There are many examples of impossible links. The concept is relatively simple we prioritise getting links on sites where competitors find it very difficult to replicate. Alternatively, we prioritise getting links on specific pages that are supporting key rankings of our client’s competitors.
Some examples
Link on the Washington Post with the top 10 betting sites is impossible for a competitor to approach Washington Post and ask them for a link as it was created naturally by a reporter on a high authority website.
Link on a page with very high page trust or UR (ahrefs) (NOT DA domain authority) that is linking to a competitors website to support their marketplace ranking.
Sites or pages with a low UR rating do not pass authority, or support rankings very well.
Sites with a high page UR have second-tier links that DO pass authority.
Sort by UR to find high power URL’s driving competitors rankings, and use the filter functions to refine specific keywords and hyper-target.
Intelligent link decisions
We always need to evaluate if we will be adding long-term benefit to our clients site portfolio, “quick win” high authority links can still be spammy! Google can identify these pure authority strategies from a mile away.
If there is a possibility that it could be seen as spam we simply move on, look for the next potential link partnership.
Impossible links can come in many formats.
- A review article about our client’s properties. (it’s dedicated to our client’s website)
- A website that we own. (No matter how a competitor tries to get a link on our sites the answer is NO.)
- A guide article where the cost of the article and the link is so high that 90% of competitors would not be able to afford it.
- Brand mention as a source.
- A high authority directory.
- A competitors website in the same niche.
- Sponsorship on a donations website.
- etc, you decide, be creative
The point is we are looking for strategic links that add long-term value, pass authority and look natural.
What is Natural?
Natural links are links that look like they were placed for some good and plausible reason. If links look like they were placed for SEO and Rankings we elevate the risk of them looking like engineered links that Google does NOT take kindly to.
Social Engineering Contacts
Often social engineering and sometimes a bit of negotiation there are often many backdoors into attaining impossible links for reasonable prices. Very often the author or journalist is mentioned, has a Linkedin or facebook profile and we can simply reach out and see what the deal is? A Google search or two on a person name, or email or social profile can often yield a who to contacts and saves tons of time if we can just reach out. Contact forms, social profiles etc on websites can be used to get in touch with the site owners / or writers and just understanding who we are going after for contacts is sometimes half the impossible link building task.
Authority is trumped by relevance
Finally, the criteria of authority are market-specific relevance and CONTEXT.
- A DA90 link in the wrong market is nowhere near as valuable as a DA30 link in the right target market. If you want Canadian rankings, get Canadian links.
- Relevance is getting gambling links from gambling sites, inside the target market, these are the golden goose. NOTHING beats a Canadian slots website that is ranking, linking to our Canadian slots pages. DA and all the SEO metrics are just indicators. If another gambling site is ranking in our space there is no harm in asking. He who does not ask, will not get.
- Market relevance and context. If we find a link prospect website about football it makes NO CONTEXTUAL SENSE linking it to a slots page, when we have a football page on the client’s website. SEO Strategists are expected to KNOW YOUR CLIENT’S WEBSITE. Where opportunities to link to inner pages align with subjects of external websites there is a potential link alliance. So link football pages from football websites.
- In some cases, the link opportunity dictates that we CREATE pages on our client’s websites that can create the PLAUSIBLE link association.
Distributing the authority
With contextual linking, we understand that links do NOT always go to the MONEY URLs of the client’s website. This is why it is important to ensure that when we link into internal contextual articles that those articles are contextually linked into the MONEY page sections of our client’s website.
For instance a ilovefising.com/fishyslots.html – external link to -> maplecasino.ca/fishy-slot-game/ -links internally to-> /slots & /slots-reviews/ & /slots-games/ & /slots-bonus/ money pages $ /some-other-slotgame-page/ pages on the maplecasino.ca website.
Contextual links are links in the content and NOT links in the main navigations. These links may or may not contain money anchor text.
This ensures that our client
- A) get’s a sustainable link from a relevant website
- B) the link’s effect on the money pages is maximised on money pages
It is SEO strategists mandate to ensure that our client’s sites are receiving the best possible internal link authority distribution and maximising the effect of each inbound link, no matter what page it is pointing to.
