Link Building Strategies for Mid-Market and Enterprise Tech Startups

Are there a few core topics that your business needs to be better-known for? Would you like to make sure that when prospects ask Google, Siri, Cortana, or Alexa for answers, advice, and recommendations that searchers find their way to your website?

If so, you've likely given some thought to search engine optimization (SEO) as part of your Go To Market strategy. 

Maybe you’ve even briefly flirted with the idea of hiring an SEO firm, but got a little nervous because you’ve heard so many horror stories about inexpensive, short-term fixes that lead to long-term penalties. (Rule of thumb: If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.)

In today’s brutally competitive marketplace, to win in SEO you need stellar content as well as comparable search engine authority. (If you need some help with your content, check out these resources on B2B content marketing strategy.)

In this article, we’ll look at podcast-centric link-building strategies that are especially valuable for mid-market and enterprise tech startups.

1. Start an interview-based podcast (if you don't already have a podcast).
2. Invite guests that you know to have an active blog and/or company newsroom on their website (especially where you know they create posts about media coverage).
3. Post the video version of the interview to YouTube.
4. Post the audio version of the interview to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other podcast distribution sites.
5. Transcribe the podcast episode.
6. Write a blog post about the podcast episode that includes a YouTube embed of the podcast interview, an audio embed, and the transcript.
7. Thank the guest for their great podcast interview, provide links to the YouTube and blog versions, and encourage the guest to share the episode on social media and their blog/company newsroom

You'd be surprised how many people you interview are just as happy to blog about their podcast appearance with you, almost always including a link to your blog post -- and/or mention their podcast appearance on their company newsroom page, next to other media coverage.

(Using this exact strategy, a podcast guest from a Fortune 500 company notified their marketing department about the podcast interview. And the interview ended up getting listed on the company's main "In the News" page, adjacent to media mentions on high-profile media outlets including CNN, Forbes, and The Wall Street Journal.)

What kinds of link-building strategies have been most successful in earning you high authority, relevant backlinks you’re proud to boast about? Let me know in the comments below.