ChatGPT Prompts for SEO Link-building

Link-building is an essential task for search engine optimization. It’s also one of the toughest.

Quality links continue to drive Google’s organic rankings. Other tactics can help — keywords, HTML headers, schema markup — but links alone can move a URL into Google’s top five positions.

ChatGPT can improve the link-building process. Here are a few prompts to get started.

ChatGPT Prompts for Link-building

General brainstorming prompts. ChatGPT expedites brainstorming. Ask questions, ponder the answers, and generate follow-up queries.

Say I own an ecommerce site selling pet supplies. I could ask ChatGPT for linkable asset ideas for my shop. Here’s an initial prompt:

• I own an online store selling pet supplies. Generate a list of digital assets I could create to attract backlinks.

ChatGPT listed five ideas, including:

• “Pet Adoption Stories”: Develop a heartwarming collection of stories about pet adoptions. Encourage pet owners to share their personal adoption stories, including photos and videos, highlighting the positive impact pets have had on their lives. Collaborate with local animal shelters and rescue organizations to feature their success stories as well. This emotionally engaging content can attract backlinks from pet-related blogs, news outlets, and animal welfare websites.

Read ChatGPT’s responses for helpful ideas. If none, click “Regenerate response” to obtain a new list. Repeat that process until you have an idea worth pursuing. Then refine it via follow-up prompts.

Click “Regenerate response” if ChatGPT’s initial reply is not helpful. Click image to enlarge.

In my testing, moving from general to specific prompts requires persistence. Don’t quit!

Adjust your prompts, such as:

• Come up with unique ideas no one has implemented.
• Focus on a specific link acquisition audience, such as journalists, bloggers, or Reddit users.
• Generate ideas for a single asset type, such as ebooks, infographics, or whitepapers.

Prompts to find bloggers, podcasters, more. ChatGPT’s database is dated, so it should not be a primary method to locate current linking sources. But it’s still helpful.

Start with a broad prompt:

• I am the owner of an ecommerce site that sells pet supplies. List bloggers and podcasters who interview entrepreneurs like me.

ChatGPT will list a few bloggers and podcasters.

I could then follow up with other prompts, such as:

• Where else can I get featured? List all opportunities, not just bloggers or podcasters.

A local brick-and-mortar business could prompt ChatGPT to find nearby media outlets or locale-based link-building opportunities.

Again the initial prompt doesn’t have to be perfect. Keep the dialog flowing to generate more ideas.

Write an outreach email. During the brainstorming process, prompt ChatGPT to create a relevant outreach email. After listing potential bloggers, for example, ChatGPT could compose a solicitation email, starting with this prompt:

• Compose an email I can use to reach out to those bloggers.

Follow-up prompts could include:

• This email isn’t convincing. Try harder.
• Use a more informal tone.
• Come up with a more original and shorter subject line.
• Make it shorter.

In my experience, ChatGPT’s email templates require tweaking. But they streamline the process, eliminating having to start from scratch.

Niche research. Google doesn’t consider “link building” as a search intent and is therefore not the best tool for finding those opportunities. With the right prompts, ChatGPT can help:

• Find websites that recommend (but do not sell) pet supplies.
• Identify active bloggers that focus on pet care.
• Find pet care discussion boards and forums.
• List subreddits that discuss pet care.
• Find journalists the cover pets at popular media outlets.

Here’s ChatGPT’s partial response to the last prompt (find journalists):

A list of journalists is only the beginning. From there, search their names, follow them on social media, and read their articles to develop the best solicitation approach.