Link building is without a doubt a vital component to any successful SEO campaign. A well-thought link-building strategy will help ensure that the search engines can see your site’s value and position it higher in SERPs.
However, getting a decent number of high-quality backlinks can be a real challenge. That’s why outsourcing your link-building campaigns is the most effective solution.
So, what does outsourcing link-building campaigns mean?
Getting high-quality backlinks requires lots of work, effort, and time. In order to run a successful link building campaign, you need to come up with ways to get backlinks, evaluate authority sites where you can secure backlinks from, find the right balance between link quantity and quality, use links in a non-spammy way, produce content and add links that are relevant to your audience and industry.
As you can see, there is quite a lot to do and you can easily get overwhelmed. That’s why hiring an experienced link-building company is a great option to help you address these difficulties and tackle them.
Benefits of Outsourcing Your Link Building Campaigns
Some of the other important benefits when using outsourced link building services include:
- Saving time. When you outsource link building campaigns, you’ll be able to focus on other tasks and growing your business.
- Improved SERP rankings and better online visibility.
- Sending referral traffic. The purpose of link building is to attract the right traffic to your web pages.
- Convenience. Outsourcing will save you the hassle of hiring professionals. The recruitment and placement of a professional in-house team can take a lot of time and then you’ll need to worry about all the details and the success of your campaign.
- Saving money. Finally, the cost to outsource link building will likely be lower than paying for software, link building tools, and salaries for an in-house team.
When Is the Right Time to Outsource Your Link Building Services?
There are many reasons why you should think about outsourcing your link-building campaigns. The most common ones include:
- When you want to get quality links quickly
- When you want to improve your link building efforts
- When your target would be hard to attain by yourself
- When you lack the knowledge or experience for link building
- When it is too expensive to set up an in-house team
- When you have tried building links yourself and haven’t had much success.
Of course, outsourcing link building is not the right fit in every scenario. But more often than not, hiring an agency that specializes in link building is the most effective way to improve your link profile and reach your goals faster.
5 Tips to Successfully Outsource Link Building Campaigns in 2021
According to Statista, there are 13,737 advertising agencies in the US. Needless to say, such a wide choice can make it really difficult for you to find the one that will meet your needs and deliver the desired results. Where do you start?
To help you out, we’ve put together a list of 5 things you can do to quickly eliminate the options that aren’t the best fit and pinpoint the best candidates to outsource link-building campaigns.
1. Do Some Research
When outsourcing your link-building campaigns, you should be looking for an agency that knows all about search engine optimization and link building, and understands how these two influence each other. So, in order to ensure that you pick the best option for your company, start by conducting thorough research.
Consider checking the agency’s site to see their plans and pricing. If there is something you can’t see on the website, give them a call. Having a list of questions you want to ask before the call with a potential agency partner can help you assess their experience in SEO and find out what their processes look like.
You can also gather data on an agency’s services from case studies and testimonials from former customers.
Another great source for good-quality SEO agencies is getting referrals from your network. Get in touch with the people you know and see if there is anyone who knows a good link-building agency.
2. Set Clear Expectations
In order for an outsourcing link-building campaign to work effectively, you need to be able to provide clear expectations and know exactly what you are looking for in an agency.
Do not let your partner agency guess what you want to achieve and instead, let them know what your goals are.
Next, talk about communication. How will you communicate with each other?
How will the agency report on their progress? How often will they send reports and updates? What will the reports contain?
Whatever is important to you as far as the agency’s work for you is concerned, you should communicate it openly. Be sure to ask questions that have straightforward answers before signing any contract.
3. Understand the Agency’s Process of Link Building
It’s always a good idea to take a closer look at an agency’s services and try to understand what is involved in their link-building campaigns in order to figure out what the potential impact of their work will be.
Learn how their link building process works by asking questions like:
- What’s their setup process?
- Does the agency get to know your brand and come up with a personalized plan for you?
- Will you be able to pre-approve content and potential opportunities?
- Will you be able to track the campaign’s progress?
Don’t forget to ask for samples of previous link-building campaigns the agency has worked on. Even if these samples aren’t related to your industry, you’ll still be able to determine the quality of their work by looking into the content and the quality of the websites the posts are on.
4. Understand the Costs
Before you start looking into potential partner agencies, define what’s the highest price you’re prepared to pay. Define a monthly budget and discuss what you can get for it.
You should be aware that different link-building techniques can have different prices. For instance, guest blogging is one of the most effective link-building methods and the pricing for it usually depends on domain strength. In other words, higher domain authority means more work to get an article published on that website which, in turn, means you get a higher value from the published post.
If you’re interested in clean, quality work, link building can’t be cheap, and here’s why: Depending on your company niche, the creation of a good-quality piece of content can cost between $30 and $150. In addition, you need to take into consideration the time needed to research the target audience, find relevant websites, and manage all communications.
Finally, don’t forget to discuss hidden fees, such as billed consultation hours, project setup costs, etc., that don’t focus on link building per se. In some cases, such fees are justified but it’s always best to know about them upfront.
5. Beware of Over-Promising
If an agency makes over-the-top promises and tries to convince you that their services will get your site on top of Google’s first page, you should take that as a major red flag. With link-building, it’s nearly impossible to make large-scale guarantees. Although link building is one of the main factors in search engines’ ranking algorithms, there’s so much more that goes into ranking a website at #1.
An experienced agency will be specific and honest about its timelines, promises, and expected results. They should be able to tell you how many links they will build, on what sites, how much time it will take, etc.
Another thing to beware of are agencies that deliver fast results by using black hat SEO tactics. Remember, the agency you choose to work with will build links and act in your name, so if they get caught using shady tactics, your business will end up penalized.
Be sure to do some research on black hat SEO tactics and other red flags you should be aware of when researching link-building agencies.
Final Thoughts
With these 5 tips in mind, you’ll be able to start a more thorough research into outsourcing your link-building campaigns. Choosing the right agency is a major investment and not a decision to be taken lightly. Be sure to take your time and look at several options before signing a contract with an agency whose workflow aligns with your company’s needs.
