Search engine optimization (SEO) is a complex subject. A comprehensive strategy requires keyword research, content optimization, off-page SEO, and a lot more.
Link building is one of the toughest tasks of an SEO strategy. A small change can influence your overall link-building efforts. When it comes to link building, you can do it in house or outsource backlink building.
Building high quality links is of utmost importance. Manually building links is a taxing process, so outsourcing link building is a great option that businesses use to save time and cost.
The article will cut through industry insights and provide a clear understanding of outsourcing services to improve your website’s visibility.
Are you ready to learn more? Let’s dive in.
What is Backlink Building Outsourcing?
Link building outsourcing is a process where a company hires an external provider to handle backlinks to improve their website’s ranking. It is a strategic move that allows businesses to tap into specialized expertise to streamline their SEO efforts.
In fact, 41% of SEO experts consider link building a challenging aspect of their SEO strategy. This is why 60% of businesses have outsourced link building to freelancers or link-building agencies.
A link-building partner can boost your website’s authority and visibility. The partner can streamline the process using various link-building techniques, such as guest posting, directory submissions, and influencer outreach.
However, choosing a reliable link building partner is pivotal to getting the best results. If you want to give a boost to your link building efforts, then check out GrowthOG – the top link building provider with years of experience providing reliable services to SaaS brands.
Why Should You Outsource Link Building?
Link building is a complicated and tedious process; let’s explore some reasons why businesses are turning to outsourcing to boost their link building efforts.
- Saves time and resources: Building links is a time-consuming process, so outsourcing saves invaluable time, allowing your team to focus on core business tasks.
- Cost savings: Outsourcing link building can turn out to be a cost-effective solution as you don’t have to hire an in-house team. An in-house team will require training, planning, SEO tools, and management that can cost a big buck.
- Access to specialized expertise: Link building requires years of expertise, a keen eye on changes in Google algorithms, and adaptation to maintaining high quality backlinks to your website. Experts at link building agencies, hence, with years of expertise and resources can get you results quicker and more efficiently..
- Gain access to existing infrastructure: Link building agencies have well-established relationships with other websites and resources. They can help website owners earn relevant links with quicker turnaround.
- Scalability: Scalability is a difficult process for any business. When you outsource, you can easily scale up or down to meet your changing business needs.
- Comply with Google’s guidelines: Reputable agencies are well-versed with Google’s policies. They will help you get relevant backlinks while avoiding undue penalties from search engines.
For businesses starting out, the budget may turn out to be an issue, while larger companies may be worried about completely handing over their link building strategy to an outsourced service.
This may be true in some cases. However, a reputable link building agency like GrowthOG makes sure their clients are consulted about when to outsource link building and what strategies to implement before their investment.
Who Offers Link Building Services?
You have two main options if you’re planning to outsource your link building efforts: a freelancer or an agency. Let’s look at how they differ and which one is right for you.
Link building freelancer
Link building freelancers offer a great option for businesses that are starting out with their SEO. They provide cost-effective solutions to improve your backlink profile and rank higher on SERPs.
Freelancers are flexible and can work closely with you to understand your business goals and tailor link building strategies accordingly. A few may specialize in a specific niche, allowing them to leverage their expertise to garner high-quality and relevant links.
A freelancer can be hired on a project or retainer basis. This offers greater flexibility to scale up or down based on your budget.
You can find link building freelancers on platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, LinkedIn, and other social channels. Before you hire them, check their experience, portfolio, and what previous clients reviewed about them. Also, check their rates and their time commitment to your project.
Link building agency
Freelancers can be beneficial, but a link building agency has a wealth of resources and multiple services to offer clients.
The advantage of hiring agencies is that they have an experienced team with a broader network of contacts in the industry. With their wealth of knowledge, they can create comprehensive strategies combining different techniques for building links.
Measuring the value of a backlink is an ongoing process. Agencies usually monitor the growth and optimize your backlink profile, and at the same time, can easily adapt to changes in Google’s algorithms and industry trends.
Let’s look at different types of agencies for link building
- Full-service digital marketing agency: These agencies offer a suite of digital marketing services, which includes the full package from SEO, PPC, and content marketing to social media marketing.
- Specialized link building agency: These agencies are specialists in the field. They have numerous contacts and possess dedicated resources for an effective approach. Link building agencies like GrowthOG can help businesses create highly targeted and effective link building campaigns. They are a trustworthy partner well known for their transparency in contracting, payment policies, and strategies implemented.
- Freelance agency: These are small agencies where you get personalized service and flexible pricing. It is a great option for businesses with small budgets.
Understanding Link Building Pricing
Outsourcing link building is not cheap, especially if you want to build links from reputable sites. The cost of the services varies based on the provider and the solution.
If you are on the lookout for an experienced agency that can build valuable links from relevant sites, then the cost will be high. Similarly, the complexity of the project will also impact the price you’d have to shell out.
The common pricing model includes:
- Pay-per-link: A fixed fee has to be paid for each backlink delivered. This pricing model is a great option for smaller websites or links with specific placement opportunities.
- Monthly retainer: In this model, there is a fixed monthly fee for ongoing link building services. It is great for businesses that require quality link building for an extended period.
- Project-based pricing: The model has a fixed fee for a specific project campaign. This type of model is suitable for projects with a fixed budget, complex projects, or a flexible campaign length which require defined deliverables.
GrowthOG offers flexibility in their pricing. You can run link building campaigns on monthly or project-based pricing options to align with your preferences.
In House vs. Outsourcing Link Building: Cost Comparison
An in-house link building team gives you complete control of your link building strategy, its execution and reporting.
The cost of hiring and retaining a skilled in-house link builder may seem a good option; however, it can be expensive in the long run. According to Glassdoor, the average pay for a link building specialist in the US hovers around $60K per year – which will increase based on their experience.
Hiring multiple personnel for link building can have a massive hit on your pocket. Added to this is the cost of tools and software needed by the employees to conduct research and manage link building projects.
As per a study, businesses that have outsourced their processes have saved 15% of their costs on average while improving their quality of performance by 11%. This is because they can maximize their internal resources, accelerate results, and reduce internal workload.
When you outsource link building, there’s a clear cost that you can work with, and you know what you can expect. However, you may not always have complete control of the process.
Link building agencies have personnel who are completely devoted to building links. They not only have the tools but can quickly adapt to any changes in algorithms.
Step-by-Step Guide to Outsourcing Link Building
Outsourcing link building services isn’t simply contacting an agency for quotations and rolling out the campaigns. It actually involves more strategic decisions than you think.
Step 1: Ensuring your website is ready
Before you think of outsourcing your link building efforts, it’s crucial to assess the readiness of your website.
Ensure that your website has content that offers value to the readers. This content should include relevant keywords with optimized titles and relevant meta descriptions. If there are any technical issues like broken links, slow page load speed, canonical tags especially those directed to important pages, fix them.
Once your on-page and technical SEO is set, understand how link building can help you in your digital marketing strategy.
Some signs that your website is ready to outsource link-building are:
- Your content is already ranking, and you consider links can help improve these rankings further.
- You want to build a new site and consider backlinks a great way to get it off the ground.
- You conducted a SERP analysis that the pages ranking above your page gain more links.
Pro tip: If you want to get your site ready for link building, then GrowthOG offers services like keyword research and SEO audits, which ensures that a website is well-positioned to attract referral traffic and grow on the Internet. All this comes in tailored packages to align with your budget and preferences.
Step 2: Defining your link building goals
Before choosing your link building goal, it is important to establish clear objectives that are vital for successful outsourcing. Some key goals you should target when outsourcing link building include:
Scaling link building efforts
Link building is a great option to drive more organic traffic and grow your reach. Link building agencies have years of experience and connections that will offer data driven solutions using advanced tools and ethical practices to scale efficiently.
Cost-effective link building options
In house link building is a costly option compared to outsourcing. If you want to maximize your ROI on link building, you can pay agencies a fixed amount to get better results.
Overcoming resource limitations
Link building is a time-consuming process and requires a hefty amount of manpower to research, create content, optimize it, and outreach to websites to get a backlink. In addition to this, they’ll require content creation tools like WordPress, WIX, Grammarly, etc, which will add to the cost.
When you hire a reliable agency, you can address your internal capacity constraints, while not compromising on your backlinks.
Niche specific links
If you are in a competitive niche, acquiring links from high authority websites is difficult. When you partner with experts, they understand the strategies and unique opportunities to rank in that niche.
Allocating resources to core business functions
If a business wants to focus on core tasks instead of employing its resources to link building, then outsourcing is a great option. This will not only improve their search engine rankings but also business efficiency.
Achieving faster results
If you want to get fast results, then finding experts who know what they are doing is your best bet. This will help you save time as well as grow faster on the Internet and get more links.
Building a diverse backlink profile
A diverse backlink profile can really help you enhance your SEO. Teaming up with professional link builders, you can get hold of quality links from blogs, websites, and other resources.
Step 3: Setting a budget for link building
To create a realistic budget for link building, understand your campaign goals. Strategically plan if it’s the right time to invest in link building, whether to run a short or long-term campaign, and identify the services you want for your campaign. Finally, make sure you prioritize getting relevant backlinks from high authority websites.
If you are still not committed to a long-term link building project, it’s time to check out agencies like GrowthOG who offer the flexibility to run short-term link building campaigns if you’re still considering your investment.
Step 4: Choosing link building strategies that align with your goals
Let us look at some of the most effective link building strategies that can benefit your website SEO.
Broken link building
Broken link building is a proactive approach that involves identifying broken links on other websites and offering your content as a replacement. When you offer site owners to fix dead links, you can earn valuable backlinks.
Digital PR link building
Digital PR is an essential strategy for building links through media coverage and online publications. This helps you secure links from high authority websites and increases your brand exposure.
Linkable assets
Creating linkable assets is a strategic way to attract backlinks naturally. Think of it as in-depth guides, infographics, and tools. They become important assets for other websites, which makes them link back to you.
Unlinked mentions
Unlinked mentions refer to instances where a brand or website is mentioned online without a hyperlink. You’ll need to analyze the placement and do personalized outreach to the owner explaining how it’ll offer value to them.
Effectively identifying unlinked mentions from high authority websites can boost your backlink profile.
Link insertion
Link insertion involves adding links to existing content on other websites. Contact websites having relevant content to add a link to earn contextual backlinks without needing to create new content. However, before you reach out, refine content on your website first, so that they’ll be more inclined to insert your link on their website.
Link building agencies like GrowthOG offer a comprehensive suite of link building services from broken link building, content marketing, digital PR, and link building outreach to competitor analysis, empowering you to achieve your digital marketing goals and improve your SEO efforts.
Step 5: Selecting a link building provider
When you are selecting a provider, check their experience and link building expertise in the industry. Check out their reviews and testimonials to gauge their reputation.
Most importantly, ensure that they use white-hat techniques that comply with search engines. Avoid providers who promise immediate results about your SEO growth, as they can lead to penalties that may harm your website’s rankings.
GrowthOG will guide you through identifying your preferences, offering packages that fit your needs, and ensuring that there’s no misunderstanding before running the link building campaign.
Step 6: Communicating clear expectations
Effective communication is key when you outsource link building for a successful outsourcing relationship. You need to set clear expectations about the time and deliverables so there are no issues later.
Schedule regular meetings to track the progress of the campaign. You can establish a few tracking metrics to ensure that there are no harmful links accumulated. When you offer feedback, be ready to adjust your goals and make changes throughout the process.
When you are communicating with the provider, ensure that both of you are on the same page. Ensure that they are transparent with their process, and offer a detailed timeline and results.
A few tips to identify the right link services include:
- Discovery session: When you outsource link building, look at experts who take the time to understand your business goals and uncover specific needs and challenges.
- Onboarding experience: A smooth onboarding process is an indication that the team is professional and well-organized.
- Openness to consultancy: A good agency or freelancer should offer guidance and advice about your link building strategy. They should be willing to share their recommendations and best practices to build links with high domain authority.
Step 7: Assessing link quality
The quality of the links that you acquire plays a significant role in boosting your website’s rank on the Internet.
The key criteria to evaluate the link quality include:
- Relevance: The linked page has to be relevant to your website or the industry. These links are more likely to attract targeted traffic to your website.
- Linking domain authority: Links from websites with high domain authority give positive signals to search engines. Work on removing any low-quality or spammy links that put you at risk of being penalized by search engines..
- Link placement: A good link should have a natural placement in the content and shouldn’t be forced. Additionally, the surrounding content has to be relevant to your website’s topic.
Link building agencies like GrowthOG can help you get high authority links through their established network which can deliver good results.
Step 8: Monitoring performance and analyzing reports
The final step when you are outsourcing link building is to monitor their performance and analyze the results.
Setting clear KPIs
Before you begin the link building campaign, make sure you set clear KPIs to measure its success. These KPIs might include:
- Improvement in organic traffic
- Increase in domain authority
- Increase in keyword rankings
Regular reporting
Regular reporting allows you to track the progress of your link building campaign. In these reports, you should assess the quality of links, the diversity of links, link velocity, and the anchor text distribution.
Some effective reporting tools to track your backlinks campaign are Google Analytics and Google Search Console. SEO tools like Semrush, Ahrefs, and MOZ can be used to track your backlinks.
Adjust link-building strategies
Analyzing the reports, you can identify the areas where you can adjust the strategy to optimize results. For example, if you are seeing a decline in your organic traffic, you’ll need to investigate any potential penalties or negative SEO issues in your campaign.
Continuous monitoring and adaptation to changes in the SEO landscape are essential to stay updated with the latest industry trends. This will ensure that your strategy is always effective.
If you’re seeking a reliable link building service to outsource, GrowthOG offers the full package so that clients can access a single source of truth without having to switch from one channel to another for different metrics and data to evaluate their campaign.
How to Identify Trustworthy Link Building Services
For a successful link building campaign, it’s important to select a trustworthy partner. Here are a few points that’ll help you identify a reliable partner.
Case studies
Case studies are one of the most reliable indicators of a trustworthy link building service. To better understand the provider, check whether the case studies are relevant to your industry.
Check out what type of link building strategies were employed by them, for example, writing guest posts, broken link building, or relationship based link building.
Take a look at measurable metrics within the case studies, like improvement in traffic, increased domain authority, and so on.
Testimonials
Testimonials can provide valuable insights into the reliability and effectiveness of a link building service. Instead of generic praise, identify patterns in the reviews that influenced client experience.
Testimonials are endorsements by satisfied clients. Positive testimonials can reduce the risk that would otherwise sway you from selecting an agency. Also, they highlight the benefits and strong points of an agency.
Referrals
One of the most effective ways to gauge the reliability of a link building service is through referrals. Discussing with your contacts in the industry about who they are partnering with helps you learn the strengths and weaknesses of the agency, and if it’s worth hiring.
Your peers can also offer recommendations based on their experience. Referrals save you significant time and effort when you are looking for potential providers to build links for your website.
Link examples
Understanding the quality of links a service offers is very important. Before the provider begins running your campaign, request for link examples and evaluate their quality.
A good backlink will have a natural placement within the content from the linking site with a high authority. The link has to be do follow, and the page where your link is placed should be relevant to your niche.
A bad backlink is acquired from websites with low DA scores or link farms. A bad backlink usually contains low-quality anchor text, keyword stuffing, or irrelevant backlinks. These links can penalize your website and impact your search rankings.
In the above example, there are 3 links that are pointing to the same products in a small section. The links are from 3 competitors, which won’t help their SEO efforts.
Pricing
Link building is costly as quality links come at a price. When you are evaluating a service, compare it against the cost and the quality of services offered.
If a provider offers an overly cheap link building service, then it may compromise your website with low-quality links. Investing in quality service can yield long-term benefits.
Another important point to remember is that a reputable agency offers a clear and transparent pricing model. Avoid services having variable or vague pricing structures with hidden fees.
Transparency
When you partner with a link building agency, you are trusting them with your digital marketing strategy. So, transparency is an important part of a link building service.
A good provider will explain the different link building techniques they’re employing and provide periodic reports. This allows you to identify any risks or issues in them.
A transparent approach allows businesses to make informed decisions and future strategy planning.
Link building process
It’s important to look into the processes a link building provider works while delivering the services. If there’s enough transparency, organization, and logical explanation, it showcases their experiences and professionalism. Below are a few points that are involved:
- Focusing on white-hat techniques: Prioritize ethical practices and natural link building. When links are acquired from reputable websites through personalised outreach, guest posting, or broken link building, they hold more authority on the Internet.
- Transparent processes: Ensure clear communication, detailed reporting, and high-quality deliverables.
Working with GrowthOG means that you have access to real-time updates of your link building process. So, you can efficiently monitor the campaign and identify any problems along the way to make necessary adjustments.
Mistakes to Avoid When Outsourcing Link Building
Now that you know what you should do and expect when you outsource link building, let’s understand what you should avoid.
Choosing the wrong partner
Partnering with the wrong agency or freelancer without proper experience or track record can negatively affect your campaign. Before you decide to go with a provider, conduct your research, check references, and understand their approach to link building.
If the partner is over-promising and discussing aggressive tactics to rank, then it is a clear red flag. Further, if there is a lack of transparency in the process, then you should stay away from such a company.
Setting unrealistic expectations
Setting unrealistic goals for your link building campaign can hamper your progress. Try and set achievable goals about the number of links you’ll want to acquire and its timeline.
Communicate these goals with both parties and priortize regular updates with constant feedback loops to build trust and collaboration. Transparency in reporting is an important parameter to your success.
Ignoring link quality and relevance
Getting backlinks is a great way to increase your search rankings. However, all links are not created equal. So, focusing on quantity will not help you in the long run.
When you gain high quality links, they not only help you gain organic traffic but also help you build a strong footing in your industry.
Lack of diversity
Relying on a narrow range of link sources can limit your website’s growth and visibility. This is something that would make your websites vulnerable to algorithm updates.
A rich diversity of backlinks from different domains with a rich mix of anchor text diversity will improve your credibility amongst search engines. A diverse backlink profile will also drive traffic to your website.
Over to You
Are you tired of manually building links? Outsourcing backlink building can be a game-changer for your SEO efforts. Link building agencies with their years of expertise and resources can help you improve your online presence.
However, it is important to select the right partner to get the best results for your website on the Internet.
Are you still struggling to find a reliable link building partner? GrowthOG can help you with their expert link building services. We have the right resources to scale your efforts faster than you think.
