Outsource Link Building: What You Need to Know (And How to Do It)

Let's face it.

No one.  And I mean absolutely no one likes to build links.  It's tedious.  It's time consuming.  It's facing constant rejection.

That's why so many companies outsource link building to a link building agency.

As you know, link building is a critical part of any SEO strategy.

But the problem is, not all link building agencies are the same.  Some, like Content Guppy, are really good. (Yup, I plugged us.)

Other link building agencies will give you the cheapest links they can find.  These are usually spammy links on PBNs and link farms.

And then there are other link building agencies who are going to try to sell you "Web 2.0" links.

Which are links on Quora, LinkedIn, blog comments etc.  Absolutely worthless. 

Now that we got that out of the way, let’s talk about the benefits of outsourcing your link building.

What Is Outsource Link Building?

Outsource link building is the process by which a company hires a link building agency to help them acquire links to rank content higher in search engines.

By outsourcing link building, you'll reap the benefits without the extra headache of hiring a team or managing freelancers.  

You just tell the agency where you want the link building to take place, and it gets done.  Like magic.

The Benefits of Outsource Link Building

Let's talk about the benefits of outsourcing to a link building agency.

Acquire the “Right” links

When it comes to link building, not all links are created equal.

Companies hire Content Guppy to create link building campaigns for them because they know we are going to work tirelessly to get the absolute best links for them.  

Our entire link building strategy revolves around three things.

Thing 1:  building links that have a domain rank of at least 60.

Thing 2:  building links that have at least 1,000 organic visitors per month.

Thing 3:  building links that come from SaaS sites or agency/service sites only.

For instance, some of our link building efforts have netted us links on:

Qualtrics.com:  A DR90+ site with several million views per month

TimeDoctor.com:  a SaaS company in the time tracking space with a DR79 and over 200,000 visitors per month

Powr.com:  a SaaS company that helps businesses create beautiful apps with a DR89

You probably know all about getting links with high domain authority, right?  The higher the domain authority, the better.

But that’s not the only thing you need to consider.  

How much traffic does the site get?  

You typically want to spend your time (and money) acquiring links from sites that have established traffic.

This will increase your chances of getting some referral traffic yourself.

And it shows that the site has a bit more “authority” than a brand new site.

What type of site is it?

In the world of link building, you’re going to come across a site that has a good domain authority and has a decent amount of traffic.

But you will need to analyze the site a bit further to make sure that it’s a “good” site.

Let me show you an example.

Take a look at this site. (I’ve blurred out the name because I’m not here to dox anyone’s work)

On the surface, it seems like a good link.

It has a DR of 69 and about 12,000 visitors per month.

The problem is this:

This is a very vague, generic content farm.  It exists only to create crappy content and do link exchanges.

(We used to get links from sites like this all the time.  We thought it was so easy to do link building.  It turns out, these links are basically worthless.)

Instead of getting links from spammy sites such as this, you want to outsource link building to an agency that focuses getting links from other SaaS companies and agencies.

You know, real, honest to goodness companies.

Great Link Building Strategies Require a Team

Link building isn’t something that you can just “do” on the side - well, if you want to do it right.

Like I said, it can be so damn tedious.

You have to find articles around your keyword.  You have to find the email address of someone who’s willing to add your link.  You need to pitch the person.  You need to do some back and forth negotiating. You need to follow up.

And that’s not even talking about whether or not you have to write a guest post - send a blurb about your product or company, provide a quote for an article, etc.

Chances are, one person isn’t going to be good at every task.

For instance, you might have someone who’s a great copywriter and can write email pitches - but isn’t disciplined when it comes to doing research.

Or you might have a great researcher, but they aren’t that great at writing a blog post for guest posts.

When you outsource to an agency, you’re eliminating the need to build yet another team inside your organization.

Outsourcing Link Building is Cheaper

I was chatting with a potential client about the need to outsource their link building services to us.

He mentioned that it would be cheaper to hire an in house link builder.

“All I need to do is find someone on Upwork, pay them $1500 a month, and I’ll be good”

Turns out, he was just a bit off.  Here's why outsourcing link building is cheaper.

Let’s just say that he was right and this person is able to get 6 great links per month.  

My potential prospect didn’t factor in a few things:

1. What if a guest post needs to be written?
2. The onboarding and training to get the “right” links.  Most of the people on Upwork need to be re-trained from getting shitty links as shown above to getting really good links.
3. Someone has to manage that person, to make sure they do a good job.  With an outsourced agency like Content Guppy, you don’t pay for links that don’t meet your expectations.

When it’s all said and done, you can easily wind up paying $700 - $1000 for a good link.  Far more than the price it would cost for you to just outsource it.  

You'll see Links Right Away

If you’re going to do link building in-house, you’re going to have to either train someone to do it, or hire an in house link builder.

Not to mention you're going to have to create your own link building process.

Either way, there is going to be an on-boarding process that will cost you thousands of dollars BEFORE you see results.

However, when outsourcing link building, you’re going to acquire links in just a few days.  The faster you acquire links, the faster your content will rank.  The faster your content ranks, the faster you increase your MRR.

Consistency

And last but not least, an agency like Content Guppy has a link building strategy in place that will provide you with consistency.  Because this is all we do all day long, and because we’ve nailed down the process, we’re pretty much guaranteed to deliver consistent results month after month.

If you order 8 links in a month, we’ll deliver 8 links that month (or you don’t pay until we do).

However, if you do this in-house, you might get 5 links one month, 8 links another, 3 links another.

And they may not be links that meet your expectations.  Do you really want those DR 25 links?  Or do you really want those links on sites that make you cringe?

Of course not.

Hiring a good agency will allow you to consistently acquire links on sites that you can be proud of.

How to Outsource Link Building

Now that you know the benefits of outsourcing link building, let’s talk a bit about how to actually do it. If you want to learn more about the pros and cons of link building outsourcing, check out this informative article.

Identify Your Link Building Worthy Content

Before you outsource link building, you want to identify your content winners.

Here’s what I mean by a content “winner”.  

You write a blog post.  You push publish.  And then you forget about it.  A couple of months later you check up on it and it’s on page 3 or 4.  Without any link building at all.

That’s a good indication that the search engine gods likes that piece of content.  

Now, it’s time to build links to that piece of content to push it over the top and get it into the top 3 of all search engine results.

Chances are you have quite a few content pieces just like this which you can identify in Google Search Console.

Just click on the “queries” tab and then the “average position” tab to see where that particular keyword ranks in Google.

Identify the Link Building Agency for You

Now that you’ve compiled your list of winners, it’s time to go find an agency.

Here’s a few things to keep in mind:

What’s Your Budget?

When it comes to outsourcing link building, you need to understand that this is a long term play.  You’re not going to hire an agency for 1 month and your business is going to change forever.

It might take 3 or 4 months before you start to see some meaningful results to your MRR from your link building efforts.  

So you have to understand that this is an investment and set your budget accordingly - especially if you’re a new startup founder.

Yes, link building is important.  Yes, I love SEO as a way to grow a company.  But definitely not at the expense of budget overreach.

Are They Specialized?

At Content Guppy, we decided to specialize in B2B SaaS companies.  The reason is because we wanted to have a deeper understanding of how link building will impact your MRR, not just how a piece of content will rank in a search engine.

We understand how which type of content is critical to your OKR’s and which types of content are going to be for the top of funnel.

We understand how to reach out to other SaaS companies and Agencies in order to pitch them effectively in order to get your link placed.

And we wanted to build a brand around being the best link building service provider for B2B SaaS companies.  And we do everything in our power not to compromise that brand.

Are Their Links Cringe?

Next, you want to see if their links are good… or do they make you wince when you see them?

When you’re vetting your agency, ask to see ALL of the domains they just got for their latest client.

It doesn’t have to be the exact page… nor do you even need to know who the client is.

But what is important is the quality of the site that they’re acquiring links from.

Basically, our rule of thumb is this: “Would we be proud to show this link to our friends?”  If yes, then it’s a good link.  If no, then… no.

Do they offer a guarantee?

And finally, does the link building agency offer you any type of guarantee?  

If you pay money, you should be guaranteed to get a very specific result.  

For instance, at Content Guppy, we guarantee that all links you get will have a minimum Domain Authority of 60, a minimum site traffic of 1,000, and all links will be on SaaS or agency sites - or your money back.

Monitor Your Results

When you’re link building, you want to make sure that you’re monitoring your results.

Two critical things to monitor

Thing 1: Quality of Links

Are these the links that you signed up for?  Are they the quality of the links that you expected?  Are they links that are on spammy sites?  Or are they on good, quality, high end sites?

When you outsource link building, you’re going to be paying a decent amount of money.  You want to make sure that you’re getting the biggest bang for your buck.

Thing 2:  Are Rankings Improving?

Link building is just one of the over 200 or so ranking factors that Google uses to determine where your site should rank.

Others include search intent, quality of content, competitiveness of the keyword,  and bounce rate.

So if you’re building high quality links and you don’t see the ranking of a particular piece of content improve after a 2 -3 months, then you might want to look at some other options to improve the content.

I’ve actually re-written articles multiple times in order to make sure I nail the search intent and content quality in order to ensure the content ranks.

Real Time Reporting

When choosing a link building partner, you are going to want to see a dashboard with the links that you're getting on a real time basis.

That way if you're not getting relevant links, or if you're not getting quality backlinks, you can let your link building vendor know immediately.

Have Patience

SEO and link building aren’t short term projects. You need to be in it for the long term. You’re not going to be able to build 4, 6, or even 10 links and increase mrr by millions of dollars.

It just doesn’t work like that.

I once lead a team that took a site from 0 to over 400,000 visitors per month.  And I can tell you that it doesn’t happen without grinding every single day.

Every day you need to be working on content and link building.  It sounds simple, and it is.  But it can be difficult to execute every single day.

And that’s why outsourcing link building to link building services is such a valuable tool in your toolbox.  You can focus on creating insanely great content while someone else can focus on acquiring killer links. 

Final Words

Content Guppy is an outsource link building agency.  If you're looking to start to get high quality backlinks within days for your SaaS or B2B brand, then feel free to contact us to see if we're a good fit.