How to Capitalize on the Link Potential of a Research Report (MozCon 2022)

Want to get backlinks from high DA sites? (No, this isn't one of those emails asking for money.) Research reports are a great way to get those links at scale — here's how.

1. What do these have in common? Source: Fast Company , CNBC , Tech Republic

2. They link to research reports Source: Fast Company , CNBC , Tech Republic

3. ➡️ 1k+ ref. domains ➡️ 133 ref. domains ➡️ 55 ref. domains Data Source: Moz

4. Research reports uncover data

5. Zyppy’s Study of Page Title Rewrites 299 links Source: zyppy.com

6. Aira’s State of Link Building 59 links Source: aira.net

7. Research reports uncover interesting data

8. Because journalists want to share interesting data with readers If they mention your report, you can get 🔗

9. HIGH DA

10. So, how do you do that? 🤷‍♀️

11. The Story 2. The Outreach

12. Step 1 : Brainstorm

13. Let’s say my business sells ergonomic chairs 🪑

14. Draw 3 concentric circles

15. Product/Service Chairs

16. Features Adjustable Ergonomic Comfortable Sturdy

17. Related Topics Health Posture Office Ergonomics WFH Hybrid Work Exercise ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

18. Step 2 : Research

19. Find existing data or research reports

20. [topic] trends state of [topic] [topic] report [topic] stats [topic] infographic

21. ⬇️ Source: Moz

22. Keep a list of these

23. Step 3 : Decide on an idea

24. Score your ideas I mpact C onfidence E ase P otential I mportance E ase H eadlines O ther teams T imeliness

25. H OT score H : What would potential headlines say? e.g. "78% of remote workers experience back pain”

26. H O T score O : What do other teams think? (e.g. PR, data)

27. HO T score T : How timely is this idea? Does it tie back to current events?

28. Idea #1 WFH stipends HOT score: 6 Idea #2 Best cities for hybrid work HOT score: 9

29. Step 4 : Gather your data

30. First, what questions do you want to answer?

31. Tap into Twitter , Reddit , and other communities

32. What topics do people have opinions on but lacks actual data ?

33. List these out . Then think about how to gather this data Existing Survey Proprietary (Aira) (Zyppy)

34. Lidia Infante’s Gender Gap in SEO Publishing Source: lidia-infante.com

35. Google Trends Government data Costs, Salary data ...and more 👉

36. Let’s say I want to do a report on WFH stipends 💰 Scrape data from job boards Survey what people spend their stipend on

37. Or, let’s do a topic with a high HOT 🔥 score: best cities for hybrid work

38. Score each city by: quality of public transportation, number of hybrid jobs, traffic, etc.

39. Source: zillow.com

40. Step 5 : Analyze data and tell a compelling story

41. What are the newsworthy stats ?

42. What’s going to make people say...

43. Add these to the top of your report Source: Dialpad’s State of Video Conferencing Report

44. To recap...

45. Identify a topic with a high 🔥 score Gather and analyze that data Tell a compelling story Outreach to the right people

46. Outreach Tip #1 Monitor unlinked mentions of your company or your report

47. Outreach Tip #2 Some people may link to your coverage as the source of data — they could also be linking to you

48. Source: Statista

49. The prep work you do before publishing your report has a huge impact on your link potential

50. Go and get those links!

51. Thank you! Find me on Twitter @ justdebbb