In Episode #379, Eric and Neil discuss what link blending is and how to do it fast. Tune in to learn how to execute link blending as a part of your process for boosting your rank. You’ll learn just what it takes to be in a “good neighborhood” with others who have similar content and keywords as you.
Time Stamped Show Notes:
- 00:27 – Today’s topic: What Is Link Blending (and How To Do It Fast)
- 00:39 – Eric shares how his friendship with Neil started
- 00:41 – Eric was just starting when Neil wrote a post about link blending
- 00:45 – Since Eric didn’t understand what Neil’s post was about, Eric reached out to Neil to ask more questions about link blending
- 01:01 – Link blending is when someone links out to you, like a Wikipedia article for example, and ranks for the keyword you want to rank for
- 01:12 – Then, they will link to someone who is in the top 20 for the keyword that you want to rank for without using an anchor text for other links—Google will read that you’re in a good neighborhood
- 01:33 – It’s easier to control link blending if you’re building links through black hat ways
- 01:39 – In link blending, you should know who’s linking to your competitors that are at the top
- 01:43 – If you build links to those sites, you’ll be in a good neighborhood
- 01:51 – Your ranking will grow faster
- 01:53 – If someone is already ranking for your keyword and links to you from their page, your rankings will go up because your content is similar
- 02:03 – Link blending is a way to make sure you’re in a good neighborhood and your links are relevant
- 02:15 – There’s a template that needs to be followed in guest posting
- 02:48 – There’s a lot of link blending happening with guest posting in big publications
- 03:17 – Link blending is a process that is good to have on your checklist
- 03:34 – Marketing School is giving away a free 1 year subscription to Crazy Egg which is a visual analytics tool
- 03:59 – Go to SingleGrain.com/giveaway for multiple entries
- 04:11 – That’s it for today’s episode!
3 Key Points:
- Link blending is about being in a good neighborhood with sites that have relevant content who also rank well.
- Guest posting helps with link blending, but there’s a template or process that needs to be made and followed.
- Link blending is a process that is good to have on your checklist.
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Full Transcript of The Episode
Speaker 1: Get ready for your daily dose of marketing strategies and tactics from entrepreneurs with the guile and experience to help you find success in any marketing capacity. You're listening to Marketing School with your instructors Neil Patel and Eric Siu.
Eric Siu: Welcome to another episode of Marketing School. I'm Eric Siu.
Neil Patel: And I'm Neil Patel.
Eric Siu: Today we are going to talk about what link blending is. This topic is dear to my heart because this is basically how Neil and I, our friendship, basically started. The story is, I was reading Quick Sprout a long time ago when I was learning marketing and he wrote this post on link blending. I really didn't understand what he was talking about, so this is when I started to email him a ton and eventually the emails switched into phone calls because he was getting too annoyed and it became a friendship. So, link blending, I'm actually going to let Neil explain what it is, and we can talk about how we've done it in real life.
Neil Patel: Sure, so any time you build links to your site, right? If someone just links out to you, okay sure, that's fine. But if someone links out you a Wikipedia article that already ranks in the top ten for the keyword you want to rank for, if they also link out to someone who's in the top 20 for the keyword you want to rank for, and they may not use rich anchor text for the other links but they use rich anchor text for your links, Google will be like, "oh cool, your site is in good neighborhoods. You must be similar to Wikipedia and these other sites that rank high, so we should also rank you higher." That is pretty much what link blending is.
Now, if you're building links through black hat ways, it's really easier to control that. The best way to do link blending is look for who's linking to your competitors that rank up at top, right? If you see who's linking to them and then you build links from those sites as well, your links will already be in good neighborhoods, so pretty much be blended, and you'll find that your rankings will climb up faster.
Another way is, of course, if anyone who already ranks for your keyword links to you from that page, your rankings also shoot up faster cos those links are relevant. In other words, the whole purpose of link blending is to make sure you're in good neighborhoods and the links are very relevant and making sure that the search engines also see that the link was relevant.
Eric Siu: I find this is a good template for writers to follow, especially when they're helping you with guest posting, for example, right? Because there's a template, right? Have bullet points or a checklist for them to follow and it's always making sure that we're linking to some reputable sites out there.
Some of you are probably rolling your eyes like, "you're trying to make it look natural, well why don't you just write things the normal way and things will take care of themselves?" But the fact of the matter is, I think, if you're starting to build a staff, there's a process to follow, there's a checklist to follow. It just scales well because it's very similar to what you've been doing in the past and it's similar to what these other big sites have been doing.
I actually see a lot of link blending going on, especially with a lot of the guest posting on, let's say an entrepreneur magazine, or even Forbes. There's a lot of blended links, like Wikipedia might link to CNN or Time Magazine, and then maybe in the article somewhere it's linking to something very specific. Maybe there might be some rich anchor text, maybe not, but you can see it's actually pretty apparent that a lot of people are doing it. It's just that not a lot of people talk about it. I think it just makes sense, right? It's not like link blending is going to be the one thing that gets you number one position, but I think it's a process thing that's just good to have in the checklist.
Before we go, we have another special giveaway. This is a one year subscription to Crazy Egg, which is worth a lot of money. I'll let Neil explain what that is.
Neil Patel: Crazy Egg is a visual analytics tool. Google only shows you numbers, Crazy Egg shows you what people are doing on your website in a visual fashion. Where they click, where they don't, if your form fields or call to action buttons are too low or too high, if people are seeing them or if they're not. You can make changes through the WYSIWYG editor without being a techie or a designer or developer. It's drag in and drop, hide, modify colors, whatever you want. You can even run A/B tests. In other words, Crazy Egg helps you improve your conversion.
Eric Siu: Great, so if you want to get in on this giveaway, you can actually get multiple entries. Just go to singlegrain.com/giveaway. We're actually giving away one of these every single week. So 52 week giveaway, so you have a lot of chances to win. So again, singlegrain.com/giveaway and we will see you tomorrow.
Speaker 1: This session of Marketing School has come to a close. Be sure to subscribe for more daily marketing strategies and tactics to help you find the success you've always dreamed of. Don't forget to rate and review so we can continue to bring you the best daily content possible. We'll see you in class tomorrow, right here on Marketing School.
Eric Siu: Welcome to another episode of Marketing School. I'm Eric Siu.
Neil Patel: And I'm Neil Patel.
Eric Siu: Today we are going to talk about what link blending is. This topic is dear to my heart because this is basically how Neil and I, our friendship, basically started. The story is, I was reading Quick Sprout a long time ago when I was learning marketing and he wrote this post on link blending. I really didn't understand what he was talking about, so this is when I started to email him a ton and eventually the emails switched into phone calls because he was getting too annoyed and it became a friendship. So, link blending, I'm actually going to let Neil explain what it is, and we can talk about how we've done it in real life.
Neil Patel: Sure, so any time you build links to your site, right? If someone just links out to you, okay sure, that's fine. But if someone links out you a Wikipedia article that already ranks in the top ten for the keyword you want to rank for, if they also link out to someone who's in the top 20 for the keyword you want to rank for, and they may not use rich anchor text for the other links but they use rich anchor text for your links, Google will be like, "oh cool, your site is in good neighborhoods. You must be similar to Wikipedia and these other sites that rank high, so we should also rank you higher." That is pretty much what link blending is.
Now, if you're building links through black hat ways, it's really easier to control that. The best way to do link blending is look for who's linking to your competitors that rank up at top, right? If you see who's linking to them and then you build links from those sites as well, your links will already be in good neighborhoods, so pretty much be blended, and you'll find that your rankings will climb up faster.
Another way is, of course, if anyone who already ranks for your keyword links to you from that page, your rankings also shoot up faster cos those links are relevant. In other words, the whole purpose of link blending is to make sure you're in good neighborhoods and the links are very relevant and making sure that the search engines also see that the link was relevant.
Eric Siu: I find this is a good template for writers to follow, especially when they're helping you with guest posting, for example, right? Because there's a template, right? Have bullet points or a checklist for them to follow and it's always making sure that we're linking to some reputable sites out there.
Some of you are probably rolling your eyes like, "you're trying to make it look natural, well why don't you just write things the normal way and things will take care of themselves?" But the fact of the matter is, I think, if you're starting to build a staff, there's a process to follow, there's a checklist to follow. It just scales well because it's very similar to what you've been doing in the past and it's similar to what these other big sites have been doing.
I actually see a lot of link blending going on, especially with a lot of the guest posting on, let's say an entrepreneur magazine, or even Forbes. There's a lot of blended links, like Wikipedia might link to CNN or Time Magazine, and then maybe in the article somewhere it's linking to something very specific. Maybe there might be some rich anchor text, maybe not, but you can see it's actually pretty apparent that a lot of people are doing it. It's just that not a lot of people talk about it. I think it just makes sense, right? It's not like link blending is going to be the one thing that gets you number one position, but I think it's a process thing that's just good to have in the checklist.
Before we go, we have another special giveaway. This is a one year subscription to Crazy Egg, which is worth a lot of money. I'll let Neil explain what that is.
Neil Patel: Crazy Egg is a visual analytics tool. Google only shows you numbers, Crazy Egg shows you what people are doing on your website in a visual fashion. Where they click, where they don't, if your form fields or call to action buttons are too low or too high, if people are seeing them or if they're not. You can make changes through the WYSIWYG editor without being a techie or a designer or developer. It's drag in and drop, hide, modify colors, whatever you want. You can even run A/B tests. In other words, Crazy Egg helps you improve your conversion.
Eric Siu: Great, so if you want to get in on this giveaway, you can actually get multiple entries. Just go to singlegrain.com/giveaway. We're actually giving away one of these every single week. So 52 week giveaway, so you have a lot of chances to win. So again, singlegrain.com/giveaway and we will see you tomorrow.
Speaker 1: This session of Marketing School has come to a close. Be sure to subscribe for more daily marketing strategies and tactics to help you find the success you've always dreamed of. Don't forget to rate and review so we can continue to bring you the best daily content possible. We'll see you in class tomorrow, right here on Marketing School.
