How To Use Follow-Up Content in Link Building

Who out there needs to build links to their website but is tired of dreaming up original ideas and spending money to create buzz worthy content?

Yeah, me too. 🙂

While no one will do your work for you, there are ways to use other people’s content to drive links to your site. Here’s a look at using follow-up content and how it can lighten your development load while increasing your link counts.

Using Follow-Up Content In Link Building

Have you ever watched a press briefing where the reporter asks a question and immediately asks a second “follow-up” question? Something in the initial answer sparked the reporters interest so she asks a “follow-up” question to clarify. Good reporters know the value of a follow-up and push them since they generally lead to something “more”.

In SEO, we use the concept of the follow-up a little differently but for the same reason, we’re looking to take advantage of something already said/published for the purpose of getting more traffic and links to our sites. There are several types of follow-up content we can use:

Scientific rebuttal
Personal opinion rebuttal
Add-on information
Comment Jacking

They’re all different but share a common denominator – the need for speed. Launch your campaign as fast as you can or lose the momentum and interest in the subject.

Let’s take a look at how the four types of follow-up content can be used in traffic and link building.

Scientific Rebuttal

If you know a fact is incorrect in an article and you have access to sources to prove your point, create a rebuttal piece and publish on your site or on a news site. Link to the original source and implement a strong social media campaign to get the word out.

Find out who is linking to the original article and send a nicely worded email offering your content and point-of-view as an additional source. I don’t think it’s a good idea to knock the original article, just point out you have a different viewpoint supported by research. People will get what you’re saying.

I am not a fan of sending content away from a site but if I did not have a large social network, email list or name in my community I might opt to publish my rebuttal on a news site simply for the exposure. You get the benefit of their marketing efforts and there’s a high likelihood you will be picked up by other news sites, especially if the piece gets any traction.

Just be sure you have the sources to back your claims or you’ll be the one in the hot seat. I don’t believe in “any publicity is good publicity”, be wrong more than once and no one will pick you up again.

Personal Opinion Rebuttal

Yes, I know what people say about opinions but thing is, having an opinion is healthy and part of life. I especially like chatty, opinionated people because they provide key elements I can use to create rebuttal linkbait.

Look around for a hot topic or breaking piece of news, write a rebuttal post that compares your position to the other guy’s. Include the original article and link, be kind but firm in your responses and include links to previous content you’ve written that supports your opinions.

Backlink the original article for sources, contact the source owners and offer to guest blog your opinion rebuttal. Or ask if they’ll include a link to your rebuttal piece in the original article.

Search through blog/forum comments for the topic you’re rebutting, reach out to people sharing similar opinions and ask for their support, include them in your opinion rebuttals. People tend to link and socialize content where they’re mentioned.

Keep an eye on who shares your rebuttal on social networks, contact those with multiple shares and look for link opportunities. Alert tools like Talkwalker and Social Mention can help with this.

Add-on Information

Think of this one as writing a follow-up article that “adds on” to what someone else already published. This is less about agreeing (or not) with the original author and more about how to milk a topic that netted a lot of links and traffic when first run. Here’s an example:

This tactic typically nets links and traffic since people like being agreed with and will readily link to and socialize positive reviews of their work. Looking for a way to tap an influencer for help? This is a great way to do that.

Comment Jacking

If you have a blog, go through your comments and look for hot topics and negative Nelly’s disagreeing with something you wrote. Update your post with feedback and relaunch; contact the people who inspired the post and let them know it’s been published. Hopefully it will prompt the negative Nelly to blog about your content or comment again which should draw more attention and traffic back to your blog.

I also troll comments on popular blogs and use this tactic, it is surprisingly effective at getting short bursts of traffic and links to a new blog post.

A Final Follow-Up Content Tip

Offering a different point of view or adding on to a hot topic is the kind of researched content journalists/pro-bloggers like. Send your follow-up content to them later in the week, it stands a good chance of being run on the weekend when the stock markets are closed and the news cycle slows down.

A good follow-up or come-back can generate publicity, traffic and links making you the ultimate winner!

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Debra Mastaler

About the Author:
Debra Mastaler is President of Alliance-Link, a link building company in business since 2001 focused on providing relevant lists of sources and media outlets to content developers.When she's not working for Alliance-Link, Debra can be found refinishing furniture or working in her garden.