The Skyscraper Technique: Build Better Content and Earn More Links

The Skyscraper Technique is a link building method developed by Brian Dean of Backlinko. The core idea: find content in your niche that has earned significant backlinks, create a demonstrably better version, then reach out to sites linking to the original and ask them to link to your improved version instead.

How the Skyscraper Technique works

The technique is built on a simple observation: people naturally link to the best resource they can find on a topic. If a superior resource exists, many linkers will switch — especially if you reach out and make them aware of it. The three-step process is: find proven linkable content, make something better, and email the people already linking to the inferior version.

Step 1: Find linkable content worth improving

Use Ahrefs Content Explorer or Site Explorer to find pages in your niche with significant referring domains. Filter for pages with 20+ referring domains, published more than 12 months ago (so they've had time to accumulate links), and in a topic area where you can genuinely produce better content. Also check BuzzSumo for highly shared content in your niche — shares and links often correlate.

Evaluate each candidate: is the content outdated? Does it have gaps? Is the design poor? Is it missing data, examples or depth? The more clearly you can articulate why your version will be better, the more compelling your outreach will be.

Step 2: Create something genuinely better

'Better' is not just longer. Better means more useful. Depending on the content type, better could mean: more comprehensive coverage of the topic, more recent data and statistics, superior visual presentation (custom graphics, diagrams), more specific examples and case studies, interactive elements (calculators, tools, quizzes), or expert quotes and original research.

The quality bar matters enormously. Skyscraper outreach fails most often not because the email is wrong but because the content isn't clearly better. Linkers receive many outreach emails — your content needs to be visibly superior within seconds of review to earn a link switch.

Step 3: Targeted outreach

Export the referring domains to the original piece from Ahrefs. Find the contact email for each referring domain via Hunter.io or by checking their contact page. Send a personalised email that: mentions something specific about their site, compliments the resource they currently link to, introduces your improved version with one specific reason it's better, and includes a clear link to your content.

Keep the email short — under 150 words. The goal is to get them to click your link, not to read a pitch letter. Personalisation is the most important factor: mass template emails have very low response rates. Expect a 5 to 15 percent link rate from a well-executed outreach campaign to a relevant, high-quality list.

Skyscraper Technique 2.0: adding search intent

Brian Dean later published a refinement: Skyscraper Technique 2.0, which adds search intent alignment to the process. The original technique focused on creating link-worthy content without fully accounting for whether that content would rank. 2.0 adds a step: examine the SERP for the target keyword to determine content format and intent, then create content that both earns links and matches what Google's algorithm rewards for that query. This aligns link building with rankings rather than treating them as separate activities.

Frequently asked questions

Does the Skyscraper Technique still work in 2026?

Yes, but success rates have declined as the technique has become widely known and practiced. More sites receive Skyscraper outreach emails, so the bar for 'genuinely better' has risen. It remains effective when: the target content is genuinely outdated or inferior, your replacement is visibly superior, and your outreach is highly personalised rather than templated.

How many outreach emails do I need to send?

For a typical campaign targeting a page with 50 referring domains, expect to reach 30 to 40 contactable sites and receive 2 to 6 new backlinks from a well-executed campaign. Lower referring domain counts mean fewer outreach targets; higher counts improve the absolute number of links but not necessarily the rate.

What if the original content I'm trying to beat is very high quality?

Then reconsider whether this is the right target. The Skyscraper Technique works best against outdated, thin or visually inferior content. Competing against genuinely excellent, recently updated content is very difficult and rarely worth the investment. Find a different target with a clearer quality gap.