off-page-seo

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• SKILL.md

SKILL.md (first lines)

# Off-Page SEO

On-page work caps out around DR + 20 in achievable KD targets. Off-page work expands that ceiling. This skill generates a prioritized backlink target list across three lanes — directories, listicles, guest posts — and a starter-stack checklist of universal SaaS submission flows. **It does not submit anything.** The user (or the user's outreach team) does the actual submission.

The off-page half of the SEO operation. Pairs with `seo-machine` (on-page programmatic sprint) — ship pages with seo-machine, queue outreach with this skill, run them in parallel.

## On Activation

1. Load brand context: `positioning.md`, `competitors.md`, `audience.md`, `voice-profile.md`. Missing files are fine.
2. Surface what loaded:

## Backend Selection

Prefer OpenSEO `get_backlinks_overview` / `get_backlinks_profile` / `get_domain_overview` and `openseo-link-prospecting` outputs when configured. Preserve backlink target scope, filters, pagination, and provider limits; totals without scope are ambiguous. Otherwise use Exa/web with authority metrics `unknown`. Full contract: `skills/openseo/references/backend-contract.md`.

```
Brand context loaded:
├── Positioning    ✓/✗  (drives outreach angle + value-add framing)
├── Competitors    ✓/✗  (target list source — Recipe F runs on them)
├── Audience       ✓/✗  (selects niche-specific directories + communities)
└── Voice Profile  ✓/✗  (shapes outreach email tone if user chains into cold-email)
```
3. If `competitors.md` is missing, prompt the user for 3-7 direct competitors before running Recipe F (the researched-target-list recipe needs competitor domains as input).
4. Check for `.seo/backlink-targets.json` in the current project. If present, this is a re-run — show the user the existing target counts and ask whether to refresh or just present the existing list.

## When to use vs adjacent skills

| Skill | When | When NOT |
|---|---|---|
| `off-page-seo` (this) | Building a prioritized backlink target list + universal starter-stack checklist | Doing actual outreach (use `cold-email` for that) |
| `seo-machine` | On-page programmatic sprint (alternatives, comparison, use-case pages) | Off-page work — this skill |
| `seo-audit` | Diagnosing on-site technical issues | Building backlink target lists |
| `cold-email` (in direct-response-copy) | Writing the outreach emails after target list exists | Generating the target list itself |
| `startup-launcher` | Launch-day platform submissions (Product Hunt, BetaList, etc.) | Ongoing backlink work post-launch |

## The Starter Stack (universal SaaS submission flow)

Every new site should be submitted to these by week 4. Most are free; all are worth a one-time submission. This is the **mechanical work** — checklist, not creative.

### Directories (submit and check off)

| Directory | DR (approx) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| **Product Hunt** | 90+ | Single biggest launch-day backlink + traffic source. Coordinate with `startup-launcher`. |
| **G2** | 88+ | Becomes a destination for "[brand] reviews" searches; needs screenshot + verification email. |
| **Capterra / GetApp / Software Advice** | 80+ | Gartner Digital Markets — same submission flow across all three. |
| **SaaSHub** | 65+ | Quick win, free. |
| **AlternativeTo** | 80+ | List as alternative to top 5 competitors. Required free submission. |
| **BetaList** | 70+ | Only if pre-launch or recently launched. |
| **Indie Hackers** | 75+ | Products section. Founder-friendly community. |
| **TopAlternatives.com / SimilarSiteSearch / Slant.co** | 50–65 | Niche but cumulatively useful. |
| **Crunchbase** | 92+ | Even free profile gets DR pass-through. |

### Community surfaces (selective)

| Surface | When to engage | Hard rule |
|---|---|---|
| **Niche subreddits** | Find via Exa search "site:reddit.com [audience] [problem]" or Ahrefs site-explorer on reddit.com for your keywords | Engage genuinely for 2+ weeks before mentioning the product. Never just post a link. |
| **Slack/Discord communities** | For your audience persona | Join 3-5, contribute substantively for 2 weeks before mentioning. |
| **Hacker News** | For technical products | Show HN posts can drive enormous traffic spikes — require a real launch story, not "we built another SaaS." |

### Founder outreach (slow-burn channel)

- **Founder link trades** with complementary (non-competitive) products. Reach out to 5-10 founders of products your audience also uses. Offer mutual blog mentions, "tools we love" pages, or guest posts.
- **Guest posts on DR 30+ niche blogs.** Find via Recipe F (competitor referring-domains). Pitch 1-2 strong posts per month — not spray-and-pray.

## Recipe F — Researched Target List

Use Exa MCP (mktg default) or Ahrefs MCP (if connected) to surface high-value link opportunities your competitors already have. The target list is built FROM your competitors' existing backlinks.

### Exa path (mktg default)

For each top-3 competitor:

```
mcp__exa__web_search_advanced_exa
query: "[competitor-domain] -site:[competitor-domain]"
filter: linksTo:[competitor-domain]
limit: 50
```

Then for each result, scrape the page (Exa `crawling_exa` or `firecrawl`) and extract: domain, page title, anchor text. Filter to DR≥30 sites via a separate `exa__company_research_exa` lookup, OR by manual triage of well-known authority domains.

### Ahrefs appendix (only if you have a paid sub)

If `mcp__ahrefs__subscription-info-limits-and-usage` returns data AND you want numeric precision on referring-domain DR, run:

```
mcp__ahrefs__site-explorer-referring-domains
target: <competitor-domain>
where: domain_rating >= 30 AND traffic_dofollow >= 100
order_by: domain_rating:desc
limit: 100
```

This replaces only the DR-proxy step in the Exa path above. Ahrefs MCP is not in mktg's chained-in ecosystem — keep this as a footnote, not a default.

Then for each candidate domain (Exa-path or Ahrefs-path), filter manually into buckets:

| Bucket | Signal |
|---|---|
| **Directory candidates** | Site name matches "[category] directory", "best of [category]", "[category] tools", "alternatives to [tool]" |
| **Listicle candidates** | Blog posts titled "Top X [category] in YYYY" — pitch yourself for inclusion |
| **Guest-post candidates** | Looks like a blog (`*.com/blog/...` URLs), DR 30+, posts on your niche topic |
| **Skip** | PR wires, paid networks, irrelevant niches, sites that link to *everyone* in the space |

### Output schema (.seo/backlink-targets.json)

```json
{
  "generated_at": "YYYY-MM-DD",
  "research_backend": "exa" | "ahrefs" | "manual",
  "directories": [
    { "domain": "g2.com", "dr": 88, "url_to_submit": "https://www.g2.com/products/new", "competitor_uses": ["hootsuite", "buffer"] }
  ],
  "listicles": [
    { "domain": "thedigitalprojectmanager.com", "dr": 65, "url": "https://...", "topic": "Best Twitter monitoring tools", "competitor_listed": "hootsuite" }
  ],
  "guest_posts": [

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