The Solely Information You Want

Useful resource web page hyperlink constructing is nothing new, however it stays a preferred hyperlink constructing tactic.

How common? In line with Aira’s 2022 State of Link Building Report, 24% of SEOs use it:

Aira's 2022 State of Link Building Report states that 24% of SEOs use resource page link building

Listed here are three explanation why:

  1. It really works.
  2. It’s scalable.
  3. It’s comparatively straightforward.

On this information, I’ll clarify the way to construct hyperlinks from useful resource pages in three easy steps. 

However first, let’s be sure we’re on the identical web page.

What’s useful resource web page hyperlink constructing?

Useful resource web page hyperlink constructing is the place you get backlinks from webpages that curate and hyperlink out to helpful business assets.

Right here’s what a typical useful resource web page appears to be like like: 

Example of a resource page

You probably have an excellent design useful resource, you’ll be able to attain out to the creator of that web page and counsel it for inclusion. 

Why does useful resource web page hyperlink constructing work?

Suggesting a helpful useful resource to a useful resource web page proprietor helps maintain the web page recent and updated. That’s why a lot of their creators truly ask for submissions.

Example of a resource page owner asking for suggestions
Instance of a useful resource web page proprietor asking for ideas.

This implies you don’t need to do an excessive amount of convincing to get helpful assets added.

Tips on how to construct hyperlinks from useful resource pages

You’ll first want a helpful useful resource to pitch. This may be your homepage. However typically, it’ll be an informational useful resource or interactive instrument. If you happen to don’t have that, learn our information to creating hyperlink bait. 

If you happen to’re good to go, comply with this course of:

  1. Discover related useful resource pages
  2. Vet the pages
  3. Attain out and counsel your useful resource

1. Discover related useful resource pages

The best means to do that is with Google search operators. 

To set your self up for fulfillment, begin by doing these three issues:

  1. Create a free Ahrefs Webmaster Instruments account
  2. Set up Ahrefs’ search engine optimization Toolbar
  3. Go here and set the variety of Google search outcomes per web page to 100

Subsequent, head again to Google and kind a broad key phrase associated to your useful resource adopted by this search operator: intitle:assets inurl:assets.html. 

For instance, in case your useful resource is a keto eating regimen calculator, chances are you’ll seek for this:

Searching for resource pages in Google

Subsequent, click on the search engine optimization Toolbar icon in your browser and toggle “SERP instruments” on, in addition to “Outcomes metrics” below the SERP settings.

Use these settings for Ahrefs' SEO Toolbar

You need to now see an Ahrefs overlay within the Google search outcomes with an “Export CSV” button. Click on this to export the outcomes. 

Click "Export CSV" to export the search results

You’ll be able to then repeat the method for different related search operators to search out extra pages, such as:

  • health intitle:assets inurl:hyperlinks.html
  • health intitle:hyperlinks inurl: assets.html
  • health inurl:.com/assets
  • health inurl:assets intitle:assets

Sidenote.

Ensure to vary the key phrase to one thing related to your useful resource. It’s additionally finest to maintain it fairly broad, as you’ll wrestle to search out related outcomes when you go too area of interest.

If you would like much more search operators, use this Google sheet. All you need to do is add as much as 10 key phrases within the highlighted cells, then head over to the “Outcomes” tab the place you’ll have lots of of search operators able to go.

How to use the resource page search operator sheet

Lastly, you’ll be able to merge all of the exported CSVs utilizing this website.

Time-saving tip

If this course of feels like an excessive amount of arduous work, fill in the Google sheet along with your key phrases and ship them to your digital assistant together with these directions: 

  1. Set up Ahrefs’ search engine optimization Toolbar
  2. Open this Google sheet: [insert link]
  3. Click on the primary hyperlink “SERP hyperlink” within the tab labeled “Outcomes”
  4. Click on the “Export CSV” button on the Ahrefs overlay within the search outcomes
  5. Repeat this for the opposite operators within the sheet
  6. Use this website to merge the CSVs into one 
  7. Ship the ultimate “grasp” CSV file to me, and invoice to your time 🙂 

Or, when you desire an automatic resolution, use a instrument like ScrapeBox or Citation Labs Link Prospector. Simply needless to say neither of those are free. You’ll want proxies for ScrapeBox, and scrapes in Quotation Labs value $1–$5 a pop.

2. Vet the pages

Not all the outcomes you scraped from Google can be related, so it’s worthwhile to vet them earlier than reaching out. This can be a two-step course of: 

  1. Filter and eradicate utilizing metrics
  2. Manually overview the remaining pages

A. Filter and eradicate utilizing metrics

You’ve most likely acquired far too many pages in your checklist to realistically vet by hand, however fortunately you’ll be able to weed out many of the junk with search engine optimization metrics. 

Comply with this flowchart to search out the simplest option to get these metrics for you:

How to pull metrics for resource pages

Because the flowchart explains, when you’ve got a paid Ahrefs plan and used our search engine optimization Toolbar to extract Google’s outcomes, the metrics are already in your CSV. 

SERP export with Ahrefs metrics

If not, there are two choices:

When you’ve pulled the metrics, you’ll be able to simply filter the spreadsheet for prospects that match your necessities. If you happen to’re unsure the place to start out, right here’s my suggestion:

  • Area Score (DR) >= 10
  • Area Search Visitors (ST): >= 5000

This must be sufficient to chop the checklist down by round 70%.

Sidenote.

You can too filter the URL column to take away pages from sure web sites, like Twitter or Fb.

B. Manually overview the remaining pages

The best means to do that is to open the remaining URLs in batches of 5 to 10 and overview the pages manually. You need to use openallurls.com to make this simpler. 

This course of is a bit subjective, however you’re mainly on the lookout for pages that:

  • Hyperlink out to exterior assets.
  • Hyperlink to different topically associated assets.
  • Appear to be somebody cares about sustaining them.

However most significantly, it is best to look to determine the pages the place the addition of your hyperlink will add worth. Make an effort to do this, and your conversion fee will skyrocket.

For any prospects that don’t meet your necessities, put an “x” within the URL/goal column to indicate that you simply don’t have to pitch them. 

Tagging resource pages that aren't worth contacting

3. Attain out and counsel your useful resource

Lastly, it’s worthwhile to discover the individual liable for sustaining every useful resource web page and allow them to know your content material exists.

That goes one thing like this:

  • Hey, [Name].
  • Simply got here throughout your checklist of assets right here: https://ahrefs.com/weblog/resource-page-link-building/.
  • We simply created [x].
  • It would make a worthwhile addition to the web page.

Sidenote.

I’ve purposely paraphrased this template to encourage you so as to add your personal inventive aptitude.

Listed here are a number of tricks to get probably the most out of your efforts:

Tip 1. Respect their most popular contact technique

Mail merges are your buddy in the case of doing e-mail outreach at scale. However you shouldn’t ignore the individual’s most popular contact technique simply to make your life simpler.

If somebody says it is best to submit assets utilizing a contact kind, respect their needs.

Tip 2. E mail the individual liable for the web page

Emailing [email protected] is often avoidable. It’s what lazy entrepreneurs do after they can’t be bothered to seek out an actual individual’s e-mail handle.

Don’t be that marketer. Make an effort to determine who’s liable for the web page and get in touch with them straight. Your conversion fee will thanks for it. 

Tip 3. Inform them the place the hyperlink ought to go

Hyperlinks on useful resource pages are sometimes divided into subgroups. Don’t hesitate to inform the recipient the place you assume your useful resource must be positioned. It’s useful.

Tip 4. Level out damaged hyperlinks on the web page

Damaged hyperlinks on a useful resource web page are yet one more incentive for the positioning proprietor to edit them. And in the event that they’re doing that, they could as properly add your useful resource whereas they’re there. 

Right here’s a straightforward (and free) option to examine for useless hyperlinks on a web page:

  1. Go to “Outgoing hyperlinks” on Ahrefs’ search engine optimization Toolbar
  2. Click on “Test standing”
Checking for broken links using Ahrefs' SEO Toolbar

You’ll be able to then filter for damaged hyperlinks and export them. 

It’s then only a case of letting the positioning proprietor know in regards to the useless hyperlinks in your e-mail.

Tip

If you happen to’re utilizing Screaming Frog and wish to make this course of extra environment friendly, simply hit Bulk Export > Response codes > Exterior Hyperlinks > Exterior Shopper Error (4xx) Inlinks.

You’ll be able to then work some spreadsheet magic (VLOOKUP, QUERY) to tug this information into your grasp prospecting file. That makes it straightforward to templatize outreach emails utilizing customized mail-merge fields in common outreach instruments like BuzzStream, Pitchbox, and Mailshake.

Tip 5. Don’t pay

Shopping for hyperlinks is in opposition to Google’s guidelines. Plus, if somebody is promoting hyperlinks on a useful resource web page, chances are high the web page can be fairly ineffective and spammy.

Tips on how to discover much more useful resource pages with ease

Comply with all the directions above, and it must be sufficient to land no less than a handful of useful resource web page hyperlinks in most niches. However why cease there? There are many different methods to search out much more useful resource pages.

Listed here are three of them: 

1. Search the backlink profiles of web sites with identified useful resource web page hyperlinks

On condition that useful resource web page hyperlink constructing is a typical hyperlink constructing tactic, if a web page has a hyperlink from one useful resource web page, it most likely has hyperlinks from different useful resource pages.

Right here’s the way to discover these useful resource pages:

  1. Crawl your vetted checklist of useful resource pages with Screaming Frog
  2. Go to Bulk Export > Hyperlinks > Exterior Hyperlinks
  3. Open the CSV and replica all URLs within the “Vacation spot” column 
  4. Paste them into this Google sheet
  5. Go to the “Outcomes” tab

You need to now see a listing of internet sites which have no less than one useful resource web page backlink:

Extracting the websites that resource pages link to in Google Sheets

From right here, you’ll be able to merely paste any related domains into Ahrefs’ Website Explorer, go to the Backlinks report, and seek for “assets.htm” within the referring web page URL. 

For instance, if we do that for eatright.org, we get 344 outcomes: 

Finding resource pages in Ahrefs' Site Explorer

Right here’s only one instance:

Example of a resource page

2. Seek for listicle useful resource pages

Most “conventional” useful resource web page search operators gained’t discover listicles like this:

Example of a listicle resource page

That’s a disgrace as a result of these are additionally “useful resource” pages in their very own proper, as they checklist and hyperlink helpful assets.

To seek out these pages, simply search Google for “finest [thing]”. 

For instance, when you run a health club in London, you can merely seek for “finest gyms in london”:

Searching for resource pages listing the best gyms in London

You’ll be able to then use Ahrefs’ search engine optimization Toolbar to extract these to a CSV file (together with search engine optimization metrics, for paying prospects).

If you happen to’re an Ahrefs person, you’ll be able to velocity up your search utilizing Content material Explorer. Simply run an “In title” search and filter for pages that match your standards (e.g., DR 30+). 

Using Ahrefs' Content Explorer to find pages listing the best gyms in London

Or when you desire, plug a competitor into Website Explorer, go to the Backlinks report, and seek for referring pages with “finest [thing]” of their titles.

Finding referring resource pages with "best gyms" in their titles

3. Seek for pages with useful resource sections

Not all useful resource pages are pages devoted solely to itemizing assets. 

For instance, a lot of our weblog posts have “additional studying” sections the place we checklist and hyperlink to associated assets from different web sites:

Example of a "further reading" section on the Ahrefs Blog

Listed here are the search operators you should utilize to search out these alternatives:

  • Key phrase “additional studying”
  • Key phrase “extra assets”
  • Key phrase “different assets”
  • Key phrase “favourite assets”
  • Key phrase “favourite instruments”

Then it’s only a case of opening every search consequence, utilizing CTRL/CMD+F to seek for the footprint on the web page, and checking that they hyperlink to exterior assets within the part (not simply inner assets).

If the chance appears to be like promising, discover the positioning proprietor’s e-mail handle and pitch your useful resource.

Listed here are the professionals and cons of pitching these kinds of pages:

Execs Cons
Fewer individuals are doing it (much less aggressive). Not as many of those pages round.
Hyperlinks are sometimes greater high quality than “conventional” useful resource pages. Their creators aren’t on the lookout for ideas or suggestions, which can imply decrease conversion fee.

If you happen to can construct a relationship with the positioning proprietor or no less than assist ultimately earlier than pitching, you’ll be able to overcome a few of the cons above.

Last ideas 

Useful resource web page hyperlink constructing is about as easy because it will get. That’s most likely why so many search engine optimization professionals proceed to make use of this tactic—even in a world of skyscrapers and shotguns

Need a fast recap of every thing we lined? Watch this video

Bought questions? Give me a shout on Twitter.