How to Find and Choose Outreach Targets

Not every website you find through Google is a website you should contact for link outreach.

Think about what happens when you come across a website that publishes articles about the same subject as yours. At first, it might seem like a good place to suggest an article of your own. But when you take a closer look at the articles it publishes, you notice that they cover a much narrower part of the subject than the article you have in mind. Your idea might still be relevant, but it may not be something the website’s readers are looking for.

Before contacting the editor, consider whether your proposed article would genuinely interest the publication’s readers. And once you find several websites where your idea could fit, another decision comes up. Which of those websites should you contact first?

You do not have to make all these decisions at once. You can begin by finding websites that might be relevant, then look more closely at each one to see whether your proposal makes sense. After that, you can decide which website owners or editors you want to approach first.

These three steps are called discovery, validation, and prioritization. In simple terms, you find possible websites, check whether they are suitable, and choose where to begin.

Step 1: Find Websites That Might Be Worth Contacting

You already know that you want to find websites related to your subject, but where should you begin looking?

Google is one place to start. If your website teaches people about link building, you might search for articles about backlinks, outreach, or related SEO subjects. When you’re specifically looking to contribute an article, try combining your subject with phrases such as “write for us” or “contribute.” Choose words a publication might use when explaining how to submit an article.

Those searches are only one route, though. A publication doesn’t need a “Write for Us” page to mention outside sources or consider an article idea. As you research related subjects, pay attention to publications that keep appearing with relevant guides, interviews, or research. They may be worth investigating even when they don’t advertise opportunities for contributors.

You can also look beyond conventional blogs. Depending on your subject, an industry magazine, a professional organization, or a newsletter with articles available on its website may publish material connected to what you want to share.

Another route is to examine which websites link to publications similar to yours. A backlink research tool reports links it has discovered pointing from one website to another. Entering a competitor’s website address can help you identify publications that link to its pages, including sources you didn’t encounter in your original searches.

Open those linking pages to understand the reference. The writer might have cited the competitor’s research, recommended a resource, or included the business in a comparison. Each situation tells you something different about why the publisher included the link. It doesn’t automatically mean the same publisher has a reason to link to your website.

Choose Tools According to the Research You Need

Manual searching lets you follow an interesting article to its sources and explore from there. A prospect database works differently: you search an existing collection of websites or pages and use filters to narrow the possibilities. For example, some tools let you filter content by topic, publication date, or language.

A prospect management system can bring research pages, contact information, and decisions about individual websites together. That can help when several people are working through the same list, but the information still needs to be reviewed. A tool’s results are not a finished list of people you should contact.

For a small list, Google and a spreadsheet may be enough. Add another tool when you can identify the job it would help you complete, rather than assuming more software will produce better prospects.

Keep a record of each website’s name, address, subject, and the page that led you to consider it. If your searches begin returning the same websites repeatedly, change the phrases you’re using or investigate another source of candidates instead of collecting duplicates. You’ll use this initial record during the closer checks that follow.

Step 2: Check Whether Each Website Is Actually Suitable

Once you have possible websites to investigate, open their articles rather than judging them from a homepage or category name. Look at several recent pieces to understand what the publication regularly covers, how it explains those subjects, and who it seems to be writing for.

For example, you might want to propose an article that explains link building to someone launching their first website. A publication devoted to advanced SEO research could cover the same broad subject while serving readers who already know those basics. The shared topic gives you a reason to investigate, but the articles help you decide whether your particular contribution belongs there.

Check who writes or edits the content, whether the publication appears active, and how it asks people to submit ideas or get in touch. These details help you understand both the publication and the practical route for approaching it.

An SEO tool may also display an “authority” score beside the website. That number comes from the tool’s provider, not Google. Google explicitly distinguishes these external scores from its own ranking signals. A score can offer additional information, but it cannot tell you whether an editor or reader would find your proposal useful.

A smaller publication shouldn’t be rejected solely because its score is lower. Equally, a recognizable name or impressive number shouldn’t outweigh content that has little connection to your idea. Consider these observations together rather than letting one decide whether the website stays on your list.

You also need a specific reason to contact the publication. For a guest article, check its contributor guidelines and what your proposed topic would add to its existing coverage. For a resource suggestion, identify an article where your information would genuinely help the reader.

A publication that doesn’t accept guest articles might still cite relevant research, but that only creates a reason to contact it when you actually have suitable research to offer. Don’t invent a different pitch merely to keep an attractive website on the list.

This process is called qualifying an outreach prospect: checking whether a possible contact makes sense for your particular proposal. Record why you would approach the publication and mark any unanswered questions for further checking. That separates websites you’ve merely discovered from those you’re ready to consider contacting.

Step 3: Decide Which Website Owners to Contact First

Suppose you have checked several websites and found that more than one could be suitable for your outreach.

You now have a different decision to make. Rather than asking whether a website belongs on your list, you are deciding where to spend your time first.

Imagine that two publications cover your subject and both appear open to outside contributors. One regularly publishes guides for beginners, including articles similar to the one you want to propose. The other covers your subject too, but its recent articles are less closely connected to your idea.

You might reasonably choose to contact the editor of the first publication before approaching the second. That does not mean the second website is unsuitable. It simply means the first gives you a clearer reason to begin there.

This is called prioritization. If you have many suitable prospects, a simple scoring process can help you compare them using the same criteria. But you do not need a complicated scoring system to get started. Even a short note explaining why one publication is more suitable for your proposal than another can help you make a sensible decision.

Keep Track of What You Have Learned

Once you begin contacting website owners or editors, keep your research and outreach activity together. Add the contact date and any response to the record you started during discovery, so you can see both why you selected a publication and what happened after you approached it.

For example, your working notes might look like this:

These are fictional examples, but they show how a few notes can prevent you from repeating the same research or forgetting why you considered a website in the first place.

Your decisions can also change as you learn more. An editor might explain that a proposed article is not suitable but suggest another subject. A website that once accepted guest contributions might stop accepting them. Keeping your notes up to date allows you to make your next decision using what you actually know, rather than relying on your first impression.