If you run a website and want to earn links, a curated page gives readers a useful collection of resources on one specific subject. Curated content is selected material from other sources, organized with explanations that help readers choose what to use. A link from another website to your page is called a backlink.
A curated page helps readers compare options, follow a learning path, or find trustworthy information that would take time to assemble themselves. The steps below show how to create that value, keep the page useful, and introduce it to relevant publishers. VIPOutreach can help with outreach.
Start with a reader’s problem
Choose a clear audience and task before collecting links. “Resources for learning data visualization” is broad; “free introductory data-visualization lessons for nonprofit staff” gives you a more useful boundary. Decide what belongs, what does not, and what readers should be able to do after using the page.
Then look at existing collections. Note what they organize well and where readers still have to work. Access restrictions may be unclear, and entries may duplicate one another. A beginner may also have no guidance on where to start. Your page should fill a clear gap. Google’s guidance favors content that adds value beyond copying or summarizing other pages.
A collection might be an annotated directory, a comparison of tools, or a step-by-step reading path. Include critical perspectives when they help readers understand a resource’s limits or a disagreement in the field. The format should serve the task, not simply make the page look comprehensive.
Select, check, and explain each resource
Set clear, consistent rules for which resources to include. Check whether each resource fits the audience and identify who produced it. Then ask whether it is current enough for its purpose and whether readers can access it. The American Library Association’s selection criteria also highlight authority, accessibility, depth, and differing perspectives.
For each entry, check that the link opens the right page and identify who created the resource. Add a short explanation of who will benefit and why you selected it. Mention relevant limits, such as a required skill level, paid access, or geographic scope. Do not claim to have tested or reviewed a resource unless you did.
Group entries by what readers need to decide, such as the task, experience level, cost, or format. Use link text that tells readers what page they will open. A clear contents section and headings also make a long collection easier to scan; Nielsen Norman Group’s reading research describes scanning as a fundamental way people read online.
Keep the collection selective. The Awesome project’s guidelines encourage contributors to explain the value of each recommendation and leave weak entries out. Google also says there is no preferred word count. Include enough resources to meet the page’s stated purpose, not to reach an arbitrary length.
Build maintenance into the page
A working link does not guarantee that a resource still says what your annotation claims. Assign someone to check both the destination and the recommendation itself. Record when someone last reviewed each entry in depth. Update or remove it when its content, access, or relevance changes.
Maintenance matters because web pages disappear. Pew Research Center found that 38% of sampled webpages from 2013 were inaccessible by October 2023. That figure describes the sampled pages, not an annual loss rate, but it shows why a curated page needs ongoing checks.
Promote the reason to cite it
Contact writers covering the subject, educators building reading lists, or editors maintaining resource pages if their readers match your collection’s audience. Explain the specific problem your page solves and where it would fit. A relevant introduction is more useful than a generic request for a backlink, which is a link from another site.
VIPOutreach supports that work in a defined sequence. Add potential contacts from a CSV, a Google search, a competitor’s backlinks, or by hand. You can also schedule a search to run again and add new pages as they appear. Review potential contacts before sending. VIPOutreach can fetch domain rank, referring domains, and visit counts to help with your review. Its email finder searches a prospect’s website and Hunter, then verifies the address.
Set up an email campaign, a series of outreach messages, with a goal such as links, guest posts, partnerships, or press coverage. Write a first email and follow-ups, then make each pitch specific to the recipient by naming the page you noticed and explaining why your resource fits. VIPOutreach can draft first emails in your project’s voice, but review and edit drafts before they are scheduled, or let the campaign send them automatically. Follow-ups and campaigns that send on their own keep to the mailbox’s sending hours and daily limit, and follow-ups stop when someone replies. Replies appear in a shared inbox with a “Needs reply” view. When a link goes live, mark the potential contact as won and add the page URL. VIPOutreach checks whether that page links to your site.
Treat outreach as an invitation to use a useful resource, not a demand for a link. A 2020 Ahrefs case study reported 27 contacted websites linking after 473 emails were delivered, plus links from sites the publisher had not contacted. The result comes from a single campaign, so it does not predict what yours will achieve.
Measure citations and reader value
Track new referring websites, which are separate sites linking to your page, and review the context of those links. Also check whether readers click the resources and whether the page needs corrections. Google Search Console’s Links report shows linking sites and linked pages, but Google describes it as a sample rather than a complete record. Social shares are a separate measure: a 2019 analysis of 912 million blog posts found only a very weak relationship between shares and backlinks.