If you were walking down the street and some random person came up to you and said, “Listen, could you just do me a quick favor? Could you go to the supermarket and buy me a pint of milk?”
You’d probably be like, “No, I’m not going to do that. I don’t know you. Who the hell are you?”. Unless you’re feeling extremely generous that day.
This is one of the biggest challenges with link building outreach. You’re emailing random webmasters to ask them to help you out, and they probably don’t even know you.
They’ve never heard of you before, and they’re being bombarded by outreach emails from people like you and everyone else on the Internet.
How can you make sure that you stand out as credible and trustworthy to webmasters, so that when you do ask for a link, they are more willing to add that backlink and dedicate their time to helping you?
In this article, I’m going to teach you exactly how to add more authenticity, credibility, and social proof to your website, so that you can build more backlinks with link building outreach.
These are the tried, tested, and proven techniques that I’ve been using to get more backlinks from outreach.
Table of Contents
Make Them Trust You
First of all, let me explain why trust and social proof are so important when it comes to link building. Trust is a kind of survival instinct. When we see an outsider that we don’t recognize, our first instinct is that this person might be dangerous.
When we were running around in tribes with little spears fighting each other, as soon as we saw a stranger or an outsider, we considered them to be a threat. And it’s the same with link building.
If someone doesn’t know you, they’re not going to trust you because you don’t really have any credibility.
The difference between you getting a link and not getting one is the social proof that allows a webmaster to bridge the gap between you being a stranger and you being a person they trust.
If you can do that effectively, it’s an extremely powerful tool that means you’ll build better relationships with other websites in your niche, and end up with more high quality backlinks.
“About Us” Page
The first place to start is the About Us page on your website because this is likely the first place that other website owners are going to look to get an understanding of who you are and what you’re about.
Share Your Story and Vision
If you can demonstrate that you are a real person with a story, and that your brand has values, this can go a long way in creating credibility and trust.
Make sure that your story and vision is as engaging and compelling as possible, so you can instantly start building some trust with another webmaster..
On your About Us page, include some details about why you started your website, what you’re trying to achieve, your vision, and include pictures of you and your team.
Genuine Photos and Videos Of Your Team
When you include images and videos of you and your team it shows that you are real people with an actual website, and you’re not just some sort of fake profile.
When it comes to outreach, there are a lot of people who use fake images. They might use a website like thispersondoesntexist.com, where they download a random image and slap it onto their email account.
While there’s nothing particularly wrong with that, if you want to build as much social trust and credibility as possible, you need to avoid using fake images.
Further to this point, I would advise that you don’t use stock images. Instead, use different action shots of yourself.
Let’s say you have a website about dogs, it would be a great idea to have a picture of you with your dogs. These are the sort of images that you can’t fake, so it shows you’re a real person with an actual identity.
If you also include some videos of you or your team, the more touch points you have and the more ways people can engage with you. Using videos can potentially allow you to build more genuine social trust.
Attach Links Of Your Social Media Profiles
It is also a great idea to include links to your social media profiles on your website, as well as your email signature, because this will further demonstrate more social proof.
By including a LinkedIn profile, Twitter account, or other social media sites that are professional and used regularly, you demonstrate that you’re a real person that’s active on social media.
It indicates that you are engaging with the world, and therefore, people are more likely to trust you. Including social media links can also help you build credibility by demonstrating your personality and values.
I’ve actually lost links in the past because I didn’t have a LinkedIn profile. The website owner thought it was a bit suspicious that they couldn’t find a LinkedIn profile for me, so they refused to link to my website.
This tells you just how important it is to have these profiles set up. Even if you’re not going to be active every single day, that doesn’t matter.
It’s about having those building blocks in place so that there’s more social proof when people Google your name or they look for your website. They’re more likely to trust you.
Engage In Guest Posts Or Podcasts
Finally, try to do at least a few guest posts or podcasts to demonstrate that you’re a real person who is active outside of your website.
When someone googles your name, they will get multiple search results that show more and more social proof that you’re a real person.
When people are researching you and your identity, they will see this social footprint across the Web that shows that you have been posting on different websites, and other webmasters trust you.
This will likely result in them finding you genuine and trustworthy enough to link to your site.
Credibility, Authenticity and Social Trust
By using the hacks in this article you will build more credibility, authenticity, and trust in your persona. This means that when you’re reaching out to ask for backlinks, websites are more likely to trust you.
You will stand out as genuine and differentiate yourself from everyone else who’s trying to get a backlink from outreach.
