Backlinks are undoubtedly a key factor in the ranking of search engine result pages. These links pass link juice from the referring domains to the referred domain. The higher the relevancy and authority of the referring domain, the better the ranking of the referred domain will be.
Link building is not a simple process; it requires the knowledge of authority and ranking of the referring domains, outreaching protocols, cost estimations, keyword relevancy and many more.
One needs to build connections with different websites before pitching the idea of link building. This is a tedious, laborious and time-consuming task, and it could take months to years to earn a good position in SERPs.
In this article, we will define link-building, tips for outsourcing and the benefits of link-building.
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What is link-building
Link building is getting referral traffic from other websites by placing links on other websites. This is the way to pass credibility to other websites. More links mean more credibility. The higher the credibility (authority) of the referring domain, the better the credibility or authority of the referred domain.
What are the High-Quality Backlinks?
Quality will always supersede in the race of quality vs. quantity of backlinks. So, what are high-quality backlinks?
Authority: Links from high authority websites are high quality and more impactful in the SERPs than low authority links.
Relevancy: It is the icing on the cake if a high authority referring domain also has relevancy. For example, if you have a digital marketing business and a high authority travel agency website, giving backlinks will be less impactful than the same authority another digital marketing website. Google gives high value to relevancy.
Natural: The links that come naturally in the content are more impactful than the stuffed ones.
Reputation: There are certain types of links that websites do not want to own. For example, links in the comments section are mostly spammy and malicious, so one would like to tag them as “nofollow” in their HTML coding. Similarly, links from the spongy websites also need to be removed, as all such links are harmful to your site and must be removed.
Read | How Much Do Backlinks Cost?
Outsourcing Vs. In-House Link Building
link-building is a long process requiring deep, insightful knowledge of many trades. Outsourcing is always more beneficial than in-house, as it reduces the liability of having a team of experts and bear all expenses. Moreover, outsourcing also gives access to data and tools that SEO agencies and freelancers used to have. So, our verdict is to go for outsourcing rather than building an in-house team.
11 Tips to Outsource Link Building
Following are some tips one must consider before outsourcing a link-building process.
1. Is your Website Ready
First, check whether your website is ready for the links-building profile. Being ready means, you have already worked on parameters like loading speed, navigation, meta-tagging and other on-page SEO. It is also necessary to create content that is of high quality and referrable. How would you know that your website is ready for link building?
- You have been creating great content but still struggling to rank high. Content is the basic ingredient before heading for link-building because you need to offer something to be linked. So, you need to produce high-quality content that people naturally anticipate linking.
- So you need to produce accurate, informative, organized content stuffed with relevant keywords and full of stats. It would be easy to index a website if you have the right content. Once you have indexed your content, getting backlinks to move up in the SERPs will be easy.
- Moreover, have a competitor’s analysis to know why your competitors have more links and higher authority than yours. It would give you an idea of what attributes you lack on your platform. So, try to amend your platform and proceed with the link building.
2. Freelancer vs Agency
Two outsourcing options are available in the market: hire a freelancer from the different freelancer platforms or hire an agency. This gives you a more flexible and cost-effective option for decision-making.
So, compare the profiles of freelancers and agencies and decide which suits you most within your budget. The profile and website of the freelancer and agency, respectively, give access to their testimonies and reviews and other similar projects. So, make a decision tree before the final decision.
Read | Types of Backlinks for SEO You Need to Know for Link Building Process
3. Look for their website or Page.
Have a look at the agency’s website or the freelancer’s page. A well-maintained platform gives you an idea of their activeness and working style. Please also closely examine whether these platforms have all the necessary details like pricing plans, case studies, reviews, contact information, etc.
An authentic freelancer and agency used to have an active, updated, well-optimized website. And if they do not, how can they uplift your ranking through link development?
4. Look for Testimonies and Reviews
Before deciding, look for the testimonies and reviews, which give you an idea of their credibility and authenticity. It is also recommended to evaluate whether these reviews look natural or paid. It is quite common nowadays to get paid reviews and testimonies.
Please also look at the diversity of these reviews and testimonies, as diversified reviews show the agency’s vast range of expertise.
5. Look for the Case Studies
Please also examine the past work, their niche and the project’s longevity. Case studies will give you an idea of their working style. Try to access the progress and achievements of their past projects. Like the reviews, review the diversity of the case studies as well.
6. Look for the Cost Comparison
Cost is one of the main factors in the selection. Try to get quotations from different agencies and freelancers. Make a comparative statement and then decide.
It is also worth mentioning that do not decide merely on the lowest cost basis; give the due weightage to other factors like reviews, completion time, experience and relevancy of previous projects.
7. Ask Questions
Never hesitate to ask questions before signing the contract. Discuss every detail of the link-building. One should discuss the number of links, authority of links, types of referring domains, relevancy of referring domains, cost estimation, duration of the link-building process, etc.
It is your right to discuss every detail of your project for the better utilization of your money and improved ranking.
8. Pay per link vs. Pay by Milestone.
There are two ways to pay the price. One is the pay-per-link as the link becomes live, or you pay after a pre-decided milestone. These milestones can be a pre-decided number of links or the ranking improvement of your domain.
Although people prefer pay-per-link, in my experience, both plans are equally good. Discuss with the other party and decide on a suitable plan, but never pay in advance. Decide milestones and pay once a milestone is achieved.
Read | Benefits of Hiring a Link Building Company
9. Keep Monitoring
Deciding and signing the contract for the outsourcing is not the end of the story. Rather, you need to keep monitoring your progress in the SERPs.
If it is improving with time, then it is okay. Also, monitor the link-building strategy and if you find any red flag or even a hint of the black hat strategy, immediately contact the agency or freelancer.
It is preferable to use SEO tools to get a report of types of links, authority of referring domains and the spam score that keeps a record of your link-building profile.
10. Periodic Meeting
Try to have periodic meetings to discuss activities, their impact and future link-building strategies. Analyze the statistics of your SEO parameters and devise future strategies in consultation with the other party.
This meeting also tells the agency that you are deeply concerned with the progress of link-building and will keep him on his toes for better link-building.
11. Red Flags
Red flags are the signs that could give you the idea that your contractee might be using black hat strategies. These black hat strategies are illegal and can harm your hard-earned business.
So, you must be aware of these red flags and immediately act if they are found. Google is very strict against the black hat strategies and can take your platform down if found guilty of using them.
Low cost
You should know the minimum cost of the link-building process, which is available online. It should concern you if a person and agency offers you a way lower the minimum cost.
Such links usually come from malicious and spammy websites, which are cheap and easy to get. These links harm your credibility and reputation and are detrimental to your business.
Quick Results
Link building is a time-consuming process; its results do not appear overnight. It could take months and even years. One can get quick results by building links on pornographic and betting sites.
You might get an immediate spike in your traffic from such links, but they would not be convertible. Moreover, such links are easily detectable by Google crawlers and can cause penalties to your platform.
Lack of Transparency
If an agency is reluctant to show you its case studies and working style, it should raise a red flag. It is your right to know every process detail for better transparency. There should not be a grey area in their work. So, avoid such agencies and freelancers, which are reluctant to discuss.
Unrealistic Promises
Link building is laborious; you should immediately be concerned if someone makes unrealistic statements and promises. Understand the basics of link building, its cost estimation, and the time of the product, and do not expect anything extraordinary in the first place.
Read | How Great Content Will Help You with Link Building
Benefits of Outsource the Link Building Process
Link building is an integral part of SEO, which requires deep knowledge of many trades, and each trade is very complicated. So, building an in-house team of experts is a time-consuming task. So, outsourcing is always on the cards regarding link building. Following are some of the benefits of outsourcing.
Low cost
Building an in-house team of SEO experts and bearing their pay and allowances is costly. And the process does not stop here. Since SEO is evolving rapidly, continuous training, which is cost-intensive, is also mandatory for the team. Moreover, you also need to access different SEO tools, which will add cost to link building.
Outsourcing link building is cost-effective and frees you from many issues, giving you time to focus more on the other core issues of your business.
Quick Results
Since a building agency or freelancer is already well versed with the recent trends and has access to the other data, they can produce results much earlier than the in-house team.
Access to data
Link building requires many data, which SEO agencies used to have. This data comprises the niche of different websites and their Domain authority and ranking, cost, and many more.
This data is very significant when it comes to the link building. SEO agencies are used to compile this data and keep updating it. So outsourcing will also give you access to the latest information about their niche, which is difficult to extract and compile.
Access to Tools
SEO tools are expensive and require time to be an expert in them. Agencies already have people who have abundant expertise in these tools. They also know the pros and cons of these tools. So, outsourcing will also give access to these tools and their experts.
Access to Connection
SEO agencies used to have links with different websites and build strong relationships. These connections are very handy when it comes to the link-building. So, you can use these connections to earn links at a much cheaper rate than directly contacting them.
Read | White Hat Link Building Techniques
Conclusion
“No backlinks” is not an option in the current era, whether you have a website of services or a store. You need to have an in-house link-building team or outsource this, or even you can have a hybrid approach as well. Out of these, outsourcing is the best option as;
- It takes less time to get the desired number of backlinks
- It gives you access to different websites’ data, rates, and authority.
- It also gives access to different SEO tools and their experts.
- One can also use the connection of an SEO agency to build these links.
Outsourcing is not straightforward; you must do homework before signing a link-building contract. Following is the summary of tips for outsourcing link building.
- Prepare your website first and optimize its on-page SEO, navigation, and other parameters.
- Evaluate both freelancers and different SEO agencies before selecting any option.
- Check the website of the SEO agency and freelancer page to evaluate its activeness and expertise.
- Check its reviews and testimonies to see how happy and satisfied the previous customers are.
- Ask for the case studies to evaluate their working style and the types of work he has done previously.
- Discuss every detail of your project and ask questions to understand clearly.
- Get the quotation of each outsourcing option available before deciding, but cost should not be the only option to make the decision. You can either pay him per link or set the payment milestone.
- Keep Evaluating your progress to see whether your strategy is working or not.
- One should also be concerned that the agency or freelancer is not using any Black Hat link-building strategy. Red flags for such a strategy are quick results, extremely low cost, zero transparency, and unrealistic goals.
One can not get a better position in SERPs without link building. Outsourcing link-building is an effective way to get authoritative links.
Dlinx Outreach is the Solution for Link Building
Dlinx Outreach is an SEO agency that formulates customized white hat link-building strategies that earn you high ratings and authority. We have a team of expert link building, also, we have a large data on different high authority websites of different niches.
Furthermore, our team is well-versed in the recent trends and SEO tools that could help you earn unbeatable publicity, visibility, traffic, popularity, and long-term business. Feel free to contact us for further information.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is link-building outsourcing?
Link-building outsourcing is hiring a freelancer or an SEO agency for link-building.
Which one is cheaper: in-house link building or outsourcing?
Outsourcing is cheap as you do not have to hire experts to pay them and care for their other needs. Moreover, it also gives you access to SEO tools, which agencies used to have.
Is it legal to pay for link building?
Technically, it is illegal to buy links, but sometimes it becomes inevitable to buy links. While doing so, please make sure they look natural.
What are red flags in outsources?
Quick results, extremely low cost, sudden spike in traffic, lack of transparency, and big promises are red flags in outsourcing.
What are the benefits of outsourcing?
Low cost, quick results, access to tools, experts, and data, and utilization of already-built connections are the major benefits of outsourcing.
Can Dlinx help you to build links?
Dlinx is an SEO agency that uses white hat strategies to build links at the lowest market rate. We also have subscriptions to major SEO tools that expedite the link-building process.
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