SEO – 8 Link-building keyword groups

: Image via Wikipedia

Effective link-building for SEO requires a lot of research to identify the right prospects. Here are some ways to identify link-prospects.

Let’s say we build and sell high-performance mountain bikes online and from a physical store. Our linkable assets are an extensive guide to the best mountain bike spots in the world and our blog with mountain biking tips and events.

Market Defining Keywords [MDK]

How does your market describe your product or service e.g.

mountain bike
mountain biking

To find prospects for our guide to the best mountain biking spots in the world we could do queries like:

mountain biking blog
mountain biking resources
places to mountain bike intitle:list

Customer Defining Keywords [CDK]

These will typically include your USPs e.g. ‘high-performance’, ‘the cheapest’, ‘the most popular’.

Customer defining keywords for our mountain biking store could include:

mountain biker
professional mountain biker

Category Keywords [CK]

Category keywords describe the different types of products at a top level view e.g.

Men’s mountain bikes
Women’s mountain bikes
Kids mountain bikes

By adding the word “review” or “magazine” to the above keywords you can find potential product reviewers.

Product Keywords [PK]

Specific brands e.g.

Avanti mountain bikes
Giant mountain bikes
Marin mountain bikes

Competitors [CK]

Looking at who is linking to your competitors is a great way to spot prospective link partners.

Recognised leaders [RK]

Recognised leaders can help you to uncover public relations and interview opportunities in your space. Try searching in Amazon, or search “[keyword] book” as often they write books. You should also check YouTube to see if there are any relevant videos.

Once you know some of your industry’s thought leaders you can look for people who will respond to interviews (so you can interview them and add the content to your site) as well as people who conduct interviews so you can pitch your in-house experts!

Related Vertical Keywords [RVK]

Related verticals are adjacent industries that could potentially aid your efforts. For example, here are some adjacent industries for our mountain biking company: