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Don’t hire a link building agency before reading this.
It’s no secret that link building is an essential part of SEO. It can have a significant impact only on your-
- Rankings
- SEO Traffic
- Business revenue
Here’s the problem:
Finding a link building agency you can trust isn’t easy.
The truth is you don’t want to mess around with low-quality backlinks.
There are tons of link building services and agencies out there that promise high DR links for cheap prices.
But when you dig a little deeper…
You find they actually “build” spammy links from dodgy websites you want nothing to do with.
The last thing you want is to pay good money for a backlink that you later find out had no impact on your SEO or even worse…
Ended up harming your search engine rankings!
Ready for some good news?
Below we have listed everything you need to consider before hiring a link building agency. You’ll also learn what to look for in a quality link building service and the top three link building agencies we recommend (including the one we use).
What Is A Link Building Agency?
A link building agency is a dedicated team of SEO experts specialising in placing links to your site from other relevant websites.
The best link building agencies will take of everything in the backlink building process, from working out how many backlinks you need to rank to choosing the right anchor text for each link.
Most link building agency teams consist of:
- Link outreach specialist
- SEO writer
- Order manager
- Quality control manager
Quality link building is a full-time job and requires a very unique set of skills.
That’s why so many businesses and websites outsource their link building needs to agencies they can trust.
Want to learn more about what’s involved in the link building process?
Check out our ultimate Link Building Checklist to see exactly what goes into building quality links step by step.
What To Expect From A Good Link Building Agency?
Before you hire a link building agency – you need to know what to expect.
Below are six non-negotiables you MUST check before hiring a link building agency. It will save you a ton of headaches down the road and give you the confidence to choose a service that caters to your needs.
Transparency About Their Methods
There are lots of ways to build links.
Just spend a bit of time on any SEO forum and you’ll see tons of people sharing all the latest and greatest methods to build links.
The problem is that NOT all methods are:
A good link building service will tell you exactly what methods they use and focus on what hat link building.
Think of things like guest posts and niche edits as the most popular methods to build links these days.
They should explain their approach and expected outcomes.
Most reputable link building services and agencies will have detailed information on how their personal link building process works.
Utilisation Of Up-To-Date Strategies
Every agency-client relationship is built on trust.
You need to trust what the link building agency is doing and their link building strategies.
Link building is constantly evolving and changing. You ONLY want to hire an agency that uses modern link building strategies proven to get results.
Most agencies won’t explain their exact strategies because these are trade secrets.
But they will give you high-level information on their strategies and show you past client results.
We never use a link building service that doesn’t have a wealth of SEO case study screenshots and testimonials to back up what they are saying.
Strict Quality Control
Don’t underestimate the importance of quality control in link building.
Here’s why:
All link building is against Google’s quality guidelines. That means if you build any backlinks, you go directly against what Google wants.
What that really means is every link built to your site needs to:
- Look completely natural
- Come from a relevant website
And that’s what the best link building agencies do.
They build natural, in-context links that give your site authority in Google’s eyes.
Here’s what quality links look like:
- Dofollow link on a real site with real organic traffic
- Site and web pages are relevant to your niche
- Not tagged as sponsored or UGC
- Placed with natural, SEO content
- Not on a website with a “write for us” page
The list goes on…
For example, LinksThatRank uses a 23-point quality control checklist.
If any link they build doesn’t meet one of those quality points, it doesn’t get placed. It’s as simple as that.
Ensure the agency you hire understands quality and avoid using black hat link building techniques.
It’s worth paying more for one quality link than paying less for three spammy links.
Monthly Reporting
Link building is an investment.
That means you should expect to get a return.
Monthly reporting is the only way to see if your link building is effective. It’s not good enough to receive a bunch of links every month and call it a day.
The best link building companies will offer monthly reports showing how effective their link building has been.
This way you can make intelligent decisions about:
- How many links you need to build
- What pages you should build links to
- The types of links you need
- Whether the current links are helping
Keep in mind that most agencies require you to take a monthly link building package for this level of reporting.
But even if you don’t jump on a monthly retainer with the agency, make sure you do your own reporting to track the results.
Reporting is essential to make good decisions in every aspect of digital marketing.
Link building and SEO are no different!
Fair Pricing
I’ll be straight with you:
Link building isn’t cheap. It’s an investment into:
- Your website
- Your SEO
- You business
Most quality link building services offer on-demand pricing. That means you pay a specific amount for a particular number of links.
The thing to understand here is fair pricing.
Avoid cheap link builders that promise enormous results for low rates.
Cheap SEO and link building can have dramatic consequences.
If it sounds too good to be true – it probably is.
A high-quality outreach-based link from a relevant site will cost you anywhere between $170 – $300, depending on how much DR the link carries.
This is a fair price for good-quality links.
If you see links for $50 sold on places like Fiverr – run the other way.
You get what you pay for in the link building industry.
It’s worth investing in agencies that offer fair prices and have a reputation for delivering the results you need.
Great Customer Service
This one (almost) goes without saying.
But finding good customer service can be hard work.
Hire a link building agency that backs up their work and results with excellent customer service you can depend on.
It will help you feel more confident in the investment you’re making.
You should be looking for things like:
- Excellent communication
- Responsive to inquiries
- Provides timely updates
- Proactive about addressing concerns
Remember:
Marketing agency and client relationships are built on trust. It’s even more so with link building agencies.
The foundation of that trust is good customer service and communication.
What To Do Before Contacting A Link Building Agency
Reaching out to a link building agency before considering what you need is like visiting a used car dealer and asking them what car you should buy.
You just wouldn’t do it!
Before contacting a link building agency, there are three things you need to know first.
Identify Your Needs
Are you new to SEO and link building? That’s ok.
The link building company you plan to hire can help determine which links and strategies are best for your business.
But you still should know what you are investing in and what you need before reaching out.
Here are a couple of questions to consider:
- What benefits are you looking for from link building?
- Is your site new or is it established?
- What keywords do you want to attack?
- What pages do you want to build links to?
- Are there any gaps in your backlink profile?
So many people make the mistake of ONLY going after keywords that bring them the most traffic.
But the problem is that traffic is a “vanity metric” – just because you have tons of site visitors doesn’t mean you make any money.
You should only build links for keywords and pages that make you money.
Define Your Budget
So many website and business owners approach link building with a “let’s see what I can get” attitude.
Don’t make this mistake.
Before contacting the link building agency, create a budget based on what you can afford. Think of it like any other budget you would have in your business.
Agencies charge different amounts based on:
- The resources needed
- The types of links you want
- The scale of your project
Giving them a budget upfront allows them to prioritise areas that will make the most significant impact.
We recommend having a budget that you can stick to for at least 4 to 6 months. Then you can evaluate the results and reorganise your investment if needed.
Remember:
Investing in quality link building is a long-term strategy. Ensure you have a strict budget and work with your link building agency to get the best results.
Know Your Goals
SEO is a marketing strategy.
What does that mean?
All digital marketing should help you accomplish larger business goals. And link building is no different.
Before contacting a link building agency, know what you want to achieve. Have a clear understanding of how investing in link building will help your business grow.
For example:
- You build links to a specific page
- That page ranks for a great keyword
- The keyword drives traffic to your site
- That traffic converts into real leads and sales
It can be as simple as that!
Setting goals like “boosting traffic” or “increasing rankings” might sound good – but they don’t necessarily help you accomplish your larger business goals.
In our experience – if you go to a link building agency with clear strategic and business goals, they will build links to help you reach them.
They’ll also be able to provide the advice and technical knowledge needed to ensure long-term growth.
That’s when good things start to happen!
What Are The Best Link Building Agencies?
Ready to hire a link building agency for your website?
There are tons of link building agencies out there – but only three we can confidently recommend.
1. LinksThatRank
LinksThatRank is our go-to link building agency.
They have a reputation for delivering the highest quality links in the industry.
Every link that LinksThatRank builds:
- Passes a comprehensive 23-point quality control checklist
- Comes with custom-selected anchor text to boost search rankings
- Each link is placed with at least 1,000 words of unique content
- Is guaranteed not to be on a PBN or site that has a “write for us” page
- Has added internal and external links to placement pages to appear more natural
LinksThatRank is so serious about quality control that they even built their own custom free link building tool, which lists over 60,000+ blacklisted domains.
On top of that, they have simplified the buying process.
You simply choose how many links you want and the keywords you want to rank for – they will handle the rest.
It doesn’t get much easier than that.
LinksThatRank also has an exclusive range of link building packages that offer monthly discounts to subscribers.
Outsourcing link building for your SEO agency?
LinksThatRank offers complete white label link building and bulk discounts for agencies that order large volumes of links each month.
2. Ecommerce Link Builders
Do you run an ecommerce business?
Ecommerce Link Builders are experts at building quality links for ecommerce stores.
You can order custom guest post links on demand or choose from one of their monthly link building packages designed to fit every business need.
Building links for ecommerce is different than building normal backlinks.
It’s more complex and the quality standards are different. Ecommerce Link Builders understand this.
Each link they build is:
- On a niche-relevant website
- Passes 35+ point website quality control test
- Comes with SERP Anchor text analysis selection
- Placed with premium content marketing (1,000+ words)
- Strict proofing and indexing quality control
- Displayed in a link placement reporting dashboard
- FREE keyword rank tracking (ROI Proof)
Ecommerce Link Builders provides premium-level quality links specifically designed to help ecommerce stores grow.
They have a strong focus on ROI and know how to build links that will help your store generate more traffic (and sales).
Check out their ecommerce SEO case studies to see the kinds of results they get for clients and how they do it.
3. Authority Builders
If you are on a lower budget, then Authority Builders is a good option.
It’s a popular link building agency catering to website owners and SEO agencies.
What makes Authority Builders popular?
Their user-friendly link platform allows you to select which websites you want links placed on. You submit the URL of your site and choose the anchor.
Authority Builders will take care of the rest.
Authority Builders also offers monthly link building packages called ABC Plus.
They allow you to choose:
- The package
- The target keywords you want to rank for
- Your target URL
Authority Builders will then create a custom strategy to help you reach the goal based on your budget.
They guarantee a specific number of monthly links and will select the custom anchor text to help you rank faster.
If you don’t have the budget but still need good quality links for SEO, Authority Builders is worth checking out.
Wrapping It Up
Link building is an essential part of SEO. But it’s also really hard work.
The good news is that you can outsource your link building to quality agencies.
This allows you to focus on growing your business while someone else takes care of the links.
Not sure which link building agency to go with?
We recommend checking out LinksThatRank first because of the quality links they build for clients. And, if you run an ecommerce store, it’s also worth checking out Ecommerce Link Builders.
Remember:
You will get the most benefit from link building if you have clear goals in mind.
Before hiring a link building agency, spend some time working out what you want to accomplish.
If you need some help with goals for link building – check out these frequently asked questions:
These three tutorials will ensure that you are always building links strategically.
