10 Things To Look For Before Choosing The Best Link Building Company
The Best Link Building Company works with your brand and helps it ace the Search Rankings. Quality link building has a direct impact on your website’s performance. From increased traffic to improved metrics, link building is one of the most essential components of SEO Services.
Let us start with some pertinent questions-
- Is it possible that you are on the lookout for the best link building company for your brand?
- Do you have time to build quality backlinks on your own?
- Are you unsure of the various means through which you can build quality backlinks?
- You might be unfamiliar with the pricing structure of any link building agency?
- Is it confirmed that your present agency is a White Hat Link Building Company?
Most brands, who want to invest in quality link building, raise these questions quite regularly. The wide preference of link building practices has really taken off in a big way. So much so that there is a link building agency at every corner, in every suite.
However, not all of them can offer fulfilling experiences to brands. If you are on the lookout for the best link building company for your brand, you have landed on the right article.
Selecting a link building agency might be the toughest decision that you will ever have to make. However, if you know what you should look out for, the process will be a breeze.
In this article, I will help you understand the finer points of lookout that you should be religiously following. I will also take you through some of the best link building company services that your future prospect should definitely offer.
Table Of Content
What is Link Building?
In order to help you find the best link building company, I thought it would useful to start with a brief idea of link building.
Link Building is one of Digital Marketing’s most potent strategies. It is a process of acquiring backlinks for your website in different online platforms. Search engines like Google crawl the web with the help of their spiders and identify links.
For Google, a backlink is a recommendation to your website. The more quality backlinks you have, the more Google thinks your website offers real value. For example, if a website with high metrics (credible and worthy) in Google’s eyes shares your backlink, then-
- Google thinks your website is informative and useful for readers.
- The search engine thinks you should climb higher on the Search Engine Rankings Page (SERPs).
- It awards your site with higher Metric Scores and Google Index Rankings.
- Google organically starts promoting your website and increases traffic.
The Web Spam team of Google is very critical about link building and penalizes sites quite heavily who engage in-
- Black Hat Link Building
- Grey Hat Link Building
I could have created a separate section for the benefits of link building. However, that is not the purpose of this article. In order to emphasize the importance of link building, it was necessary to state the above points.
Almost everyone in the digital marketing industry will swear by the positive impact of link building. The thing to note is that many lay claims in being the best link building company. On the other hand, it is only a few, which can live up to the claim.
The Best Link Building Company: Does it exist in reality?
No one can answer this question with complete confidence. Digital marketing is both a highly specialized process, yet it is also a highly integrated one. What this means is that a link building agency cannot only be a link building agency.
Experience has shown that there are very few digital marketing agencies, which can live up to the tag of both-
- Specialists
- Integrationists
If any agency wants to be the Best Link Building Company, it also needs to be:
- The Best Content Writing Agency
- A Great SEO Services Agency
- An Outstanding Guest Posting Services Agency
- A ROI driven Blogger Outreach Services Agency
I know this is a lot to absorb initially. However, what I am trying to say is the fact that the coordination and integration of various services are essential. It is essential if any link building agency is trying to claim the throne.
For many brands and marketers, the best link building company is a modern day myth. For them, such companies simply do not exist. They have been promised the stars, only to land head first on to the ground.
This has made some brands skeptical of working with any link building agency. For most parts, I agree with their fears and the stand they have taken. Things like money, not caring for either advertisers or publishers has given a bad reputation to the industry.
Yes, there are dangers, and reasons for creating mistrust. However, if you take help from this article, you can eliminate most, if not all the dangers and fears.
Link Building Agency: Things to look for
Without further ado, let us get into the most important things you should look:
1. Does the Link Building Agency have the Right Intentions?
If your agency is going after links only with the purpose of increasing SEO scores, you need to jump. The best link building company always has the right intentions in mind. This intention is influenced by what Google thinks and considers as best practices.
The right intention is one where the end goal is to attract visitors and audiences. The right intention is also one where your content ends up being the most useful and informative. Good SEO scores and higher page ranks are a result, and never an intention.
2. Does the agency offer Expert Content Writing Services?
Good content is critical to set the foundation for a successful link building strategy. I can think of link agencies in my fingers who offer great content writing. Remember, outsourcing content is not similar to having an in-house team of experts.
Again, following the first point, it is all about the intentions of doing link building. Quality content will drive your link building efforts, and not the other way around. The end goal should always be about providing something useful and informative to readers.
3. Does the agency own and operate its own Content Sites?
If you are on the lookout for the best link building company, you need to pay attention to this point. If an agency has its own content sites, understand it to mean that they do a lot of content marketing.
It is only the best ones that own and operate twenty or more content sites. They use these to build-
- Backlinks
- Blogger Relationships
- Guest Posting Services
In other words, digital agencies that own content sites own the digital ecosystem. Something that I have discussed in the earlier section. In terms of experience, agencies, which own and run content sites, are truly invaluable to work with.
4. Does the agency offer Blogger Outreach and Guest Posting?
Blogger Outreach and Guest Posting are two ways in which backlinks are built. This requires the agency to connect with bloggers/publishers on your behalf. It is the agency which negotiates the terms of the agreements, including-
- Number of do-follow or no-follow links
- Permanent or non-permanent links
- Industry relevancy and niche
- Prices and other add-ons.
In other words, the link building agency will make manual outreach and connect. The best link building agency maintains a list of over 5000 publishers, across industry niches. It the agency uses third-party agencies to do this, please call off the engagement immediately.
Look for agencies, which have an in-house team of experts, which do manual outreach.
5. Is your Link Building Agency a Full SEO Service Provider?
Link building is an integrated approach, and SEO is one of its most important components. Link building technically falls within the Off-Page SEO ambit. Unless your agency has its own SEO team, you will not be able to make the most of your link building exercises.
An agency, which has created a digital ecosystem, is the one that is going to benefit you the most. All these processes are highly inter-related and inter-dependent on one another. In order to be effective, SEO and Link Building should move further (hand in hand!).
6. Ignore agencies who offer Link Building on Fiverrr
Most Link Building agencies do not have the infrastructure or the resources to become full-service providers. They outsource their work on work websites like Fiverrr, People Per Hour, Freelancer.com and others.
If you are serious about your output, please avoid working with people on such platforms. In most cases, they only bid for an order, and then outsource it to lesser agencies. This is a fraud if ever there was one. Your best bet is to go for good old-fashioned digital agencies that offer a full repertoire of services.
7. Are you sure, your outsourced agency is not a Link Reseller?
This is a continuation of the last point. I have seen that most people who bid on work platforms are single individuals and link resellers. They work through a network and are only interested in making money. These people do not have the faintest regard for advertiser interest or publisher interest.
In most cases, they will put your backlink in a Private Blog Network (PBN) or a Link Directory. Post that Google will penalize you, and you might get your website de-indexed even. It is best if you clear this out at the very outset.
8. Ask your prospective agency about turn-around time:
Link Building, along with SEO services needs time and patience. Your strategy will not start showing results immediately. Yes, you might get a bump in traffic after blogger outreach in a good publication. However, in order for metrics and SERPs to improve, it will take time.
The best link building company will not promise a period of one month only. They will be professional to give you a period of 6 months at least. Some overtly enthusiastic link building agencies will promise you turnaround times quicker than Flash himself.
You need to be very careful about such unprofessional link builders.
9. What kind of budget is the Link Building Agency asking for?
The best SEO services do not come cheap. If you are looking for cheaper options, your quality will suffer drastically. This is not some threat; rather, it is a fact. A good agency will stick to its prices, but never compromise on quality.
I will ask you to do one simple experiment. When you speak to a prospective link building agency ask them for their charges. See if the negotiations happen over 5 odd rounds. If the agency is willing to come down even after 3 rounds, bail out immediately.
The best link building company will quote you a fair price, and not come down more than once. They know what it takes to build quality backlinks.
10. Does the Agency provide regular Reports and Feedbacks about the Campaign?
If you are working with a professional link building agency, it will keep harassing you with monthly reports. This is a good thing, at the very least. You do not want a link building agency which does not submit evaluation reports or feedback about the link building campaign.
Ask the agency if they have a reporting format. If they show one to you right away, it is a good sign. Shadier agencies will take out a template from Google, print it out and show it to you. Keep this crucial exercise in mind when you are looking for an agency.
It might be really small and trivial. However, you will get to know a lot about your prospective agency through this.
The Final Word:
I had stated at the very beginning that selecting a link building agency is going to be a tough decision. You will be bombarded with packages- links, prices, DA, DR, and other jargons. Most of them will go right over your head if you are not an expert that is.
The right agency will sit down with you, discuss your requirements, and proceed accordingly. Trust, honesty, and transparency are also values that you should look for. When the agency is upfront about its costs and charges, please do not get upset.
Rather, appreciate them for being upfront and professional about it all. Good quality work does not come cheap. At the end of the day, the best link building company might just exist. Alternatively, even if it does not, you know all the right things to look out for.
If you have any other queries regarding this article, please feel free to reach out: [email protected]
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