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)

{
  "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": [
    { "domain": "indiehackers.com/blog", "dr": 81, "topic_fit": "founder-led marketing" }
  ]
}

This file lives at the project root under .seo/ and is read by the mktg-backlink-prospector agent on future runs to avoid duplicate prospecting.

Parallel research via mktg-backlink-prospector agent

When the user wants a fresh target list and there are 3+ competitors to research, /cmo should spawn the mktg-backlink-prospector agent rather than running Recipe F inline. The agent fans out competitor-by-competitor research in parallel, returns the consolidated .seo/backlink-targets.json, and frees /cmo's context for the next decision.

See agents/research/backlink-prospector.md for the spawn contract.

Phase template (when seo-machine sprint integration is wanted)

When the user is also running a seo-machine sprint, off-page phases land near the end of the tracker:

### Phase N — Starter-stack directory submissions

**Why:** baseline backlinks from high-DR directories. Cap at 2-3 hours of submission work.

**Scope:**
- [ ] Product Hunt — coordinate launch with startup-launcher
- [ ] G2 — submit product page
- [ ] Capterra — submit product page
- [ ] SaaSHub
- [ ] AlternativeTo — list as alternative to: <competitor-1>, <competitor-2>, ...
- [ ] Indie Hackers — claim product page
- [ ] Crunchbase — basic profile

**Files modified:** none (external work). Track status in `.seo/off-page-status.md`.

### Phase N+1 — Listicle outreach (top 10 targets)

**Why:** "Top X [category]" listicles already rank for our target keywords. Getting added is faster than displacing them.

**Targets (from .seo/backlink-targets.json):**
1. example.com/best-twitter-monitoring-tools (DR 65)
2. example.com/top-social-listening-tools-2026 (DR 72)
3. ... (top 10)

**Action:**
- [ ] For each, find the author via byline or about page
- [ ] Chain into `direct-response-copy` (cold-email mode) for the outreach email
- [ ] Send personalized note: short pitch + screenshot proof of value + link to demo
- [ ] Track reply status in `.seo/off-page-status.md`

**Verification:** 3+ listicles update to include the product within 60 days.

What this skill explicitly does NOT do

• Auto-submit anywhere. Submission flows often need real human review (G2 needs screenshot + URL + verification email; Product Hunt needs a launch coordinator).
• Generate outreach emails. Use direct-response-copy (cold-email mode) for that. This skill produces the target list; the email writer is a separate skill.
• Track ongoing referring-domain growth. That's a weekly check-in task the user owns; this skill just provides the initial target list and refreshes it on demand.
• Run paid networks or link buys. Black-hat. mktg policy: white-hat only.

Honest caveats

Off-page work is slower and more uncertain than on-page work. A great alternatives page ranks within 30–90 days. A great backlink campaign might produce 3 useful links in the first month, 10 in three months. Don't gate the on-page sprint on off-page progress. Ship pages; queue outreach in parallel.

The compounding effect is also lumpy: one DR 80+ listicle is worth ten DR 30 directories. Prioritize quality over quantity in the target list — 10 well-researched targets beat 100 spray-and-pray submissions.

Anti-patterns

Don't	Why
Submit to every directory you find	Low-DR directories don't move the needle; cumulative time cost is high, return is low. Stick to the curated starter stack + Recipe F targets.
Mass-pitch the same email to 50 listicle authors	Personalization rate-determines reply rate. 10 personalized pitches outperform 100 templated ones by 5–10× in reply rate.
Reciprocal link schemes ("you link to me, I link to you")	Google penalizes these patterns at scale. Founder link trades are different (they're editorial decisions); blind reciprocal exchanges are not.
Paid links from PBNs (private blog networks)	Black-hat, manually reviewed by Google, results in penalty when caught. Never.
Outreach without value-add	A pitch that's just "please add me" gets ignored. Lead with a screenshot, a stat, or a useful angle the author missed.
Gate the on-page sprint on backlink growth	Backlink campaigns are 3–6 month timelines. On-page work compounds in parallel — never let outreach uncertainty stop page shipping.

Cross-references

• agents/research/backlink-prospector.md — parallel-fan-out research agent that builds .seo/backlink-targets.json
• skills/seo-machine/references/off-page.md — the sibling reference doc inside seo-machine's run-time bundle
• skills/competitive-intel/SKILL.md — produces brand/competitors.md, the seed input for Recipe F
• skills/direct-response-copy/SKILL.md (cold-email mode) — writes the outreach emails once the target list exists
• skills/startup-launcher/SKILL.md — coordinates launch-day submission to 56 platforms (overlap on Product Hunt + BetaList; this skill handles the ongoing post-launch off-page work)