Ken McGaffin - Citation Labs

Link Building with Stories – Webinar Recording

Introduction to our new online video course, The Story Approach

By Ken McGaffin

September 11, 2017

Topics: Enterprise Link Building Tips, Link Building Industry Insights, The Story Approach

Great stories engage your audience, attract links from authority sites and make your pitches for guest post placements or PR coverage so much more compelling. In this free webinar, Garrett French, Kristina Welch and Ken McGaffin will show you how anyone can find great stories and turn them into terrific content. Here’s the full recording of ... Read more

Get great value from small publishers [Podcast]

Small publishers often have loyal, responsive readers - are you targeting them effectively?

By Ken McGaffin

June 9, 2017

Topics: Citation Labs News

Public relations efforts tend to focus on the top tier media that everyone knows. But there are thousands of smaller publishers who can be just as valuable.

What are your team’s stories? Case study: ClifBar.com [video]

How to uncover great stories among your staff - and use them in your content marketing.

By Ken McGaffin

June 8, 2017

Topics: Citation Labs News, Content Strategy, Local Link Building, The Story Approach

https://vimeo.com/217999052 Duration: 5:52 minutes – full transcript below. ClifBar.com is a different kind of company… “the kind of place we want to work, that makes the kind of food we’d like to eat, and it strives for a healthier, more sustainable world”. The Idaho company recognizes the value that the team members bring, not only ... Read more

New ideas for link building [Podcast]

Garrett shares his toughts on what's working at the moment, where he's looking for creative ideas and how enterprise link building is so different from small business strategies and tactics.

By Ken McGaffin

April 21, 2017

Topics: Campaign Creation, Enterprise Link Building Tips, Link Building Industry Insights, The Link Builder's Podcast

So where can you get new ideas to drive your link building campaigns? In this episode, Garrett tells us what is working for him at the moment, what he’s experimenting with and why there is still great value in tactics that have gone out of fashion.

‘Hey Saturday’ Online Dating Photographer on BBC [Video]

When Saskia Nelson set up her business she decided that she didn't want to be just another wedding photographer. Instead, she decided to specialize in photographing people for their online dating profiles.

By Ken McGaffin

Topics: Content Planning, Enterprise Link Building Tips, The Story Approach

When Saskia Nelson set up her business she decided that she didn’t want to be just another wedding photographer. Instead, she decided to specialize in photographing people for their online dating profiles. Her niche business, ‘Hey Saturday’ has thrived and grabbed a lot of media attention, including a wonderful piece on the BBC, The woman on ... Read more

Why ‘fresh prospects’ are your hottest prospects [podcast]

Focusing on fresh prospects has seen conversion rates at Citation Labs skyrocket.

By Ken McGaffin

March 16, 2017

Topics: Citation Labs News, The Link Builder's Podcast

A website that has been updated in the last month, the last week and even the last 24 hours is what Garrett calls a ‘fresh prospect’. These updates are sure signs of life – that there is a person behind the site that cares about it, adds new content – and is likely to respond ... Read more

[Video] What you can learn from Shopify’s resident entrepreneur?

Your team can create terrific, newsworthy content if you allow them to use your products as your customers would.

By Ken McGaffin

Topics: Citation Labs News

Your team can create terrific, newsworthy content if you allow them to use your products as your customers would. For example, Shopify’s have a full-time resident entrepreneur, Jane Lee as part of the staff team. And she has set up a Shopify store, using Shopify software to sell Shopify products – and it has proved to be ... Read more

Video Review: The Sleep Matters Club

So who are the influencers in your market? Dreams.co.uk shows you can go very wide in your choice!

By Ken McGaffin

February 3, 2017

Topics: Citation Labs News, Content Planning, Content Strategy

The Sleep Matters Club from a UK-based bed and mattress company, Dreams.co.uk takes a highly creative approach to content marketing. In creating content for their blog, you might expect they’d concentrate on sleep psychologists and sleep experts. That’s what many of us would do – but that’s not good enough Dreams! So how about a ... Read more

Is the phone the most underused tool in link building?

Yes, says Garrett French, founder of Citation Labs.

By Ken McGaffin

Topics: Citation Labs News, The Link Builder's Podcast

Old phone unused

Is the phone the most underused tool in link building? Yes, says Garrett French, founder of Citation Labs. In this podcast he takes us under the hood at his agency to show how the phone is an essential tool in all the link building they do. And he also explains how you can persuade, perhaps, ... Read more

VIDEO: Finding Press and PR Opportunities With The Link Prospector

With Ken McGaffin & Megan Hannay

By Ken McGaffin

February 15, 2016

Topics: CL Tools: Link Prospector, Outreach Tips, Public Relations

In this third video of our Link Prospector best practices series, Ken McGaffin and Megan Hannay review how to find topically-relevant journalists and PR opportunities. Megan: So with reporters, we actually have three report types. The first one is probably our most common. It’s accessible reporters. Search for topics, and we’ll help you find reporters who ... Read more

VIDEO: Finding Links and Resource Pages with the Link Prospector

with Ken McGaffin & Megan Hannay

By Ken McGaffin

January 19, 2016

Topics: Agency Hacks, CL Tools: Link Prospector, Link Building Industry Insights

In our 2nd video in the Link Prospector series, Megan Hannay and Ken McGaffin explain the best strategies for links and resource pages finding with the Link Prospector. Check it out, or if you’re more of a reader, we’ve got a transcript below. Megan: I’m Megan Hannay, and we’re today going to be talking about ... Read more

VIDEO: Finding Guest Post Opportunities with the Link Prospector

With Ken McGaffin & Megan Hannay

By Ken McGaffin

January 6, 2016

Topics: CL Tools: Link Prospector, Intro to Link Building, Outreach Tips

This video is the first in a series between myself, Ken McGaffin, and Megan Hannay on finding outreach opportunities with the Citation Labs Link Prospector. Megan: We’re just going to go through quickly, in a few minutes, if you’re looking for guest posting opportunities in your niche, how to use the Link Prospector to find ... Read more

Plan for Spontaneity

Developing An Annual PR Promotion Plan

By Ken McGaffin

September 30, 2015

Topics: Campaign Creation, Content Planning, Link Building Industry Insights, Public Relations

Sign up for our 10/7 webinar more insights & tips on PR thinking for link building & content teams. Your promotion doesn’t happen in isolation. You have to compete for attention and links with competitor activity, industry events, new product launches, research reports and breaking news stories. If you launch a piece of content at ... Read more

Online PR Should Be an Integral Part of SEO

Results from our Citation Labs survey

By Ken McGaffin

April 29, 2015

Topics: Press Releases

As Google continues to toughen up its algorithm, search engine optimization experts (SEOs) are rushing to learn online PR skills. That’s because positive media coverage is a strong signal that a site is legitimate and useful - and therefore worthy of top positions in search engine results. Read our survey results here.

Using the Link Prospector to find Media Opportunities

A Video Discussion

By Ken McGaffin

April 8, 2015

Topics: Campaign Creation, CL Tools: Link Prospector, Public Relations

In this video, we'll go through the process of finding three types of press opportunities with the Link Prospector:

1) Finding accessible reporters
2) Finding press resource linkers
3) Finding opportunities for audience input

6 More Archetypal Stories You Can Use Right Now in Your Online PR

6 More Stories to Add To Our November List

By Ken McGaffin

February 19, 2015

Topics: Content Strategy, Public Relations

Media stories have recognizable patterns that appear time and again in all sorts of outlets. Learn what they are, use them to tell your own PR stories and you’ll create pitches that resonate with journalists - and that increases your chances of coverage.

How Online PR is a Powerful Link Building Tool

A Post from our new Director of PR Services, Ken McGaffin

By Ken McGaffin

November 6, 2014

Topics: Link Building Industry Insights, Public Relations

Every day businesses of every size get media coverage and valuable editorial links - but many SEOs and link builders don’t quite know how to approach the media to get this type of coverage. It takes much more than just sending out a press release - it takes effort and hard work. But the opportunity is very real and the good news is that link builders will already have many of the skills they need.