{"id":1264,"date":"2023-11-23T13:43:41","date_gmt":"2023-11-23T13:43:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/project.co\/?p=1264"},"modified":"2024-06-12T10:46:10","modified_gmt":"2024-06-12T10:46:10","slug":"generate-backlinks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/project.co\/generate-backlinks\/","title":{"rendered":"How we generate thousands of backlinks to a single piece of content (every year!)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"bsf_rt_marker\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\"><em>Last updated on 23rd November 2023<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most people appreciate that links are perhaps the most important factor in getting a page to rank on Google. <strong>But not all links are created equal!&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Links from very high-quality, trusted websites carry <em>much <\/em>more weight. And &#8211; not surprisingly &#8211; they\u2019re the most difficult to secure.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So what if I told you that a small creative agency from the UK has received 20 backlinks from Forbes, 19 from Entrepreneur, 4 from the BBC, 23 from Hubspot, 4 from AdWeek, 11 from the NextWeb &#8211; and thousands more high profile businesses (including lots of our actual competitors?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What if I went further and told you the budget for this was basically zero?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And what if I told you that this is based on a strategy that YOU could replicate, not just once, but time and time again, with similar results?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this article, I\u2019ll explain this model in detail, run you through a step-by-step guide on how you can do it and show you how we\u2019ve just implemented this strategy for <a href=\"https:\/\/project.co\">Project.co<\/a> as well!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Background<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/project.co\/our-story\/\">As I\u2019ve written before<\/a>, Project.co was created to address a very particular need: to manage projects for our original brand, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wyzowl.com\/\">Wyzowl<\/a>, the animation studio I set up back in 2011 and still run today! See our showreel below \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Wyzowl Reel 2019\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/k5uO6DRcJJg?feature=oembed\"  allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>As we looked to grow the Wyzowl brand in the early part of the decade, I wanted us to be seen as experts &#8211; as an authority in our industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A large part of that was achieved by creating content for our audience: stuff that answered questions, gave advice, shared our expertise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of course, you can\u2019t write credible, high-quality content without backing up opinions with solid facts. We used <strong>dozens<\/strong> of data points and statistics in every article we wrote, linking back each and every time to the original sources, which were often already years old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And that\u2019s where the idea came from: <strong>why not generate our own data? <\/strong>We could deepen our understanding of the industry, be seen as industry leaders rather than followers, and, instead of linking to other people\u2019s research &#8211; they could link to ours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, in 2014, we set up a survey through <a href=\"https:\/\/www.surveymonkey.com\/\">SurveyMonkey<\/a>, promoted it through our email lists and social channels, and managed to gather 251 responses. We were pretty happy with the results, and &#8211; 12 months on &#8211; we repeated the exercise.&nbsp;This time we asked more questions and got more people to respond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The success has snowballed from there. Since 2014, we\u2019ve conducted 6 highly successful annual surveys in a row for Wyzowl. It\u2019s helped us build deeply insightful <em>year-over-year <\/em>trend data set that\u2019s incredibly valuable to us and unrivalled in our industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Why does this approach work?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Quite simply, it works because the data generated is new and unique. It can\u2019t be found anywhere else. It\u2019s also topical and actively being sought out by other people. This combination means we are providing the market with fresh, up to date data on a niche topic that\u2019s relevant to our industry. We\u2019re providing bloggers with the fuel they need to make their articles more credible! And in return, all we ask for if people use this data in their own articles is a link back to our site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Original data has helped us secure literally thousands of backlinks for Wyzowl including some of the high-profile ones I mentioned earlier. We\u2019ve amassed over 7,500 backlinks to our survey pages (over a third of our site\u2019s total backlinks\u2026)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And, since we\u2019ve already established that quality is even more important than quantity, I should make it clear again that these links routinely come from high-authority websites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Looking at the links we secured to our 2019 data, for example, you can see on the chart below that it\u2019s remarkably evenly distributed. (Domain Rating is an authority score given by SEO tool <a href=\"http:\/\/ahrefs.com\/\">Ahrefs<\/a>, with 0 being the lowest and 100 being the highest.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/project.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/kH0_H4MNKF78k9yNB3HqxCE57Jy2413zz2Gfwg-eV8mlyPLftxBR1Uyj2dhOa7872Cc4Tovxm7SgnyF1aFyEftEfJ4pEUuRUi9hwsNPfiYNYAQoLohE2-Rk1BZeI-HhuP6_CZTRm.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>We share our findings on a dedicated <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wyzowl.com\/video-marketing-statistics-2020\/\">statistics page<\/a> &#8211; for free &#8211; and simply ask that people link to the data in exchange for using it. This page is optimised, as much as possible, for search engines, with keyword research informing our header tags, title tags and much of the body copy to optimise discoverability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"2928\" height=\"1044\" src=\"https:\/\/project.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/image-6.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-289020\" srcset=\"https:\/\/project.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/image-6.png 2928w, https:\/\/project.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/image-6-300x107.png 300w, https:\/\/project.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/image-6-150x53.png 150w, https:\/\/project.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/image-6-768x274.png 768w, https:\/\/project.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/image-6-1536x548.png 1536w, https:\/\/project.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/image-6-2048x730.png 2048w, https:\/\/project.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/image-6-400x143.png 400w, https:\/\/project.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/image-6-1080x385.png 1080w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2928px) 100vw, 2928px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Links are generally seen by Google as \u2018votes\u2019 for a particular page, and &#8211; as the links come rolling in &#8211; we generally see the page start to rank well for those high volume keywords we\u2019ve identified, like \u2018video marketing statistics,\u2019 generating further visibility and helping people discover the stats for themselves. (Which fuels more links!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the dedicated statistics page, we also offer a downloadable version of the full report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, as well as many thousands of backlinks and referring domains, we\u2019ve also had 10,000+ downloads of the survey reports. (Depending on your goals, you might choose to gate this report &#8211; we personally don&#8217;t, although we have done in the past, because our objective is more about getting our data out to as many people as possible, rather than imposing barriers.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The value of a link goes far beyond the individual pages, too. Our overall domain authority has<strong> soared<\/strong> thanks to such a high volume of quality links to our site.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This helps boost all the other content on our site, too, increasing organic traffic across the board. In fact our organic traffic has grown by over <strong>1,000% since 2015. <\/strong>Trust me &#8211; this would have been literally impossible without our surveys and reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>How we plan to use this strategy for Project.co (Step-by-Step)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>So, with all of that said &#8211; having stumbled upon such a proven \u2018win\u2019, I\u2019d have to be certifiably insane not to use it for Project.co too, right?!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As you might expect, it was one of the first things we decided to do after launching the product around September last year.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019re still in the midst of promoting and launching this data, but for now, I wanted to walk you step-by-step through what we did, how we did it\u2026and how you can do it too!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>STEP ONE: Conduct a survey<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>First things first, you need to decide what sort of survey you want to run: what data do you think would make an impact in your industry? What assumptions would you like to prove or disprove? Is there any out-of-date data you see referenced commonly in your industry that you could refresh?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>You want to satisfy 2 criteria with your topic:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Your topic needs to be something that people regularly write about.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>There needs to be a space for your data. Is the existing data that gets referenced old and out of date? Or are there things that you or other people write about that nobody has data on currently?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>If you can satisfy this criteria, then there\u2019s probably a good chance that people would reference your new data if they knew about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After doing lots of research, we decided to run a survey around <strong>communication<\/strong> for Project.co &#8211; a central issue that\u2019s relevant to our product offering, and something that a lot of people are clearly interested in writing about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We created the survey using <a href=\"https:\/\/www.surveymonkey.com\/\">SurveyMonkey<\/a>, which is an incredibly easy tool to use. One top tip we\u2019d offer here is to keep in mind the data, even when designing the questions. Offer fewer options where possible, to avoid diluting your end statistics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once set up, we promoted the survey via our own databases and social channels. If you don&#8217;t have a big audience or can&#8217;t get enough respondents (I&#8217;d suggest 200 respondents minimum to give a reasonable sample size) then you could also use the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.surveymonkey.com\/mp\/audience\/\">SurveyMonkey audience panel<\/a>. This is a good solution to consider if you\u2019re struggling to generate a big enough sample through your own channels, although be aware that the more targeted your audience sample, the pricier it\u2019ll be to buy responses. It works better if you\u2019re looking to gauge opinions among \u2018Joe Public.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We left the survey to run for around a week, then closed it and examined the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>End result: <\/strong>After doing this, you\u2019ll have generated fresh and unique data &#8211; around an interesting, relevant subject.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>STEP TWO: Create a results page<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Once the data is generated, it\u2019s time to create a web page to show off the results. You can see the page we created for the <a href=\"https:\/\/project.co\/communication-statistics-2020\/\">Project.co Communication Statistics here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is extremely important to the overall strategy, because the page is the resource that people will link to. You want to make sure the page is nicely designed, easy to navigate &#8211; and ultimately, quick and simple for people to use and share the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On our page, for example, we used \u2018copy\u2019 and \u2018tweet\u2019 buttons to help people capture and use the data within seconds.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>End result:<\/strong> You have a page that people can link to in exchange for using the data in their own articles and content.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>STEP THREE: Create a downloadable report<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>For reasons already discussed, it\u2019s often a good idea to create a downloadable report that includes extra data and analysis. You should ask people to fill out a form to download it, as this creates a starting point for a further conversation which could ultimately lead to a sale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How this looks and feels is up to you. For us, we create a PDF report &#8211; which gives us lots of freedom to create a nicely designed document &#8211; and then send a link to the document by email once someone completes the short lead capture form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>End result<\/strong>: When people find the statistics, a percentage of them will also download the report. This acts as a touchpoint with a new potential customer. Growing your list in this way can also help you collect more responses for future surveys!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>STEP FOUR: Guest posts<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>As we\u2019ll go on to cover in more detail, statistics don\u2019t often require ongoing promotion &#8211; but they certainly do need a jump start.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We find a great way to give new data an initial push is to write guest posts on high-authority websites. (You can find sites that accept guest posts by searching for \u201c&lt;your industry&gt; \u201cwrite for us\u201d or \u201c&lt;your industry&gt; \u201cguest posts\u201d.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s often easier to secure guest post placements on high-profile websites when you have unique data. Data-based posts that share highly relevant, interesting and timely information are enduringly popular &#8211; so it\u2019s a bit of a no brainer for blog editors.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, many years ago we managed to secure a guest <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.hubspot.com\/marketing\/state-of-video-marketing-new-data\">post on Hubspot for the Wyzowl Video Marketing Statistics<\/a>, see below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over the years, we\u2019ve worked with Hubspot to update this page with each new set of results we generate and at the time of writing this post it has just under 10,000 backlinks from 2,073 referring domains. Interestingly this post has become the 6th most linked to page on the Hubspot marketing blog which consists of over 12,000 articles. We\u2019re quite proud of this incredible feat! If this doesn\u2019t show the power of original data in a popular niche I don\u2019t know what else does. See below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/project.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/35k-v5Yp-y8KZlsd7FqpMSFONUpvJWUw1mY1hEjY-y7OzRCYU8WoycgCzksA0THi-2qllLS3JfQUhP737J5srvqagLoF5v7OJ_8bQBR30URm2BEy4ZJeRfANxJDB5TpqNu73NfgY.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Publishing your hard-earned data on someone else\u2019s website is obviously an approach that has pros and cons. The benefits are that you generate initial traction, visibility and get your data in front of a big audience, so they can start engaging and (hopefully) sharing it themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The drawback is that there\u2019s always a chance people will discover and link to that page instead of your own. However, the ethical way of sourcing statistics is to quote the original source &#8211; so you have to hope that people will click the link in your guest post and link to your original page.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In any case, we always find the benefits outweigh the drawbacks, since the initial exposure (and high-quality links) offered by a guest post are a key part of generating the initial traction to begin with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So we\u2019ve also replicated this with <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.hubspot.com\/marketing\/businesses-still-cant-nail-effective-communication\">Project.co on Hubspot<\/a>. We recently secured a guest post summarising a few of the key communication statistics we\u2019ve gathered. See the post here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/project.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Nj9yFsn3nnoBf-A_BBKz3Rx8jLWRJ0S33j5x1HyAlp0YGH3Db0VY2kJeNW7zzOFLhu1cXtOXVF4HY0nGoz2bJv9J4el0qalkHininOY33YfKhCwj_v0hZ2BhGWzi-tyvi27zgJI7.gif\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>End result:<\/strong> People start finding the statistics and linking back to us.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>STEP FIVE: Use the data in our own work<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The data generated through surveys like this is a goldmine to be used in your own articles and content. It can add real depth and insight to your writing &#8211; corroborating your own opinions with quantifiable facts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It can also dictate your editorial output and content calendar. You can actually start to unpack the data you\u2019ve uncovered and write whole articles around your findings &#8211; empowering you to lead the conversation in your industry.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Every article, potentially, is another vehicle to help people discover your data and use it in their own writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>End result:<\/strong> More people find the stats, and link back to the page. Sense of thought leadership bleeds into everything you promote &#8211; great for your brand!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>STEP SIX: Promote, promote, promote&#8230;and then relax!&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Imagine you\u2019ve got a massive boulder, sitting at the top of the biggest hill in town.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you don\u2019t give it an initial push &#8211; it\u2019ll just sit there forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But once you <em>have <\/em>given it the first push, it starts to pick up its own momentum and build speed without you taking any further action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s a really good metaphor for promoting original data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you don\u2019t do any initial promotion &#8211; through guest posts and optimisation &#8211; you can\u2019t realistically expect to get any results at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But once you\u2019ve given it that kick start, you\u2019ll start to find that the network effects become much greater than any promotional work you could do. For example, each of our Wyzowl survey pages grows in the number of referring domains linking to it by around 80 per month, per page!! This is far more links than we could generate manually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>End result:<\/strong> Network effects take over and we generate substantially more backlinks than we could generate ourselves manually.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Original research is a straightforward SEO tactic that should be used at the start of your SEO strategy. It will help you build backlinks, traffic and authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You\u2019ll find it\u2019ll also help you rank all your other content more successfully &#8211; and position you as an authority in your market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My advice &#8211; get started today! You won\u2019t regret it \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We reveal how we generate thousands of backlinks to our content, and run you through a step-by-step guide on how you can do it too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":288733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-our-journey"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/project.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/How-we-generate-thousands-of-backlinks-to-a-single-piece-of-content-every-year.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgGBe0-ko","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/project.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/project.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/project.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}