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What Is link building? 

Link building is the process of building hyperlinks (backlinks) from other websites to your own.   The effort to build links back to your website is often related to search engine algorithms, but can also play a part in expanding brand awareness and driving traffic to your site through the links published on other websites. 

Why are backlinks important?

Backlinks are valuable for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) because they signal to search engines (Google) that other sites vouch for your site and your content. So as you build more backlinks, search engines can assume that your site is valuable and creditable, which will boost your site’s ranking on Search Engine Results Pages(SERPs). 

All links are not created equal – there are certain factors that make some backlinks “better” than others. These factors are the linking site’s authority and trust in the eyes of search engines like Google and if the link is followed or no-follow.  

One third party metric designed to help determine how well a search engine like Google trusts a website is through Domain Authority (DA).  DA is a ranking score developed by Moz that predicts how likely a website is to rank in SERPs. A DA score ranges from one to 100, with higher scores meaning a greater ability to rank. Receiving a backlink from a high DA site is important because that site’s credibility lends credibility to your site.  Links from trusted site is one way that search engines can identify other sites that are trustworthy for the end user. 

When you are receiving these backlinks from high DA sites, you want your links to be “followed” links, here is why: no-follow links do not impact the search engine rankings of the destination URL because Google does not give them the same weight they do a link that isn’t tagged with a no-follow attribute. No-follow links most likely will end up adding little value to your site’s overall ranking. You can see some value in these links as they are still doing the work of getting your brand out into the world and mentioned, but they’re less likely to influence a search engines ranking order. 

What are the benefits of link building? 

The main benefit of link building is the SEO value it adds to your business’ website. Let’s say you own an event planning company in Raleigh, NC and people are Googling ‘event planner Raleigh’, right now your business may be on the second page of search results, but you want it ranking higher on the first page so you have more possibilities for potential new customers finding your business.  Increasing the number of backlinks to your site will help you get to the first page of search results and seen by more potential customers.  Building a strong backlink profile will make your site more appealing to search engines. 

In addition to helping your site rank at the top of search results, a benefit of link building is increased brand awareness.  When pitching content to journalists and working on earning backlinks, your business will ultimately be mentioned within the article where the backlink is.  The more people come across your brandname the more likely they will be to consider you when they need your business.   Additionally, each link to your website acts as a doorway for a potential customer to find you.  Think of each link built as another door for customers to enter your company store. 

How Go Fish Digital earns backlinks through link building campaigns?

If you’re looking to earn backlinks and aren’t sure exactly where to start, you can look to a company like Go Fish Digital. Our Content Team will lead you through the process and the many different ways we’ve identified how to earn backlinks from trusted publications that have high DA. 

We often start with creating content that’s worth linking to.  Our Content Team creates tangential content campaigns that we can pitch to journalists to gain backlinks to your site. These are campaigns that are tied to your brand in some way, but not branded. Keep that in mind – we want to build links, not push your brand in front of journalists asking for free publicity. It is important to note, this isn’t traditional public relations, as we aren’t looking to generate leads or new customers. Instead, we are out there trying to build links to push your business up on the SERPs (which in the long run will help you with leads). 

A great example of a tangential link building campaign is “The Top Searched Trader Joe’s Item by State”, which was done for a CRM Software Company. The client tie-in to this tangential content was as follows:

“With such a dedicated group of fans here in our own company, Trader Joe’s is a great example of a company that takes things further than weekly grocery shopping. Whenever we notice a fan base for a particular company, we take the time to look at why customers are so happy with that business. Our CRM and ERP management software goes beyond the technical side of managing business and customers. The purpose is to give our clients the tools to develop their business into a company that relates to customers well enough to anticipate their needs and desires.” 

This link building campaign is not a piece of content that focuses specifically on the CRM software company.  Instead it connects the CRM software company to something related to their business that a wider audience would be interested in.  In this case, it has the draw-in of Trader Joe’s and the huge fan base that they carry. This is a topic people care about—people in every state are wondering what the top Trader Joe’s item is in their state, which leads to journalists wanting to cover the campaign, which then leads to backlinks. 

Here are some more great examples of tangential link building campaigns:

• How Long Does It Take Tech CEOs to Earn Your Salary?
• The Most Searched Ikea Products in the U.S.
• The Best U.S. Cities to be a Dog

These campaigns have all led to many backlinks and sessions for our clients’ landing pages. 

Does link building sound like something that your business could benefit from (most likely, yes)? Then look no further! Our digital PR services at Go Fish Digital will make those backlink dreams a reality.

What is Link Building and What are the Benefits? is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

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I applied for the job and kept an open mind. After being hired, I learned that everyone on the team had a different career background and not a single person came from a link-building background. I’ve been at Go Fish Digital for over a year now and I have seen firsthand how having a team with a diverse work history can be beneficial. 

Below, I’ve outlined how certain skills from different industries could be an asset to any digital marketing team. As an added bonus, I had the team weigh in! 

Problem Solving Skills:

We all have run into client issues, like an error on a graphic or a wrong number in our data – stuff happens. But being able to recognize those problems and act fast is a huge asset for any employee to have. Senior Content Marketing Associate, Alex Gaines, says it’s one of the most beneficial things she took away from her last job. 

“My last job was running an online store for a large healthcare system. From shipping to stock to website issues, I quickly learned problem-solving skills because orders needed to be sent in a timely manner no matter what. While my job at Go Fish Digital is a completely different line of work, I have used these problem-solving skills with my content campaigns when things aren’t going how I’d like. Like online orders, our campaigns deserve the same fast attention to stay on schedule during the promotion phase.”

Journalistic Mindset: 

We have two people on the Content Team who have previously worked in news, Kara Taylor, a Content Marketing Associate, and myself. There is something about having worked in a newsroom that opens doors to so many different career paths. Kara and I chose the marketing path after we decided we wanted to do something outside of the news.

When we left journalism, we didn’t leave our journalistic mindsets behind. Kara says: 

“I feel that my experience in journalism helps me a great deal because I have a better understanding of the news cycle, who to contact, and how to contact them. I love that I am now on the other side, pitching to the writers rather than being pitched to.”

Bring your Passions to Work: 

We all have things we are passionate about, whether that be animals, food, or working out, but most of the time we don’t get to mix our personal passions with work. The great thing about working at Go Fish Digital is that we work with clients in a ton of different industries. This leads to the team being able to work on projects that we feel passionate about. 

When you are working on a project about sports and you really love sports, you are probably more likely to put in that little extra effort. Senior Content Marketing Associate, Josh Kobert, spent some time working in sports media and he says: 

“For me, the time I spent working in sports has been extremely beneficial because it made me a better consumer of sports media and a better producer of sports-related content marketing ideas. When you work in that industry, you spend a lot of time reading about sports, statistics, and all the other things that sports junkies obsess over so you can improve your own broadcast and presentation. That helps you develop a level of expertise and understanding as to what will and won’t resonate with fans. Bringing that knowledge to my work at Go Fish Digital has resulted in a number of highly successful sports-related campaigns already, and will continue to do so in the future.” 

Understanding Traditional PR and Digital PR:

What a traditional PR team does and what the Content Team at Go Fish Digital does are two very different things, but the two can greatly benefit each other. We work with a lot of clients that hire Go Fish Digital for content campaigns but then also simultaneously work with a traditional PR firm. 

Yes, sometimes sharing media lists and messages with those teams can be a pain, but it’s also mutually beneficial for you and the client. Content Marketing Associate, Erica Prush, says, 

“When I worked in an in-house PR position for a tech company, I observed firsthand the relationship between an in-house PR team and their external agency. Not only was this super useful in terms of learning how to foster meaningful connections with my clients, but it was also a great model for understanding the traditional PR perspective in a digital PR role. At GFD, we partner with our clients’ PR, branding, and traditional marketing agencies all the time, so having some insight into their perspective has been a huge help!” 

The diverse career backgrounds on the Go Fish Digital Content Team has, in my opinion, made us a kick-ass team! We collaborate, we get creative, and we lean on each other for inspiration and new ideas. If we all had the same work history, what fun would it be?

Why it’s Important to Build a Team with Diverse Career Backgrounds is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

At Go Fish Digital, we are always working to perfect the way we do media outreach. Whether it be the tools we use or the order in which we pitch journalists, we are constantly testing new ways to make the process more seamless and effective. 

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If you are wondering how to improve your media outreach list building process, here are 3 tips and tricks that have helped us build a thorough media list in the past.

Know the Tools and Databases Available to You:

There are a ton of journalist databases out there for you to use, but knowing which one is the best fit for your needs will take your outreach efforts to the next level. Sites like Cision, PressRush, and Meltwater are all great tools that we use at Go Fish Digital, and we’ve seen great success with them. They give users the option to search for journalists by name, beat, outlet, location, etc., which can help you find the specific combination of criteria will work for your campaign. 

Stay Organized: 

When building your media list, you’ll notice that things can get messy pretty quickly. Before your data starts to get overwhelming, take a second to create a spreadsheet and organize your contacts. As I’m organizing, I prefer to have columns for the first name, last name, outlet, email, notes for pitching, and date pitched for each entry. This helps me know who I pitched, which days I pitched them, and which outlet they work for. 

My typical list will be organized like this: 

I also keep tabs at the bottom of my sheet for beats. If I need to pitch a campaign that has multiple beats, I will create multiple tabs for the journalists within each beat. For example, I might have a “Lifestyle” tab and a “Local” tab for the same campaign. This is an extra step, but I believe it’s a necessary one to ensure everything stays organized for the duration of my outreach efforts.

No matter what, pick an organization method that works best for you and stick with it!

Do Your Research on the Topic You are Pitching:

This will not only help you draft a better pitch email, but it will also help you search for the correct journalists and outlets that cover what you are pitching.

First, do a simple Google search to find articles that have been written about similar topics to what you are pitching. Then use tools, like Ahrefs, to search for backlinks to those landing pages. Look at the writers and add those writers to your outreach list. Again, using tools like Cision and PressRush can help you find email addresses to those writers if they aren’t easily accessible elsewhere. 

Whether you are new in the outreach list building game or a seasoned veteran, the databases are constantly growing and evolving, so it is always a good idea to switch things up and see if any new ideas work better. Do you have an outreach list best practice? Share it with us in the comments below! 

How to Build a Thorough Media Outreach List is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

1. Know Who You Are Pitching and Why
2. Write an Error-Free Pitch Email
3. A Follow-Up Email Never Killed Anyone
4. Don’t Call
5. Don’t Be Rude

While I enjoyed working in news and appreciate the skills I gained from working in a bustling environment, I wanted something different in my career. This is why I decided to make the transition:

I’ve always been a news junkie, so I knew from a young age that I wanted to go into journalism. In high school, I started taking journalism classes, was on the yearbook staff, and was the editor of my high school’s newspaper. In college, I studied journalism and business and eventually got a degree in both.

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Not long after graduating, I went on to work as an assignment desk editor and digital content producer for a station in Syracuse, NY. I moved through positions in the news/media industry and eventually ended up as the assistant editor of a lifestyle website in Washington, D.C. I loved every minute of it.

It was during my time at the lifestyle website that I started getting curious about PR and marketing. In the years I was working in the news industry, I had a lot of friends and colleagues leave journalism and go onto PR/marketing, so I knew the transition was possible and I wanted to see what the appeal was. I started getting coffee with these people and learning more about the business. I even attended events that were sponsored by PR and marketing agencies.

One day, it just clicked that it was time for me to make the leap. It was not an easy decision to leave, but one that I don’t regret. I am now on the opposite side of those pitches, working directly with clients, and I luckily have the opportunity to still be creative every day.

I was also lucky that I could still use my experience in news here at Go Fish Digital. I specifically call upon five key lessons I learned during my time working in the news that I apply to my job every single day:

Know Who You Are Pitching and Why:

There is nothing more annoying than receiving an email that has absolutely nothing to do with your city or is in no way related to what you typically write about. When I was a journalist, I received a lot of emails that just got deleted with hardly a second thought.

Now as the person sending out pitches, I always try to make accurate outreach lists. If you’re going to be successful in PR or marketing, you have to get your stuff in front of the right people. Additionally, by creating outreach lists that have solid contacts, you open up the opportunity to form good relationships with writers who typically cover topics that could be a good fit for your clients. There is nothing better than a writer who looks forward to seeing your email in their inbox.

Write an Error-Free Pitch Email:

I can’t tell you how many emails I received with my name spelled wrong or that had inaccurate information. While sometimes I would still reply to these messages (a lot of times I wouldn’t), it is always nice to have an error-free email. The less work you create for a reporter, the better your chances are of getting coverage for a client. Lay the information out for the reporter in a clear and concise way.

If an email is easily digestible, the less time you have to waste going back and forth with a reporter.

A Follow-Up Email Never Killed Anyone:

I think this one might be 50/50 depending on who you ask, but in my opinion, a follow-up email never hurts. There would be days when my inbox would just be loaded with unread emails or, even if I read an email, I would sometimes get caught up in the day and completely forget I read it. This is where a follow-up email comes in handy.

Pro tip: News organizations will have slow days! Send that follow up email. Maybe the first day you sent it, they were too busy. Maybe the second time they are having a slow day and you could get lucky. This could increase your chances of coverage.

P.S. Don’t send more than one follow-up email.

Don’t Call:

Never call a journalist unless they specifically request you to. They might not be answering your pitch emails because they are just not interested. Putting them on the spot with a phone call is just awkward and you run the chance of jeopardizing your relationship with that reporter. Send your initial email and one follow-up. If you don’t hear anything back, call it a day.

Don’t Be Rude:

Being rude or pushy won’t get you anywhere with a reporter and could, again, jeopardize your relationship with them. The news world is a small one and you don’t want to burn any bridges in your outreach journey. Remember: These are real people who often work long hours and have a lot on their plate. They have their good days and their bad days just like the rest of us, and it is important to keep that in mind.

Conclusion:

There was definitely a learning curve that came with transitioning into marketing, but being able to take my skills and knowledge from my time in the news industry has helped me make the transition a little smoother.

5 Lessons from Working in News That Make Me a Better Marketer is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.