By: Jonathan Stec

Published: January 13th, 2023

Updated: July 31st, 2024

You’ve probably heard about quite a variety of SEO strategies, with the skyscraper strategy as one of them. Brian Dean, founder of Backlinko (which was recently acquired by SEMRush), is the first to gain recognition for this strategy through this blog post and claiming credit for it.

So what exactly is the Skyscraper SEO link building strategy?

Essentially, it is a link building strategy that involves identifying popular content in your industry and creating even better content to replace it (which will help build your site’s TrustRank). The idea behind this strategy is that if you can create content that is more valuable and informative than what is already ranking well, people will naturally want to link to it.

How exactly do you do skyscraper link building?

1. The first step in the skyscraper SEO process is to find content that is already ranking well for the keywords you want to target. You can use a tool like Ahrefs or SEMrush to identify the top-ranking content for your target keywords. Once you have identified the top-ranking content, you can begin to analyze it to see what makes it so popular.
2. Next, you need to create your own version of the content. Your goal is to make it even better than the existing content. This means that it should be more comprehensive, more informative, and more engaging. You should also make sure to add your own unique insights and perspectives to the content.
3. Once your content is complete, you need to promote it to the right people. This means reaching out to the people who have linked to the existing content and asking them to link to your new content as well. You can use tools like Hunter.io to find the email addresses of the people who have linked to the existing content.

A few more pointers

When reaching out to people, make sure to be personal and to the point. Explain why your content is better and how it can benefit them. Also, it’s always a good idea to include a link to your content in your email so that they can see it for themselves.

In addition to reaching out to people who have linked to the existing content, you should also promote your content on social media. Share it on your own social media profiles and encourage your followers to share it as well. This will help to increase visibility and attract more links to your content.

Finally, you should monitor your content’s performance and make any necessary adjustments. Use tools like Google Analytics to track your traffic and see how many people are visiting your site from your content. You can also use Ahrefs or SEMrush to see how many links your content has attracted.

Overall, the skyscraper SEO link building strategy is a powerful way to build links and drive traffic to your site. By identifying popular content in your industry, creating even better content, and promoting it to the right people, you can attract more links and increase your search engine rankings. And while it seems that you might be “poaching” or stealing links, ultimately this strategy benefits users in general as people work to create better content by competing for links.