Many businesses choose to outsource link building to a professional link building agency. Outsourcing link building can save you time, money, and resources, and help you get better results. By hiring a link building agency, you can access a pool of experts, scale up your campaigns, and avoid penalties, while focusing on your core business.
But how do you outsource link building effectively? What are the benefits and drawbacks of outsourcing link building? How do you choose a reliable and trustworthy link building partner? And how do you avoid link building scams and ensure quality and ROI?
In this guide, we’ll answer all these questions and more. We’ll show you how to outsource link building services in 2023 and share some link building strategies and best practices that you can use to grow your online presence and business.
How to Outsource Link Building in 2023
Outsourcing link building is not a one-time or one-size-fits-all solution. It requires a lot of planning, research, and communication, to ensure that you get the most out of your investment. Here are some steps and tips on how to outsource link building successfully in 2023:
1. Define your goals, budget, and expectations
Before you start looking for a link building agency, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve, how much you want to spend, and what you expect from them. This will help you narrow down your options, and find a link building partner that matches your needs and vision.
Some of the questions you need to ask yourself are:
- What are your SEO goals and KPIs, such as traffic, authority, and rankings?
- What are your link building goals and KPIs, such as the number, quality, and relevance of links?
- What is your link building budget and timeline?
- What are your link building preferences and requirements, such as link types, sources, and niches?
- What are your link building expectations and standards, such as communication, reporting, and feedback?
By defining your goals, budget, and expectations, you can set realistic and measurable objectives, and communicate them clearly to your link building agency. This will help you avoid misunderstandings, conflicts, and disappointments, and ensure that you and your link building partner are on the same page.
2. Find and vet a link building agency
Once you have a clear idea of what you want, you need to find and vet a link building agency that can deliver it. This is a crucial step, as not all link building agencies are equal. Some are reputable and trustworthy, while others are shady and scammy. You need to do your homework, and find a link building agency that has the experience, reputation, methodology, pricing, and reporting that suit your needs and expectations.
Some of the criteria and questions you need to consider when choosing a link building agency are:
- Experience: How long have they been in the link building business? What kind of clients and industries have they worked with? What kind of results and testimonials can they show?
- Reputation: How do they rank on Google and other search engines? What kind of reviews and ratings do they have on platforms like Trustpilot? What kind of references and referrals can they provide?
- Methodology: How do they approach link building? What kind of strategies and tactics do they use? How do they find and qualify prospects? How do they create and pitch content? How do they follow up and monitor links?
- Pricing: How do they charge for their link building services? Do they have fixed or flexible packages? Do they charge per link, per hour, or per project? Do they offer discounts or guarantees?
- Reporting: How do they report on their link building activities and results? How often and how detailed do they report? What kind of metrics and tools do they use? How do they handle feedback and revisions?
By finding and vetting a link building agency, you can ensure that you choose a link building partner that has the expertise, credibility, and transparency that you need and deserve.
3. Communicate and collaborate with them
After you have chosen a link building agency, you need to communicate and collaborate with them effectively. Outsourcing link building is not a set-it-and-forget-it solution. It requires constant and clear communication, feedback, and collaboration, to ensure that your link building campaign is running smoothly and successfully.
Some of the best practices and tips for communicating and collaborating with your link building agency are:
- Establish a communication channel and schedule: How and when will you communicate with your link building agency? Will you use email, phone, or chat? Will you communicate daily, weekly, or monthly? Will you have regular meetings or calls?
- Provide clear and detailed instructions and guidelines: What are your link building goals, budget, and expectations? What are your link building preferences and requirements? What are your link building expectations and standards?
- Review and approve their work and reports: How will you review and approve their work and reports? Will you use a spreadsheet, a dashboard, or a tool? Will you provide feedback and suggestions? Will you request revisions or changes?
- Track and optimize your performance: How will you track and optimize your link building performance? What kind of metrics and tools will you use? How will you measure and evaluate your ROI? How will you adjust and improve your strategy and tactics?
By communicating and collaborating with your link building agency, you can ensure that your link building campaign is aligned with your goals and expectations, and that you get the best results possible.
4. Measure and evaluate the results
The last step of outsourcing link building is to measure and evaluate the results. Outsourcing link building is not a one-off or short-term solution. It requires ongoing and long-term measurement and evaluation, to ensure that your link building campaign is delivering the value and quality that you need and expect.
Some of the best practices and tips for measuring and evaluating your link building results are:
Use relevant and reliable metrics and tools
What kind of metrics and tools will you use to measure and evaluate your link building results? Some of the most common and important metrics and tools are:
- Number of links: How many links have you acquired from your link building campaign?
- Quality of links: How good are the links that you have acquired from your link building campaign? You can use metrics like Domain Authority, Page Authority, Trust Flow, Citation Flow, or Relevance Score to measure the quality of your links.
- Relevance of links: How relevant are the links that you have acquired from your link building campaign? You can use metrics like topical relevance, niche relevance, or contextual relevance to measure the relevance of your links.
- Traffic from links: How much traffic have you gained from your link building campaign?
- Authority from links: How much authority have you gained from your link building campaign? You can use metrics like Domain Rating, Page Rating, Trust Rank, or Authority Score to measure your authority from links.
- Rankings from links: How much have your rankings improved from your link building campaign?
- ROI from links: How much have you earned from your link building campaign? You can use metrics like revenue, conversions, or cost per acquisition to measure your ROI from links.
Compare and benchmark your results
How do your link building results compare and benchmark to your goals, expectations, and competitors? You can use tools like Google Data Studio to create and visualize your link building reports and dashboards and compare and benchmark your results to your goals, expectations, and competitors.
Learn and improve from your results
How can you learn and improve from your link building results? You can use tools like Google Analytics to collect and analyze your link building feedback and insights and learn and improve from your results.
How to Avoid Link Building Scams in 2023
Link building scams are one of the biggest risks and challenges of outsourcing link building. Link building scams are link building agencies or individuals that promise to deliver high-quality and relevant links, but instead deliver low-quality and irrelevant links, or no links at all. They can waste your time, money, and resources, and damage your reputation and results.
To avoid link building scams in 2023, you need to be aware of some of the red flags and signs of link building scams, and some of the solutions and alternatives to avoid them. Here are some of the red flags and signs of link building scams, and some of the solutions and alternatives to avoid them:
Red flag #1: They offer too good-to-be true promises
These include thousands of links for a few dollars, instant results, or guaranteed rankings.
Solution: Do your own research, and check their portfolio, reviews, and case studies, to verify their claims and results. Ask for referrals, and contact their previous or current clients, to get their feedback and testimonials. Set realistic and measurable goals, and track and optimize your performance.
Red flag #2: They use low-quality and irrelevant links
These include links from spammy or unrelated websites, low authority or low relevance pages, and links from paid or unnatural sources.
Solution: Use relevant and reliable metrics and tools, such as Domain Authority and Page Authority. Review and approve their work and reports, and provide feedback and suggestions. Request revisions or changes, or terminate the contract, if you are not satisfied with the quality and relevance of your links.
Red flag #3: They use shady or spammy tactics
These include link farms, link exchanges, link networks, or link wheels, which can violate the Google Webmaster Guidelines, and expose you to potential penalties.
Solution: Follow the best practices and ethical standards of link building, such as using white-hat and natural link building methods, creating high-quality and relevant content, and building relationships with authoritative and relevant websites. Monitor and audit your link profile, and use tools like Google Search Console, and Ahrefs to identify and remove any bad or toxic links. Use tools like Google Disavow Tool, to disavow any links that you cannot remove or control.
Red flag #4: They lack transparency and communication,
For example, they are not providing a clear and detailed breakdown of their costs and value, not reporting on their link building activities and results, or not responding to your queries or feedback.
Solution: Establish a communication channel and schedule, and communicate and collaborate with them effectively. Provide clear and detailed instructions and guidelines, and communicate your goals, budget, and expectations. Ask for a clear and detailed breakdown of their costs and value, and request regular and actionable reports and feedback.
Conclusion
Link building is one of the most important and challenging aspects of SEO, but it doesn’t have to be hard. By outsourcing link building to a professional link building agency, you can save time, money, and resources, and get better results. However, outsourcing link building also requires a lot of planning, research, and communication, to ensure that you choose a reliable and trustworthy link building partner, and that you avoid link building scams.
