When your website covers a narrow subject, the most obvious publishers to contact may be in the same industry. Tangential content covers a topic connected to your customers, expertise, or data without focusing on your product. It gives you a credible way to reach publications in neighboring niches. A backlink is a link from another website to yours. Earning one depends on giving a publisher a useful reason to cite your work.
For example, a payroll company could investigate how commuting costs affect workers’ disposable income. The topic reaches personal-finance and workplace publications while connecting to the company’s audience. A tool such as VIPOutreach can help identify relevant sites and contacts and manage personalized email outreach. This helps you reach more publications while keeping a clear connection to your business.
Find a real connection to neighboring niches
Start with what your customers care about beyond the product itself. Consider the problems they face and the activities around using your product, along with questions your expertise or data can answer. A restaurant-equipment marketplace, for instance, could explore the costs of starting a restaurant. The link to food and business publications is clear because equipment is one part of that expense.
A useful topic should also serve readers who do not intend to buy from you. That gives a publisher a reason to cover the subject without turning the story into an advertisement. Fractl’s definition of tangential content similarly centers on topics that do not directly address a company’s product or service.
Before creating content, find publications that have covered the subject and note the writers who cover it. Look at what those stories cite and what useful evidence or resources they lack. Choose a closer subject if connecting it to your business takes a long chain of explanations. Google’s people-first content guidance also cautions against publishing on unrelated topics simply to attract search traffic.
Create something publishers can cite
A publisher needs a useful finding, source, or resource for readers. Original research, a transparent analysis of public data, a practical calculator, or a well-documented directory can all provide that value. Choose the format that best answers the audience’s question; no format guarantees links.
For research, explain how you collected the data, what it covers, and what its limits are. Publish the findings and methods on a stable page on your website, rather than relying only on a graphic or downloadable file. Then use the software you use to manage your website to link to that page from related resources, where the links help readers. Publishers are more likely to have a clear reason to cite a page that lets readers inspect the underlying information.
There is a practical reason to pursue links, but no guaranteed ranking result. Google says its ranking systems analyze links and that PageRank remains part of those systems. That does not mean a particular campaign or link will raise a page’s position. Track links separately from referral visits and brand mentions. Measure search performance separately as well.
Pitch the angle each publisher cares about
A relevant story can have different angles for different audiences. A local publication might care about a regional finding; a trade publication might care about its operational implications. Keep the evidence consistent across audiences and emphasize the parts that matter to each writer’s readers.
Target writers who cover your subject. In Muck Rack’s 2026 survey, 88% of respondents said they immediately disregard pitches outside their coverage area, and 71% said they reject overly promotional pitches. Keep the email brief: explain why the finding fits the writer’s coverage, share the most relevant evidence, and link to the source page. Ask the writer to credit your work accurately, but do not demand specific link text or a particular way of linking to your page.
Run targeted outreach with VIPOutreach
With VIPOutreach, start by adding sites to contact. Import them from a CSV file, find them with a Google search, pull them from a competitor’s backlinks, or add them by hand. A finder can repeat a search on a schedule and add new pages as they appear. Review each site before contacting it. The software shows metrics such as domain rank, visits, and how many distinct websites link to it (referring domains).
Next, use Find email to search the prospect’s website and Hunter, then verify the address. Create a campaign for a goal such as links or press coverage. Add the first email and follow-ups, then make each pitch specific to the prospect by naming the page you noticed and explaining why your story fits. AI can draft first emails in the project’s voice, but review and edit drafts before scheduling them, or let the campaign send on its own.
Emails go through your own mailbox, such as Gmail, Google Workspace, Outlook, or a Microsoft email service. Other mailboxes work too if they use IMAP, a standard for accessing email. For follow-ups and campaigns that send on their own, VIPOutreach keeps to that mailbox’s sending hours and daily limit, with gaps between emails. Follow-ups stop when someone replies. Replies appear in a shared inbox with a Needs reply view. When a link goes live, mark the prospect as won, meaning the outreach succeeded, and add the URL. VIPOutreach checks whether that page links to your site.
Measure links and audience response separately
Count new websites that link to you, published pieces that include links, and mentions that do not link to you separately. A referring domain means one distinct website linking to yours, even if several pages on that site link to you. Google Search Console can show search clicks and impressions for your content; your analytics setup can help track visits from coverage.
Case studies show what a campaign can achieve, not what yours will achieve. Digital Third Coast reports that a Bid-on-Equipment campaign earned more than 500 placements with inbound links across three campaigns. The engagement also included search optimization work on the website’s pages, so its reported search gains cannot be attributed to tangential content alone.