Link Building Strategy

Use this skill to plan link-building campaigns before prospecting, content production, or outreach begins. It keeps the campaign anchored in business outcomes, existing strengths, linkable assets, publisher motivations, resources, and measurement.

This skill is derived from Garrett French and Eric Ward's Ultimate Guide to Link Building and uses transformed guidance with durable book-topic references. Do not copy book prose into user outputs.

Quick Start

1. Use the Contents table below to choose the smallest useful reference set.
2. Use workflows/design-link-building-campaign.md for a full campaign plan.
3. Start with the business outcome and target pages, not a generic "get links" goal.
4. Identify linker-valued audiences and publisher types before choosing a tactic.
5. Return a campaign brief with scope, asset concept, prospecting plan, metrics, risks, and next actions.

Default Output

When the user asks for a link-building strategy, return:

1. Campaign thesis - the business goal, SEO goal, target asset/page, and link hypothesis.
2. Scope assessment - existing strengths, assets, opportunities, approvals, and resources.
3. Audience map - linker-valued audiences and the publishers that serve them.
4. Recommended campaign type - selected template and rejected alternatives.
5. Asset plan - what must exist before prospecting or outreach.
6. Prospecting and outreach plan - opportunity types, qualification criteria, and outreach angle.
7. Measurement - SEO, outreach, relationship, referral, brand, and business metrics.
8. Risks and next actions - quality, spam, compliance, resource, and approval risks.

Contents

| Need | Start Here | |------|------------| | Understand strategic concepts | references/core/knowledge.md | | Apply strategy rules | references/core/rules.md | | See campaign examples | references/core/examples.md | | Build a full campaign brief | workflows/design-link-building-campaign.md |

Core Posture

• Treat links as one output of market usefulness, not as a standalone commodity.
• Build from what the organization can sustain after a vendor or campaign ends.
• Design for publisher audiences, not only buyer personas.
• Choose tactics after asset, audience, opportunity, and resource fit are clear.
• Measure more than link count: rankings, referrals, relationships, mentions, leads, and learning all matter.