Complete SEO skyscraper technique
Backlinks remain one of Google’s main ranking factors, and the reality is that this won’t be changing any time soon.
Brian Dean from Backlinko revealed a link building strategy he used that had an 11% success rate in 2015. This tactic even doubled his organic traffic in 14 days.
He called it the Skyscraper Technique.
And I think it’s fair to say that it took the SEO world by storm:
Brian Dean now has 1,820 referring domains (links from unique websites) to his skyscraper technique blog post.
Plenty of marketers have tested it since the introduction of this technique. Some replicated the strategy with great success and there are some others that fell off the skyscraper and achieved less-than-desirable results.
The question is does the skyscraper technique work?
Like Schrodinger’s Cat, the tactic both works and doesn’t work. It all depends on your approach.
I’ll explain how to use the Skyscraper Technique to build links to your site in this post. I’ll also share some tips on how you can improve your chances of success.
What is the Skyscraper Technique?
The Skyscraper Technique is a link building strategy where you improve existing popular content and replicate the backlinks.
The technique sits on foundations of 3 core principles:
Find popular content that has been linked to from other sites.
Create a better piece of content on the same topic and publish it on your own site.
Promote your content to the right people and let them know it exists.
How to execute the Skyscraper Technique (+ case study)
Ahref conducted a case study where Dale Cudmore tested the Skyscraper Technique on his brand new site, RawResume.com (now defunct) in 2017. This was a site dedicated to helping people improve their resume and find jobs.
He sent 232 emails and obtained 15 links: a 6.5% success rate. (Pretty good!)
In addition, he picked up a few links from Reddit and other blogs organically:
Here’s how he did it, and how you can do it too:
Step 1: Find relevant content with lots of backlinks
Dale’s first step was to find an existing resume writing guide that had plenty of links, and also some room for improvement.
Here’s the post he found: https://resumegenius.com/how-to-write-a-resume
According to Site Explorer, this post has generated a total of 519 links from 186 domains:
Dale actually found this post while doing keyword research. But that’s not the most systematic way of finding ‘skyscraper’ opportunities.
Here are three ways to find relevant pages with plenty of links.
1.1) Use Site Explorer
Enter a popular site from your industry into Site Explorer. Choose one that is known for publishing great content.
Next, go to the Best by links report. This shows a list of pages on the site with the most “link authority.” Sort the list by Referring domains, add a “200 ok” filter, and filter for pages in your language.
‘Best by links’ report for resumegenius.com on Ahrefs’ Site Explorer
Any page with more than 50 referring domains is a potential target as a general rule
Do remember to ignore homepages and irrelevant content when looking through this report.
1.2) Use Content Explorer
Enter a broad topic related to your niche into Content Explorer.
You can use it to find mentions of any word or phrase since Content Explorer is a searchable database of over a billion web pages.
Set the minimum “Referring domains” filter to 50 since you’re looking for pages with a lot of backlinks. You can also add a language filter (in this case, English) to get only the pages in your target language.
There we have it—133 potential ‘skyscraper’ opportunities.
Also, it’s important to note that the number of referring domains to a page can be a misleading indicator of “authority.” A page may have hundreds or thousands of low-quality backlinks that you wouldn’t want to replicate sometimes.
So how can you avoid such pages when looking for content to improve?
Simple. Export the list of pages from Content Explorer, then upload them into Ahrefs’ Batch Analysis tool. Sort the results by URL Rating (UR).
URL Rating (UR) shows the strength of a target page’s backlink profile on a logarithmic scale from 0 to 100, with the latter being the strongest. So, pages with a high UR score are more likely to have high-quality links (i.e., better prospects for you to reach out to.)
1.3) Use Keywords Explorer
For example, try to enter a broad keyword (e.g., “resume”) into Keywords Explorer. After that, choose a report (e.g., Phrase match) and set a minimum Keyword Difficulty filter of around 40.
The reason is because Ahrefs’ Keyword Difficulty score is calculated from a weighted average of referring domains (RDs) to the current top 10 ranking pages. Which means that the top-ranking pages for keywords with high Keyword Difficulty scores have lots of backlinks on average.
You have to look for a relevant keyword, then hit the SERP dropdown to see the top-ranking pages. Do remember to aim to find one with the best balance of backlinks vs. “skyscrapability” (i.e., the opportunity to create something a lot better).
You can refer to the image below as an example:
Step 2: Create something better than what is already out there
As you apply the Skyscraper technique into your content, make sure your goal should be to create the best piece of content on the web for a particular topic.
It is all about creating the biggest piece of content on a topic, one that stands above all others in the same way as a skyscraper stands above everything else in a skyline.
In fact, Brian Dean himself comments:
Have you ever walked by a really tall building and said to yourself: “Wow, that’s amazing! I wonder how big the 8th tallest building in the world is.” Of course not. It’s human nature to be attracted to the best.
This is why this technique is really different with other techniques out there and gives you something that you can leverage for links for the sole reason that it adds so much value and depth to a topic that it makes sense for those on your outreach list to link to it.
The technique works so well because you are taking something that has already been proven to drive results, and are making it even better and leveraging that insight.
This is a one piece of advice that you always have to remember:
It is a common misconception that everything you do has to be totally innovative.
One of the most powerful things that we can use to gain a competitive advantage is competitor insights in SEO which means that you can use data on what competitors are doing to identify their weaknesses and figure out what could be done better.
This technique gives you a blueprint for driving results which helps you to drive success with content that did not take too much guesswork. But there is a lot to consider when using The Skyscraper Technique:
Better content doesn’t necessarily mean longer content.
There are many ways to improve a piece of content.
Very few are in a position to be able to publish content and naturally earn links and traffic.
If no one knows about your content, it’s not getting linked to.
Promotion is such an important part of content marketing, and those who put in the effort to distribute their content with an effective strategy are ultimately those who win big.
Step 3: Reach Out to The Right People
Email outreach is an important part of the Skyscraper Technique.
It’s similar to straight up link begging, but with a VERY important twist.
You’re reaching out to site owners that have already linked out to similar content instead of emailing random people.
You know that when you qualify prospects like this:
They run a site in your niche.
They’re interested in your topic.
They’ve already linked to an article on that topic.
Now it’s just a matter of giving them a friendly heads up about your clearly superior content.
Here’s how to do it:
1. Use ahrefs.com to export all of the links pointing to your competitor’s content into a spreadsheet. Tools like Majestic SEO and Open Site Explorer will also work.
2. Weed out referring pages that don’t make sense to contact (forums, article directories etc.).
3. Backlinko share this email template that you can use to reach your prospects:
Obviously, always personalized and tweaked this template for everyone you reached out to.
When Brian Dean from Backlinko was shocked at the overwhelmingly positive response:
Out of 160 emails, he landed 17 links: an 11% success rate.
An 11% success rate is pretty amazing considering that these were cold emails that asked for a link in the first email.
You may be thinking, “17 links, that’s it?”.
But remember it’s about quality, not quantity.
There were a lot of gems in that group of 17 links.
Besides, just look at the meteoric rise in organic traffic that those 17 links got me (in a very short time period, no less).
Obviously there were a few links to that page that came organically, but some of the best were from The Skyscraper Technique.
Why the Skyscraper Technique Can be Such a Powerful Link Building Tactic
Link building tactics can pose many challenges as well such as ability to scale, as well as some uncertainty around the level of success that you will see.
As an example, broken link building is limited by the opportunities that are out there. You rely on other websites with broken external links that topically align with your site to scale this tactic.
While it’s a great technique, you still have to be reliant upon others for it to scale, which means this is rarely possible.
Another popular and proven link building tactic is digital PR. And in many ways, there are similarities to the Skyscraper Technique, but PR is usually all about doing something new to garner attention, and links.
And those results can be incomparable to any other tactic, with many digital PR campaigns having previously proven the potential to earn links from hundreds, if not thousands, of unique domains.
But PR isn’t something you can learn overnight.
It takes the most experienced PR specialist to launch a story that scales like this and this takes a lot of time to learn about it and that is what the Skyscraper Technique brings to the table.
It is a proven process that you can use to scale link acquisition and earn quality, editorial links by making better what is already proven to work.
When you think about it, it is easy to see why it works so well, and that is because you are acknowledging Google’s three main ranking factors:
Content
Links
RankBrain
You will struggle to rank and drive organic traffic without great content that RankBrain can understand as aligning with a searcher’s intent, and great links that point straight to the page.
And the Skyscraper Technique helps you to tick all of these boxes, creating the best piece of content around a topic and promoting it so that it earns links.
The result is that this content ranks at the top of the SERPs and, in turn, drives traffic.
How to improve your chances of success with the Skyscraper Technique?
The Skyscraper Technique (or any other link building strategy) is just a means to an end for most people.
The ultimate goal is to rank higher in Google and get more traffic.
Unless you have a certain level of success with your outreach, that isn’t a given. You need a goal for the number of links you require before you do anything.
Here’s how you can do it:
Take the content you’re planning to “skyscraper”
Paste it into Site Explorer.
Go to the Organic Keywords report;
Look at the keyword that sends the most traffic to the page.
This is most likely the “head” keyword.
Next, look at the Keyword Difficulty (KD) score for that keyword in Keywords Explorer. Here, you’ll learn the estimated number of referring domains you need to crack the top 10.
That’s it—you now have a tangible goal for your outreach efforts.
Always remember you’ll need even more links if you want to crack the top 3.
Now you might be currently asking this question. How do you increase your chances of meeting this link threshold with the skyscraper technique, or any outreach-based technique for that matter?
Well, there are only two ways:
Increase your conversion rate;
Reach out to more people.
(If you can do both, then you’re really onto a winner.)
So how do you get more of your prospects to link to you? And how do you reach out to more people without spamming?
1) Send personalized outreach emails
In Brian’s original post, he suggested using an email template that goes something like this(I have explain this in Step 3 of how to execute Skyscraper Technique):
Hey, I found your post: http://post1
[generic compliment]
It links to this post: http://post2
I made something better: http://post3
Please swap out the link for mine.
Unfortunately, many SEOs decided to copy this exact email and use it for their outreach.
Now, the chances of a website owner to delete your email without reading is high if they recognize this template.
In fact, don’t use this template if you want to acquire links successfully via ‘skyscraper’ outreach these days. It’s recommended to write your own and personalize it as much as possible
(Just FYI, “personalization” involves more than a [FIRST_NAME] mail merge!)
2) Segment your prospects
It makes little sense to send everyone the same pitch since people link for different reasons.
Now, I know what you’re thinking: “…but I don’t have time to send every single person a 100% unique email!”
That’s fine because you don’t have to.
Instead of coming out with your unique email template, you can divide your list of prospects into segments according to the context in which they linked.
The best way to find common link contexts is to check the Anchors report in Site Explorer.
Here, we can see that 22 people link using the anchor text “how to write a resume that stands out,” and 12 do so with the words “tweak your resume for each opportunity.”
So let’s send those first 22 people a pitch to the effect of:
Hey, I found your post: http://post1
It links to this: http://post2
That has some great tips on creating resumes that stand out.
I just wrote this: http://post3
It has even more tips for creating a standout resume.
CTA: Might be worth adding the link to the page?
Then we’ll send the other 12 people the same pitch, but swap out points #3 and #5:
Hey, I found your post: http://post1
It links to this: http://post2
That has some great tips on how tweaking resumes for best results.
I just wrote this: http://post3
It has even more tips on adjusting your resume for each opportunity.
CTA: Might be worth adding the link to the page?
3) Find more prospects from top-ranking pages
To limit yourself to replicating the backlinks of one piece of content is very shortsighted.
You’ll see 400 million results when you do a quick Google search for “how to write a resume,” many of which:
Have backlinks;
Are almost certainly inferior to your “skyscraper” post.
You can replicate links from some of these posts/pages too. Here’s how:
Enter your target keyword into Keywords Explorer, then look at the SERP Overview.
It looks like most of the top-ranking pages have tons of links in this case.
In fact, we get 775 potential prospects if we total up the referring domains across all of these top-ranking pages.
So all that’s left to do is check whether your content is better than any of those pages.
If it is, you’ve just found yourself another batch of prospects.
Before we move to the next point, let me give a pro tip by Ahref:
Use Content Explorer when you’re looking for more prospects
Search for your keyword, set a referring domains filter (e.g., 50+), and you’ll see a bunch of relevant pages from which you can mine even more “skyscraper” prospects.
Here, we see 132 pages about writing a resume with at least 50 referring domains each.
Do the math, and that’s another 6,600 potential prospects!
4) Reach out to those who link to outdated, low-quality content
Nobody likes pointing their visitors to outdated resources.
However, it’s a great opportunity to find these outdated resources, then persuade site owners to replace that link with your new ‘skyscraper’ content.
Here are the basics:
First, enter your target keyword into Content Explorer. Set some filters, so you are looking at only old, low-quality content with lots of links. In this case, we set:
A date filter to find content published a while ago;
A referring domains filter to find content with links;
A content length filter to find less-thorough (and presumably “lower-quality”) articles.
Check each of these results for outdated or potentially misleading information.
Found something? You now have a perfect pitch that is likely to convert well, and it goes something like this:
Hey, I found your post: http://post1
It links to this: http://post2
Great post, but some of the information is outdated. In particular […]
I just wrote this: http://post3
It’s a more up-to-date guide about ______
CTA: Might be worth swapping out the link?
NOTE: Make sure you remove duplicate websites from the prospects list before performing outreach. You don’t want to reach out to the same person twice accidentally.
The Challenges of Link Building With the Skyscraper Technique
There is a challenge that you need to be aware of, which is largely related to links earned from top-tier news sites even though the Skyscraper Technique can, and does, work really well.
Take this article from the Huffington Post, as an example:
It links out to a multitude of different sources, which could, in theory, be a piece of content that you decide to skyscraper. But there is a serious one consideration here – this post was originally published in 2014 and hasn't been updated since 2017.
The chance that you would be able to land a link to your content, however good it is, from within this article is very, very small.
Once an article is published, it is rare that they will go back to update it unless it is factually wrong. This is why news sites move very quickly. And, even then, it really depends when this was originally published.
There is also the problem that journalists move between publications pretty frequently, and we can see that the journalist who wrote this hasn't written for Huffington Post since December 2017.
You would stand a much better chance of persuading bloggers and resources (or evergreen pieces of content that are kept up to date) to link to you than a top-tier news site.
Flipping the Technique on Its Head for New Opportunities
Finding content that performs well and creates something even better is the whole premise of the Skyscraper Technique. And there is a really good chance that these assets that you base your own content upon have been really well promoted.
But the unfortunate reality is that most marketers spend way more time creating content than they do promoting it. And this means there is often content that could have performed well but didn’t because it wasn’t properly promoted.
You can flip the Skyscraper Technique's process on its head and start by finding content that didn’t perform too well but should have.
In many ways, it is like going back to the start and using the same tools and processes that you used to find content that stood out as top-performing. But instead, you are looking for content that didn’t earn as many links, or doesn’t rank as prominently on Google.
Then you need to figure out why this is the case:
The content is good, but not good enough to truly stand out and add value.
The content is great, but visually it is presented badly.
It wasn’t promoted properly (a tell-tale sign of this is that other content on a site has performed well, but some pieces have earned no links and don’t rank very well – as long as the content is strong).
It could be called the Reverse Skyscraper Technique, given that you are looking for content that is the exact opposite of the usual approach.
As it’s inherently more difficult to identify why a piece of content didn’t perform than one that did, it’s very important that you use both common sense and industry experience here.
You just need to be confident that the topic is something that other people would be interested in, and has an audience of content creators who would be willing to link to it.
It is all about knowing who the audience is and that the article is good enough to see success.
Conclusion
The Skyscraper Technique is a legitimate link building tactic that works, but only if you:
Reach out to enough people
Have a well-crafted pitch
Have top-notch content
Still, don’t expect this one technique to result in overnight rankings. That’s unlikely.
SEO success comes down to a variety of factors such as your industry, competitors, budget, time, resources, etc.
Never rely on one single tactic. Instead, experiment with a few and make them work for your business.
Even so, the Skyscraper Technique is a great way to earn quality links by following a proven process, and it is a tactic that can scale up to drive success. Combining great content with great links remains a recipe for success, and it is a tactic that, when done properly, is a force to be reckoned with.
Source:
https://backlinko.com/skyscraper-technique