By Scott Davis / Last Updated: July 2, 2026
The skyscraper technique is among the most copied link building strategies in SEO history.
And that is exactly its problem.
When Brian Dean published the original playbook in 2015, it was fresh. Find a proven piece of content, build something better, then pitch the people who already linked to the original. It worked because almost nobody was doing it. Ten years later, everyone is doing it, so the same cold email that once doubled a site’s traffic now lands in a spam folder next to fifty others.
So does the skyscraper technique still work? Yes, but only if you fix the parts that most people get wrong, and it still holds up next to other link building techniques when you run it properly.
This guide walks through what the skyscraper technique actually is, the three steps to run it, why it fails so often, and how a modern version wins. Rather skip the manual grind? Our managed link building services handle the whole process for you. Either way, here is how the tactic really works.
What’s inside
📝 What is the skyscraper technique?
The skyscraper technique is a content-led link building strategy where you find a proven, heavily cited piece of content, create something noticeably better, then reach out to the sites that referenced the original and ask them to point to your improved version instead.
The name is a metaphor. If the tallest tower on the block is 40 stories, you do not build another 40-story tower. You build 41 stories, so yours is now the one people point to.
That is the whole idea. You are not inventing a subject from scratch. You are targeting content that has proven it can attract backlinks, then giving other publishers an easy reason to upgrade their citation to your page.
Why the “already proven” part matters
Most content fails to earn a single citation. So instead of guessing what people will link to, you let the search results tell you.
A page with 50 or 100 referring domains has proven demand. People clearly want to cite something in that space. Your job is to become the best possible thing to cite, which is really just building one of the strongest linkable assets in your niche and pointing existing linkers at it.
This is also why the skyscraper technique pairs so well with keyword research. The best targets are pages that rank for a keyword you want and pull real backlinks, so you win the ranking and the links from the same piece of quality content.
🪜 The 3 steps: find it, improve it, reach out
The original framework has three steps, and it has not really changed. What changed is how carefully you have to run each one.
- Find proven linkable content. Use an SEO tool to surface pages in your niche that already pull a lot of backlinks. Those links are your proof of demand and your future prospect list.
- Make something meaningfully better. More depth, fresher data, cleaner design, a genuinely new angle. Not just a longer word count.
- Reach out to the right people. Pull the backlinks pointing at the original, then pitch those exact sites on why your version is the one worth citing.
In Ahrefs Content Explorer, search a keyword you want to rank for and filter to pages with 50 or more referring domains. That single filter separates “content people cite” from “content nobody cares about” in about thirty seconds. Don’t skip it.
Step 2 in practice: what “better” really means
Here is where most campaigns quietly die. Writers read “better” as “longer” and pad a 1,500-word post into a 5,000-word slog. Nobody wants to skim that, and Google is no longer impressed by length alone. Readers don’t reward word count. They reward the best answer.
The important thing is to raise the actual quality, not the length. Adding a custom visual is one of the cleanest upgrades, and it doubles as a lesson in how to build links with infographics, since the same graphic can earn its own citations. Real improvement usually looks like this.
📈 Does the skyscraper technique still work?
Short answer: yes, but the easy version is dead.
In a poll of over 1,200 marketers, 61% said the skyscraper technique works when it is executed well. So the method is not broken. What is broken is the lazy version, where you make a post slightly longer and blast a copy-pasted email to everyone who linked to the original.
The original template has been sent so many times that editors recognize it on sight. Saturation, not Google, is what killed the easy win.
of surveyed SEOs say the skyscraper technique still works when it is done properly, per an Ahrefs poll of 1,242 respondents. The tactic is not dead. The lazy version of it is.Source: Ahrefs skyscraper survey
Running an agency? The same content-and-outreach engine powers reseller work. Our white label link building program lets you run campaigns like this for your own clients under your brand.
✅ Vet the right sites before you pitch them
The skyscraper technique lives or dies on where those links come from. A yes from a weak, spammy site is not a win, it is a liability.
So before you add a prospect to your pitch list, run it through the same checklist my team uses to judge each opportunity.
- Domain Rating of 30 or higher. Below that, the authority a link passes is thin.
- At least 1,000 organic visits a month. Real traffic proves Google actually trusts the site.
- Most traffic from countries you care about. A site that ranks only in unrelated regions rarely helps you.
- A history longer than six months. Brand-new domains are a gamble.
- No sudden 70% traffic drop. A cliff in the traffic graph usually signals a penalty.
- It ranks for real keywords. Authority with no rankings is a red flag.
- No unnatural Domain Rating spikes. A DR that jumped overnight was probably bought.
- Clean outbound profile. If it points to casinos, pharma, or worse, walk away.
- It does not openly sell placements. A public “buy a link” page is a footprint you should not sit next to.
- It is topically relevant. Relevance beats raw authority almost every time.
Open Ahrefs and check the top five criteria on every prospect before it goes in your pitch sheet. Two minutes of vetting saves you from chasing sites that will never move a ranking.
🔎 Reverse-engineer a competitor’s backlinks
The best skyscraper target is not a random popular post. It is the piece your competitor already used to build their links.
If a site cites your competitor’s guide, it is far more likely to cite a better guide in the same space. So pull their backlink profile and mine it for both the content to beat and the exact people to pitch.
↓ keep dofollow, DR 20+, traffic 100+
↓ keep sites linking to a beatable page
Drop a competitor’s best-performing URL into Ahrefs Site Explorer, open the Backlinks report, filter to dofollow with DR above 20 and traffic above 100, and scan for sites you could realistically pitch a better resource to. That list is your campaign.
🧩 Widen the pool with shoulder niches
Here is a mistake I see constantly: marketers only chase linkers in their exact niche, then complain the prospect pool is tiny.
The fix is shoulder niches. These are adjacent niches that share your audience without being direct competitors, so their editors are happy to link to your better resource, and the citation stays relevant.
One core niche opens the door to several relevant shoulder niches to build and pitch from.
| If your niche is | Build skyscrapers for these shoulder niches |
|---|---|
| SaaS / software | Productivity, remote work, startups, marketing |
| Fitness | Nutrition, wellness, mental health, recipes |
| Personal finance | Small business, real estate, careers, side hustles |
| Home services | Real estate, interior design, DIY, gardening |
⚠️ Why the skyscraper technique fails
Most marketers who try this technique get almost nothing, then decide it is dead. It is not dead. They just walked into a familiar trap.
| The mistake | Why it kills your campaign |
|---|---|
| Generic outreach template | Brian Dean’s original email has been sent millions of times. Editors delete it on sight. |
| No prospect segmentation | One pitch to everyone ignores why each site linked in the first place. |
| Too few prospects | Pitching one article’s backlinks is not enough volume to land real results. |
| Longer, not better | A bloated 5,000-word post nobody wants to read is not an upgrade. |
| Ignoring brand | People often link based on reputation, not just the best page. Weak brands need a stronger reason. |
Notice the pattern. Every failure is a shortcut. The most important thing to understand is that the technique still works, but only for the people who refuse to cut corners on the content or the pitching.
The pitching math you cannot skip
In the original case study, 160 emails landed 17 links. That is an 11% success rate, and it was considered great.
So do the math on your own goals. If you want 10 placements, you are not sending 12 emails. You are compiling a list of a hundred-plus vetted prospects and personalizing each pitch. The number that matters is not how many emails you send, it is how many land. Volume plus relevance is the job.
If that volume of personalized pitching sounds like more than your team can carry, our professional blogger outreach team runs exactly this playbook on your behalf, prospect list and all.
🚫 Tactics to skip
While you are earning links, you will get pitched a dozen shortcuts that promise the same result faster. Most of them are not worth your time, and a few will hurt you.
⚠ Steer clear of these
Broken-link building, reclaiming unlinked mentions, and scholarship link building all get sold as easy skyscraper alternatives. In practice they are low-yield, easy to abuse, and a poor use of the hours you could spend creating a genuinely better asset and pitching it well.
Prefer earning press mentions to cold-emailing editors? HARO link building outreach gets you cited by journalists who are already looking for a source, no skyscraper asset required.
The reason is simple. A single relevant link on a strong, on-theme site does more than a pile of low-effort placements.
Put the same effort into a real skyscraper asset and it keeps earning links long after a shortcut campaign has fizzled. Study a few link bait examples and you will notice the winners all share that trait: they are built to be talked about, not just longer than the last post.
📊 How to measure your results
If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it. Most people run one skyscraper campaign, get impatient, and quit before the new backlinks even index.
Track these four things after every campaign instead.
| Metric | What it tells you | Where to check |
|---|---|---|
| Referring domains | Whether your new links were indexed and counted | Ahrefs, Search Console |
| Referral traffic | Whether the pages sent real visitors, not just link equity | Google Analytics |
| Keyword movement | Whether your skyscraper page climbed after the links landed | Any rank tracker |
| Pitch reply rate | Whether your email and prospect list are actually working | Your email tool |
Watch the reply rate closely. If it drops toward zero, your template is the problem, not the technique. Don’t burn the rest of your list on it. Rewrite the pitch first, then find out whether a sharper angle lifts the replies.
And give it time. Links rarely move rankings overnight. Judge a skyscraper campaign at 60 to 90 days, not after a week.
🤝 Let our team build and pitch it for you
The skyscraper technique works, but it is slow. Finding proven content, creating something genuinely better, vetting linkers, and personalizing a hundred pitches is a full-time job.
is how much Brian Dean’s organic search traffic grew in just 14 days after he ran the very first skyscraper campaign, according to his own Backlinko case study. That result is why every SEO knows this method by name.Source: Backlinko skyscraper case study
That is the job we do. Our team has the writers, the vetting process, and the editor relationships to place relevant, quality links at a predictable volume, so you get the rankings without the grind. If you want placements like the ones this method earns, our guest posting at scale service is the fastest way there.
❓ Skyscraper technique FAQ
What is the skyscraper technique in SEO?
It is a link building strategy where you find a proven, heavily cited piece of content, create a meaningfully better version, then ask the sites that referenced the original to point to yours instead.
Does the skyscraper technique still work?
Yes, when it is done well. In a poll of over 1,200 marketers, 61% said it still works. The lazy version, where you just make content longer and send a copy-pasted email, is what stopped working.
How long should skyscraper content be?
Long enough to be the best answer, and no longer. Length is not the goal. Match the search intent, then win on fresher data, better design, and a stronger angle instead of raw word count.
How many emails does a skyscraper campaign take?
More than most people expect. The original case study landed 17 links from 160 emails, an 11% success rate, so plan for a large, well-vetted prospect list rather than a handful of pitches.
Is the skyscraper technique the same as guest posting?
No. Guest posting places a new article on someone else’s site. The skyscraper technique earns links to a page on your own site by making it the best resource on the topic. Many strong campaigns use both.
🎯 The bottom line
The skyscraper technique is not a loophole and it never really was. It is a simple bet: build the best thing on a proven subject, then tell the right people about it.
Skip the corners everyone else cuts. Vet hard, make it genuinely better, segment your pitches, and measure what happens. Do that and the backlinks, the traffic, and the rankings follow.
And if you would rather have a team do it for you, we are ready when you are.
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