• 09 Mar 2021
• 8 Min read

Where we built links in February 2021

• by Polly Kirkup

Relevancy is key to achieving quality links, whether you’re offering expert advice in your field or a national event is approaching. Keeping your outreach topical is the perfect opportunity to devise some interesting content, and the more consistent and topical you are as a brand, the higher the quality and quantity of your links.

At Glass Digital, we use a varied list of techniques and ideation methods as an outreach team to find the discussions that suit our clients and in turn build and improve their backlink profiles. Here’s a quick insight into some of the links we built in February 2021.

Quick tip: Domain authority (DA) is a 100-point scale developed by Moz. Generally speaking, links on higher-DA sites are more valuable for SEO than those on lower-DA sites.

MSN (DA 95)

As mentioned above, if you can in any way jump on the back of a national event or awareness day, then you absolutely should. We keep track of all awareness days and significant events coming up and plan ideation sessions around them.

This year, as soon as January was over, we put together a press release around Pancake Day. With input from our waste management client, we were able to devise an interesting campaign on how to use excess pancake batter. We then sent this to journalists who were likely to cover the topic just before the day and, as a result, we secured client links in 39 high-quality publications including MSN (DA 95), Yahoo News (DA 93), Metro (DA 93), Daily Record (DA 86), and regional press titles with high domain authorities. Some of this coverage made it onto Google Trends’ Daily Search Trends roundup.

Tip: Look at these events in a different way: use the upcoming holidays and celebrations to your advantage by choosing ideas outside of the box, totally unique to your expertise. This is what will set your pitch apart from the rest. For more advice, check out my post on building links with tangential content.

Finance Digest (DA 70)

Responding to journalist requests is one of our most successful tactics. The perfect opportunities can be right in front of you — but only if you can sift through the huge influx of enquiries.

It was through this outreach channel that we spotted that a journalist from Finance Digest was looking for articles on boosting productivity while working from home. For this, we decided to try pitching an idea around interiors. After all, to feel happy working from home, you need to enjoy your workspace, and the journalist agreed. We worked with our client to produce a high-quality editorial on home office interiors that boost productivity, and the bespoke piece was featured on the site with a link.

Tip: You can still be creative when answering a media request. In this case, the original enquiry was looking for ways to boost productivity while working — we gave them a new spin they hadn’t thought of.

If you can’t justify a subscription to a media enquiry service, it is possible to find opportunities like these via the hashtag #journorequest on Twitter. This can even give the added benefit of helping you to build relationships with writers.

Heat World (DA 71)

It’s often forgotten that your products can be just as much of an outreach asset as your expertise and knowledge base. You may fear that pitching a product can look too advertorial and salesy, resulting in a stream of ignored emails but, sometimes, with great reasoning behind it, it can work.

When one of our beauty clients released a limited-edition product for Valentine’s Day, it was the perfect addition to new and existing gift guides. We put together a fun press release, aiming to grab the attention of journalists receiving hundreds of product pitches during the days leading up to 14 February. A journalist at national magazine Heat World got back to us and loved the product, choosing to feature it with a link.

Tip: Consider how long it takes to send out a product if the journalist requests a sample. You don’t want it to arrive too late and miss your chance at some great exposure.

For more advice, take a look at our post: 5 of the best ways to get your products featured online.

Visionary Food Solutions (DA 22)

It’s not just online publications that like to get ahead with upcoming trends and are open to content collaborations. Complementary industries — sites that sell related products or services to your own but aren’t competitors — can be just as valuable to your backlink profile.

At the start of every year, we look at upcoming trends, changes, and new information in a client’s industry to create roundups that we outreach to relevant publications and other businesses in the sector that they could be of interest to.

In this case, we contacted hospitality business developer Visionary Food Solutions on behalf of a catering client. They found the trends useful for their clientele and shared the piece with a link back to our client. Anything that sets yourself up as an expert in your field is great for gaining exposure.

Tip: With trend-led topics, always try to stay ahead of the game and keep an eye on your industry news, as it pays to be on the ball and first with insider data and findings.

Business Central (DA 39)

Data-led content is a great way to establish your brand as an industry authority. No one can deny that facts and figures generate interest.

After learning our property client had collated their own research, we worked alongside Business Central to showcase this in an editorial on the topic of working from abroad in 2021 because of the pandemic.

As we’re in lockdown now, this was a great way to encourage readers to be aspirational and look ahead to more positive times. The data to back up the editorial meant there was enough proof that the conversation was relevant, and the publication was happy to go ahead.

Tip: If you have the resources to conduct your own surveys and other types of original research, this can be one of the most effective ways to generate widespread coverage. Writers may even continue to naturally find and cite your findings in the future.

UNILAD (DA 89)

If you can come up with original, relatable statistics with shock factor, you’re almost certainly onto a winner.

We worked with our betting client to put together a campaign showing just how many chicken wings are eaten during the Super Bowl (spoiler alert — it’s a lot.) We then sent this out to UK publications that cover the American football. This turned out to be a big hit and was even featured on the king of men’s interest, UNILAD.

Tip: Think of ways to evoke emotion from your audience. Journalists love content that makes their readers feel something, as they’re much more likely to click and engage.

Toddle About (DA 25)

The past year has been a difficult time for everyone, but one positive is the amount of quality time people have spent with families. We tapped into this trend with a lifestyle client.

The idea centred around creating a family time capsule and this was a hit with parenting publications. Well-known magazine for parents of young children Toddle About took a bespoke article on this topic.

Tip: Try to come up with niche topics that offer publishers something a little different. Make sure to do a quick Google search before committing to an idea so that you can ensure the topic isn’t saturated.

Just Entrepreneur (DA 36)

As part of our outreach service, we often produce reactive content, a tactic commonly referred to as newsjacking. It involves keeping an eye on the latest news and outreaching valuable insights from our clients — usually within the same day. Often, we target journalists who have already published articles but are continuing to add to them as the story develops. 

We achieved a link on SME publication for our catering client in response to an article published by The Express. They had reported that the FSA had concerns for the growing number of people selling food from their homes during Covid-19. Our idea was to take these stats and turn them into some useful advice for small business owners on how to avoid these dangerous mistakes.

We strive to offer solutions within our campaigns. If there is room to elaborate on an already existing topic with helpful and unique advice, this can result in some excellent opportunities and newsjacking is a great tactic for passing on this kind of information.

Tip: Newsjacking is an excellent way to achieve multiple links with the same idea. Remember that journalists are always looking for ways to improve the quality of their content quickly, and you might be able to help them.

For more examples of where we’ve built links, take a look at our links vault. You can also follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook to be the first to hear about future roundups.

Interesting in outsourcing your outreach to our expert team? We offer link-building alone or as part of a full SEO campaign. Contact us to discuss what will work for your business.

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