Your competitors are likely earning valuable backlinks from resource pages, and you can too. By analyzing their link profiles, you can uncover a ready-made list of websites that are already open to linking to content in your niche. This process gives you a significant head start in your own campaigns. This article will teach you how to use Ahrefs for resource page link building by reverse-engineering your competitors’ success. We will walk through the specific reports and filters you need to find these opportunities and then show you how to craft a pitch that positions your content as an even better resource.
Key Takeaways
- Vet Every Prospect for Quality: Focus your link-building efforts on relevant, well-maintained resource pages. A single link from an authoritative site is more valuable than many links from low-quality ones.
- Streamline Your Search for Opportunities: Use tools to analyze competitor backlink profiles and apply advanced search operators. This helps you efficiently build a targeted list of pages that are already linking to similar content.
- Personalize Your Pitch to Stand Out: Avoid generic templates by personalizing every email. Show you’ve done your research and clearly explain how your content adds value to their existing resource page to improve your response rate.
What is Resource Page Link Building?
Resource page link building is a straightforward strategy for earning backlinks to your website. It involves finding web pages that curate and list helpful resources on a specific topic and then getting your own content included on that list. When a site owner adds a link to your content on their resource page, you gain a valuable backlink that can improve your site’s authority and search engine rankings.
This method works because it’s a win-win. You get a relevant link, and the resource page owner gets to add another high-quality, useful link to their page, making it even better for their audience. Let’s break down what these pages are and why they are so beneficial for your SEO efforts.
What Are Resource Pages?
Think of resource pages as curated libraries or hubs for a particular subject. They gather the best articles, tools, and guides on a topic and present them in one convenient location for visitors. For example, a marketing blog might have a page titled “The Ultimate List of SEO Tools,” or a university website might host a “Student Writing Resources” page. These pages exist solely to provide value by pointing people to other helpful content across the web. They are created by bloggers, businesses, and organizations who want to be a trusted source of information in their niche.
Why Resource Page Links Are Valuable
Links from resource pages are powerful because they send strong relevancy signals to search engines like Google. When a page dedicated to “gardening tips” links to your article on “how to grow tomatoes,” it tells Google that your content is a credible source on that topic. This can directly contribute to improving your site’s SEO performance. Furthermore, the outreach process is often more successful than other link-building tactics. You aren’t asking for a random favor; you’re offering to make their existing resource even more comprehensive and useful for their readers, which is a goal you both share.
How to Spot a Quality Resource Page
Not all resource pages are created equal. To make sure your efforts are well-spent, you need to vet your prospects carefully. A quality resource page is regularly updated and contains links to other reputable websites. As you search, look for pages with a healthy number of external links to different domains. Avoid pages that look abandoned, have many broken links, or only link to content on their own website. Being selective helps you focus on opportunities that will actually move the needle and build a strong, authoritative link profile for your site.
How to Find Resource Pages with Ahrefs
Ahrefs is one of the most effective tools for finding resource page opportunities. Instead of manually searching Google for hours, you can use its powerful features to build a high-quality prospect list quickly. The key is knowing which reports to use and how to filter the results to find the best pages. Here are four methods you can use within Ahrefs to uncover hundreds of relevant resource pages for your link-building campaigns.
Use Content Explorer
Ahrefs’ Content Explorer is a searchable database of billions of web pages, making it the perfect starting point for finding resource pages at scale. To begin, enter a broad keyword related to your industry followed by a modifier like “resources” or “links.” For example, if you sell project management software, you could search for “project management resources.” From there, you can filter the results to find pages with high organic traffic or a strong Domain Rating (DR). This approach helps you discover linkable content ideas and find thousands of relevant websites for your outreach efforts.
Leverage Site Explorer
Your competitors have already done some of the hard work for you. By analyzing their backlink profiles, you can find resource pages that are already linking to similar content. Start by entering a competitor’s domain into Ahrefs’ Site Explorer and heading to the “Backlinks” report. This report shows you every page linking to their site. You can see all their backlinks and scan the “Referring page” column for URLs or titles that suggest a resource list, like “best-tools-for-marketers” or “useful-links.” This is a direct way to find proven link opportunities that your competitors are already benefiting from.
Master Advanced Search Operators
To get even more specific results, you can use advanced search operators within Content Explorer. These are special commands that refine your search. For example, you can find pages that have certain words in their title or URL. Try combining your topic keyword with phrases like intitle:resources, inurl:links, or “helpful links”. A search for “marketing inurl:resources” will only show pages about marketing that also have the word “resources” in their web address. Mastering these operators helps you cut through the noise and find highly relevant pages much faster.
Streamline with Batch Analysis
Once you’ve gathered a list of potential resource pages from the methods above, you need to vet them. Ahrefs’ Batch Analysis tool makes this process efficient. Instead of checking each URL one by one, you can paste up to 200 URLs into the tool at once. It will quickly pull key SEO metrics for each page, including its Domain Rating (DR), URL Rating (UR), number of referring domains, and estimated organic traffic. This allows you to quickly check website quality and prioritize the opportunities that are most likely to have a positive impact on your SEO.
Analyze Your Prospect List
Once you’ve used Ahrefs to generate a list of potential resource pages, it’s tempting to jump straight into outreach. But this is where a little patience and analysis can make a huge difference. Sending emails to every site on your initial list is inefficient and can hurt your sender reputation. Instead, you need to qualify your prospects to create a shortlist of high-quality, relevant pages where your link would be a genuinely valuable addition.
This vetting process is about working smarter, not harder. A focused list of 50 excellent prospects will yield better results than a scattered list of 500 mediocre ones. By analyzing a few key factors—like website authority, topical relevance, and signs of active maintenance—you can prioritize your efforts and dramatically increase your success rate. This step ensures that the links you do build will contribute meaningfully to your overall SEO strategy and drive real results for your business. Think of it as separating the signal from the noise before you invest your valuable time in crafting the perfect pitch.
Check Domain Rating and Traffic
The first step in filtering your prospect list is to get a quick read on each site’s authority. Two of the most useful metrics for this are Ahrefs’ Domain Rating (DR) and Search Traffic (ST). DR measures the strength of a website’s backlink profile on a 100-point scale, while ST estimates its monthly organic search traffic. As a general guideline, look for pages on sites with a DR of 10 or higher and at least some organic traffic. You can check these metrics for hundreds of URLs at once using Ahrefs’ Batch Analysis tool, which saves a ton of manual effort. This gives you a fast, data-driven way to remove low-quality sites from your list right away.
Assess Relevance
Metrics are a great starting point, but relevance is what truly makes a link valuable. A link from a highly relevant page tells search engines that your content is an authority on a specific topic. Before adding a prospect to your final list, open the page and ask yourself one simple question: “Would my link genuinely make this page better for its readers?” Look for pages that already link to content similar to yours. Check if the page seems to be regularly updated and curated with care. A well-organized resource page on a niche blog can often be more valuable than a link from a generic, high-DR directory that covers hundreds of unrelated topics.
Analyze the Link Profile
A page’s link profile tells a story about its quality and editorial standards. First, look at the outbound links already on the resource page. Are they pointing to reputable, high-quality websites, or do they lead to spammy or low-value domains? A page that links to trusted authorities is more likely to be a good home for your link. Next, use Ahrefs’ Site Explorer to examine the page’s inbound links. Who is linking to this resource page? If other authoritative sites in your industry are linking to it, that’s a strong signal that it’s a respected and valuable resource. This quick analysis helps you avoid pages with poor link neighborhoods.
Look for Quality Content Signals
Finally, take a moment to assess the overall quality of the website. A well-maintained site is a good indicator that a real person is on the other side who might actually respond to your email. Look for signs of life: Does the site have a blog with recent posts? Is the design clean and professional, or does it look like it hasn’t been updated since 2005? Check for an “About Us” page and social media profiles to get a feel for the person or brand behind the site. A page that is clearly cared for is a much better prospect for your link building efforts than one that appears abandoned.
Create Your Outreach Strategy
Once you have a solid list of potential resource pages, the real work begins. A great prospect list is only half the battle; your outreach strategy determines whether you actually earn the link. This is where many link-building campaigns fall flat. Sending generic, impersonal emails to a long list of websites rarely works. Instead, you need a thoughtful, systematic approach that treats each prospect as a potential partner.
Your strategy should cover everything from how you find the right contact person to what you say in your initial email and how you follow up. The goal is to be helpful, not demanding. You’re offering a valuable resource that can improve their page and provide more information to their audience. Framing your outreach this way shifts the dynamic from asking for a favor to proposing a mutually beneficial addition. A well-crafted strategy respects the site owner’s time, clearly communicates the value of your content, and makes it incredibly easy for them to say yes and add your link. This process can be time-consuming, but a personalized and professional approach will always yield better results than a high-volume, low-effort blast.
Build Your Prospect List
The first step is to consolidate your findings into a master list. As you uncover relevant resource pages using Ahrefs and Google search operators like intitle:resources, your goal is to create a single, organized spreadsheet. You can use the Ahrefs SEO Toolbar to export your Google search results directly into a CSV file. As you run different searches, combine these exports into one master document. This spreadsheet will become your command center for the entire outreach campaign, allowing you to track who you’ve contacted, when you reached out, and the status of each prospect. Keeping this information organized is critical for managing your workflow and ensuring you follow up effectively without sending duplicate emails.
Personalize Your Pitch
Generic emails are easy to ignore. To stand out, you need to personalize every single pitch. Start by finding the right person to contact. Avoid general email addresses like info@ or contact@. Instead, look for the specific person who manages the website or the resource page, such as a content manager or editor. Once you have their name and email, craft a simple and direct message. Your email should clearly state that you found their resource page and appreciate the information they’ve compiled. Then, briefly introduce your content and explain why it would be a valuable addition for their audience. This personal touch shows you’ve done your homework and genuinely believe your resource is a good fit.
Write an Email That Gets a Reply
A successful outreach email is helpful and makes the site owner’s job easy. Before you hit send, check if the website has specific guidelines for submissions; if they ask you to use a contact form, do that. In your email, suggest exactly where on their page your link would fit best. This saves them the time of having to figure it out themselves. For an even better chance at a reply, use the Ahrefs SEO Toolbar to quickly scan their resource page for broken links. If you find any, mention them in your email. By offering a solution to a problem on their site, you provide immediate value and give them a compelling reason to update their page—and add your link in the process.
Master the Follow-Up
People are busy, and emails get missed. If you don’t get a response to your first message, don’t be discouraged. A polite follow-up is a standard part of any effective outreach process. Wait about a week, then send a gentle reminder. Keep your follow-up email brief and to the point. You don’t need to repeat your entire original pitch; simply restate the core value of your resource and remind them why it’s a great fit for their page. This simple act can often be enough to prompt a response. As you scale your efforts, managing this process manually can become complex, which is where SEO automation tools can help streamline your workflow and track communications.
Advanced Resource Page Tactics
Once you’ve mastered the basics of finding and pitching resource pages, you can move on to more sophisticated tactics. These strategies help you create a consistent and scalable link-building system. Instead of one-off campaigns, you’ll build a process that continuously uncovers new opportunities and refines your approach based on real data. This is how you turn resource page link building from a simple task into a powerful growth engine for your website. By automating parts of your discovery process and learning from your results, you can work more efficiently and secure higher-quality links over time. This advanced approach focuses on creating a sustainable workflow that delivers predictable results for your SEO efforts.
Set Up Alerts for New Pages
Getting your link on a brand-new resource page before it’s filled with other links gives you a major advantage. Use Ahrefs Alerts to monitor your competitors. You can set up notifications for when they earn new backlinks that match your resource page search criteria. When you get an alert, you can analyze the new page and reach out immediately. This proactive approach means your pitch arrives while the page creator is still actively building out their resource, making them more receptive to adding another valuable link. It keeps you one step ahead of everyone else.
Track New Opportunities
While alerts are great for passive monitoring, you should also actively hunt for fresh opportunities. In Ahrefs’ Site Explorer, you can analyze a competitor’s backlink profile and filter for “New” links acquired in the last week or month. This shows you which resource pages are currently active and being updated. A page that just added a new link is a warm prospect. They are clearly maintaining their content, which means your well-crafted pitch has a much higher chance of getting a positive response compared to a page that hasn’t been touched in years.
Monitor Competitor Links
Your competitors have already done some of the hard work for you by finding websites willing to link to resources in your niche. You can use this to your advantage. Enter a competitor’s URL into Site Explorer to see every site that links to them. If a high-quality resource page links to your competitor, they are an ideal prospect for you. The key is to ensure your resource is even better—more comprehensive, up-to-date, or better designed. When you reach out, you can frame your pitch as an upgrade to their existing page.
Measure Your Success
Effective link building is a cycle of action and analysis. You can’t improve what you don’t measure. Regularly review your progress by tracking key metrics like your outreach email open and reply rates, your link acquisition rate, and the Domain Rating of the sites you’re earning links from. Pay attention to which email templates perform best and what types of resource pages are most receptive to your pitch. This data helps you refine your strategy over time, ensuring your efforts become more efficient and impactful with each campaign you run.
Common Link Building Mistakes to Avoid
After you’ve put in the work to find and analyze potential resource pages, the last thing you want is for your efforts to fall flat during outreach. Link building is as much about relationships and quality as it is about strategy. Avoiding a few common missteps can dramatically increase your success rate and help you build a stronger, more authoritative backlink profile. Let’s walk through the most frequent mistakes and how you can steer clear of them.
Selecting Poor-Quality Pages
Not all links hold the same value. A link from a low-authority, irrelevant, or spammy website can be a waste of time at best and potentially harmful to your SEO at worst. It’s essential to vet every prospect to ensure they meet a minimum quality standard. You can use SEO tools like Ahrefs to quickly check website quality. As a general rule, look for pages with a Domain Rating (DR) of at least 10 and monthly search traffic of 5,000 or more. This simple check helps you focus your energy on opportunities that will actually move the needle for your SEO performance.
Sending Generic Outreach
Website owners and editors receive dozens of link requests every week, and they can spot a generic template instantly. Sending a mass email with no personalization is one of the fastest ways to get your message deleted. To stand out, you need to show that you’ve actually spent time on their site. Personalize your message by mentioning something specific you liked about their content or how their existing resources helped you. This small gesture shows respect for their work and proves you aren’t just another spammer, making them far more likely to consider your request.
Pitching Weak Content
Your outreach is a value proposition: you’re offering a piece of content that you believe is worthy of being shared with their audience. If that content is thin, poorly written, or overly promotional, your pitch will fail. Remember, resource pages are designed to provide helpful information, not to be a billboard for your products. Your content should be genuinely useful, well-researched, and clearly written. Instead of pitching sales pages, offer comprehensive guides, original research, or free tools that add real value. Creating high-quality, link-worthy content is the foundation of any successful link building campaign.
Inconsistent Follow-Up
People are busy, and inboxes are crowded. It’s very common for your initial email to get overlooked, even if the recipient is interested. Many link building campaigns fail simply because there’s no follow-up process in place. If you don’t hear back after a week, send a short, polite reminder. A single follow-up can often be the difference between getting a link and being ignored. Don’t be pushy, but don’t assume a lack of response means a definite “no.” A gentle nudge shows you’re serious about your request and gives them another chance to review your valuable resource.
Your Toolkit: Resources and Templates
Having the right tools and templates can make your resource page link building process much more efficient and effective. Instead of starting from scratch, you can use proven frameworks to organize your prospects, craft your outreach, and track your progress. Think of this as your command center for the entire campaign, keeping everything you need in one place.
Email Outreach Templates
A good email template is a starting point, not a final script. The most successful outreach is always personalized. When you reach out, be polite and clear. A simple structure works best: introduce yourself, explain how you found their resource page, and then suggest your content as a potentially valuable addition. It’s important to personalize your message by mentioning something specific you appreciate about their site or content. This shows you’ve done your homework and aren’t just sending a mass email. Your goal is to start a conversation, not just ask for a link.
Progress Tracking Sheet
Staying organized is critical, especially as your prospect list grows. A simple spreadsheet can save you a lot of headaches. You should keep a spreadsheet with columns for the website address, the specific page you’re targeting, its topic, and a website authority score like Ahrefs’ Domain Rating. It’s also helpful to note if you found any broken links on their page and to track the status of your outreach for each prospect. This simple document ensures you don’t contact the same site twice and helps you remember when it’s time to follow up, making your entire workflow more systematic and scalable.
Essential Ahrefs Reports
Ahrefs is packed with data, but a few key reports are especially useful for resource page link building. The Backlinks report in Site Explorer is your best friend here. You can enter a competitor’s website to see every link they have, which often reveals high-quality resource pages you can also target. To focus on links that pass SEO value, you can filter this report to show only “dofollow” links. This process gives you a ready-made list of pages that are already linking to content similar to yours, giving you a warm lead for your outreach efforts.
Productivity Tools
Beyond Ahrefs, several tools can streamline your workflow. For managing email outreach at scale, many SEOs use platforms like Pitchbox, Buzzstream, or MailShake to keep their campaigns organized. You can also use tools like Ahrefs’ Content Explorer to find thousands of relevant websites for your outreach. While these tools help manage the outreach process, platforms like MEGA AI can automate the content generation you need for your pitch, creating a more seamless and efficient workflow from start to finish. Combining these tools allows you to focus more on strategy and less on manual tasks.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How much time should I expect to spend on a resource page link-building campaign? Resource page link building is an ongoing effort rather than a one-time project. Initially, you can expect to spend several hours building your first prospect list and crafting your outreach templates. Once you have a system, a few hours each week dedicated to finding new pages, sending personalized emails, and following up is a realistic commitment. The key is consistency over intensity.
Do I need a paid tool like Ahrefs to find resource pages? While you can find resource pages using advanced Google search operators for free, a tool like Ahrefs makes the process much more efficient. It not only helps you find opportunities faster but also provides essential data like Domain Rating and organic traffic, which you need to qualify your prospects. Using a paid tool allows you to quickly vet the quality of a page, saving you from wasting time on outreach that won’t yield results.
What kind of content works best for this type of link building? The most successful content for resource page link building is genuinely helpful and informative. Think of comprehensive guides, original research studies, free digital tools, or in-depth tutorials that solve a specific problem for the reader. Site owners are looking to add value to their pages, so they are far more likely to link to a useful resource than to a product page or a sales-focused article.
What is a realistic success rate for outreach emails? Success rates can vary widely, but a good benchmark for a well-executed campaign is around 5-10%. This means for every 100 personalized emails you send, you might acquire five to ten high-quality links. Your results will depend on the quality of your content, the relevance of your prospect list, and how well you personalize your outreach. It’s a numbers game where quality and persistence pay off.
How do I know if a link from a resource page is actually valuable? A valuable link comes from a page that is topically relevant to your content and is on a reputable, well-maintained website. Before reaching out, check for a few key signals. The page should link to other credible websites, the site should have recent blog posts or other signs of activity, and it should have a respectable Domain Rating. A link from a relevant, cared-for site is always more valuable than a link from a generic, high-authority directory.
