The Skyscraper Technique: A Comprehensive Guide to Whitehat Link Building

Link building is an essential part of any successful search engine optimization (SEO) campaign. Unfortunately, many website owners and content creators publish their content without building any links, only to realize that their pages are not visible on search engine result pages (SERPs). According to a recent study by Ahrefs, 90% of content published on the internet never gets seen, mainly due to a lack of links. As there are over 200 elements to Google's algorithm, link building is still the number one determining factor for ranking on SERPs.

In this article, we will discuss the Skyscraper Technique, a whitehat, ethical approach that protects your website while building natural, relevant links by producing amazing content. We will cover the following topics:

• Why link building is essential for your website
• The Skyscraper Technique: An overview
• Steps to building links using the Skyscraper Technique
• Tools required for building links using the Skyscraper Technique
• Tips for successful link building

Why Link Building is Essential for Your Website

When it comes to search engine traffic, publishing your content alone is not enough. You need to build high-quality backlinks to your website to improve your page ranking on SERPs. Without backlinks, your pages are unlikely to be ranked by Google. Building backlinks is an essential part of your SEO campaign that cannot be ignored. Backlinks serve as indications of the quality and relevance of your content to search engines, giving your website credibility and authority.

The Skyscraper Technique: An Overview

The Skyscraper Technique is a link building strategy that is highly effective and scalable. It involves finding competing articles in your niche with a ton of links and then building a better piece of content than your competitors. The most competitive search terms are where all the links are, so by creating a better piece of content than your competitors, you will have a better chance of ranking higher on SERPs and getting links from high-authority websites.

Steps to Building Links Using the Skyscraper Technique

The following are the steps to building links using the Skyscraper Technique:

1. Find competing articles in your niche with a ton of links: Once you have identified your niche, use a tool like Ahrefs to find articles with the most links. These articles are essential to know because they give an understanding of the type of content that is popular in your niche and has a higher chance of getting links.
2. Build a list of all the websites that are linked to those competing articles: Export all the links that are embedded in these articles into a spreadsheet or any other document. This list will serve as a benchmark for you to track the number of backlinks that you have gained at the end of your outreach campaign.
3. Create a better piece of content than your competitors: Your content should be at least 2,500 words long, include pictures, and reference any statistics and pictures that you use. Do not monetize the content or have any promotional element to it. After the outreach campaign period, you can add the promotional elements back to your content.
4. Reach out to all the prospects listed in step 2: Send out emails to all the prospects and offer them a link to your better content. Your email should be personalized and offer them a value proposition by saying that you will share their content on social media to say thanks.

Tools Required for Building Links Using the Skyscraper Technique

The following tools are required for building links using the Skyscraper Technique:

• Ahrefs.com: A paid tool that provides you with a backlink analysis of your website or your competitors' websites
• Hunter.io: A free tool that crawls through websites and gathers email addresses
• NeverBounce: A paid email cleaning software that ensures all emails are active, and there would be no bounce backs
• Lemlist: A paid email marketing tool that enables you to send bulk personalized emails effectively

Tips for Successful Link Building

The following are some tips for successful link building:

• Always produce high-quality content that adds value to the reader
• Make your content shareable: your content should be easy to link to and share through various social media platforms
• Do not buy links or engage in any spammy activities that could hurt your website's reputation
• Stay up-to-date with the latest SEO trends and incorporate them into your link building strategies

In conclusion, link building is a crucial factor in determining the success of your website's SEO campaign. Using the Skyscraper Technique is an effective approach that is highly scalable and produces sustainable results. To be successful, create high-quality content that provides value to the reader, identify your competitors' linked content, and create a better version of that content. Finally, reach out to the prospects with a personalized email, and you will be on your way to building high-quality backlinks to boost your website's visibility on SERPs.