Link insertion may sound slightly off, but long gone are the times when links were crammed into the first best website just for quantity’s sake. Today, link insertion is a white-hat SEO technique that brings benefits to both parties involved.
You get the link from a reputable and popular resource that positively impacts the key metrics of your site and helps you gain visibility and traction with users. For a target site owner, it’s a chance to get a small profit immediately and gain a link to potentially engaging content, thus enticing users to come for more useful links gathered neatly on one page.
In this article, we’ll explore the exact idea of link insertion, dos and don’ts, the optimal practices and other valuable information on the matter. With a little bit of practice, you’ll master this efficient technique really fast.
What Is Link Insertion
Link insertion is a normal white-hat SEO method of link building. It means inserting a link to your article or product into an already existing post or article on some third-party site. You reach out to owners of popular thematic web pages and negotiate link insertion on terms that suit you both. So you get a high-quality backlink that enables people to discover your content and become returning visitors, buyers, or subscribers, depending on your business goals.
Link insertion has a certain ambivalent shadow attached to its name, but that’s because of poorly arranged link insertions and over-spamming the popular sites with links not related to the thematic niche.
If planned and executed carefully, link insertion benefits both the referring site and your site, not to mention users who tap into a useful web resource.
Link insertions can be categorized into three types:
- Link inserted into a thematic article
- Link inserted into a roundup or review of a number of resources/tools/solutions etc.
- Link inserted into a business listing of webpages dealing with the same niche.
Inserting a link into an article is the easiest and the fastest way to do it, but with a bit of creativity and collaboration, a link can be inserted into a list or a business recommendations page.
One more point to remember: link insertion differs from guest posting. Link insertion does not require you to create a full-scale post with a link to your page that will be published on the third-party resource. That’s called guest posting. In link insertion, you provide a link and point to an exact spot where it should be placed (the exact line and words of the existing post).
Pros & Cons Of Link Insertions
Link insertion makes up around 10% of the whole link-building plan for a given page. Together with 15% of guest posting, it amounts to 25% of all link building. The number is rather significant, so never disregard this way of getting links.
Yet like any SEO method, link insertion has its pros and cons, depending on how you play your cards and how you select the sites for link insertion.
Pros
- Link insertion is generally a white-hat SEO method
- It delivers immediate SEO results
- It impacts positively the site authority
- It is relatively easy
- The expenses are low (for paid methods)
- You don’t need to create tailored content
Cons
- The most lucrative and authoritative sites may not agree to insert links into their content
- If done in the wrong way, it can harm your page ranking
- Popular sites don’t like the idea of linking to a newly minted page so you have to devise a very strong persuasion tactic.
5 Essential Strategies To Get Your Link Inserted Into Existing Content (Paid & Free)
Paid strategies essentially mean that you find a suitable site, pick the section of the site or the article that is most relevant to your business niche, and pitch a webmaster with an offer of link insertion in exchange for payment.
Free strategies mean that you prepare the most awesome and SEO-optimised content on your site and repeat almost all steps listed above. The only difference is that you don’t offer to pay for link insertion and instead persuade a webmaster that your content is a hidden treasure that their users will be glad to discover via a link.
The initial steps for all strategies will coincide, so let’s look at them as a whole.
- Define your specific goal since it will impact the strategy. If you want to insert a link to a particular article, you will look for an article that is related thematically. If you plan to insert the link to a homepage or a brand name, you’ll have to look for tool and website reviews or business recommendation pages.
- Decide on keywords that drive revenue for your business. Use Ahrefs Keyword Explorer (or a tool of your preference) to see what sites use these keywords, and by what keywords they try to rank their own pages. Put together, this information will tell you what sites are the most promising for your link insertion efforts.
- Find the sites.
The straightforward approach to site searching
While googling by keywords, add operators Intitle and Inurl to your search query to find pages that have the desired keywords right in their titles or URLs. They are the first places you will analyze and pitch in your quest for links. Since they use their keywords in their titles, their topics perfectly fit your business niche, and you can explore their whole websites and find various opportunities, broader and more focused, for placing your links.
For example, if you want to get a link for an article on white-hat link building, you may want to use both this exact keyword and some broader keywords, like professional link building, SEO link building, etc.
Then your Google queries will look like this:
- Inurl:SEO link building
- Intitle:SEO link building
or
- Inurl:professional link building
- Intitle:professional link building
Sites and content pages discovered through this method are keepers by all means, and you can pick and choose what exact keywords or topics you’ll be pitching to them as links. Most probably, their categories and subcategories will match any type of content you have, from white-hat link building tips to tools and services that facilitate the task.
Alternative strategy:
If you know at least one direct competitor, you can borrow generously from their site. Enter their URLs into Ahrefs’ Site Explorer and see keywords they rank by, all links they have, and sites that link to them. If you don’t have backlinks from these sites but your competitors have claimed a spot there, it’s high time you try to insert your link there, too.
- Analysis stage. This stage is one of the two crucial steps (the second one being the outreach campaign) in your link insertion work. Only the best sites are worth the effort, and by ‘best’ we mean not only the content but also the metrics showing that the site is popular and has tons of traffic.
What points and metrics to check in the first place?
- Make sure that the site is in the niche you are looking for (sounds obvious, but it never hurts to remind of it)
- Domain Authority and Domain Rating should be high (65 and above)
- Sufficient number of linking or referring domains is 50 or more
- High organic traffic metrics (1,000 and more for the page and 5,000 and more for the site)
- URL Rating (or Page Authority) needs to be above 40
Use tools like Ahrefs or Moz to get all necessary data and have it laid out conveniently. When you see a bigger picture, you know immediately where your main focus should be. Sites that make it through these sieves are the ones to reach out to.
Additionally, make sure that the site:
- Is not your direct competitor
- Has dofollow as well as a few nofollow links
- Links to external sites (i.e. check that links are not leading to internal pages only).
If a site ticks all boxes, you can start an outreach campaign.
- Let’s assume that you’ve found a particular article on the site that you want to link to. At this point, strategies diverge.
Strategic approach to paid link insertion:
- First decide on your budget so that you can negotiate confidently. Usually, the cost of link insertion as such is around $20, sometimes up to $30 if the site features high DA and excellent metrics.
- Find the site representative you can communicate with (a webmaster, a content manager, explore the site and you’ll find one).
- Never send first emails from your own official email linked to your site. If something goes wrong, you don’t want negative feedback mentioning your site appearing all across the web overnight. Use some neural or specifically set up email to conduct this negotiation.
- Send a curveball by asking the price for a guest post. The price will be much higher than for a link insertion, and you can play the part and negotiate for a simple link insertion instead. It is cheaper and less troublesome, so you’ll meet in the middle happily at this point.
- When you strike a deal, pay immediately, don’t delay. You need to make a good impression, plus you build a connection that may help you in the future.
- After payment, provide careful instructions where to insert the link plus the link URL. Screenshot the article (include the URL for convenience) and the exact sentence and words you want to lock the link into.
- Select the anchor phrase yourself, OR craft it and mention where exactly to fit it, OR ask to insert a whole new sentence, if there is no suitable location for natural link placement. A link should look as natural as possible, for the sake of content and the sake of safety. Links that look spammy may bust your website’s reputation and ranking instead of boosting it.
- When a webmaster reaches back to say that it’s done, check the link on their page carefully. You don’t want any accidental error to flush your efforts down the drain.
Alternative strategy
You’ll need to look for sites that accept payment for links placement right from the start. They operate as topical venues with their own services and sales but accept links or guest posts now and then. Yet the screening process on your side is absolutely the same: you review the site metrics, reputation, and topic, and then decide if setting a link there will bring you the desired result in terms of ranking improvement, traffic, and authority growth.
The strategy for free link insertion:
Instead of offering a fee for link insertion, you’ll have to pitch your content as outstandingly useful and engaging. It works basically as any other outreach, just be sure to include the exact action you want your recipient to take (link insertion, in this case).
So you begin with finding an email of a person in charge who you’ll be pitching to. Then you decide on the exact type of content you want to insert a link into: an article, a product review/roundup, or a business recommendation page. For each case, you’ll have to craft a slightly different email. Personalization of emails is the advantage to use, not the annoying task to skip.
The structure of emails will be the same, it’s the wording and the exact suggestion of links that will differ:
- Mention the post they created (and you want to place a link into) and explain why it captured your attention (useful, rich in details, drawing from first-hand experience, you name it).
- Tell them that you have a post on the same or similar topic that can nicely complement their post.
- Add some details on how exactly your post will benefit them (add more details, expand some topic, provide a fresh update or a deeper look into some problem, etc.)
- Suggest that they include a link to your post into their post, thus bridging them for users’ convenience. Add that Google will also appreciate the addition of a link leading to a good-quality site (yours, we mean).
- We recommend that you include the link to their post in your email as well, because the content volume is growing steadily on their site and they may have trouble finding the post you refer to.
That’s the outline you’ll follow while crafting your emails. Now let’s see what email examples may look like for different cases.
Link insertion into a thematic article
It’s that simple: they wrote a post and you wrote a post on a similar topic. So why not connect these posts by a link so that their users gain access to your content that matches their interest, too?
Email example:
‘Hi (first name of a recipient),
I came across your article on (topic) and I got quite a few useful insights from it. I especially appreciated the mention of (specific detail or aspect) because we happen to be fellow (mention your business area, like link-building or SEO professionals) and I know how important it is.
We have also recently published a data-packed longread on the matter and included a few valuable tips on improving/boosting/optimizing (your topic).
I believe your readers would appreciate the information we have to offer, so would you consider including the link to our post into your article? Our post adds a unique perspective on the matter, and put together, your and our articles will make a profound and practically oriented resource.
Will be glad to hear back from you!’
When you get a response, share the link to your article and remind politely about link insertion. It costs site owners nothing but the benefits are obvious, so most probably, they’ll respond with a screenshot of your link in their text.
Yet your content should be really well-written and informative to persuade a webmaster to set a backlink.
Link insertion into an overview of products/resources
Email example:
‘Hi (first name of a recipient),
I’ve enjoyed reading your post on (topic) as it delivers an impressive overview of products/solutions/resources. It’s great to have it at hand, actually.
What I wanted to add is that we offer a (product/solution/article) that fits perfectly into your overview. Our product/solution/article features some valuable insights/tips/features that your readers might really appreciate.
I believe, including a link to our product into your overview will give it a competitive edge and add even more practical value for your readers.
Drop us a line if it seems a reasonable idea!
Best wishes’
It’s a good idea to include a link to their own material since it may be not freshly posted, so spare them the trouble and impress them with your attention to details.
Link insertion into a business recommendation page
Such posts are essentially big ads in disguise, the Yellow Pages in web mode, with a limited number of entries, so getting there is a real contest. So first, mention why your website/service is cool and important for their audience and what is special about it.
Second, include an offer of a free trial for your services or products. It makes an incentive for a webmaster and provides them with an opportunity to test your services and know if they are worth it.
Email example:
‘Hi (first name of a recipient),
I am glad that you’ve undertaken a tremendous job and created a list of (business) since it’s really handy to have them all in one place.
We at (name your site) offer a similar range of services and it would be great to make it to your list, too. The point is that our company (name) offers a set of unique features that will be of use to your readers and all people who look for this type of service.
Don’t just take our word for it: we’d be happy to provide a free trial for you to prove that we live up to our promises.
So please let us know what you think about including us into your list of (businesses/services).
Best wishes
(your name)
PS Free trial is an open-date offer, request it when it’s convenient for you’
The key is to personalize emails for the outreach and to match them carefully for your specific purpose. Then you’ll get the most out of your campaign.
Examples of Link Insertions
What might the link insertion process look like in real life? Let’s build a case study.
Say, you want to insert a link to your article on white-hat link building, what, why, how, you name it.
- So first you have to look for reputable sites that you can link to. You run a search by keywords – exact and broad ones – to find sites that specialize in link building and have the content on white-hat methods.
- After you have located sites that seem thematically matching, you need to check their metrics, including traffic, DA and DR, link numbers, etc. If everything is fine, then you can settle on a given site as a safe option that will give you a boost in ranking and authority (because that’s why you do it, in the first place).
- Decide on the article you want to insert a link into and draft the anchor for your link. It’s awesome if you can link to the already existing words within the article, but usually you have to come up with a custom anchor. The more natural it looks, the better.
- Then find contacts of a web owner or a content manager and look at the T&C of this site. There, you’ll find information on whether they accept payments for link insertion directly (or for guest posting) or you will have to do a cold pitch.
- If you can just pay and send the link to be inserted – great. If not, then send a first email asking about paid insertion and if they are willing to do it. Owners of sites that are not in the super top positions but still have decent metrics will probably agree to your offer.
- Websites in top search positions will probably decline the direct money offer because they are very choosy about who they endorse by linking. Instead, review and optimize your content and pitch it for link insertion as a highly valuable asset that these site owners just should not miss.
- To make it to their pages, your content needs to be really cool. But once you manage to persuade them and do the link insertion, there are high chances that the next time you’ll get a backlink from them faster and easier. They already know that they can trust you and so you’ll be on the white list of candidates whose content deserves a link.
Conclusions
What you can see from our guide is that once you’ve mastered the basic rules of link building, the specific strategies will be spin-offs of that main strategy. For link insertion, you still have to prepare great content, find reputable sites (because they will bring you desired boost in ranking and DA), and negotiate the deal politely but confidently. The rest is technical stuff that can be performed easily with the right tools.
This is basically it. Just start doing it and keep going, and you’ll get the best link juice and growth of traffic on your site gradually but steadily.
