It is unlikely you will find a website high on the SERPs for which the person or team responsible for that placement has not done the necessary competitive research. Link prospecting does not stop at knowing the sites to target; you also need to group those sites and pages, provide some definition on their value, and then formulate your approach. Let's take a data-driven look at inbound link prospecting.

Much of the discussion on how to actually build links, unfortunately, is shallow and void of any practical value. Personally, if I hear the phrase “quality content” one more time I might explode. Let’s mix it up by addressing real ways to target real valuable links, and how to go about actually doing it for a business’ benefit.

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