Guide to Skyscraper Link Building

Link building is a long-term search engine optimization (SEO) strategy that requires you to play the long game to reap the rewards it brings. As one of Google’s main ranking factors, high-quality backlinks are essential if you want to make an impact and rise up the search engine results pages (SERPs), positioning yourself as an authority figure and driving organic traffic your way. 

The best way to get high-quality and relevant links to your website, according to Google, is to create your own original and relevant content that people will choose to link to naturally. It says links should be earned this way, and every link you receive back to your content acts as an ‘editorial vote’ that your content is valuable. This will encourage others to also link to your content, which will signal to the search engine and other users that your content can be trusted. 

There is more than one approach you can take when it comes to link building to bring optimum results. Skyscraper link building is one of these. This technique can be used to build high-quality links on a large scale to boost your backlink profile and rankings. 

This guide will provide you with everything you need to know about skyscraper SEO link building.

Resource link building, also known as the skyscraper technique, is a relatively new link building strategy. It was first introduced in 2015 by SEO expert Brian Dean. The link building strategy involves finding high-ranking content with lots of backlinks, improving on the areas where it falls short, creating a fresh piece of content, and asking publishers to link to your content instead. 

The technique is about creating the biggest and most valuable piece of content on a topic that stands above everything else currently published – just like a skyscraper does in a cityscape. Clever, yes? Essentially, you are taking something that already drives results and making it better to benefit you and the publishing sites that link to the content. It is an effective technique because you know that the publishers are already interested in linking to relevant and quality content that brings value to their readers. 

These are the 3 foundations that skyscraper link building sits on: 

1. Identifying popular content that has a healthy backlink profile. 
2. Form a better piece of content that capitalizes on the original piece’s weaknesses and improves on it. Once complete, publish it on your website. 
3. Get in contact with the sites that linked to the original piece and ask them to link to yours instead.

In SEO, the best way to achieve a competitive edge over others in your industry is by paying attention to competitor insights. Through skyscraper link building, you are looking at what high-ranking competitors are currently doing, making it better, and using this to leapfrog them in the SERPs. 

Skyscraper link building works so well because you can leverage links with your new content as it will add value and depth to a subject, meaning publishing sites just can’t say no to linking to your brand new content. 

Once you’ve established the content you are going to create an upgraded version of, you need to consider the following before writing the piece and asking others to link to it: 

• Longer content doesn’t always mean it’s better. 
• You can improve a piece of content in many different ways (adding up-to-date research, fresh insight, multimedia assets, infographics, etc.). 
• Promotion and outreach are important aspects of building an effective strategy. Do this right, and you will reap big rewards. 

There is a lot involved in establishing an effective skyscraper link building strategy that an expert resource page link building company can help you with. 

How exactly this type of link building works will be explained in more detail below. 

Find Relevant Content With Lots Of Backlinks

In SEO, you always want to create content that others will want to link to because of the value and relevance linking to it brings. 

How do you know that this new content will actually drive links your way? The truth is, this isn’t guaranteed, your content has been born from a lot of guesswork, and you have to hope that bloggers and website administrators will want to link to it. 

When you utilize skyscraper link building, you no longer need to guess whether or not your content is linkable. As it is modeled on already successful content, you know that it will be. 

You’ll be pleased to learn that it is easy to find content that is already performing well. By using a backlink analytics tool like Semrush, you can filter through the successful, informative blog pages of your industry competitors. Then, it is up to you to determine if you can bring more value to the content based on how it performs to compete for the backlinks. 

Make A Better Version Of It

So you’ve identified the content you want to emulate and have decided that you will be able to improve on it. To attract publishers to link to your content instead of what they are currently linking to, you need to make the piece better than the one that is already performing. 

In some cases, it might be obvious what steps you should take to improve the content, but other times it may not. However, these are some popular approaches you could take: 

• Create a piece of long-form content – Long-form content tends to perform better in the SERPs than shorter pieces. While longer doesn’t always equate to being better, it is an effective way to bring value. If a high-performing piece is a top 10 list, go bigger and create a top 25 list, for example. 
• Focus on the visual element – Visual elements like images, layout, infographics, and videos improve the user experience (UX) and will help your content stand out. 
• Bring the content up to date – It is easy for content to go out of date. Information changes all the time, so you can improve on your competitor’s content by making sure yours is bang up to date. 
• Add depth to the subject by looking at search intent – Delve deep into a subject to satisfy what people want to know. 

Reach Out To The Right People At The Publisher

Finding the right publisher to post your content could not be easier when you use a backlink analytics tool. Using a tool like Semrush, you can easily compose a list of prospects to reach out to and ask them to publish your link. 

You just need to identify who to contact and then explain to them why it is worth them linking to your content instead with a highly personalized outreach email that demonstrates your awareness of the publisher and why it is better for them (and you) that they link to your work instead. Take a look at the about, author, team, and contact pages to identify a point of contact at the publisher. If no contact info is listed, you will have to find another approach. 

While skyscraper link building is a highly effective SEO technique that can make a real difference to your backlink profile, it is not without its limitations. 

Not Having The Right Contacts

For any type of link building outreach to be a success, knowing who to contact is critical. This means having the right contacts. It can be frustrating when a website does not clearly specify who you should contact for posting opportunities. Advanced Google search, social media, and specific email-finding tools are the way to go if contact info isn’t readily available. You should only be contacting websites that are relevant to your industry. Reaching out to the right people can make or break your strategy.  

Not Reaching Out To Enough People

Skyscraper link building is about more than just contacting the publishing sites that have provided backlinks to the existing content. If you only do this, you are missing out on an opportunity to build even more links. You need to find other relevant outreach prospects too. You can widen your prospects by replicating the backlinks from other high-ranking pages that cover the same topic as your content. Add these to your list of prospects and contact them too – you have nothing to lose! 

Using A Generic Email Template

A surefire way for your shotgun skyscraper link building to go wrong is to only use a generic email template. Generic email templates can come across as being spammy, which will make publishers ignore your message. If they think a bot is sending the email or is spam, they will not publish your skyscraper content. Instead, create your own email templates that can be easily personalized to address publishing site owners. This personal approach will help you stand out over others who are jostling for the same link placement. Create a few different email templates that you can use for outreach purposes. Over time, you might find that one template has a better response rate than the others, so make this your go-to for contacting publishing sites.