Skyscraper: How To Boost Your SEO And Web Traffic With This Technique

Skyscraper: How To Boost Your SEO And Web Traffic With This Technique

Skyscraper Technique

What happens when we combine SEO with growth hacking techniques? The answer is the skyscraper.

This article will talk about a technique that can help you multiply traffic to your website with less effort, without resorting to “black hat” practices that could penalize you and take advantage of the best content on the web. Read on to find out what the skyscraper technique is and how to put it into practice.

What Is A Skyscraper?

The skyscraper (literally, “skyscraper”) is an SEO technique that generates incoming links by creating the best content on a specific topic.

To achieve this goal, the skyscraper is based on an SEO analysis of the best content that appears on the first page of Google for a specific topic. The next thing is to create content based on them, but that is even better; that’s where the term “skyscraper” comes from since our content must be at the top. Finally, we will contact the websites that link to the original content to ask them to replace the link with ours since we can provide even more value to their audience.

The great advantage of the skyscraper is that by basing ourselves on content that already exists and is well-positioned, we can save ourselves from going “blind” trying to guess what type of content will be better valued by Google algorithms and by other websites.

Of course, in order not to fall into unethical practices, we have to be very clear that the skyscraper is not limited to copying the original content with some additions, but instead, we must create something truly unique and original. Also, this is the only way for the technique to work, as Google penalizes duplicate content.

The 3 Critical Steps Of The Skyscraper Technique

1. Analysis

The skyscraper is based on improving the best content on the web (forgive the redundancy), so the first step should be to locate that content.

To start, you can make a list of the 3-5 main keywords for your product or service, enter them into Google and analyze the results that appear on the first page:

  • What is the content about?
  • How is it structured? (Headers, subtitles, etc.)
  • Does it include images, infographics, videos or other audiovisual elements?
  • Is it accompanied by any downloadable?
  • What extension does it have?
  • And, most importantly: is the content interesting for my target audience? To answer this question, you must first have developed a buyer persona or description of your ideal client, focused above all on their needs and pain points concerning your brand.

With these criteria, select the star content for each keyword and analyze them with an SEO tool to see which incoming links lead to the page. In particular, I recommend that you pay attention to DA (Domain Authority) and PA (Page Authority) metrics. The higher a website scores on these two metrics, the more its links will influence the ranking of other websites.

2. Create Epic Content

The moment of truth has arrived: we will create the best content around the keyword you have analyzed.

Instead of relying on a single content, my recommendation is that you take the top articles of your analysis as a base. Outline the different sections of each one and think about how you can combine them in a way that creates a meaningful structure. Then, reflect on how to improve each of these sections:

  • Value for the buyer persona: In each section of the article, think about whether you can further help the people in your target audience by adding more information. For example, you can include examples or case studies in line with their needs.
  • Clarity: the purpose of your article is to inform your target audiences; therefore, it should be easy to understand at first glance. In addition to using clear and concise writing, you can rely on resources such as titles and subtitles, highlight certain key concepts in bold or organize information in lists. In addition, the language should be adapted to the level of experience of your buyer persona: it is not the same to address a person who is just beginning to discover digital marketing as it is to the CMO of a company, for example.
  • Upgrade: See the date when the base articles were written and incorporate the news on the topic since then.
  • Length: If you have followed the above guidelines, your article should contain more valuable information than the rest and, therefore, be longer. In general, it is recommended that an in-depth article be at least 3,000 words long, but when in doubt, remember that quality is always more important than quantity.
  • Design: images, infographics, videos, tables, and other similar resources help us to add even more value to the buyer persona and to increase the attractiveness of our content.
  • On-page SEO: Your article should be perfectly optimized in aspects such as meta descriptions, internal links, headings and subheadings, image alternative texts and other on-page SEO techniques. Remember to tag it correctly so it can appear in rich search results.

3. Get Links

Thanks to your previous research, you now have a list of all the significant websites linking to content similar to yours. But not as good. Now is the time to contact them to present your content and ask them to link to you. To increase the chances of success, write down these recommendations:

  • Explain who you are. Building trust is essential.
  • Do not abuse the “copy and paste”. Your email should be personalized enough to clarify that you know who you are targeting and why your offer might interest them. You can even include a custom detail in the subject line to increase the chances of an open.
  • Go to the right person. Instead of sending your email to the generic contact email, find out who manages the digital marketing of the page to which you are directed.
  • Explicitly ask them to include your link.

5 Recommendations To Put The Skyscraper Technique Into Practice

1. Pay Attention To Authority.

Incoming links are a critical SEO factor, but not the only one. For your page to position well in Google, you must have a domain with authority and optimize well at the internal SEO level. In short, although the skyscraper can help you speed up the process, you have to think of SEO as a long-term investment and invest the necessary time and resources in your website.

It should also be noted that the generation of backlinks is based on trust. You must have premium content and a good page for other web admins to trust you and encourage them to change the incoming link.

2. Offer Quality Content And Explain The Benefits.

We have already seen that the fundamental key to skyscraping is that your content is better than that of the competition. If you work in a competitive sector, all the elements must be ready: content structure, audiovisual details, writing, clarity of explanations, examples.

And not only that, but you must also explain to the owners of websites with links to the original content the benefits of linking to you. Therefore, you have to be very clear about what you bring to the target audience and adapt to their needs.

3. Manage Your Expectations

The skyscraper can serve as a “shortcut” to get faster SEO results, but there are no miracle solutions. You may not get as many links as you’d like, or even with them, Google may still rank your competition higher based on domain authority or other factors.

The skyscraper should be a complementary technique within a complete long-term SEO plan for all these reasons.

4. Promote Your Content

Don’t forget that inbound links and search engines are not the only traffic sources. If you want to get visits to your content, many channels depend on you:

  • Promote your content on social networks, either with organic or promoted posts.
  • Use pay-per-click ads, such as Google Ads, Bing Ads or others.
  • Launch campaigns of branded content & native advertising.
  • And many more.

In addition, the more you promote your content, the more you increase the chances that users will share it or link to it from their websites.

5. Measure The Results

As with any marketing technique, the only way to know if the skyscraper is working is to measure the results periodically. Use an SEO tool to see the incoming links to your website and the position in search engines and do not lose sight of organic traffic.

With this data on the table, you will quickly analyze what is working and what is not and further refine your skyscraper technique to get higher than anyone else.

Also Read: Keyword Cannibalization; What Is It, And Why Is It Killing Your SEO?

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