Resource Page Link Building 101: Tips, Benefits & More

Do you want quick and rich backlinks? With resource link building, you can populate the top 20 in the SERPs and receive high-quality backlinks at a fraction of the cost.

Serpstat, for example, built 50+ links from the top 10 in 2 months and additionally received referral traffic and leads. Likewise, Hunter got 100+ mentions in under 3 months.

Feeling inspired? Read on how to do resource link building right.

What is Resource Page Link Building?
5 Resource Page Link Building Benefits
How to Find and Build Links from Resource Pages
How to Measure the Success of Your Resource Page Link Building Efforts

What is Resource Page Link Building?

Resource page link building is part of a parasite SEO strategy designed to score top-notch backlinks and gain exposure in the SERPs. In a nutshell, it involves securing links from resource pages (aka listicles), which are pages on other websites that compile valuable resources, tools, articles, or websites relevant to a specific niche or industry.

For example, Mention put together a listicle on «27 influencer marketing resources.» You can also join this list if you believe your article offers a fresh perspective.

However, the type of content isn’t necessarily a blog post. Mention compiled infographics, advice from blog posts and LinkedIn, eBooks, and whitepapers.

For niches other than digital marketing, resource pages may include restaurants, sports goods, apps, must-seen places in X city, etc.

5 Resource Page Link Building Benefits

A resource page link building strategy is a low-hanging fruit, and 24% of SEO pros benefit from this tactic.

Benefit #1: Credibility in the SERPs

When reputable resource pages link back to you, they implicitly trust your content enough to direct their readers your way. This endorsement elevates your website’s authority in search engines, contributing to an overall boost in domain rating.

Benefit #2: Exposure

Being featured on relevant resource pages opens the gateway to new audiences previously unaware of your product or service. This exposure can heighten your brand visibility and recognition and increase the potential to attract new customers.

That happened to Serpstat. Among all the links built and guest posts, 8 out of 15 articles with high referral traffic and product payments came from listicle updates.

Bottom line: The exposure garnered from resource page link building acts as a catalyst for organic growth and enhanced online presence apart from high-quality links.

Ranking for high volume, high competition keywords can be difficult when product review and aggregator content is already ranking well.

Partnering with those sites and using resource page link building as a tactic can increase brand exposure for those difficult-to-rank-for keywords while also generating quality referral traffic.

Serving retargeting ads to this group is a great opportunity since we know this user group has a high intent of converting. — Morgan Petrov, SEO Lead at Chartis. io

Benefit #3: Referral traffic

Resource page link building serves as a direct pipeline for referral traffic to flow into your website. As readers explore the curated resources, they find themselves led to your site. This influx of targeted traffic creates opportunities for increased user engagement, conversion rates, and a potential boost in sales.

However, don’t set high hopes for gaining tons of traffic. You never know which domains and articles will perform better.

💡Tip: Try arranging a spot for your product within the first five products mentioned. Readers pay more attention to the beginning of the articles. By following this advice, you increase your chances of gaining more referral traffic and potential leads.

Benefit #4: Relationship building & networking

Engaging with website owners and curators presents prolific opportunities for networking and collaboration. This open door can lead to future guest posting opportunities, joint PR campaigns, and partnerships. Building rapport through resource link building nurtures connections that extend beyond a single link, fueling mutual growth in the long term.

Benefit #5: Long-term link value

Resource pages are inherently designed to provide valuable, curated resources within specific niches. Once your content secures its spot on a resource page, it often retains its place for an extended duration. This inherent stability translates to long-term link value, continuously driving traffic and SEO benefits.

💡Tip: Use this benefit as leverage in your outreach campaigns. Communicate the value of updating content to the webmasters. Go the extra mile and offer them not only a simple inclusion of your product but provide visuals, infographics, internal SME quotes, etc.

With the countless to-dos we have as SEOs, it’s easy to develop tunnel vision. However, if we keep our eyes open, great content ideas lay everywhere.

Resource Page link building isn’t only great for gathering quality backlinks, but furthermore, it can help spark ideas for new content that can benefit our target audience.

Whenever I vet Resource Pages, I keep a notebook close by for jotting down ideas for content that isn’t addressed yet. — Josephine Rudolf, SEO Professional

How to Find and Build Links from Resource Pages

We’ve combined our and other companies' case studies in resource page link building so you can learn and adopt different templates and workflows.

1. Find relevant resource pages

The simplest way to find resource pages is through Google search operators like {topic} intitle: resources. For example, a graphic designer would type this into Google: graphic design intitle: resources.

This operator brings up all the results containing the word «resources» in the titles.

Here are more search operators for collecting relevant resource pages:

{topic} + «helpful links»
{topic} + «useful resources»
{topic} + «best resources»
{topic} + inurl: links

In addition, resource link building facilitates the process of acquiring backlinks on .edu domains. All you need is to use the search string site:.edu {topic} + «resources» or site:.edu {topic} + «links.» Then, adhere to the same strategy of offering quality content to be listed on .edu sites.

Sidenote: This is a much easier way to gain a link from an edu web page compared to broken link building or scholarship link building.

The last way to find a list of resources relevant to your niche is to use use the «~» operator.

~{topic} + inurl: resources

~{topic} + inurl: links

It tells Google to bring up related listicles to your keyword but does not necessarily include it, or it shows a different SERP. For example, if you are collecting resource pages for machine learning, the «~» operator will widen the SERPs.

Another way to compile a list of resource pages is to examine the SERPs manually by entering a keyword by a keyword.

Best resources for {topic}

Best {your product} — best SEO tools

Top places in {city}

💡Tip: Automate your resource page search with Ahrefs' Google Sheet. Enter up to 10 keywords and receive links to the SERPs matching pre-defined search strings. Make a copy of the sheet to get started.

https://i.imgur.com/8rsRzsl.gif

Alt text: Ahrefs' Google Sheet in action.

📚Recommended reading: Link Prospecting for Backlinks: Complete Guide & Tips

2. Create engaging content

Analyze the tone of voice of an article to be updated. Write your text fragment of the same length and style. Consider adding pertinent illustrations. Enrich your copy with quotes or stats. Also, use Semrush or Ahrefs to check the web page backlink profile for broken links. Offer a replacement from your blog or other sources. This will help you provide even more value to a site owner.

💡Tip 1: Check the publishing date of the resource pages and the last update with the Wayback machine. If the content is outdated, older than 3−4 years without updates, and with an ugly design, leave it off. Also, check SEO metrics like DR of 40+ and organic traffic of 2,000+ to ensure the page will pass link equity to your site.

💡Tip 2: Examine all the articles/resource pages for a mention of your product — with or without a backlink. Ask a webmaster to place a link under the unlinked mention.

3. Reach out to them

The next step involves reaching out to resource pages in order to add your link. Collect emails, Twitter, and LinkedIn of bloggers, content editors, or journalists with Hunter.io, Apollo, or GetProspect. Craft a genuine and super personalized email.

⛔Warning: Generic emails receive closer to zero positive responses. If you don’t want to spend time personalizing emails, ditch the idea of resource page link building whatsoever.

Below is the ubiquitous, plain template that content marketers receive every day.

Poor outreach email example:

Hi [First Name],

I hope you’re doing well.

I came across your resource page on [Topic/Niche] and was impressed by the quality of the resources you’ve curated.

I wanted to introduce myself as a [Your Role/Title] at [Your Website/Organization].

We specialize in creating informative content in the [Topic/Niche] field. I recently published an in-depth piece titled [Title of Your Content], covering [Briefly describe the main topic/points].

I believe our content would be a valuable addition to your resource page, providing further insights on [Topic].

If you’re interested, I can provide the URL and a brief description for your consideration.

Let me know if you have any questions or need more information.

Best regards,

[Your Name]

Good outreach email example:

Hey [First Name],

So, here’s the thing: while sipping my morning [Favorite Coffee/Tea Brand — if known] and diving into the realm of [Relevant Topic/Subject], I stumbled upon your resource page, [Recipient's Resource Page Title]. And, wow. It’s not every day you find something both in-depth and user-friendly.

I crafted this piece recently: [Your Resource Name/Title]. And without beating around the bush, I think it’d be a good fit among your handpicked resources.

It surfaces X, based on opinions of [List some SMEs] and case studies.

Have a glance when you can.

P. S. I’ve also found several broken links throughout your piece. This and this. Here are new ones for a replacement.

Cheers,

💡Tip 1: If there’s no response or a denial, try to sweeten a collaboration offer with you by saying that you can build a link to that listicle from other sources. SEO pros will likely agree to update the post.

💡Tip 2: Test your pitch by directly saying that you’d love to do a link building thing and as a fellow SEO specialist, you’re open to discussing not only this update but further collaboration.

How to Measure the Success of Your Resource Page Link Building Efforts

While one link building campaign can boast a remarkable 70%+ conversion rate for added links to resource pages, another may report only a few links built. The difference is in the right metrics to track and KPI to report.

1. # of Acquired backlinks

We at Digital Olympus target a 40−60% of success rate for resource page link building. The lowest mark is 20−25% of links built. You can adhere to our benchmark to understand whether your campaign could perform better.

What’s the point? You can wait for a month or two and reach out to webmasters that didn’t reply to you.

Use Google Sheets to track the status of outreach campaigns or a link building CRM Pitchbox.

2. Referral traffic

One of the direct fruits of resource page link building is the influx of referral traffic to your website. Track this metric in Google Analytics and see which websites give your more qualified leads and direct transactions.

In doing so, you pinpoint your potential partners for content collaboration or cross-promotion.

💡Tip: A high-DR and popular website doesn’t guarantee a stream of referral traffic. It may happen otherwise — less known but more niched-down blogs can generate more leads.

3. Domain Authority

Note down your domain authority before building backlinks from resource pages. Monitor changes in Ahrefs one week and one month after the campaign is finished. On average, the link building result is seen within one to two months.

For example, we started building links in May-June 2023, and our endeavors reflected in a subtle domain rating growth in 1.5 months. The DR increased from 64 to 67, and we’re waiting for further improvement.

4. Search engine rankings

Monitor your overall organic keywords' growth and for concrete pages you linked back to. In the screenshot, you see the same website as above. The changes in rankings are more tangible than the site’s DR growth.

Now Over to You

Resource page link building is a relatively easy and fruitful tactic to gain juicy backlinks. Follow our pieces of advice to attract more quality referring domains.

Looking for help with link building and choosing the right strategy? Schedule a call with our team to discuss your project.

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