7 Best Link-Building Slack Communities
Trying to find the best Slack communities manually can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. Thankfully, there are some reputable ones that can help you greatly in link-building.
Aside from the excitement of joining a group of like-minded people, communities can be very helpful when you encounter a hurdle in your career or projects.
The difficulty of the link-building or SEO processes calls for as much external help as possible. In addition to other online groups and forums, Slack communities can provide that.
You can expect professional advice, ideas, information, and other help from a Slack community.
We have listed seven of the best free and paid Slack communities, which are popular for their quality of environment, helping mindset, and other benefits.
We have also added some alternatives to Slack communities.
Table of Contents
Brief Introduction to Slack Communities
Slack is a platform where people can connect with their colleagues, classmates, etc., to discuss various topics, share information, give ideas, join group video meetings, and more.
You can interact with others through various means in Slack, including-
- Direct messages
- Group chats
- Voice calls
- Video calls
If a Slack group only includes members of one particular organization, it is called a Slack Workspace.
Meanwhile, if a Slack group includes people from all over the world, it can be called a Slack community.
Both a Slack workspace and community can have multiple channels through which people can converse about different topics related to the same industry or niche. However, there is a difference.
A Slack workspace is run by the organization’s owner, managers, or higher-ups.
Meanwhile, a community can be hosted and organized by any individual from anywhere who created it. Others just found it later and decided to join.
One of the best features of Slack is that you can add various work-related apps to it. It is an easy way to integrate all your work stuff in one place and share it quickly.
As you can expect, you can find Slack communities related to almost anything, from cooking to SEO. Of course, you will find ones about link-building.
In fact, there are some highly popular ones that we will get to in a while. However, before that, let us introduce different types of Slack Communities that may help you identify them better.
Different Types of Slack Communities
A Slack community can be one of four types. You may need to choose one that fits your needs. Let’s discuss them below-
Public Communities
A public Slack community is free and open to anyone who has the link to it. Since it is practically open to anyone, it is common to find people of different backgrounds.
We should mention that public communities are often less professional than other types. Unless someone organizes them well, people may even talk about totally unrelated topics.
Nonetheless, they are a good option if you don’t have an invite or don’t want to pay anything to join a community. You can also find public communities in the public directories.
Private Communities
Private Slack communities are only accessible via invitation. Even after that, you may only be able to enter once the community’s authority accepts your joining request.
The strictness of private communities often limits them to certain groups. For example, some may only accept your request if you have certain skill sets.
Meanwhile, some use private communities similar to Slack Workspace, where they are all from one organization.
Invite-Only Communities
Similar to private communities, invite-only ones also require you to join only with an invitation from a member. However, you won’t need to be accepted by the organizer to join here.
As such, it is often the favorite of many professionals who want a specific community without much irrelevance.
You can find many quality link-building invite-only communities that are free to join and accept.
Paid Communities
Last but not least, there are the paid communities. As the name suggests, you may have to pay a fee to the organizer or specific people to join.
Some of them often have subscription-based payments. The payment amount will vary based on the topic of the community and what the organizers charge.
Since it is a paid community, ordinary folks usually don’t come here. Here, you can expect to meet skilled professionals or people who want to learn or need help.
Additionally, the content you can find here is usually of high quality and professionally made, be it a video, infographic, article, etc.
They also give you chances to connect to high-profile personalities, potentially to help with your link-building project.
How to Join a Slack Community
For most Slack communities, you can join if any member in the community sends you one of these-
- An email invitation. Or,
- Invitation link.
These methods allow you to join a public or invite-only community. To join a private or paid one, you will need to complete additional steps.
Why Take Help from Slack Communities for Link-Building?
Slack communities specific to a niche or group are often filled with professionals, experts, and enthusiasts of that topic. The same is true for the ones about link-building.
When you are in a link-building Slack community, you can get various help from it. Here are some examples-
- Get tips, ideas, information, the latest trends and news, and insights about link-building from big-name professionals who can help you immensely.
- Make connections with people or websites that may send or exchange backlinks with your website.
- Find professional link-building managers or assistant link-builders to hire.
- Find content writers and guest post writers to hire. You can also write guest posts in the community.
- Get ideas of content specific to your niche or industry.
- Get feedback and criticisms from SEO experts to correct any flaw in your strategy and make intelligent moves.
- Join real-time conferences, formal debates, or courses related to SEO, digital marketing, or link-building. You can gain unique experiences in these ways.
- Find job postings related to your specific SEO skills if you are looking for work.
Best Free Link-Building Slack Communities
For your convenience, we have divided our list into two sections: free Slack communities and paid ones. Let’s start with the former.
1. Backlink Masterminds
As an invite-only Slack community, you can join with the help of any member. However, there are easier methods to join set by the organizers.
Vikas Kalwani, from New Delhi, founded Backlink Mastermind to collaborate with hundreds of professionals worldwide.
The community’s primary focus is building backlinks for SaaS brands. However, you can also use the information and other help from here for any other brands you have.
You can find individuals from Monday or Cloudways here. This is a great place to quickly get backlinks from high-profile people or SaaS organizations.
If you join Backlink Masterminds, you may get the following benefits-
- Have backlinks to your site from guest posts on world-class authoritative websites. You can also get them directly from high-profile sites you usually can’t reach.
- Build up your backlink profile very fast with the help of authoritative SaaS brand websites.
- Collaborate with outreach specialists, journalists, SEO executives, and other professionals from some of the best organizations.
Joining Method: Fill out the form on their website to join the community.
2. Backlink Slack Group

If you are looking for a Slack community that is open to both beginners and industry experts, the Backlink Slack Group is your go-to.
With a total membership exceeding 13,000, Backlinks is one of the most focused Slack communities on backlinks.
It brings together people from various backgrounds, where there can be SEO specialists, social media marketers, business or website owners, backlink builders, etc.
Brainspin, a digital marketing studio in Utah, is the founder and organizer of this community. They organized the whole thing well, dividing specific topics into multiple channels.
You will find regular discussions about various things related to backlinks and questions answered by world-leading brands and experts.
The #guestposts channel is for guest posting and getting backlinks from them. Then there is #traffic-boost, which is mainly for backlinks. There are two more channels.
One of the best benefits of this community is its #guestposts channel, which offers excellent guest posting offers and has a Google sheet where they post them.
You can select any of those opportunities on the Google sheet. Moreover, it is possible to use the same document to apply as a guest writer.
Joining Backlink Slack Group can give you the following advantages over other similar ones-
- There are specific channels for various topics. You can set your notification preferences for each, and you won’t get notifications from channels you don’t want to follow.
- The community is focused on marketing and link-building discussions, and the topics are hardly digressed.
- If your site or industry is related to marketing, this community can help you find connections and build easy links.
Joining Method: No payment or invitation is needed to join this community. You can visit their website and fill out their form to get inside.
Website: https://www.brainspin.com/backlinks-slack-group/
3. Online Geniuses

Online Geniuses is a Slack Community for digital marketing and SEO. Link-building is also obviously a part of it.
The main appeal of this community is that it has more than 49 thousand members, each manually vetted.
This means you will only find industry professionals or aspirant learners within the community. You can join the different channels specifically for various purposes.
For example, there is the #socialmediamarketing and #seo to focus on those topics in their respective channel. Meanwhile, there is a #hiring channel with job offers from good places.
As we mentioned before, Slack Communities occasionally run different events. ‘Ask Me Anything’ in Online Geniuses is one example. It is hosted very fluently, too.
Here, people like Christi Olson or Guy Kawasaki can get your questions answered here.
Joining Method: Fill out the form on their website to apply.
Website: https://onlinegeniuses.com/
4. Buffer

For people who want to feel at home in a link-building Slack community, Buffer is a great place to be. Its description says that the channels are very friendly, supportive, and positive-minded.
Moreover, as a fairly old community that started in 2015, it has over six thousand members. However, the air of over-seriousness or formality is absent here.
Instead, the members converse in more of a friendly and casual manner. Buffer has the following in store for you-
- Challenge sessions where you can solve different problems added by other members about SEO and other stuff.
- This is a Weekly Community Mastermind event where people talk about the challenges they are facing on their projects, and others try to help them out.
- Over 20 channels on specific topics.
- The #meet-someone-new is a suitable place to find like-minded individuals within your industry or professionals and experts from various parts of the world.
Joining Method: Join Buffer from their website.
Website: https://buffer.com/community
Best Paid Link-Building Slack Communities
The paid link-building Slack communities can be private, too. The organizers will only accept you if you pay the amount. However, the expense is worth it.
Here are some paid Slack communities about link-Building that you should check out –
1. Traffic Think Tank

Unlike many others on this list, Traffic Think Tank, or TTT, is an academy in the form of a Slack community.
Anyone can join it to boost their SEO skills and connect to like-minded people and professionals. It is helping many enter the world of SEO and make their careers around it.
So, why join an academic-type Slack community? There are various reasons for that. For example-
- Aspirant, skilled, and talented people worldwide are in TTT.
- This community is highly active, with thousands of members.
- You can connect to professionals with years of experience working for top-level websites and degrees.
- If you want to increase your skill, you can find mentors specific to different wants and needs and get more than hundreds of hours of tutoring.
- You can find the latest news about SEO, link-building, digital marketing, etc. It will help you greatly in staying ahead of your competitors.
- There are Q&A sessions occasionally.
Joining Method: To join Traffic Think Tank Academy, you need to buy one of their monthly packages, which are currently between $99 and $119. Visit their website for this.
They will then let you in the Slack community.
Website: https://trafficthinktank.com/
2. Creative Tribes

The founder of Creative Tribe is a digital marketing company with the same name- CreativeTribes.co. At first glance, this may seem like a community for all creative fields.
However, the two professions—digital marketing and SEO—are the main reasons behind its existence. So, you can find plenty of link-building talks, opportunities, and knowledge from here.
With over 2000 members, Creative Tribes includes a wide range of experts, from web developers to writers.
Joining Method: You must pay a one-time entry fee of $27 from their site.
Website: https://creativetribes.co/#join
3. Marketing Lad

Once you join Marketing Lad, you can start to see a wide range of different advice, insights, and perspectives on link-building from market-leading brands like ContentStudio or Wordable.
You can also find out your level and how to improve your backlink profile further. This profession is solely focused on marketing and link-building, so there will be many people within it.
One thing that makes this community stand out is how active the members are. They frequently organize discussions and projects to work on together.
Marketing Lad will also give you the opportunity to see industry experts at work and connect with them to help optimize your backlink profile.
Here are some reasons to join Marketing Lad-
- Get advice and assistance, and even have many professionals or enthusiasts answer your questions.
- Get news about SEO and stay up-to-date. With these, besting your competitors won’t be a challenging factor at all.
- The website says that one of the group’s purposes is to help you get backlinks from highly authoritative websites, like SocialPilot. These are impossible to obtain in standard ways.
Joining Method: You must make a $20 PayPal payment to enter. Afterward, visit their website and complete the form. You can get a refund within 24 hours of paying.
Once Marketing Lad has reviewed your joining request, they will send you the invitation link.
Website: https://marketinglad.io/link-building-slack-community/
Alternatives to Slack Communities
While Slack is an excellent platform for linking and building communities, there are many other options that you can try. Some of them may not be as good quality as the others, though.
The following are some Slack alternatives that you can try for your link-building help-
Social Media Platforms Like Facebook or LinkedIn Groups
While the Facebook and LinkedIn groups may not always be as active as expected, you may still find some with many experienced people. They are also always free to join.
Discord Servers
Discord’s interface may feel similar to Slack’s. Instead of a community, it has servers. Each server has categories, channels, and threads to divide the topics.
Discord is a trendy place for any community, just like Slack. You can find many servers that rival some of the top Slack link-building communities.
It is also possible to implement many bots, set your notification preferences, and many more in your preferred link-building server in Discord.
Moz Community
Almost everyone in the SEO industry knows about the SEO tool Moz. They also have a community. Its popularity helps it gather SEO-interested people from around the world.
Subreddits
Among various platforms dedicated to threads and forums, Reddit is one of the most popular. Its forums are called subreddits. You can find link-building subreddits like-
Online Communities

You can find various online communities and forums created solely for link-building topics. For example, GrowthHackers has a collection of articles, resources, etc., for many professions.
Comprehensive Guide to Understanding and Optimizing Your Backlink Profile
Have you ever wondered why some websites consistently rank higher on search engines than others?
Websites with a strong backlink profile have 55% higher chances of ranking on the first page of Google search results.
In this guide, we will delve into the intricacies of backlink profiles, exploring their components, importance, and best practices for optimization.
Table of Contents
What Is a Backlink Profile?
A backlink profile is the collection of all the links, or backlinks, from other websites that point to your site. These links serve as digital endorsements, signaling to search engines that your website is a credible and valuable resource.
A backlink profile is composed of various elements, including the number of links, the quality and authority of the linking sites, and the anchor texts used in these links.
The significance of a backlink profile lies in its impact on search engine rankings. Google’s algorithms assess the quantity and quality of these backlinks to determine a website’s authority and relevance.
A robust backlink profile indicates that a website is well-regarded across the internet, which can significantly enhance its position in search results. Conversely, a weak or poor-quality backlink profile can hinder a site’s visibility, pushing it down the rankings.
Characteristics of a Healthy Backlink Profile
A healthy backlink profile is characterized by a variety of high-quality links from authoritative and relevant websites. These links should appear natural and be well-distributed across different types of anchor texts and sources.
- Relevance: Links from websites that are relevant to your niche or industry are more valuable than those from unrelated sites. For example, a gardening blog receiving backlinks from other gardening or home improvement sites will have a stronger backlink profile than one receiving links from unrelated tech blogs.
- Authority: Backlinks from well-known, high-authority sites carry more weight and can significantly boost your site’s credibility and search engine rankings.
- Diversity: A mix of links from different sources, helps create a natural and balanced profile. This diversity reduces the risk of penalties from search engines and enhances the overall strength of your backlink profile.
- Anchor text variety: Anchor texts are clickable texts in hyperlinks, and using a variety of anchor texts helps create a natural and balanced backlink profile. Common types of anchor texts include naked URLs, branded anchors, and keyword anchors.
- Quality over quantity: A few high-quality backlinks are more beneficial than numerous low-quality ones. High-quality links are typically from reputable, well-established websites that are relevant to your industry.
Identifying and Avoiding Bad Backlink Practices
Recognizing and avoiding bad backlink practices is essential to maintaining a healthy backlink profile.
- Irrelevant links: Links from sites unrelated to your niche can dilute your profile and harm your SEO. For instance, a tech website linking to a fashion blog would be considered irrelevant and could negatively impact the linked site’s authority.
- Low-quality websites: Links from sites that are spammy, have poor content or are filled with ads can damage your backlink profile. These sites often have low domain authority and are not trusted by search engines.
- Overuse of exact-match anchor texts: While it’s important to use relevant keywords, relying too heavily on exact-match keywords can appear manipulative. Diversifying anchor texts helps create a more natural and balanced profile.
- Link farms and private blog networks (PBNs): These are manipulative tactics that involve creating a network of sites solely to link to each other and boost rankings. Search engines have become adept at detecting these schemes, and using such tactics can result in severe penalties.
- Rapid acquisition of links: A sudden influx of new backlinks may look suspicious to search engines and could lead to penalties. It’s important to aim for gradual and organic growth in backlinks.
Tools for Analyzing Backlink Profiles
Several tools are available to help analyze and monitor your backlink profile.
- Google Search Console is a free tool that provides insights into who is linking to your site and the nature of these links. It’s an excellent starting point for understanding your backlink profile.
- Ahrefs is a comprehensive SEO tool that offers detailed backlink analysis, including the number of backlinks, referring domains, and anchor text distribution. It also provides insights into the quality and authority of the linking sites.
- SEMrush offers features such as backlink audits, monitoring, and competitive analysis, helping you identify opportunities for improvement and areas of concern.
- Majestic provides an in-depth analysis of your backlink profile, including metrics like Trust Flow and Citation Flow, which help assess the quality and influence of your backlinks.
- Moz’s Link Explorer allows you to explore your backlink profile, analyze linking domains, and assess link quality. It’s a useful tool for monitoring and optimizing your backlink strategy.
- Ubersuggest offers a summary of your backlink profile, including the number of backlinks, referring domains, and top pages with the most backlinks. It’s a user-friendly tool for quick insights into your backlink profile.
Steps to Analyze and Improve Your Backlink Profile
Analyzing and improving your backlink profile is a systematic process that enhances your website’s SEO performance and authority.
It involves evaluating the quality and diversity of your backlinks, identifying areas for improvement, and implementing strategies to strengthen your profile.
Step 1: Check the number of backlinks
While a higher number of backlinks can indicate better performance, it’s essential to focus on the quality of these links.
Look at the total number of backlinks from each referring domain to get a comprehensive view of your profile.

You can analyse your referring domains using tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush. Identify the URLs that make up your incoming links and assess their quality and relevance.
Step 2: Review anchor text distribution
Ensure a natural distribution with a mix of branded, keyword-rich, and generic anchor texts. Avoid over-reliance on exact-match keywords to prevent penalties.

You can effortlessly examine your anchor texts, both for backlinks and outgoing links, using Ahrefs Site Explorer.
Step 3: Monitor backlink velocity
Track the rate at which you gain new backlinks and aim for a gradual and consistent growth pattern.

Spotting sudden drops in backlinks can alert you to potential problems such as link removals, penalties, or negative SEO attacks.
Step 4: Evaluate backlink quality
Assess the authority and relevance of the linking websites. Focus on acquiring high-quality backlinks from reputable sites in your industry.
Backlinks from high Domain Authority (DA) sites are more valuable and can significantly enhance your site’s credibility and ranking potential.
Step 5: Identify and disavow toxic links
Use tools to detect harmful backlinks from spammy or penalized sites and disavow them.
Toxic backlinks can adversely affect your website’s search engine rankings, making it crucial to identify and eliminate them promptly. Ahrefs can swiftly identify and analyze these backlinks.
Best Practices for Maintaining a Strong Backlink Profile
Maintaining a strong backlink profile requires ongoing effort and attention to best practices.
- Create high-quality content: create content that naturally attracts backlinks from authoritative and relevant sites. Focus on producing valuable, informative, and engaging content that others will want to link to.
- Build relationships with relevant websites: Networking and outreach can help you secure valuable backlinks and enhance your site’s authority. Consider guest posting on reputable blogs and collaborating with other content creators.
- Avoid buying links: While purchasing backlinks may offer a quick boost, it’s risky and can lead to penalties from search engines. Instead, focus on organic growth and genuine link-building strategies.
- Diversify your links: by acquiring backlinks from a variety of sources. A diverse backlink profile appears more natural and reduces the risk of penalties.
- Regularly monitor your backlink profile: using tools like Google Search Console, Ahrefs, or SEMrush. Stay vigilant for any changes or issues, such as toxic links or broken links, and take corrective action as needed.
- Disavow harmful backlinks: to protect your site from penalties. Use Google’s disavow tool to reject links from spammy or penalized sites that could harm your SEO.
Conclusion
Imagine backlinks as your website’s popularity rating; the more high-quality links you have, the more attractive your site appears to search engines.
However, not all links are beneficial—some can be detrimental. It’s crucial to avoid these and focus on links from sites that are relevant to your niche, akin to associating with the right crowd.
Regularly check your backlink profile using tools like Ahrefs or Google Search Console. These tools can help you identify who is linking to you and spot any problematic links.
Ultimately, a strong backlink profile can significantly boost your website’s search engine ranking. So, invest in it and watch your site’s performance improve!
How to Effectively Measure and Enhance Your Link Building ROI
Are businesses getting their money’s worth from pricey backlinks? With so much investment at stake, showing real results is crucial.
Did you know that businesses see an average ROI (Return on investment) of 300% from effective link building? It’s more than just counting links; it’s about boosting key business metrics!
As one of the region’s leading link-building agencies with a proven track record, we understand that patience and persistence are key. The cumulative effect of sustained link building can significantly enhance website authority and search engine visibility over time.
In this article, we will explore how to effectively calculate the ROI of link building efforts.
Table of Contents
Why Is Link Building Important?
The primary objectives of link building focus on two key goals.
- Boost website visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs): Enter your keyword in a search engine like Google. If your site appears in the top 10 results, it indicates success.
- Increase revenue: This is more challenging since link building doesn’t directly drive revenue. Measuring its financial impact can be complex.
The Essence of Link Building ROI
ROI, commonly calculated as (Net Return on Investment / Total Cost of Investment) x 100%, helps quantify the financial benefits relative to the costs involved in your link-building activities.
It’s important to clarify a couple of common misconceptions: Firstly, link building doesn’t deliver overnight success—it’s a process that unfolds over months.
Secondly, a variety of external factors, including SEO practices and user experience, also play roles in influencing SERP rankings.
Techniques to Evaluate Link Building ROI
Higher metric values suggest more successful strategies, allowing you to transform backlinks into traffic and, ultimately, sales.
If there’s no clear metric for the business value of link building, how can you demonstrate its worth to superiors or clients? How can you be sure your efforts are yielding positive results?
The best approach is to link your link-building activities directly to your objectives. Quality links significantly boost Google rankings, domain authority, and traffic, as mentioned earlier.
Let’s look at some ways you can measure the return on investment of your link-building campaigns.
Short Term Method
Effective link building requires patience, but when executed correctly, results can be seen within three to four months.
If you’re starting a link building campaign, here’s a short-term method for how to measure your ROI:
Organic Traffic
Gaining traffic provides a base of potential customers for your business. By effectively funneling sales, you can turn this audience into consumers.
Lumen and Forge, a top player in immersive tech, tasked us with boosting their online presence. In just three years, we increased their organic traffic by over 5000%.
You can track changes in your organic traffic using SEO tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs.
For precise ranking tracking on Google, use Google Analytics to monitor metrics like visits and page views to gauge organic traffic gains.
Google Analytics offers critical insights into your site’s performance, including user numbers and conversion rates. Analyzing these metrics helps determine the impact of your organic traffic strategies.
Set specific conversion goals in Google Analytics to quantitatively assess the ROI from organic traffic. Analyze referral traffic sources and backlinks in your reports to check their alignment with your link-building campaign.
With the data from Google Analytics, evaluate how your link-building efforts are enhancing your brand and converting prospects. If you regularly use SEMRush, you’re familiar with its capabilities to monitor various SEO aspects, including backlinks.
By reviewing the top pages and domain authority of your backlinks, you can assess the quality of your referral traffic. SEMrush also highlights how backlinks boost your visibility, benefiting e-commerce by improving conversion rates from referral traffic.
Domain Rating (DR)
Boosting Domain Rating (DR) enhances a website’s authority and ranking potential on search engines. This metric, developed by Ahrefs, measures the strength of a site’s backlink profile.
A higher DR indicates a more robust link profile, which can lead to improved search engine rankings. It reflects the quality and quantity of websites linking to a domain.

To evaluate ROI through Domain Rating (DR), compare your site’s previous DR with its current DR. A higher DR indicates improved site authority and effectiveness of your link-building efforts.
Tracking DR changes over time helps gauge the impact of your strategies. Ahrefs provides detailed insights, allowing you to measure progress and adjust tactics as needed.
Long-term Method
Persist with link building for about six months to witness its cumulative benefits. As links multiply, each new link enhances your visibility, attracting even more backlinks.
As your website accumulates more links, its authority grows. With sustained effort over the years, your site earns a reputation for credibility, often ranking new content on Google’s first page quickly.
This illustrates a key advantage of long-term link building. Here’s how you can track these gains:
Target Keyword Ranking
Keyword rankings depend on factors like content quality and landing page usability. Building long-term links with keyword-optimized anchors on key pages can significantly boost their rankings.
Use Ahrefs’ Keyword Rank Checker to monitor your keyword rankings. Alternatively, set up keyword tracking in Google Analytics.

As these pages rank higher, they attract more organic traffic, increasing the likelihood of more conversions and thus turning links into leads and revenue.
Domain Authority (DA)
To gauge the long-term success of your link-building strategies, use Moz Link Explorer to check your website’s Domain Authority (DA). Although Google does not use DA to rank websites, it helps predict search engine performance.

Moz Link Explorer provides analytics critical for assessing your website’s efficacy in link building. The tool displays your top pages, main backlinks, and key competitive keywords, which are essential for improving search engine rankings and increasing traffic and revenue.
Domain Authority predicts your website’s potential Google ranking on a scale from 0 to 100, where 100 represents the top position. A higher DA enhances your industry credibility, boosting both visibility and revenue.
The “Top Pages” feature in Moz Link Explorer identifies your most trafficked and engaged web pages. It helps determine if your key pages are reaching the intended audience, making it valuable for measuring your link-building ROI by tracking search ranking improvements.
Monte Carlo Simulation Method
The Monte Carlo Simulation Method is a statistical tool used to forecast events influenced by unpredictable variables. It allows for making educated estimates, like calculating the teacher-to-student ratio in an area without actual headcount data.
Named after Monaco’s casino-rich city, this method is adept at handling outcomes akin to statistical anomalies. It can also simulate link-building efforts and predict the return on investment for strategies, whether short or long term.
To perform your own Monte Carlo Simulation, gather the following data: your main keyword’s top competitor, their organic traffic, monthly or yearly revenue, Domain Authority (DA) or Domain Rating (aDR), and their backlink profile, along with your website’s corresponding data.
First, assume other external factors are insignificant for a realistic outcome, creating a level playing field where your top competitor ranks above you. The aim is to bridge the gap between your and their rankings through targeted link-building.
Analyze the differences in link-building efforts between you and your competitor to establish concrete values for improving your ranking. Bridging this gap involves enhancing your link-building strategy to surpass your competitors.
Finally, calculate the revenue difference between your competitor and yourself to gauge the effectiveness of your link-building efforts. Remember, these are preliminary estimates and may not account for all variables, making them somewhat unreliable.
Tips To Enhance Your Link Building Efforts
Here are some quick tips to boost the ROI of your in-house link-building efforts:
- Invest in creating linkable content: Generate content so compelling that it naturally attracts backlinks, like detailed blog posts or infographics. Good initial distribution can lead to automatic link generation.
- Prioritize link quality over quantity: One high-quality link from a reputable site is more valuable than numerous low-quality ones. Aim for links that are relevant and come from high DA websites.
- Optimize other SEO elements: Ensure your SaaS website is user-friendly and fast, as effective link building needs strong technical SEO to reach Google’s first page.
Conclusion
Measuring the ROI of link building is complex, given the many factors influencing a website’s success. It’s incorrect to attribute all of a website’s achievements solely to link building.
Nevertheless, link building can significantly boost revenue over time. By understanding your audience through data, you can tailor your campaigns to improve link quality and efficiency, further enhancing revenue.
What Is Link Farming and How to Avoid It
We all know how important backlinks are for a site’s authority boost.
In that case, how about creating a number of websites that link to each other?
Shouldn’t that be an easy way to gain lots of backlinks?
Well, it is, but creating websites only to receive backlinks is a form of black hat SEO, known as link farming, which can negatively affect your site.
Ever since Google’s SERP was introduced, there have been many instances where Google has had to update its policies regarding how it ranks or penalizes websites.
While many SEO techniques have been prevalent and effective in the past, some of them are highly dangerous for a site now.
Link farming is one of them. You may have already heard that it negatively impacts websites.
In this article, we have elaborated in depth on link farming, its characteristics, purpose, dangers, and how to avoid it.
Table of Contents
Definition of Link Farming
Before we get to link farming, we should describe backlinks first. They are hyperlinks placed on one website that lead to another. Their primary purpose is to recommend another site to the audience.
Meanwhile, link farming is a method of link building in which the owners create multiple websites for the sole purpose of gaining backlinks from them.
As you can understand, when a high-profile or quality website recommends its audience to your site, it benefits the latter by increasing its authority. Google also deems it a good SEO practice and may rank your site higher.
The issue is that some misuse this process by using websites mainly created to send backlinks to one main website. In this practice, the owner of the sites uses the quantity rather than the quality of the links to increase the page or domain authority of their main website.
How Does Link Farming Work?
In order to understand the working process of link farming, let us explain with an analogy.
You need backlinks for your website from other sites, and there are two ways you can do it-
- Either get high-quality backlinks from reputable and quality websites. Or,
- Get lots of backlinks from various sites created only to provide the links.
Now, you may not get nearly as many backlinks from the first method as you would get from the second. However, the ones you get will actually hold high value.
Meanwhile, on the second method, you would get tons of backlinks with little to no value.
Here, the second case is how link farming works. In the past, link farming actually worked as Google looked at the quantity of the backlinks to a site rather than their quality or relevance.
As such, many were attracted to this strategy. However, Google updated its algorithm later, deeming link farming a Black Hat SEO technique.
Spamming backlinks to a website from random, low-quality sites without much relevance now negatively affects the main site’s SERP ranking.
The Structure of a Typical Link Farm
Link farm owners usually get bots or AI to create a link farm automatically. These bots will make multiple websites for the farm in a very short time without putting much effort into making the site worth visiting.
Since the site’s only goal is to send backlinks to different websites, you shouldn’t expect anything worth your time. The bots will only add enough useless content to help them place the hyperlinks.
In most cases, the sites in the link farm will have irrelevant content from the sites they are sending backlinks to. As they are not human-made, this further guarantees that the site is irrelevant, as the AIs will only do as their programs and won’t put anything worthwhile on their own.
This lack of quality content makes link farm sites highly low-value ones. Hence, links from them hold little to no value in increasing a site’s link equity.
Now, a link farm holds not just one website but many of them. They sometimes link to each other in an attempt to increase each other’s value. Meanwhile, they can also send outbound links to other websites or one site in particular that is not part of the farm.
Why Did Link Farming Get So Popular?
If you didn’t know, link farming is almost as old as Google itself. However, the practice didn’t start with this search engine. It became relevant in 1999 when the major search engine was Inktomi.
As you can expect, Inktomi’s algorithms weren’t nearly as developed as those of modern-day search engines like Google. It ranked websites according to their backlink volumes. Of course, there are other ranking factors, but this one was among the most important.
The popularity of link farming skyrocketed because of its effectiveness in ranking. You see, Inktomi had a rule of only having a limit of 100 million listings. As such, only sites with many backlinks would stay in the rank.
Because of this limited listing rule, many websites with few backlinks (despite having quality ones) dropped out of the search engine.
Another factor made link farming even more attractive to website owners. Inktomi wasn’t obviously the only relevant web search engine at the time. There was also Yahoo! Apparently, link farming was also working in it, along with many other search engines.
As you can understand, link farming was one of the best SEO strategies at the time, if not the best. People hardly put effort into building high-value backlinks, as quantity easily outweighed quality at the time.
Even after Google became the most popular online search engine, link farming lingered for a good while.
This black hat SEO method also changed over the years, mostly to adapt to search engine changes and find ways around Google’s different policies.
Over time, Google found ways to detect the weight of backlinks and started using this method to determine a page or domain’s authority. It can also detect link farms fairly easily nowadays, except maybe in some cases.
In the next section, we have explained the negative aspects of link farming to your site and how using this method is almost useless nowadays.
Negative Impacts of Link Farming
Before 2011, link farming was frequent on Google. However, that year and the following year, Google released two of its most popular updates, the Google Panda and Penguin.
The former between them was to remove any low-quality site from the high ranks by prioritizing the quality of the website’s content. This helped domains with actual helpful content rank higher.
Google Penguin came a bit later, and Google penalized many websites due to link farming and other black hat SEO techniques. It was a dark period for link farmers, as their years of efforts became useless in a matter of time.
This update duo impacted 3% of Google’s search results right after its release. Later, Google Penguin also received ten upgrades. At first, it was only an algorithm extension. After frequent updates, it became part of Google’s PageRank algorithm in 2016.
As you can guess, these employed rules are still there. What does that mean for any website owner? Well, let’s list them down below-
If you, as a site owner, use link farming to spam backlinks to your website, be ready to get penalized by Google. Google will flag and punish not only the link farm but also any site trying to benefit from using its backlinks.
Since link farms only hold low-quality websites, inbound links from them don’t contain much authority. Since the quality of the links is more valid now, you can’t expect your website to gain much value from link farming now.
Audiences who visit your site through a link farm may not be interested in your content. A good backlink should be relevant, which most link farms won’t be.
Moreover, if an audience accidentally comes across a link farm and then uses the link to your site, they may deem the latter as low quality as the former.
Websites in a link farm don’t rank that high or generate leads, so you can’t expect much traffic to come your way using these spammy links, either.
The JCPenny Incident
Unless you have been active in the SEO community in the last decade, you probably haven’t heard of the JCPenny website case.
As one of the biggest retailing companies in the world for fashion and similar products, it got the attention of big-name organizations, including the New York Times.
In 2011, they published an article describing how JCPenny.com had been using backlinks from various low-quality and irrelevant websites. These sites were in many different niches and organizations, some utterly unrelated to each other.
It was especially on the dress section of the site.
Thanks to that article, Google penalized the website not long after. It was one of the first big blows that Google Penguin dealt on a popular and big-profile site.

Source: The New York Times, SEJ, Search Engine Watch
This incident caught the attention of many in the SEO community at the time, and it acted as a warning for everyone. Nowadays, no SEO expert will recommend any method that even closely resembles link farming due to its danger.
How to Avoid Link Farms
There are various means to stay away from link farms successfully. Let us discuss some of them below.
Checking the Structure and Content of the Websites
Avoiding link farms starts with identifying them. You can tell them apart from actual good websites by checking some details. For example-
- Link farm content can be low quality, backdated, AI-generated, plagiarized, repetitive, or not user-friendly enough. While none of these guarantee that the site is a part of a link farm, they still raise the chance.
- Link farms may usually have broken links.
- The sites may not look professionally built, and they often have only one or a few pages.
- There will likely be too many hyperlinks nestled in each piece of content on the link farm sites. You can also check their Linked Domain report using Ahrefs’ outgoing links tool.
- If you don’t find an ‘about’ page or find it but there isn’t much information about the author, it increases the chance of it being a bot-created link farm.
Ignoring Their PageRank or Domain Authority
There are many SEO metrics that showcase a website’s value. Ones such as Domain Authority (DA) or PageRank are trendy. However, there are ways to increase them using different underhanded means.
Link farms often use these tactics to boost their SEO metric values. So, don’t take these values as a standard to determine a website’s legitimacy. Instead, check the site manually to find out whether it is the real thing.
Looking at the Anchor Texts
Whether AI or human-made, link farm content may contain many generic or casual texts. The anchor texts will usually be like ‘read more’ or ‘click here.’
Checking Their Backlink Profile
Use Ahrefs Site Explorer tool to check the backlink profile of the site you are suspicious about. If you see it having a really low Domain Authority despite being at least a few years old, then it is a low quality site.
Going for Proper Competitor Backlink Analysis
- You can use Ahrefs or Semrush to help you analyze your competitors and the backlinks they are receiving.
- Further research can help you find their best backlink sites.

- You can then request them to send backlinks to your site using blogs, forum posts, comments, etc. Creating better content than your competitor will increase your chance of getting quality backlinks.
- You can also mimic the procedures that your competitors followed to get backlinks from high-profile domains.
Getting links naturally like this is an ideal way to improve the link equity and value of your pages and domains.
Conclusion
While backlinks are one of the best keys to SEO ranking, using link farms isn’t the right way to do it. As a black hat technique, it will be very bad for your website. Inspecting a site’s various details can reveal many ways to know if it is a link farm.
The best way to get links organically is to write helpful and informative content that naturally attracts backlinks from quality websites. Of course, you will need to spend a significant amount of resources, time, and effort on getting backlinks manually, too.
Link Building Pricing: What Should Be Your Budget in 2024?
Small to medium-sized businesses spend anywhere from $100 to $2,000 per month in link building.
Larger brands in highly competitive markets can have up to $20,000 per month in their link building budget.
We agree that $200 to $20,000 is a huge range, and if you are searching for a specific pricing model for your own business, you have to look at several factors.
How competitive the market is in your niche is one of the primary factors that will determine how much you will need to spend to get ahead of your competition.
As one of the leading link-building agencies in the region with a successful track record, we can confidently say that you can’t have the same pricing model for every industry.
In this blog, we will dive into the exact factors that determine the cost of your link building campaign, whether you are in an industry with low competition or are trying to beat highly authoritative sites on niches like tech.
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How to Determine the Cost of Link Building
You can’t possibly set the same budget for every website’s link building campaign.
Many factors, small and large, come into play when we acquire links to improve the prosperity of our websites.
We’re not going to talk about every one of those facts. Instead, we compiled them all into these large four criteria that can help you set the cost of your website’s link building.
Domain Rating
Domain Rating (DR) is a metric developed by Ahrefs, one of the world’s leading SEO software.
This metric measures the strength of a website’s backlink profile on a scale from 0 to 100.

Higher DR = more visibility on Google.
It’s important to mention that Domain Rating is not the same as Domain Authority.
So, how does DR affect your link building pricing?
The higher the DR of a website, the more it may charge for a backlink. A link from a site with a DR between 50-70 might cost around $300, while a link from a site with a DR above 70 could be priced much higher, sometimes exceeding $1,000.
As a result, if you’re trying to get links from a website with very high DR, you will have to expand your budget.
Domain Authority
Similar to DR, Domain Authority (DA) is another metric that predicts how well a website will rank on search engine result pages (SERPs).
Developed by Moz, DA scores websites on a scale from 1 to 100. The higher the DA of a website, the more likely they are to rank.
If you are looking for a backlink from a high DA website, you will have to spend more on your link building campaign.
Content
Content is very important for link building.
Want to get links via guest posts? You will need to prepare high-quality blogs.
Looking to secure organic backlinks? Your website needs to have linkable content.
A huge chunk of your budget will be spent on content because websites are not likely to link to a landing page where readers can’t find valuable information.
According to Upwork’s Cassie Moorhead, you will have to spend $0.30-$0.50 per word for intermediate content writers.

This means you might need to spend $300 to $500 for a 1000-word article. You can drive the cost down by hiring freelance writers from third-world countries.
Industry
If you are in the SaaS industry, getting links can be much easier than in the finance field.
Competition in your field can highly influence link-building costs.
For example, getting a high-quality link from a reputable real estate website can cost way more compared to links from gaming websites.
Link Building Pricing: In House, Agencies & Freelancers
Most successful businesses either have an in-house team for link building or get the help of reputable agencies. It’s best to stay away from freelancers for link building, as they often provide low-quality links that do more harm than good.
Here’s what the pricing looks like for each mode of operation:
In House Pricing
You will need people and tools in these fields to have a full-fledged in-house team. The salary figures are based in the United States and can be different in other countries.
- Link Building Manager – $60K – $106K: An experienced manager will be the heart of your link building operation. They will be in charge of managing your team and developing and implementing link building strategies.
- Link Building Assistant – $40K – $60K: This entry-level position focuses on the day-to-day tasks associated with link acquisition, such as outreach, content distribution, and tracking the success of link-building efforts.
- Writer – $48,000: You’ll need an experienced writer to craft well-made guest posts and blogs for your own websites. They will be responsible for SEO-friendly content that supports link acquisition efforts.
- Link Cost – $2,000/month: Yes, buying links is usually a no. But it’s going to be near-impossible to secure links from high authority websites without spending for links. Getting 5-6 high-quality links can cost you around $2,000 a month.
- Software: $590/month: You will need SEO tools like Ahrefs, outreach software like Mailshake, and anything that can make your team more efficient. Let’s assume $590 per month for all the tools (this is a lower-end budget, by the way!).
Cost Component | Monthly Cost | Annual Cost |
Link Building Manager | $5,000 – $8,833 | $60,000 – $106,000 |
Link Building Assistant | $3,333 – $5,000 | $40,000 – $60,000 |
Writer | $4,064 | $48,763 |
Link Cost | $2,000 | $24,000 |
SEO Tools | $590 | $7,080 |
Total | $14,987 – $20,487 | $175,843 – $245,843 |
It’s safe to assume that you will have to spend around $15,000 to run an in-house team for link building in the United States. You can run down the cost significantly by hiring talents from overseas.
From our calculations, getting link building managers, assistants and writers with offshoring can cost $100K+ annually or around $9K per month. Here’s our breakdown:
Cost Component | Monthly Cost (Overseas) | Annual Cost (Overseas) |
Link Building Manager | $2,500 – $4,167 | $30,000 – $50,000 |
Link Building Assistant | $1,667 – $2,500 | $20,000 – $30,000 |
Writer | $1,667 – $2,500 | $20,000 – $30,000 |
Link Cost | $2,000 | $24,000 |
SEO Tools | $590 | $7,080 |
Total | $8,424 – $11,757 | $101,080 – $141,080 |
Agency Pricing
Having an in-house team for link building allows you to control the operation with much more precision. However, it’s also expensive for start-ups.
The pricing model for link building can vary based on different agencies.

One of the world’s leading link building agencies, Linkbuilder.io, charges $2999 to $19,999 per month in their packages.
Some agencies can charge based on campaigns, with the cost range being $15,000 to $30,000 per campaign.
Others may charge a specific number per link, with each link costing $400 – $1,500. However, there is no guarantee of the quality.
Freelancer Pricing
If you look at Fiverr or other freelance websites, people will offer hundreds of “high DR” backlinks in exchange for only $100.

Even though freelancers will claim to “use white-hat methods” to get these links, it’s almost always from link farms that will hurt your website.
However, you can still find qualified freelancers who can do specific link building tasks for you, including outreach or guest blogging.
Instead of going for individuals who will offer a comical number of links in exchange for money, go for someone who can work with you to secure links from reputable sites and will focus more on quality than quantity.
Getting the Best Value Out of Link Building Campaign
To achieve the best Return on Investment (ROI) from your link-building campaign, it’s essential to adopt a strategic approach that –
- Focuses on quality over quantity
- Leverages relationships and
- Aligns with your overall SEO and marketing goals
Here are some tips that can help you get the best ROI out of your link building project:
Focus on Quality over Quantity
Quality links from authoritative and relevant sites have a more significant impact on your SEO than a larger number of low-quality links.
High-quality backlinks can improve your site’s authority, increase traffic, and ultimately contribute to higher search engine rankings.
Create the Best Content
Develop content that naturally attracts backlinks because of its value, uniqueness, or informativeness.
Original research, comprehensive guides, infographics, or tools that serve your target audience’s needs are excellent options.
Relation Building
In-house teams have the advantage of being deeply aligned with your brand’s voice and goals. Use this to build long-term relationships with key influencers, bloggers, and other websites in your niche.
Personalized outreach can lead to more consistent and high-quality link opportunities.
Measure and Adjust
Use analytics tools to track the performance of your link-building efforts.
Monitor metrics like referral traffic, domain authority improvement, and rankings for targeted keywords.
Adjust your strategy based on what’s working and what’s not.
Diversify Strategies
Don’t rely on a single tactic.
Combine various strategies like guest blogging, broken link building, creating shareable infographics, and participating in industry forums or Q&A sites.
Buying Links – Yes or No?
Let’s get to the elephant in the room. Should you buy links?
This is a controversial and complex topic, and Google itself isn’t a fan of it.
Instead of giving you a simple yes or no answer (yes, we know it’s annoying when blogs do this), we will give you the arguments for and against buying links.
Arguments Against Buying Links
- Google Penalties: Google’s algorithms have become increasingly adept at detecting paid links. If Google determines that you’ve bought backlinks, your site could suffer a significant drop in search rankings or even be removed from search results entirely.
- Risk of Low-Quality Links: Many services that sell backlinks may not provide links from reputable or relevant sites.
- Short-Term Gains, Long-Term Risks: While buying links might offer a temporary boost in rankings, the long-term risks associated with being penalized by Google can outweigh these short-term benefits.
Arguments For Buying Links
- Time and Resource Efficiency: Building organic backlinks is a time-consuming process that involves creating high-quality content, outreach, and relationship building. Buying links can be seen as a shortcut to achieve similar results in a shorter time frame.
- Difficulty in Detection: Some argue that if done carefully—buying high-quality links from reputable sources in a way that mimics natural link building—it can be difficult for search engines to detect as paid links.
- Widespread Practice: Despite the risks, the practice remains relatively common in certain competitive industries where the benefits can outweigh the potential penalties.
It’s always better to get links organically. But it’s going to be your decision at the end of the day.
Conclusion
Remember, you don’t always have to spend the most to get the best results. In fact, you must be efficient to secure a decent ROI.
Just because you are putting down as high as a $20K budget per month on link building does not mean that you will secure high-quality backlinks that can drive SERP ranking and traffic.
Some businesses are spending way less and getting excellent results thanks to their unique strategy.
However, sometimes you may not have any choice but to spend a big chunk of your digital marketing budget on link building, especially if you are in a very competitive market.
How Many Backlinks Needed to Rank Higher in Google Search
The number of backlinks necessary for a page or website to rank higher is not definitive.
It depends on many important factors, and we are not just going to give you a random number that’s not going to work for everyone.
Link-building requires time and effort and often takes resources to maintain a reputation and stay in competition. So, despite its importance, many fail in this sector, and we don’t want you to join them either.
Knowing the number of backlinks you may need is crucial if you want your SEO strategy to be efficient.
This article will show you the factors that determine how many backlinks you may need and help you find a suitable number for your website.
We will also go into how unnatural link velocity can be problematic for your page.
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Factors That Affect the Number of Backlinks Required for a Site
Researching the various case studies relevant to backlinks is worth your time as it can give an insight into how many backlinks world-class websites use.
However, looking into your competitors can be the best strategy since your website is in a particular niche.
Let us show you some factors that can help you calculate the number of backlinks ideal for your website –
1. Number and Level of Competitors
We believe you already know that some niches have higher competitors than others.
Usually, this type of competition comes down to link-building strategies aside from some other factors.
If you check the number one and tenth results of a Google search page, their differences are more likely their backlink quality and quantity than others.
You should often research your competitors to see their number of backlinks as well as the sites they usually link to. It will also give you an idea of the possible backlink quantity for your own website.
Moreover, the number of your competitors will also come into play here.
If there are more of them, you must focus more on link-building. So, more backlinks will be necessary here.
But if the competition is low at the moment, then you can take it easy.
We won’t necessarily tell you to use fewer incoming links here since it depends on other factors. However, you can probably make do with it.
Finally, the level of competitors may also be crucial here.
Suppose you have a few competitors in your niche. Good news for you, until you notice that they are still way out of reach because of their high crowd and popularity.
In this case, those few competitors may work the same way as having so many.
The point here is that if your competitors are doing so well and are on a high level, you will have to put more backlinks into your site’s pages to keep up.
2. Reputation of the Sites You Are Link-Building with
If you think about it, linking your pages with a website with a high crowd will benefit you more than doing it with multiple sites with low popularity. The reputations of your linked sites are the key to this.
Moreover, if you plan to collaborate with influencers as part of your link-building scheme, their popularity and community size may also affect your backlink numbers.
Simply put, the more renowned your linked sites are, the less backlinks you may need. Quality is better than quantity here.
3. Type of the Sites You Are Link-Building with
When searching for sites to get backlinks, we suggest going for ones that may have crowds interested in the contents of your site. That way, more people will likely click on those links and visit your pages.
Staying close to your niche when picking sites to build links will help you get more reach with fewer backlinks.
4. The Pages You Are Building Backlinks to
Determining which pages to use is crucial as you are not building backlinks to your whole site but to specific pages.
Here are two things you should remember during the process-
- People are more inclined to click on a link to an informative and helpful page rather than one to a commercial or uninteresting page.
- Pages on your websites with keywords beneficial to your service and business and attract more leads will be the best picks.
We have explained how to find these specific pages and keywords later in this article.
How to Determine the Number of Backlinks Needed to Rank
After reading so far, you may already have an idea of the actions needed to get more leads with fewer backlinks.
Next, we have described some steps to help you calculate and find an appropriate quantity of links needed to build-
Find the Pages to Build Backlinks to
As we have discussed, you only need to find the pages with keywords worth building backlinks to. The process isn’t that complex once you get the hang of it.
- Use tools like the Google Search Console to find the best keywords on your website that will help you stay on the first three pages of Google.
Semrush free trial is another option. These are free, but for better keywords, use paid SEO tools like Ahrefs or Semrush.
- Some of the keywords you find will be more related to your business. Find and list them.
Remember to avoid the ones with higher traffic and competition, as it will be hard to compete against those if your site has a low authority score.
Rather, focus on the keywords with balanced traffic, like around 200-500 search volumes. You want to have these keywords in the pages on which you will build backlinks.
Finding the Link Gap Between Your Competitors and You
Finding the link gap will help you calculate the necessary backlink number.
So, what is the link gap, you may wonder.
It is the number of backlinks for any specific keywords you need to build to take you to the first three spots of a Google search.
You will need Semrush or Ahrefs to find this link gap.
- Get your shortlist of keywords and search with each one. Then, see if and how many sites are in the top ten ranking with a domain authority (or Domain Rating in Ahrefs) similar to yours for any keyword. Make a list of the top three websites you find in this way.

- Now, check the specific backlinks that are helping these three websites rank at the top three spots for the given ranking page by inspecting their backlink profiles.
Note: When using the SEO tool, use the Dofollow filter. You can ignore the Nofollow one.
Basically, click on each website and find the number of high-authority backlinks they are using. One of them is using a higher number of strong links than the other two, right?

For example, let’s say the number of strong links worth paying attention to for each of the three websites are as follows-
- First website- 5 links
- Second website- 3 links
- Third website- 2 links
Here, you will need at least five high-authority backlinks if you want to get to the top three ranks using any given keyword.
As we can see, the backlink quantity is never a solid number and depends mostly on your competitors, especially the high-ranked ones. So, assessing the backlink profiles of these rival domains is vital.
Building Backlinks to Your Pages
Once you find the number of backlinks that may take you to the top, take the most optimal steps to use this information. As we have told you before, building backlinks can be very challenging.
Outsourcing the links is a standard method, especially when you have few competitors. But if you do have many, you can quicken the process by analyzing theirs. Let us discuss both ways here-
Backlink Analysis Method
The backlink analysis method involves checking your competitor’s backlinks and duplicating their best ones. Pretty simple, we shall say.
- Search on Google with any target keyword from your shortlist to find your competitors.
- Take the top five results.

- Use Ahrefs and analyze their backlinks like before (referring domains). Check their most high-profile backlinks. Target these specific sites to build a link.
- Check what method your competitor used to build their link with those sites.
Be it a forum post, guest post, comment, etc., you can use a similar method. Of course, try making your posts or comments look more enticing and updated than your competitors. It will increase the chance of the website linking you.
We often use Ahrefs Alert to get emails whenever a particular competitor’s page gets a new link. It allows us to replicate the said link using the same method as above.
Link Buying Method
Outsourcing is another option if building backlinks seems too complex for you, which is understandable given the number of necessary steps. It helps save time, too.
For this method, you may have to get a link-building service.
- First, find the number of backlinks needed to rank
- Then buy them with the assistance of any service or yourself
You can buy links yourself, as many popular and worthy high-profile websites offer people the option to buy backlinks to their pages. Many may even have a subscription-based service to continue keeping the backlinks on their sites.
Google’s stance on this is questionable. We explained it in another section below.
Making Better Contents Than Competitors to Help with Backlinks
Creating more informative and helpful content than your competitors will do more than just attract readers directly. It also gives you a better chance at gaining backlinks from reputable sources.
When you have better content, you can contact the websites linking to your competitors and recommend using your pages to link instead. Suppose the website owners or managers find your content to be
- More engaging
- Rich with information and infographics
- Updated regularly
They will be more likely to use your content to link rather than your competitor’s comparatively low-quality content. We find it pretty effective.
You may be wondering- how is it related to the number of backlinks? Here is the answer-
If you manage to convince high-profile websites to replace their backlinks from your top competitors with yours, that will lessen the number of total backlinks you will need to rank. On the one hand, your competitor is losing a valuable backlink. On the other hand, you are gaining one. A win-win situation, isn’t it?
In case you haven’t noticed, it is the skyscraper technique. It will help you gain an edge over your competitors while lessening your required backlink number. Additionally, you may save money.
Finding Skyscraper Content
Now you know the connection between the skyscraper technique and the backlink number you need.
However, finding the skyscraper content (content with lots of backlinks) is a perfect step to utilize this method.
We should also mention that it is not easy to find the ideal skyscraper content for your niche or keyword.
The Standard Way to Find Skyscraper Content
The following is the method many use to find skyscraper content-
- Use Ahrefs Site Explorer to search for a renowned domain within your niche.
- Visit Pages
- Select Best by Links
- As it shows many posts with lots of backlinks (referring domains or RD), choose some. Pick the ones you know you can make better content in comparison.
(Add picture of Ahrefs Site Explorer, searching a popular website, go to pages– best by links, and highlight a couple results with a high RD and Dofollow)
- Analyze their backlink profile and pick suitable high-profile links to pitch in your improved content.
However, it may come as a challenge. It may be tricky to make better content than some of these competitors. Moreover, the process may require you to pitch in hundreds to thousands of skyscraper prospects.Ahref
So, you can go for the other method.
The Convenient Way to Find Skyscraper Content
This is the method we like to use due to its simplicity, convenience, and effectiveness.
Instead of Site Explorer, we will use Content Explorer here. With this method, you will create an amazing piece first. Afterward, you can find skyscraper content of lesser quality than yours and pitch to their prospects (i.e., backlink websites).
- Go to Content Explorer and search with the target keyword of your piece that you are confident with.
- Use the Referring Domain filter to show only skyscraper content with 100+ referring domains.
(Add picture of Ahrefs Content Explorer, searching with a suitable keyword and set the referring domain to 100-max)
- Browse through the search results and find content about the same topic as yours, but not as good. Prioritize ones that haven’t been updated in a long time. If it is a listicle, go for ones with a shorter and less informative list than yours.
- Analyze the page’s backlink profile, find the skyscraper prospects, and pitch in your piece, recommending to replace it with yours.
As your content is superior from many angles, the websites will likely replace the backlink from that competitor’s page with yours.
Of course, you can go for posts with a higher number of referring domains, too, if you can take the time to pitch to all the prospects. We only recommend doing it once you have enough resources and manpower.
Backlink Number and Velocity
You can probably already see it, but link velocity has a direct connection to the backlink number of your pages. Also known as the growth rate, it is the rate of backlinks or incoming links to any of your pages or the whole domain.
After you find the necessary backlink numbers for your site, you will try to catch up and take over your competitors. But it is easier said than done.
Many of your competitors may have thousands of backlinks in their domain or even a single page. So, how can you keep up with that? Well, we can mainly advise you to try your best.
While a higher link velocity doesn’t guarantee steady growth, inspecting your competitor’s velocity is worth it. It will allow you to know the appropriate link velocity for your own pages within similar keywords.
Can Too Many Backlinks Cause Negative Ranking- Google’s Response
Let’s say your website ranks at the top spot you wanted it to be. It is also vastly popular now. For starters, congratulations!
The good news is that you may start getting more backlinks easily at that point. Or is it?
According to Google’s search advocate, John Mueller, link velocity doesn’t necessarily affect your domain negatively. In fact, Google doesn’t even recognize link velocity as a gauge to rank pages. Instead, they assess the individual links.
However, there is a catch to it. You see, Mueller also said in the same discussion that a sudden influx to link velocity may make it look suspicious. Google will only deem it an issue if-
- The links are unnatural,
- You buy them yourself, or
- You buy them via a third party.
Yes, you heard that right: Google doesn’t really support the purchase of backlinks, as it seems from Mueller’s speech.
The SEO of your pages may have a negative impact if your link-building is unnatural. It hardly matters if the link velocity is high or low.
Conclusion
As one of the best ranking factors, backlinks are one important aspect of your pages to focus on. You don’t have to go blindly since you know how to calculate the necessary number of backlinks now.
Unfortunately, when utilizing SEO tools, you can hardly go anywhere with the free ones. Link-building will be a costly and lengthy process. We suggest you carefully complete the steps we explained and win that sweet top spot.
What Is Link Equity? – A Comprehensive Guide to Enhancing Your SEO Strategy
Link equity or link juice is an interesting and vital SEO factor that Google uses as an algorithm to rank sites or pages.
It is the process or idea of channeling the authority and value of one page to another via links. While you may find it similar to another concept called PageRank, there are differences (that we will discuss in this article).
Having ample knowledge of this factor will help you strengthen your site’s SEO. It may also help you pick websites for link-building, among many options.
In this article, we will explore the various ins and outs of link equity and explain everything in detail. Additionally, we discussed the factors that determine link equity and how well it will work.
Table of Contents
Understanding Page Authority
Link equity has a direct connection to page authority since the latter is what passes during the former.
In case you didn’t know, page authority is the numerical value of a page’s ability to rank on Google search engine results. It can be anywhere between 0 and 100; a higher score means it is better for the page.
This score can pass between pages during link-building, causing the link equity process.
We should clarify that Google doesn’t necessarily use PA as one of its algorithms when ranking a page. However, they do use the same factors that give a page a higher authority.
So, a page with a high authority is likely to rank higher in search engines; it doesn’t do it itself. PA is a collateral factor to a high rank, not casual.
Explanation of Link Equity in a Metaphorical Manner
We understand that the concept of link equity may seem vague for any start-up. After all, it is intertwined with some other factors of SEO. So, let us show you a quick metaphorical explanation of link equity here.
Suppose you own page A, which doesn’t have much authority yet. Meanwhile, page B is a high-profile website with a high PA score.
Now, imagine the two pages as two water tanks, where one is almost filled with water (page B), and the other only has a small amount (page A). This water represents the authority of the pages.
When we build a link between them, like a thin pipeline, we can expect some water to go from page B to page A. This way, some value or authority is transferred from one to the other.
Because link equity works this way, it is also called link juice. Did you notice that the water here doesn’t really represent the popularity or reach of the pages but their authority?
Yes, that is a crucial factor because link equity doesn’t directly talk about the transfer of organic traffic but authority. In our previous example, we can think of these visitors and other factors as something mixed in the water. The authority of the page depends on these factors.
You can expect your site’s visitors to increase because of the links, but it is not necessarily the same as authority transfer.
How much value a link can transfer may depend on the potential number of visitors it can pass. But that is not the case for no-followed links.
Because of this, even link equity is also not always guaranteed. It depends on some factors.
Let us explain them to you next.
Link Equity Determining Factors
When thinking of link equity, we expect it to pass value between different pages. However, this transfer can get blocked or slowed by several underlying factors. We listed them below-
Relevance of the Link
In order for Link Juice to work, the backlink to the site must be relevant.
For example, let’s say that your pages contain blogs on different features of a compact digital camera. This page got an incoming link from a page about DIY gazebo-building tips. As we can see here, the topics are very dissimilar, and the link is not relevant at all.
Google can tell when the links are irrelevant. These types of links don’t usually pass that much authority.
Position of the Link on the Linking Page
When ranking or checking our pages, Google crawlers inspect their structure, aside from various other factors. This information gives Google the necessary data of where they should rank on SERP.
Since the link’s position on the page is a part of its architecture, it also plays a crucial role in determining the authority of the said page.
So, let’s say that the link is in the footer. In that case, crawlers may deem it of less value (except for certain pages) than links placed on the article’s main body. Basically, Google wants the link to actually help the audience. They want it to be somewhere easily noticeable.
As such, links positioned perfectly on a page will allow more link equity.
Number of Links on the Linking Page
Let’s say that a linking page has hundreds of links on it, one of which is linked to your page. Now, when Google inspects the former page, they will take in the fact that more links mean individual links are less helpful for an audience.
The backlink to your page can be lost among all the links on the linking page. So, you may not get many visitors to your page. Google will hold this fact when determining the value of that backlink in helping your page rank.
In turn, you will get less value or authority passed by that link.
HTTP Status of the Linked Page
According to Google, all redirects pass PageRank (their old link equity measurement). That includes not only 200s or 301 permanent redirects but also temporary 302s.
You may wonder why it is relevant to link equity. Well, among the redirects we mentioned above, the former two can smoothly allow link equity in all search engines. Moreover, they also provide other advantages. But let’s not digress ourselves.
Meanwhile, the temporary 302s may not work in other search engines outside Google and not work as well in retaining link juice.
PA of the Linking Site
Remember our earlier example of two water tanks? Think about it- more water can pass from page B to page A if the former has a higher amount.
Similarly, if a page has a high page authority, then an incoming link from this page to yours will generate more link equity. Thus, your page can benefit more from this.
That’s why you should focus more on pages with high authority and visitors while link-building.
Crawlable or Not
In case you didn’t know, crawlers can be blocked from certain pages. You can do it with the robots.txt file. It is a command that tells the link to avert that page when inspecting a site.
As you can expect, the crawlers won’t take that page into account. So, any link from that page won’t provide any page authority or value to yours. It can still pass visitors, though.
No-follow or Do-follow
Similar to the previous point, the no-followed links get ignored by crawlers. Unlike the robot.txt file, which blocks crawlers from a page, the no-follow command blocks crawlers from inspecting a link.
Link equity can only happen via a link if it is do-followed. But this sentence is yet to be confirmed, and many believe no-followed links still pass some authority. But it definitely doesn’t do it as much as do-followed ones.
Not to mention, no-followed links have other benefits, and you need some of them for your backlink profile to be natural.
Importance and Benefits of Link Equality
Since you have followed this blog so far, you may already have a rough idea of how link equity can benefit a page.
However, while we used terms like pass or transfer here, they don’t quite explain link juice well. This process doesn’t necessarily decrease the value of the linking site while increasing the value of the linked one.
Moreover, link equity can also happen through internal linking. We can increase the authority of one of our pages by getting links from another of our pages with high PA. It can also keep the links relevant.
We know that backlinks have many advantages, like generating leads and crowds. Link equity is one of them.
Let us also clarify to you that aside from page authority, link equity can also increase your domain authority. After all, the latter is also calculated using the number and quality of backlinks.
Finally, link equity can also increase the trustworthiness of your pages to Google, especially when the links come from a renowned website.
How to Measure Link Equity
There is no definitive unit of measurement for link equity. However, you can still get a rough idea of your site’s link juice by inspecting its backlink profile.
We mostly try the following steps-
Checking Your Site’s PageRank
PageRank is almost irrelevant now since Google no longer counts it when ranking sites. It is still useful, though. The more PageRank a site has, the higher link authority it will pass to your page.
PageRank scales from 0 to 10. Note that this measurement is not that accurate nowadays.
Checking the Domain Rating or Authority
If you want a more accurate result than PageRank, the DA or DR can help. But again, neither of these is used by Google, so the units are still not absolute.
Domain authority and domain rating are measurements of the authority of a domain created by Moz and Ahrefs in accordance. They both scale from 0 to 100.
Check the DA of your linking sites. Ones with higher DA or DR can cause more link equity to your pages.

Utilizing Google Search Console
Since you probably already know how to use Google Search Console, we won’t go into too much detail. Our point here is that you can understand your site’s link equity using this tool, too. Let us give you a short rundown of the process-
- Visit Google Search Console and verify your domain following their instruction.

- Go to its ‘Search Traffic’ then ‘Links to Your Site’.
- You can see all the sites linking to your page in order and all your top linked pages (both external and internal linking).
Now you have an idea of your pages with high link equity as well as sites that are passing more link juice.
Utilizing Paid Tools
If you want, you can also use paid tools like Ahrefs, Moz, or Semrush. All of them will require you to create an account first. Afterwards-
- For Semrush, click on the ‘Backlink Analytics’ in the sidebar.
- For Ahrefs, click on ‘Backlink.’
- For Moz, click on the ‘Inbound Link’ tab.
They will then show you a detailed analysis of your pages’ backlinks, indicating their link equity. Also, they show better results than free tools.
How to Build and Maximize Link Equity
In this section, we explain in-depth the various processes of increasing the link equity to your pages and domain. Don’t worry, as they will be simpler than they sound.
Creating a Diverse Backlink Profile
During link equity to your page, the process transfers authority from the linking page as well as the domain.
Getting more than one backlink from the same site may increase the link equity of your page. However, too many links from the same site may not provide as much link juice as you expect.
Google will deem your page more authoritative when you get links from a high-profile site, but many links from that site won’t contribute much to this.
As such, you should diversify your backlink profile. Try going for several high-profile websites to get backlinks from.
In that way, you can expect a steady link equity from multiple websites since Google will see that many high-profile sites are linking to your page or domain simultaneously.
Check the picture below for example-

It showcases the page having (the number of high-quality referring domains in the picture) websites providing backlinks to it. As you can expect, the page has a high link equity and PageRank.
Staying within Your Industry
During one of our previous sections, we explained how it is important for backlinks to be relevant to your page.
You must get backlinks from websites or pages within your industry or niche. Otherwise, we are afraid the link equity won’t work as intended.
Internal Linking
You probably already know what internal linking is or how to use it best, so we won’t go there. Our point here is that if you want to increase your page’s link equity, you must also focus on internal linking.
Try putting backlinks on your high-authoritative pages to your low-value ones to elevate the link juice of the latter. Needless to say, utilizing proper anchor texts is also a good step here.
Do note that internal linking may only share authority from one page to another within your domain. So, it won’t directly increase your overall domain’s authority.
How to Manage Link Equity
Getting backlinks from spammy or low-profile sites will do the opposite of getting them from reputable sites. If Google notices that you are getting lots of backlinks from such a website, it will deem your pages less trustworthy.
Thus, the process will reduce the link equity of your site. In order to manage a steady link equity, we suggest you try the following-
First Step: Beware of Negative SEO Attacks
Targeted SEO attacks can be a common practice in many industries. One of their common variations is to create various backlinks to your page on a spammy website.
Once Google’s crawlers notice that your website is getting a sudden increase in backlinks, they get suspicious. If they find out that the links are from such low-quality or spammy sites, Google can lower your page authority or, even worse, penalize your site.
In order to avoid decreasing your link equity, we suggest occasionally checking your backlink profile. If there are backlinks from spammy websites, you can disavow or no-follow them.
However, if you can remove the links by contacting that site’s owners, then try that before taking other options. We must mention to you that disavowing without careful consideration can have negative consequences for your site.
How to Identify Spammy Websites
Identifying spammy websites in your backlink profile is key to keeping your link equity from going down. The process is simple. Let me explain-
Backlink Inspection to Check for Spammy Sites
The first method is simple, where we only need to use any SEO tool like Ahrefs or Google Search Console.
When inspecting your site’s backlink profile, you may notice that some sites linking you have a really lower DR or DA than others. These are most probably spammy websites or low-quality ones.
We won’t recommend you start no-following every backlink from the listed domains. Some of them can be legitimate good sites, but they are just starting. That is when our second point below comes into play.
Traffic Observation
A link to your site can provide sufficient value, mostly if it can provide referral traffic. So, if it can’t manage to do that steadily, then don’t expect the link to allow much link equity either.
Needless to say, spammy or low-quality sites won’t send much organic traffic your way.
After you check for such websites through backlink analysis, you can check each of them manually. Keep them only if the page actually-
- Has helpful and informative content
- Is within the same industry or niche as yours
This goes without saying: Don’t spam links.
Second Step: Balancing No-follow and Do-follow Links
While it may seem like no-follow links are useless due to them not passing authorities, they still have their merits.
We all want a steady link equity and to make our backlink profile seem natural to Google. For that, a balance between no-follow and do-follow links is necessary.
Conclusion
We hope our blog gives you a proper idea of link equity and its relevance to your site’s ranking. Its condition depends on the effective link-building of your site. Meanwhile, content is important for link-building.
9 Reasons Why Link Building Is Hard
Link building comes with a number of challenges and various difficulties, and knowing them is a must for any site owner willing to rank.
Given the importance of link building, it is not ignorable and must be done carefully for optimal results.
The process expands from creating quality content to keeping it up to date and contacting high authority sites for backlinks.
Unfortunately, many underestimate the obstacles they will face and go at it blindly, only to struggle to reach their desired spot on SERP.
Today’s blog will list all the various reasons why link building is hard and how you can deal with them.
Table of Contents
Short Understanding of Link Building
Link building is creating a good backlink profile for your domain by getting backlinks from other websites to your pages. While it may sound so simple, the process is very tricky, we are afraid.
On the one hand, you must keep your content genuine, informative, and helpful to attract more valuable backlinks.
On the other hand, the backlinks your pages receive must be relevant and from authoritative websites for them to work best.
Of course, your pages must also be updated regularly to keep their value intact and not lose backlinks.
An effective link building process can help you out with the following-
- Attracting more organic traffic to your pages within your community
- Getting more followers on your domain
- Help Google find you more trustworthy and authoritative and rank you higher on the search engine
- Allow more community engagement in your domain
Why Link Building Is Difficult
According to a study by Conductor, 41% of SEO experts consider link building as the most challenging tactic, right above keyword research.
Link building takes time, resources, and effort to work the best. Moreover, we need creativity, persistence, and expertise to perform the necessary steps.
Due to these issues and risks, many often fail at link building. Some of them go to link building services for help.
Let us show you the challenges you may face while building backlinks below to help you better prepare.
1. Creating Quality Content
Before you go to your targeted website to build links, you must have high-quality content in mind.
As you can see, any high-profile website may only link to your page if the content is actually worth it. It must be informative, practical, authentic, up-to-date, and helpful for the audience.
So, building the content first as best as you can will be a must.

Now, it is easier said than done since quality content requires ample knowledge of the community’s queries. It also may require keyword research using various SEO tools.
Your blog or videos must be relevant to your service or industry and easily shareable. It should also be friendly and optimized for smartphones, social media platforms, and Google search engines.
Finally, the writing must be engaging and alluring.
2. Reaching Websites Manually
Unfortunately, you can’t automate the process of reaching high-profile websites to convince them to build links to your domain.
Yes, many attempts to use bots to spam blog comments, but those are not hard for site owners and Google to identify. It will do the opposite of what you planned.
So, you must manually reach the website and add guest posts, blog comments, or join forums to establish your presence. These posts and comments must be as engaging and attractive as your content.
Moreover, finding suitable websites to target for link building takes time. We use SEO tools like Ahrefs or Semrush in this.
Your to-do list here may include-
- Identifying the pages to get links to
- Finding relevant and highly authoritative websites within your industry or niche to get links from
- Deciding how you must approach each specific website, be it a post, comment, forum discussion, or email
- Checking your site’s backlinks profile often to know how many backlinks you have obtained
3. Spending Time on Competitor Analysis
All the processes we have included so far will take much of your time to manage. That is if we guess you are not getting any link building service for help,
But the time spent here won’t just stop at getting the links. It will continue to take your time by requiring you to stay at the top of the competition.
We must warn you here that competition for link building is quite intense. Be careless for a while, and you may see your high-value backlinks being replaced by other websites.
In order to solve this, competitor analysis is mandatory.

4. Spending a Good Sum of Money
Building links costs money and a high sum at that. Of course, if you get links from low-quality and spammy websites, that won’t cost much but also negatively affect your SEO.
In order to get backlinks from high-profile websites, you may have to pay them a certain amount. Moreover, some of them will ask you to subscribe with a monthly payment.
Note that Google does not favor buying links like this. However, they don’t really pay much attention or have any way of knowing about any transaction. So, it is safer than you may think.
You can choose two options here.
- Either getting help from a link building service. Or,
- Getting backlinks yourselves.
Now, both of them cost money. For example, any link building service will come at a cost, which can be subscription-based.
Meanwhile, if you want to get the backlinks yourself, that often costs more. It may involve-
- Hiring freelancers to create quality content, like blogs, videos, infographics, etc., for your page.
- Paying money to the linking website within your industry.
- Using paid tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, Moz, etc.
- Paying any specialist to help with the guest posts or comments.
Note that handling all the SEO sectors alone can get overwhelming, so hiring a specialist can be imperative.
You must assess your budget carefully and ensure your link building project takes as little money as possible. After all, you will still need more money for your business, marketing, or service.
5. Staying Persistence and Experiencing Rejection
It goes without saying that you may face lots of rejections when you start your new link building program. There can be different reasons behind this. Let us give some examples-
- Perhaps the website isn’t offering backlinks at the moment.
- Maybe the site already has an excellent linking relationship with one of your competitors and isn’t willing to replace it.
- Your idea, content, or approach may not be to their liking.
- It is possible that your emails have ended up in their spam folders due to the high number of emails high-profile websites receive.
- The website may be getting lots of emails from your competitors, and some of them are offering better content.
- The website may charge a high fee that you don’t want to pay.
Overall, you must be ready to face such failures and keep on going with perseverance. The process may be gradual, but slow and steady wins the race.
6. Finding Relevant and Authoritative Websites
You should put more emphasis on the search for finding specific websites for your backlinking strategy. Remember that the linking site must be relevant to your industry for more link equity.
However, it is way easier said than done. Most websites you find after searching any keyword may not be relevant. Your goal here must be to get websites as close to your niche as possible. It will attract more people to click the links.
Let’s say your domain is on Gardening Tips, and you searched with the keyword- Backyard Decoration Ideas.
While you may find results specific to this keyword, when you check their domain, it can be related to other niches, like weddings, gazebo-building, etc.
It may take so much to find the perfect websites for a single target non-branded keyword, let alone multiple. Some relevant ones you see may not be highly authoritative either.
It can be an ideal practice to find and target your competitor’s backlinks by checking their backlink profiles. You can try Ahrefs’ site explorer for it, as shown in the following picture.

7. Keeping up with Google Updates
As we constantly handle link building tasks, we know how tricky it can be to update everything according to Google updates.
When making content or trying to rank higher, you need to maintain different policies set by Google. Consider it as the Google search engine law, where doing anything outside the policy can penalize your content, leading to a lower search ranking.
There have been various cases in the past where Google suddenly rolled out new policies and penalized a number of websites. For example, the Penguin Update of 2012 was a target towards sites that used spammy measures to rank higher.
Moreover, another update a couple of years back decreased the importance of keywords in SEO and increased the role of content quality.
Let’s say that all your SEO practices and backlinking process are now according to Google’s policies. However, it can very well violate any new policy they add tomorrow.
That is why you must stay ready, track Google updates, and update your content according to it. It is best to keep your content helpful and refrain from resorting to any underhanded means to rank. We suggest not underestimating Google’s crawlers.
This leads us to our next point.
8. Avoiding Black Hat SEO
Remember that we mentioned ‘underhanded means’ in our previous section? Well, these are called black hat SEO by Google.
Black hat SEO usually gives the audience a low-quality experience. It also involves spamming keywords, backlinks, repetitive posts, blog comments, etc.
Buying backlinks is also a type of black hat SEO, but they are not as targeted nowadays. Regardless, you must still be careful Google doesn’t notice it.
9. Following the Trends
Consumer behaviors change all the time. If you are in any business or marketing sector, you will probably change your service according to these changes.
However, the same goes for your content, such as blogs, videos, infographics, listicles, etc. Maybe people were more attracted to your content since it was trendy for a while.
Unfortunately, that can change, and your site’s ranking may drop after some months or years. The crowd hardly sticks to one website unless it can provide them with new, updated, and improved content.
So, your best strategy here is to know the consumer psychology and shift your content keywords according to these. Needless to say, it will take a massive amount of time, resources, and effort, aside from expertise and creativity.
Conclusion
After following so far, you probably think link building is way too tricky for people without experience, which is somewhat true. However, you will need to practice it to build expertise.
But if you can’t spare time or effort, consider spending money on any service that can help you. The good news is that it actually costs less than doing it yourself.
From Zero to Hero: A Start-Up’s Journey Through Effective Link Building
Link building is the hardest aspect of search engine optimization (SEO), but it is also the most important one.
It is even more challenging for start-ups to secure quality backlinks, as getting outreach from reputable sites is difficult without having a solid brand identity.
However, there’s no avoiding this part of your SEO checklist. As a start-up, your success will hugely depend on how successful your link building campaign is.
So, how do you overcome such challenges and ensure that your start-up secures high-quality links?
The answer isn’t simple, and you will need a strategy unique to your brand. For a start, you can have a look at our in-depth link-building guide for start-ups.
Stick around till the end to read our advanced link building strategies!
Table of Contents
Understanding Link Building
Before we get into link building, it’s essential to understand what a backlink is.
Backlink: A link used by a website when it links to a page of another website.
For example, this is a backlink that leads to Ahrefs. The link is considered an inbound link for Ahrefs’ website.
Link Building: Link building is an SEO technique of getting other websites to link to your website. It is the practice of securing quality backlinks.
Importance of Link Building
Link building is a critical element for your website’s SEO. In fact, links are one of Google’s top two ranking factors.
Having many reputable sites link to your page signals to search engines that your website is trusted and valuable.
For example, Search Engine Journal is one of the top SEO websites, which has nearly 5 million backlinks.

Via Ahref backlink checker
Having quality links results in a higher authority rating, referral traffic from credible websites, and dominating SERP.
Moreover, links will remain one of the top ranking factors in the future.
We have established that backlinks are very important, and getting quality links should be one of the first priorities in your SEO campaign.
Unfortunately, link building is the hardest SEO tactic to follow. 94% of the entire world’s content does not have any backlinks.
As a result, having a solid link building strategy is more than required for any startup looking for success in SEO.
The Early Stage: Laying the Groundwork
Before starting your link building journey, it’s time to lay the groundwork by conducting website audits and defining clear goals.
Initial Website Audit
These factors are crucial to analyze as an early measure of link building:
- Site Speed: Use GA4 or third-party plugins to check the loading speed of your website. Slow-loading sites can negatively impact user experience and search engine rankings.
- Mobile Responsiveness: Ensure your website is optimized for mobile devices, as Google prioritizes mobile-friendly sites in its search results.
- URL Structure: Evaluate whether your URLs are clean, concise, and structured logically. Good URL structure improves user experience and is favored by search engines.
- Navigation and Site Architecture: Assess how easy it is for both users and search engine crawlers to navigate your site. A clear hierarchy and simple navigation facilitate better indexing and user experience.
- Crawl Errors: Use tools like Google Search Console to identify and fix crawl errors, such as broken links and 404 pages.
- SSL/TLS Certificate: Ensure your website is secure with HTTPS. Security is a ranking factor for Google and impacts user trust.
On-Page SEO Evaluation
After a technical audit of your website, check your website’s on-page SEO status to ensure you can build on a good foundation. Follow these steps:
- Content Quality and Relevance: Review the quality of your website’s content. Is it relevant, informative, and valuable to your audience? High-quality content is more likely to attract backlinks.
- Keyword Optimization: Analyze whether your content includes relevant keywords without overstuffing. Proper keyword usage helps improve search rankings and visibility.
- Meta Tags and Descriptions: Check if each page has a unique and descriptive title tag and meta description. These elements are crucial for search engine rankings and click-through rates.
- Image Optimization: Ensure that all images have descriptive, keyword-rich file names and alt tags. Optimized images can improve site speed and user experience.
Backlink Profile Assessment
If you have already managed to get some backlinks, it’s crucial to evaluate them before starting your link building strategy.
- Current Backlinks: Review the existing backlinks to your website using tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Moz. Assess the quality and relevance of these links.
- Link Quality: Analyze the authority and trustworthiness of the domains linking to your site. High-quality, relevant backlinks are more beneficial than numerous low-quality links.
- Anchor Text Analysis: Check the anchor texts used in incoming links. Natural, relevant anchor text distribution is essential for SEO.
Developing Link Building Strategy
Assuming that you have conducted a proper audit of your website, it’s time to put together a sound link building strategy.
An excellent place to start is to check out how your competitors are doing.
1. Analyze Competitors’ Link Profile
To audit the links of your competitors (and even find relevant competitors), you will need tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Moz, among others.
Identify competitors by using the Keywords Explorer tools of Ahrefs or SEMrush and find relevant websites that are ranking well for those keywords.
For example, a startup company for VR technology can find competitors by analyzing search terms like “VR headset price” with SEO tools.

After identifying relevant competitors, check out their backlinks by analyzing each website with the mentioned SEO tools. The following tools are our favorites:
- Ahrefs Site Explorer
- Moz’s Open Site Explorer
With the information on your competitor’s backlink profiles, you can get valuable insights such as –
- Identify benchmarks for the types, quality, and number of backlinks you need
- Learn effective strategies for link-building
- Find relevant and high-quality websites that are likely to link to you
- Find opportunities by identifying where your competitors are strong and where they are not
The idea here is that the websites that are linking to your competitors will likely also link to you. This is a great place to start if you do not know which websites to identify for building your backlinks.
2. Find Relevant Keywords
You need excellent content on your website to attract backlinks.
It’s simple! If your site does not have relevant content, you will have to pay for most of your backlinks.
In contrast, having quality content will help you organically gather more links.
Therefore, after a detailed competitor backlink analysis, it’s time to do keyword research.
Use keyword research tools from Google, Ahrefs or SEMrush to find relevant keywords to write content on. When creating a list of keywords, focus on these things:
- Focus on keywords that have a high search volume and low competition
- Secure long-tail keywords that are specific to your niche
- Ensure your content on a specific keyword will fulfill the search intent behind it
3. Create a Content Plan
You cannot ignore the importance of content as a successful strategy for attracting links.
Well-made content results in quality backlinks and backlinks increase the content’s visibility.
However, creating link-worthy content is a challenge in itself.
Content as a Link Magnet: High-quality, valuable content is the cornerstone of effective link building. Content that provides value naturally attracts backlinks.
These types of content attract links:
- Content including original research or surveys
- Content that has well-designed infographics and visual data representations
- Content with comprehensive and authoritative articles or guides on specific topics
- How-to guides, tutorials, and educational posts
Create a content calendar and publish regularly using your researched keywords. Constantly update your content to ensure trustworthiness.
Tactics for Effective Link Building
Analyzing competitors and creating helpful content are some of the primary steps of your startup’s link-building strategy.
After you complete these basic tasks, it’s time to utilize some effective tactics that will help you get links with little to no costs.
Here are a few tactics that we use over here at Rankpa:
Guest Blogging
Guest blogging is when you write and publish content on someone else’s website to secure backlinks.
If a website in your niche has high authority, you can offer to write a blog for them and include links that point to your website.
This will funnel a great deal of traffic and get you a valuable link from a trusted source.
Let’s look at a simplified version of the steps you need to take for guest blogging:
- Look for blogs that are relevant to your niche and have a good following and domain authority (Tools like Moz’s Domain Authority Checker can help assess the quality of potential blogs).
- Before pitching or writing a post, understand the target blog’s audience. Tailor your content to match their interests and needs to ensure it resonates with them.
- Reach out to the target website. When pitching a guest post, personalize your email, explain why your content is a good fit for their blog, and how it will add value to their readers. A pitch for guest blogging could look like this.
Examples of a pitch for guest posting
- Create informative, engaging, and well-written content. It should provide value to the host blog’s audience and encourage them to engage with your brand.
- Include links back to your site naturally within the content. These should be relevant and add value to the reader. Avoid overstuffing your post with links to your site.
- Aim for long-term relationships with host blogs for ongoing guest blogging opportunities. Regular contributions can solidify your authority and lead to more consistent link-building success.
Skyscraper Technique
Created by Brian Dean of Backlinko, the skyscraper technique is a super-effective trick to secure backlinks through content.
Here’s how it works:
Step #1: Find popular, link-worthy content.
Step #2: Create even better content.
Step #3: Reach out to authoritative sources to secure links.
Let’s break it down as briefly as we can:
1. IdentifyPopular Content:
Find existing content in your niche that has attracted a significant number of backlinks.
Use tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or BuzzSumo to analyze which pieces of content have been most successful in terms of social shares, engagement, and backlinks.
2. Create Superior Content:
Create something that is considerably better. This could mean:
- Making it more comprehensive
- Updating outdated information
- Improving the design and readability
- Including original research
- Including more multimedia elements like images and videos
3. Outreach:
After creating your superior content, the next step is to promote it and get it in front of the right audience
Reach out to websites and individuals who linked to the original piece of content, informing them about your new and improved version.
Websites will naturally want to link to something valuable to their readers, and that’s why the skyscraper method works so well!
Networking with Influencers
Influencers or people with incredible reach in your niche have a large audience.
Having a backlink from their website or social media will drive a massive amount of traffic to their website.
This is seen as a strong endorsement by search engines, thus enhancing your website’s authority.
You can use tools like BuzzSumo, Followerwonk, or HypeAuditor to find influencers in your field.
Directory Submissions
In 2024, links from web directories are not as substantial as links from high-authority sites.
However, it is still a small ranking factor, especially for local businesses.

Screenshot from BOTW.org
Web directories are databases that categorize and provide links to various websites.
Directory submissions can help in building a basic foundation of backlinks, especially for new websites. It can give you a small boost to start your link-building journey.
For local startups, having your business listed on websites like Yelp or Yellow Pages can help improve visibility.
Local Partnerships and Sponsorships
If your startup is looking to improve local SEO, collaborating with local businesses, organizations, or events can be an effective link building tactic.
Collaborate with other local businesses for joint promotions, events, or offers. These partnerships can result in reciprocal linking, which benefits both parties.
Sponsoring local events, sports teams, or charities can help you secure links from these organizations’ websites and social media platforms.
Monitoring Link Building Progress
Let’s say you have secured some backlinks using outreach, guest blogging, and paid methods. Now, it’s time to see how the acquired links are affecting your startup’s website.
To analyze the quality of a link, you need to measure the following factors:
- Whether the linking site is relevant to your industry or niche
- The authority score of the domain referring to your site
- Referral traffic
- If the link is dofollow or nofollow
- The anchor text used in backlinks
- Link Placement

SEO tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush help you analyze your backlinks, the growth of your backlink profile over time, the anchor text used, and the geographic location of linking domains.
Overcoming Common Challenges
Link building is already a challenging process.
On top of that, you will have to deal with even more issues as a startup.
The #1 challenge that comes into our mind is budget.
As a startup, you have to do a lot with very little. While other businesses are spending $1,000 to $15,000 per month for their link-building campaign, you may not have the luxury to do so.
In this section, we will discuss how you can overcome such difficulties.
Dealing with Link Rejections
You will face way more rejections than approvals. Why?
As a startup, your website won’t have a high authority score or traffic. As a result, other websites will not be very excited to collaborate.
It’s part of the process, and the start of the journey is the hardest.
Here are a few tips on dealing with link rejection:
- Sometimes, the rejection provides an insight into what the site is looking for. Use this feedback to refine your approach.
- Rejection is part of the process. Stay professional and courteous in your responses, leaving the door open for future opportunities.
- If your initial proposal is rejected, consider offering alternative pieces of content that might be more aligned with the site’s interests.
- Use rejections as a cue to enhance the quality of your content. Make sure it’s informative, well-researched, and engaging.
- Don’t rely on a handful of sites for links. Continuously expand your list of prospects to increase your chances of successful placements.
- Sometimes, building a rapport with the site owner or editor over time is the key to turning a rejection into an acceptance.
Avoiding and Recovering from Penalties
Google penalizes websites that use black-hat SEO techniques like link schemes.
For example, you can get hundreds of links from several irrelevant and low-authority websites at a cheap cost. This will do more harm than good.
As a result, it’s always better to focus on quality over quantity. Avoid schemes that promise quick links in large numbers.
If you identify harmful backlinks, use Google’s Disavow Tool to distance your site from these links.
If penalized, identify the reason, clean up your backlink profile, and submit a reconsideration request to Google. Be transparent about the steps taken to rectify the issue.
Resource Constraints
Now comes the question of limiting your cost.
As a startup, you can save on your link-building budget through numerous methods:
- Leverage Free Tools: Use free versions of tools like Moz, Ahrefs, or Ubersuggest for basic link tracking and analysis. These won’t be as in-depth as paid tools, but they are a place to start.
- Content Collaboration: Engage in guest blogging, interviews, or content collaborations, which can be more resource-efficient than creating content independently.
- Focus on Local SEO: For startups, local link building can be more feasible and impactful. Engage with local communities, directories, and events for relevant links.
- Prioritize High-Impact Activities: Concentrate on link building strategies that require less investment but can yield significant results, like creating high-quality cornerstone content.
- Outsource Strategically: If budget allows, consider outsourcing certain SEO tasks to freelancers or agencies. This can be more cost-effective than hiring full-time specialists.
Advanced Link Building Strategies
It’s time to go beyond basic tactics. These advanced strategies are not the easiest, but they do bring excellent results:
Broken Link Building
Broken links are links that point to a page that does not exist.
According to Ahrefs study on link rot, over 60% of links from 2019 are dead.
Broken link building is when you find broken links on other websites and offer a page of your own site as a replacement.
This is a win-win for both parties. You can secure a quality backlink, and the other website owner improves their site’s user experience by fixing a broken link.
Content Reclamation
Sometimes, your brand, content, or products can be mentioned without any links.
Content reclamation is the process of finding such instances and contacting the webmaster for links.
Creating Linkable Assets
Create content that other websites cannot help but use and link to you.
Such linkable assets can be:
- Infographics
- Original research
- Online tools
- Well-crafted guides
Final Words
The journey to securing high-quality backlinks is a long and complicated one.
Success, in this case, lies in finding strategies that work and eliminating those that don’t.
As a startup, your best bet is content!
Why Is Content Important for Link Building
Link building is undoubtedly one of the most crucial aspects of SEO. However, it is also the hardest!
According to a study by Conductor, 41% of SEO experts consider link building as the most challenging tactic, right above keyword research.
As a result, executing proper strategies is more than needed to find success with link building, and one of the methods is content.
When mentioning content, we are not only referring to guest posting, even though it is the most popular link building technique.
Creating unique and linkable content can also help you secure quality backlinks.
In this guide, we’ll get into the importance of (quality) content for link building, and you’ll also find some of the best strategies for success.
Table of Contents
Understanding Link Building in SEO
Google considers many criteria when ranking a website, and one of them is links. In fact, it’s one of the top factors for a site to rank on top.
Before we dive into the topic of content’s role, it’s crucial to understand what link building is.
What is Link Building?
Link building is an effective SEO technique where the strategy is to get other websites to link to your website.
Getting high-quality links point to your website means that Google will consider your website to have a high authority, allowing you to dominate SERP.
Link building strategies include, but are not limited to:
- Content creation and promotion
- Guest posting
- Broken link building
- Skyscraper technique
- Influencer outreach
- Social media promotion
- Testimonials
How Link Building Impacts SEO
Not only does having quality backlinks direct traffic to your website but there are many other impacts of link building as well. Here are a few:
- Building Authority: Google and other search engines use links as one of the primary methods of determining the trustworthiness and authority of a website. When many reputable sites link to a page, it signals to search engines that the content is valuable and trustworthy.
- Referral Traffic: Having a referral backlink on a well-visited site will direct a lot of traffic to your website.
- Local SEO: Links from local newspapers, business directories, and events can improve local search engine rankings.
The Role of Content in Link Building
Content and link building have a symbiotic relationship.
Well-made content results in quality backlinks, and backlinks increase the content’s visibility.
As a result, you cannot ignore the importance of content as a successful strategy for attracting links.
Let’s explore this topic in-depth below:
Attracting Organic Backlinks
Having informative, exceptional and engaging content attracts backlinks.
When your content offers value, other websites are more likely to reference it in their articles, blogs, or resources.
For example, if your content has elements like infographics, comprehensive guides, or compelling narratives, it is highly sharable and will have a better chance of earning backlinks.
Building Relationships
When you reach out to other websites or influencers for link building, having stellar content gives you a strong footing.
Good content opens doors for guest posting, collaborations, and other partnerships, which are vital for building links.
Improving Search Engine Ranking
Search engines favor content that is seen as authoritative and relevant.
Quality backlinks serve as endorsements, boosting the perceived value of your content in search engine algorithms.
For example, Backlinko’s incredible content on backlink strategies is one of the top results on Google for the keyword “best backlink strategy.”

A quick search with Ahrefs reveals that this page has received over 2,500 backlinks.
Diversifying Link Profile
Utilizing various types of content (like videos, podcasts, and case studies) can attract a broader range of backlinks from different types of domains.
Long-Term Benefits
Creating evergreen content ensures that your material remains relevant and continues to attract backlinks over time.
Regularly updating content keeps it current and relevant, which can attract new backlinks and maintain existing ones.
8 Strategies for Creating Link-Worthy Content
Now that you have a brief idea of the role of content in link building, it’s time to learn some strategies that will help the symbiotic relationship between content and links.
Having boring content that does not provide any value will not attract backlinks, especially in a competitive niche.
Therefore, your website must include well-made content, where the following strategies can help:
1. Focus on High-Quality, Original Research
Original research, surveys, and unique studies provide fresh data that is highly valuable and link-worthy.
In-depth reports on industry trends or insights position your content as a primary source of information.

For instance, we used several statistics from this content from AuthorityHacker, which compiles research from other credible sources and includes original data.
2. Create Comprehensive Guides and How-To Articles
Develop detailed, comprehensive guides that cover a topic extensively. These become go-to resources within your niche.
Practical, easy-to-follow tutorials and how-to articles are highly sought after and frequently linked to as useful resources.
3. Develop Thought Leadership Content
Share expert insights or opinions on current trends, future predictions, or industry changes.
Collaborate with industry influencers to create content, leveraging their authority and audience.
4. Utilize Visual Content
Well-designed infographics that visually present data or concepts are highly shareable and linkable.
Moreover, quality videos or podcasts that provide valuable content can earn backlinks from various platforms.
5. Leverage Data-Driven Content
Detailed case studies showcasing success stories or experiments are valuable for readers and are often cited in other content.
Compile and present statistics or data roundups on a specific topic, making your content a primary source for referencing.
6. Tap Into Trending Topics and Current Events
Use current events or trending topics as a springboard for content, linking your niche with something in the news.
Creating content that capitalizes on recent developments or upcoming events can generate immediate interest and backlinks.
7. Optimize for Readability and Engagement
Ensure your content is easily scannable with clear headings, bullet points, and short paragraphs.
Use storytelling to make your content more engaging and memorable.
8. Regularly Update Existing Content
Update your older content to keep it relevant, which can attract new links and maintain existing ones.
Content and Link-Building Tactics
Let’s say you have created highly valuable content for your own website that’s likely to bring in backlinks. While it’s one of the crucial elements to utilize content for link-building, it’s definitely not the only one.
Branching out to different avenues with content is the best approach to collecting valuable backlinks from reputable sources. Here are some strategies to consider:
Guest Blogging and Content Collaboration
Guest blogging is when you write and publish an article on someone else’s website or blog. Such posts allow you to gain backlinks, and you can always ensure the quality of the backlink by guest posting on a reputable site.
Guest blogging is also about building relationships with other industry influencers and bloggers, which can lead to more collaboration opportunities.
Collaborating with influencers, industry experts, or other bloggers to create content can also lead to shared promotion and backlinks.
Content Syndication
Republishing your content on other sites is called content syndication, and it is also another way of securing backlinks. However, the likeliness of getting high-quality links with content syndication is lower than guest posting.
Nonetheless, this is an effective technique for your website’s link building strategy.
Here’s how you can get links with content syndication:
- Choose reputable platforms for syndication, like Medium, LinkedIn, or industry-specific forums.
- Ensure that the website republishing your content includes a link back to your original content to avoid SEO issues related to duplicate content.
Broken Link Building
Broken links are hyperlinks that do not point to any existing pages.
The content of many reputable sites usually has some broken links due to the removal of pages, website restructuring, link rot, and human error, among other reasons.
According to Linkody, around 8.03% of all links break within the first 3 months.
If you have a compelling piece of content that can replace a broken link of other websites, it can be an excellent way of getting a quality backlink. This strategy is called broken link building.
Use tools to find broken links on websites within your niche. Once identified, you can contact the website owner and suggest your content to replace the broken link.
Sometimes, you may need to create new content that closely matches or improves upon the linked original content.
Using Social Media for Content Promotion and Links
Utilize platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram to share your content and engage with your audience.

Consider using paid promotions to increase the reach of your content to a targeted audience, which can also lead to more organic shares and links.
Tips for Effective Content and Link-Building Tactics
- Quality Over Quantity: Focus on creating high-quality content that provides value. Quality content naturally attracts more links.
- Consistency: Regularly produce and share content to maintain engagement and visibility.
- Engage and Follow Up: Actively engage with anyone who comments on or shares your content. Building relationships is key to successful link building.
- Monitor Your Backlinks: Use tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush to monitor your backlink profile and measure the effectiveness of your link-building efforts.
Final Words
Link building is one of the most important and hardest parts of SEO. In fact, 94% of all blog posts receive any backlink.
Therefore, it’s essential to focus on quality content that will encourage reputable sites to link to your website.
So stop wasting money on repetitive content and start creating engaging posts that bring something new to the table!