The Ultimate Guide To Outsourcing Link Building

There are a number of reputable agencies that specialize in link building and can help take your campaign to the next level.

But before you hand over the reins, it's important to understand how to properly outsource your link building.

Why you should outsource link building

1. You'll Save Time

This is perhaps the most obvious benefit of outsourcing link building. By entrusting this task to a team of experts, you'll be able to free up your time to focus on other aspects of your business. And we all know that time is money!

2. You'll see link building results quicker

A good link building agency will have a proven track record of helping their clients achieve results.

They will know exactly which strategies work and which ones don't, and they'll be able to implement them quickly and efficiently.

This means that you'll see a return on your investment sooner rather than later. One of the most challenging things with SEO and link building is that it typically takes a lot of time for results to kick in.

If you can get a good agency to land you authoritative links and with volume, you should see much quicker growth.

3. You'll Get High-Quality Links

Let's face it, link building can be a bit of a gamble.

You never really know if the links you're getting are actually going to be helpful or hurtful to your campaign.

But when you outsource link building to a reputable agency, you can rest assured that you're getting links from high-quality websites that will actually help you rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).

The key here is to find a reputable agency. Cheaping out on your link building is a recipe for disaster.

We'll go more into this later in the article.

4. You'll be able to focus on your strengths

When you outsource link building, you're freeing up your time and energy to focus on your business rather than the technical aspects of outreach and link placements.

You can focus on developing new products, writing blog posts, or working on other areas of your business that need your attention.

And when you have a team of experts working on link building for you, you can be confident that your website will get the exposure it deserves.

A lot of businesses out there don't realize how important link building is to the success of their website.

But the truth is, link building is essential for getting your website seen by the right people. It's also a great way to build relationships with other websites in your industry.

5. You don’t need to have link building expertise

If you're not an expert in link building, it can take hours or even days to research potential linking opportunities and then reach out to those websites. When you outsource this task, you can focus on running your business while experts handle the nitty-gritty details of link building.

Outsourcing link building also allows you to tap into a wider network of potential linking partners. When you're trying to build links on your own, it can be difficult to know where to start or who to contact.

However, when you work with an experienced team of link builders, they will already have established relationships with high-quality websites in your industry.

This means that they can quickly secure links from relevant and authoritative sources, which will do wonders for your website's search engine rankings.

6. You don’t need to have the manpower or resources

Anyone who's tried to do their own link building knows that it can be a real pain.

It's hard enough to find good quality websites to reach out to, but then you have to actually craft a personalized email or message that stands out from the hundreds of other requests they get every day.

And even if you do manage to get someone to agree to link back to your site, you still have to create great content that will make them want to keep the link up.

It's a lot of work, and it's no wonder that so many people give up before they see any results.

If you're thinking about starting a link building campaign, make sure you have the manpower and link building tools  in place beforehand to have an in-house link builder - otherwise, it's worth outsourcing your campaign to a reputable agency.

7. Your current efforts are not yielding good results

If you've been trying to build links on your own but haven't been seeing the results you want, it might be time to outsource to an agency. A good link building agency will have a proven track record of getting results quickly.

They'll also be up-to-date on the latest link building trends and techniques. Link building is an important part of SEO, and it can be tough to keep up with the latest changes if you're not doing it full-time.

An agency can help take the burden off of your shoulders and get you the results you need.

If you're not sure where to start, take a look at some reviews of link building agencies to find one that's a good fit for your needs.

How to outsource link building

If you're looking to outsource your link building, there are a few things you need to keep in mind.

First, you want to make sure you're outsourcing to a reputable agency. There are a lot of fly-by-night operations out there, and you don't want to end up working with one of them.

Second, you want to make sure the agency you're working with has experience with link building. There's no point in working with an agency that doesn't know what they're doing.

Finally, you want to make sure the agency you're working with is transparent about their process. A good agency will be up-front about how they're going to build links for your site, and they'll be able to show you results from previous clients.

If an agency can't meet all of these criteria, then you should keep looking.

Here's a step-by-step process you can follow:

1. Research the agency's backlinks and Off-Page SEO

If you're thinking about outsourcing your backlink acquisition, it's important to do your research and make sure you're hiring a reputable agency.

A good way to gauge an agency's competence is to look at their backlinks and off-page SEO. If they are really good at what they do, they should have the results on their own site to prove it.

A strong backlink profile indicates that the agency knows how to get high-quality links, and a well-optimized off-page SEO campaign shows that they know how to drive traffic and engagement.

So before you sign on the dotted line, take a look at the agency's website and see if they practice what they preach. If not, you might want to keep looking.

2. Ask for reviews and case studies

Another important step to take is to ask for case studies and customer reviews or testimonials. This will give you a sense of the quality of work the agency is capable of, as well as whether or not their clients are happy with the results.

It's also a good idea to ask about the agency's link building process to make sure it is in line with best practices. By taking the time to do your research, you can be confident that you're making a wise investment in your link building campaign.

As you can see, we’ve got some really impressive links coming to us :) 

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2. Understand the costs

As you outsource link building and start seeing results, calculate how much you're actually paying per link.

If you're paying $2000 and getting 5 links, your average cost per link is $400. There's no benchmark for what an ideal cost per link is, but you should be aware of this number so you can decide whether it's worth continuing to outsource or to build your own team and process.

According to a study by Ahrefs, the average(not ideal) cost per link is around $361.44.

I've also seen some agencies and marketers have streamlined their link building efforts to have a cost per link of just $15-20 thanks to a highly systematized outreach and writing process.

However, creating such a system takes a lot of time and resources, something your business may not have at this point. In that case, it may be more worthwhile to just outsource!

3. Make sure the agency doesn't do shady black-hat SEO

Building links is an essential part of any SEO strategy, but it's important to make sure that the agency you outsource your link building to is using safe, white hat techniques.

Unfortunately, there are still many link building agencies that use black hat techniques that can severely damage your business over time. For example, some agencies will buy spammy links from low-quality sites, or engage in link farms, which can get you penalized by Google.

In extreme cases, black hat techniques can even get your site deindexed from Google altogether. That's why it's so important to do your research and only work with an agency that uses safe, white hat link building techniques.

By taking this precaution, you can avoid any potential penalties or deindexing and ensure that your business thrives for years to come.

What's worse is you'll have paid thousands of dollars only to dig your own grave!

4. Beware of agencies who over-promise

As anyone who has ever tried to build links knows, it's a process that requires a lot of time and effort.

There are a lot of variables involved, and it can be difficult to predict how many links can be built in a given period of time. That's why it's important to be wary of link building services who promise results that seem too good to be true.

If an agency guarantees a certain number of links, it's likely that they're either over-promising or using questionable methods to build those links. In either case, it's best to steer clear.

Link building is a complex process, and there's no guarantee of success, no matter how experienced the agency may be.

The best way to ensure a successful campaign is to set realistic expectations and focus on building quality links rather than quantity.

5. Understand the process

Even if you outsource your link building campaigns to someone else, it's important to understand how it works and what factors go into making a good or bad link.

That way, you can evaluate the results you're getting and make sure that your money is being well spent.

So, what goes into link building? A lot of it is about relationship building. You need to reach out to other website owners and establish relationships with them.

Once you have a good relationship, you can start asking for links. But simply asking isn't enough - you also need to give them a reason to say yes. That's where writing compelling content comes in.

If you can create something that's truly worth reading, other site owners will be happy to link to it.

Of course, simply having good content isn't enough. You also need to get it in front of the right people.

That's where link placement comes in. You need to get your content published on high-quality websites that have a lot of organic traffic. And finally, once you've built up a good number of links, you need to track your progress and see how your links are performing.

Are they helping your website rank higher in search engines?

Are they driving traffic to your site?

By understanding the process of link building, you can make sure that your hard-earned money is getting a good ROI.

6. Set clear expectations and goals

If you're thinking about outsourcing your link building, it's important to go into the process with realistic expectations.

It takes time to build relationships and establish trust with other businesses, so don't expect immediate results.

Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither is a successful link building campaign. Just as importantly, don't give up if you don't see results right away. The key is to be patient and consistent with your efforts.

Over time, your hard work will pay off and you'll start to see the fruit of your labor. So if you're thinking about outsourcing your link building, keep in mind that it's a marathon, not a sprint.

With a little patience and perseverance, you'll be sure to see success.

Outsourcing mistakes to avoid

Now that you're familiar with what to do and what to expect when outsourcing link building, it's important to understand what not to do!

Picking the cheapest link building service

You get what you pay for, right? That's certainly true when it comes to link building.

The cheapest providers out there are usually using shortcuts and black hat techniques that will do more harm than good in the long run. Link building is an important part of any SEO strategy, but it's not something that you can just do overnight.

It takes time and effort to build up a strong link profile, so it's important to choose a provider who will take the time to do it right. Yes, you might have to pay a little bit more upfront, but it will be worth it in the end.

In my more naive days in online marketing, I tried to find cheaper link builders and ended up having to clean up their mess thanks to all the poor links they ended up building.

Cheaper providers tend to focus on quantity rather than quality. So if they can deliver 100 (bad) links, that's still better than delivering 10 (great) links.

Choosing Quantity over Quality

What would you rather have?

One super-relevant backlink from the New York Times, or 10 links from smaller semi-relevant sites?

A good link building agency understands that quality is always better than quantity.

A thousand poor links don't even stand up to one relevant, high quality link.

Even though Ahrefs DR (domain rating or domain authority) is not directly correlated with higher search engine rankings, the way they calculate it is a good way to understand quality vs quantity.

There are sites in Ahrefs which have hundreds of domains linking to them but they still have a very low DR score.

On the other hand, there are sites that have far fewer domains linking to them but much higher DR scores.

Similarly, acquiring one high-DR link takes more effort than acquiring a lower quality link.

So don't be disappointed if your outsourced link building agency is only providing you a few links a month as long as those links are high quality.

The way to think about quality is in terms of relevance to your pages' subject(s), and the overall authority and trustworthiness of the linking domain.

Micromanaging Your Provider

When you outsource link building, you're essentially giving up some control over your digital marketing strategy.

While this might not be a big deal for some businesses, others might prefer to keep things in-house so that they can have more control over what's happening with their campaign.

If you're the type who likes to keep a close eye on things, outsourcing might not be right for you.

The last thing you want to do is micromanage your link building provider. After all, the VERY reason you hired them was to free up your own time.

If you're constantly checking in on their progress or second-guessing their decisions, you're not going to get the results you want.

Expecting Link Building to Solve All Your Problems

Link building is one important factor in getting higher search engine rankings and traffic, but it's not the only factor. Link building alone will not automatically result in a surge of traffic to your website.

You'll still need to create good content and have a technically sound website. Keep in mind that link building is just one part of an overall SEO strategy.

So while it's important to focus on building links, don't forget about the other factors that affect your ranking and traffic including site speed, mobile friendliness, and schema markup, to name a few.

By paying attention to all aspects of SEO, you can create a well-rounded strategy that will help you achieve your traffic goals.

Conclusion

If you’re looking to outsource your link building, be sure to keep the following things in mind.

First, make sure you find a reputable agency that understands your brand and your audience.

Second, ensure that the team you work with has solid experience in creating high-quality content and placing it in relevant publications.

Finally, always ask for references and case studies to get an idea of their past successes (and failures).

By following these tips, you can rest assured that your outsourced link building will be successful and help improve your SEO strategy.

Ready to take the next step? Get in touch with us today – we’d be happy to share our expertise!

Frequently asked questions

What are the most effective link building strategies?

The most effective link building strategies which have stood the test of time are guest posting, resource pages, the skyscraper technique, and statistics posts.

Does link building work?

Link building still works as long as you get high-quality, relevant links from high authority sites. Even today, links remain one of Google's most important ranking signals.

What are the benefits of link building?

The benefits of link building include improved search engine rankings, increased traffic, and improved brand awareness. As you can imagine, all of these things can lead to more customers and sales for your business.

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