Link Building – Reclaim Links Through Social Mentions

For most marketers, link building is the core piece in their SEO strategy. Link building has evolved and tools to automate the process. Many ways can build links for your website. Most of these traditional methods still work amazingly well, but one thing I’ve seen work exceptionally well is social mentions. It’s not hard to do, and it doesn’t have to be time-consuming every month. I’ve been doing this for now, and I’m stoked about the results. Do you want to know how I reclaimed backlinks through social mentions? Keep reading!

Step 1: Identify Your Target Keywords

First, identify keywords that are relevant to your website. If you don’t know which keywords to use, pick one keyword for now and do not try too hard because you will miss out on some golden opportunities. You’ll be surprised how many backlinks these mentions can bring you. For example, I picked this article’s keyword ‘link building.’ If you go to Google, type ‘link building,’ and click on the first search result, you’ll land on my website. Just follow your instinct and try it out!

Step 2: Identify Sites That Are Mentioning Your Target Keywords

If you have your keyword, it’s time to find sites mentioning it. There are a lot of tools out there that can help you with this step. Here I will use BuzzSumo. Go to BuzzSumo and enter your website or keyword into the search bar. You’re looking for the total number of mentions, as shown below. Now you have all the websites that are mentioning your keyword. The next step is to contact these people and politely ask for a mention on their site or link back to your site.

Step 3: Mentions & Linkbacks

Now it’s time to build some links! I will tell you my strategy below, but please note that you need to develop your strategy. Most of the time, when I mentioned a site in an article using my keyword, they would automatically add a link to my website without me even asking! But sometimes, you have to ask nicely and offer them a backlink in return. I never ask for a ‘backlink’ because I want the site to link to me because it’s relevant and it makes sense. It’s super easy, and all you have to do is shoot an email.

Step 4: Analytics

You may have a good understanding of how many links you have now, but if you want to be 100% sure, I’d recommend looking at your analytics. In Google Analytics, click on Acquisition > Search Engine Optimization. Click Internal Links and select the primary dimension as Landing Page, then sort from high to low. You’ll know which pages are getting the most backlinks.

Step 5: Social Mentions

Now that you have your keyword(s) and backlinks, it’s time to find the sites that are talking about you! To do this:

1. Follow the same steps as above.
2. Log in to BuzzSumo and go to Social > Mentions.
3. Paste your website URL there, search for your keywords, and click on all the profiles mentioning you.
4. Don’t forget to show appreciation and thank them!

Now check your analytics to see if it worked. That’s all there is to it, but I’d like to share a few more tips:

1. Find out which sites are linking back to you
2. Reach out on Twitter
3. Find people using your Product / Service
4. Use Followerwonk to find relevant influencers
5. Use the Chrome extension Linkclump to see who shared what link and reach out!

Closing Thoughts

Link building has changed, and social mentions are a great way to build links for your website. It’s easier than ever now as you can reach out to people without even getting on the phone or using email. Hoping this article helped you understand how to reclaim backlinks through social mentions!

Tags: Backlink, BuzzSumo, Link Building, Link Building 101, Linkclump, Social Mentions