Data-driven link building: lessons from a $708K investment (BrightonSEO talk)

In my recent talk during BrightonSEO, I shared a practical, step-by-step approach to link building that I developed after investing $708,000 over the past year. I presented key insights and lessons learned from hands-on experience, offering actionable strategies for successful link building.

I also compared two approaches: digital PR, which often relies on luck, and a data-driven strategy for buying links. I highlighted how data can lead to more predictable and scalable results in link building. Additionally, I discussed future trends and strategies, providing a forward-looking perspective on the evolving role of link building and how to stay ahead in the coming years.

Transcript

1. takaoto.pro
3. What is data-driven link building Process of prospecting (link gap)
4. What is data-driven link building Process of prospecting (link gap)
 Common & unique backlinks
5. What is data-driven link building Process of prospecting (link gap)
 Common & unique backlinks
 Quality & indexation

6. What is data-driven link building Process of prospecting (link gap)
 Common & unique backlinks
 Quality & indexation
 Priority for links
7. What is data-driven link building Process of prospecting (link gap)
 Common & unique backlinks
 Quality & indexation
 Priority for links
 you can get immediately
8. What is data-driven link building Process of prospecting (link gap)
 Common & unique backlinks
 Quality & indexation
 Priority for links
 you can get immediately
 with best quality/price ratio
9. ISSUES Section 1 ISSUES
10. Link building can be unpredictable
14. Trust? Delivery? Longevity?
15. August 12, 2024
16. August 12, 2024
17. August 12, 2024 45 days later...
18. August 12, 2024 45 days later...
21. No. It doesn’t!
26. You - $ Publisher You -$ Agency -smth Publisher Google link building strategies
27. strategies
30. It doesn’t have to be painful! Link building
31. Not recommended by =/= not effective
32. ISSUES SOLUTIONS Section 2
33. What I bring to the table 12 years in SEO agency business
34. What I bring to the table 12 years in SEO agency business 700K USD / yr on backlinks
35. Meal delivery services
36. Apartment rentals / bookings s
37. Fashion e-commerce
38. HOW TO BUY LINKS AND CONTROL THE PROCESS?
42. CHOOSE YOUR DOMAINS
49. Yes,
50. Yes, but
51. newsbreak.com
52. Ratio In / Out = Referring Domains Linked Domains
59. Get more link juice via internal linking
60. Topical relevance
61. Targeting specific countries Language Country
64. Targeting specific countries
65. Targeting specific countries
66. Follow vs. nofollow
67. Follow vs. nofollow
68. Follow vs. nofollow
69. Isn’t that obvious?
70. 14 articles, 12 with links... how many follow?
73. wheels-alive.co.uk
74. wheels-alive.co.uk
75. Nationalworld.com
76. 2 000 000 > 45 000
78.  Number of linkÉ  % dofollo"  Min. Traffià  New/unique referring domainÉ  Timeframe Digital PR - goals
80.  Number of linkÉ  % dofollo"  Min. Traffià  New/unique referring domainÉ  Timeframe Sponsored articles - guarantee Digital PR - goals
81. Natural but not random Data driven anchor-text profile
82. Reverse engineering Natural but not random Data driven anchor-text profile
83. Reverse engineering Define and craft your profile Natural but not random Data driven anchor-text profile
85. Pass the link juice to the pages of your choice! Main page? Resource pages?
86. Pass the link juice to the pages of your choice! Main page? Resource pages? Link to the money pages!
87. Passing authority to the pages you want! Main page? Resource pages? Link to the money pages! 2nd tier links
88. ISSUES SUMMARY Section 3
92. Data-science / AI in link building List of websites Crawl Embeddings (via language model) Cosine similarity
97. ...in the end it doesn't even matter
99. THANKS! slowik@takaoto.pro szymonslowik.com
100. Bonus backlinks from free blogs 92 91 94 82 91 90 89 DR substack.com iheart.com medium.com newsbreak.com aol.com mirror.co.uk express.co.uk backlinks from spammy subdomains or free blogs backlinks from spammy subdomains 34k Referring Domains vs 72k Linked Domains; very low indexation; often redirects reposts with VERY low (<10%) indexation have you ever seen report without them? ;) links to 45 500 linked domains, yours is not special :)