SEO analysis & insights you can actually use.

In October of 2017 I set out to start building my own private backlink database.

It was always intended to stay private – I don’t have the budget or desire to compete with what’s already out there – and created with my own research purposes in mind.

For instance, I wanted to know what the top sites in specific niches were linking to this year, month, or even week.

What I’m about to share is going to be more popular than guest posting or utilising private blog networks to improve search engine rankings in 2018.

It’s not a tactic I created myself. Nor is it one I’ve only just discovered.

I’ve followed its increasing usage throughout 2017, and now it’s finally time to write about it.

While there are certainly ways to employ the tactic legitimately, you can probably guess from my headline that it’s being used in ways I can only describe as unethical.

And it’s working incredibly well.

Updated Dec 03, 2017

Copyblogger has long been one of the most authoritative blogs on copywriting and content marketing.

While they used to reveal their most popular blog posts in their sidebar (sorted by most comments), it seems that’s no longer the case.

But what if it was?

What if you could analyse any blog and see which of their articles have the most comments, in order?

If you could rank them by how many backlinks those articles have, you’re left with foolproof solution for finding content ideas that attract links and comments.

If you head over to Google and search for “link building” you’ll be presented with more than 500,000 results.

There’s more information on using links to rank higher in Google than anyone could consume in their lifetime.

Surprisingly, what I never seem to see is people giving specific link building opportunities that aren’t just a list of sites which accept guest posts.