There are multiple opportunities for your agency or business to grow exponentially. With a variety of different SEO possibilities to choose from, what makes outsourcing your link building the best option? To start, link building is one of the most important parts of growing your SEO. Link building is never an easy task to undertake for anyone at any level and can be very time consuming.
Not everyone has the time to fully commit to it and to do it well. That’s where outsourcing link building can come in handy. In this article, we will go over its pros and cons and whether or not it’s the best option for you. Let’s get started!
Table of Contents
- Is Link Building Still Relevant?
- Is Outsourcing Backlinks A Best Practice?
- When It’s Right to Outsource Backlinks
- When It’s Wrong to Outsource Backlinks
Is Link Building Still Relevant?
The short answer to this is yes! Having outside links will always be a crucial part of achieving organic rankings. However, 2022 predictions note that it’s become more difficult to obtain quality backlinks that actually strengthen your SEO. What’s growing in importance are the factors and digital trends related to user behavior within these links, such as positive reviews, positive social signals (likes, shares, comments, etc.), and click behavior. Link building continues to be relevant and more of a challenge to do, so continuing to stay up-to-date with them is important now more than ever.
Is Outsourcing Backlinks A Best Practice?
Outsourcing backlinks is an accepted best practice as long as it’s not a link scheme. In their documentation, Google states that link schemes are:
- Buying or selling links (this includes buying or selling posts that contain links)
- Exchanging goods or services for links
- Sending someone a “free” product in exchange for them writing it and including a link
- Excessive link exchanges (“Link to me and I’ll link to you”) or partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking
- Large-scale article marketing or guest posting campaigns with keyword-rich anchor text links
- Using automated programs or services to create links to your site
- Requiring a link as part of a Terms of Service, contract, or similar arrangement without allowing a third-party content owner the choice of qualifying the outbound link, should they wish
- Additionally, creating links that weren’t editorially placed or vouched for by the sit
We understand how this can be confusing because you technically are paying another agency for help with link building.
The difference here is that you are paying a dedicated agency or individual to do outreach on your behalf–asking for a backlink, not paying for the link placement or suggesting a tit-for-tat relationship.
The white label SEO agency that is fulfilling the service for you is acting as an extension of your team. However, there are companies and people that don’t always act in the best interest of their client or partner, and may perform spammy practices. Watch out for red flags; this should be a transparent relationship that requires the involvement of both parties. However, when it comes to outsourcing link building for SEO growth, you usually get what you pay for.
So, Should You Outsource Your Link Building for Better SEO?
If you find yourself in the position of asking whether or not you should outsource help for backlinking, it’s best to first understand the true intention behind this. In this next section, we’re going to explain when it can be the right and wrong decision to do so.
When It’s Right:
1. You Don’t Have the Resources and Time to Hire An In-House Team
Sometimes you might be put in a place where you have too much going on and don’t have the time or resources to fully invest in link building. Link building has become more of a strategic and difficult process to do successfully. With this in mind, outsourcing link building can be a helpful option to take. Having a fully committed team working on link building for you can help lift some pressure and work off your plate for you to focus on other important matters. If you are looking to hire someone in-house, it could cost you a pretty penny and could take you a while to find the right one. With outsourcing, you can get started right away with a team who knows how to build links.
2. Link Building Is Not Your Expertise
With constant changes and updates to what link building requires, having experts who know what to do and how to do it can be in your best interest for your agency, business, and your customers. Providing your customers with link building services done by high quality experts helps improve the quality of your agency. Link building can be tricky enough. Utilizing link building experts lets your customers know they’re in good hands and you’re looking out for their best interest.
3. You Need Quality Backlinks Fast
Sometimes a page isn’t performing as expected because it doesn’t have enough quality backlinks compared to the other pages that are outranking yours. And you may not have the resources, bandwidth, or expertise to do this yourself. Hiring an expert can help this issue. Sometimes having a team of experts can be faster than one person finding and adding the right backlinks to your website. If you’re in need of help quickly, seeking a professional’s help could be the fastest option for you.
4. Gain Knowledge
If you’re looking to learn more about link building and proper techniques, outsourcing can be one of the best hands on ways to do so. Paying for services to help improve links while also learning knowledge can be a two for one deal! Especially with a team, you can learn and share different viewpoints and approaches with one another. Even in the future if you decide to hire in-house, you will have the knowledge to know what processes and strategies you’re looking to do for link building. This option helps build new perspectives while building high-quality links.
5. Need a Fresh Start
You could reach a point where you have too many spammy links and need help cleaning them up. Cleaning up backlinks can be messier than you think, so having an outsourcing team can help you clean it up the right way. Even with spammy links, sometimes removing them can have negative effects on your SEO. When you’re not knowledgeable enough on different ways in which link building works, you may fall behind on most of your activities. Having an outsourced expert team can help guide you in the right direction in removing and cleaning up the right links.
When It’s Wrong:
1. You’re Confusing Digital PR for Link Building
The first thing you should know is that PR is NOT link building. People often confuse them to be similar, when in fact it’s not. Having your brand mentioned on a site that’s popular in your industry does not always help improve link building. Examples of these types of links can often be weak from an SEO perspective. Sometimes trusting links from certain websites and even influencers can lead to no improvements to your SEO. Be aware of these links and look for a website that has guest posts.
2. You’re Expecting Immediate Results (High DA and Referral Traffic)
SEO takes time. It is never immediate and you should know this expectation before you sign up for it. For link building, it can go hand in hand with SEO and results can only come if you make links to the right pages. Even without an SEO strategy in place, your rankings could take longer than expected. If you’re expecting immediate results, you need to understand how many links you might need in order to close the current link gap. Otherwise, it will take you ages for your page to rank. You also need to analyze what your competitors are doing to know the right requirements for link building. All of these processes take time and you should never expect immediate results.
3. You Don’t Have A Clear SEO Strategy for the Webpage or Website
For any type of SEO campaign or project you decide to start, it’s crucial to have a clear and set SEO strategy in mind for your website. Sometimes clients can underestimate link building and expectations can be set too high for them to achieve. When clear expectations aren’t set, nothing will ever move forward or progress for SEO. Be sure to ask and set reasonable expectations on what could be done in outsourcing SEO. Then is it fair for both sides to move forward and progress in SEO with link building.
4. Having the Right Budget
When you’re considering outsourcing link building, knowing where your budget stands is very important. These types of services don’t always come cheap and your business needs to know which option is best with their budget. The process of building links should always be continuous and paying for it once isn’t always the best option. Results don’t happen immediately, so investing in continuous work and progress is the only way to succeed in link building (and SEO in general). Be sure you have the right budget and expectations with prices before investing in outsourcing.
Partnering with SEO Experts
Outsourcing SEO link building services can bring continual growth in SEO, can often be a cheaper option, and removes the need to hire in-house. The best thing to do is to reflect on your business and see what’s best for it. Looking at different white label SEO companies is important in finding the best one that aligns with your business.
Learning about SEO takes time and can sometimes be frustrating. At Boostability, we want your business to succeed. With our white label SEO programs, you can learn more about the different ways in which your business can succeed with SEO. If you still have questions that need answering, speak with a Partner Success Team member for more information!
