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High quality links from top ranking and authoritative sites are a good way to build great links without breaching any Webmaster Guidelines. One of the best ways to do this is via content marking and an effectively designed blogger outreach programme.

What is a Blogger Outreach Programme?

In the last twenty years, bloggers have gone from being individuals with an axe to grind on a public stage, largely viewed as a community of small and niche sites broadcasting on a small scale, to an expansive network of powerful influencers. Blogs themselves now number in some of the world’s largest sites and can have huge audiences and rank very highly in terms of domain authority and their visibility in search engines. Sites like Forbes, TechCrunch, Huffington Post and Mashable are all extremely powerful publications. Niche blogging sites like Treehugger and Samizdata can have sizeable audiences.

A successful blogger outreach programme whereby you get positively mentioned (with a backlink) by relevant sites can seriously boost your SEO. Not only can high domain authority blog backlinks positively affect your SEO rankings but they can also:

• boost organic traffic via social media sharing (as well as through social social bookmarking)
• provide further network opportunities with other influential bloggers
• increase the likelihood or other blogs and individuals linking to you
• increase incoming traffic via direct links

Getting Started with a Blogger Outreach Strategy

The first thing to remember with any successful SEO strategy for building quality backlinks is that they take time and effort; there is no quick or easy way to build links in this way. However, the rewards for your investment will be far greater than the alternative of building quantity over quality which will most likely get you penalised.

Here are a couple of tips:

1. Establish the top ten bloggers in your niche – these should be the most influential sites and receive good interaction with their audience (shares, posts, comments etc).
2. Build a relationship with them – Once you’ve identified who you want to connect with then you will need to build a relationship with them. Multiple, cut-and-paste emails sent to a dozen bloggers out of the blue is an ineffective way to make contact. Start by following them via their blog and on any of their social media accounts. Make relevant comments on their posts and build on this to start insightful conversation and add something to the blog’s usefulness. Be positive, be passionate and stay on topic. Start linking to the blog and always send an email when you have done this.
3. Ask for a mention – Once you have established a relationship with them you can approach them for a mention (and request a link back of course).

Content Marketing Strategies

One of the best ways to get the most out of your blogger outreach strategy is via creating and sharing new material using content marketing. This can be anything from social media posts to videos, infographics and blog articles; Not sales orientated but something with provokes comments, interests or informs audiences or provides a new angle on a subject, good content marketing should be relevant to an end user.

Offering opportunities for bloggers to link to new and insightful material is far more likely to earn you a backlink than by simply asking for a direct link to a product or service.

Contact Opace

If you are considering a blogger outreach programme to help boost your link building strategy then contact Opace online or call on 0845 017 7661 to discuss how we can help build your network.