The Skyscraper Technique: Why It Often Fails Now, and How to Make It Work

The skyscraper technique is a link-building method in three steps: find a piece of content in your niche that has earned a lot of backlinks, create something clearly better on the same topic, then contact the sites linking to the original and suggest they link to yours. The name comes from the idea of building taller than the tallest building on the block.

It still works, but not the way it's usually taught. The classic version, “write a longer list and email everyone who linked to the old one,” tends to get ignored now, because thousands of people have run it and most of their pages weren't meaningfully better. What does work is a narrower version: a page that is better in a specific way an editor can see in seconds, pitched to people who have a real reason to care.

Below you'll find how the classic method works, the honest reasons it underperforms, what “better” actually has to mean, how to choose the right audience, a modern step-by-step process, outreach templates and a worked example.

What is the skyscraper technique?

The method was popularized by SEO Brian Dean around 2015, and it caught on because it's logical. Links are evidence of demand: if dozens of sites linked to a page about a topic, the topic clearly earns links. And you already have a list of people interested in it, in the original's backlink profile.

The logic is sound. The problem is in the execution, and in the assumption that the people who linked to the original are waiting for something better.

How the classic version works

1. 1

   Find link-worthy content

   Use a backlink tool to list the pages in your niche with the most referring domains, or search your topic and check the backlinks of the top results. Our guide to competitor backlink analysis covers how to pull a competitor's “best by links” pages.
2. 2

   Make something better

   Classically: longer, more up to date, better designed and more thorough. “The 50 best X” becomes “The 120 best X.”
3. 3

   Reach out to the linkers

   Export every page linking to the original, find contacts, and email each one to say you've published something better that they might want to link to instead, or as well.

On paper, it's a clean funnel. In practice, each step has a weak point, and most campaigns trip on all three.

Why the skyscraper technique often underperforms now

If you've run a skyscraper campaign and heard nothing back, you're in good company. These are the reasons, roughly in order of how much damage they do.

1. “Better” usually means “longer”

Adding more items, more words and a nicer header image is the easiest kind of improvement, so it's the most common. It's also the least persuasive. An editor who linked to a list of 50 tips doesn't need 120; they needed one tip, or a source to back up a sentence. Search engines don't reward length for its own sake either, so a padded page doesn't reliably rank better than the original.

2. Linkers have no reason to switch

The person who linked to the original already solved their problem. Their link works and their article is published. Asking them to edit an old post to swap one working link for another is asking for effort with nothing in it for them or their readers. Unless the original is now broken, wrong or outdated, “mine is better” isn't a reason.

3. Many linkers aren't active editors

A popular page's backlink profile includes scrapers, auto-generated pages, abandoned blogs, forum threads, roundups that are never revisited and sites that link to everything. Strip those out and the real list of people who maintain the page and might edit it is often a fraction of the headline number.

4. The template is recognizable

“I noticed you linked to [X]. I've written something even more comprehensive…” has been sent so many times that many editors spot it in the preview line. Mass sends from new domains also hurt deliverability, so a large share of these emails never reach an inbox at all.

5. They linked for one thing, not the whole page

Most links to a big resource cite a single element: a statistic, a definition, a chart, a tool. If your page doesn't improve on that element, its overall quality is irrelevant to the person you're emailing.

6. Content is cheap now

With AI writing tools, a long, competent-sounding article on any topic takes minutes. That has raised the bar. Thoroughness used to be rare; now it's the default, so it doesn't make anything stand out.

What “genuinely better” means

The test is simple: could an editor tell your page is better within ten seconds of opening it, without reading your email? If you have to explain why it's better, it isn't better enough. These are the improvements that pass that test, and the ones that don't.

Most of the top-half items turn a page into what we'd call a linkable asset: something people cite because it's useful in itself. That's the real goal. The skyscraper framing just tells you which topic to build it on.

Pitching the right audience

The original's backlink list is a starting point, not a mailing list. Before you send anything, sort the linkers by why they linked. Open each linking page, find the sentence around the link, and put it in one of these buckets:

Two of those rows are really other tactics. Resource pages want additions, so use the approach in our resource page link building guide. Dead links want replacements, covered in broken link building. Treating them as skyscraper targets with a “mine is better” pitch is why so many of these emails miss.

Pitch future linkers, not just past ones

The people most likely to link to your page are the ones who will write about the topic next. They're actively looking for sources, nothing needs editing, and a strong new resource saves them work. To reach them:

• Writers who cover the topic regularly. Bloggers, newsletter authors and journalists with a beat that touches your subject. Our digital PR guide covers building that list.
• People who linked to similar pages recently. Recent links show current interest; a link from five years ago shows the opposite.
• Communities where the question gets asked. Forums, groups and Q&A threads where your resource answers something people ask repeatedly. Links there are usually nofollow, but they put the page in front of future writers.
• Your own channels. Newsletter, social and internal links from related pages on your site. They cost nothing and keep the page discoverable.

A modern skyscraper process

1. 1

   Pick a topic with link intent

   Some topics earn links (data, how-to references, tools, definitions people cite); many don't, however much traffic they get. Look for several pages on the topic with healthy referring domains from different sites, not one outlier.
2. 2

   Audit why the originals earned links

   Read twenty or thirty linking pages and note what each one cited. Look for patterns: the same statistic, the same chart, the same section. That's your target element.
3. 3

   Write your “better” claim in one sentence

   For example: “The only grind size chart with photos of real grounds at each setting.” If you can't write it, or it says “more comprehensive,” keep working on the page.
4. 4

   Build the page around that claim

   Put the unique element near the top. Make it easy to cite: a clear number, a quotable sentence, a chart with a caption, a stable URL. Add a methodology note if you collected data.
5. 5

   Qualify and segment prospects

   Drop dead, irrelevant and spammy linkers. Score the rest for relevance and authority (our website authority checker handles a list in bulk), then group them by the buckets above.
6. 6

   Personalize by bucket

   Each bucket gets its own email built around what that linker cited. The first sentence should prove you read their page.
7. 7

   Promote beyond outreach

   Share with future linkers, communities and your own audience. Pitch resource pages. If the data is newsworthy, pitch it as a story.
8. 8

   Keep it current

   Update the page when its facts change, and note the date. A page that stays accurate keeps earning links; one that goes stale becomes the next person's skyscraper target.

Skyscraper outreach templates

Lead with their page and the specific element they cited. Don't call your page “ultimate” or “more comprehensive,” and don't ask them to remove the original. Offer, don't demand.

Subject: Newer data for your [topic] post

Hi [Name],

In your post "[their post title]" you cite [the stat / chart /
fact] from [original source] in the section on [section].

That figure is from [year]. We recently [collected / tested /
updated] it: [one-sentence finding, with the new number].
Method and sources are on the page:
[your URL]

Might be useful if you ever refresh the post. Either way,
thanks for a really clear article.

[Your name]
[Role], [Site]

Subject: [Specific thing] for your next [topic] piece

Hi [Name],

I've been reading your [topic] coverage, especially [specific
article], so I thought this might be useful for future pieces.

We just published [resource title]. It's [one-sentence "better"
claim, e.g. the only grind size chart with photos of real
grounds at each setting on six common grinders].

[your URL]

Happy to send the raw data or high-res images if you ever
need them.

[Your name]

Subject: Re: Newer data for your [topic] post

Hi [Name], just making sure this reached you. The updated
[stat / chart] is here if it's useful: [your URL]

Thanks,
[Your name]

For subject lines, follow-up timing and deliverability, see our full link building outreach guide. Don't request a specific anchor; let the editor describe your page in their own words, which keeps your anchor text profile natural.

Worked example: a fictional coffee site

A hypothetical home-brewing blog, Daybreak Grind (daybreakgrind.com), wants links to a coffee grind size guide. The details are illustrative.

1. 1

   Find the target

   The top-ranking grind size chart has earned links from many brewing blogs and a few cafe sites. Reading the linking pages shows a pattern: almost every one links to the chart itself, usually from a sentence like “see this grind size chart for reference.”
2. 2

   Find the weakness

   The original chart uses descriptions only (“coarse like sea salt”). Readers in the comments ask what that looks like on their grinder.
3. 3

   Write the claim

   “A grind size chart with photos of real grounds at each setting, on six common home grinders.” It's specific, checkable and can't be copied from other articles.
4. 4

   Build and segment

   Daybreak photographs the grounds against a ruler at each setting and builds the chart as an image plus an accessible table. Linkers that cited the chart get Template 1; brewing newsletter writers and gear reviewers get Template 2; two resource pages get a resource page pitch.
5. 5

   Measure honestly

   Success is measured in links and referring domains from relevant sites, plus whether the page ranks for grind size queries, not in emails sent.

When to use the skyscraper technique (and when not to)

Used this way, the skyscraper technique is less a standalone tactic and more a research method: it tells you which topics earn links and what linkers value. The page you build, and how you promote it, does the rest. For the wider picture of where it fits, see our guide on how to get backlinks.