We all love a good timeline. Remember fond memories as a child looking at the history of the dinosaurs? How about something closer to home such as a family tree? In very recent times you may have also come across the new timeline functionality within Facebook. Timelines are certainly a great way of visualizing key points within a period of history.

The Internet is packed with timelines. It is also packed with data ready to populate timelines. It can pretty much cover any industry. I'm going to go talk through a way in which we (SEOs) can take advantage of this.

How can I use a timeline to build links?

Timelines can play an important role in guest blogging and for that matter, as part of a wider link building strategy. A nicely constructed timeline based on the foundations of good, accurate data would be appealing to the majority of website owners.

1. Identify the authorities in your niche

A common SEO strategy is to identify the authorities and active members within your niche. These are the people you want to reach out to.

2. Brainstorm timeline ideas

There is no point creating a timeline with little to no substance. Think about the users of the site you are targeting to post the timeline. Will it be useful? Is it substantial? Does it add value? You can create a timeline based on data collected from third party sources in your industry (websites, books etc) or you can create a timeline based on existing content found on their site. For example, they may have a text-only timeline or an ‘about’ page which could do with being brought into the 21^st century. Create a short list of timeline ideas before you pitch your idea to your chosen sites. Be proactive – look at what they are posting and saying. Is there a common topic in which you can base a timeline on?

3. Pitch the idea to your chosen authority sites

Once you have your list, you can now target your chosen sites. In return for supplying the timeline ask for a small ‘thanks to’ message underneath the timeline including a brand link. As with all contact of this nature, it’s better to add a personal touch. Find the name of the person you are contacting. There is nothing worse than being greeted with a generic outreach email that looks like it has been sent to a number of people. Whilst not perfect by any means, you can use the basic email template below to help get you started.

Hi <first name>

I hope you are well :) I've recently found your <website name> blog and am I right in thinking that you are accepting guest blog posts?

I've prepared an interactive timeline on the history of <subject> and think this would be a good fit for your blog and visitors. I've based it on a list of sources which I've been researching and wonder if this is something that you would be interested in posting on your blog?

I can send you a preview of this timeline and the embed code if you wish to go ahead. In return we only wish for you to credit our work with a brand link (maybe a ‘thanks to’ type message for preparing the timeline) to <client name and link>.

If you have any questions please do let me know.

Regards, <your name>

For more in depth outreach examples read this SEOmoz blog post from earlier in the year. If you are contacting someone who is quite proactive on Twitter why not contact them there first?

Using Timeline JS to create beautiful timelines

I’ve recently stumbled across Timeline JS. It’s a great application to build interactive timelines quickly. The end result is a slide show type timeline which can contain text as well as additional media such as images, videos and even tweets. You don’t need any knowledge of coding and at the end you can get the ‘embed’ code so you can easily send it across to your contact with the correct width and height.

How do I create one?

To get started, simply populate your data into this Google spreadsheet template. Each row consists of a slide within the timeline.

The first row is usually the opening slide which usually contains an introduction and piece of media. The value start[1] in the ‘title slide’ column indicates which should be the opening slide (please note that this should only exist once in the spreadsheet).

• Start Date – These cells are date formatted. Simply add the start date of the individual event.
• End Date - These cells are date formatted. If your event is over a period of time add the end date. This field can be left blank if no end date is required.
• Headline – As expected, this is the main heading for a slide. This also appears within the footer timeline and also to the left and right of a slide when scrolling through.
• Text – This is the main content for a slide. This is commonly a couple of sentences. However if your timeline is going to be compressed with a shorted height / width it is recommended that you keep things brief and to the point.
• Media – This is a versatile cell. You can input an image URL, YouTube video URL, Google Maps or tweet URL here and it will automatically parse this into the required format when the timeline loads.
• Media Credit / Caption – To display the original data source you have used you can add a credit here. These cells accept HTML so you can add a link if required.

Once you have populated the spreadsheet with your data, click ‘File’ then ‘Publish to the Web’.

In the following overlay, click ‘Start Publishing’ and then copy the full spreadsheet URL in the text box towards the bottom of the overlay.

Using the embed generator on Timeline JS paste the spreadsheet URL in the first textbox. You can define the height, width and font type. The embed code will update automatically. The ‘preview’ button will preview the timeline as if it was already embedded on a page. The ‘link to preview’ button gives you a preview URL which is particularly useful for sharing or sending to your link prospects for approval prior to sending the embed code.

Summary

This strategy works well because ultimately you are creating great content for users. In my short experience of using this strategy we have noticed a considerable uplift in the amount of positive responses from website owners contacted as part of an outreach campaign.

As mentioned earlier, it’s a pretty versatile link building strategy that can cover just about any industry. It’s also something that can be adjusted to suit your outreach contact and to get a better response.