7 Step SEO Guide for Getting Inbound Links to a Free Report or Product

Use this SEO Guide to launch new free products that get found in search engines for months and years to come

So, you’ve got this new free report, and you want people to know about it. What are the steps for launching your own SEO campaign that will not only get your report (or other free product) found in search engines, but will also generate inbound links and build email subscribers?

The outline we provide below will explain the process, step-by-step. Plus, the greatest thing about launching an effective SEO campaign is that, if done right, it can generate traffic for an indefinite amount of time, rather than for just a surge of traffic you might get from a blog reference or Twitter re-tweet.

Here is our seven step SEO guide for launching your own SEO campaign

1. Create a free report or product.

Free products can easily be created by releasing your archives and recycling content. You might bundle together related blog posts and turn them into a special report, or you could work backwards and create the product that will then be turned into several blog posts. Either way, you are recycling content, and your free product may always be something that can be found on your website, just not bundled as effectively and conveniently.

Your free product should be titled using niche keywords that you are looking to target in Google. KnittingDaily.com offers free knitting patterns to those who sign up for their email newsletter. Targeting the terms “knitted lace” and “knitting lace”, the title of their report is “Seven FREE Knitted Lace Patterns“.

According to the Google Keyword tool, 360 people per month (4,320 per year) search for that term, and you can find the link to their landing page as listing #5 for the term.

2. Create a Rapid Conversion Landing Page.

Job #1 for an effective website is building your database — adding names and email addresses to your list. This is true for both B2B and B2C publishers, both ad-driven and product-driven.

The Rapid Conversion Landing Page (RCLP) initiates an online relationship. It always requests an email address from the user in exchange for permission to send additional offers. You may also know it as a squeeze page or a name capture page.

In order for your RCLP to be effective, it should target specific keyword phrases that you’d like to found in Google with. For more on designing your RCLPs, download Rapid Conversion Landing Page Optimization Guidelines.

3. Create a Website Post

Create a blog post on your website separate from your RCLP that informs your current subscribers about the new product that you are giving away. The post will be seen by your RSS subscribers who may not already be on your email list, and it also gives exposure to casual readers of your blog who haven’t yet subscribed.

Creating a website post also allows you to link internally to the product, which tells Google that this page you are linking to is highly regarded and more important than the page you are linking from.

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4. Create an Email Newsletter.

Every week, we have “Free Report Friday” where we launch a new special report, or otherwise put together a bundle that we think will help our readers solve a specific problem. You might be asking why, if the purpose is to collect email addresses, we’d be promoting the products to people who are already on our list.

First, you shouldn’t create a product for only one goal. Of course if we’re launching a new white paper that has information in it that will help our users, we want to let them know. Second, you always encourage pass-along so that perhaps your existing users will forward the email to their own contacts.

5. Distribute a Press Release.

A great way to get immediate inbound links is to distribute a press release each and every time you launch a new product. Your press release should link back to the RCLP and by doing this, you will generate multiple inbound links to the page, which also tells Google that other sites appreciate the content on this page. Read our Online Press Release Guidelines for more.

6. Tweet About it.

Here’s where social networks come in. Once you’ve gotten your product up, optimized and distributed, it’s time to tell your social networks about the product. Make sure you have your analytics set up properly so that you can track these efforts, or try using the Google Analytics URL Builder for an easier approach.

In general, when we tweet about a new product, we get several re-tweets where people pass along our link to their own follower list. Read our Twitter Advice For (and From) Content Marketers white paper for more Twitter tips.

7. Distribute to your contacts on LinkedIn.

Like any social network where you’ve established a network of colleagues and friends, you can use your own judgement on how you market. For example, I tried sending an email to my contacts on LinkedIn once, telling them about the upcoming Mequoda Summit, but letting them know that the email was merely a test for response, and I would likely not be using my personal contacts to send promotional email again.

Luckily, I didn’t lose any contacts though this approach, but I did receive several emails that said they were glad to hear I wouldn’t be using LinkedIn mail as a new marketing channel. Clearly, sending a promotional email through LinkedIn is not the best way to keep solid connections with your personal and professional network.

However, what you can do is update your status with a link to the new product, you can add the link in response to forums, and otherwise add it into any crevice that LinkedIn allows. When you update your status and groups, your network will still see your promotional efforts, but it’s not so off-putting.

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