#1 Rated Guide: How to Build Niche Edit Backlinks From Ranking Posts?

What you will get out of reading this piece of content:

In this resource, I am going to show you exactly how to go about finding relevant websites to prospect, what metrics to look out for, and how to land quality niche edits.

In turn, you could experience a solid increase in organic traffic to your page and improved website rankings purely by leveraging other websites already ranking in Google.

Welcome to the power of quality niche edits.

Let’s jump in.

Knowledge Re-cap: How Do Niche Edits Work?

In search engine optimization, there are a variety of different types of link placements and link-building strategies you can use. In our experience, blogger outreach is one of the most common methods.

Niche edits involve the process of getting a link to your page from an existing piece of content that is already ranked on Google.

Additional White hat link-building strategies include methods such as resource page link building, guest posting, broken link building, and HARO (help a reporter out), to name a few.

Researching and planning which link-building methods will result in getting you high-quality links and converting traffic is essential to the success of your SEO strategy.

What Is A Niche Edit and How Do They Work?

A niche edit link, aka a curated link or contextual backlink, is a type of link that is placed on an existing blog post that has already been indexed in Google.

In other words, niche edit links don’t involve having to create new content from scratch, unlike guest posts, which is an outreach tactic that requires a new piece of quality content in exchange for a link.

A niche edit service works with existing articles that have traffic and ranking for relevant keywords.

The Key to Successful Niche Edits?

Your target post (prospect) MUST already be indexed by Google. If not, you’d only waste your time and money.

An indexed post is more likely to be ranking already and be trusted enough by Google to index the page.

These types of posts can pass some “ranking juice” to your website and boost your ranking.

SEO’s can easily become obsessed or distracted by only focusing on link equity and link juice.

But remember, one of our main jobs in digital marketing and SEO is to drive relevant website traffic that continues to increase and that brings conversions.

Do Link Insertions Still Work?

Undoubtedly, niche edits a.k.a. link insertions work. And there are proofs all over. Nathan Gotch is one such proof.

Nathan spent over $20K on backlinks. After analyzing 34 URLs with at least 3 high quality backlinks, the rankings and organic traffic of 24 URLs increased significantly.

70% is a SOLID success score. So, yes, niche edit link building works — but only when done right.

That said, let’s delve into the steps.

What Is A Niche Edit and How Do They Work?

A niche edit link, aka a curated link or contextual backlink, is a type of link that is placed on an existing blog post that has already been indexed in Google.

In other words, niche edit links don’t involve having to create new content from scratch, unlike guest posts, which is an outreach tactic that requires a new piece of quality content in exchange for a link.

A niche edit service works with existing articles that have traffic and ranking for relevant keywords.

The Key to Successful Niche Edits?

Your target post (prospect) MUST already be indexed by Google. If not, you’d only waste your time and money.

An indexed post is more likely to be ranking already and be trusted enough by Google to index the page.

These types of posts can pass some “ranking juice” to your website and boost your ranking.

SEO’s can easily become obsessed or distracted by only focusing on link equity and link juice.

But remember, one of our main jobs in digital marketing and SEO is to drive relevant website traffic that continues to increase and that brings conversions.

Are Niche Edits a Safe Link Building Strategy?

100%, yes.

Niche edits are safe and effective as they are built on established relationships. Otherwise, a site owner will never insert links into a ranking post just for you.

Bottom line: you have nothing to worry about. Niche edits are 100% safe.

Do Link Insertions Still Work?

Yes, absolutely. To prove this point, we will explore real data from real people who embarked on a dedicated link-building strategy to increase traffic and boost their brand.

Meet Nathan Gotch, just one great example of one such proof.

Nathan spent over $20K on backlinks. After analyzing 34 URLs with at least 3 high-quality backlinks, the rankings and organic traffic of 24 URLs increased significantly.

70% is a SOLID success score. So, yes, niche edit link building works — but only when done right.

That said, let’s delve into the steps.

Finding The Best Link Opportunities For Niche Edits – The Steps I Follow

When building link inserts, I prioritize 6 KEY metrics. In my experience, they determine how much juice is transferred to one’s website.

1: Niche Relevancy of the Domain

The more RELEVANT a target is, the BETTER the juice from niche edit links.

Relevancy impact!

Also, relevant links give Google a strong ranking signal. If reputable websites in your niche upvote your pages, you must be a BIG deal.

So, how relevant should your target domain be?

For example, if you sell CBD oil dogs, get your link inserted on a pet’s website.

2: Ahrefs DR, RD, and Traffic 

I often target these baselines — I’ve found that they have more link juice to pass to my pages:

●        DR= 20+

●        RD= 100+

●        Organic Traffic= 500+

Domain Rating (DR)

DR represents the backlink profile strength of a website compared to other websites on a scale of 0-100. And the higher it is, the more authority and juice that “website” can share with yours.

Referring Domains (RD)

RD shows all the domains linking to a specific website. And the higher it is, the more organic traffic a site will receive.

According to Ahrefs report, 90.63% of pages get no organic traffic without referring domains.

So, RD is a big deal.

Traffic

This part is straightforward. The more traffic a domain receives, the higher its potential to share some.

The BEST part: Even if you could only get a nofollow link from a high-traffic site, its impact will still be significant.

3. Domain’s Semrush Authority Score

Semrush Authority Score represents a website or web page’s quality and SEO performance.

The scale is 0 – 100, but you don’t have to target only the high end. Sites with 25+ scores will suffice.

Note: you can use Moz to determine your prospect’s domain authority if you don’t fancy Semrush.

4: Presence Niche Relevant Keyword in Post Title

It is best to pick posts or pages with titles that contain keywords relevant to your anchor text or niche.

If you want to get a link for a page about “CBD oil for dogs,” the title of your target page can be something like:

●        The benefits of CBD oil for dogs

●        How to ease stress in dogs

The following post on thesprucepets.com will make an ideal fit to get a link for your page about “CBD oil for dogs.”

Choosing niche-relevant post titles provides credibility, topical authority, and backlink depth benefits.

Plus, Google loves it.

5. The Ranking of A Post/Page on Google Against Your Niche Relevant Keywords

Check the position of your target post on Google search results. If it ranks high, it is an effective spot for your backlink.

A search on Ahrefs of the post “Is CBD oil good for dogs?” from thesprucepets.com shows the following results.

If there are multiple relevant search strings on the first page, it indicates an effective page for getting your niche edit link.

6. Ahrefs URL Rating (UR)

This metric is like DR. The only difference is that it focuses on a specific webpage.

UR considers internal and external (but only dofollow) links on a webpage. And a 10+ UR is a good score.

But why should you care?

This case study by Ahrefs reveals that UR is the most significant correlation factor for organic traffic and high rankings. So, it is also a BIG deal.

What Kind of Niche Edit Links to Avoid?

Not all backlinks are beneficial for your site. In my experience, you should be careful of the sources below. 

I. Domains Penalized by Google

Domains with decreasing organic traffic graphs will likely be penalized by Google.

It can be due to violating Google guidelines, such as spammy or irrelevant links on web pages. It can also be unnatural linking, sneaky redirects, or low-quality and thin content.

For instance, look at this Ahrefs report for datafilehost.com. The site has impressive DR, referring domains, and organic traffic. But its organic traffic graph is declining over time.

Getting a link from sites like the above might be helpful for your short-term SEO goals. But in the long run, it will hurt your traffic and visibility. You had better avoid such sites. 

II—Backlinks from Domains with Manipulated Organic Traffic

Trying to manipulate a site’s organic traffic and ranking with black-hat SEO practices such as CTR manipulation won’t work.

Getting a link from such domains is a big NO. Look at this domain in the screenshot below. 

The site uses error codes or web logins (which most likely won’t have any CTR) to rank higher and manipulate organic traffic.

Avoid getting links from such sites at all costs. They will hurt your ranking efforts.

III. Backlinks from domains with Organic traffic from the Country Irrelevant to your Audience

If your target audience is the USA, but the target domain’s organic search traffic is from other non-US countries, don’t bother.

Here is why:

If your site gets traffic from referral links but has low conversion, Google may count the upvotes as spammy links. And that will eventually hurt your domain authority and brand reputation.

IV. Domains with Overall Organic Traffic of Less Than 500

From firsthand experience, sites whose organic traffic is less than 500 are PBNs. And PBNs are spammy and often regarded as black hats.

Trust me, you don’t want any black hat or “seeming black hat” near your site. Black hats are poisons and will undo your good work.

V. Posts with Many Outgoing Backlinks (OBL)

Getting a niche edit backlink from a webpage with too many outbound links is suspicious. Your site might come off as a PBN link buyer.

Moreover, posts/pages with several OBLs won’t help you. You will hardly get any juice from them.

VI. Posts that are not Cached in Google in the Last 7 Days

If Google doesn’t cache a post within a week, avoid it. The “post” is probably low-quality or duplicate content.

Don’t associate with such incompetence.

Let’s talk about the steps that got me link inserts from ranking posts.

If Google doesn’t cache a post within a week, avoid it. The “post” is probably low-quality or duplicate content.

Don’t associate with such incompetence.

Let’s talk about the steps that got me link inserts from ranking posts.

Getting Niche Edits By Directly Outreaching Website Owners

Step #1: Determine Your Keywords

Identify the primary or seed keywords you want to get a link for.

If you want to have a backlink for a page containing information about “CBD oil for dogs,” then your keyword for the anchor text can be the same or something along the lines.

Step #2: Find Targets That Can Accept Your Link

My go-to tool for this step is Ahrefs. Here is how I use it:

• Head over to Ahrefs.com; sign up if you don’t have an account.

• Click “Content Explorer” from the top menu. 

• Type your primary keyword into the search bar.

• Change the filter “Everywhere” to “In title,” as shown in the screenshot below.

• Now search away!

• Once the results load, set the platform to “WordPress” and make the language “English.” 

Note: If you want to get a backlink from a webpage in another language, choose accordingly.

• Click the “Add Filter” button and add “Page traffic.” Set it to “From 1.”

• Next, add an additional filter for “Website traffic.” Set it to “From 1000.”

• Now, two more filters for “Domain Rating” and “Words.” Set them to “From 20” and “From 500” respectively.

Now, the results have been reduced from 166,036 to 210 pages.

• Narrow the list further by adding more filters, as shown in the screenshot.

• Now you have a unique set of 115 potential posts for niche edits. 

115 is still huge. Fortunately,  you still narrow it down. How?

Follow steps 3 and 4 strictly!

Step #3—Export the Results and Conduct a Batch Analysis of the URLs

Exporting the results is easy. Follow the steps below.

• Press the “Export” button at the top right corner of the page.

• Set the number of rows to “All 115,” encoding to “For Excel,” and then hit the Export button.

• Open the downloaded CSV file and copy all the URLs from the “Content URL” column.

• Next, head over to the Ahrefs Batch Analysis tool.

• Paste the URLs there. Set the target mode to “Domain with all its domains” and hit “Analyze.”

Step #4. Export the Results and Refine the List 

Once the batch analysis is completed, export the file and follow these steps:

• Add filters “Linked Domains” and “Domain Rating.” 

• After downloading the file, open it, and go to the “Linked Domains” column. Sort the results by “Largest to Smallest.”

• Now, delete all URLs with less than 200 linked domains. 

Lastly, go to the “Domain Rating” column. Sort it by “Largest to Smallest.” Then, delete all URLs with high DR, 60+. 

Step #5. Reach Out to All the Remaining URLs

By now, you’ll have a more refined list. It is time for outreach!

Good news: you can use Buzzstream to simplify the outreach process.

Whether tool or manual, know that website owners might charge for link insertion. Even at that, you can always negotiate the rates.

A little heads-up: there is no “free link.” You’d hardly get high authority outbound links from relevant content for FREE.

Also, the site owners might ask you to tweak the anchor text to make it natural.

Niche Edits Still Work When Done Rightly

Regardless of what you might have heard, using niche edits as a link building strategy is an effective way to gain contextual links and grow your traffic. Don’t neglect them in your link building campaigns as they are powerful links to boost your domain authority.

Still confused about the steps discussed?

If you have questions about link inserts or any link building strategy, ask in the comments section.

What if you don’t have time to use niche edits in your strategy?

If this is your case, I can help you build links to your money pages with our unique link building services.

Spend your time focusing on closing deals and building your business while I build your niche edit links.

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