Our Proven Link Building Outreach Strategy in 10 Steps

In this next section, we review the outreach strategy we use at LinkBuilder. These are broad principles you can apply to all kinds of link building outreach.

You will have to tweak them slightly depending on the type of link building you favor.

For example, placing guest posts on authoritative sites requires a different approach than asking to replace broken links or carrying out link reclamation.

Step 2: Get tools to simplify link building outreach

You don’t need any tools to start a link building outreach campaign—but they can be a big help if you run a large campaign.

We use the following software:

Ahrefs

Ahrefs is a comprehensive SEO toolset that provides features for keyword research, competitor analysis, rank tracking, and more.

It’s a particularly powerful link-building solution because of its extensive backlink database, which is one of the largest in the industry.

Ahrefs offers several pricing plans, starting at $129 per month for the Lite plan. For more advanced link-building features and access to enterprise tools, plans can go up to $14,990 per year.

Pitchbox

Pitchbox is an all-in-one blogger outreach and content marketing platform designed to help you automate and streamline your outreach efforts.

It’s particularly effective for managing large-scale outreach campaigns, thanks to its workflow automation and personalized email templates.

Pitchbox’s pricing starts at $165 per month and it offers custom plans for specialist link-building teams.

Hunter.io

Hunter.io is a tool designed to find email addresses associated with a domain.

It’s incredibly useful for link-building campaigns because it helps you quickly find the contact information you need to reach out to potential link partners.

It offers a range of pricing options, starting with a free plan that allows you to perform up to 25 searches per month. Paid plans start at $34 per month for the Starter plan, and go up to $349 per month for the Business plan.

Read more about our favorite link-building tools in this article.

Step 3: Identify your outreach targets

Once your content has been created and you’ve signed up for the tools you need, the next step of your link-building campaign is to identify your outreach targets.

What makes a website good for outreach?

Here’s what to look for (and avoid) in the websites you target in your outreach efforts:

🚀 Avoid direct competitors

Avoid reaching out to direct competitors. They are unlikely to link to your content, as it could divert their potential traffic and SEO benefits to your site.

Instead, focus on websites that complement your content without competing for the exact same search terms.

🚀 Focus on relevant websites

Relevant sites have an audience that would naturally be interested in your content, which means they will be more likely to see value in linking to it.

Relevant websites help ensure that your backlinks are contextually appropriate, which can improve your SEO and increase referral traffic.

🚀 Check their domain authority

Domain authority (DA) is a metric developed by Moz that predicts how well a website is likely to rank on search engine results pages (SERPs).

A high DA score means that the site has a strong backlink profile, publishes high-quality content, and is trusted by search engines.

Backlinks from high-DA sites are more valuable than those from low-DA sites because they pass on more "link juice" to your site, which can help improve your own rankings.

🚀 Choose websites receptive to link building

Look for websites that are open to collaboration on your link-building efforts. Sites that accept guest posts or have a history of linking out to other websites are often more receptive to link building outreach campaigns.

Check for content guidelines or a "Write for Us" page, as these indicate a willingness to consider external contributions.

🚀 Avoid spammy websites

There are many spammy websites out there, and you should avoid these sites at all costs.

At best, search engines will ignore links on these sites, which means your efforts are a waste of time. At worst, you’ll end up being issued a manual penalty that will destroy your search rankings.

Find out how to avoid spammy websites here.

💡Strategies for finding outreach targets

There are several strategies you can apply to find good outreach targets. Some of our favorites include:

Leverage existing connections

Tapping into your existing network is one of the most effective and straightforward strategies for finding good outreach targets.

Since you already have established relationships with these individuals or businesses, they are often more receptive to collaborating and linking to your content.

Start by listing all your industry contacts, including friends, colleagues, business partners, clients, and even former coworkers.

When you reach out, personalize your message. Refer to your relationship, shared experiences, or mutual interests to make the outreach feel less like a cold email.

Competitor research

Competitor backlinks research is when you look at one of your competitor’s web pages to see which sites they have links from.

It’s an effective strategy because if a site links to your competitor, there is a chance that they will link to yours, too.

It’s easy to discover which websites link to your competitors. Just put their URL into Ahrefs and then head to the “Backlinks” section.

Here you'll see all the backlinks a website has. Filtering the list by only showing links from the last 30 days will display the site’s most recent acquisitions.

Link intersect

You can make competitor research even more effective by searching for websites that link to multiple competitors but not your own.

Linking to multiple competing sites is a sign that a website may be open to linking to yours.

Many SEO tools offer this feature. In Ahrefs, it is called link intersect, and you can find it in the “More” menu in the top bar.

Just add your competitors and your own website to the relevant sections.

Clicking “Show link opportunities” will provide a list of websites that link to your competitors but not your site. These are all potential outreach targets.

Step 5: Interact on social media

We have determined that interacting with prospects on social media before reaching out can massively increase the success of your link-building efforts.

All you have to do is like, comment, or share their posts on Twitter or LinkedIn.

This will grab the prospect’s attention and start the relationship-building process. It means that they’d already know a bit about you when you reach out, so you’ll be more likely to get a positive response.

We typically start this process a few weeks before launching our link building outreach campaign.

Step 7: Schedule the email

The next step is to schedule the email.

Scheduling your emails allows you to send them at optimal times when recipients are more likely to check their inboxes.

It also helps you maintain a systematic approach by keeping your outreach efforts organized and preventing any potential contacts from being overlooked or emailed twice.

Pitchbox contains plenty of features that make link outreach emails easy.

First, you need to choose a day and time. We typically send outreach emails on weekday mornings EDT, so businesses in the U.S. receive them at the start of the workday.

Adjust your schedule accordingly if you’re contacting websites in other time zones.

If you have an extensive link outreach list, you can choose to spread your emails throughout the week evenly. We typically send a maximum of 20 emails a day.

Before you click “schedule,” always send a test email to yourself. This lets you confirm that the email is correctly formatted and that all personalized elements work.

This is important because poorly formatted emails are a tell-tale sign of mass outreach–you always want your outreach emails to feel personal.

You can finalize the email schedule if everything looks good in the preview.

Step 8: Follow up

If someone doesn’t reply to your email, it doesn't always mean they aren’t interested in your request. Sometimes they may have missed your email or forgotten to respond.

Because of this, following up on your outreach emails can make a big difference in the success of your link-building campaigns.

It’s easy to schedule automated follow-ups with Pitchbox. These go out to all email addresses that didn’t respond to your original outreach email.

We typically keep follow-ups simple and remind the prospect about the original email.

As with the initial outreach email, personalize your follow-ups with information such as the person’s name and website.

If you don’t get a response after having followed up, it’s best to respect the prospect's lack of engagement and move on. Instead, focus on new opportunities and continue refining your marketing strategy to improve your success rate over time.

Persistence is important, but so is recognizing when it’s time to shift your efforts elsewhere.

Step 9: Negotiate for the link

The final step in the link-building outreach process is interacting with the prospect to finalize a deal for the link.

This involves handling their responses thoughtfully and professionally, even if their initial reply isn't what you hoped for.

A response means they’re at least somewhat interested, so your goal is to build on that interest and find a mutually beneficial solution.

You can often overcome objections by coming up with a creative response. Here’s how we respond to common objections:

🚫 Objection 1: “We don’t edit old articles”

This objection is common when you request a link to be added to existing content. Rather than viewing this as a dead end, use it as an opportunity to propose alternative solutions.

A good strategy is to suggest writing a guest post for their website. Offer to create high-quality, relevant content that includes a link to your site.

This approach not only provides them with fresh content, but also builds goodwill by showing you’re willing to contribute value.

🚫 Objection 2: “We don’t work for free”

This response often indicates the prospect expects compensation for the link. While this isn’t ideal, it’s not a deal-breaker if you handle it correctly.

If you’re open to paying for the link, be upfront and ask what they’d charge you for it. Express a willingness to negotiate a rate that is fair and within your budget.

If you’re not willing to pay for a link, you could also suggest a link exchange. This involves proposing to link to their content from your website in exchange for them linking to yours.

🚫 Objection 3: “We charge $x for links”

Some websites are straightforward about charging fees for linking. While buying links is against Google’s guidelines and you risk potentially being issued a penalty, there are ways to circumvent this.

When faced with a pay-for-link scenario, you can either agree to their terms, negotiate a lower rate, or decline politely if it’s not within your budget or policy.

If you’re willing to pay for a link, it doesn't hurt to ask for a discount. In our experience, the website owner will often agree to lower their price.

Should you ever buy backlinks? The answer is more complicated than you think.

Whichever way we respond to a request for payment, we always try to do so as quickly as possible.

If you are dealing with a high volume of emails, you can use Pitchbox’s quick response feature.

This allows you to set templates that cater to different situations. You can then use and customize them when responding to individual prospects.

What’s most important at this point is communicating effectively with the prospect.

You need to build their trust and get them to like you, as this will ultimately result in them giving you a link.

We use the following checklist:

✅ Ensure all your responses are polite, even if the prospect isn’t.

✅ Avoid being too pushy with your link request or guest post pitch—this can be off-putting.

✅ Double-check name spelling, as getting it wrong is an easy way to offend someone.

If you’re worried about the tone of your emails, you can use a tool like Grammarly, which will analyze your text and tell you how your email comes across.

In addition, using Grammarly is helpful because it catches spelling and grammatical errors.

Step 10: Wait for the links to go live

Once you’ve finalized an agreement with a website, you just need to wait for the link to go live. Sometimes this will happen soon after you’ve finalized a deal. At other times it can take weeks.

Authoritative websites, for example, often follow stringent publishing processes that can take time.

While link building outreach can be time-consuming—and you’d probably get a lot of rejections—it is an essential part of any link-building campaign.

If you set up your campaign correctly, target the right websites, and create high-quality content, you’re best positioned to see some great results.

Let Us Handle Your Link-Building Outreach for You

Crafting a personalized pitch, researching the right prospects, handling objections, and following up—all these steps can take hours of effort with no guaranteed results.

But it’s well worth it. Building links with reputable websites helps improve your search rankings, increase organic traffic, and establish your brand as an authority in your industry.

Managing outreach efforts for a successful link-building campaign can be overwhelming, especially if you're juggling multiple responsibilities. That’s where we come in.

At LinkBuilder, we have a proven track record and our team of experts is dedicated to developing strategies that secure high-quality backlinks. Ready to skyrocket your outreach efforts? Get in touch with us.