relationship. 

Embracing the New Way to Build Links 

Relationship-based link-building is a long-term game, but its payoffs are immense. 

By forming relationships with valuable link partners, you will enjoy a steady flow of high-authority backlinks without having to dedicate countless hours to cold outreach. 

Not only that, but you’ll build brand awareness and generate more targeted organic traffic by rubbing elbows with the most influential people in your field. 

Do you not have time to engage in relationship-based link-building?

Then you need to check out our Link Outreach and Link Insertion Services from The HOTH. 

Our digital marketing agency has powerful established relationships with industry leaders in many fields, and we have what it takes to significantly boost your brand’s online visibility – so don’t wait to get in touch today.    

The post Relationship-Based Link-Building: The New Way to Build Links appeared first on The HOTH.