Charles Floate Backlinks Prospecting Skill.md

charles-floate-backlinks-prospecting-skill.md

Backlink Prospecting Skill

Find websites to purchase backlinks from for a given SEO keyword using SerpApi and Ahrefs. Based directly on Charles Floate's "Link Building Without The Bureaucracy" presentation.

Floate's Method (from the transcript)

Floate has two core link building concepts, both driven by one insight: the pages already ranking in Google's SERPs are your best link sources.

Concept A — Reverse Link Insertions (his primary strategy)

1. Find or derive informational synonym queries related to your topic
2. Search those queries on Google to find top-ranking pages
3. The pages ranking #1-10 for those queries ARE your prospects
4. Contact the site owners and pay to insert your link into their already-ranked article
5. Point these reverse insertions at a supporting informational post on your site, then funnel that link equity internally (or via 301) to your money page
6. Because that host page is already trusted and ranked by Google, the link transfers immediate topical relevance

In Floate's words: "once you've ranked that page for those synonym informational terms, you go outreach to other pages that are ranking already for those informational synonym terms and get link insertions from those pages directly ... these are direct SERP competitors they're often worth $500+."

Key: reach out to SERP competitors, not direct business competitors. An affiliate site won't link to another affiliate site. But independent blogs, review sites, and listicles will.

Concept B — Competitor Link Gap (his secondary rule)

Floate: "if your competitors are buying links and they're all buying links on the same sites and you're not, then you're probably going to get beaten ... not buying the links that your competitors are buying leads to downfall of your own growth potential."

To discover these: export the backlinks of the top SERP pages and find domains that link to MULTIPLE competitors. Those are the sites your competitors all share — you need them too.

Floate's Filters

• Orphan pages: "a link on a page that doesn't have any other sort of external ranking signals — traffic, links, comments, social signals — Google has seemingly just devalued most of these types of links." (Filter: link_group_count = 0 AND refdomains_source = 0 AND traffic = 0).
• Toxic / Zero-Traffic domains: "if a site doesn't rank for anything on Google, its links are neutralized or toxic." (Filter: traffic_domain = 0).
• Cost vs. Value Ratio: Floate buys DR 20 links if priced appropriately ($30–$40), but rejects them if marked up to $150+. Metrics are evaluated on ROI, not arbitrary DR floors.
• No direct biz competitors: "you won't be able to get direct competitors to link to you."

Floate's Pricing & Outreach

• "keep it in the realm of PR editorials, custom content, sponsored content, influencer sponsorship"
• Never use "SEO backlinks" or "buy links" language
• Ask for their rate card first ($30-80 typical for blogs)
• Track all prospects in AirTable

Keyword Constraint

Primary focus: Use the exact SEO keyword(s) provided. For Phase 3 (Reverse Insertions), if explicit informational queries are not supplied, automatically derive 2–3 informational synonym queries matching the intent of the target query.

Input

• A target SEO keyword (e.g., <target_keyword>).
• (Optional) Specific informational queries for Phase 3. If omitted, derive 2–3 informational synonym queries automatically.

Output

An .xlsx file named backlink-targets-<keyword-slug>.xlsx.

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Phase 1: Find SERP Competitors & Build Dynamic Competitor Blacklist

Search the exact keyword via SerpApi (engine: "google", num: 10, location: "United States").

Extract each organic result: position, title, link, domain.

Dynamic Competitor & Noise Filter:

For each ranking result, classify the page type:

1. Direct Business Competitor (Product/Service Pages): Any domain ranking with a commercial landing page, product page, SaaS root, or transactional page (/pricing, /product, /features, /app, /signup, or homepage product marketing). Extract these domains and add them to the Dynamic Competitor Blacklist for this execution run.
2. Forums & Platforms: Exclude user-generated content platforms (e.g., Reddit, Quora), app stores, social networks, and government domains.
3. SERP Competitors (Targets for Phase 2): Any domain ranking with an editorial, informational, listicle, comparison, or review page (/blog/, /best-*, /reviews/, /guide/). These are the pages whose backlinks you will audit in Phase 2.

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Phase 2: Competitor Backlink Gap Audit (Concept B)

For the top 3-5 SERP pages from Phase 1, use Ahrefs site-explorer-all-backlinks:

• mode: "exact", target: <page_url>
• aggregation: "1_per_domain"
• where: {"and":[{"field":"is_dofollow","is":["eq","true"]}]}
• select: "url_from,domain_rating_source,traffic_domain,traffic,anchor,root_name_source,link_group_count,refdomains_source"
• limit: 50

CRITICAL — Algorithmic Pre-Filter BEFORE building the frequency map: Apply the following pre-filters to raw backlink results BEFORE counting competitor overlaps:

1. Zero-Traffic Pre-Filter: traffic_domain = 0 MUST be excluded immediately and logged in Sheet 4 (Excluded). Zero-traffic domains are always "neutralized or toxic" per Floate and must never enter the frequency map or Sheet 1.
2. Dynamic Competitor Pre-Filter: Exclude any referring domain that matches a domain on the Dynamic Competitor Blacklist (from Phase 1/Phase 4 rules). Log in Sheet 4.

Build a frequency map from the remaining (clean) results: count how many competitors each root_name_source links to.

Targets linking to 2+ competitors = Floate's "links that your competitors are all buying." Type: "Link Overlap".

Targets linking to 1 competitor still valid if the domain has real organic traffic (traffic_domain > 0). Type: "Link Overlap".

For each prospect, record:

• root_name_source — the referring domain
• url_from — the exact page containing the link
• domain_rating_source — DR
• traffic_domain — domain organic traffic
• traffic — page-level organic traffic
• link_group_count — number of backlinks grouped (per-domain aggregation)
• refdomains_source — referring domains to the page
• The competitor page it links to (from Phase 1)
• That competitor's SERP rank
• The exact user-provided keyword

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Phase 3: Reverse Link Insertions (Concept A - Primary Strategy)

Using the informational queries (user-provided or automatically derived):

Search each query via SerpApi to get Page 1-2 ranking pages. These are the SERP competitor pages whose owners you contact to insert your link. Type: "Reverse Insertion".

Filter out: forums, app stores, social media, and any domain matching the Dynamic Competitor Blacklist.

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Phase 4: Qualify & Filter (Generic Rules)

Apply Floate's filters to ALL prospects from Phases 2 and 3:

Filter	Floate's reasoning
traffic_domain = 0	"If it doesn't rank for anything, links are neutralized or toxic" — MUST be applied BEFORE the Phase 2 frequency map
link_group_count = 0 AND refdomains_source = 0 AND traffic = 0	Orphan page: "lacks external ranking signals — Google devalues these"
Direct business competitor	"You won't be able to get direct competitors to link"
Forum / app store / social	Not purchase targets

Generic Competitor Identification Rules (NO Hardcoding)

Direct business competitors are domains or brands that sell a product, SaaS, or commercial service directly competing in the target niche. They will never sell or give backlinks to a competitor. Identify them dynamically using the following 4 rules:

1. SERP Intent Mining (Dynamic Blacklist Population): During Phase 1, automatically extract the root domain of any organic result where the ranking URL is a commercial product/service page (e.g., homepage root, /pricing, /product, /features, /signup, /app, or transactional schema like Product / SoftwareApplication). Add these root domains directly to the Dynamic Competitor Blacklist.

2. Commercial Page Footprint Check: Analyze prospect domains during Phase 2 and 3. Flag and exclude any prospect domain whose primary site purpose is selling software/services in the target niche rather than publishing content (e.g., sites with main navigation elements containing "Pricing", "Request Demo", "Log In", or "Free Trial").

3. Entity/Brand Name Matching: If a prospect domain name contains or matches the brand name of a known commercial product operating in the target query's category, flag and exclude as a direct competitor.

4. Uniform Exclusion Standard: If a domain is excluded as a direct business competitor in Phase 1, all other domains exhibiting identical product/service footprints in the same query space must be excluded uniformly across all phases.

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Phase 5: Generate Excel

Sheet 1: "All Targets"

Column	Source
Domain	Phase 2/3
Page URL	url_from (Phase 2) or SERP URL (Phase 3)
DR	Phase 2/3
Domain Traffic	traffic_domain
Page Traffic	traffic
Links to N Competitors	Phase 2 frequency map (or 0 for Reverse Insertion)
Type	"Link Overlap" or "Reverse Insertion"
Context	Format: "Links to {competitor_url} — ranks #{rank} for '{keyword}'" (Link Overlap) or "Ranks #{rank} for '{informational_query}'" (Reverse Insertion)
Estimated Cost	$30-80 (Blogs) / $100-300 (Mid-tier) / $500+ (Direct SERP Competitor)

Sorting Rule (STRICT): Sort by Links to N Competitors DESC, then DR DESC. Color formatting: green for Link Overlap, blue for Reverse Insertion.

Sheet 2: "Top 10"

Up to top 10 targets by score = (DR × Links to N Competitors).

REQUIRED: Append a note row directly below the last data row: "Note: Top prospects ranked by score = DR × Links to N Competitors."

Sheet 3: "Link Map"

CRITICAL: Every row must have the triple: competitor page URL, its SERP rank, and the keyword it ranks for. No empty values.

Column	Description
Prospect Domain	The backlink target
Prospect Page URL	The url_from
Links to Competitor Page	SERP competitor URL
Competitor Rank	#1-#10
Target Keyword	Exact user-provided keyword

One row per competitor link. Sort by Prospect Domain then Competitor Rank ASC.

Sheet 4: "Excluded"

Domain/URL and reason ("Orphan page (no external signals)", "Zero domain traffic (neutralized/toxic)", "Direct Competitor", "Forum / social media", "SEO spam / PBN").

Sheet 5: "Methodology"

One cell with the Floate methodology summary (see below).

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Cheatsheet (for Sheet 5)

METHODOLOGY: Charles Floate "Link Building Without The Bureaucracy"

Concept A — Reverse Link Insertions (Floate's Primary Strategy): Search informational synonym queries. The pages ranking #1-10 ARE your prospects. Contact owners to insert your link into their already-ranked article. Point these to supporting content, then funnel equity to money pages via internal links or 301 redirects. Floate: "these are direct SERP competitors — often worth $500+ for this style of link."

Concept B — Competitor Link Gap (Floate's Secondary Rule): Export backlinks of top SERP pages. Find domains linking to multiple competitors. Floate: "not buying the links your competitors are buying leads to downfall of your own growth potential."

Floate's Filters:

• Orphan pages (zero page signals/links): "Google has devalued these"
• Zero-traffic domains: "links are neutralized or toxic"
• No direct business competitors: "they won't link to you"
• Cost/ROI focus: Metrics evaluated against cost, not arbitrary DR limits

Floate's Outreach:

• "Keep it in the realm of PR editorials, custom content, sponsored content, influencer sponsorship" — never say "SEO backlinks" or "buy links"
• Ask for their rate card first ($30-80 typical for blogs)
• Track everything in AirTable

Floate's De-Risking Strategy:

• Direct 80-90% of purchased links to supporting informational content, not commercial money pages. Funnel equity internally to landing pages.

Notes

• Use target keyword + derived informational queries.
• Use ahrefs_doc before calling any Ahrefs tool the first time.
• Prefer informational/listicle/review sites over direct commercial product pages.