SEO practitioner and founder of Backlinko, known for the Skyscraper Technique and a quality-over-quantity publishing model. He sold Backlinko to Semrush in 2022.

What is the Skyscraper Technique?

Find content that already earned links, create something clearly better, then pitch everyone who linked to the original.

What is Dean's publishing philosophy?

A small number of definitive, heavily promoted posts beats a high-volume content calendar.

Growth Marketing Glossary

Brian Dean

/bɹaɪən din/proper noun

Publish less, promote more — a few definitive posts beat a hundred forgettable ones.

Portrait mark — Brian Dean

Name: Brian Dean
Founded: Backlinko (2012)
Coined: Skyscraper Technique (2015)
Exit: Sold Backlinko to Semrush (2022)

Forms & parts of speech

Skyscraper · proper noun

His find-improve-outreach link method.

"Skyscraper it — find the best-ranking guide, build something taller, tell everyone who linked."

Who he is, in plain terms

Brian Dean is the SEO practitioner who built Backlinko into one of the most-linked marketing blogs on earth with a contrarian publishing strategy — only a few dozen posts, each definitive, each promoted hard. He coined the Skyscraper Technique in 2015, sold Backlinko to Semrush in January 2022, and co-founded the trend-spotting tool Exploding Topics.

The key ideas

The Skyscraper Technique in three steps — find content that already earned links, build something clearly better (longer, fresher, better designed, more complete), then reach out to everyone who linked to the original; content quality is a link-earning instrument, not a virtue in itself; on-page craft matters (his "APP" intro formula, short URLs, compelling title tags); and publishing cadence is overrated — Backlinko out-ranked daily publishers with roughly one post a month.

Why he still matters

Skyscraper became one of the most copied — and most abused — tactics in SEO, which is itself the lesson: when everyone sends the same "I made something better" email, only genuinely better content clears the bar. His deeper bet, that a small library of definitive assets compounds harder than a content treadmill, keeps winning as search rewards depth over volume.

Worked example. A B2B blog publishes weekly and ranks for nothing. The Dean reset — one definitive guide per month aimed at a keyword where the current winner is beatable, each guide visibly stronger than the incumbent, each launched with outreach to the sites already linking to that incumbent. Six months later, four guides hold page-one spots the previous forty posts never touched, and the backlink profile finally compounds.

Failure modes to watch. Sending skyscraper outreach for content that is longer but not better; measuring posts published instead of links and rankings earned; and copying the technique's mechanics while skipping the promotion half that makes it work.

Synonyms & antonyms

Synonyms

Brian DeanBacklinko

Origin & history

A former nutrition-PhD dropout and freelance writer who started Backlinko in 2012 after years of failed niche sites. He named the Skyscraper Technique in a 2015 Backlinko post — the metaphor being that nobody photographs the world's eighth-tallest building, so build the tallest.

Etymology: source.

Usage trends

Search interest for this term over the last five years:

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Common questions

Who is Brian Dean?: SEO practitioner and founder of Backlinko, known for the Skyscraper Technique and a quality-over-quantity publishing model. He sold Backlinko to Semrush in 2022.
What is the Skyscraper Technique?: Find content that already earned links, create something clearly better, then pitch everyone who linked to the original.
What is Dean's publishing philosophy?: A small number of definitive, heavily promoted posts beats a high-volume content calendar.

Related tools & calculators

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toolFunnel drop-off analyzer

Resources & people to follow

referenceBacklinko.com — the Skyscraper Technique post (2015)
referenceSemrush — Backlinko acquisition announcement (2022)
referenceExplodingTopics.com

Curated, non-competitor resources verified per term.

Related training

moduleContent marketing

Disciplines

Areas of marketing where brian dean is a core concern:

Content strategySEO

Sources

trendsGoogle Trends — "brian dean seo"