Sinead says: “SEO tools are wonderful and useful, but the yield and relevance of what you get from them reflect what you put into them. If you don't pay enough attention to what you're plugging into it, you might get a lot of irrelevant stuff from whatever search you're putting into your tool. Or you might even get very little coming out of the tool. So, you need to pay attention to what it is you're plugging in, what is successful and what is less successful, and make a strategy out of that before you go headfirst into prospecting.”
You started by talking about various tools. Are you able to share a few tools that you're talking about?
“There is Majestic and their backlink tool. If you were to use a backlink tool, make sure that you put in a site that has enough other relevant sites pointing towards it to get something good out of it.
You also have other tools like Pitchbox where you can internally pull prospecting lists using different different methods which range from like backlinks or plugging in specific keywords.
Make sure that when you put things in, you're making a mental note of what's working and what's not to be able to have the best chance of having campaigns that go the distance and that you can work on for a good time.”
How do you know that you're getting the optimum maximum out of these tools? Do you set various goals and objectives in terms of what you want to achieve before using them?
“I normally measure my success in a percentage, not necessarily putting a number to it. If I'm working my way through inspecting some opportunities, and I see that one in every twenty is going through to a prospecting stage, then I might not try that prospecting method again or look at why that isn't working. I would see it as more effective if it's one in every three or four, or even one in every two.
Something else to bear in mind is that if you're working towards any specific targets it's a slippery slope with the number of links you want. You need to make sure that whatever you pull from a tool is giving you enough of a yield for whatever your need is, for that particular page.”
How did you come up with those metrics?
“For me, it's more of a time thing. When you're working your way through that list and trying to get things through to the personalization stage where you can start looking for contacts, if you only receive one contact out of every twenty that’s useful, you will spend roughly the same amount of time as if you're working through one, where one in every three is useful.
When you look at your time on that particular list, let’s say it takes you three hours to make your way through it, then you can see that you spent three hours on this and all you got out of it was twenty viable prospects. You might not be sure how many of those will get back to you, or it will be a relatively low percentage of them.
If you have a higher yield to work from, there will be more that you get out of that time. So from an efficiency perspective, it's going to be a lot better for you. You'll feel like you're getting more out of it, and you'll have more to offer to like your client in terms of the amount of prospects that you're able to reach out to.”
So, you're going for the maximum number of viable projects over a set period that you're investing yourself personally. How do you maximize that number?
“You maximize that number by trying to go where your good links are gathered. It’s something that I covered in my recent talk at brightonSEO using 'Mean Girls' as an example with the lunch room tables that they have, and going to specific sources and looking for all of the sites which have cited that specific source, whether it be a person's name or a URL, and finding sources which only the type of site that you're trying to reach out to our referencing.
Suppose you wanted a link-building campaign, putting forward this handy online tool for food businesses. In that case, you might want to look at the backlinks of the Food Standards Agency because many food businesses will link to it as proof that they're following the rules. So it’s trying to find those types of sources that’s all concentrated in one place, rather than dispersed.”
So you're using Majestic to identify the links pointing to your target domain name or URL and then using that information in Pitchbox to identify prospects?
“Yes you can do that. With tools like Majestic, you can use filters within it to make it even more specific and cut out some of the less relevant prospects you might see. It's better to do that than rather than having to go through it and visually see that a site is not suitable and then having to cut it out.”
What are some other examples of why things don't work and what you're doing to either try and tweak them to work better or maybe change them so that you do something else instead?
“An example of something that isn't working could be that you're reaching out to the wrong type of site for your campaign. For example, if you are trying to run a link-building campaign, but the source you’re using to get your prospects only provides you with high-tier sites, you might struggle because journalists are time-poor and therefore they'd like to be presented with a fully realized story, or at least the data from a pretty much-realized story, so they can take that and plug it into whichever story they want to write. You have to examine whether the type of outreach suits the type of site.
Another thing that might mean that you're less successful is that you are trying to pull this list of prospects as a business, and you're just picking up a bunch of your competitors. You might need to look at what you're plugging in to ensure that the intention of someone who would perhaps plugin that keyword aligns with the type of site you would get from the results.
Suppose you're in e-commerce selling apples and looking for research like Braeburn apples as a keyword. In that case, you might get a whole bunch of Braeburn apple sellers rather than people who are interested in writing about the benefits of eating Braeburn apples.”
How do you identify people interested in the benefits of eating Braeburn apples in that example?
“For that example you want to lead with something with more of an informational intention, so you’d use keywords like ‘What are the benefits of Braeburn apples? What are the best ways to find a good Braeburn apple, and what colours should a Braeburn apple be before you're ready to eat it?’ as questions, rather than just plugging in, for instance, a product of some sort, because that is likely to pull in a whole bunch of competitors.”
Where would you find those questions? In something as simple as 'People Also Ask' in Google?
“Yep. One of the things I covered in my talk was just being a bit cautious with going with keywords because, after a long time, you normally see the same results. Something that I would recommend to do to avoid that is going with the backlinks or sources or using something very specific like the name of someone to be able to diversify some of the results that you're getting.”
You also mentioned making sure that the outreach that you're doing is suitable for the sites that you're targeting. What's an example of great outreach that works effectively now, and what's the style of outreach you feel you see SEOs doing that you don't particularly like and don't think is effective?
“An example of great outreach to me, if you're talking about digital PR, is being able to source some unique data and push that as part of a campaign. I think it is a fantastic way to do an outreach campaign because it's useful data, as long as it is relevant to the period in the industry, and it will always be useful.
If you're talking about a link-building campaign, one campaign which I think is particularly effective, is one where you reach out to certain sites and make sure that you have a value proposition and are offering them something. Whether that is by going to their site and saying, ‘Hi, I noticed that this piece of content you have is specified for 2020, and we're now in 2023. Do you want me to update it for you for free?’ Or going to them and saying, ‘I noticed that this source that you put in this high-traffic article that you have is for flooring. I have something that works. Do you want me to send it to you to replace it quickly?’.
I think one type of campaign that I wish I would alter or want to see less of is one where we reach out, posing to pitch an article or an update to an article, which already exists and is quite useful to the people who visit that site. I think sometimes we see this content has worked on this site before, and therefore if I pitch them this same type of content, it will be received. But actually, there's little value or incentive for it to be taken on board.
Another one that I would also say does not have a clear goal is saying, ‘I'm an SEO, and I can write you some great content’. People are still time-poor, and you have to make a little more effort to guide them toward what you do, which will be helpful for them and spell it out. So, there's less emailing and trying to figure things out.”
I love your examples of things like turning headings of maybe 2022 into 2024 or identifying URLs that don't link properly or are broken links. In order to identify those sorts of opportunities, do you use tools to help you search out hosts that perhaps contain old dates or URLs that don't work properly?
“Sure I do. And again, Majestic is still that you can use to do this. But even if you are a small business that doesn't have access to a lot of funding for tools, I don't necessarily want to lead you with the impression it is not an option for you to be able to access as well, using your search parameters. For example, you might be able to filter your search results to show you only results that have 2020 or 2021 within the title. So yes, I do use tools because it's easier to do so. However, that's not the only way to do it.
I think it's also important for SEO to be accessible to people who are not as knowledgeable about tools and how they work, because ultimately, it's how your businesses get seen and how you make money. I think it's quite important to look out for small businesses and provide them with options.”
You’ve shared what SEOs should be doing in 2024, now let's talk about what SEOs shouldn't be doing. What's something that's seductive in terms of time but ultimately counterproductive? What's something that SEOs shouldn't be doing in 2024?
“I think that in 2024 SEOs shouldn't feel like every opportunity, which is high value, is for them. You have to make sure that it's relevant. I think that sometimes it is quite seductive to see a site that has amazing metrics, or a high amount of traffic going to it, or good brand recognition, and try and make yourself fit, or make a subject that fits for whichever client that is you're working for, and get the link in there. I don't necessarily feel like that is the best practice, especially if by placing that link, you're ultimately not going to reach the type of people who would likely engage with that type of link. I think ensuring you're going toward your relevant audience is more important than that.
Something that we like at Seeker which has been drilled into me from the beginning is that even if a site has low metrics, it is relevant, for instance, if you are working in the medical industry. A local doctor’s surgery wants to link to one of your pages on its site. The site has a traffic of 100. It's still valuable to those who access that doctor’s surgery locally, and also, it's relevant. I feel like that is a precious trust signal, even if the traffic is low. So, don't purely be led by metrics. What is valuable is what is relevant to the people who will be able to use it.”
Sinead McLarty is a digital PR specialist at Seeker Digital, and you can find her over at seeker.digital.