The Power of Skyscraper Technique in Content Marketing

Do you remember the days when the world-wide-web was uncrowded and listing an idea on the first page of search engines was not difficult? You publish a good page and it used to stay on top. Now, things have changed many folds. With the digitization of businesses, a huge amount of content is getting published every hour. This is making things much more competitive to rank higher and thus, driving traffic to the target pages is no longer that simple. This is where the skyscraper technique comes to the rescue.

Though there are many other SEO parameters involved, the bottom line has remained the same – the most relevant piece of content will get the attention of the search engines. The introduction of the Skyscraper blog writing has made it possible to beat the competition by drawing inspiration from the pages already raking on top. With the potential to drive traffic and organic link building, skyscraper marketing focuses on creating information-rich content by collating data from existing pages ranked high in SERPs. The study of audience intent and deep research on the topics are the core of skyscraper technique.

What Is a Skyscraper Blog

The concept of ‘Skyscraper content’ was introduced by the founder of Backlinko, Brain Dean. Dean supports the belief that marketers need to be strategic, and the aim of creating content must be competitive and learn how to promote. 

Skyscraper content creation is a link-building strategy that improves existing popular content and replicates the backlinks to the websites linked to the previous old content. It focuses on relevant keywords or key phrases to target top-ranking content related to that and create a new piece of content. The new content should be exceptional, providing in-depth information on the subject addressing all major queries of the target audience. 

The process of skyscraper content creation should follow all conditions for SEO blog writing and webpages. These are long pieces of content with a word count of 1200 and more. And we can create engaging and in-depth skyscraper content pieces in the form of blogs, eBooks, whitepapers, and helpful articles. 

Benefits of Skyscraper Blog Writing

Skyscraper marketing aims at creating simple yet effective content around a particular keyword that performs better. If we implement the skyscraper technique appropriately, then it proves to be an effective marketing strategy. Let us see how skyscraper blogs can benefit us:

High-quality Content for Readers

The skyscraper backlink technique recreates existing content by adding statistics, in-depth information, and engaging infographics, visuals, videos, presentations, etc. For example, turning a huge heap of text into a video or an interactive presentation simplifies the subject for the readers. 

Studies show that most online visitors skim through the content. Therefore, proper use of subheadings distribution makes the content more readable for the users. The content structure based on the audience’s intent adds value. The skyscraper blog simulates the pain points, answers the first-level queries, and directs audiences toward possible solutions.   

Quality Content Increases Social Shares

A detailed and more explained blog post with lots of visual data like images, infographics, videos, etc., has more chances of getting shared by readers on social platforms. When the users find the content relevant and useful, they share it through emails or social sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Make sure you have social sharing buttons in place for your posts and a button that allows them to share even via email. 

Increases Overall Backlinks

A study by Moz shows a direct correlation between long-form content and an increase in backlinks. Skyscraper blogs with up-to-date information when published and promoted using email marketing, can reach out to site owners previously linked to similar content, thus getting quality organic backlinks.

Increases Visibility and Boosts Traffic

Search engines have always been obsessed with quality content. Google’s E-A-T algorithm considers the quality of the content, the authority of the creators of the content, and the website to rank content. The skyscraper content fulfilling these parameters has a greater chance for a higher SERP ranking. It increases the web page’s visibility and helps drive organic traffic. 

Increases Authority 

Skyscraper blog posts help with well-researched backed-up data, earn a lot of backlinks, and increase the overall authority of your site. Adding content with more descriptions, statistics, case studies, and explanations of complex terms makes the blog more authoritative. 

Case Studies – Who All Have Benefitted from Skyscraper Technique

Many organizations have implemented the skyscraper technique and have benefitted from driving the site’s organic traffic, backlinks, and many more.

Ryan Robinson Generated Almost $700,000 with a Single Skyscraper Post

Ryan Robinson, a well-known blogger, applied the skyscraper process in marketing a piece on a Freelancing wage calculator for a Fast Company. He developed an e-book describing the stages of a freelancing job and incorporated high-quality graphics. 

Ryan used BuzzSumo to find other companies, posted blogs, and distributed material related to ‘freelance hourly rates.’ He contacted them and asked about their interest in republishing the material with infographics and updates. As a result, his piece was shared 8,200 times, received 72,000 views, and had 3,648 email subscribers. It also received many valuable backlinks and republished copies of the graphics, still getting utilized in freelancing works all over the internet.       

Backlinko Increased Its Organic Traffic by 652% in Seven Days

The creator of the Backlinko SEO site, Brian Dean, used Skyscraper Marketing which helped him increase its organic traffic by 652% in just seven days. The post received lots of shares and backlinks, and to maintain the traffic, Brian introduced the Skyscraper technique 2.0. This B2B content marketing process asks to optimize the pages around User Intent or Search Intent. It ensures the ranking of pages sticks to it.  

A SaaS Company Increased Its Organic Traffic By 36% Month Over Month

A SaaS company operating in B2C and B2B space used the Skyscraper blogging for one of its pages through a consultant and increased its organic traffic by 36% month over month. The consultant analyzed top-performing content on SERPs, developed a SERP-based content outline and unique content 10x better and more valuable, and did on-page SEO and search intent optimization. The page now ranks for more than 1300+ keywords on Google from 49 keywords during the first month. It brings an estimated 2600 visitors per month.  

Process of Skyscraper Blog Writing

The skyscraper content involves the reverse engineering of successful content, creating something unique and better by replicating its distribution strategy. The right implementation of skyscraper content can lead to a better reader experience and bring numerous benefits. 

Let us see the process of applying the Skyscraper technique to create and promote your content most effectively.

Step 1 – Keyword Research and Find Competing Content

The first step is to select zero-in on the topic closest to your product or service. Conduct essential keyword research on the topic looking for top-ranking pages. It helps you ensure you target keywords and subjects that customers are looking for and interested in.

Then, find competing content ranked at the top of SERPs. For example, when we search ‘skyscraper blog post’, google shows the following result. (https://www.lean-labs.com/hs-fs/hubfs/SkyscraperBlogPost-1.png?width=1589&name=SkyscraperBlogPost-1.png). We will select the top four links for analysis and get valuable insight for content creation. 

Here are a few reasons we should create a fresh copy of the content:

• The posts on the first page of search engines for a long time may be outdated and of no use to the customers.
• Many customers want to hear new opinions and approaches on the subject.
• The top ranking may not guarantee quality, and better content can give you a high rank.

Step 2 – Content Research and Structuring

The core idea behind the skyscraper technique is to create better content that can actually help the target audience find the answers they are looking for. And Brian has suggested improving existing content in four aspects.

Improving the Length of the Content

Research shows that Crazy Egg experienced an increase in conversion rate by more than 30 percent using long-form content. Skyscraper blogs perform better than other blogs, because they contain more information than others, and Google prefers long-form articles over normal-length articles. However, to ensure high quality in long-form content, we must include 

• A strong outline to hit the most significant points.
• Add the strong point of the competing content and add even more.
• A clear narrative to guide the readers with resources and tools.

Freshness or Relevance of the Skyscraper Blog

Update the outdated information of the original content with current statistics and facts. Add new images, screenshots, information, infographics, etc., to reinforce your points. 

Design of the Content for High Retention

An overall design helps improve the flow of the post and makes it easy to read. A few things that we should consider in skyscraper content are 

• A great visual with a healthy blend of photography of images of statistics and charts add value to the post.
• Right dimension images avoid distraction due to length.
• Formatted headings with H2-H5 tags naturally guide the reader from the beginning to the end of the post.
• Each blog post should have a noticeable CTA or call-to-action and communicate what will happen next, like ‘download now’ or ‘sign up for a demo.’

Depth

A great skyscraper blog should bring tremendous value to the readers by answering their questions and solving problems. It should include original research, proprietary data, comprehensive studies, and regular reports. Data-backed content justifies decision-making and makes them actionable.

Step 3 – Skyscraper Content Creation with Appropriate Anchor Texts and Links

After creating the content, it needs to optimize the content as part of your search engine optimization strategy. This involves setting up the right anchor texts, appropriate interlinking of pages, placing ALT attributes for all types of visuals, etc. Then, it is time to reach out to the right people for quality leads and conversion. The best prospects for skyscraper content can be 

• People who occupy your niche.
• People interested in your subject.
• Persons previously linked to similar content.

Reaching out to the Right People for Link-building

• Use SEO tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, Majestic, and others to uncover backlinks to the original content, top-ranking sites, or old materials.
• Export the list of backlinks as a CSV file.
• Filter the list to remove article portals or discussion links.
• Use the Email lookup tool to locate the customers’ email addresses.

• Outreach this filtered list of prospects through emails. So, create an email that gets opened, read, and responded to by them to get the desired result.  

Content Inception Can Help Implement Skyscraper Marketing

Content Inception is a digital marketing agency providing comprehensive content marketing solutions to industries across several verticals, from AEC, retail, e-commerce, fashion, and lifestyle to medical and healthcare. The team at CI follows a working process of deep research of the audience and competitors to put forth the most feasible marketing plan for ultimate lead generation.  

As part of its broader ABM lead generation process, CI supports clients in implementing Skyscraper technique for driving traffic, organic link building, achieving high ranking, and getting more number of project inquiries. We focus on research and informative long-form content creation to serve readers and businesses to meet their branding/lead generation objectives. Contact us to create original, unique, and valuable content for your readers with CI Skyscraper Marketing Services.