Best of Lists. List posts. Listicles - Building Link Strategies that work

“Best of” List Posts are a super effective form of “ego bait”. With a “Best of” list post, you list out the best people, bloggers, quotes or resources on a given subject.

Then, let people know that they’ve been featured.

What Are List Posts?

A list post or listicle (list + article) is simply a compilation post. It could be a compilation of the best tips and tricks in your industry or the cutest puppy pictures.

People love to share list articles.

Here’s an example from the DigitalMarketer blog:

It works even in the Self-Help industry. Here’s an example:

See how many claps this article got?

The shares these posts get are only half the story.

If done right, a list post can get you hundreds of backlinks too.

The DigitalMarketer post that got 7,000 shares also received 2.6k backlinks from 251 referring domains:

With list posts, you not only get lots of shares but also lots of backlinks.

Before you begin writing your first list post, remember this:

Most list posts don’t get any backlinks.

The reason why most list posts don’t get any backlinks is that they aren’t created the right way.

In this article, I will show you how writing list posts for your blog can become the easiest way to create Skyscraper Content that gets lots and lots of backlinks and shares.

We will not write a generic list post with 5-6 items.

The goal is to create a list post that is THE BEST list post on the subject.

Most commonly, these are published at the end of the year (e.g. “best posts of 2020”, “sites to follow in 2020”, etc.).

Note: They are published at other times during the year too, just not as often.

If you have a great site, blog or individual blog post, these are great prospects for link building, as you can often get featured on such lists quite easily.

Here’s how to do it:

Find “best of” posts and Choose your Topic

This is actually the easy part. What is important is, what is the topic for your "listicle" or "best of" post.

Using BuzzSumo

BuzzSumo is the easiest way to find the best of the best content in your niche/industry.

To find list posts that have worked in the past with BuzzSumo, simply enter the name of your niche and click the search button on the BuzzSumo website.

If you are in the weight loss niche, here’s what the results will look like:

As you can see, the second post got 200 thousand Facebook shares.

Reach out and promote your content

Check your blog posts and compile it in one sweet, long, seo post. Sooo easy!

Make a note of any sites that create these types of posts, but double-check they’re linking out to external sites before doing so (if not, they’re not very good link prospects):

Now, if you were to reach out to the publisher of a post entitled “best fitness posts in 2020”, they probably wouldn't add your newly published blog post to that list.

That's because your newly published blog post clearly wasn’t published in 2020 (so it wouldn't make sense to be on the list).

But, any sites publishing these kind of posts are likely to publish the same type of post at the end of each year (best posts of 2019, best posts of 2020, etc.).

Therefore, it pays to reach out and let them know about any great content you publish during the year, as they may very well feature you on their next “best of” post.

Here’s an link outreach template:

"Hey ,

I'm , at .

I was just reading your list of the best and wanted to quickly get in touch.

I've just put-together a post about and thought you might like it. Here's the link: .

P.S. Might make a nice addition to your next "best of" list at the end of the year? :)

Tips To Make Sure Your Post Gets Read By Thousands of People

Most people don’t get any shares or backlinks from the list posts they write. That is because they simply post it on their site and wish that people will magically find and read their post.

That’s not how it works.

You have to actively promote your post if you want it to get any traffic.

Here are some tips to make sure you get thousands of visitors from your hard work.

1. Name Drop Influencers In Your Industry

This is one of the oldest tricks in the book.

If you want other bloggers in your industry to share your posts, you need to give them some value in return.

The easiest way to do this is to mention their name in your article and link out to a related article they wrote.

For example, if a blogger named Adam in your niche writes an article on “How To Invest Wisely In Roth IRA,” and your list post on making more money includes a post about Roth IRA, link out to Adam’s article.

Now, once you publish your article, you can reach out to all influencers you mentioned and linked out to and ask them to share your post.

Here’s a simple email you can send:

Hey Adam,

I just linked out to your article on “ARTICLE SUBJECT” in my latest post:

LINK TO YOUR POST

Check it out and let me know what you think.

And I would make my day if you share it with your audience.

I am sure they will love it.

Cheers!

Ankit

2. Use Blogger Outreach To Guarantee Shares and Backlinks

Blogger outreach simply means reaching out to other bloggers in your industry and asking them for a share.

This is the best way to guarantee that you get lots and lots of shares and backlinks for all your posts.

I have talked about this in detail in a previous post on Blogger Outreach. Read that post and follow all the steps to get thousands of visitors to your list post.

Writing a list post is the easiest way to create Skyscraper Content that gets thousands of shares and hundreds of backlinks.

If you are just starting out in your niche, writing well-researched list posts is the best way to quickly become an authority in your niche.

I recommend publishing at least 5 well-researched list posts on your blog if you are a new player in the niche. This is the quickest way I know to become a top player in your niche without years of effort.

Hope you like this weeks free traffic series using link building strategies.