The Skyscraper Technique: Why the Famous Link Method Stopped Getting Replies, and the Version That Still Works

Three steps, one metaphor, and a decade of copies

The name comes from a simple image. Find the tallest building on the block, build one taller, and people will look at yours. Ahrefs, which sells a backlink tool built for exactly this kind of prospecting, dates the name and the method to a 2015 blog post. The steps have not changed since.

1. 1

   Find content that already earned links

   Use a backlink tool to find pages on your subject that many sites link to. The links prove the topic is worth citing.

2. 2

   Make something better

   Publish a page on the same subject that is more useful: more current, more complete, better organized or better designed.

3. 3

   Email the people who linked to the original

   Every site linking to the old page is a prospect. Tell them your page exists and suggest they link to it too.

The logic is sound. A site that linked to a resource has already shown it cites resources on that subject, so it is a warmer prospect than a random blog. The trouble is what happened when tens of thousands of marketers ran the same three steps on the same popular pages, with the same email. The link building hub covers where this fits among other methods; this page is about the method itself.

Why the replies dried up

Ahrefs published its own post on why the skyscraper technique fails in February 2023. Its reasons, in short: people send the original template almost word for word, so recipients delete it on sight; they send one pitch to every prospect, though people link for different reasons; and they make content longer instead of more valuable. Ahrefs also points out that people often link based on who published something, not only on how good it is. We would add two more.

Taller is not better: what Google asks about the bigger post

Google's guide to creating helpful content includes questions a skyscraper builder should read twice. It asks whether you are writing to a particular word count because you heard Google prefers one. It asks whether you are mainly summarizing what others have to say without adding much value. And it asks whether content that draws on other sources avoids simply copying or rewriting them and adds substantial value and originality instead.

A typical skyscraper page fails all three. It takes the top ten results, merges them, adds a few items to the list and a nicer header image, and calls the result the ultimate guide. That is the method followed to the letter, and it produces exactly the kind of page Google describes as unhelpful. Google's spam policies go further, listing low-value content created primarily to manipulate linking signals as link spam, and stitching content from different pages without adding value as scaled content abuse.

Our guide to SEO content goes deeper on writing pages that earn their place on merit.

The small-business skyscraper: build where you own the bricks

A national publisher can outspend a local business on any general topic. It cannot outdo the local business on the local business's own jobs. That is where the updated version of the technique lives: pick a subject where the existing pages are generic, and replace them with something only you could publish.

Never invent the figures. If the records are thin, publish fewer, honest numbers and say how they were gathered. A local reporter, a homeowners' group or a real estate agent's blog has reason to cite a page like that, and nobody can copy it without your records. Our guide to link building strategies explains how a page like this becomes the asset in a six-month campaign, and how to get backlinks lists the easier links to collect first.

Finding the people worth emailing, and the ones to skip

The original method mailed everyone who linked to the old page. The updated version mails far fewer people and expects more of each one. Search Console shows only your own links, so a third-party tool is needed to see who links to someone else's page; our roundup of link building tools compares them, including free tiers.

1. 1

   Pull the linking pages, not just the domains

   For the two or three pages you are replacing, export every page that links to them. A domain tells you who; the page tells you why.

2. 2

   Read why each one linked

   Open the page and find the sentence around the link. Did it cite a statistic, a definition, a checklist? Your pitch has to offer the same thing, better.

3. 3

   Drop the pages nobody maintains

   Skip pages that are years old with no sign of updates, link farms, and sites that publish anything for a fee. Our guide to high quality backlinks has the scorecard.

4. 4

   Add prospects the old page never reached

   Local news sites, trade associations and partners who cover your subject but link to nothing on it yet are often better targets than the original linkers. Google search operators help find them.

5. 5

   Find the person, not the inbox

   Look for the writer or editor responsible for that page. A generic contact form is where pitches go to be ignored.

Twenty well-chosen prospects with a clear reason to care beat four hundred scraped addresses. That ratio is our working judgment, not a measurement, but it is also the difference between a campaign and a spam complaint.

A pitch that does not sound like the template

The pitch has one job: show a busy person in a few lines that your page helps their readers more than what they have now. Personal, specific, short, and with no favor attached.

Do not offer anything in exchange for the link. Google's spam policies list exchanging goods or services for links, and excessive link exchanges, as link spam, and a promise to share, review or return the favor drifts toward both. Our guide to email outreach covers subject lines, follow-ups and the commercial email rules, and reciprocal links draws the line on trades.

What a realistic campaign earns, and how to judge it

Expect few links, and expect them slowly. A good local asset might earn a handful of links from sites that matter in the first months, then keep collecting citations as people find it in search. A campaign judged only by replies to cold email will look like a failure even when the page itself is working.

Mentions count too, linked or not. A local news story that cites your figures puts the business name where people and AI engines read about it, which our page on brand mentions vs backlinks explains. If the first twenty pitches draw nothing, change the page or the angle before sending twenty more. And keep the asset current: a cost guide updated every year is easier to pitch than one quietly going stale, which is the subject of content relaunch.

Running it yourself, or having the asset built

The prospecting and the pitch are within reach of any owner with a free tool tier and a quiet afternoon. The asset is the hard part: gathering the records, checking the numbers, writing the page and keeping it updated. It is also where most attempts stall, because the work looks optional until a competitor publishes it first.

That is the work our content marketing team does, and earning links and mentions is part of DataCram's monthly SEO programs, which start at $625 a month with no long contract and a scope set after an audit; SEO pricing shows the range. If an earlier agency already sent mass outreach from your domain or bought links in your name, start with a backlink audit. And before pointing anyone at the site, run the free website audit, because a link sends people to a page that still has to earn the call.