Are you tirelessly working on building more backlinks to your website?

Are you pouring hour after hour into blogger outreach, crafting killer guest posts, and checking your analytics every five minutes to see if Google’s recognised your hard work?

Do you wish that someone would just give you a break in the form of an easy to implement link building tactic that will give you a bit of decent juice without the endless slog?

I get you.

We all know that link building can be a serious drain on time and resources, even if the end results can be transformational for your business.

The bad news here is that the secret sauce doesn’t really exist, and if you want quality links that are going to move the needle on your rankings and make for a better, stronger website, you’re going to have to put in the graft along the way.

That said though, there is a range of strategies you can deploy that are proven to attract high-quality links quickly and easily, and we’re going to dive deep into one of them today.

Testimonial link building can earn you links from some of the most respected, established, and authoritative sites in your niche, and when you know the exact step to follow to make it work for you, it can take less than ten minutes to secure your link.

So what exactly is testimonial link building?

All brands and businesses want to see customers raving about their products and services.

Social proof is a huge element of successful marketing, so they’re delighted to receive real accounts from real people who heartily recommend what they have to offer.

By providing testimonials for products and services that you use and love, you can get your blurb featured on their websites, complete with a link back to your own site.

Simple, right?

But also massively effective.

This is a win-win scenario for you and the business in question, and an added benefit here is that you can also build some powerful relationships with other players in your niche.

Sounds great. How do I do it?

I’ve broken the exact process down into four steps, and I’ve also crafted a template you can use for when you’re doing your outreach.

Step 1: Identify your potential targets

As I’ve mentioned, you want to be targeting products and services that you’re more than happy to vouch for.

Your own reputation is on the line if you’re seen to be in cahoots with businesses that provide shoddy offerings, so keep that in mind whilst you’re doing your planning.

Brainstorm a big list of potential targets, then check to make sure they meet the additional criteria:

• Is the business relevant to your own niche?
• Is the business already displaying testimonials on their site?
• Do the testimonials include a backlink?

Ticking these boxes ensure that your link is relevant and that you’re not wasting any unnecessary time.

Your prospect list is going to look wildly different depending on what niche you operate in, but let’s suppose for example that you’re in the internet marketing space.

Your list could include theme creators, hosting providers, social media scheduling software, email marketing software, graphic design tools, SEO agencies, website developers, and so on.

Once you get your thinking cap on, you’re likely to have a sizeable pool of possibilities.

Step 2: Establish who you need to contact

You want to make sure that you’re reaching out to the right person, so your pitch email (which we’ll come to in a minute) is more likely to be read and actioned.

Here, the answer is largely going to depend on the kind of business that we’re looking at.

If it’s a one-man band or micro business that you’ve worked with in the past, you probably already know who to contact.

Larger organisations might even have a dedicated page on their site for submitting testimonials.

If you’re unsure, reach out via social media or through the contact page. Ideally, you want to get a hold of a name so you can make your email a little more personal.

Step 3: Pitch the idea of a testimonial

We’re all about saving time here where we can, so we aren’t going to just fire over a testimonial before we know they’re keen and they give us the go-ahead.

Keep it short and simple, and cut out any waffle.

This template here can be used to create your own effective pitch by just filling in the blanks:

Hi [name],

I’m [your name] and I own [your website/business].

I’ve been using [their product/service] recently to help me with [a problem you had], and I’m really impressed with the results it’s helped me to achieve!

Would you like me to put together a testimonial about [the product/service]? I’d love to help you to spread the word further, and I’d be delighted to provide you with a testimonial for you to use on your website.

Thanks, and I’ll look forward to hearing from you!

[your name]

Step 4: Write an awesome testimonial

There’s a good and a bad way to write a testimonial.

If you’re submitting something like ‘this service is great! I recommend it to all my friends!’ then there’s a strong chance they’re never publishing it.

Remember that the purpose of a testimonial is to persuade a potential buyer that this thing is worth their money.

A really great way to do this is to identify a potential objection that a prospect would have (and one that you also had before you bought), and bust it.

So for example, maybe you bought a WordPress theme but you were worried that you didn’t have the technical know-how to install it.

Your testimonial could be “I bought xyz when I was brand new to blogging, and I really worried that I wouldn’t be able to work out how to use all the amazing features. I was super impressed to discover that the set-up was amazingly simple, and I could do it myself in just 5 minutes.”

(Bonus points if you can also reference an additional element, such as great support, or if you’re happy to include a video testimonial).

Final thoughts on testimonial link building

So that is pretty much that for the testimonial link building method.

It’s often much faster than writing a guest post, and the link juice potential is often much higher.

Of course, a really good linking building strategy will involve a variety of methods, and it’s highly likely that to achieve the very best rankings, you’ll need to use this in conjunction with additional tactics. But this one’s a great tool to have in your kit when you’re planning your approach.