After countless hours of research and testing, digital marketers have reached a clear consensus:

If you want to climb the Google rankings and drive more organic traffic, a high-quality backlink profile is essential.

Take Ahrefs’ latest research from late 2023 as evidence. They found a strong positive correlation between the number of referring domains a site has and its organic traffic levels. Simply put: more referring domains equals more traffic!

Additionally, they discovered that pages with more referring domains also rank for a wider range of keywords.

But here’s the catch—link-building is notoriously time-consuming, and for most businesses, it becomes overwhelming.

That’s why many opt to outsource link-building to experienced digital marketing agencies. This not only saves time and effort but also allows businesses to tap into the agency’s expertise and established link networks—a major advantage (and far from the only one).

Successful link-building requires deep expertise, dedicated resources, and the right infrastructure to deliver meaningful results. It’s no wonder that outsourcing is becoming an increasingly popular solution.

However, finding the right link-building partner—and achieving your goals—can be tricky.

But don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.

In this article, we’ll walk you through a step-by-step guide to outsourcing link-building the right way. Stay tuned!

 

What is Link-Building Outsourcing?

 

Outsourcing is basically when a company hires an external provider to perform tasks that are usually handled in-house. In the simplest terms, it means hiring someone else to do the work for you.

When it comes to link-building outsourcing, businesses hire an individual or a digital marketing agency to handle the process of building backlinks for their website.

Link-building is commonly outsourced because it’s an involved, time-consuming task—often tedious and highly specialized. For small and medium-sized businesses, tying up internal staff with these duties isn’t practical, and building an in-house link-building team can be costly.

What Does the Link-Building Process Involve?

You’ve probably heard that link-building is a cumbersome process, but what exactly makes it so demanding? Let’s break down the core elements of link-building (and coincidentally, these are the tasks that link-building agencies take over when you outsource):

1. Developing Custom Strategies Each website has unique needs, which is why professional link-builders start by crafting a custom strategy. This involves a detailed audit of the website’s SEO performance and backlink profile to determine what work is needed. The industry and niche are also crucial factors since certain link-building methods work better in specific sectors.
2. Analyzing Competitors The goal of link-building is to outpace competitors in search rankings, and you can’t do that without first analyzing them. Professional link-builders study their clients’ competitors to spot any backlink gaps—areas where a competitor has significantly more backlinks. This tells the link-builder exactly how many links are required to close the gap and overtake the competition.
3. Conducting Email Outreach This is one of the more time-consuming and repetitive parts of the process. Finding backlink opportunities is just the beginning; securing them requires outreach to site owners, bloggers, and journalists. This involves pitching guest posts, negotiating link insertions (adding backlinks to relevant products or articles), and even fixing broken links. The outreach process can involve hundreds of emails before a single link is secured, making it a major reason why businesses choose to outsource this task.
4. Creating Content Content creation can also play a role in outsourced link-building, though it depends on the service provider. Some agencies stick to outreach and link placement, while others produce guest blogs, infographics, and videos designed to attract backlinks naturally.
5. Monitoring Progress and Analyzing Results A link-builder’s job doesn’t end when the backlinks are placed. They constantly track the impact of those links—monitoring rankings, traffic, and whether they’ve achieved the goal of outranking competitors. If the results don’t match expectations, the strategy is refined, and more work is done.

As you can see, link-building is a comprehensive and often labor-intensive process. That’s why many companies opt tooutsource it—to save time, reduce hassle, and benefit from the expertise of professionals who know how to get results efficiently.

 

What are the Benefits of Outsourcing Link-Building?

 

Outsourcing your link-building efforts not only saves you from a tedious and complex process, but it also offers a host ofadditional benefits. While we’ve already discussed how outsourcing is far more cost-effective than building an in-house SEO team—making it a favorite option for smaller businesses—there are other significant advantages to consider.

Access to SEO Expertise

Link-building isn’t just time-consuming; it’s intricate and constantly evolving. It’s not something you can master in a short amount of time. Years of experience are required to truly understand how to build high-quality backlinks effectively, especially as Google’s algorithm continues to shift.

What worked last year may no longer work today. SEO professionals dedicate their careers to staying up-to-date with Google’s frequent updates, SEO trends, and emerging strategies. Instead of scrambling to learn SEO and keep pace with these changes, outsourcing lets you tap into the expertise of professionals who have already mastered the art of link-building and know how to adapt to the latest trends.

A Scalable Solution

Scaling operations is tough for any business, and it often becomes prohibitively expensive due to the need for additional staffing. As you scale your business, you inevitably have to expand your team, which increases costs.

The beauty of outsourcing link-building is that you sidestep this issue entirely. As your company grows, you can scale your link-building efforts without the need to hire more in-house employees. The result? Your business and online presence can grow in tandem, without the burden of expanding your internal resources.

Access to Established Infrastructure

Building backlinks at scale isn’t something an individual or small team can easily manage. It requires an established infrastructure—relationships, partnerships, and a well-honed outreach process.

An individual working alone might be able to secure a few backlinks, but for businesses needing to build hundreds of links to stay competitive, outsourcing to a seasoned agency is essential. These agencies have the networks and infrastructure to build backlinks from diverse domains, and they’ve refined the process to deliver results quickly and efficiently. By outsourcing, you tap into their existing systems, significantly boosting the effectiveness and speed of your link-building campaigns.

Superior Risk Management

Believe it or not, link-building comes with risks. Google has strict guidelines on what qualifies as acceptable link-building, and tactics that violate these guidelines—such as participating in ‘link schemes’—can lead to manual penalties.

For example, some websites attempt to manipulate search rankings by using private blog networks (PBNs)—groups of dummy websites created solely for linking back to a main site. These sites offer no real value and exist purely to game the system. Google heavily penalizes websites caught using such tactics because it diminishes the quality of its search results.

If your website is hit with a manual penalty, it can vanish from search engine results, effectively making your siteinvisible to potential customers.

By outsourcing to reputable professionals, you gain the benefit of working with experts who understand Google’s guidelines inside and out. They know how to build links safely and ethically, reducing the risk of costly penalties and ensuring long-term SEO success.

 

How to Outsource Your Link-Building: A Step-by-Step Guide

 

Now that you know the benefits of outsourcing link-building, it’s time to learn how to do it effectively. Before jumping in and hiring the first SEO agency you come across, it’s important to follow these steps to make sure you choose the right partner and set your business up for success.

Step #1: Ensure Your Website is perfectly Ready for Outsourced Link-Building

Most link-building agencies charge on a per-link basis, meaning they won’t take over your entire SEO strategy unless you opt for a full-service provider. This means:

• You’ll need to know how many links are necessary to achieve your goals.
• Your on-page and technical SEO must be solid for the backlinks to have any meaningful impact.

The last point is crucial. Without strong on-page and technical SEO, even the best backlinks won’t help you rank. For example, if you have duplicate content (where multiple pages compete for the same keyword), both may be penalized in the SERPs, and backlinks won’t fix this issue.

 

Checklist Before Outsourcing Link-Building:

• Ensure your content is valuable, engaging, and well-written.
• Each page should contain at least 1,000 words (anything less is considered ‘thin’ content by Google).
• Use relevant keywords strategically in your title tags, meta descriptions, URLs, image alt tags, and in the first 100 words of your content.
• Check for indexing errors via Google Search Console and resolve any issues.
• Fix any broken links, especially those pointing to important pages.

 

Signs Your Website is Ready to Outsource:

• Your content ranks but not as high as you’d like.
• Competitors have a very high domain authority than you.
• You’ve established a solid SEO strategy, but link-building is the missing piece.
• Competitors are outranking you largely because they have more backlinks.

If any of these signs apply, it’s time to consider outsourcing your link-building.

Step #2: Educate Yourself on the Basics of Link-Building

Before diving into provider research, it’s important to familiarize yourself with the basics of link-building. This will protect you from unscrupulous agencies that may try to take advantage of uninformed clients.

Learn key terms like domain authority, link juice, and backlink audits, and familiarize yourself with common link-building strategies like guest posting, broken link building, and link insertions. This basic knowledge will help you understand agency reports and ensure you’re getting value for your investment.

Step #3: Set Your Budget

By this stage, you should have a clear understanding of why you need to outsource link-building and what you’re looking for in terms of results. Now, it’s time to determine your budget.

Having a set budget will help you make decisions on whether to work with a freelancer or an agency, as well as the volume of links you can afford. It’s also essential for avoiding overspending on tactics that may not align with your overall SEO goals.

Step #4: Select a Provider

Now comes the most critical step: finding the right outsourcing partner. You’ll need to decide between two main options—freelancers or agencies.

Freelancers:

• Pros: They’re often more affordable than agencies.
• Cons: They may lack the resources, network, and scalability to handle large link-building campaigns.

Agencies:

• Pros: They offer top-tier resources, established relationships, and a larger team to execute at scale.
• Cons: Agencies tend to be more expensive.

Your decision will depend on your business’s specific needs. If you only need a handful of high-quality links, a freelancer specializing in your niche may be the way to go. However, if you need to build a significant number of links to close a competitive gap, an agency is better equipped to handle such a task.

 

Key Factors to Look for in a Provider:

• Testimonials and Reviews: Make sure they have positive feedback on both their own site and third-party platforms.
• Niche Expertise: The provider should understand your industry to effectively target relevant sites.
• Experience and Track Record: Look for years of experience and proof of past successes.
• Budget Alignment: Choose a provider whose pricing structure matches your budget, but also offers room for future scaling.
• Clear Communication: Understand how often and in what format they will report results to you. Make sure they have an accessible way to answer your questions promptly.

 

Red Flags to Watch Out For

Be cautious if you encounter any of the following warning signs when working with a link-building agency or freelancer:

• Promises of Fast Turnaround: Link-building done right takes time. If an agency claims they can deliver results quickly, they may be using manipulative tactics that put your site at risk of penalties from Google.
• Suspiciously Cheap Links: If someone offers you links at rock-bottom prices, be wary. Quality links are an investment, and cheap links are often low-quality, providing little to no value to your rankings—or worse, harming them.
• Guarantees of Results: Any agency guaranteeing specific outcomes is likely not being truthful. Link-building is influenced by many variables, and it’s impossible to guarantee results with absolute certainty.

 

Start Outsourcing Your Link-Building to Achieve Long-Term SEO Success

 

As we’ve discussed, outsourcing link-building can be a smart move for smaller companies looking to save time and resources. But before you dive in, it’s important to assess whether you’re truly ready to hand off this crucial aspect of your SEO strategy.

Are you considering outsourcing not just link-building, but your entire SEO effort? If so, now is the time to explore our monthly SEO packages. We offer a comprehensive, tailored SEO strategy that covers every angle of optimization for your business.

Why stop at just link-building when you can outsource your entire SEO process? Let us handle it all so you can focus on what you do best while watching your rankings soar.