Name: Boost your SEO with purpose-driven link building
Uploaded: 2022-05-25T10:48:52.652Z
Duration: 500.97
Description: Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a vital marketing tool to increase the visibility of your company or brand. But many SEO practices are overly complex and out-of-date. As a link building expert with 15 years of experience, Dale Bertrand explains how to develop a winning SEO strategy by focussing on the purpose of your link building, rather than just the content.

Dale Bertnard video preview.mp4

Boost you rSEO with purpose driven link building.vtt

English

{{00:00:00}}
We are here because organic traffic is
so stinking valuable,   on the websites

{{00:00:18}}
that I manage, the organic visitors that
arrive, converted a higher percentage

{{00:00:24}}
than traffic from other sources.

{{00:00:26}}
And the reason why.

{{00:00:28}}
They're looking to buy, or they're looking
to at least research a purchase decision.

{{00:00:33}}
So it's, it's the right traffic.

{{00:00:35}}
And when it comes to SEO and earning,
you know, more rankings and, and

{{00:00:39}}
organic traffic link building is
the number one most powerful way to

{{00:00:46}}
improve your SEO and your rankings.

{{00:00:49}}
The reason why we don't hear about it
very often is because it's really hard.

{{00:00:54}}
SEO is hard and
link-building is even harder.

{{00:00:58}}
And when I'm looking and reading,
you guys have seen this too, like

{{00:01:01}}
SEO advice and link building advice
online, it's like confusing and it's

{{00:01:06}}
contradictory and it can be overwhelming.

{{00:01:08}}
There's a lot of SEO advice out there.

{{00:01:11}}
There's a lot of tactics.

{{00:01:12}}
You really need to figure out
what's going to work for your

{{00:01:14}}
brand, focus on it and double down.

{{00:01:16}}
And then also nowadays Google's
an AI based search engine.

{{00:01:21}}
Google's not, rules-based like they
weren't when they first came out.

{{00:01:24}}
When they first came out, Google
would look at links to your website,

{{00:01:27}}
figure out how powerful they are.

{{00:01:28}}
It was basically Google's page
rank algorithm 20 years ago.

{{00:01:31}}
It was rules-based based on links.

{{00:01:34}}
Nowadays it's AI based.

{{00:01:37}}
I'm trying to like
surface the best content

{{00:01:44}}
SEO used to be technical.

{{00:01:47}}
Now, if you think about it, Google's
looking for the best content, the

{{00:01:49}}
best brands, brands that treat their
customers well, delight their customers

{{00:01:53}}
and has less to do with having all
your HTML tags in the right place.

{{00:01:58}}
And more to do with proving to Google
that you can get positive reviews,

{{00:02:02}}
positive sentiment around your mentions

{{00:02:04}}
and back links from organizations
that care about what you're doing

{{00:02:08}}
and want to help promote it.

{{00:02:09}}
So it really has more to do
with link building and authority

{{00:02:12}}
building than, than anything else.

{{00:02:14}}
Brands that resonate with online consumers
are going to crush it with SEO because

{{00:02:19}}
of AI search engines back links are super
powerful and they're a signal to Google

{{00:02:25}}
that your, your brand, your website is
building momentum with your audience.

{{00:02:30}}
Then you'll need to leverage
something that's truly remarkable.

{{00:02:33}}
So you need to either be a remarkable
brand or have some aspect of your brand

{{00:02:36}}
that's remarkable, or we can come up with
something and, you know, that's what we

{{00:02:39}}
do when we're coming up with link building
campaigns and I'll show you a bunch of

{{00:02:42}}
examples and then minimize the reason
this is the, the part that could get

{{00:02:47}}
me kicked out of some SEO conferences,
minimize the resources that you spend

{{00:02:52}}
on technical SEO and on page SEO.

{{00:02:56}}
And put those resources into link-building
and building the right content.

{{00:03:00}}
That's really what you
should be doing nowadays.

{{00:03:06}}
Why link-building with a purpose?

{{00:03:08}}
So we can stop paying for links.

{{00:03:10}}
As I, as I referred to before, because
we're getting links from like-minded

{{00:03:14}}
individuals and organizations,
they're, they're linking to us for

{{00:03:17}}
their own selfish reasons because
they want to promote this cause.

{{00:03:22}}
We also can get backlinks from
sites that don't normally link and

{{00:03:26}}
we're building relationships that
we can leverage for other purposes.

{{00:03:31}}
And when we do outreach, we're
doing outreach to promote our

{{00:03:34}}
mission, not our content, not
our products, not our service.

{{00:03:37}}
That's why it works.

{{00:03:38}}
And then we can do some good in the world.

{{00:03:39}}
Why not?

{{00:03:40}}
When we're doing something like a
scholarship,  which we'll do as a

{{00:03:45}}
part of these campaigns, we're doing
good in the world and the campaign

{{00:03:48}}
where we're recruiting the next
generation of electricians or helping

{{00:03:52}}
to protect a million frontline workers.

{{00:03:54}}
We're doing good in the world.

{{00:03:55}}
So why not do that too?

{{00:03:56}}
And you it's important that it doesn't
need to be a social mission because

{{00:04:01}}
when we say link purpose-driven link
building, people think, well, I don't have

{{00:04:04}}
a purpose-driven brand while I gave you
the example of the boring manufacturer

{{00:04:08}}
and how we were able to find something.

{{00:04:11}}
We go through what we call an
authority discovery session, where

{{00:04:15}}
we ask 20 questions about your brand.

{{00:04:17}}
Is there a bad guy in your industry?

{{00:04:19}}
Is there an issue you care about
or, or, or what change would you

{{00:04:22}}
want to make in your industry?

{{00:04:23}}
And we can find something, and
it's usually not a social mission,

{{00:04:27}}
but it does need to be authentic.

{{00:04:30}}
To your brand and your
organization's values.

{{00:04:32}}
So it could be something like
your founders backstory or the

{{00:04:35}}
craftsmanship behind your products.

{{00:04:37}}
We have some clients that are
like trying to democratize their

{{00:04:40}}
industry or get people to shop local.

{{00:04:42}}
And then when we're doing purpose
driven,  link building content,

{{00:04:46}}
I call it citable content.

{{00:04:48}}
And this is an important concept
because we're trying to get links

{{00:04:51}}
from these groups and we're trying
to help these groups to, to basically

{{00:04:54}}
promote their cause and their.

{{00:04:58}}
So a lot of times we'll do interviews or
we'll write articles about proprietary

{{00:05:02}}
data and we'll reach out to advocacy
groups and get them to link to it

{{00:05:06}}
because it basically proves their point.

{{00:05:09}}
And then when we're doing our
purpose-driven outreach, like

{{00:05:12}}
I said, pitch the purpose.

{{00:05:15}}
Don't pitch your company,
your products, your service.

{{00:05:18}}
What we were doing a couple of
years ago is we were writing awesome

{{00:05:21}}
content and pitching how awesome
look, how awesome this content is.

{{00:05:24}}
You should link to it.

{{00:05:25}}
The problem with that is nowadays
we're getting,  replies back where

{{00:05:29}}
people saying, yeah, this is awesome.

{{00:05:30}}
A hundred bucks and we'll link to it.

{{00:05:32}}
So we're trying to get around that.

{{00:05:34}}
The reason why I like these types of
link building strategies, because we're

{{00:05:37}}
not paying for the links, but the other
thing that's super important is we don't

{{00:05:41}}
need to generate a lot of contents is
another thing that might be heresy with.

{{00:05:45}}
I know we have a lot of writers in the
room, but,  we liked the idea that with

{{00:05:49}}
a lot of these campaigns, that these
purpose-driven link building campaigns.

{{00:05:52}}
We can create one page on the website that
is about recruiting the next generation

{{00:05:58}}
of electricians or helping to,  protect
nurses and then do the outreach and

{{00:06:03}}
get,     get our links to that one page
rather than having to write in like a ton

{{00:06:09}}
of articles for a syndication campaign.

{{00:06:14}}
So with this purpose-driven link
building, we can do it in three ways.

{{00:06:19}}
One is mission driven.

{{00:06:21}}
Where we have a mission behind our
brand or our website, and we're reaching

{{00:06:25}}
out to like-minded individuals or
organizations to get them to link to it

{{00:06:30}}
because we have reason to believe that
they care about what we care about.

{{00:06:33}}
So the reason why this is important
is we're not, we're not promoting the

{{00:06:37}}
content or our product or our service
when we're, when we're doing outreach for.

{{00:06:42}}
The second is product driven.

{{00:06:43}}
So you could imagine companies that their
products might be sustainably sourced,

{{00:06:47}}
or it might be the craftsmanship behind
their products, or they care deeply

{{00:06:51}}
about how the product should be made.

{{00:06:53}}
And then we'll use that for link building.

{{00:06:55}}
And the last is story-driven.

{{00:06:56}}
Then I gave you guys an example of Luke
Schneider who founded fire department

{{00:07:00}}
coffee and how he has an incredible
story behind his brand that just

{{00:07:05}}
allowed the link building to click and
really propel his, his brand forward.

{{00:07:13}}
The first thing we do
is we find the partners.

{{00:07:15}}
So these are the groups that we're going
to want to link to us because we need

{{00:07:18}}
to understand what they care about.

{{00:07:20}}
Then from there, we're going to
align like these issues that we

{{00:07:23}}
were able to find with our values,
because it needs to be authentic to

{{00:07:26}}
us or else it's not going to work.

{{00:07:28}}
Then we're building the citable content.

{{00:07:31}}
It could be one page.

{{00:07:32}}
It could be multiple interviews
depending on how we're doing

{{00:07:34}}
it, then we're connecting.

{{00:07:36}}
We're reaching out with these like-minded
individuals and organizations to get

{{00:07:39}}
the links, building the citable content.

{{00:07:42}}
That's helping us to connect with
like-minded individuals, which

{{00:07:45}}
helps us to grow our organic
visibility and our audience.

{{00:07:49}}
And that helps us to build content
partnerships so that we can build

{{00:07:54}}
better citable content in the future.

{{00:07:56}}
And it becomes a fly wheel like for this,
this scholarship that I'm talking about,

{{00:07:59}}
that just, just builds momentum over time.

{{00:08:02}}
Links are still super valuable, but
because of the changes in,  with AI

{{00:08:07}}
search engines, winning SEO campaigns
nowadays focus on content and backlinks.

We are here because organic traffic is
so stinking valuable,   on the websites

that I manage, the organic visitors that
arrive, converted a higher percentage

They're looking to buy, or they're looking
to at least research a purchase decision.

And when it comes to SEO and earning,
you know, more rankings and, and

organic traffic link building is
the number one most powerful way to

The reason why we don't hear about it
very often is because it's really hard.

SEO is hard and
link-building is even harder.

And when I'm looking and reading,
you guys have seen this too, like

SEO advice and link building advice
online, it's like confusing and it's

contradictory and it can be overwhelming.

You really need to figure out
what's going to work for your

And then also nowadays Google's
an AI based search engine.

Google's not, rules-based like they
weren't when they first came out.

When they first came out, Google
would look at links to your website,

It was basically Google's page
rank algorithm 20 years ago.

I'm trying to like
surface the best content

Now, if you think about it, Google's
looking for the best content, the

best brands, brands that treat their
customers well, delight their customers

and has less to do with having all
your HTML tags in the right place.

And more to do with proving to Google
that you can get positive reviews,

and back links from organizations
that care about what you're doing

So it really has more to do
with link building and authority

Brands that resonate with online consumers
are going to crush it with SEO because

of AI search engines back links are super
powerful and they're a signal to Google

that your, your brand, your website is
building momentum with your audience.

Then you'll need to leverage
something that's truly remarkable.

So you need to either be a remarkable
brand or have some aspect of your brand

that's remarkable, or we can come up with
something and, you know, that's what we

do when we're coming up with link building
campaigns and I'll show you a bunch of

examples and then minimize the reason
this is the, the part that could get

me kicked out of some SEO conferences,
minimize the resources that you spend

And put those resources into link-building
and building the right content.

That's really what you
should be doing nowadays.

As I, as I referred to before, because
we're getting links from like-minded

individuals and organizations,
they're, they're linking to us for

their own selfish reasons because
they want to promote this cause.

We also can get backlinks from
sites that don't normally link and

we're building relationships that
we can leverage for other purposes.

And when we do outreach, we're
doing outreach to promote our

mission, not our content, not
our products, not our service.

And then we can do some good in the world.

When we're doing something like a
scholarship,  which we'll do as a

part of these campaigns, we're doing
good in the world and the campaign

where we're recruiting the next
generation of electricians or helping

And you it's important that it doesn't
need to be a social mission because

when we say link purpose-driven link
building, people think, well, I don't have

a purpose-driven brand while I gave you
the example of the boring manufacturer

We go through what we call an
authority discovery session, where

Is there an issue you care about
or, or, or what change would you

And we can find something, and
it's usually not a social mission,

To your brand and your
organization's values.

So it could be something like
your founders backstory or the

We have some clients that are
like trying to democratize their

And then when we're doing purpose
driven,  link building content,

And this is an important concept
because we're trying to get links

from these groups and we're trying
to help these groups to, to basically

So a lot of times we'll do interviews or
we'll write articles about proprietary

data and we'll reach out to advocacy
groups and get them to link to it

And then when we're doing our
purpose-driven outreach, like

Don't pitch your company,
your products, your service.

What we were doing a couple of
years ago is we were writing awesome

content and pitching how awesome
look, how awesome this content is.

The problem with that is nowadays
we're getting,  replies back where

Event Session

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a vital marketing tool to increase the visibility of your company or brand. But many SEO practices are overly complex and out-of-date. As a link building expert with 15 years of experience, Dale Bertrand explains how to develop a winning SEO strategy by focussing on the purpose of your link building, rather than just the content.

Content optimisation

Content Strategy

Content Marketing

thumbnail_Dale-Bertrand-photo_485527_1629222410.jpg

xsmall_Dale-Bertrand-photo_485527_1629222410.jpg

Dale-Bertrand-photo_485527_1629222410.jpg

Dale Bertrand

Content and SEO Strategist

SEO and brand resonance can go together. In addition to resonating with your customers, according to Bertrand, link building and content are keys to a successful SEO strategy. 

Resonant brands

In this chapter, Bertrand explains why your SEO should have a purpose and how it helps to go beyond the keyword targeted content. 

Why is purpose-driven link building critical?

To have a deeper understanding, Bertrand dissects three ways of building a purpose-driven link. 

Ways to build purpose-driven links

The next step is to explore a step-by-step guide on how to develop a purpose-driven SEO process.