If you’re looking to diversify your link building tactics, Joshua Hardwick, Head of Content at Ahrefs, certainly has a few golden opportunities up his sleeve. Read on for a brief overview of his talk and click through the slides for a step-by-step tutorial of how to implement his strategies.
Overview
Speaker’s name: Joshua Hardwick
Job role and company: Head of Content at Ahrefs
Links to Twitter profile: @JoshuaCHardwick
Link to LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuahardwick28/
Link to the slides: https://www.slideshare.net/secret/61VoxYs9dhxeYB
What was the talk about?
Joshua took us through the link building opportunities available on Ahrefs – a tool I can’t live without as a link builder.
Firstly, he zoomed in on finding broken link building opportunities using Content Explorer. Broken link building is a technique often overlooked as the industry clings tightly to digital PR. But with broken link building, you are simply finding resources in your niche that are 404ing, reaching out to the webmasters that link to that content and offering a better, valuable piece of content.
Another oldie but a goodie that Joshua mentioned is the skyscraper technique, which is essentially the same concept as broken link building, except you’re improving popular content, 301ing content or out of date content and replicating the backlinks.
And finally, there’s a technique called unlinked mentions. This involves finding the sites you haven’t got a link from that mention your brand and requesting a link back.
With the power of Ahrefs, you can implement these link building strategies easily.
Favourite quote
“We tend to think of broken links those that lead to dead pages. But a broken link, in my book, is one that doesn’t lead to the intended destination.” – Joshua Harwick
Potential impact on the industry
It’s clear to see that link building in 2019 and beyond must be done through the lens of EAT.
Most people believe that digital PR is the way forward, and it certainly is a hugely powerful tactic. However, as Joshua explains, there are other ways to link build and drive solid link equity and value.
If websites and businesses are to survive, diversifying quality tactics is essential, and Ahrefs certainly allows this through the power of their Content Explorer, Site Explorer and the range of filters.
Key takeaways
Here are a range of link building tactics to use alongside your digital PR work:
- Find broken link building opportunities using Content Explorer
- Find broken link building opportunities using Site Explorer
- Find “hidden” link building opportunities with Site Explorer
- Find skyscraper link building opportunities with Keywords Explorer
- Find skyscraper prospects for existing content with Site Explorer
- Find outdated skyscraper link building opportunities with Content Explorer
- Find unlinked mentions using Content Explorer
