How to get listed in 'best X' and alternatives articles

1. Write down the searches your buyers make

Make three lists. Ten minutes is enough:

• Category: "best note-taking apps", "note-taking apps for researchers", "free research notes tools".
• Competitors: "[competitor] alternatives" and "[competitor] vs" for the four or five tools you lose deals to. These posts convert best, so we wrote a separate walkthrough on getting into competitor alternatives articles.
• Jobs: "how to organise notes for a literature review", "how to keep track of sources while writing".

2. Find the posts that rank for them

Search each query and open the top results. Keep editorial posts by publishers and bloggers. Drop marketplace listings, forum threads, and pages by vendors that sell only their own product. Adding intitle:best or intitle:alternatives to a query helps; the search string builder writes these for you. For a fuller method, including newsletters and lists that don't rank yet, see how to find every roundup post in your niche.

3. Check whether you belong

Ask three questions before you write anything:

• Would this post's readers actually use my product?
• Does the list already include tools like mine, at a similar size and price?
• Is there a gap I fill: a free tier, a niche, a missing feature?

If any answer is no, skip it. A relevant post with a modest audience beats an unrelated one with a huge Domain Rating. The site-selection worksheet has a scoring sheet.

4. Find the person who edits the post

Check the author box, then the site's contact and about pages. On small blogs, the owner reads hello@ or the contact form. If you only have a name, run it through the email permutator and verify the top guesses before sending. Never send to an unverified list of guesses. Our walkthrough on finding the editor's email for any post covers the harder cases, like multi-author publications and sites with no contact page.

5. Write a short, specific pitch

Here's the shape that works, using a fictional product:

Subject

Your note-taking apps for researchers list

Body

Hi Sam, I read your roundup of note-taking apps for researchers. The section on keeping track of sources was the most useful part for me. I work on Margin. It keeps the source attached to every highlight and is free for students, which none of the apps on your list offer. It might be a fit for readers who are just starting out. Would you consider adding it? Happy to set up a free account or send a two-line description you can paste. Cheers, Jordan

Notice what's missing: no company history, no "I hope this finds you well", no link to your site, no offer of payment. Check yours with the outreach email checker. Ready-to-edit versions: the best-of list pitch, the alternatives post pitch and the niche tool roundup pitch.

6. Follow up once or twice, then stop

Editors are busy and many replies come after a nudge. Send a short follow-up four or five days later, and a final one about a week after that, like the follow-up template. If an editor asks for a fee, thank them and decline (here's a polite way to say no to a paid link); offer a free account or a quote for the post instead.

7. Confirm the link and keep an eye on it

When an editor says you're in, open the page and check the link points to you and isn't marked nofollow or sponsored. The nofollow link checker does this from the page source. Lists get refreshed, so re-check every few weeks; our backlink monitoring guide explains what to watch for and how often.

Doing this every week without losing a day to it

BacklinkGenie runs steps 1 to 7 for you: it finds the posts, checks fit, finds and verifies the editor, drafts a pitch for each, sends from a separate warmed-up mailbox after you approve, follows up, and re-checks every link you win. See how the agent runs each step, or read why this matters so much for software products in link building for SaaS. Start with a free prospect report to see the lists you're missing from.

Want the strategy behind the steps, including which lists matter most and how they feed AI answers? Read the complete guide to listicle link building.