In SEO, the skyscraper technique refers to finding a piece of content by your competitors that is trusted by many other sites in your content area and includes many backlinks.
The skyscraper technique includes:
- Finding your competitor’s content or identifying a piece of high-quality content that is often cited on other sites.
- Creating your own version that is high quality, whether that means more up to date, improved readability, or format of the information.
- Asking sites that previously referenced the old content to now reference your content.
The reason this is called “skyscraping” is because you are finding a piece of content that considered very well known and constructing a “taller” or better piece of content.
While from one perspective this might seem like an honest effort to create value and drive traffic, there are pros and cons to this approach from an SEO standpoint.
For example, it may seem like a reasonable strategy to implement every now and then as information is always being updated, but nowadays sites often reject originality and target their competitors by recreating it. A result of this is that it’s nearly impossible for sites to trust anyone who contacts them asking to be featured on their site. When everyone is using the same strategy for content, it no longer creates value for the audience and hurts SEO.
Before you get started with this approach, make sure you find a piece of content that not only contains many backlinks but has actual room for improvement.
Rather than fully copying their concepts, work in your own experience, research, and expertise to offer a fresh perspective. People are most interested in a new take on information.
While it’s important to be aware of what your competitors are doing, don’t become so entrenched in their content and the ideas of the industry that you lose focus on the readers you are serving. Don’t be afraid to be different and share new ideas and conclusions from your own research, rather than rewording common concepts covered in competitor’s sites.
Source: https://www.semrush.com/blog/skyscraper-technique/
3 Responses
Thank you for sharing this insightful overview of the skyscraper technique in SEO. While it can be an effective strategy, your points about its potential drawbacks are well-taken. When looking to optimize SEO, we should focus on creating original and creative content that stays fresh and informative. Standing out compared to competitors is good, but we also have to balance that with creating original content in the digital landscape.
This is a very inciteful piece of information necessary for an SEO plan. My top thought was “what about differentiation?” but you answered my thoughts concisely with your emphasis about sharing original ideas/ practices. Awesome content!
This is an interesting technique. I think differentiation is so critical, original content is always going to be the best route.