Link reclamation: Tools, tools everywhere
Every link builder, over time, starts to narrow down their favorite tactics and techniques. Link reclamation is pretty much my numero-uno. In my experience, it’s one of the best ROI activities we can use for gaining links particularly to the homepage, simply because the hard work — the "mention" (in whatever form that is) — is already there. That mention could be of your brand, an influencer who works there, or a tagline from a piece of content you’ve produced, whether it’s an image asset, video, etc. That’s the hard part. But with it done, and after a little hunting and vetting the right mentions, you’re just left with the outreach.
Aside from the effort-to-return ratio, there are various other benefits to link reclamation:
- It’s something you can start right away without assets
- It’s a low risk/low investment form of link building
- Nearly all brands have unlinked mentions, but big brands tend to have the most and therefore see the biggest routine returns
- If you’re doing this for clients, they get to see an instant return on their investment
Link reclamation isn’t a new tactic, but it is becoming more complex and tool providers are out there helping us to optimize our efforts. In this post, I’m going to talk a little about those tools and how to apply them to speed up and scale your link reclamation.
Finding mentions
Firstly, we want to find mentions. No point getting too fancy at this stage, so we just head over to trusty Google and search for the range of mentions we’re working on.
As I described earlier, these mentions can come in a variety of shapes and sizes, so I would generally treat each type of mention that I’m looking for as a separate project. For example, if Moz were the site I was working on, I would look for mentions of the brand and create that as one "project," then look for mentions of Followerwonk and treat that as another, and so on. The reasons why will become clear later on!
So, we head to the almighty Google and start our searches.
To help speed things up it’s best to expand your search result to gather as many URLs as you can in as few clicks as possible. Using Google’s Search Settings, you can quickly max out your SERPs to one hundred results, or you can install a plugin like GInfinity, which allows you to infinitely scroll through the results and grab as many as you can before your hand cramps up.
Now we want to start copying as many of these results as possible into an Excel sheet, or wherever it is you’ll be working from. Clicking each one and copying/pasting is hell, so another tool to quickly install for Chrome is Linkclump. With this one, you’ll be able to right click, drag, and copy as many URLs as you want.
Linkclump Pro Tip: To ensure you don’t copy the page titles and cache data from a SERP, head over to your Linkclump settings by right-clicking the extension icon and selecting "options." Then, edit your actions to include "URLs only" and "copied to clipboard." This will make the next part of the process much easier!
Filtering your URL list
Now we’ve got a bunch of URLs, we want to do a little filtering, so we know a) the DA of these domains as a proxy metric to qualify mentions, and b) whether or not they already link to us.
How you do this bit will depend on which platforms you have access to. I would recommend using BuzzStream as it combines a few of the future processes in one place, but URL Profiler can also be used before transferring your list over to some alternative tools.
Using BuzzStream
If you’re going down this road, BuzzStream can pretty much handle the filtering for you once you’ve uploaded your list of URLs. The system will crawl through the URLs and use their API to display Domain Authority, as well as tell you if the page already links to you or not.
The first thing you’ll want to do is create a "project" for each type of mention you’re sourcing. As I mentioned earlier this could be "brand mentions," "creative content," "founder mentions," etc.
When adding your "New Project," be sure to include the domain URL for the site you’re building links to, as shown below. BuzzStream will then go through and crawl your list of URLs and flag any that are already linking to you, so you can filter them out.
Next, we need to get your list of URLs imported. In the Websites view, use Add Websites and select "Add from List of URLs":
The next steps are really easy: Upload your list of URLs, then ensure you select "Websites and Links" because we want BuzzStream to retrieve the link data for us.
Once you’ve added them, BuzzStream will work through the list and start displaying all the relevant data for you to filter through in the Link Monitoring tab. You can then sort by: link status (after hitting "Check Backlinks" and having added your URL), DA, and relationship stage to see if you/a colleague have ever been in touch with the writer (especially useful if you/your team uses BuzzStream for outreach like we do at Builtvisible).
Using URL Profiler
If you’re using URL Profiler, firstly, make sure you’ve set up URL Profiler to work with your Moz API. You don’t need a paid Moz account to do this, but having one will give you more than 500 checks per day on the URLs you and the team are pushing through.
Then, take the list of URLs you’ve copied using Linkclump from the SERPs (I’ve just copied the top 10 from the news vertical for "moz.com" as my search), then paste the URLs in the list. You’ll need to select "Moz" in the Domain Level Data section (see screenshot) and also fill out the "Domain to Check" with your preferred URL string (I’ve put "Moz.com" to capture any links to secure, non-secure, alternative subdomains and deeper level URLs).
Once you’ve set URL Profiler running, you’ll get a pretty intimidating spreadsheet, which can simply be cut right down to the columns: URL, Target URL and Domain Mozscape Domain Authority. Filter out any rows that have returned a value in the Target URL column (essentially filtering out any that found an HREF link to your domain), and any remaining rows with a DA lower than your benchmark for links (if you work with one).
And there’s my list of URLs that we now know:
1) don’t have any links to our target domain,
2) have a reference to the domain we’re working on, and
3) boast a DA above 40.
Qualify your list
Now that you’ve got a list of URLs that fit your criteria, we need to do a little manual qualification. But, we’re going to use some trusty tools to make it easy for us!
The key insight we’re looking for during our qualification is if the mention is in a natural linking element of the page. It’s important to avoid contacting sites where the mention is only in the title, as they’ll never place the link. We particularly want placements in the body copy as these are natural link locations and so increase the likelihood of your efforts leading somewhere.
So from my list of URLs, I’ll copy the list and head over to URLopener.com (now bought by 10bestseo.com presumably because it’s such an awesome tool) and paste in my list before asking it to open all the URLs for me:
Now, one by one, I can quickly scan the URLs and look for mentions in the right places (i.e. is the mention in the copy, is it in the headline, or is it used anywhere else where a link might not look natural?).
When we see something like this (below), we’re making sure to add this URL to our final outreach list:
However, when we see this (again, below), we’re probably stripping the URL out of our list as there’s very little chance the author/webmaster will add a link in such a prominent and unusual part of the page:
The idea is to finish up with a list of unlinked mentions in spots where a link would fit naturally for the publisher. We don’t want to get in touch with everyone, with mentions all over the place, as it can harm your future relationships. Link building needs to make sense, and not just for Google. If you’re working in a niche that mentions your client, you likely want not only to get a link but also build a relationship with this writer — it could lead to 5 links further down the line.
Getting email addresses
Now that you’ve got a list of URLs that all feature your brand/client, and you’ve qualified this list to ensure they are all unlinked and have mentions in places that make sense for a link, we need to do the most time-consuming part: finding email addresses.
To continue expanding our spreadsheet, we’re going to need to know the contact details of the writer or webmaster to request our link from. To continue our theme of efficiency, we just want to get the two most important details: email address and first name.
Getting the first name is usually pretty straightforward and there’s not really a need to automate this. However, finding email addresses could be an entirely separate article in itself, so I’ll be brief and get to the point. Read this, and here’s a summary of places to look and the tools I use:
- Author page
- Author’s personal website
- Author’s Twitter profile
- Rapportive & Email Permutator
- Allmytweets
- Journalisted.com
- Mail Tester
More recently, we’ve been also using Skrapp.io. It’s a LinkedIn extension (like Hunter.io) that installs a "Find Email" button on LinkedIn with a percentage of accuracy. This can often be used with Mail Tester to discover if the suggested email address provided is working or not.
It’s likely to be a combination of these tools that helps you navigate finding a contact’s email address. Once we have it, we need to get in touch — at scale!
Pro Tip: When using Allmytweets, if you’re finding that searches for "email" or "contact" aren’t working, try "dot." Usually journalists don’t put their full email address on public profiles in a scrapeable format, so they use "me@gmail [dot] com" to get around it.
Making contact
So, because this is all about making the process efficient, I’m not going to repeat or try to build on the other already useful articles that provide templates for outreach (there is one below, but that’s just as an example!). However, I am going to show you how to scale your outreach and follow-ups.
Mail merges
If you and your team aren’t set in your ways with a particular paid tool, your best bet for optimizing scale is going to be a mail merge. There are a number of them out there, and honestly, they are all fairly similar with either varying levels of free emails per day before you have to pay, or they charge from the get-go. However, for the costs we’re talking about and the time it saves, building a business case to either convince yourself (freelancers) or your finance department (everyone else!) will be a walk in the park.
I’ve been a fan of Contact Monkey for some time, mainly for tracking open rates, but their mail merge product is also part of the $10-a-month package. It’s a great deal. However, if you’re after something a bit more specific, YAMM is free to a point (for personal Gmail accounts) and can send up to 50 emails a day.
You’ll likely need to work through the process with the whatever tool you pick but, using your spreadsheet, you’ll be able to specify which fields you want the mail merge to select from, and it’ll insert each element into the email.
For link reclamation, this is really as personable as you need to get — no lengthy paragraphs on how much you loved [insert article related to my infographic] or how long you’ve been following them on Twitter, just a good old to the point email:
Hi [first name],
I recently found a mention of a company I work with in one of your articles.
Here’s the article:[insert URL]
Where you’ve mentioned our company, Moz, would you be able to provide a link back to the domain Moz.com, in case users would like to know more about us?
Many thanks,
Darren.
If using BuzzStream
Although BuzzStream’s mail merge options are pretty similar to the process above, the best "above and beyond" feature that BuzzStream has is that you can schedule in follow up emails as well. So, if you didn’t hear back the first time, after a week or so their software will automatically do a little follow-up, which in my experience, often leads to the best results.
When you’re ready to start sending emails, select the project you’ve set up. In the "Websites" section, select "Outreach." Here, you can set up a sequence, which will send your initial email as well as customized follow-ups.
Using the same extremely brief template as above, I’ve inserted my dynamic fields to pull in from my data set and set up two follow up emails due to send if I don’t hear back within the next 4 days (BuzzStream hooks up with my email through Outlook and can monitor if I receive an email from this person or not).
Each project can now use templates set up for the type of mention you’re following up. By using pre-set templates, you can create one for brand mention, influencers, or creative projects to further save you time. Good times.
I really hope this has been useful for beginners and seasoned link reclamation pros alike. If you have any other tools you use that people may find useful or have any questions, please do let us know below.
Thanks everyone!
Hi Darren!
Great post, I love tracking down unlinked brand mentions. You hit the nail on the head with your description of the quick ROI. I have 2 quick notes:
Great post! Keep it up!
Hi Ridley, interestingly, we always include a "more information" link in our email templates. Do not forget that the information should be useful for people, not only for google spiders.
Hey JR Ridley,
Really glad you like it! Thanks for reading.
Completely agree. Alert services are a great way of keeping on top of new mentions coming through on a daily/weekly basis. I'd also throw Talkwalker Alerts and Mention.com into the mix.
Re the phrasing - testing is always the best way with these things! You do find many journalists who know that the link is key, but I've found that I alter my wording depending on the mention itself. A standard press release about the company's service is a great example where a link through to the domain 'for users to find out more' is a natural flow of traffic and the logic from a journalists perspective is there. Additionally, if it's a tagline from a content campaign, again, a link for users to view the full piece makes complete sense. However, if it's more of a passing mention, a simple request to add a link is all that's needed.
Good explanation of the method!
But you need to have enough unlinked mentions to make it worthwhile - this is valuable for well-known brands but less for SMBs I think
What % of your outreach mails are successful? (meaning that they result in a link?)
Hey Stefan,
Thanks a lot!
Definitely. Bigger brands, from a number of links built perspective, do tend to see greater numbers as a result of the brand already being out there and that groundwork already in place.
However, it can still be a great tactic for a lot of SMBs. Those that operate is less competitive SERPs typically won't have as many mentions, which does mean that the number of links you'll build using link reclamation is going to be lower. But, on the flip-side, it also typically means that less links are required to be competitive in those SERPs, so the ROI can be similar. They may even see greater ranking increases with a fraction of the links that a bigger brand may receive as a result of the same activity. It all comes back to picking the right battles and if link reclamation, as a tactic, is the right outcome from your insights/strategy.
Average success rate is a difficult one! It's something we're reviewing as we go and gathering a lot of data around internally, but it tends to vary based on the size of the brand, the type of mention and the industry. We've had days and clients where we've seen 30 links from one day of outreach (around 60 emails sent for link rec), which is at the extremely high end, but I'd say the average tends to hover around the 1 link to every 10 emails area.
Hi Darren! Great post and a really useful trick to work de backlink strategy. I think it is a great idea to use the existent mentions to get links, it is a very clever solution and I find it less aggressive than other techniques. Thanks for sharing!
Great post. We always do this following our client's press releases or conference speaking engagements. You can always find the most engaged bloggers and social media influencers this way.
For example, one of our clients attended a conference in Vegas. A well known influencer tweeted about the speaking engagements. All we said was thank you and then mentioned him in a "Thx tweet" with a link to client's website... he shared it... and boom.... 300,000 eyeballs in a span of 4 days.
As far as equivalent of impressions ... we compared it to spending $17,000 on an Adwords campaign the client has done before the conference, but this one was completely FREE.
Great post!
BuzzStream immediately provides us with the administrator profile of any blog, website or news page. It is a great tool not only to build links, but also to identify influential people in the sector. It can be a good complement to SEO MOZ.
There are great lists of tools. The techniques are truly very helpful to speed up the efforts. I will start to use from this month. Thanks a lot for sharing this article.
God save the microsoft sheets excel / google spreadsheets! :P
Hi, Darren, I like your emphasis on efficiency when doing outreach link building.
Being quick in work is something I really struggle with. Either it's me not knowing to use some tool, or getting stuck on an email template; Because I don't want to copy someone else's and I have doubt in everything I write.
I have still not calibrated myself to be an SEO and link builder I want to be.
But I'm getting there and every post I read helps a little.
From your post here I learned that BuzzStream is a time saver, and that infinite scroll extension for Google SERPs is also excellent.
Thank you and have a nice day!
Solid tips on finding online mentions and making contact for link reclamation Darren! Looking forward to using the tips and tools you listed for helping find email addresses as well. Thanks for writing good sir!
Really a great writing about Link Building & Reclamation. Very detail discussion which helps us a lot for SEO Services.
Waiting for your next valuable article.
Thanks!
S.D.SEO Services
Uncommonly Nice and Informative Article... Much gratitude to you such an awesome sum for Sharing this sort of Information.
Everyone Must Read this article.
Awesome! Somehow I forgot about the tactic, thanks for the reminder!
Hey DarrenKingman,
This was an uncommon post, Super-like! . News, press releases or event conference are great form of engagement and I even do this for many of my clients. This also makes easy to reach related topic influencers '
Thanks for the post
Pretty complete post. For very small business it might not be so useful. However, as we start to grow, this technique can help us grow our link profile much faster and with relative low effort.
Great article Darren! With you every day we are more experts.
Hey Darren, it's great to see an article about link reclamation. What I consider link reclamation, however, is first and foremost to identify broken backlinks to your domain. Pages that link to you but are 404s. Ahrefs is great to find these. Then you go to the outreach phase and reclaim the links.
When it comes to brand mentions, once I've got a spreadsheet with all the potential backlinks, I crawl them in list mode with ScreamingFrog with both Moz and Ahrefs APIs connected to extract the page authority and link equity, in order to prioritize the pages.
Also, if there's no other way to get the outreach email address, you can go to Whois lookup to find who is the owner of the domain. Surprisingly, most of the times they get back to me and put the link.
Is it useful if the site that mention my company is nofollow and low authority?
Hey Bayu Angora,
Interesting question and one I think a lot of people end up having a similar issue with. I'll answer each separately.
'Authority' is a solid indicator of a sites ability to pass value using a collection of off page and on page signals. However, it's measured on a scale that include sites like The Guardian, Washington Post, Time, etc. These push the high end (nearer 100) and naturally, sites without similar signals end up on the lower end of the scale (0 - 30). Because this range includes all domains and all industries, it's important that you apply them to your related SERPs and understand the sort of range that is typical in your space.
A low DA site (0 - 30) might not have much of an impact for a large travel company where they mostly all have existing DA's of 80 and above. But for a domain competing locally for 'web design' (example), a link from a relevant and comparatively low DA website (0 - 30) can be much more beneficial. It's all relative.
Additionally, as mentioned just above, relevancy is a huge part of this. For example, a link from a web design blog (say DA 45) for a web design agency is going to have a much bigger impact than a link from a blog about fashion (DA 55). This is a key part of how I approach link building and I can't advocate this enough.
Nofollow is another interesting dilemma. Many large news publication have recently starting nofollowing links in greater numbers. The line I usually take is that even if they nofollow, they could change their strategy at some point, and remove the nofollow. You'd definitely rather have that nofollow in place if that does ever happen.
Additionally, there has been research to suggest that nofollow links still do provide value. I don't know if they measured nofollow vs mentions to see if there were any differences there, so it could be that mentions as a signal are gaining more ground (this is an area worth keeping an eye on) but if we think purely about users, nofollow is still a link they can use to easily view your content. Therefore, if the site is relevant and you'll be putting your link in front of an engaged audience, you should hopefully get traffic with a much higher likelihood of converting.
I hope that helps!
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It is a good technique for established brands and companies, but the smaller ones will rarely be able to use it :(
But I'm keeping it for when I'm mentionable.
Regards!
Hi SergioDR,
It'll certainly depend on how active the brand has been, but if you do have some mentions out there, it's definitely worth going after them and trying to convert into links. In less competitive SERPs (assuming a small business isn't trying to rank for 'hotels' or similar) even a small number of links can have a big impact!
If you're in a position where your company/client doesn't have any mentions yet, I'd go down the route of Digital PR and content for links/placements. With a relatively short amount of time, even something like a press release/survey/collection of images/comments from an internal expert/etc. can be useful to the right journalist. That'll hopefully create a few placements and either directly get a link from the off or create a much easier opportunity to request a link in the article :)
Nice comment Darren, I'm a small business and I'm considering working with PR. By using this technique I can leverage my results and get some links to my site! Thanks for the idea.
Generally speaking, what percentage of people reply to your email and update the article?
Awesome. I'll try this strategy soon and see how it goes. Thanks
Thanks a lot Darren.... for sharing a nice post....
Very good Article. I think this is very effective strategy. I will try to use it in future.
Santosh Mahadik
To be honest Darren I haven't done this enough for clients in the past, thanks for the reminder and all the great tips!
Very informative post Darren, Although link reclamation being a great strategy for link building, however getting it done is a tedious job and involve using combination of several tools and manual work which may augment your budget. However, if mentions are sufficiently big in numbers, the cost can be justified. Anyway it may or may not increase the quality of links as high DA websites usually don't mention a brand without a backlink to the given sites as to convenient their visitors. So most of the mentions may come from low DA sites and so affect quality of backlinks. This can best be done as a secondary link building strategy in addition to the given primary one. This will anyway add to the backlinks count.
Getting good quality links is very important to your success. The more things change... after all this time..
Effective tutorial. I think link reclamation is very effective strategy. I have to know another important topic to you. Thanks a lot Darren for sharing a nice post.
Very good post, the concepts are clear and will serve me in the future. I liked it and it has been very interesting.
Although we know this strategy, we do not usually use it. Thanks for the publication and we will try.
Effective tutorial. I think link reclamation is very effective strategy.