I’m often asked questions such as “how do I get a backlink from Forbes?” or “how do I get featured in Forbes?” or still “what is the secret to getting mentioned in Forbes?”. Besides the commune interest in Forbes that these questions imply, these questions refer to very different types of placements you can get.
So, before getting to the main point of this article – getting a link in Forbes quickly and with little effort – I think it is worth analyzing these different placement types.
How do I get a backlink from Forbes?
This is a broad question. A backlink is a link from Forbes to your site, which doesn’t necessarily mean that Forbes is talking about you mentioning or featuring your story.
A backlink can be introduced with a neutral anchor text such as:
“virtual reality has become a new trend in the industry. All types of companies are moving in embracing this new technology.”
The link was placed on our site’s anchor “trend” without mentioning GoodNoon in this paragraph. It is noted that the link includes a do-follow tag; thus, the juice from the Forbes.com domain passes through the linked domain. This type of link increases the site’s Domain Authority. Hence its likelihood of ranking better on search engine results.
One important thing to note is that the backlink offered in this case is not necessarily direct. An unethical approach emerging recently is redirecting (302 as temporary or 301 as permanent) the domain linking in Forbes to another domain.
Let’s better understand this:
Domain Rome.com has a direct backlink to Forbes.com. When the domain Rome.com expires, Mark will buy this domain. Domain Moscow.com hire Mark for their SEO campaign. Mark redirects Rome.com to Moscow.com; by doing this, the Forbes link will point – indirectly – the new domain.
This approach leads to many possible issues, from getting penalized by Google to acquiring, together with the Forbes.com link and other wrong links. It can even happen that direct Google penalization will be redirected to the new site.
We discourage the usage of these techniques, focusing instead on other more productive approaches as described below.
How do I get featured in Forbes?
As this page specifies, a feature “is a full dedicated article to you, your brand, and your service. A feature can also be published as a full interview”.
This page illustrates what a feature would look like. Without a doubt, a feature is the best type of placement you can get as it gives full credibility and authority to the company – or person – featured in the piece.
Branding campaigns highly focus on this type of placement, and all the marketer experts agree that the featured companies receive incredible SEO benefits. Besides the value, the backlink offers, the company name mentioned in these features – even without links – presented with positive sentiment and tone can bring a very high SEO value.
What is the secret to getting mentioned in Forbes?
Although there are no accurate secret formulas to get mentions in Forbes, we have listed some practical ways to achieve this below. In this paragraph, instead, I’m focusing on the definition of “mention.” A mention is “a paragraph with a mention to you or your company in an article relevant to your industry.”
There are two mention types, quote and brand. The quote mentioned is introduced through a quote from a company representative. The brand mention instead is introduced only through a backlink using the company name as the anchor.
Choosing this or that placement type strongly depends on your campaign goals. Generally speaking, these campaigns have three types of achievements SEO, branding, and traffic.
Takeouts
A Forbes feature is an entire page dedicated to you or your company; a mention is just a paragraph. Both placements come with one or more backlinks; however, backlinks can also be introduced without mentioning or featuring that specific domain. Also, a backlink can be presented using black-hat techniques, such as a 301 redirect, so be careful.
Now that we have understood the different types of placements you can get in Forbes, we need to move forward with the techniques you can use to achieve this.
Buy a Forbes link (sponsored articles)
The easiest way to get a link in Forbes is by buying it. That is 100% legit and won’t get you in trouble with Google.
BrandVoice is a Native adverting service provided by Forbes. Although technically an advertising solution, it allows you to get mentions and features – thus backlinks – almost as it would appear in an organic placement. “We believe in giving marketers the same access to the content creation tools as our editorial staff,” said Ann Marinovich, Forbes Media’s VP-advertising products and strategy. T
The “Special Features” service allows a marketer to “take a deeper dive into one particular topic,” Ms. Marinovich added.
However, from a front-end perspective, the only difference would be the “branded” tag on the article header; in terms of visibility, the difference is enormous from an SEO perspective. Forbes branded articles have much less reach than traditional articles, as they are placed in a specific site subsection. Also, their Google rankings potential in Google is much lower compared to organic articles.
Branding-wise, the BrandVoice solution adds credibility, as the articles get a “Paid Program” tag. The tag says, “everyone can get on here paying,” thus losing that transmission of authority that the companies seeking Forbes placements look for.
BrandVoice is also very costly. When we reached out a year ago, we got a $70k quotation for a six months partnership only on the online version. The bad news was that all sponsored posted articles would get removed after this term (unless renewed for another six months).
I read print would start from $600k – see the screenshot below – although these solutions usually are highly negotiable and customizable in terms of cover and price based on your actual needs.
Although this is cheaper than other similar outlets – NYT asked us $150k for a branded post – this solution is far from accessible to small and medium companies.
Forbes Insights works in a very similar way to BrandVoice. Insights, however, is only accessible to companies that can post research, analysis, or other data-related information. The price of Insights is higher than BrandVoice, as it comes with a higher reach and has a higher likelihood that the information provided will be syndicated into other platforms.
When we inquired a year ago, the price was only $150k for the digital. As I couldn’t pitch these prices to any of my clients, I didn’t even ask about the cost of printing.
Hire a PR agency that offers guaranteed results.
As pointed out in Forbes: “PR agencies, as opposed to advertising agencies, promote companies or individuals via editorial coverage. This is known as “earned” or “free” media — stories appearing on websites, newspapers, magazines, and TV programs — as compared to “paid media” or advertisements.”
Let me get this straight; there are two types of PR agencies. Those where you pay for PR (without knowing precisely what you are paying for) or those where you pay for actual results. Our agency GoodNoon belongs to the second category, offering its client to choice of the media that best fits them, paying only for the actual placement(s).
Operation-wise, the companies perform the same job; they create a summary of your story and pitch it to Forbes editors. These transactions involve personal connections without involving payments. Offering payments for these organic placements is ethically incorrect and ineffective, and we highly discourage doing it.
By working with “traditional” PR agencies, you’d pay regardless if any of the journalists that got reached would publish your story. By working with performance-based PR companies, you only pay if they complete the job. It is very similar to the other approach explained here below. Still, as said earlier, a PR agency leveraging a personal network of connections has a higher chance to succeed than more DIY approaches. You can contact us here for your guaranteed placement in Forbes.
Outreach journalists
Outreach journalists is a DIY alternative to hiring a PR agency. Although it is often presented as a cheap way to engage journalists, PR software is expensive and can quickly lead to high bills.
According to sources, “Cision (formerly Bacon’s Publicity Checker and Vocus) – starts at $5,700 annually. Meltwater – starts at $6,000 annually, MyMediaInfo – starts at $4,000 annually, Gorkana starts at $10,995 annually”. Due to their very high prices, these platforms are often ineffective, particularly if compared to placements with guaranteed results as offered by agencies like us.
At GoodNoon, we are developing a tool to allow anyone with a story to say to do it without the high costs usually associated with it. Our free PR software allows anyone to find the niche journalist for their story, allowing them to contact them directly through the platform by email.
The platform also offers the option to download their Social Media info at no cost. As the tool is not yet completed, we offer the possibility to publish your article on our site and have this sent for syndication to Forbes editors.
We discovered that “how to pitch to journalists” is probably among the most researched phrases regarding PR, with thousands of sites offering their views. Hence, this article does not focus much on this aspect. We’d only like to point out a fundamental feature for your story to be picked by media: have a story.
I mean having something with an angle that embraces a real problem, social or commercial. Too often, businesses contact Forbes journalists describing their platform or service without focusing much on what problem or social issue this solves.
Submit your Post (it will be published in GoodNoon, and it will be sent to Forbes editors)
Additionally, we will also send the published link to Forbes. We don’t guarantee they will pick it up in their news or publish it. If you are looking for guaranteed placements in Forbes, you can contact us here., Please note that your post will be removed from our platform within three days unless:
