Here’s the $311,000 linkbuilding strategy that sites like Student Loan Hero and LendingTree use to rank for their most valuable keywords.
“Refinance student loans” is an extremely competitive keyword with 15,000+ monthly searches valued at $300,000+ per month.
Pages that rank are heavily commercial.
So how do you get other people to link to a page that’s just trying to sell something?
Well, you don’t….
Instead of trying to build links directly to their most valuable commercial pages (”money pages”), these sites use an end-around strategy.
They create a new page that's not commercial.
It's informational — and highly linkable.
e.g.: "Student loan statistics."
This page is a natural link magnet. Other writers searching for stats about student loans will Google "student loan statistics", find the post, and then cite it as a source (if they're being good citizens!)
It has 100+ links, including lots of high-DA news and media sites.
(Just a quick note to say that this particular URL is actually a redirect from when LendingTree purchased Student Loan Hero)
But how does building links to a page about student loan statistics help them rank for "refinance student loans"?
3 ways:
Building more links to the website, on the whole, helps to improve rankings across the board.
Think: A rising tide lifts all ships.