Link Building Outsource: To Outsource Or Not?

By Sabahat Ali – Link building expert since 2009 – 668+ clients served

Link building is undoubtedly time-consuming. Maybe you should outsource it?

The cost difference is significant: outsourcing link building costs $12K-$36K per year versus $177K for a full in-house team — a 30-70% savings [SAASY Links] [Invedus].

Should You Outsource Your Link Building?

Before we pitch our ideas, hear what these SEOs have to say:

• Chris M. Walker, the owner of Superstar SEO, says:

• Barrett O’Neill, the owner of Business with Barrett, says:

Of course, you’d monitor the part you’re good at. Also, learn a bit about everything. That way, your hires won’t give you garbage.

Below are more specific reasons why outsourcing your link building should be on your to-do list.

Convenience

Even as an SEO guru with a streamlined workload, you can only do so much in a day as a “one-man” team. Where will you have the time to do link prospecting, qualification, and outreach — while juggling your routine life?

Yet, you must follow up and nurture the prospects…

The workload might be manageable if the project was just for your website. What if you have clients too?

Leveraging Expertise

If you’re a beginner to SEO, it might take forever to reach mastery. Unfortunately, your website and income can’t wait.

You need to build enough traffic to your money pages. Otherwise, you won’t be able to fund your “SEO training” fee, let alone keep your online business afloat.

On the other hand, the story can be different with link builders. You can leverage their expertise and rank your web pages on search results.

Reselling

Does the name Signal Genesys sound familiar?

No?

Signal Genesys is a SaaS for Digital PR and White Label SEO.

White Label SEO?

White labeling your SEO services means outsourcing SEO tasks to others while you do the reporting. It is more like reselling SEO services but more — with reporting and marketing.

And so?

From the business end, white label services can skyrocket your revenue. You only need to partner with a link builder offering this service. Then, you’ll do the representation and presentation part.

You might not necessarily need to outsource your link building. You might already have a team.

In some other cases, however, outsourcing can be the wisest decision for your website and income.

Below are some such cases.

When To Outsource Your Link Building

Limited Budget

Undoubtedly, the best way to build quality links is to have an in-house team. However, managing the “team” is expensive — say $127 – 193K yearly!

As a new business, you probably have a capped budget. Your entire venture is not even worth $100k yet. It will be unwise to spend money you don’t have on what you don’t know about.

In essence, outsourcing your link building can be the way out. You can build quality links to your money pages with as little as $1K monthly.

$1K won’t do anything with an in-house team. You will likely spend it all on link building tools subscriptions.

Targeted Links

Often, your budget is not the only limiting factor. Your influence in the industry might be too. And if that’s the case, you will hardly get backlinks from sources that matter.

If you desire placement on sites with DA 70 and above, you might need to leverage link builders’ expertise and relationship.

Unlike you, link builders, writers, and content marketers are in a relationship. They have worked with themselves and even have communities to help each other.

In other words, link builders have a significantly higher chance of placing a backlink on a desirable site than you.

But is this assured placement not black hat SEO?

Link builders leverage their relationship with site authors, reporters, and journalists. They use natural link building methods.

So, your website is safe.

Quicker Placement

There’s no shortcut in link building. Even the link builder must yet vet and qualify link prospects. And all the processes take time.

However, link builders have a long list of placement sites. More importantly, they (link builder and the owners of the sites) both have a relationship. So much so the list is likely sorted with features like:

• Response time
• The difficulty of getting a “yes”
• Quantity of acceptable backlinks per week/month

With such a breakdown, link builders can give you an almost assured estimate of when your backlinks or guest posts will go live.

Overall: you will get your backlinks quicker than if you’d done it without help.

Now, you know the benefit of outsourcing your link building. Let’s discuss the “how.”

How To Outsource Your Link Building In 7 Simple Steps

Set The RIGHT Foundation

Whether with a link builder or as a DIY, the result of link building campaigns is only as GOOD as the foundation: the landing content and website.

So, ask yourself if your content and website are in the right place?

Start with your website design. Is it mobile-friendly and responsive? How fast is the loading speed?

Are your money pages well-linked? Do you have a strategy for internal linking?

Without one, external backlinks ranking juice won’t circulate through your site.

Then, there is your content. Where does it rank for its “primary keyword”?

In the top 100 search results?

No?

You don’t need a link building campaign if your content isn’t ranking on the top 100 results for its money keyword. Fix the content!

In fact, reevaluate your entire business strategy. Ensure your content communicates your ideas while informing and educating readers.

More importantly, optimize your content for search engines — use tools like Surfer and Fraze.

If your content ranks after the effort, you can consider link building. While you are at it, remember to make your website appealing to search engine crawlers.

Create A Budget

Link building doesn’t come cheap. Regardless, you can cut your coat according to your size.

In essence, there are several link building options you can outsource to. For example, if you want targeted links, you can budget $350-500 per/link.

If per-link is too expensive, you can do the most monthly package. You can get a sizable discount if you upgrade to annual plans.

Either way, create a budget for your link building campaigns. And while you are at it, note the following factors:

• Strategy
• Content creation
• Outreach
• Placement fees

You could save money off link building campaigns by handling the content creation part. But work with the strategy designed by the link builder.

Update Your Link Building Knowledge

Before you draw a list of likely link builders, update what you know about link building. Start with the strategies.

Are there faster strategies to get backlinks while spending less?

More importantly, remember the basics of link building:

• Cheap, easy-to-build links don’t mean much. Their ranking juice will hardly add anything to your site.
• Placing your backlinks on just any high authority site isn’t enough. Ensure that the site is relevant to your niche.
• All backlinks are not the same. Ask if it (the backlink) is “dofollow” or “nofollow.” The latter can’t help you.

Now let’s discuss the INTERESTING part of choosing the “who.”

Draw Up A List Of Options

The in-house team option is out of the mix — because of the expenses. Now, you’re left with only two other options:

• A freelancer
• An agency

The freelancer option is the cheapest. And depending on where you hire one, you can see authentic reviews of other buyers.

This option can be the best for “targeted links.”

However, choosing freelancer link builders has its cons. Their prices are so low that you would question the hat used.

Nevertheless, quality freelancers, who are at the top of their game, still exist in marketplaces. The easiest way to find them is to search for specific needs.

E.g., search for:

Business Insider link, The Jerusalem Post, etc.

On the other hand, link building agencies are relatively expensive — especially when you want the all-in-one package.

But while the packages are expensive, you can always request custom services.

Either way, link building agencies offer a flexible and independent experience that a freelancer can’t.

Ask For Sample Project

Whether freelancer or agency, anyone who talks big should have proof of it. What clients have they helped? What niche?

Where do the clients’ sites rank for their money keywords currently? Can you see the “before” and “after”?

Asking about rankings is even going far. Start with the content. Check the quality of the content on the agency’s website.

The chances are that the freelancer does not have a website. Read their service description in that case.

BTW, you’re not necessarily checking grammar rules. Instead, look for thought flow. Were you engaged with the piece, or the whole thing was fluff?

If the content is poor, the freelancer or agency can’t help.

Discuss Cost

Remember you have a budget; your hire should know about that too.

In essence, be upfront about your budget with the freelancer or agency. That way, you can trim your options.

But while you are at it, be reasonable with your pricing and haggling.

If you want quality backlinks, meager fees won’t cut it. You will hardly see any expert listen to you with such fees — except the link farm owners.

While discussing costs and packages, ask questions about workflow. What is the timeline of a typical link building campaign like?

Most importantly, how will progress be monitored and reported?

If the answers are reassuring, but the price is higher than your budget, you can ask for a custom package.

Bottom line: while working with a budget is fundamental, don’t limit yourself to below-par link builders.

Make A Decision

By now, you should know who to hire. Just go for it!

A final tip: working with a link builder or agency that cares about your business should be your goal. Such hires will be instrumental to growing your brand and revenue.

Be Careful Of SHADY Link Builders

When outsourcing your link building, you can easily fall into the trap of black hat SEOs. So, always be careful.

Specifically, watch out for these telltale signs:

• The link builder doesn’t want to talk about their workflow
• The turnaround time is too fast and unrealistic for a quality backlink
• The link builder has no portfolio or wouldn’t share them
• The link builder can’t prove that they have relationships with the placement sites
• The pricing is too GOOD to be true

Verdict: Outsource Your Link Building Campaigns

Outsourcing is safe and relatively affordable. And with the right freelancer or agency, the results can be INCREDIBLE.

Remember that freelancers are best for per-link services, while agencies can help with the campaign.

Lastly, don’t restrict your options only because of pricing. Quality things don’t come cheap — the same rule applies to “link building” and SEO.

If you worry about the cost, take up some of the tasks. For example, you can write the content and outsource the other parts of the campaign.

For pricing details, see our link building pricing guide. For ROI projections, use our calculator. For agencies seeking white label services, see our white label guide.