Stay on top of both your link-building and mention-building

Debbie says: “In 2024, it's really important to stay on top of your link and mention building.”

Can you measure the value of mentions?

“I think that you can. For example, there is a link-building tactic where you can turn those mentions into links. It’s mainly about the idea of getting your brand out there and getting people to talk about your brand. Of course, if you get the link that's a huge win, but there are going to be publications that just don't link out. Getting that mention can still be valuable.

For example, at Dialpad, we really like to do research reports. Sometimes, news publications mention the news report, but they don't actually link to Dialpad. However, they do talk about our study and use our name. The big benefit of that is that you're getting mentioned in a really big-name publication. You're getting your name out there and you're getting the word out about the report that you did.

However, it also means that people who might write content related to your report in the future may find out about that report through that news publication. They might be the ones who eventually link to you. It's not just about getting a link, it’s about putting out the word about the really great content that you create.”

Will off-site mentions also help to build the presence of your brand entity for search engines?

“Definitely. In the past, Google has mentioned that EEAT is largely based on both links and mentions. They have also recently said that links are no longer in the top three ranking factors. They mentioned this at PubCon, and it's a message that they've been trying to say more and more recently. I think it's because people are sometimes too focused on building links in high quantities, so the quality gets cut down.

People are more focused on building spammy links or links that aren’t great for the website – and that causes a lot of potential problems for Google. They have to crawl all of these links but they're not good and they’re not helpful.

We need to look back and figure out that links are just one part of the equation. They're not saying that links are not important; links still have a really important place when it comes to ranking. However, there are so many different signals that Google uses to determine what is actually going to rank for a certain query. We need to try not to overestimate the impact of links and really understand where a link fits into the whole SEO strategy.”

When a search engine is comfortable with what your brand is, can a brand mention be as effective as a link?

“I wouldn’t say that a mention is equally effective, however, it’s good to try to seek out those mentions. Number one is trying to get those mentions, and number two is trying to seek them out and turn those mentions into links. That's when you can really benefit the most from them.”

How is the process of building links influenced by generative AI results?

“This year, the whole industry has been shaken up due to AI and what generative AI has brought to the table. Generative AI is really great for more long-tail queries or things that aren't as factual and are a bit more creative. There's still a place for traditional search, where people are trying to find things that are a bit more factual.

The rise of generative AI makes link-building and mention-building even more important than before. The whole idea behind generative AI is that it's learning from a bunch of existing text and it's trying to predict whatever the next word should be regarding the question you're asking it.

If I am writing a blog post about the top VoIP providers, generative AI is very good for helping me do some research. I can ask it to send me the top 50 VoIP providers, and it'll give me a list. I can go through that list, check each one, and decide who is actually going to make it onto my final blog post. In those situations, it's really important to be able to influence generative AI. If you are an SEO at a company that provides VoIP services, generative AI should know that you exist and mention you the next time someone asks about VoIP providers. You want to make sure that you’re on that shortlist.

In order to do that, it's all about figuring out how you get your brand out there, and how you get your brand mentioned more. A concrete way to do that is to do more ‘listicle outreach’. Especially within SaaS, people like to make listicles for the Top X Software for Small Businesses, etc. Getting onto those types of lists, especially when they're relevant to your product or the features that you have, is really important.

First, go into the SERPs and figure out which of these lists it would make sense for you to be included on. You can also look at what lists your competitors are included on, but you aren't. Those are great opportunities for you to try to reach out to whoever wrote those blog posts and see if they can include your product in those listicles. The idea of building mentions and links is highly relevant for influencing generative AI.”

What is the best way of doing that kind of outreach?

“A basic version of doing outreach would be reaching out to a blog author and saying that you appreciated their post, and you’d like to be included if they update it in the future. A lot of outreach templates tend to follow that template. One thing to try and do is personalise whenever you can.

Try to call out something very specific about their post that doesn't necessarily exist in other posts, because you want to show that you really did take the time to review their content. Show them that it’s not just an email template that you're sending out to a bunch of different people.

Another way to step it up is to try and build some sort of relationship with this person. If you want a favour from them, what kind of favour can you offer in return? Perhaps you have a very large social media presence, and you could let them know that you'd be happy to share this on your social media. That makes it highly valuable to the person who is getting your email outreach.

Try to figure out if there is any way to negotiate something so that it's not just them helping you but you're also helping them.”

Why shouldn't you blindly build links to pages without regularly revisiting the SERPs?

“With link building, the people who know that it is important will continuously build links to certain pages. There may be a money keyword that we really want to rank for, and every month we're building links to it. Then, the position or ranking of that page might start to stagnate.

In those situations, it's really important to take a look at the SERPs instead of continuously pouring resources into building links to that page – because links might not be the reason why the ranking has not improved. If you look at the SERPs, you might realise that the user intent of that query has changed. Then, you would need to go back to your content and see how you can adjust the content to better match what people are now looking for.

It might be that you are one of the slowest pages in the SERPs, and that's the reason why you're being held back. Then, you would want to identify if there is anything that you can do on the technical SEO side to help improve the page speed of that page.

There are a lot of potential factors that might be the reason why your page is not ranking number one. It's not always links, but links can be a factor. There's also the question of quantity versus quality. Maybe your competitor has five really good links and you've built 20 links that aren't as good. That might be a reason why. Instead of focusing on the quantity, you may want to focus on getting more quality links to help boost your page.”

Are there any other link-building tactics you'd recommend focusing on in 2024?

“Going back to the basics, and creating linkable assets like guides, glossary pages, and stats pages, is still going to be really important.

It's also really important to figure out what types of linkable assets are the most effective for your industry. Think about what’s working well for your competitors and what their best pages are in terms of links, then figure out whether that is the direction that you want to go in. Try it out to see whether or not that works for you.

Sometimes what works for them might not work for you and, in those cases, try to look at industries that are similar to yours and see what they're doing. Try to figure out the best tactic or the best linkable asset you can create that you can really benefit from. Similar industries might be more progressive than your direct competitors, in terms of what they're doing with their digital marketing, so learn from them.”

If an SEO is struggling for time, what should they stop doing right now so they can spend more time doing what you suggest in 2024?

“With all the changes that are going around within the SEO industry, go back to the basics and the key areas of SEO – the three pillars of content, links, and technical SEO. Whenever there's some sort of issue on the technical side, and you do an audit and a bunch of different errors pop up, don't freak out. Calm down and look for the biggest, most impactful thing that you can work on that will really move the needle.

Don't focus too much on the little things. If there are a bunch of small errors that you can fix, but they’re not going to give you results or help your organic rankings, don't worry too much about them. Focus on the big things and go back to the basics.”

Debbie Chew is a Global SEO Manager, and you can find her over at DebbieyChew.com.