How to find seed prospects for link building campaigns

Executive overview

Link building outreach fails when you don't know why someone linked to a page. Seed prospects are people who linked to a page for a specific, identifiable reason. Finding that reason gives you a pitch angle.

Look for patterns in three places: link anchor context, referring page titles, and the actual linked content. Each pattern surfaces a pitch angle baked directly into the outreach.

The core skill is pattern recognition — find the footprint, then follow it.

Finding patterns in anchor context

• Study anchors of a competing page's backlinks to identify why people link
• A single dominant anchor (e.g. a specific stat) signals a linkable point
• Check whether the stat or claim still appears on the linked page — if not, that's your pitch
• Outdated or missing stats = pitch angle: offer a current, accurate alternative

Finding patterns in referring page titles

• When only a few pages link for the same reason, look for a broader commonality
• Page titles reveal the type of content doing the linking (e.g. listicles of free SEO ebooks)
• That content type becomes your seed prospect category
• Pitch angle: offer a superior or friction-free version of what they're already recommending

Finding patterns in linked content

• Look for incorrect, outdated, or misleading information on the target page
• Example: a page on "LSI Keywords" with 500+ referring domains — LSI keywords are not a real concept
• Seed prospects: anyone linking to the page before it was corrected, or still recommending the term
• Pitch: correct the misconception and recommend your content, which addresses the underlying intent