Link building is one of the most important parts of growing your SEO performance, but it’s difficult and time-consuming. This is why most companies choose to outsource link building efforts to professionals dedicated to achieving high-quality backlinks for their partners.
This article will explain when businesses should and should not outsource backlinks, important factors to consider before committing to a partnership, and much more. Let’s get started!
Table of Contents
- What is Outsource Link Building?
- What’s the Reason to Outsource Link Building?
- Does Link Building Still Work?
- Outsource Link Building: When You Should
- Outsource Link Building: When You Should Not
- Things to Consider Before You Outsource Link Building
What is Outsource Link Building?
Outsource link building is a strategy where a company hires a third party to conduct link building on its behalf. The third party can be a dedicated agency or freelancer. They will create a link building strategy and perform the outreach for your company.
Outsourcing link building is often misconstrued as a bad practice or illegal with Google. However, the difference here is that outsourcing backlinks is a service that you are paying a dedicated agency or individual for.
It’s acceptable to pay a third party for help in link building. It’s not acceptable to pay for the link placement or suggest 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.
There are companies that don’t always act in the best interest of their clients or partners and may perform spammy practices. Watch out for red flags; this should be a transparent relationship that requires the involvement of both parties.
What’s the Reason to Outsource Link Building?
While the goal is to receive editorial links (a link that is naturally earned from quality content creation — not requested or paid for), every website needs additional help with link building. This is where outsourcing can be a great asset!
- Saves Time: Link building requires a great deal of time and effort to build relationships with publications, as well as execute the actual strategy. Link building is a full-time job, and many agencies do not have enough time or bandwidth to conduct outreach to the level it requires.
- Cut Out Overhead Expenses: In-house teams require a lot of overhead expenses, such as training, benefits, payroll, software, and more. Outsourcing these efforts to an established agency is a cost-effective solution that can alleviate these expenses!
- Attain Authoritative Links: Link building experts typically have established relationships with publications and backlink prospects that many businesses do not. While their connection to an authoritative publication isn’t a guaranteed backlink, it’s a foot in the door to open a discussion about it. This increases the likelihood of obtaining a backlink from high-quality sources.
- Maintain a Healthy Backlink Profile: You do not have complete control over who links to your site, including spammy sites. Backlinking requires ongoing maintenance to ensure that a website’s link profile is healthy.
Does Link Building Still Work?
91% of pages aren’t ranking or receiving organic traffic, and it’s because they have little or no backlinks. Backlinks are still in the top three ranking factors for SEO.
So, yes, high-quality link building still works in increasing your rankings in search results and organic traffic to your website.
However, Google is cracking down on what they consider link spam, and therefore, certain strategies may not work as they once did. This includes link schemes, such as:
- 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
- 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.
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.
Outsource Link Building: When You Should
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. We will walk through various scenarios showing when you should and should not outsource a link building campaign.
1. You Don’t Have the Resources and Time to Hire an In-House Team
Business owners and agencies often don’t have enough time or resources to fully invest in link building. The link building process has become more strategic and difficult to do successfully in light of recent algorithm changes.
With this in mind, outsourcing link building can be a solution that saves both time and money. Having a fully committed team working on your link building can alleviate the pressure and allow you to focus on other areas of your business that matter.
Outsourcing can also be more cost-effective than hiring an in-house professional or team. Overhead costs associated with hiring in-house teams can be eliminated since dedicated agencies have their own trained staff, necessary software and tools, and more.
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 and customers. If your link building expertise needs to be better, providing your customers with link building services done by SEO experts helps improve the quality of your agency.
3. You Need More Quality Backlinks Quickly
Sometimes, a page isn’t performing well because it doesn’t have enough quality backlinks compared to the other pages that are outranking yours. Timing may be of the essence as well. Outsourcing your backlinking efforts to a professional agency with established networks can help you achieve more quality backlinks faster.
Hiring a team of experts can be faster than one person executing the strategy and outreach alone. Before committing to a partnering agency, ask what their team structure looks like and how many people you can expect to be working on your link building efforts.
4. You Want to 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 gaining knowledge can be a two-for-one deal!
Especially with a team, you can learn and share different approaches that are successful with one another to scale your efforts. If you take your link building efforts in-house, you will know the processes and strategies your team should pursue.
5. You Need to Clean Up Your Backlink Profile
The types of links your website receives matter tremendously. 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 experienced outsourcing team can help you clean it up correctly.
Even with spammy links, removing them can have negative effects on your SEO if not done properly. 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.
Learn how to monitor backlinks in this step-by-step guide using three different platforms: Moz, Ahrefs, and Semrush!
Outsource Link Building: When You Should NOT
1. You’re Confusing Digital PR for Link Building
The first thing you should know is that PR (public relations) is NOT link building. People often confuse them to be similar when, in fact, it’s not. Having your brand mentioned on a popular site in your industry does not always help improve link building.
2. You’re Expecting Immediate Results (High DA and Referral Traffic)
SEO takes time and link building is the same. Gaining backlinks is never immediate and you should know this expectation before you sign up for it. For link building, results can only come if you make links to the right pages.
If you’re expecting immediate results, you need to understand how many links you might need 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. These processes take time and you should never expect immediate results.
3. You Don’t Have a Clear SEO Strategy for the Web Page 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. 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.
4. Having the Right Budget
When you’re considering outsourcing link building, knowing where your budget stands is essential. 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.
Things to Consider Before You Outsource Link Building
1. Cost
Outsourcing is often a more affordable solution than hiring an in-house team, but you will need to weigh the cost differences between outsourcing to a freelancer versus a dedicated agency. Your backlinking needs are also a major consideration in the cost, such as the number of websites that need link building help.
While it may appear expensive at first glance, it’s essential to remember that quality link building is an investment in your website’s long-term success. You often get what you pay for, and a reputable agency will provide a higher ROI in improved search rankings, organic traffic, and overall online visibility.
2. Expectations
Setting clear and realistic expectations for link building is paramount. Many businesses expect immediate, extraordinary results, but it’s essential to understand that link building is a gradual process.
A reliable agency will work with you to define SMART goals that account for your industry competition and current online presence. Effective link building is about building relationships, creating quality content, and earning links organically, which takes time. A transparent communication channel with your chosen agency is crucial to ensure both parties are on the same page and to avoid unrealistic expectations.
3. Timelines
Timelines for link building can vary based on your business goals. If your business urgently needs to boost its online presence, you may require a more aggressive link building strategy. With that, the cost of link building will increase to a higher price point.
The right agency will tailor their link building strategy to align with your specific timeline and business objectives. It’s important to work closely with your agency to strike a balance between the speed of link acquisition and the sustainability of your efforts to ensure lasting results.
4. Results
A common misconception is that more backlinks equate to better results. In reality, the importance of quality over quantity cannot be stressed enough.
Google’s algorithms are highly sophisticated and prioritize the relevance and authority of the linking websites. Low-quality, spammy links can lead to penalties and harm your website’s reputation.
A reliable link-building agency will focus on obtaining high-quality, relevant, and authoritative backlinks that genuinely benefit your website’s SEO. Quality links not only enhance your search engine rankings but also drive valuable organic traffic, making them a smarter investment in the long run.
Outsource Link Building to the SEO Experts
Outsourcing link building can bring continual growth in SEO, can often be a more affordable option, and can remove the need to hire in-house. The best thing to do is to reflect on your business and see what’s best for it.
It’s important to find a white label SEO company that aligns with your business. At Boostability, we want your business to succeed. With our white label SEO program, 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!
