SEO

Link Building Email Mistakes You Might Be Sending To Webmasters

Published

1 year ago

November 10, 2022

Link Building Email Mistakes You Might Be Sending To Webmasters

“Here is how to get 100% email open rate with a 100% response rate for your link building outreach email” – said no one ever. That’s because it is getting more and more difficult to even have webmasters open your outreach emails.

Here’s the thing – sending link building outreach emails is not just about blasting out to thousands of webmasters with the hope of at least 10% of them awarding your hard work with a link. The game of link building is not just about the numbers. It is also about the individual webmaster you are trying to close a link for.

You might use up the majority of your time prospecting websites and crafting emails when you’re working on outreach campaigns. And although these take a lot of effort to do, they’re not always the key to winning over webmasters.

Here are some mistakes you’re probably making right now:

You’re Not Using a Professional Email Address

This seems like a very basic thing to consider, but many link builders fail to see the importance of using an email address that is trustworthy. It’s crucial to note that when you’re reaching out to webmasters, you’re representing a brand – be it a blog, an organization, a business, or even yourself.

This is why you have to present yourself in the best way possible. One way to do this is by having a professional email address for your outreach campaign. Don’t forget to switch out of the email address from the [email protected] email address you’re using on gaming apps!

The best practice for doing email outreach campaigns for your brand is by using an official company email address. Alternatively, you can use a simple one that mentions your name if it’s not available for you. Just make sure that it’s accurate or else you’ll end up looking like a fraud.

Here’s an email one of my team members at SEO Hacker got from someone who wanted to guest post for this blog:

Link Building Email Mistakes You Might Be Sending To Webmasters - You’re Not Using a Professional Email Address

The email address is named “Muhammad S.” yet the person introduced his/herself as “Marina”.

Wait, what?!

I scratched my eyes to try and clear it up but, yes that’s a Muhammad that turned into a Marina.

This is a small detail that largely impacts how webmasters see you and your credibility. Make sure that you have the appropriate and accurate name on your email so that you’re more likely to build solid partnerships with webmasters in return.

You’re Not Disclosing Your Affiliations

When you tap webmasters for the first time for a link building opportunity, it’s expected that you introduce yourself properly, and doing so shouldn’t be limited to stating your name. You have to let the webmasters know who you are, what you do, where you work, and which organization/s you’re affiliated with.

It can also help if you can share a bit of your experience in your industry and what you were able to accomplish. This might sound like a guide on writing a cover letter for a job application, but an email outreach campaign is actually quite similar to it in nature.

First, you have to let them know about you and then make them understand why they should work with you. This, again, adds a level of credibility to your email.

Here’s an email I received a few months back as an example:

Link Building Email Mistakes You Might Be Sending To Webmasters - You’re Not Disclosing Your Affiliations

In the email above, he introduced himself, where he works, and what his role is in the company. He also gave a bit of background on the business which is pretty impressive, I might add.

An email like this one is a good example of how to sell yourself and your brand. The link to their website, LinkedIn profile, and personalized email signature are all great addition. These are all ways for webmasters to know that you’re legit.

For instance, if you’re someone who wants to guest post for a marketing-related blog, you have to lay down the information that would tell that you’re an expert in your industry. Otherwise, why would a webmaster let a stranger write something their loyal followers will read?

You’re Not Addressing Webmasters by their First Name

This is what I find to be one of the most common link building email mistakes people make when reaching out to webmasters. I’ve been called “Hey”, “Dear”, and “Dude” way more than when I’m called by my first name. Considering I get a ton of link requests and content contribution requests daily, it gets a bit tiring to be the receiving end of these inconsiderate email blasts

Here’s another odd way someone addressed me in an email:

Link Building Email Mistakes You Might Be Sending To Webmasters - You’re Not Addressing Webmasters by their First Name

What can I say? Yep, I’m definitely not giving this bloke a link.

Addressing webmasters by their first name is a small gesture that shows that you did your assignment. That you researched the website and the people who run it. This isn’t even a hard task to manage if you’re reaching out to my blog. You can easily spot my name at the left-side corner of the blog page.

When you don’t take the time to research thoroughly, it can also imply that you don’t fully understand the website and the content it needs to improve. This also means that you won’t be able to really add value to it which negates the point of forming a good partnership.

You’re Not Using a Creative Subject Line

When it comes to link outreach, you’d want to go for websites with good traffic and readership. Obviously, you won’t be the only one gunning for a backlink from these websites. There would be hundreds, if not thousands, of people reaching out for the same purpose. This makes the task of link outreach extremely competitive.

When webmasters get dozens of outreach emails on a daily basis, there’s a huge likelihood that they won’t be able to read every single one of them. So, what do you need to do about this? The only option you have is to stand out. You can do this by making your subject line compelling enough to be noticed and clicked.

Webmasters are busy people so you have to be able to get your point across with just a few words. If you think that it’s too long, you’re probably right. So review and re-edit your email content until you are confident that a busy person would read it and understand it within 1 minute.

Oh, and don’t try to make your subject too clickbait-y, or else it’s just going to be misleading.

Here’s a subject line that blew my mind:

Link Building Email Mistakes You Might Be Sending To Webmasters - You’re Not Using a Creative Subject Line

Aside from the fact that this person’s profile photo is of a South Korean celebrity, it also addresses two other mistakes: the name is obviously bogus and the subject line is out of this world.

Emails with subject lines like this go straight to my spam folder. I wonder how many people actually give these kinds of emails a link though? Probably zero.

Key Takeaway

Outreach emails are still one of the best ways to get an in-content link. My team and I have sent many outreach emails to webmasters and have experienced phenomenal success over the years.

The success we have experienced is achieved by us taking the time to study each webmaster and how they communicate and craft the email with a lot of thought and care.

The quality of the emails being sent to webmasters can be affected by the simple things you probably don’t even think about. This could easily be the reason why you get frustrated thinking of what more you can do to make successful outreach campaigns.

Next time you are about to hit that Send button, try to take a second look – not at the content but at how you package your message to the webmasters. Do you look and sound credible, trustworthy, and knowledgeable? If your answer is yes to all three, then you might just get your hard-earned link.

Have any link building outreach email tips you want to share? Comment down below and see what others think of them!

Related Topics:building email Link Mistakes sending seo Webmasters

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SEO

Google March 2024 Core Update Officially Completed A Week Ago

Published

3 hours ago

April 27, 2024

Max

Google has officially completed its March 2024 Core Update, ending over a month of ranking volatility across the web.

However, Google didn’t confirm the rollout’s conclusion on its data anomaly page until April 26—a whole week after the update was completed on April 19.

Many in the SEO community had been speculating for days about whether the turbulent update had wrapped up.

The delayed transparency exemplifies Google’s communication issues with publishers and the need for clarity during core updates

Google March 2024 Core Update Timeline & Status

First announced on March 5, the core algorithm update is complete as of April 19. It took 45 days to complete.

Unlike more routine core refreshes, Google warned this one was more complex.

Google’s documentation reads:

“As this is a complex update, the rollout may take up to a month. It’s likely there will be more fluctuations in rankings than with a regular core update, as different systems get fully updated and reinforce each other.”

The aftershocks were tangible, with some websites reporting losses of over 60% of their organic search traffic, according to data from industry observers.

The ripple effects also led to the deindexing of hundreds of sites that were allegedly violating Google’s guidelines.

Addressing Manipulation Attempts

In its official guidance, Google highlighted the criteria it looks for when targeting link spam and manipulation attempts:

Creating “low-value content” purely to garner manipulative links and inflate rankings.
Links intended to boost sites’ rankings artificially, including manipulative outgoing links.
The “repurposing” of expired domains with radically different content to game search visibility.

The updated guidelines warn:

“Any links that are intended to manipulate rankings in Google Search results may be considered link spam. This includes any behavior that manipulates links to your site or outgoing links from your site.”

John Mueller, a Search Advocate at Google, responded to the turbulence by advising publishers not to make rash changes while the core update was ongoing.

However, he suggested sites could proactively fix issues like unnatural paid links.

Mueller stated on Reddit:

“If you have noticed things that are worth improving on your site, I’d go ahead and get things done. The idea is not to make changes just for search engines, right? Your users will be happy if you can make things better even if search engines haven’t updated their view of your site yet.”

Emphasizing Quality Over Links

The core update made notable changes to how Google ranks websites.

Most significantly, Google reduced the importance of links in determining a website’s ranking.

In contrast to the description of links as “an important factor in determining relevancy,” Google’s updated spam policies stripped away the “important” designation, simply calling links “a factor.”

This change aligns with Google’s Gary Illyes’ statements that links aren’t among the top three most influential ranking signals.

Instead, Google is giving more weight to quality, credibility, and substantive content.

Consequently, long-running campaigns favoring low-quality link acquisition and keyword optimizations have been demoted.

With the update complete, SEOs and publishers are left to audit their strategies and websites to ensure alignment with Google’s new perspective on ranking.

Core Update Feedback

Google has opened a ranking feedback form related to this core update.

You can use this form until May 31 to provide feedback to Google’s Search team about any issues noticed after the core update.

While the feedback provided won’t be used to make changes for specific queries or websites, Google says it may help inform general improvements to its search ranking systems for future updates.

Google also updated its help documentation on “Debugging drops in Google Search traffic” to help people understand ranking changes after a core update.

Featured Image: Rohit-Tripathi/Shutterstock

FAQ

After the update, what steps should websites take to align with Google’s new ranking criteria?

After Google’s March 2024 Core Update, websites should:

Improve the quality, trustworthiness, and depth of their website content.
Stop heavily focusing on getting as many links as possible and prioritize relevant, high-quality links instead.
Fix any shady or spam-like SEO tactics on their sites.
Carefully review their SEO strategies to ensure they follow Google’s new guidelines.

SEO

Google Declares It The “Gemini Era” As Revenue Grows 15%

Published

23 hours ago

April 26, 2024

Max

Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, announced its first quarter 2024 financial results today.

While Google reported double-digit growth in key revenue areas, the focus was on its AI developments, dubbed the “Gemini era” by CEO Sundar Pichai.

The Numbers: 15% Revenue Growth, Operating Margins Expand

Alphabet reported Q1 revenues of $80.5 billion, a 15% increase year-over-year, exceeding Wall Street’s projections.

Net income was $23.7 billion, with diluted earnings per share of $1.89. Operating margins expanded to 32%, up from 25% in the prior year.

Ruth Porat, Alphabet’s President and CFO, stated:

“Our strong financial results reflect revenue strength across the company and ongoing efforts to durably reengineer our cost base.”

Google’s core advertising units, such as Search and YouTube, drove growth. Google advertising revenues hit $61.7 billion for the quarter.

The Cloud division also maintained momentum, with revenues of $9.6 billion, up 28% year-over-year.

Pichai highlighted that YouTube and Cloud are expected to exit 2024 at a combined $100 billion annual revenue run rate.

Generative AI Integration in Search

Google experimented with AI-powered features in Search Labs before recently introducing AI overviews into the main search results page.

Regarding the gradual rollout, Pichai states:

“We are being measured in how we do this, focusing on areas where gen AI can improve the Search experience, while also prioritizing traffic to websites and merchants.”

Pichai reports that Google’s generative AI features have answered over a billion queries already:

“We’ve already served billions of queries with our generative AI features. It’s enabling people to access new information, to ask questions in new ways, and to ask more complex questions.”

Google reports increased Search usage and user satisfaction among those interacting with the new AI overview results.

The company also highlighted its “Circle to Search” feature on Android, which allows users to circle objects on their screen or in videos to get instant AI-powered answers via Google Lens.

Reorganizing For The “Gemini Era”

As part of the AI roadmap, Alphabet is consolidating all teams building AI models under the Google DeepMind umbrella.

Pichai revealed that, through hardware and software improvements, the company has reduced machine costs associated with its generative AI search results by 80% over the past year.

He states:

“Our data centers are some of the most high-performing, secure, reliable and efficient in the world. We’ve developed new AI models and algorithms that are more than one hundred times more efficient than they were 18 months ago.

How Will Google Make Money With AI?

Alphabet sees opportunities to monetize AI through its advertising products, Cloud offerings, and subscription services.

Google is integrating Gemini into ad products like Performance Max. The company’s Cloud division is bringing “the best of Google AI” to enterprise customers worldwide.

Google One, the company’s subscription service, surpassed 100 million paid subscribers in Q1 and introduced a new premium plan featuring advanced generative AI capabilities powered by Gemini models.

Future Outlook

Pichai outlined six key advantages positioning Alphabet to lead the “next wave of AI innovation”:

Research leadership in AI breakthroughs like the multimodal Gemini model
Robust AI infrastructure and custom TPU chips
Integrating generative AI into Search to enhance the user experience
A global product footprint reaching billions
Streamlined teams and improved execution velocity
Multiple revenue streams to monetize AI through advertising and cloud

With upcoming events like Google I/O and Google Marketing Live, the company is expected to share further updates on its AI initiatives and product roadmap.

Featured Image: Sergei Elagin/Shutterstock

SEO

brightonSEO Live Blog

Published

2 days ago

April 25, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

Hello everyone. It’s April again, so I’m back in Brighton for another two days of ~~sun~~, sea, and SEO!

Being the introvert I am, my idea of fun isn’t hanging around our booth all day explaining we’ve run out of t-shirts (seriously, you need to be fast if you want swag!). So I decided to do something useful and live-blog the event instead.

Follow below for talk takeaways and (very) mildly humorous commentary.