YouTube outreach and how it can be used to build your link profile 

Three billion.

Three billion YouTube searches a month.

We know what you’re thinking: That’s a lot of cat videos, right?

Cats aside, YouTube is the second most popular search engine (behind Google). Users are increasingly thinking video-first when it comes to everything – clothes, recipes, sports results, etc.

The rise of the vlogger should come as a surprise to no one. The heavyweights of Zoella and co. – along with the thousands of micro-influencers using the channel – stand testament to this. The benefits of having high-quality influencers talking about your brand are obvious – exposure, advocacy, more sales! – but we’re here to tell you that YouTube offers benefits for your link profile too!

Link building is a must for brands looking to last the fight in the competitive digital sphere. In simple terms, link building can be defined as the pursuit and creation of links on other sites linking back to your website. Good links though.

How do you define ‘good links’? Good question. The chief metric for this is widely known as flow, and this ‘flow’ comes in two forms: Trust and Citation.

Trust flow is basically the value of your site on account of the value of other sites that link to it (in other words, value). Citation flow is the value of your site on account of how many sites link to it (in other words, volume).

There are two types of links – follow and nofollow. Follow links basically pass on their weight as links to the sites they are linking to – specifically, they pass on what is dubbed ‘link juice’. Any way in which you can get these types of links to point back to your own website is a win. 

A nofollow link is just the opposite. It literally tells Google not to ‘follow’ that link. This can be defined more specifically as instructing Google that you wouldn’t like to pass on your link’s juice to the site you are linking to. This can be for a number of reasons. This is handy in situations where a page links to something that has spammy elements to it, for example.

Similar to word of mouth marketing, no follow links are still really important. Keeping a balance between both follow and no follow links to create a natural link profile in the eyes of Google – this is key (always assume Google is smarter than you give it credit). In addition, a nofollow link can lead as much valuable traffic to your site to a follow link – and in turn, valuable traffic can then lead to more follow links in the future. Are you following?

It’s at this juncture that YouTube steps into play. Every link from YouTube content is nofollow. No ifs, no buts.

Outreach is largely based around building authority. Gaining links (ideally follow links) from trusted influencers whose audience will find value in your brand and drive traffic to your site. Using YouTube outreach for exposure is clearly a great way to get eyes on your brand – almost five billion videos are watched on YouTube every single day.

Combine this with the fact that any links included within YouTube content/descriptions are nofollow (to reiterate for those at the back: very important) and it’s clear that making video a big part of your outreach strategy is a no-brainer!

So, make YouTube part of your outreach strategy and don’t shy away from putting it down as part of your link-building activity.