Resource pages are an often overlooked goldmine for link building opportunities.
They can be a valuable source of links for your website, if you know how to approach them correctly. With resource page link building, you can reach your targeted audience and improve your website’s ranking at the same time. This guide will show you how to find and approach resource pages, as well as some tips for making sure that you get links from them.
What, Exactly, Is Resource Page Link Building?
Resource page link building is a type of link building strategy that involves building links by targeting pages on websites that feature resources for their visitors. These “resource pages” typically contain lists of links to other websites, articles, and other types of content that are relevant to the website’s topic or industry.
Although resource page link building can be a powerful way to generate high-quality backlinks for your website, it can also be challenging. To successfully build links from resource pages, you need to know how to find them and how to approach them in a way that doesn’t turn the website owner off. This guide will cover these topics in more detail, and will also provide some tips and best practices for ensuring that your efforts result in quality links.
How to Find Resource Pages to Target for Link Building
One of the key challenges of resource page link building is finding relevant, high-quality pages to target in your link building efforts. While it may seem like a daunting task at first, there are several strategies that you can use to find potential targets for your link building campaign.
The easiest way to find relevant resource pages is through Google searches. You can usually get good results by searching for keywords related to your industry or business, along with variations on “resources,” “links,” and other similar terms. In addition, many websites will have lists of resources or links under one or more categories on their sidebar or elsewhere.
If you’re having trouble finding resource pages using Google searches, you can also try looking for lists of links on other websites in your industry. These websites may not have dedicated resource pages, but they may still have lists of links to other websites that could be relevant to your business. You can usually find these lists by looking at the website’s sidebar or footer.
Another strategy that can be helpful is to look for blog posts that mention resources in your industry. These blog posts may not be specifically about resource pages, but they can still provide valuable information about where you might be able to find them. You can use Google search operators to narrow down your results and find more relevant blog posts. For example, you could search for “industry + blog + resources” or “industry + blog + links.”
Here are a few examples of that syntax using the intitle search operator:
- intitle:lawyer+resource+links
- intitle:realestate+resource+links
- intitle:doctor+resource+links
- intitle:chiropractor+resource+links
The intitle search operator will find the keywords after it (with a plus symbol) in any combination in the page title tag that shows up in the search results. All you have to do is enter the search operator string into the Google search bar.
In a majority of cases, the above syntax will bring up resource pages with links on them. You can then contact these sites for a link.
Best Practices for Getting Links From Resource Pages
Once you’ve found some potential resource pages to target, your next step is to start reaching out to the website owners and asking them to add your website to their list. When doing this, it’s important to keep a few best practices in mind. One of the most important things to remember is that you should get links from resources that are high-quality and relevant to your business.
This means that you shouldn’t just get a link from any old website; instead, you should make sure that the websites you get links from are well-designed, informative, and likely to be useful for your target audience. In addition, you should avoid linking to resources that are already on the page that you’re contacting. For example, if you find a resource page that links to your website, don’t ask them to take down the link and replace it with another one; instead, focus on obtaining links from pages that haven’t linked to your website yet.
Although these best practices can help ensure that you get quality backlinks from resource pages, they’re not set in stone. You should always be willing to make exceptions or changes when needed. For example, if you’re trying to target a very specific type of resource page and there’s only one good option available, it may be worth giving up some other factors in order to obtain this link.
In addition, keep in mind that many owners of websites with resource pages are extremely busy, and they may not have the time or inclination to respond to every single link request that they receive. As such, it’s important to be persistent in your outreach efforts and to follow up with potential link partners multiple times if necessary.
Why Does Resource Page Link Building Really Work This Well?
Resource page link building is an effective strategy for SEO because it taps into the natural human desire to share and connect with others.
Resource pages are typically designed with the goal of connecting people with useful information or resources in their industry. As such, they attract visitors who are looking to discover new websites, products, or services that can help them meet their needs.
By reaching out to these website owners and asking them to add a link to your website on their resource page, you can tap into this desire and make it much more likely that they will agree to add your link. Additionally, when done correctly, resource page link building can also build high-quality backlinks from relevant websites, which can have a positive impact on your search engine rankings.
With these factors in mind, it’s clear that resource page link building can be an extremely effective strategy for improving your search engine rankings and growing your business online.
How You Can Build Links From Resource Pages On Other Websites
One of the best ways to improve your website’s search engine ranking is by obtaining links from other websites. However, finding high-quality websites that are willing to link to your site can be a difficult task.
In order to take advantage of this opportunity, you first need to find resource pages that are relevant to your business. You can do this by using Google search operators or by searching for industry-specific blog posts that list resources. Once you’ve found a few potential resource pages, you should then reach out to the website owners and ask them to add a link to your site on their page.
As mentioned previously, you should only focus on contacting websites that have high authority or relevance within your industry. This means that you should avoid contacting any sites that don’t seem like good candidates for including a link from your website.
In addition, it’s crucial that you follow up with potential link partners multiple times if necessary. Many website owners are extremely busy and may be unable to respond to every single request for links right away.
Finally, when asking for a link from these resource pages, it’s important to be polite and professional. Remember, you’re essentially asking for a favor from these website owners.
More Tips and Tricks to Make Your Resource Page Link Building More Effective
If someone has a preferred method of contact, be nice about it and work with them on it.
The easier you make it for someone to help you, the more likely they are to do so. If a website owner has listed their preferred method of contact on their website, be sure to use that method when reaching out to them. Additionally, you should also take the time to personalize your request and explain why you think adding a link to your website would be beneficial for their visitors.
Find the Actual Owner of That Site, Not a Proxy
No, we don’t mean proxy IP addresses. When reaching out to website owners, it’s important to try to find the actual owner of the site. This is because these individuals are usually more invested in the success of their website and are therefore more likely to be receptive to your request.
Additionally, by contacting the owner of the website directly, you can avoid having to go through multiple people before your request is finally approved. This can also help make sure that you avoid unnecessary, redundant efforts to find the right contact.
We don’t want to add more work than what’s absolutely necessary to get that link, because we have a lot of links to build during this campaign.
Be Specific About Where You Want That Link to Go
When reaching out to website owners, it’s important to be as specific as possible about where you would like the link to be placed on their site. This can help ensure that your link is placed in a location that is most likely to get noticed and clicked by visitors of their page. In addition, by clearly outlining this information in your request for a link, you can streamline the entire process and make sure all parties are on the same page from the outset.
You don’t want to make them think about where they are placing their link anymore than they actually need to.
Find broken links on that resource page, and point to them in a screenshot (or a Loom video).
One great Google Chrome extension for doing this is Check My Links.
When it comes to resource pages, they are usually full of links to other websites. Thus, it’s not uncommon for some of these links to eventually become broken or outdated.
If you come across a resource page with broken links, you can actually use this to your advantage by reaching out to the website owner and pointing out the problem. In many cases, they will be grateful for your help and may be more likely to add a link to your website as a way of saying thank you.
Additionally, including a screenshot (or even a short video) of the broken link can help further illustrate the problem and make it more difficult for them to ignore your request.
When contacting website owners, it’s important to show them exactly where the broken link is. Remember, they are not as knowledgeable as you are about SEO, and likely have no idea that there are broken links on their site like this. This is especially true if you’re working in a niche that is not quite as technical (say real estate agents or attorneys).
Broken links on these pages is bad because it can confuse and frustrate visitors, who may then leave the page without taking any desired actions. In addition, broken links can also hurt a website’s search engine ranking.
Don’t Fall Into the Trap Of Paying For That Link
One of the most common mistakes made by people who are new to link building is paying for links. This is a huge no-no in the world of SEO, and can actually do more harm than good for your website.
Paying for links goes against Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, which state that any links intended to manipulate PageRank or a site’s ranking in Google search results may be considered part of a link scheme and a violation of Google’s guidelines.
Additionally, paying for links can also result in your website being penalized by Google. So, not only will you be wasting money on something that doesn’t work, but you could also end up costing yourself even more traffic in the long run.
To avoid this, it’s important to focus on earning links rather than buying them. This can be done through great content and outreach, as well as building relationships with other site owners and influencers in your niche.
Ultimately, resource page link building is just one of the many strategies you can use to improve your website’s ranking on Google and increase targeted traffic to your site, but it should certainly not be overlooked.
