While this is an extremely common question, it’s not easy to answer. Backlinks can range from $25 to upwards of $5,000 due to a myriad of factors.  

What is clear is that backlinks remain a major SEO ranking factor in 2025, and that doesn’t seem like it’s going to change anytime soon. 

Even AI-powered tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity prefer to pull content from trusted domains, and backlinks are how you build that trust.

You may have heard the terms “GEO” aka Generative Engine Optimization being used recently, and while there is debate on whether it’s an entirely different beast than SEO, everyone can agree that backlinks are still what makes up the internet.

Whether you want to reach the top of Google or improve brand visibility on AI tools, high-quality backlinks are a must. 

As a refresher, for a backlink to have maximum impact, it must be:

1. Relevant to your content (either directly or contextually) 
2. From a trusted, high-authority domain that generates a lot of traffic

However, relevant, high-quality backlinks aren’t easy to build, nor do they come cheap. 

That’s why backlink pricing is a major aspect of the link-building process. Not all backlinks are of equal quality or importance, so they carry different price tags. 

At Authority Builders, we provide top-quality editorial backlinks for our clients. 

These will have the strongest impact on your search rankings and visibility, which will help you generate more traffic, leads, and sales. 

However, less trustworthy providers out there sell spammy, low-grade backlinks that will have no impact on your visibility or rankings. If you aren’t careful, they can even lead to costly manual penalties from Google. 

In this guide, we’ll teach you the ins and outs of link-building pricing in 2025, so stick around to learn how to secure the best deal! 

Understanding Link-Building Pricing (Factors That Influence Costs) 

There are numerous factors that determine the cost of a backlink, the most notable of which is the quality of the domain it hails from. 

SEOs use Moz’s Domain Authority (DA) and Ahrefs’ Domain Rating (DR) to judge the quality of a backlink’s domain, both of which are based on a score of 1 – 100, with 100 being the most authoritative. 

These are third-party metrics that approximate the formula Google uses to determine domain quality, and they’re typically very accurate. 

Here’s a quick breakdown of the difference between DA and DR:

1. Domain Authority considers a domain’s backlink profile AND other on-page SEO signals (content quality, keywords, etc.). 
2. Domain Rating sticks to the quality of a domain’s backlink profile. 

We recommend checking both DA and DR before determining if a domain is worth pursuing a backlink. 

For buying backlinks, the rule of thumb is the higher the DA score, the higher the price. 

That’s because high-DA backlinks will have the most impact on your search rankings. Lower-DA backlinks will have less of an impact but are still important for building a diverse, natural-looking link profile (which is important to Google). 

Other factors that impact the price of a link include:

• Relevance to your niche. The more relevant the website is containing one of your backlinks, the more it will positively impact your online visibility. Thus, backlinks from highly relevant websites can cost more. 

• Website traffic and engagement. A backlink is more valuable if it comes from a domain that generates lots of traffic and engagement with its users. Since the site sees so much action, it increases the chances that its users will click on your backlink and explore your website, which is referral traffic. In other words, backlinks on popular websites have the chance to boost your traffic numbers. As such, backlinks from these types of sites carry a larger price tag. 

• Outreach effort and content quality. The amount of outreach and content creation involved in securing a backlink can also drive up the cost. For instance, it takes a lot of outreach and top-notch content to secure backlinks on big-name websites, so they will cost more. Conversely, building backlinks on lesser-known (but still reputable) websites isn’t as difficult, so they will cost less. 

Most importantly, you need to do research to ensure you’re truly getting what you’re paying for, as not all agencies out there are trustworthy. 

If you’re paying a high price for a backlink, it should deliver an appropriate ROI through higher rankings, more traffic, and premium editorial placements (i.e., better brand awareness). 

Typical backlink pricing ranges 

The cost of link-building also depends on whether you buy backlinks or hire an agency to engage in a link-building campaign. 

Buying backlinks entails buying either individual links or packs of links from a provider (or providers). 

Hiring an agency to build links for you involves recurring costs but steady returns. 

Which is better?

It depends on your individual needs and SEO strategy. 

For example, you may only need some supplemental backlinks to support your existing profile. In that scenario, it makes more sense to buy individual backlinks. 

However, if you need a steady stream of authoritative backlinks coming in to outrank competitors and achieve your goals, hiring an agency to engage in a long-term campaign is the better move. 

Not only will you likely see higher quality results, but it will require less effort on your end (i.e., you won’t have to continuously take the time to buy backlinks). 

As mentioned previously, backlink pricing ranges depend on relevance, authority, and traffic potential. 

Here’s a simple table breaking down the average price ranges for backlinks based on DA score:

Exact prices will depend on other factors like relevance, traffic, and engagement. 

The risks of cheap backlinks and bulk packages 

Before we go any further, it’s crucial to reiterate the danger associated with extremely cheap backlinks. 

If you see backlinks advertised at ridiculously low prices (like $10 or lower), it’s a sign they’re probably from private blog networks (PBNs). These are networks of dummy websites that only exist to link out to other websites. 

PBNs violate Google’s search guidelines, meaning you can receive a manual action if you get caught with PBN links. 

You should also be wary of large backlink packages, especially if they’re super cheap. These bundle deals (we’re talking hundreds of backlinks at a time) are almost always from PBNs and link farms, so you should steer clear. 

Moreover, you don’t stand to gain anything of value by accruing lots of low-quality backlinks. They won’t positively impact your rankings, so there’s no point in wasting your money. 

We suggest that you stick with premium editorial backlinks built by experts. 

Authority Builders’ Link-Building Pricing Model 

Our pricing tiers are completely transparent, ensuring you have full visibility of your ROI the entire time. 

Here are the pricing models associated with each of our link-building products. 

ABC Plus 

With ABC Plus, you receive a fully custom link-building campaign run by our experts. It’s a hands-off service, so you can sit back and relax while we build high-quality link placements for your website. 

We guarantee placement on real sites that generate organic traffic to ensure maximum ROI. 

It’s also a cost-saving plan, as ABC Plus runs at a fraction of what other agencies charge for the kinds of links we build. 

There are three pricing tiers to choose from:

These tiers are meant to align with the size of your business and your SEO goals. If you aren’t sure which tier is best for your needs, feel free to schedule an analysis call with our expert team. 

ABC Platinum 

For SEO professionals and high-authority content publishers in need of some truly top-of-the-line, hard-hitting backlinks, ABC Platinum is the way to go. 

It’s a souped-up version of the ABC Plus product, with even higher DA backlinks, competitor analysis, and detailed reporting. 

This service provides niche-specific outreach to secure top-tier backlinks with DA scores ranging from 50 to 90. In other words, they’re the types of links your competitors wish they could build! 

Here’s a breakdown of the pricing:

Digital PR 

Getting featured in expert round-ups on trusted media outlets and online publications is how you establish your brand as a top authority in your field – which is what Digital PR is all about. 

These types of editorial placements build credibility with search engines AND your target audience, increasing your ROI as a result. 

Not only will you improve your search rankings with links like these, but you’ll also stand to gain referral traffic and more notoriety in your industry. 

Here’s what the pricing structure looks like:

Digital PR Plus 

If competition in your niche is especially steep, you can beat the odds with our Digital PR Plus product. 

It’s a premium version of our Digital PR service where we guarantee placement on top news websites like GQ Magazine, The Sun, Daily Mail, and others! 

These are extremely credible news sites that will provide a dramatic boost in credibility, brand awareness, and search rankings. 

Here’s a breakdown of the pricing model:

Why High-Quality Links Are Worth the Investment 

While the cost savings may be tempting, it’s never worth investing in low-grade links from untrustworthy vendors. 

High-quality backlinks may cost you more, but they also deliver a far stronger ROI. For one, authoritative backlinks will actually improve your search rankings and online visibility. 

Low-grade backlinks will not, even if you build a gazillion of them. 

This is because Google’s algorithm has become extremely adept at identifying backlinks coming from low-quality domains that provide no value to users. As a result, they devalue these types of links, meaning they won’t benefit your SEO or online visibility at all. 

So, even if you get a great deal and only spend $20 to get 200 backlinks, you won’t see any returns. You won’t rank higher, nor will you improve your brand visibility or generate any traffic. 

Compare that to the ROI that high-quality backlinks can yield, which includes:

1. Higher search rankings (which leads to more traffic, leads, and sales) 
2. Extended online reach and better brand visibility (including on AI tools) 
3. Boosted authority and credibility with search engines and your user base 
4. Targeted referral traffic from relevant websites

As a bonus, strong backlinks will continue to provide these benefits well into the future, barring a link breaking or getting taken down. 

Once you realize this, the choice becomes simple. 

Why would you waste any amount of money on subpar backlinks (that do nothing) when you could spend it on building quality backlinks that will positively impact your bottom line?

As soon as site owners have this ‘a-ha’ moment, they start to make much better decisions for their SEO. 

High-quality backlinks: a real-world example of their power 

Let’s take a look at an instance where investing in high-quality backlinks yielded a considerable ROI for one of our clients. 

Through ABC Plus, a financial planning firm was able to boost its organic traffic by 964%. We also grew their DR from 37 to 50, and we got them ranking for 573% more keywords. 

ABC Plus provides clients with consistent guest posts on sites with DR scores ranging from 20 – 65. These types of websites are authoritative, niche-relevant, and generate lots of traffic. Since these websites are trusted by Google, the backlinks spread link equity to the client’s website, in turn boosting their authority as well. 

That’s how we were able to achieve a dramatic DR increase of 13 points. 

Moreover, the client’s monthly visitors skyrocketed from 2,818 to 31.2k during their tenure on ABC Plus (32 months), which is a gigantic increase. 

There’s a strong correlation between a website’s number of referring domains (i.e., the number of other sites linking to you) and organic traffic, as you can see illustrated in the chart above. 

More monthly visitors means more prospects that you can convert into customers, which is why backlinks are so good for generating business. 

DIY vs. Managed Link-Building: What’s the Real Cost Involved?

Next, let’s examine what it takes to tackle link-building in-house vs. hiring an agency to do it for you. 

If you aren’t already set up to build links, there’s a lot of infrastructure you’ll need to invest in. 

First, unless you want to overload your existing stuff (which isn’t worth it, trust us), you’ll have to hire new staff specifically to engage in link-building campaigns. 

Hiring employees is definitely not cheap, as Indeed estimates that most companies spend anywhere from $4,000 – $20,000 to hire just one employee – and that’s not including their salary. 

In particular, you’ll need a link manager (average salary: $80,000) and at least one or two link assistants (average salary: $40,000). The link manager will develop your overall strategy and outline the campaigns. Your assistants will tackle the day-to-day tasks involved with building links, such as:

1. Conducting outreach
2. Prospecting for relevant link opportunities
3. Maintaining and monitoring your backlinks
4. Researching outreach prospects 

Also, unless your link assistants double as content creators, you’ll need to hire a content writer (average salary: $30,000 – $40,000) to knock out things like guest posts and press releases. You could also hire freelancers to handle content creation, but this will also require an expense (the average guest post price is around $220). 

Not only that, but your team will need some tools of the trade. 

SEO platforms like Ahrefs and Semrush are must-haves, and so is an outreach platform to manage all your emails. You can also choose to use SEO writing tools like Surfer and Clearscope to ensure your guest posts are fully optimized.

You can expect to spend at least a few grand in software subscriptions solely for link-building. 

Let’s do the math to find the total:

1 Link Manager ($80,000 salary plus $4,000 onboarding)

2 Link Assistants ($40,000 salary plus $4,000 onboarding) 

1 Content Writer ($30,000 salary plus $4,000 onboarding) 

Software subscriptions ($3,000)

Being very generous, it takes around $209,000 to start building backlinks in-house, and that’s not considering things like benefits and additional link costs (like buying backlinks, which is more common than you might think).

Bear in mind that you’ll have to spend this much before building a single backlink. 

Costs associated with managed link-building 

Now, let’s compare that with how much it costs to hire an agency to handle your link-building for you. 

For example, we’ll use the pricing associated with our campaigns:

• • Managed link-building campaign (ABC Plus): $1,000 – $3,000 per month

• Premium managed link-building campaign (ABC Platinum): $3,000 – $12,000 per month

• Digital PR campaign (Digital PR): $2,750 – $10,000 per month

• Elite-level Digital PR campaign (Digital PR Plus): $4,500 – $11,000 per month

As you can see, it’s far cheaper to work with an agency like ours to build links for you. 

Even an entire year’s worth of ABC Platinum ($144,000) is more affordable than getting set up in-house, and you’ll have built 384+ elite-level backlinks for your website (DR 50 – 90). 

Choosing the Right Backlink Strategy for You 

How do you know which link-building product to choose?

First, you need to understand which type of backlink best suits your website’s current performance and size. For instance, guest posting is a great way to establish authority for brand-new websites. 

While it’s also great for businesses of all sizes, it’s especially effective for new sites that don’t have a vast library of content (or relationships with other sites).

If, instead, your site does have an established library of content, digital PR is a great way to spread awareness for your brand (and rack up more views for your existing content). 

Your business goals also play a significant role in which strategy you choose, as does your budget. 

If you want to dramatically boost your authority and ranking power amongst tough competitors, ABC Platinum and Digital PR Plus will provide the top-notch backlinks you need to get the job done. 

Or, if you’re looking to improve your visibility in local markets (and improve foot traffic), Local SEO and Google Business Profile optimization will help you reach your goals. 

If you want to see speedy results and build links to core product and service pages, Link Insertions are your top pick. 

Along the way, you should strive to achieve a balance of:

• Quality. Authoritative backlinks will have the strongest impact on your rankings and online visibility.  

• Quantity. There are times when an abundance of backlinks is required to close a gap between you and your competitors.

• Budget. Going over budget is seldom worth it, so ensure you choose a package that lines up with your available funds. 

FAQ About Link-Building Pricing 

#1: Why are high-DR backlinks expensive?

High-DR backlinks are the most impactful and are the most difficult to build, which is why they’re on the pricier side. Other price factors include niche relevance and traffic generation (i.e., how much traffic the domain linking back to you receives, in turn granting you the potential for referral traffic). 

#2: Are links permanent?

No, backlinks are not permanent, but we guarantee they stay live for 1 year after placing your order. If one of your backlinks is removed or changed to nofollow during that time, reach out to us and we’ll either restore the link or provide you with another one in the same DR range. 

#3: How do you acquire backlinks?

All our backlinks are acquired through pure white-hat techniques like outreach, guest posting, and link insertions. Our team of experts excels at generating the perfect types of backlinks based on each client’s needs. 

#4: What makes Authority Builders different?

In short, our superior expertise. Our team consists of leading experts in the link-building field, and we’ve been building an extensive link infrastructure since 2016. This enables us to build backlinks of all types in virtually every niche. 

#5: Can I get links in my niche?

Absolutely. We’re able to build backlinks for most niches, including grey niches. 

Get High-Authority Links Now 

Now that you’re well-versed in how link-building pricing works, it’s time to start building the high-authority backlinks you need to achieve your SEO goals. 

Are you ready to have our team build high-authority backlinks so that you don’t have to worry about it?

Don’t wait to sign up to enjoy guaranteed results and a strong ROI!

Sign up now 

P.S., Don’t forget to check out our success stories to learn more about what our team can do for you.      

The choice is obvious, as WSJ’s domain has far more ranking power and influence than an obscure directory. 

Links from news publications, online magazines, and journalists are known as digital PR backlinks—or PR backlinks for short. 

These are especially valuable links because they tend to have higher domain authority than links that come from other sources (like small business directories and blogs). 

Backlinks coming from major publications like The New York Times are considered the holy grail of link building due to their sky-high domain authority (95 in the case of the NYT). 

Snagging links like these will significantly boost your search engine rankings and provide tons of referral traffic. That’s why PR backlinks should be a critical aspect of all link-building campaigns. 

This article reveals why PR links are so highly valued and how you can start building them yourself with the right techniques.  

What Are PR Links, and Why Are They So Valuable?

A PR backlink is a link from any media outlet that points back to your website. It could be from a news publication or online magazine. 

Earning press links organically is ideal, but many companies also invest in outreach services – see our SEO link pricing guide to understand the costs involved.

Acquiring them involves reaching out to prominent journalists in your field and creating content that their audiences will love. 

Why do link builders hold PR backlinks in such high regard?

There are several reasons, but the primary one involves Google’s ranking system. 

If you want to appear in the #1-ranked organic position, Google has to trust you and view your content as accurate, credible, and valuable to its users. 

Google sees established newspaper websites as credible, so high-quality backlinks from them act as ‘credibility votes’ for your content. 

So, if you have many links from established newspapers, Google will see your content as especially valuable and high-quality. 

Not all backlinks have the same ranking power, as links coming from lesser-known websites will carry less clout. 

However, if you can land high-quality backlinks from major news sites like The New York Times, you’ll see a significant increase in your ranking power. That’s why high-value PR backlinks are enough to make any link builder’s mouth start to water. 

Here’s a look at the benefits you’ll enjoy from acquiring top-tier PR backlinks.

Improve your website’s E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness) 

Google looks for experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness, or E-E-A-T for short, when choosing which websites to display in its search engine results pages (SERPs). 

Trust is about proving you’re a real, live business. Experience and expertise are two factors you should reflect in every piece of content you create—but authoritativeness works a bit differently. 

To build your authority on Google, you need high-quality backlinks more than anything else, and as we mentioned before, PR backlinks are the cream of the crop. 

Therefore, many PR backlinks will boost your E-E-A-T, making it easier for your website to rank in the #1 spot for your most important keywords. 

Enjoy more organic traffic and referral traffic 

By boosting your backlink profile with press links, you’ll rank higher on Google and generate more traffic. 

Besides that, you’ll see a spike in referral traffic from getting your website featured on popular media outlets in your industry. 

Referral traffic is valuable because:

• The traffic isn’t affected by SEO or algorithm updates (which means that competitors can’t poach it, and it won’t disappear after a Google update). 
• It can introduce your products and services to new audiences. 
• Referral boosts your brand awareness online, expanding your reach and influence. 

Rank higher in search results

Lastly, press links from reputable sources will pass lots of authority on to your site, improving your ranking power on search engines. 

If you’re able to secure multiple backlinks from major news sources, you’ll enjoy more traffic and better rankings. 

You can find out how authoritative a website is with an SEO tool like Ahrefs. 

In Ahrefs, click on “Site Explorer” and type in the publication’s website. 

Hit enter and you’ll be taken to an overview page. Here, you can see tons of information about the website’s traffic, backlinks, and paid search. 

On the left, you’ll see a number out of 100 labeled “DR,” along with a purple circle bar—that’s how Ahfrefs indicates a website’s authority. 

DR means domain rating and it is measured out of 100. The fact that the NYT scores 94 means that it is extremely authoritative. 

Where PR Backlinks Get Tricky: Dofollow vs. Nofollow Links: What’s the Difference?

Dofollow and nofollow are HTML attributes that can be applied individually to each of your backlinks. They control whether or not Google considers your links when establishing your site’s authority.

If a backlink has a nofollow tag, then it’s telling Google to ignore this link. This means that it passes on less SEO benefit than a dofollow link would.

Why is this relevant to high-quality PR backlinks? 

Prior to 2013, lots of companies built links by publishing press releases with a link to their website on free newswires.

Because these news sites were high authority, the people who posted on them got a significant ranking increase. 

Once people realized this, they started publishing press releases everywhere—even if the releases offered readers no value. 

In 2013, Google stopped this practice by updating its guidelines to require all press release links to be nofollow.

What does this mean for digital PR link building?

There are two main things to know about the impact of Google’s rules.

1. Use press releases…just not for link building

You can still publish press releases, but their main focus should be to announce something to the public—for example, a new service that you’ve launched or a charity event that you are hosting. 

You’ll still get some SEO benefit—but not enough to make press releases a worthwhile link-building technique.  

Despite this, nofollow links still offer some value, as they:

• Drive organic traffic to your website.
• Build brand awareness.
• Encourage other journalists and bloggers to pick up your story. 

2. Use outreach for link building

Google says that press releases need to be nofollow, but it says nothing about links from media sites needing to be nofollow. 

This means that if you can get a media website to link to yours naturally, then you’ll get a dofollow link—and hopefully a massive rankings boost, too!

But to do this, you’ll need to build relationships with journalists working at news publications. You’ll also need to offer them something interesting to publish.

How to find out if a link is nofollow

Here’s how you can find out which links are nofollow.

1. Right-click on the web page where the link is located.
2. Select “Inspect” or “Inspect Element” from the context menu. 

3. This opens the browser’s developer tools. In the developer tools panel, locate the section of the HTML code that corresponds to the link. You may need to hover over the elements in the panel to see the specific link highlighted on the web page

4. Look for the <a> tag associated with the link. If the link has a rel=”nofollow” attribute within the <a> tag, then the link is a “nofollow” link.

How to Secure Valuable PR Backlinks for Your Business Step by Step 

When done correctly, press links will introduce your brand to new audiences, generate referral traffic, and positively affect your search engine rankings. 

Sounds great, right?

Well, there’s a lot you need to know before you start reaching out to journalists and bloggers, which is why we put together this step-by-step guide for securing PR backlinks. 

Step #1: Research your target audience 

As with any marketing campaign, PR links are only successful when you have an intimate understanding of your target audience. 

Otherwise, you may wind up creating the wrong type of content or even offend your audience by not using the right tone of voice. 

Before you do anything else, do a deep dive into your audience:

• Demographics: What is the primary age group that your products and services appeal to? 
• Popular media outlets: What do the magazines and publications in your industry typically look like? Do they publish the same types of stories?
• Editorial style: Does your audience prefer a certain tone of voice or aesthetic (i.e., colors, fonts, images, etc.)?

Once you have a solid grip on these factors, do your best to cater your content to the needs of your audience and the media outlets they frequent. 

For example, if you notice that your audience’s preferred publications use lots of terms popular with a younger crowd, your content should follow suit. 

Step #2: Find a relevant digital PR campaign topic 

Next, it’s time to come up with a digital PR campaign that your audience will find compelling. 

There are two main things to consider:

The format.

The subject.

The format is how you deliver your digital PR campaign. Examples include:

• Announcing exciting events.
• Interesting infographics.
• Revealing research.
• Commenting on current industry events.

Think about a format that your audience will enjoy. For example, if you run a cooking channel on YouTube, then your subscribers may enjoy an event where they get to meet you, see you cook, and chat with their fellow fans.

The topic you feature should form part of the content you deliver in the format of your choice. This is where Google Trends comes in handy. 

It will help you identify currently trending topics that you can work into your digital PR campaign. 

This step ensures that you cover something that’s genuinely interesting to your target audience, heightening the chances that they’ll click on it (or share it with others). 

As an example, let’s say your cooking show often covers how to make healthy snacks. Here’s what happens when we search for ‘healthy snacks’ on Google Trends:

You get to see the level of interest in the topic over a set period of time, which lets you know whether the topic is ‘trending’ or not. 

Moreover, you can see interest by subregion, and Wyoming has the highest interest in healthy snacks. 

Lastly, we get to see some related keywords and topics that you can use to brainstorm content ideas. 

Having learned from this, you may wish to host an event in Wyoming and present a session on how to make sweet but healthy snacks. 

Step #3: Create professional content

The content you produce for your digital PR campaign needs to be highly professional. If it isn’t, neither your audience nor journalists would be interested.

This means:

• If you’re running an event, hire an event coordinator.
• If you’re publishing research, hire researchers and writers to compile the report.
• If you’re creating infographics, hire a graphic designer. 

Crafting professional content adds value to your brand and ensures the audience will want to share it with others. 

Step #4: Compile a list of target publications

Brainstorm which publications you want to get coverage from. Think about ones that are relevant to your business and those that might be geographically relevant. 

For example, in our YouTube cooking event example, you might target New Food Magazine. However, because the event is taking place in Wyoming, you might also want to target local media outlets like the Casper Star Tribune.

Another way to find publications to target is to see which newspapers have previously linked to your competitors.

You can do this with “link intersect” on Ahrefs. Here’s how to do it:

1. In the top menu, select “Competitive Analysis”.
   

2. Enter your website’s URL or domain in the top bar. Then, enter the names of competitors in the bars below. 

3. Highlight “referring domains” at the top and click “Show link opportunities.”

4. You’ll now be shown a series of domains that have linked to your competitors’ sites but not yours. Choose “Dofollow” at the top so you only see these kinds of backlinks.

5. Now, go through the results and try to spot the ones that could be PR backlinks. If you find one, click the drop-down arrows on the right-hand side. This will show you what competitor content has been covered. This also gives you an idea of what the publication might be interested in.

In this case, the real estate industry website realtybiznews.com has linked to two of our sister link-building companies. The articles cover SEO or link-building guides that are tailored to realtors. This suggests that we could pitch a similar guide.

Step #5 Outreach

Outreach is a critical stage in PR link building. This is when you reach out to journalists, introduce yourself, and pitch your ideas. 

Outreach is about building relationships, so you must explain to the journalist how your business will interest their audience and how you can add value to their content.

Getting a journalist to respond to your message, let alone accept your pitch, may take several attempts. If you have the time, message the journalist first and introduce yourself. Don’t pitch any ideas. 

This way, when you eventually pitch a digital PR campaign, they will recognize your name and be more likely to read your message.

Journalists are busy people whose inboxes are overflowing with PR pitches. You need to write a killer outreach email to stand out and get read.

Here are some tips for doing so:

Personalize the email

Address the journalist by name and mention something specific about their work. Show that you’ve taken the time to research them and understand their focus or recent articles. Reference recent stories they’ve written to show genuine interest.

Start with a strong subject line

Use a clear, concise, and attention-grabbing subject line. Make it relevant to the journalist’s content and audience. For example: “Exclusive data on [topic]” or “Insights on [industry] trends your readers will love”. Keep it short—aim for 6-10 words—and avoid overly promotional language.

Offer something newsworthy or unique

Journalists are more likely to respond if the content is exclusive, data-driven, or offers a unique angle. Focus on how your content can support their current coverage or bring fresh insights to a trending topic.

Highlight the benefit to their readers

Emphasize how your content will benefit the journalist’s audience. They care more about what’s valuable to their readers than your brand. If applicable, show how your resource answers questions or solves problems relevant to their niche.

Keep it brief and easy to read

Avoid long-winded emails. Stick to a few paragraphs that contain short sentences to make your email easy to scan. Journalists appreciate brevity. Introduce yourself and your pitch within the first couple of sentences. If possible, use bullet points or lists to convey key points more concisely.

Include relevant details and links

Provide the journalist with any necessary links, data, or resources they’d need to evaluate your content, but don’t overwhelm them. Offer to provide further information if needed.

Include a direct link to your content, but avoid attaching files—these can clutter inboxes or get caught in spam filters.

Include a clear call to action

End your email with a polite, clear call to action. Ask whether they’d be interested in covering or featuring your content, and be specific about what you’re hoping for—whether that’s feedback, a link, or a mention. 

Be polite and professional

Maintain a friendly but professional tone. Acknowledge their expertise, and thank them for their time. Avoid making demands, but subtly convey urgency if the content is time-sensitive—e.g., “I’d love to send this over before it goes live elsewhere.” Avoid sounding overly pushy—respect their decision if they’re not interested.

Follow up (but not too much)

If you don’t get a reply after a few days, send a short and polite follow-up. Gently remind them of your initial email, but don’t overdo it—one follow-up is usually enough.

Here’s an example of how we might pitch to realtybiznews.com:

Subject: Exclusive SEO Tips for Realtors from America Property Expo – Perfect for Your Readers?

Hi [Editor’s Name],

I hope you’re doing well. I’ve been following RealtyBizNews for some time and enjoyed your recent article on optimizing real estate listings for search engines. Clearly, your readers value actionable advice on growing their online presence—something we’re passionate about, too.

My name is [Your Name], and I’m speaking at the upcoming America Property Exhibition, where I’ll present a seminar titled “How to Generate Property Views Online.”

Our session will focus on providing actionable SEO tips to help realtors attract more property views and drive traffic to their listings.

We’ll also be publishing a video of the seminar on our website, and we’d love to share exclusive access with you, should you be interested in covering the session.

Please respond and let me know if your readers would enjoy this. I’d be happy to send over more details.

Thank you for your time, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

Best regards,
[Your Full Name]
[Your Job Title]
[Your Company]
[Your Contact Information]

Step #6: Monitor your progress 

Lastly, you need to monitor the impact of your digital PR campaigns to determine your success rate. 

If, for example, your press releases aren’t generating the kind of links you want to see, it’s a clear sign you need to go back to the drawing board and try something new. 

How can you tell when you get new PR links?

A great way to know this is by setting up Google Alerts. Doing this will let you receive a notification every time someone mentions your brand online. 

Getting set up on Google Alerts is easy. Go to Google Alerts and type in your brand name and any other terms relevant to your digital PR campaign, such as branded product names.

Adjust the options as required and then click “Create Alert.” You’ll now receive emails whenever your brand or other terms are mentioned online. 

Start Using PR Backlinks to Boost Your Online Visibility 

Now you know what it takes to build high-value PR backlinks for your business. 

By reaching out to relevant news publications and media outlets in your field, you’ll significantly boost your brand awareness and online visibility. 

Do you need help securing top-tier PR backlinks for your business so you can focus on more important things?

If so, check out our advanced link-building services from Authority Builders. We’ve been helping businesses build backlinks since 2016 and we cover everything from Link Outreach to Content Creation and Guest Posts.    

They act as votes of confidence, indicating to search engines how authoritative websites are and helping sites like Google choose what to rank first. 

If you’re not familiar with backlinks but want to learn more, you’re in the right place. 

Think of this as backlinks 101—we’re going to explain the basics, including:

Why backlinks are important to SEO.

How to build them.

The easiest way to boost your backlink profile.

But to understand how backlinks fit into SEO, you first need to understand what a backlink is. 

What Are Backlinks?

A backlink is a hyperlink from one website to another. They are usually highlighted in a different color and underlined. 

Writers include backlinks in their content for one of several reasons, including:

To attribute ideas or work that aren’t their own to the originator.

To provide readers with additional information. 

To guide readers to the next stage of a user journey. 

Here’s an example from one of our other articles: 

This relates to the second point. Users can click this link to learn more about Google’s advertising restrictions. 

Backlinks aren’t just important for the user experience—they also play a crucial role in search engine optimization (SEO).

Let’s explore that in greater detail.

Why Backlinks Are Important for SEO

As you can tell from the section above, most people link to sources because it is useful or credible.

Search engines understand this and use backlinks to measure how authoritative a website is. Websites with high authority are more likely to be ranked higher for relevant search terms. 

Search engines also consider the number of referring domains, the quality of backlinks, and how varied a backlink profile is. 

Let’s investigate these considerations in more detail.

Number of referring domains

This is how many different websites link to your content. 

10 links from 10 different websites are usually worth more than 10 links from a single website. This is because the former represents a wide range of sources vouching for your content. 

Quality of backlinks

Some backlinks are worth more than others. The factors that affect this, include:

Relevancy

Backlinks from websites and pages that are relevant to your content are worth more than those from less relevant sources—even if the linking website is highly authoritative. 

This is because search engines know that guiding audiences to topically relevant content is critical to a good user experience.  

Authoritative

Backlinks from authoritative websites are worth more than backlinks from less authoritative websites. 

Natural

Backlinks that were placed because the webmaster thought their audience would find the content useful are more valuable than those that were purchased purely to rank higher. 

In-content

Links should appear in the body copy of articles. Backlinks placed in footers and other places are often associated with spammy link-building techniques and are less valuable. 

Good traffic

High traffic shows that a website is active and useful to users. Links from these websites are usually of higher quality. Plus, they are a good source of organic traffic and expose you to new audiences. 

Relevant anchor text

Anchor text is the highlighted words you read and click on in a backlink. These words should be relevant to:

The context they appear in.

The content they lead to.

The anchor text in the example below is relevant to the context and the content it leads to because we’re writing about SEO tools and the anchor text links to SEO tools. 

Variety

Imagine your website has very few backlinks pointing to it. Suddenly, overnight, 20 guest posts appear with links to your site—all are about the same subject and all have the same anchor text. 

Does this sound natural? Or the result of a contrived link-building campaign? 

Having a range of backlink types from a wide range of sources and with varied anchor text indicates that the links pointing to your site are natural. 

Therefore, websites with a varied backlink profile tend to rank higher. 

Backlinks are crucial for SEO, but they come at a cost; if you plan to invest in link-building services, consult our link-building pricing guide to plan your budget.

What Makes a Bad Backlink?

Google policies dictate how it chooses which websites to show in search results. 

It says that any attempts to manipulate search results are considered a violation of its spam policies. 

Link practices that Google considers a violation include:

• Buying links
• Excessive link exchanges
• Building links using automation
• Link cloaking
• Low-quality directory or bookmark links
• Sitewide links
• Forum or comment spam

Google uses automated systems and human reviewers to detect policy violations. 

If a website is found to have broken these policies, then it may be issued with a manual action. 

This may lead to a website ranking lower in search results or not appearing in them at all.

The truth about Google’s spam policies

Google’s rules are vague. For example, does paying an agency to build a link count as buying links?

In our experience, buying links, exchanging links, and building them in directories and forums can be a good way to acquire links, so long as:

You do it on reputable, relevant websites.

You offer value to readers. 

You use these techniques sparingly.

You approach building them in the right way (more on this in the next section).

Even if you do build a few links in a way that violates Google’s spam policies, it’s more likely that Google will ignore your links rather than issue a penalty.

However, build excessive numbers of these links, then the chances are you WILL receive a manual action.

This tends to happen when you hire cheap, low-quality link builders who employ spammy techniques like comments spam or when you rely on link farms and public blog networks (PBNs) to build your links.

How to get rid of bad backlinks

If you think you have been issued a rankings penalty due to bad backlinks, then you can take action to fix the problem.

Google’s disavow tool allows you to submit a request to the search engine highlighting the toxic links and asking it to ignore them. 

Using the disavow tool shouldn’t be taken lightly. It’s impossible to know which links contribute to your rankings and disavowing the wrong ones can seriously mess up your traffic.

For more information, check out our guide to disavowing backlinks. 

Here are a few extra caveats to using the disavow tool:

Only use it if you’re sure

You should only use the disavow tool if you’re sure you were issued a rankings penalty due to bad backlinks. You can do this by visiting your Google Search Console, clicking the “Security & Manual Actions” drop-down arrow, and choosing “Manual actions.” 

Google may ignore your request

Google is under no obligation to honor your request to disavow backlinks. In fact, most website owners will have to send a disavow request at least twice. 

This is because Google often has good reason to believe that you have been engaging in poor link-building practices and no longer trusts your website; therefore, it doesn’t want to let you off the hook that easily. 

How to Get Backlinks

There are many different ways to get backlinks. However, some techniques are commonly used by link builders because they’ve been proven to deliver results. 

This section lists some of them.

Publish linkable assets

This is when you create high-quality content, publicize it, and then let it naturally draw links. Notice we say “assets”—that’s because we’re not just talking about written content. 

Linkable assets cover:

Infographics

Videos 

Free tools or apps

Webinars

Images

Research reports

The good thing about this link-building technique is that your assets just sit there attracting backlinks. 

These backlinks are high-quality because people place them only if they like your asset and think their audience will, too. 

This is exactly how Google and other search engines want you to build links. But there are some downsides to linkable asset campaigns. 

Namely:

It’s expensive: Creating high-quality assets requires expertise and time. This means producing them can be expensive. 

It takes time: It can take time for an asset’s popularity to snowball.

Results can vary: You might put lots of effort into producing a research report, only for a more well-known competitor to launch one of their own. This means that you’ll get fewer backlinks. 

Example: Deloitte Gen Z and Millennial Survey

Here’s an example of a research report from audit, assurance, consulting, and tax services provider Deloitte. 

They published a survey on the views of Gen Z and Millennials regarding:

Climate action

Generative AI at work

The future of work

Mental health

The company works with many large businesses that will be interested in the views of these age groups from a recruitment and HR perspective. 

But more importantly, this research will be useful for anyone writing about Gen Z, Millennials, or any related topic. Deloitte is a large, well-known company, so their research will be credible to readers. 

That might be why the report has earned nearly 2,500 backlinks in just over six months. 

These backlinks are from some massively authoritative websites, including:

• Forbes
• The Guardian
• Hubspot
• CNN
• Harvard
• BBC

Get featured on resource pages

Resource pages are curated roundups of high-quality assets that a website owner thinks their users might find useful. 

Here’s an example of what resource pages look like. Gardeneers is an organization that helps schools in Chicago start and manage gardening programs. 

It has a page full of resources for different stakeholders. These resources have been pulled from around 20 different websites, providing schools with a wealth of useful information. 

The best way to find resource pages relevant to your business is with a Google search. 

Try using the following search operators:

• Your keyword + “inurl:resources”
• Your keyword + “best resources”
• Your keyword + “useful resources”
• Your keyword + “intitle:links”
• Your keyword + “helpful links”

Research each page and check if there is room for your content—you don’t want to propose linking to your content when the resource page already covers it. You might have to create new content if you are struggling to find an opportunity.

Next, reach out to the website owner and propose that they add your content to their list.

Find unlinked brand mentions

This is when someone mentions your business online but does not link to your website. You can remedy this by simply reaching out to the person and suggesting that they add a link.

Here’s an example where we have been mentioned by affiliate marketing blogger Nikola Rosa. 

This example provided us with a great opportunity—the blogger seems to be recommending us and we obviously didn’t ask him to do this (otherwise we would have asked for a backlink in the first place).

And unlinked mentions don’t just have to involve your company name. Other options include:

The names of your CEO and any senior staff.

The names of any products or sub-brands you own. 

Your company slogan.

But how can you find these opportunities en masse? We suggest using the SEO tool Ahrefs.

Once you’ve signed up for a paid account, head to the Content Explorer in the top menu. 

Type: “[Your brand name]” -site:[authority.builders]

So for us, this would be: “Authority Builders” -site:authority.builders

Click the orange magnifying glass and you’ll be shown the results. 

Click the box titled “Highlight unlinked” and type your website address again. 

The websites that mention you but do not link to you will now be highlighted. 

Here’s another opportunity we’ve found that involved one of our founders. Matt Diggity was interviewed by business and startup media website Inc. 

The page links to one of Matt’s other companies but not to ours. Inc. has a very high domain rating (DR) of 91 so this opportunity is well worth pursuing. 

Fix broken links

Broken links are when a link no longer works because the page it points to, was either moved or removed. The user is usually directed to a 404 page. 

This represents a good link-building opportunity. If you can spot broken links that used to point to your competitors’ sites, then you can contact the owners of the linking site and suggest they fix the link by pointing to your page instead.

Broken links impact the user experience and can lower your rankings; therefore, website owners will probably want to fix the problem. 

Ahrefs provides a free broken link checker that quickly shows broken links on a website. 

Let’s use it with the online guitar magazine Guitar.com. 

One of the first articles that comes up is a roundup of upgrades you can make to a Fender Telecaster guitar. The article has three broken links. 

The middle one is for a product that was removed by the retailer. If you sell a similar product, then you could get in touch with Guitar.com and suggest they link to your product page instead. 

Get quoted by journalists

Digital PR links are when you get your website featured in the media. 

Media websites are usually trusted by search engines and are often very authoritative. This means that these backlinks are great for your SEO.

But it’s very difficult to get coverage from journalists. 

There are two main approaches you can take:

1. Launch a PR campaign: This is when you report something that your audience and relevant publications might find interesting with the aim of gaining coverage. For example, if you were a gardening website, you might host a family gardening festival in a local park where children could learn how to plant flowers and vegetables. 
2. Get quoted as a source: This is when a journalist chooses to quote you in a story they are writing. For example, they might be writing a piece on the mental health benefits of gardening and may need an expert to provide information.

The first option is hard to get right and you may need to hire a professional digital PR agency. 

Getting quoted is easier to do yourself. You can contact the journalist, introduce yourself, tell them about your expertise, and even suggest an article you could help with.

However, journalists are inundated with this kind of outreach message and you may not get a response, let alone the opportunity to be quoted.

A better option might be to use a service like Connectively. 

What is Connectively?

Formerly known as HARO, Connectively connects subject matter experts with bloggers and journalists. 

Journalists post requests for expert quotes on a message board and experts send their responses. The journalist chooses a response to publish and usually includes a link to the expert’s website. 

Here’s a good example of a query you could respond to if you worked in the gardening niche:

When responding to Connectively requests, remember to:

Introduce yourself and highlight your area of expertise.

Be short and to the point.

Answer the question (don’t talk around it).

Answer promptly. 

Offer to provide more information should they need it. 

Publish guest posts

Guest posting is a very popular link-building technique. It involves writing an article for someone else’s website. In return, you get a backlink. 

Guest posting is an effective link-building technique because you’ll gain:

Control: You get to choose which websites link to you and the keywords that your article is associated with. 

Exposure: Your brand and expertise are exposed to new audiences.

Topical authority: When you regularly write guest posts, you’ll become more associated with related topics—and this could drive traffic to your website.

The easiest way to find guest posting opportunities is with a Google search. 

1.Type: [relevant keyword] + “write for us”.

2. You could also swap “write for us” for other terms like:

a. Guest author

b. Guest blog

c. Become a contributor

3. Typing “gardening write for us” revealed several opportunities:

4. Create a spreadsheet that lists all the guest posting opportunities you found. 

5. Once you have enough options, you’d need to find out which ones represent a genuinely good opportunity. 

6. To do this, head over to Ahrefs and type each site’s URL into the Site Explorer tool.

7.Look for a website with:

DR higher than yours. 

Decent traffic, around 20,000 monthly visitors.

No sudden drops in DR or traffic.

8.Add these metrics to your spreadsheet.

9.Now check out each of the website’s content. Look for:

High-quality content.

A mixture of guest authors and “home grown” content.

Guest posting guidelines (this shows they care about quality).

A narrow range of topics covered.

To demonstrate this, we looked at the top result in our Google search, Ground to Ground. The site has a low DR of 28 and low traffic of 1,300 monthly visitors. 

However, traffic has grown steadily in recent years.

Upon visiting the site, we can see that it’s about using coffee grounds in gardening (and some poetry). This could be relevant—although it’s a very narrow topic! 

The website has some limited guidelines, the content itself is well-written and was clearly contributed by enthusiasts, but most articles are very short. 

Overall, this website might present a good guest posting opportunity if your website is brand new, but this opportunity probably wouldn’t suit most more established brands. 

10. If you think any of the guest posting sites in your list are unsuitable, then remove them.

11. Now, order your spreadsheet by DR and traffic, and prioritize the best opportunities. 

12.Reach out to each website and pitch an idea for an article. You may have to send a follow-up message as website owners are usually busy people. 

Help people on forums

Forum link building has a bad reputation, mainly because unscrupulous link builders have spammed forums with links in the past. 

But if you do it sparingly and provide value to forum users, then it can be a great way to build links and increase brand awareness. 

Here are some tips:

• Only post on relevant forums.
• Build trust by getting involved in forum communities before you post your first link.
• Always follow forum guidelines—otherwise, you’ll quickly be banned. 
• If allowed, include a link in your forum signature. 
• Keep backlinks minimal and relevant to the discussion. Only post them if they genuinely add value to the discussion. 

Here’s a good example from Ycombinator. A parent asked about keeping kids busy during the COVID-19 lockdown. An educational app developer offered a helpful suggestion with a link to an article they wrote on their website.  

The app developer posted on more than 30 discussion boards on the forum and received lots of good feedback from users. Therefore, people would be more inclined to trust them when they post a link.

The Easiest Way to Build Backlinks

Backlinks are a vital component of any successful SEO strategy. They serve as endorsements from other sites, boosting your authority and helping you rank higher in search engine results.

But consistently building high-quality backlinks can be difficult. The quickest and easiest way to build backlinks at scale is to use a link-building agency like Authority Builders. 

We’ve been building links for businesses like yours since 2016. Our in-house team audits your backlink profile and recommends the best strategies to drive traffic to your website. 

Our team of professional link builders and content creators then launches high-quality campaigns on your behalf, ensuring you secure relevant, high authority, and long-lasting links.All you have to do is sit back and watch your rankings increase! Book a call today and find out how we can help you boost organic traffic.

And guess what? Nearly 30% of shoppers start their search for the perfect product online. That’s where SEO (search engine optimization) comes in. 

You need a solid SEO strategy if you want your skincare brand to shine in search results. This guide covers everything you need to know to get started.

Why SEO Matters in the Beauty Industry 

Imagine your ideal customer searching for the “best antiaging serum for sensitive skin.” Where do their eyes go first?  

You guessed it—the top of the search results page. SEO, or search engine optimization, is about getting your website to that coveted spot. It’s the magic behind improving your website’s visibility in search engines like Google. 

Why is this so important? Let’s look at the numbers:

• The top result on Google snags almost 40% of all clicks.
• Second place gets 18.7%.
• Third? Just 10.2%.
• And if you’re stuck on page two? Ouch, less than 1% of users will see you.

The benefits of SEO for skincare brands

Ranking high means more people discover your brand, visit your website, and ultimately, become customers. But it’s about more than immediate sales. SEO also helps you: 

Build brand awareness: When your website consistently appears at the top of search engine results pages, people start recognizing your brand.   

Drive organic traffic: Skincare SEO brings visitors actively searching for what you offer to your website—no expensive ads needed!   

Target the right customers: Optimizing for specific keywords attracts customers who are actually interested in your skincare products.

Become a skincare authority: Creating high-quality, informative content establishes your beauty brand as a trusted source in the skincare industry.

A Step-By-Step Guide to Skincare SEO

1. Find relevant keywords 

Keywords are the words and phrases people type into search engines when they’re looking for something specific. In the beauty industry, these might be things like “best skincare,” “natural skincare,” or “psoriasis skincare.”  

The right SEO keywords are crucial because they help connect your website with those searching for your skincare products. Below, we’ll show you how to identify keywords with Ahrefs. 

1⃣ Brainstorm seed keywords

Start by thinking about your core products and services. What are the main terms people use to describe them? These are your “seed keywords.” 

For example, if you sell a line of organic face masks, your seed keywords might be “organic face mask,” “natural face mask,” or “clay face mask.

Head over to Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer tool. In the search bar, enter one of your seed keywords (e.g., “clay face mask”). Choose your target country and hit search: 

Source: Ahrefs

2⃣ Explore keyword ideas

Ahrefs will generate a ton of keyword ideas related to your seed keyword. You’ll see metrics like:

• Search volume (how many people are searching for that keyword).
• Keyword difficulty (how hard it is to rank for that keyword). 
• Traffic potential (how much traffic you could get if you ranked #1 for that keyword).

For example, our keyword “clay face mask” has a search volume of 1,700, with a traffic potential of 800. It also has a keyword difficulty of 2, which means it’s easy to rank for organically. 

Source: Ahrefs

3⃣ Uncover long-tail keywords 

Long-tail keywords are longer, more specific phrases that people use in their searches.  They often have lower search volume but higher conversion rates because they target a more specific audience.

Explore the different reports within Keywords Explorer to identify keywords: 

• Terms match: Shows you keywords that closely match your seed keyword.
• Also rank for: Shows you broader keywords that are related to your topic.
• Questions: Reveals questions people are asking related to your keyword, which can be great for blog post ideas.
• 

Source: Ahrefs

4⃣ Analyze the SERPs

Next, do a competitor analysis by reviewing the top-ranking pages for your keyword. This gives you valuable insights into what kind of content is performing well and what you need to do to compete: 

Source: Ahrefs

5⃣ Download keywords

Once you have selected a keyword in Ahrefs, you can export the list of matching terms.  Under “keyword ideas,” click on “view all.” 

This will take you to a detailed page with all related keywords. On the left-hand side, click “Export,” and choose to download the data in CSV format: 

Source: Ahrefs

Pro-tip: Don’t have access to keyword research tools?  Don’t worry! To look for target keywords, you can use Google Keyword Planner. It’s a free tool that can help you with keyword research.

2. Optimize your product descriptions

When it comes to beauty brands, a great product isn’t enough. You need to capture your audience’s attention with captivating product descriptions that are optimized for SEO. 

Below, we’ll provide some best practices for optimizing your product descriptions.

Know your ideal customer

Before you write a single word, picture your perfect customer. Are they a Gen Z trendsetter looking for vegan skincare? Or a busy mom seeking a quick anti-aging solution?

Understanding your audience helps you tailor your language and focus on benefits that resonate with them.

Focus on benefits, not just features

Instead of just listing ingredients, explain what those ingredients do for the customer’s skin.

Instead of: “This sunscreen has SPF 30.”

Try: “Enjoy the sunshine worry-free! Our lightweight, nongreasy sunscreen provides broad-spectrum SPF 30 protection, shielding your skin from harmful UVA and UVB rays. It’s the perfect daily defense for a healthy, radiant complexion.”

Use sensory language

Appeal to the senses! Use words that evoke feelings of luxury, freshness, and effectiveness.

Instead of: “This cream is good for dry skin.”

Try: “Indulge in this rich, velvety cream that melts into your skin, leaving it feeling soft, supple, and deeply moisturized.”

Highlight key ingredients and their benefits

Don’t just list ingredients—explain why they matter! For example:

• “Infused with antioxidant-rich green tea to protect skin from environmental damage.”
• “Formulated with soothing aloe vera to calm irritation and redness.”

Make it scannable

Use short paragraphs, bullet points, and headings to make your descriptions easy to read. People are busy, so get to the point quickly!

Build trust 

We all know that what we put on our skin goes into our skin. That’s why it’s so important for your customers to feel confident that your products are safe and good for their skin. How do you build that trust? Here are a few ways:

Highlight certifications: If your products are organic, cruelty-free, or dermatologist-tested, let people know!

Mention awards or press: Has your product been featured in a magazine or won any awards? This builds social proof.

Pro-tip: Don’t forget to optimize for search engines! You’ve researched your keyword and know what your customers are searching for. Now it’s time to make those keywords work their magic! Don’t just stuff your descriptions with keywords—that’s a big no-no. Instead, sprinkle them throughout your text in a natural and engaging way.

3. Post and engage with audiences on social media

In the world of skincare, being present on social media platforms is critical. It’s where beauty lovers hang out, share tips, and discover new products.  

Did you know that 45% of consumers find inspiration for new beauty purchases on social media? That’s a large audience that you can’t afford to ignore!

Think of platforms like Instagram and TikTok as your virtual storefront—a place to showcase your brand’s personality, connect with potential customers, and build a loyal community.

But how does social media impact SEO?

While those likes and shares don’t directly translate into higher search rankings (social media links are usually “no-follow”), they do send positive signals to search engines. A strong social media presence shows Google that your brand is active, engaging, and relevant, which can indirectly boost your skincare SEO efforts.

Key point: What is a “no-follow” link?  A “no-follow” link is a hyperlink with a special HTML tag that tells search engines not to give the linked page ranking credit.  Users can click the link, but it doesn’t affect the destination site’s search ranking. This is often used in blog comments, social media posts, or sponsored content to prevent manipulative links.

Here are a few tips for a strong skincare social media strategy:

Visuals are everything: Skincare is a visual industry! High-quality photos and videos of your products, ingredients, and happy customers are a must.

Share valuable content: Don’t just promote your products. Offer skincare routine tips, tutorials, behind-the-scenes glimpses, and engaging stories that resonate with your audience.

Engage, engage, engage! Respond to comments, answer questions, and participate in relevant conversations. Building relationships with your customers is key.

Run contests and giveaways. Everyone loves freebies, which can help you increase brand awareness and attract new followers.

Collaborate with influencers: Partnering with beauty influencers can expose your brand to a wider audience and build credibility. More on this below! 

Need inspiration? Check out brands like Drunk Elephant or Glow Recipe. Their authentic voice, stunning visuals, and engaging content are killing it on social media.

4. Generate backlinks 

Now that you’ve learned how to do keyword research, craft compelling product descriptions, and establish a vibrant social media presence, it’s time to take your SEO to the next level with backlinks.

What are backlinks?

Think of backlinks as digital endorsements. When other websites link to yours, it signals to search engines that your website is a trustworthy and authoritative source of information.

The more high-quality backlinks you have, the more trustworthy and authoritative your website appears. This can significantly boost your search rankings and drive more organic traffic to your site.

When building backlinks for your skincare site, be mindful of the resources required – reviewing typical link-building costs can help you budget effectively.

Key point: Quality over quantity Remember, it’s not just about the number of backlinks you have but their quality.  A few backlinks from high-authority websites are worth more than hundreds of backlinks from low-quality or irrelevant sites.  Focus on building relationships and earning backlinks from reputable sources in the skincare industry.

Here are some techniques to build a strong backlink profile for your skincare brand: 

Get blogging 

Blogging is one of the most effective ways to boost your skincare website’s SEO. In fact, e-commerce sites with a blog tend to get 434% more indexed pages, just because a blog gives search engines more content to crawl, improving your online visibility.

But blogging doesn’t just help with indexing. A good blog creates shareable content that can generate backlinks—which are links from other websites that point to your site. 

When your skincare website blog provides valuable information like skincare routines, ingredient deep dives, or expert tips, other websites are more likely to reference and link back to your content. 

Take, for example, this article from COSRX about retinol. While it’s not overflowing with backlinks (yet!), the blog post shows how a brand can provide valuable information to its audience while also incorporating relevant keywords.

Leverage influencer marketing 

Influencers have become major players in the beauty world. Their followers trust their opinions and recommendations, making them powerful allies in your quest for backlinks. 

Here’s how to leverage influencer marketing to build a strong backlink profile:

1⃣ Choose the right influencer

Before you request a partnership, interact with the influencer’s content, respond to their comments, and build genuine relationships.

Look for influencers whose audience aligns with your target market.

Don’t underestimate the power of micro-influencers (those with smaller but highly engaged followings). They often generate a stronger connection with their audience that can drive authentic engagement.

2⃣ Craft compelling campaigns 

While product reviews are great, think outside the box. Collaborate on creative campaigns that encourage influencers to link back to your website. This could include:

• Guest blog posts: Have the influencer write a guest post for your blog (with a link back to their site) or vice versa.
• Co-create content: Develop valuable resources like e-books, guides, or infographics together, with both of your brands linked to within the content.
• Run contests and giveaways: Host a contest or giveaway that requires participants to visit your website or a specific landing page for entry. Include a link to your website in the influencer’s promotional posts.
• Offer exclusive discounts: Provide the influencer with a unique discount code to share with their followers, which will encourage them to visit your website and make a purchase.

Get mentioned in roundups

Have you ever stumbled upon an article titled “Best Face Masks for Glowing Skin” or “Top 10 Antiaging Serums”? Those are roundups—curated lists of the best products or resources on a specific topic. And they can be a goldmine for obtaining backlinks on authoritative websites!

Here are some tips on getting featured in a product roundup: 

Identify relevant roundups: Start by searching for roundups related to your skincare niche. Look for phrases like “best [product category],” “top 10 [skincare concern solutions],” or “[year] skincare favorites.” Tools like Google Search and BuzzSumo can help you find these opportunities.

Reach out to publishers: Once you’ve found some promising roundups, reach out to the website owners or editors. Introduce your brand and highlight why your product deserves a spot on their list.

Provide valuable information: Make it easy for publishers to feature you by providing them with all the necessary details—including product descriptions, high-quality images, and even testimonials.

Offer exclusive deals: Sweeten the deal by offering the roundup’s audience an exclusive discount or promotion.

Example: Men’s Health UK’s roundup of the best men’s moisturizers is a great example. By reaching out to the editors and showcasing why your moisturizer stands out, you could potentially secure a valuable backlink from a high-authority website.

Unlinked mentions

Let’s say a beauty blogger is raving about your latest moisturizer on Instagram, but there’s no link to your product page. That’s an unlinked mention—and you guessed it, they are a great way to build backlinks. 

How to find unlinked mentions with Google Alerts:

1⃣ Set up alerts: Google Alerts is a free tool that allows you to monitor the web for mentions of your brand. Enter your brand name (and any variations) into Google Alerts and set up email notifications.  

2⃣ Check your inbox: You’ll receive an email alert whenever your brand is mentioned online. Review these alerts and identify any mentions that aren’t linked to your website.  

3⃣ Reach out and request a link: Contact the website owner or author and politely request that they add a link to your website. 

5. On-page optimization 

On-page optimization is giving your website a makeover that search engines will love. It’s all 

about making sure your website is easy for search engines to understand, navigate, and index. 

Here’s a checklist of key on-page elements to optimize:

Title tags

These are the clickable headlines that appear in search engine results. They tell both search engines and users what the page is about. Here is an example of a title tag:

Source: Google 

Meta descriptions

These short summaries appear under the titles in search results and are meant to entice users to click by giving snapshots of the pages’ content.

Source: Google 

Headings (H1, H2, etc.)

These structure your web content, making it easy to read. H1 is the main title, while H2s and H3s are subheadings that organize the information in a logical way. Here’s an example from a blog post on Drunk Elephant’s beauty website. 

Source: Drunk Elephant

Image alt text

Alt-text descriptions are added to images for SEO and accessibility purposes, helping search engines understand what each image represents. 

Internal links

Link to other relevant web pages within your site to help users navigate and discover more of the content you feature.

Keyword usage 

Incorporate your target keywords throughout your website’s content in a natural way—this means that you should avoid keyword stuffing.

Key point: What is keyword stuffing? Keyword stuffing is when you cram your website with the same keywords repeatedly in an unnatural way. It’s basically an attempt at trying to trick search engines into thinking your content is super relevant, even if it’s not the case. This tactic can backfire and hurt your SEO efforts.

URL structure

Keep your URLs short, descriptive, and easy to read. Here’s an example: 

Source: Drunk Elephant 

6. Ensure your site is mobile friendly 

Today, everyone’s glued to their phones—including skincare enthusiasts! Mobile devices generate 63% of global website traffic. This means that if your skincare website isn’t mobile-friendly, you’re missing out on a huge chunk of potential customers.

Plus, Google now considers mobile-friendliness a ranking factor. So, if you want to rank high in search results, you need to make sure your website functions flawlessly on all devices. 

Below, we’ll touch on the key elements you need to have in place to make your site mobile-friendly. 

Mobile-responsiveness checklist

Opt for responsive design. Ensure your website automatically adjusts to different screen sizes, from smartphones to tablets. No one wants to pinch and zoom their way around your site!

Fast loading speed. Improving your page speed is essential for both SEO and user experience. Google now considers page speed a ranking factor, so a slow site can negatively affect your search performance. Optimize your images and code to ensure your website loads quickly on mobile devices. No one has the patience for a slow-loading site!

Make your website easy to navigate on a smaller screen. Use a clear menu structure and large buttons that are easy to tap with a finger.

Have readable text. Use a font size that’s easy to read on a smaller screen. Avoid tiny text that requires users to zoom in. Opt for large, legible fonts instead of small or intricate ones. This makes your site more user-friendly and easier to navigate.

Keep your content concise and to the point. Use headings, bullet points, and short paragraphs to make scanning on a mobile device easy.

Have touch-friendly elements. Ensure buttons and links are large enough to be easily tapped with a finger.

Optimize your images: Don’t let bulky images slow down your mobile site. Reduce file sizes and use images that are suitable for smaller screens to keep things snappy. This helps improve your page speed, which is crucial for a positive user experience.

Test regularly. Test your website regularly on different mobile devices to ensure it’s functioning properly and providing a positive user experience. 

Pro-tip: Use Google Lighthouse  Google Lighthouse is a powerful tool built into Chrome that provides a detailed report on your website’s performance, including mobile-friendliness, accessibility, and SEO. It even offers personalized suggestions for improvement. To use Google Lighthouse: Open your website in Chrome. Right-click anywhere on the page and select “Inspect.” In the panel that opens, click the “Lighthouse” tab. Select the “Mobile” device option and click “Generate report.”

7. Improve your page speed

If your skincare website takes forever to load, you risk losing potential customers before they even get to see your amazing products. 

Improving your page speed is essential for both skincare SEO and user experience. Google now considers page speed a ranking factor, so a slow site can negatively affect your search performance.

Here are some tips to speed up your website:

Optimize your images

One way to speed up your site is to optimize your product images. Here’s how: 

Compress them: Large image files are a major culprit of slow loading times. Use tools like TinyPNG or ImageOptim to compress your images without sacrificing quality.

Resize them: Don’t upload images that are larger than needed. Resize them to fit the dimensions in which they’ll be displayed on your website.

Choose the right format: Use WebP format for optimal compression and quality. Alternatively, stick to JPEG for photographs and PNG for graphics with transparent backgrounds.

Other ways to speed up your website

1. Leverage browser caching
2. Minimize HTTP requests
3. Use a content delivery network (CDN)
4. Clean up your code
5. Choose a fast hosting provider
6. Minify your CSS and JavaScript
7. Reduce redirects

Pro-tip: How do I measure my website’s speed?  You can monitor your website’s speed with tools like Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix. Doing this will help you identify any potential issues and track your progress.

Final Thoughts: Skincare SEO

Whew! We’ve covered a lot of ground, haven’t we? From keyword research and product descriptions to backlinks and the importance of a mobile-friendly website, you’re now armed with the knowledge to conquer skincare SEO.

Remember, SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. It takes time and consistent effort to see results—but trust us, it’s worth it! By implementing these strategies, you’ll attract more customers, build brand authority, and watch your skincare business flourish online.

If you ever feel you need an expert hand to guide you, don’t hesitate to reach out to skincare SEO pros (like Authority Builders!). We can help you fine-tune your strategy and take your skincare SEO to the next level. Get in touch today. 

Do you want to be able to offer link-building services but don’t know where to start? Perhaps you don’t have the resources available?

White-label link building could be the answer.

This guide explains what white-label link-building services are and how to find a good agency to provide them.

What Is White-Label Link Building?

White-label link building is when you subcontract your link-building services to another agency.

However, the work they produce is presented as if it came from your business. In other words, from your clients’ perspectives, YOU are delivering the link-building services, which means: 

Your team still manages client relationships.

Reports, strategies, and any other documentation is delivered with your branding on.

You get all the credit for boosting your client’s rankings.

The model is relatively straightforward. You charge your clients a fee for link-building services and the white-label link-building agency charges you. You’ll probably charge the client slightly more than you’d pay the agency so that you make some profit. 

Usually, you’ll agree on a price for a set amount of work per month. The agreement will differ depending on:

The industry you and your client work in.

The white-label link-building company.

The types of links you would like delivered.

What kinds of businesses suit white-label link building?

White-label link-building services are usually suitable for anyone who provides their clients with sales and marketing or website design services. 

Examples include:

Digital marketing agencies.

SEO agencies. 

Web design and development agencies.

This is because link building crosses over with their core business and it’s likely that their clients would want these services.

White-label link building may also set up entrepreneurial salespeople who want to resell a service. 

Why Use a White-Label Link-Building Service?

There are many reasons why businesses choose to outsource link building.

They are:

You don’t want to deliver link building in-house

Setting up a whole new service offering isn’t easy. It involves:

Hiring people.

Buying the right tools.

Setting up new processes.

Marketing and selling your service.

Having enough clients to make it profitable. 

For example, it’s common for SEO agencies to see a client’s rankings struggle to rise above a certain level. They know that building links is the likely solution.

But they don’t have the in-house skills to do a good job. They could try a freelancer, but the quality of freelance link builders varies. Also, they may struggle to build high-quality links in large numbers. 

Hiring someone full time is also not a viable option, as you typically only need to build links for a few clients. A better solution is to hire a white-label link-building agency to support you.

You do want to provide link-building services but you can’t right now

One of the key challenges mentioned above is having enough clients to make a new service profitable and to keep anyone you might hire busy.

White-label link building is a low-risk way to build up a roster of link-building clients without having to invest too much money.

And because these agencies are link-building experts, you’ll deliver a professional service and high-quality backlinks—this will help build your reputation as a link builder.

Eventually, you may decide to employ your own team and start building links in-house.

You already provide link-building services but you need additional resources to scale/manage demand

If you work for an agency, then you’ll know the challenge of having more work than you can possibly do. It can lead to you turning work away or being so busy that you produce poor-quality work. Either way, it can lead to clients leaving you.

White-label link-building agencies give you access to additional resources during busy periods, while also delivering the same level of professionalism that you would offer your clients.

It’s also useful if you are growing your business but you’re still in the process of gauging your increased client base to determine your hiring requirements. 

What Are the Benefits of Using a White-Label Link-Building Service?

Let’s look at some of the other benefits of using a white-label link-building service:

It’s cost-effective: As mentioned above, using a white-label link-building agency means you don’t have to hire and train an in-house team. Furthermore, link-building companies often offer fixed pricing per link or campaign, which makes budgeting easier.

Quicker campaign turnaround: White-label services often have established processes and resources, allowing them to execute a link-building campaign quicker than an in-house team. 

Freed-up resources: Outsourcing link-building services frees up internal resources, allowing agencies to focus on strategy, client management, and other core services. It gives you spare capacity for larger projects. 

They build quality links: Link-building agencies are associated with high levels of professionalism and they provide high-quality backlinks. That’s because they care deeply about their reputation. You’re more likely to see your clients’ rankings increase and reduce the risk of penalties than if you worked with a freelancer.

Up-to-date practices: Professional link builders stay updated on the latest SEO trends and algorithm changes, ensuring compliance with best practices and achieving optimal results.

Improve your reputation: Clients will see you as the provider of a high-quality, professional service, enhancing your agency’s credibility.

Focus on core competencies: A white-label link-building service allows you to focus on what you do best. You can concentrate on high-level strategy and client management while the agency handles the link building. 

What to Look For in a White-Label Link-Building Agency

It’s critical to get link building right. The wrong approach can have a negative impact on your clients’ rankings. 

It’s therefore important to work with a professional, reputable link-building provider. Here are some of the characteristics of a good link-building agency:

Use of white-hat techniques

One of the biggest issues with outsourcing link building is the number of scams and poor-quality link-building techniques used. 

Just take a look at freelance link builders on Fiverr and you’ll see lots of link builders offering to deliver hundreds of backlinks for a very low price. 

The truth, however, is that these links are often poor quality or built with black hat techniques.

A black-hat link-building technique is one that doesn’t aim to deliver value to users of the website it is posted on. Instead, it exists solely to help the sites they point to, rank higher.

If search engines like Google suspect you are using black-hat techniques, then they will either ignore your links or worse—issue your client’s site with a penalty. This could lead to reduced rankings or the site being removed from Google’s search results altogether.    

White-hat techniques, on the other hand, are more natural and offer value to users. They tend to result in more powerful, high-quality links. 

Before you agree to work with a white-label link-building agency, ask them how they build links. If they mention any black-hat techniques, then steer well clear of them.

Here’s a quick overview of common black-hat and white-hat link-building techniques:

A focus on strategy

Once you’ve paid your money to one of those cheap link-building freelancers we mentioned earlier, they’ll immediately start placing links to your site all over the Internet.

A decent white-label link-building service, however, will need some time to develop a bespoke strategy. 

They’ll seek to understand:

Your client’s business and industry.

Why they want to build links and how that aligns with their wider marketing strategy.

Which websites would make good link-building opportunities.

What their service expectations are.

The subsequent link-building strategy may include:

A list of relevant websites to build links with.

A list of URLs on your client’s website that would benefit from link building.

A content strategy, including keywords to target and potential titles. 

Anchor text suggestions for each link. 

A clear process

A good white-label link-building agency should follow a clear process, so you know how often you need to arrange meetings with its consultants and what you’ll need to have ready. 

This not only minimizes the time you’ll need to spend working on link building (which is the whole point!), but also means you’ll know what they are doing in between meetings. This helps you keep your client updated on the stage their campaign is at.

A typical link-building process will be something like this:

1. Strategy meeting: As mentioned above, the agency should seek to understand your client and their link-building aims.
2. Research: The agency will then research your client’s industry, looking at competitors and determining the best link-building opportunities.
3. Create a strategy: As mentioned above, the white-label link-building agency develops your link-building strategy.
4. Prospecting: The agency creates a shortlist of suitable quality websites. They then send a personalized outreach message to each to offer your valuable content. 
5. Content creation: Once websites begin to accept the agency’s link-building proposals, the agency will start creating any new content that is required. This might involve you gaining approval from your client first.
6. Submit content and record results: Once the link has been published, the white-label link-building agency updates its live reporting dashboard. The next section explains this in greater detail.   

Performance tracking

Good link-building services offer detailed reports, which make it easy to monitor progress and demonstrate value to clients.

Some even provide this in real time, so you can get live data on your clients’ link-building campaigns whenever you please. 

The reports provided to you should include:

Total number of links. 

Total number of new links.

Total number of referring domains.

Total number of new referring domains.

Organic traffic change.

Details of any issues—for example, broken links.

You should also get the following information on each new backlink:

The URL where the backlink was built, i.e., the address of the page where the link now features.

The date the link was published.

The website’s authority score: This is a measure of how well regarded a website is by online users. It is mainly calculated based on the number and quality of backlinks and linking domains pointing at a site. This is sometimes known as domain rating (DR) or domain authority (DA).

Pagerank score: This is essentially an authority score for the individual page.

The anchor text used. 

Organic traffic: The number of monthly visitors who arrive at the page through search, clicking a link, or directly. 

Thorough reporting allows you to provide your clients with informed feedback on their campaigns at any time.

Confidentiality and NDA compliance

Before agreeing to work with a white-label link-building agency, ensure that your client relationships are protected through nondisclosure agreements. Many agencies regard NDAs as standard practice, but it’s good to check just in case.

Keep in mind the cost of link-building services when choosing a white-label partner, as pricing will affect your margins and ROI.

Work with the Best White-Label Link-Building Agency

Over the years, we’ve received more and more requests to provide outsourced link-building services. 

The reason is clear—clients and agencies alike know the role that backlinks play in helping websites rank higher on search engines. 

That’s why we created our own white-label link-building service. We provide each client with a custom strategy that includes:

Comprehensive competitor link analysis.

Authority diagnosis.

Advice on what types of links to build and how fast.

An anchor text roadmap.

Transparent monthly reporting.

Our service is affordable and delivers genuine high-quality links—you’ll be proud to share our link-building efforts with your clients!

Schedule a call to find out more about our white-label link-building services.

This article reveals the best backlink monitoring tools, what they are, how to use them, and their pricing.

What Is Backlink Monitoring?

Backlink monitoring involves keeping track of the number and quality of backlinks pointing to your website. This process includes:

Identifying new backlinks

Assessing the quality of these links

Checking their status to ensure they remain active

Analyzing the anchor texts used. 

By continuously monitoring your backlinks, you can maintain a healthy link profile, which is essential for improving your website’s visibility and ranking in search engine results.

Why Is Backlink Monitoring Important?

Track link-building progress

Backlinks monitoring allows you to track the progress of your link-building efforts. You can ensure that your link velocity—the rate at which new links are acquired—is on track. This helps maintain a consistent growth pattern that appears natural to search engines.

Check backlink quality

Not all backlinks are created equal. By monitoring the quality of your backlinks, you can identify and disavow dodgy or irrelevant links that might harm your SEO efforts. Medium-quality links can be targeted for tier-two link building to boost their value, while high-quality links can be leveraged for building internal links within your site.

Spot broken links

Broken links lead to redirects, which negatively impact the user experience and can cause Google to rank your website lower. Regularly monitoring backlinks helps you spot and fix broken links, ensuring you retain valuable link equity and that your website maintains a good user experience.

Spot changes to linking domains 

Sometimes, the websites linking to your site may change ownership or undergo significant content changes that impact backlink quality. Monitoring these changes can help you react promptly, ensuring your link profile remains solid and relevant.

Track competitors

Monitoring your competitors’ backlinks can provide valuable insights into their link-building strategies. By understanding where and how quickly competitors build links, you can adjust your strategies to stay competitive.

Track backlink indexing

Knowing when linking pages get indexed by search engines is crucial, as this affects when these links will start contributing to your SEO efforts. Backlink monitoring allows you to identify links that haven’t been indexed yet, so you can take the necessary action. 

If you’ve invested in backlinks (often a significant expense – see our link-building pricing guide), monitoring them ensures you maximize their ROI.

Best Backlink Monitoring Tools 

Google Search Console

Image courtesy of PracticalEcommerce

Google Search Console (GSC) is a great free tool to monitor your website backlinks. The “Links” report in Google Search Console (GSC) provides a treasure trove of information about your internal and external links. Here’s a breakdown:

External links (backlinks)

This section reveals valuable insights about the backlinks pointing to your website:

• Top linked pages: Discover which of your pages are the most popular and attract the highest number of backlinks from other websites. This can help you identify your most valuable content.
• Top linking sites: See which websites link to your content most frequently. This can highlight potential partners or influencers and also indicate whether you need to diversify—for example, when you have too many links from one or two domains. 
• Top linking text: Understand the most common anchor text (the clickable words) used in links to your site. This can give you clues about how others perceive your content.

You can click on any of these entries for more granular reports. For instance, clicking on a specific page will show all the sites linking to it, while clicking on a site will reveal all your pages that the site links to.

Internal links

This section focuses on the links within your website:

• Top linked pages: See which pages are most frequently linked to from other pages on your site. This can help you assess your internal linking structure.
• Top linking pages: Identify the pages on your site that link to other pages the most. This can be useful for optimizing internal navigation.

GSC Tips  1⃣Disavow harmful links: If you find any spammy links, you can use the disavow tool in GSC to ask Google not to consider them when evaluating your site. If you need help on how to do this, check out this article.  2⃣Combine with other tools: While GSC provides valuable data on your backlink sources and traffic, it doesn’t offer detailed insights into link quality or potential spam. Consider combining it with other backlink and SEO tools like Ahrefs or Moz for a more comprehensive view of your backlink profile, including link quality and domain authority.

Ahrefs

Ahrefs is a comprehensive platform packed with features to assist you in various aspects of SEO, from keyword research and competitor analysis to backlink analysis and site audits.

It has a huge range of features, including: 

• Site Explorer: This is the core of Ahrefs, allowing you to analyze any website’s backlink profile, organic keywords, top-performing pages, and estimated traffic. It’s also great for understanding your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses.
• Keywords Explorer: This tool helps you discover new keyword opportunities with search volume and ranking difficulty estimates. It also shows related keywords and questions people ask about the topic.
• Site Audit: This feature crawls your website to identify technical SEO issues like broken links, slow pages, or duplicate content. It provides actionable recommendations to fix those issues.
• Rank Tracker: This tool tracks your keywords’ ranking over time. It helps you monitor your progress and understand the impact of your SEO efforts.
• Content Explorer: This feature lets you find top-performing content in your niche based on social shares, backlinks, and organic traffic. It’s great for finding inspiration and identifying potential link-building opportunities.

Ahrefs is also an effective backlink monitoring tool and includes the following backlink analytics :

Get an overview of your backlink profile 

You can get a snapshot of your backlink profile in the Site Explorer tool. This includes domain rating and URL rating, as well as the number of referring domains. 

We’ve used the online clothing retailer Commonry as an example: 

Source: Ahrefs 

Broken backlinks

Identify backlinks pointing to broken pages on your site, allowing you to reclaim lost link equity by fixing or redirecting these pages.

Source: Ahrefs 

Pro tip: You can set up email notifications to get updates whenever you gain or lose backlinks.

Anchor text distribution

Analyze the anchor texts used in your backlinks to ensure a natural and diverse link profile.

Disavow links

Export a disavow file for submission to Google if you find harmful or spammy backlinks.

Link intersect

Discover sites that link to your competitors but not to you, identifying potential link-building opportunities.

Source: Ahrefs 

Historical data

View historical backlink data to understand how your backlink profile has evolved:

Source: Ahrefs 

These features can help you maintain a healthy backlink profile, identify potential issues, and find new link-building opportunities.

Ahrefs Pricing 

Backlink Pilot

Source: Backlink Pilot

Backlink Pilot is a free link-building CRM designed to help you manage your link-building partnerships more effectively. It’s particularly useful for anyone actively engaging in a link-building campaign.

The primary feature of Backlink Pilot is its ability to check the status of your backlinks automatically. It verifies whether links are still live, whether they’re dofollow or nofollow, and alerts you if any issues arise, such as broken links or changes in link attributes.

It also offers a partnership management feature that further streamlines your link-building efforts by enabling you to organize and track your link-building partnerships in a structured manner. You can keep track of contact information, link placement details, and communication history with your partners.

Backlink Pilot Pricing 

Feature	Free Account	Paid Account
Tracked Links	Up to 500	Up to 5,000
Link Checks	Monthly	Daily
Unlimited Partners
Unlimited Clients
Price	Free	$50/month

Linkody

Source: Linkody

Linkody is a comprehensive backlink tracking and analysis tool designed to help you monitor and manage your website’s backlink profile effectively. 

This backlink checker tool monitors your backlinks and notifies you of new and lost backlinks or link attribute changes (e.g., dofollow to nofollow). It also offers the following features: 

• Analyze competitor backlinks: You can analyze your competitors’ backlinks to discover their link-building strategies and identify potential link opportunities for your site.
• Disavow tool: Linkody provides a simple way to create and submit disavow files to Google, allowing you to disavow harmful or low-quality backlinks.
• Backlink metrics: Get detailed metrics for each backlink, including domain authority, page authority, spam score, and more. You can also track your overall link profile growth and analyze historical data.

Here are Linkody’s standout features:

User-friendly interface: Linkody is designed with a user-friendly interface, making it accessible and easy to navigate for users of all skill levels. The intuitive dashboard provides clear and actionable insights into your backlink profile.

Link visualizer: Visualize your backlink profile with the Link Visualizer tool, which visually represents your backlinks. This makes it easier to understand the structure and distribution of your links.

Scheduled reports: Set up automated email reports. This feature ensures you receive regular updates on your backlink profile without having to generate reports manually.

Linkody Pricing

Monitor Backlinks by SEOptimer 

SEOptimer’s Monitor Backlinks feature is part of its comprehensive suite of SEO tools designed to help website owners and digital marketers track and analyze their backlinks. This feature provides detailed insights into the backlinks pointing to your website, enabling you to manage and optimize your link-building strategies effectively.

Here are the standout features:

Real-time monitoring and alerts: The tool offers real-time monitoring of your backlinks and sends instant alerts if any backlinks are removed or broken. This feature allows you to promptly fix issues and maintain your backlink profile.

White-label reporting: SEOptimer provides agencies and professionals with white-label reporting options. You can generate branded reports for clients, which showcase the results of your backlink monitoring and SEO efforts.

Integration with Google: SEOptimer integrates with Google Analytics and Google Search Console, providing a holistic view of your website’s performance. This integration allows you to correlate backlink data with traffic and search performance metrics.

SEOptimer Pricing

Majestic

Source: Majestic 

Majestic is a well-known SEO tool that can be used to monitor backlinks. Similar to Linkody, Majestic can also be used to:

• Track new and lost backlinks. 
• Identify and disavow backlinks. 
• Analyze your competitors. 
• Look at historical data and trends. 

Aside from these more standard features, Majestic offers these standout features: 

Extensive backlink database

Majestic boasts one of the largest and most comprehensive backlink databases available, ensuring you can access the most accurate and up-to-date information on your backlink profile.

Proprietary metrics

Majestic employs three key metrics to evaluate your backlinks:

1. Trust Flow: This metric gauges the quality of your backlinks, indicating how trustworthy and authoritative the linking sites are. A higher Trust Flow score signifies backlinks from reputable sources—a positive signal for your website’s credibility and search engine rankings.
2. Citation Flow: This metric measures the number of backlinks pointing to your website. A higher Citation Flow score simply means you have a larger number of backlinks. While quantity is important, it’s crucial to balance it with quality (Trust Flow) by ensuring your backlinks are from credible sources.
3. Topical Trust Flow: This metric assesses the topical relevance of the websites linking to yours. It goes beyond simply measuring link quality (Trust Flow) by also considering the subject matter of those links. Each backlink gets a TTF score (0-100) within its assigned topic, reflecting its authority and trust in a specific niche.

Majestic Pricing 

Feature	Lite Plan	Pro Plan	API Plan
Price	$49.99/month or $499.99/year	$99.99/month or $999.99/year	Custom pricing
Site Explorer
Link Context Analysis
Trust Flow/Citation Flow
Topical Trust Flow
Historic Index	90 days	All data	All data
Fresh Index	90 days	All data	All data
Downloadable Reports	Up to 1 million	Up to 5 million	Higher limits

Linkio 

Source: Linkio

Linkio is cold outreach software that helps you prospect and automate outreach. It also has robust features for backlink monitoring.

Linko offers the following features for backlink monitoring:

• Automated backlink tracking: Continuously monitors your backlinks for changes, including new, lost, and broken links, with updates every three days.
• Backlink metrics analysis: Provides detailed metrics like domain authority (DA), page authority (PA), domain rating (DR), URL rating (UR), and a spam score to evaluate backlink quality.
• Anchor text analysis: Analyze anchor text distribution to maintain a natural and effective anchor text profile.
• Competitor backlink comparison: This allows you to compare your backlink profile with those of your competitors to identify opportunities and refine your link-building strategies.

In addition to these, here are the standout features of Linkio: 

Automated reporting: Generate automated reports on your backlink profile that include changes, quality metrics, and campaign progress. These reports can be customized and scheduled for regular updates.

Backlink crawling and indexing: Ensures backlinks are crawled and indexed by search engines, confirming their validity and impact on SEO.

Integration with major SEO tools: Integrates with Ahrefs, Moz, and Google Search Console for comprehensive backlink data.

Linkio Pricing 

LinkResearchTools 

Source: LinkResearchTools 

LinkResearchTools is an SEO software suite that offers users a variety of tools to monitor their backlinks. 

Here’s how you can use LinkResearchTools to get a 360° view of your backlink profile: 

• Backlink audit: Use LinkResearchTools to conduct detailed backlink audits. It identifies all inbound links and evaluates them based on metrics like Trust, Power, and Risk.
• Link monitoring: LinkResearchTools continuously monitors your backlinks, providing real-time updates on changes like new or lost links and referral traffic. This helps you stay updated on the status of your backlink profile and allows you to react promptly to any issues.
• Link Detox: Identify and disavow harmful backlinks from a linking page that could negatively impact your SEO. LinkResearchTools’ Link Detox tool also helps you create a disavow file to submit to Google Search Console.

Here are the standout features:

Automated and customizable reporting: Generates detailed backlink analysis and activity reports, which can be customized and scheduled.

Integration with multiple data sources: Combines data from various sources for accurate and comprehensive backlink information.

LinkResearchTools Pricing 

SE Ranking

Source: SE Ranking

SE Ranking is another SEO software platform similar to Ahrefs, Majestic, and LinkResearchTools. It offers tools to track keyword rankings, perform website auditing and competitor analysis, and monitor backlinks, helping users improve their online presence and SEO performance. 

Here are the key features for monitoring your link-building campaigns: 

• Add backlinks: Users can manually input or import backlinks from Google Search Console or Authority Builder’s free Backlink Checker for comprehensive tracking.
• Regular check ups: The tool automatically checks the status of backlinks regularly to ensure they remain active and influential.
• Notifications: Users receive alerts if there are any changes in the status of their backlinks, such as removal of referring domains or modifications.
• Backlink metrics: The tool analyzes referring domains, linking pages, and various backlink parameters to assess their value and impact.

This backlink monitoring tool also offers the following standout features: 

Page-specific metrics: Evaluate the quality and relevance of linking pages to ensure they meet the desired criteria for beneficial backlinks.

Domain and page trust: This backlink tool scores referring domains and individual pages based on their trustworthiness and authority, helping users identify valuable backlinks.

SE Ranking Pricing 

Final Thoughts

Building backlinks is a cornerstone of any successful SEO strategy. However, the work doesn’t stop once you’ve acquired those links. Monitoring your backlinks is crucial to ensure they remain effective and high quality, and continue to benefit your website’s ranking.

This guide explored the importance of backlink monitoring, highlighting its role in tracking progress, maintaining link quality, and gaining a competitive edge. We also delved into the top tools available in 2024. 

By selecting the right tool(s) for your needs and actively monitoring your backlinks, you can ensure that your link-building efforts are paying off and your website continues to climb the search engine rankings.

Need help with your link-building strategy? 

Need help managing your backlinks? Partner with Authority Builders. Our Platinum link-building service includes comprehensive backlink monitoring and analysis, allowing you to focus on your core business while we handle the technical aspects of link building. Sign up today! 

Because of this, many people have started using it to support their link-building efforts.

The problem is that AI isn’t so good for building high-quality backlinks.

Why?

Because high-authority websites want to build genuine relationships and link to high-quality content—and AI and automation aren’t capable of achieving this well enough yet.

That’s where manual link building comes in, which is when most of the link-building process is done by real people. 

Overall, it results in more opportunities for better backlinks, leading to higher rankings in search engines. 

This article explains what manual link building is, why it’s effective, and lists eight manual link-building techniques you can use.

Contents:

What Is Manual Link Building?

What Are the Hallmarks of Manual Link Building?

8 Manual Link-Building Strategies

Linkable assets

Local citations

Guest blogging

Digital PR

Connectively (formerly HARO)

Influencer marketing

Broken link building

Skyscraper

Build Manual Links with Authority Builders

What Is Manual Link Building?

Manual link building is when you get other websites to post backlinks to your website instead of relying on software to do it for you.

The idea behind manual link building is that there are some things that people do better than computers. 

Namely:

Identifying relevant, targeted linking opportunities.

Building genuine relationships with website owners and industry influencers by sending personalized outreach emails.

Writing high-quality content that readers find valuable.

What is automated link building?

Automated link building is when you use software to do all of the above. 

This results in:

Targeting link-building campaigns at less relevant websites.

Generic email campaigns.

Unoriginal content with little depth and insight.

Why is manual link building effective?

Manual link building generally results in higher-quality, more natural backlinks than automated link building. 

The quality of content and its relevance are two of the factors that search engines use to judge the quality of backlinks. 

Automated link-building campaigns, on the other hand, are more about building a large number of links fast. 

As a result, automated links tend to be accepted by websites with lower editorial standards. These sites usually charge for links and are more interested in making a quick buck. As a result,  the backlinks you build with them are often low-quality.

Furthermore, the sites you build manual links to are more likely to build new links to your site for free and keep them active for longer. This is because you have taken the time to build a genuine relationship with them.

Manual link-building can be time-intensive; for those considering outsourcing, knowing the link-building pricing helps set realistic expectations.

In summary: Manual link building generally results in a smaller number of high-quality links, while automated link building can result in a large number of lower-quality links.

The risks of automated link building

One of the biggest problems with automated link building is that you have less control. 

You might decide that you’re happy to trade off some quality and relevance in exchange for building links faster.

The problem is you won’t necessarily know which sites you are building links to because you are handing decision-making over to software. 

You could end up inadvertently building links to link farms or other dodgy sites.

What is a link farm?

A link farm is a website that exists purely to make money from selling links.  They rarely offer any value to readers, the quality of their content is normally very low, and they cover broad and vague topics like “business” or “technology.”

Search engines like Google penalize websites that try to manipulate search results. This could involve:

• Ignoring your backlinks
• Reducing your rankings
• De-indexing your site

If it sees that you have built a large number of links unusually quickly and those links are from dodgy websites, Google will realize what you are up to.

What Are the Hallmarks of Manual Link Building?

Let’s explore some of the factors that make manual link building a source of high-quality backlinks:

Targeted

Automated link building tends to take a “spray and pray” approach to link building. In other 

words, you target as many websites as possible and see how many links you get. 

The problem with this approach is that you are less likely to get relevant links. Relevance is one of the most important Google ranking factors—this was confirmed in the recent leak of Google documents relating to its search algorithm. 

With manual link building, you choose which websites you intend to reach out to. This means you can target relevant, influential, high-quality websites in your industry that will have a positive impact on your brand and search rankings. 

Build relationships

Website owners are often inundated with link-building requests. This is especially true if the site is reputable or high quality.

Send a busy site owner an automated message asking for a link and they will probably ignore it. 

Manual outreach, on the other hand, involves building genuine relationships with website owners.

By writing an outreach email that is uniquely aimed at them, you show that you are genuinely interested in providing value to their website. 

This makes it more likely that they will respond positively.

Manual outreach isn’t just about getting a backlink. It’s about understanding the target website’s audience, the kind of content they want to link to, and how you can work together for mutually beneficial results. 

Valuable content

Automated link building often involves using AI platforms like ChatGPT or Jasper to quickly create content.

Content from these platforms is often well-structured and free from grammatical and spelling errors.

However, these platforms glean their knowledge from what’s already published online. This means that what they produce is never original. 

Also, its content is sometimes inaccurate—AI cannot tell whether something isn’t true and it gathers unverified or incorrect content to fill in gaps without you being able to tell the difference between fact and fiction. 

By writing content yourself or using a professional writer, you can ensure that your content is accurate, original, and comprehensively answers the reader’s question.

So I should always avoid using AI and automation? No! AI and automation tools are incredibly powerful.    But humans should ultimately be in control when making important strategic decisions or creating something that needs to connect with other people.   For example, when we produce content we use AI and automation to tell us what keywords to include.   AI could add those keywords to the content for us—but it doesn’t always understand what reads well and sometimes gets its facts wrong.    So our writers produce the content and add the AI-identified keywords themselves. Our writers’ work is made better and more efficient by automation.

8 Manual Link-Building Strategies

Now that you know why manual link building is so important, let’s explore how you can go about it. Here are eight manual link-building strategies. 

Linkable assets

This is when you create content that is so valuable to your audience that they naturally want to share it.

You don’t reach out to website owners and ask them to link to it. Instead, you simply publicize the resource to your audience via social media and your blog.

By “content” we don’t just mean written content. We’re talking:

• Images
• Videos
• Audio
• Tools 
• And more

It covers any resource they can engage with and share online. For example, Cycling News has a page dedicated to the Tour De France.

The page is updated regularly throughout the event. It covers things like:

The latest news from the race

Key facts about the race

The current standings

In-depth reporting on each stage

An overview of how the competition works

Which riders to watch out for

Who the teams are 

This critical resource for Tour De France enthusiasts has generated over 64,000 backlinks from 1,500 referring domains. 

Local citations

This is when your business’s name, address, and phone number (NAP) are published and verified by online directories or similar sites. 

They are critical for local SEO, as they help search engines locate your business. This means that when someone performs a location-based search, the search engine knows which sites to show. 

The important word here is “verified”. Anyone selling bikes can target keywords like “bicycle shop San Francisco”. However, search engines want to prioritize businesses they know are based there because it better fulfils the search query. 

By verifying your location through local citations, you prove your location to Google.  

Local citations also help fulfil the “trust” part of Google’s Expertise, Experience, Authority, Trust (EEAT) requirements. 

By verifying NAP data, you prove that you are a real business with a real physical location.

Local citations are some of the easiest manual links you can build. You simply set up a profile and enter your NAP data into an online directory.

Some of the best directories to target include:

Google Business Profile: Getting your business featured in the directory associated with the world’s most popular search engine is a no-brainer. Google says that starting a Google Business Profile helps improve your local SEO. 

Yelp: Local directory Yelp gets over 183 million monthly visitors. It’s free to list your business in its directory. However, you can also get paid packages that offer greater visibility in its search. 

Bing Places for Business: Bing gets more than 7% of US search volume and more than 10% of global desktop search. This isn’t anywhere near as much as Google, but it’s still worth having a presence on it. 

Facebook business page: Facebook has over 3 billion monthly users. It’s owned by Meta that also owns Instagram (2 billion monthly active user accounts). Once your business has been listed on one of these two platforms, it’s easy to set it up on the other. 

Apple Business Connect: Apple doesn’t have its own search engine but it does have services with search functionality, Apple Maps being a good example of this. While it only has 29 million users (compared to Google Maps’ 1.8 billion), it’s still worth being listed on. To do this, you need to sign up for Apple Business Connect. 

Guest blogging

This is a popular manual link-building technique. It involves writing articles that are published on someone else’s blog. 

A good manual guest blogging campaign covers all three elements mentioned earlier. To remind you, they are:

Targeted: Aim to publish your content on high-authority websites that are relevant to what you do and get decent organic traffic. 

Genuine outreach: Send the website owner a personalized message and explain why your idea would work well for their audience. 

High-quality content: Create professionally-written content that is well-researched and provides value to readers. This will:

• Stand more chance of being approved by the site owner.
• Generate organic traffic.
• Improve your brand reputation.
• Increase the chances that you’ll be asked to contribute in the future. 

Guest post content needs to be well-written and perfect for the website’s technical audience.

Another white-hat tactic is link insertion outreach, where you contact site owners to insert your link into existing relevant content, securing a contextual backlink.

Digital PR

Digital PR covers a range of applications, including: 

Brand building.

Reputation management.

Building relationships with journalists and publications.

The last point is most relevant to building manual links. The aim of digital PR in manual link building is to get your brand or business covered by the media. 

This could be through:

Providing expert commentary on current affairs.

Hosting fun or interesting events.

Publicity stunts.

Publishing useful or insightful research.

Press releases.

Digital PR backlinks are some of the most powerful ones out there. That’s because media publications often have very high site authority. This means search engines trust them, so they give a greater ranking benefit to the pages they link to. 

They’re also often relevant and natural. Journalists typically link to something when it supports what they are writing about—not because they are being paid to.  

The challenge with digital PR, and the reason it takes a lot of manual effort, is that journalists won’t just quote or link out to anyone. 

They care about their editorial integrity. They will only give you coverage if they think your content will be valuable for their readers. 

Even if your PR campaign adds value, it could be that it’s a busy news day, which means more important stories will get prioritized over yours. 

Many businesses outsource digital PR because creating campaigns and building relationships with journalists is such hard work.

Connectively (formerly HARO)

One of the hardest parts of building digital PR links is finding opportunities to be quoted by journalists.

It’s much better if the opportunities come to you. If you’ve formed strong relationships with industry journalists, then this could happen. 

But if you haven’t, then a platform like Connectively might be helpful because it’s a website that connects journalists with experts. 

Previously known as HARO, Connectively allows journalists to post questions; the answers they get then help them write their articles. Experts can explore the list of questions and look for one that they can answer. 

If a journalist likes your answer, then they will quote you and likely include a link to your website. This is one of the easiest ways to manually build high-quality backlinks. 

The downside is that Connectively is a popular platform and journalists are often inundated with responses. In our experience, you can expect a one-in-ten hit rate.

Influencer marketing

Influencer marketing is when a well-known person in your industry promotes your brand. 

It’s a good way to build manual links because it involves building relationships with the person. 

Many influencers make an income from advertising products. If you simply ask them to mention your business or link to it, then they will probably ask for money. 

To get mentioned naturally (and for free), you need to offer them value. This could include:

• Sending them a free sample of your product
• Offering them a free trial of your service
• Inviting them to your podcast or YouTube show
• Interviewing them for a blog post
• Showing them something useful or telling them something they didn’t know

Here’s a good example from Andertons’ YouTube channel. Andertons is a chain of guitar shops that also has a popular e-commerce website. 

They invited well-known online guitar teacher Justin Sandercoe onto their YouTube show to tell them what he would choose for his guitar setup. 

For Sandercoe, this is a chance to publicize his own online guitar lessons to Andertons’ audience (and try out some cool guitar kit). 

It’s likely that he’ll tell his followers about the show on social media and mention it on his blog. This will result in backlinks from Sandercoe and his audience.

Broken link building

This is when you look for backlinks that no longer work and “fix” them by suggesting that the website owner links to your content instead. 

There are many reasons that a backlink could break, including:

• Incorrectly formatted URL
• The website structure or URLs have changed
• The domain name has changed
• Malfunctioning plugins
• The target page has been moved or deleted

The best broken link building opportunities are presented by the last point. From the user’s perspective, these usually appear as a 404 error stating that the page could not be found. 

Here’s a fun example from Marvel.com.

The reason these broken links make good broken link building opportunities is because the content that has been moved or removed can be replaced by yours. 

There are several ways to find broken link building opportunities. We usually use an SEO tool called Ahrefs. 

There are several approaches you can take:

1. Find dead pages on competitor websites

Open Ahrefs’ Site Explorer, type a competitor’s domain into the search bar, and push enter. 

Click “Best by links” in the sidebar.

Select “404 Not found” in the filter and click “Show results.”

Choose a broken page and click the drop-down labeled “Links to page.” This shows you which pages link or used to link to this broken page.

You could create your own version of this content and contact the website in question to suggest fixing the link by pointing to your new page instead. 

Use Ahrefs’ Content Explorer

This approach allows you to search Ahrefs’ web page database for broken links based on a topic.

Here’s how to use it:

Click on “Content Explorer” and enter a topic into the search bar. Choose “In title” from the menu and hit enter. 

Next, set the filter to show broken pages only.

Filter for pages with at least 20 referring domains.

Ahrefs will show you a list of broken pages on your chosen subject with links pointing to them. The list is ordered by the number of broken links. 

The top result below has 84 results pointing to it—that’s a lot of manual link-building opportunities!

Just to be sure, click on the link to verify the page is dead:    

Skyscraper

The Skyscraper technique was devised by SEO expert Brian Dean. It involves looking at your competitors’ content and creating content that is 100x better. 

The idea is that websites would want to link to your content if it stands head and shoulders above that of your competitors (like a skyscraper). 

Here are three steps for a successful skyscraper manual link-building campaign.

1. Find popular, relevant content

The best place to start looking for Skyscraper opportunities is to look at your competitors’ websites and see what generates a lot of links for them.

You can do this using Ahrefs. Here’s how:

Open Site Explorer, type in one of your competitor’s websites and hit enter.

In the left sidebar, click on “Best by links.”

Order the page by the number of referring domains. 

This will show your competitor’s most popular pages in terms of backlinks. 

Do this for several competitors to get a feel for the kind of content that draws a large number of backlinks. 

1. Create better content

Next, it’s time to produce that competitor-beating content. But what do we mean by better content? Put simply:

We mean that it’s:

Better written.

Longer.

More up-to-date.

Better researched.

Better designed.

Uses a wider range of media.

More comprehensive.

More in-depth. 

You shouldn’t aim to create content that’s only slightly better than the strongest competitor’s content. Instead, aim to create something that is noticeably better.

This ensures that website owners will want to link to it. 

1. Reach out

Next, you need to find out which websites are linked to the original competitor content that you have improved upon. 

To do this, go back to your results in Site Explorer. Select “Dofollow” and click “Show results.”

Choose the target page on which your Skyscraper content is based and click the arrow in the “Links to page” column. This will show you all the pages that link to this page.

Click on each linking site and look for the website owner or content manager’s contact details. 

Write an email that covers the following:

• Name the person and tell them why you like their website. 
• Highlight the link you want to replace.
• Send them a link to your new content. 
• Tell them why you are a good source to link to and highlight why your content is far better.
• A clear request for them to swap the existing link for yours.

A good example might be:

Hi Jo,

I love your Superhero fan site, especially your recent coverage of ComicCon on YouTube.

I recently saw that you have linked to DC’s page on its collectibles. 

We’ve written our own version on Marvel’s collectibles—you can see it here. 

Our page shows a much wider range of collectibles than DC’s. Plus, we’ve created short videos for each product AND included a detailed profile.

We think your readers will find it more useful than the DC page—especially given we’re the world’s number one comic brand. 

Would you consider replacing the DC link with ours?

Look forward to hearing from you,

Stan

Tip: Be patient and tenacious

You might not get a response from the website owners you contact at first. They are usually busy people and may miss your email or forget to respond.  It’s usually a good idea to send a polite reminder a few days later. If you still don’t get a reply, then move on to the next opportunity—you don’t want to become a nuisance.

Build Manual Links with Authority Builders

Manual link building is the best way to ensure you get natural, high-quality backlinks. 

Over time, you’ll build a strong backlink profile that will help you rank higher in the SERPs. Plus, you’ll build strong relationships with other experts in your industry.

But, as the name suggests, manual link building entails a lot of work. That’s why it’s often better to outsource it to a link-building agency like Authority Builders. 

Since 2016, we’ve been helping clients increase organic traffic by building high-quality links. Work with us, and you’ll get:

A fully customized link-building strategy

100% manual outreach

High-quality content

Schedule a call to learn how we can take the hard work out of building manual links to your website.

But let’s face it, it’s not always a walk in the park. Fortunately, a wide array of SEO link-building software exists to lighten the load for your team.

The “best” tool truly depends on your specific goals and where you are with your link-building efforts. 

Even with great software to streamline the process, you may still need a budget for link acquisition – our link-building cost guide breaks down typical expenses.

Here are 13 tools we’ve found effective at our agency, organized by the stage of the link-building process they’re most useful for.

13 Best Link Building Tools 

Ahrefs: Best for a backlink audit 

Undoubtedly, Ahrefs is one of the most essential tools to use in your link-building strategy. 

It’s the SEO software equivalent of a Swiss army knife. Don’t take our word for it: 55.5% of link builders use Ahrefs. 

Ahrefs is a comprehensive SEO tool designed to help you improve your website’s search rankings and overall visibility. It offers a wide range of features, but here are the key ones:

Site explorer: This is the beating heart of Ahrefs, offering a deep dive into any website’s backlink profile, organic keywords, top-performing pages, and estimated traffic.

Keywords explorer: Uncover keyword ideas and analyze their search volume, competition, and potential traffic value.

Content explorer: Find high-performing content in your niche, analyze its social shares and backlinks, and identify potential link opportunities.

Rank tracker: Monitor your keyword rankings over time and compare your performance to competitors.

Site audit: Crawl your website to identify technical SEO issues such as broken links, slow page speed, and duplicate content.

Standout feature 

While Ahrefs is renowned as an all-in-one SEO tool, it truly shines regarding in-depth link analysis. Its backlink audit feature provides unparalleled detail and insight into your website’s link profile.

With Ahrefs, you can assess the following backlink metrics: 

• Uncover your most valuable linkable assets: Easily identify which pages on your site attract the most backlinks, revealing your strongest content and potential opportunities for further link acquisition.
• Monitor backlink changes: Track the ebb and flow of your backlinks over time, spotting trends, identifying new opportunities, and addressing potential issues before they escalate.
• Discover hidden link prospects: Compare your backlink profile with your competitors to find websites linking to them but not yours—a goldmine of untapped link potential.
• Evaluate link quality: Ahrefs provides metrics like domain rating (DR) to help you gauge the authority of referring domains, ensuring your links come from reputable sources.
• Identify toxic links: Spots potentially harmful links based on their anchor text and flags questionable sources. This allows you to disavow toxic links and protect your site’s reputation.

Ahrefs pricing

For more info, see their pricing page.

BuzzSumo: Best for finding link-building opportunities

BuzzSumo is an online platform that analyzes content performance, discovers trends, and identifies influencers. 

It provides valuable insights into the kinds of content that resonate with audiences, shows which social channels drive engagement, and identifies the key influencers in your niche. 

So, as a link-building tool, it has two main uses: 

1⃣ Content discovery 

• Search for top-performing content across the web based on keywords, topics, domains, or even specific authors. You can then use this information to generate content ideas based on these trending topics.
• Analyze engagement metrics (shares, likes, comments) to understand the most popular content types and topics.

2⃣ Finding influencers 

• Find key influencers in your niche based on their reach, authority, and engagement.
• Analyze influencer profiles, including their top-performing content, audience demographics, and social media engagement.
• Reach out to influencers for collaborations, partnerships, or content promotion.

Standout feature

One of BuzzSumo’s best features is the ability to set up alerts to track trending topics and conversations in real time, allowing you to stay ahead of the curve.

BuzzSumo pricing 

For more info, see their pricing page.

Check My Links: Best for finding broken links

Source

Check My Links is a Chrome browser extension that quickly scans a webpage and checks all its links. It then identifies and highlights which links are working and which ones are broken (leading to errors like a 404 “page not found”).

Why is this link-building tool useful?

This broken link-building tool not only improves your website’s user experience and SEO by identifying broken links, but also opens doors to relevant link-building opportunities. 

When the tool finds broken links on other websites, you can proactively reach out to the site owners, alert them to the issue, and offer relevant content as a replacement. 

This link-building outreach benefits everyone involved: the site owner maintains a positive user experience, you gain a valuable backlink, and users find the information they want.

Google Alerts: Best for spotting unlinked brand mentions 

Source

Google Alerts is a free tool from Google that helps you monitor the web for mentions of your brand, products, or industry. 

It sends you email notifications whenever new content relevant to your chosen keywords or phrases appears online.

This makes Google Alerts an invaluable link-building asset, especially as it is capable of tracking unlinked brand mentions. 

Imagine discovering a blog post or news article mentioning your company but not linking to your website. With Google Alerts, you’re immediately notified of this opportunity. 

You can then proactively reach out to the site owner or author, thanking them for the mention and politely requesting that they add a link to your site. This simple outreach often results in a valuable backlink. 

How to set up a Google Alert

Go to Google Alerts and enter your search term. Type the keyword or phrase you want to monitor in the search bar. 

This could be your brand name, a competitor, an industry term, or anything else you’re interested in.

Next, click on “Show options” to customize your alert. Here, you can choose:

• How often you want to receive alerts (as it happens, daily, or weekly).
• What types of sources you want to monitor (news, blogs, websites, etc.).
• Language and regional preferences.
• How many results you want to see (all or only the best results).
• Which email address you want the alerts delivered to.

Lastly, create an alert: Once you’ve entered your search term and adjusted any desired options, click “Create Alert.”

That’s it! You’ll receive email notifications whenever Google finds new content that matches your search term. You can create multiple alerts for different topics and manage them from the Google Alerts page.

Best PR tool: Connectively (formerly HARO)

Source

Connectively, formerly known as Help a Reporter Out (HARO), is a platform that connects journalists, bloggers, and content creators with sources and experts for their stories and articles. 

It’s a mutually beneficial platform where:

• Journalists can submit queries or requests for information, quotes, or opinions on specific topics.
• Sources/experts can respond to relevant queries with pitches, showcasing their expertise and offering valuable insights.

Getting quoted in relevant articles can earn you powerful backlinks from reputable publications, making it another essential PR and link-building tool. 

Standout feature 

HARO caters to various industries and topics, from technology and health to finance and lifestyle. This broad reach means almost any professional can find relevant queries to respond to.

Connectively pricing 

For more info, see their pricing page.

Best writing assistant: Grammarly

Source

Grammarly, an AI-powered writing assistant, streamlines content creation and elevates your writing quality. 

The paid version of Grammarly goes beyond checking basic grammar and spelling, offering a suite of features to enhance your style, tone, and clarity:

• Grammar and spelling correction: Eliminates errors that can undermine your credibility.
• Style and tone suggestions: Tailor your writing to your intended audience and purpose.
• Clarity improvements: Ensures your message is easily understood.
• Vocabulary enhancement: Expand your word choices for more impactful writing.
• Plagiarism and AI detection: (Premium feature) Maintains originality and avoids potential issues.

These tools are invaluable assets for any link-building campaign. Grammarly streamlines the process of creating error-free content that naturally attracts backlinks while ensuring your link-building outreach emails are polished and professional.  

Standout feature

A standout feature, especially for businesses, is Grammarly’s custom style guides. These help teams maintain a consistent brand voice, strengthening your professional image in outreach efforts.

Grammarly pricing

Grammarly offers a variety of subscription options to suit different needs and budgets. Let’s explore them in more detail:

For more info, see their pricing page.

fBest for finding contacts: Hunter

Source

Surfer SEO is an on-page SEO tool designed to help you optimize your website content and improve your rankings in search engine results pages (SERPs). 

It does this by analyzing the top-ranking pages for your target keywords and generating a detailed content optimization report with specific recommendations on ways to improve your content. This includes suggestions for:

• Ideal word count
• Keywords to include and their optimal frequency
• Heading structure
• Image optimization
• Internal and external linking strategies

Surfer is an underrated link-building tool because by following Surfer SEO’s recommendations, you can create content that improves your chances of ranking higher in search engines.

That said, it’s important to note that Surfer SEO is just one tool in your SEO arsenal—it’s not a magic bullet. 

Standout features 

For paid subscribers, two features truly set this tool apart:

AI content detector: This feature helps you identify whether a piece of text was written by a human or generated by an AI tool. As AI-generated content becomes more prevalent, this is increasingly important, especially for maintaining authenticity and transparency in your work.

Content humanizer: If you use AI to generate text (e.g., for drafts or outlines), this feature can “humanize” the output, making it sound more natural and less robotic. It helps avoid the telltale signs of AI-generated content, making it more engaging and easier to read.

SurferSEO pricing 

For more info, see their pricing page.

Best for finding contacts: Hunter

Source 

Once you have created high-quality content or found a broken backlink, you’ll need to contact website owners. 

Manually looking for contact information can be time-consuming and inefficient, especially with a large list of targets. 

Hunter.io streamlines the process by scraping the web to gather contact details for website owners and professionals. 

All you need to do is upload your list of target sites, and Hunter.io does the heavy lifting. 

While it may not find every email address, its high success rate and use of multiple sources ensure you get a comprehensive list of potential contacts.

Once you have a verified list of contacts, export it in CSV format for seamless integration with your other link-building tools. 

Standout feature 

One of Hunter.io’s standout features is its email verifier. This crucial step confirms the accuracy of the email addresses it finds, ensuring that you can easily find the right person’s contact information, which reduces bounce rates. 

This link-building tool even highlights the sources it uses, allowing you to verify the information independently if needed.

Hunter.io pricing 

For more info, see their pricing page.

Best for outreach: Mailshake

Source 

Outreach is often the most time-consuming aspect of link building and juggling multiple campaigns can quickly become overwhelming. 

That’s where Mailshake can help streamline your efforts when communicating with link prospects. 

This link-building software simplifies outreach by allowing you to send mass personalized emails and automate follow-up sequences based on recipient interactions. This translates to less manual work, freeing you to focus on backlink building. 

Standout feature

One of Mailshake’s standout features is its library of pre-made templates optimized for various link-building strategies, including:

• Broken link building: Easily identify and offer replacements for broken links on other websites.
• Guest posting: Pitch your expertise and secure valuable guest post opportunities on relevant blogs.
• Link requests: Directly request links from websites where your content adds value.
• PR pitches: Get your brand or product featured in the press with targeted outreach.
• Content promotion: Spread the word about your latest content and attract backlinks naturally.

Mailshake pricing 

For more info, see their pricing page.

Best backlink monitoring software: Monitor Backlinks

Once you have put in all the hard work to build links, it’s important to monitor them. One of the best link-building tools for this is SEOptimer’s Backlink Monitoring feature. 

This link-building software offers a range of advanced features to assess the effectiveness of your strategies and identify areas for improvement.

With Monitor Backlinks, you can:

• Stay on top of all the links to your website, ensuring your hard-earned backlinks remain active.
• Spy on your competitors and identify potential backlink opportunities.
• Create disavow files to submit to Google, disassociating your site from spammy links.
• Generate detailed backlink reports to evaluate the effectiveness of your link-building efforts and track progress over time.
• Receive alerts when a backlink disappears, enabling you to take action if necessary, especially for paid links.

Standout feature

A standout feature of Monitor Backlinks is its keyword rank tracking, which allows you to correlate your backlink profile with your ranking performance. 

This unique insight helps you understand the extent to which your link-building strategy directly contributes to organic traffic. 

This link-building tool is not only for monitoring your backlinks. It also offers a range of other features, including: 

• Keyword research 
• Keyword tracking 
• Backlink research 
• SEO audit 
• Bulk reporting and more! 

SEOptimer pricing 

For more info and an expanded feature breakdown, see their pricing page.

Best for disavowing backlinks: Google disavow links tool

The Google disavow links tool is a free feature within Google Search Console that allows website owners to tell Google to ignore specific backlinks when assessing their website’s search rankings. 

This link-building tool allows you to disassociate your site from low-quality links that could negatively impact your SEO.

When to use the disavow tool

Image courtesy of Hubspot

Manual action: If Google issues a manual action against you due to unnatural links, using the disavow tool forms part of the process to recover from the penalty.

Link spam: If you have many low-quality or spammy links pointing to your site that you can’t control or remove, the disavow tool can help mitigate their potential negative impact.

Here’s how it works:

1. Create a disavow file: You create a plain text file (.txt) listing the URLs or domains you want Google to ignore.
2. Upload to Search Console: You upload this file through the disavow links tool in your Google Search Console account.
3. Google processes the request: Google takes your request into account, but it doesn’t guarantee that all disavowed links will be ignored entirely.

Important note: Google representatives have indicated that the disavow link tool within Google Search Console may eventually be removed. John Mueller, a senior search analyst at Google, stated on X (formerly Twitter), that “At some point, I’m sure we’ll remove it.” Currently, the tool remains available and functional. We recommend staying informed about any official announcements from Google regarding the disavow tool.

Best link-building service: Authority Builders

Above we’ve discussed a range of premium link-building tools, and we would like to introduce another option for you to explore: Authority Builders’ link-building services. 

Yes, we know, it’s not software BUT it could be another valuable asset in your link-building toolbox, particularly if you are tired of juggling multiple SEO tools and struggling to build high-quality backlinks. 

Authority Builders takes the hassle out of link building, allowing you to sit back and relax while our experts secure authoritative links that boost your website’s visibility and rankings.

What we offer: 

• Link audits 
• Link building 
• Broken link building 
• Digital PR
• Link insertions 
• Guest posting 
• Content creation

Why choose us?

“Authority Builders Co. is a perfect solution for anyone needing to scale up their outreach. These are quality guest posts on real sites that I’m actually proud to show my clients.”

• Ryan Stewart, Webris

Unlock the power of high-quality backlinks. Authority Builders focus on securing backlinks from real websites with genuine traffic. This means your site gains SEO benefits and attracts valuable visitors who are truly interested in what you offer.

Tailored strategies for maximum impact. We understand that your business is unique. That’s why our link-building strategies are customized to your specific goals and industry, ensuring optimal results that align with your vision.

Leverage our expertise. Our team of SEO experts understands the nuances of link building. They’ll ensure your backlinks are high-quality, relevant, and comply with search engine guidelines, safeguarding your site’s reputation.

Find your perfect match in any niche. We’ve been building relationships with webmasters since 2016. Our network of websites spans a diverse range of niches, ensuring you’ll find the perfect link-building opportunities, no matter your industry.

Comprehensive reporting. Get detailed insights into your link-building campaigns, including progress tracking and the impact of backlinks on your SEO efforts. 

Enjoy a seamless user experience. Our platform is user-friendly, making it easy to manage your link-building campaigns. You can quickly find suitable websites, place orders, and monitor results.

Pricing

Here is the pricing for our most popular packages: 

We also offer premium blogger outreach services starting at $3,000/mo. Click here for more details.

Final Thoughts: Link Building Tools

The world of link-building doesn’t have to be overwhelming. 

With the right tools in your arsenal, you can streamline your efforts, discover valuable opportunities, and build a backlink profile that propels your website to new heights. 

Choose the tools that best suit your needs and budget, and start reaping the rewards of a stronger online presence.

Need some help?

At Authority Builders, we don’t just build backlinks; we build your online authority. 

Our focus on quality and relevance ensures your website ranks higher in search results, which helps you establish a strong reputation in your industry.

Book a call today and see how we can help you improve your search engine rankings and grow your online presence.

Tier two link building gives your backlink profile a boost by making the links that point to your website more effective.

This article explains what tiered link building is, how it works, and what techniques you should use to build tier two backlinks. 

Tier 2 Link Building: How To Power Up Your Backlink Profile

What Are Tier 2 Links?

What Is Tiered Link Building?

How Does Tiered Link Building Work?

How to Build Tiered Backlinks

Example of Tiered Backlinks

Build Tiered Links with Authority Builders

What Are Tier 2 Links?

Second tier links point to web pages with backlinks to your site. In other words, they are backlinks for your backlinks. 

Tiered link building can amplify your results without doubling your spend – but if you’re buying links for Tier 1, consider the cost of quality backlinks first.

Let me explain:

Imagine a popular industry publication has linked to one of your blog posts on their website. 

That’s a normal backlink, sometimes called a tier 1 backlink. 

Now imagine another blogger links to the industry publication’s page with your link. 

This is what’s known as a second tier link. It does not point directly to your website, but you do get some ranking benefit from it. 

This is due to a concept called link equity.

What is link equity?

Link equity is the idea that when someone links to a page, it passes on some of their website’s authority. 

The higher the linking website’s authority, the more impact it will have on your search engine rankings. 

Some people call link equity “link juice.” This comparison to liquid is helpful in visualizing how link equity works:

• The more link juice a website has, the more will be passed on to you when it links to you.
• The more your page is filled with link juice, the higher up in the rankings it begins to move.

Second tier links pump link juice into the pages that link to you, which then flows into your website. The more of these secondary links you have, the higher your pages are likely to rank. 

What Is Tiered Link Building?

Tiered link building doesn’t just end with tier 2 links. You can also build tier 3 links that point to your secondary links. Some people even go as far as to build tier 4 backlinks. 

Tiered link building involves strategically building out these layers of links.

But why would you want to do this?

There are four main reasons:

1. Increased authority

The main reason backlinks are so important for ranking is that they indicate to Google that a page is valuable to and trusted by readers.  

Building tier 2 links tells Google that pages featuring your tier 1 links are valuable, which means your content must be even more authoritative. 

By building links in layers, you develop a robust backlink profile. Google is likely to see your site as more authoritative and therefore, it is more likely to rank your content higher. 

2. Natural backlink profile

Building links in an attempt to manipulate Google’s search rankings is against its Search Essentials guidelines. Its algorithm is good at spotting unnatural linking patterns that may indicate manipulative activity. 

It’s normal for websites to have a mixture of tier 1, 2, and 3 links of varying quality and from various sources. 

In other words, tiered links look natural to Google and it’s more likely to rank websites with this kind of backlink structure higher. 

3. Index new pages quicker

Search engines can’t show every webpage on the internet to their users. They can only show those in their index—this is a database of websites that the search engine has explored and analyzed.

Search engines find and index new content by following links. The more backlinks pointing to your site from different sources, the more likely it is that search engines will find and index your new content.

4. More organic traffic

The main purpose of backlinks isn’t to help you rank on search engines—it’s to provide value to readers by directing them to useful information. Therefore, some users will visit your website by clicking your tier 2 and tier 1 links. 

How Does Tiered Link Building Work?

The lower the backlink tier, the less impact links have on your search engine rankings. In other words, tier 3 links aren’t as powerful as second tier links, and second tier links aren’t as powerful as those in tier one.

This means that you need to build more links the further down the tiers you go. Tiered link building tends to be structured like a pyramid:

In fact, we usually recommend building ten times the number of links for each new tier. 

A typical tiered link structure might have:

• 15 first tier links
• 150 second tier links
• 1,500 third tier links

That’s a lot of backlinks!

The good news is that the links you build at tiers two and three don’t need to be as high quality as the tier 1 links. That’s because they don’t point directly at your website, so there is less risk that Google will see them as spammy.

What are spammy links? Spammy backlinks are those that exist only to manipulate Google’s search algorithm.  They offer no value to readers and are often placed on poor-quality websites that make money by selling high quantities of backlinks to unscrupulous link builders. Google will usually ignore these backlinks, which means they are a waste of your money. But if you have too many of them, then it could lower your rankings or even de-index your website.

We recommend that even though you can build lower-quality links at tiers 2 and 3, you should still avoid building spammy backlinks.  

We’ll explain what links you should build at different tiers later in this article. 

When to build tier two backlinks

Tier 2 and 3 backlinks occur naturally. People find your valuable content and link to it, and in turn, people find the article that links to your content and they link to that. 

But of course, this takes time. Therefore, building tier 2 links immediately after you’ve built tier 1 links sends a clear signal to Google that you are trying to manipulate its search results. 

Before you start building second tier links to your website, it’s worth asking if the time is right. 

Your website should:

• Be at least a year old.
• Have a decent amount of traffic.
• Have a large number of primary backlinks.

Those last two points depend on what industry you work in. But around 20,000 monthly visitors and 50–150 backlinks is a rough estimate. 

Think about the age of your website and what looks natural—older sites are more likely to have tier two links.

Where to focus your tiered link-building strategy

Backlinks from high-authority websites tend to naturally draw second and third tier links. This is because they are trusted, get lots of traffic, and have strong, recognized brands. 

This isn’t so much the case with medium-authority websites. That’s why they are often a good choice to target with a tiered link-building strategy.

Another place to focus your tiered link-building strategy is when a linking page is on a high-authority website but has low page authority. 

Page authority is essentially the same as a domain’s authority score, except that it applies to individual pages. 

A low page authority score usually happens if a search engine decides the page is not authoritative enough. The main factor behind this, once again, is the number of backlinks pointing to the page. Therefore, building tier 2 links to the page can help give it a boost.

How to Build Tiered Backlinks

But as mentioned earlier in the article, the further removed from your website a link is, the lower the quality can be. 

Here’s an overview of the kinds of links you should build at each level:

Tier one backlinks

Tier one should be reserved for your best backlinks. It will take a lot of time and resources to build just one of these but they will have a powerful impact on your rankings. 

Usually, tier one backlinks:

Are built with sites that are relevant to your site and content

Are built with high-authority websites

Are editorial—in other words, placed naturally within the page’s content 

Offer a lot of value to readers

Are relevant to the surrounding text

Have anchor text that matches the surrounding text

Are dofollow 

What does it mean to have anchor text that matches the surrounding text? Anchor text is the text that includes the hyperlink to your website. Search engines value backlinks with anchor text that helps the reader understand exactly where the link will take them. For example, a backlink with anchor text that simply says “to find out more, click here” tells readers little about what information clicking the link will give them. “To find out more, you should enrol in our digital marketing course” is a better approach.

What are dofollow links? Dofollow and nofollow are HTML tags that indicate whether a backlink will pass on link equity. Backlinks with a nofollow tag will not pass on any link equity. High-quality backlinks are almost always dofollow. However, it is worth noting that nofollow links may still have some ranking value.

Good tier one link-building strategies include:

High-quality guest posts

Linkable assets

Digital PR

Links from media platforms like Connectively or Qwoted

Broken link building

Skyscraper technique

Tier two backlinks

Second tier backlinks are similar to tier one backlinks but can be built with lower authority websites. These sites tend to have less stringent requirements, so building these backlinks often takes less effort. 

They should still offer value to readers, but your content doesn’t have to be as comprehensive as it would be at tier one. 

Good techniques to build second tier links include:

Medium quality guest posts

Links from media platforms like Connectively or Qwoted

Broken link building

Link insertions

Tier three backlinks

At this tier, quantity matters more than quality. You can use link-building techniques that you would normally avoid. 

Examples include:

Low DR blogs

Social media backlinks

Forums

Press releases

Other websites you own

Directory links

Comments

Warning: Do not use black-hat techniques   Although quantity is more important than quality at tier three, you should still avoid using black-hat link-building techniques.  These are link-building methods that seek to manipulate Google’s search engine results pages and offer absolutely no value to users.  Examples include: Keyword stuffing Hidden text Link farms PBNs Buying links from irrelevant or dodgy websites like online gambling sites You wouldn’t use these link-building techniques to build tier one backlinks, so you shouldn’t do it at tiers two and three, either.  Doing so could result in Google penalizing your site by lowering its ranking.

Example of Tiered Backlinks

Now that you know what tiered link building is, let’s look at an example.

It’s important to note that we don’t know whether these tiered links were built or whether they happened naturally. However, they are good examples of how the quality of the linking domain and content can be lower the further down the link tiers you go.

The target page

Here’s a great example of a clickable asset campaign from analytics software provider Databox. The company has carried out original research on email marketing frequency. 

Tier one

This research is so valuable that it’s got a backlink from HubSpot, in an email open rates stats page. HubSpot is a DR 93 website, so that’s an awesome tier one link.

Tier two

The Hubspot article is linked to by Criminally Prolific, an SEO business. The content is still good and relevant, but its website’s DR is lower than HubSpot’s at 61.

Tier three

In turn, Criminally Prolific gets a backlink from this website. It seems to be some sort of third-party blogging platform with an article written by software deal finder AppSumo. It’s got a DR of 1.8 and the link to Criminally Prolific is nofollow.

Build Tiered Links with Authority Builders

Tiered link building is a great way to boost your existing backlinks.

However, it’s time-consuming, and targeting tier two and three backlinks may take your focus away from building more valuable tier one links. 

Before building tiered backlinks, we recommend consulting with link-building experts like Authority Builders. 

We’ll audit your backlink profile and propose the best strategy to help you rank higher on search engines. 

If this involves building tiered links, then we can do the hard work for you. Our teams of experienced link builders, writers, and outreach specialists can generate second and third tier links at scale, allowing you to focus on your overall SEO strategy.

Schedule a call to learn how our link-building services can help you.

Your backlink profile is a collection of all the links from external websites that point to your site. 

Maintaining a strong backlink profile is a key part of search engine optimization (SEO) success. The more high quality backlinks from relevant sites you have, the more trustworthy your site appears to search engines. 

Depending on how popular your site is, you could have hundreds, thousands, or even millions of links in your backlink profile.

But what exactly is a backlink profile? And how does it fit into your link-building strategy? We’ve got you covered with everything you need to know.

What Makes a Good Backlink Profile?

Each backlink acts as an endorsement that signals to Google that your content is valuable and trustworthy. 

So, the more backlinks you have, the higher your website will rank—right? 

Not exactly. It’s not just about your link count. 

Here are some other factors to consider when analyzing your backlink profile:

  The number of referring domains

Referring domains are websites that link back to your site. The more referring domains that link to your content, the more trustworthy your site appears to Google. 

Imagine you have 10 different experts recommending your business—this would be much more credible than having one expert recommend your business 10 times.

Referring domain diversity indicates to search engines that your content is widely recognized and valued, which can positively impact your rankings.

The quality of the referring domains

Links from high-authority referring domains are more valuable to your backlink profile. This is because search engines view these sites as trustworthy and credible. 

For example, receiving high-authority links from a well-known referring domain like the New York Times carries more weight than links from an unknown blog. 

The source of the links

Receiving backlinks from diverse sources shows Google that your content is valued across multiple platforms.

A good backlink profile should include links from: 

High-authority websites: Links from high-authority sites pointing to your website can help improve your own credibility and rankings. 

Industry-relevant websites: Links from industry blogs, trade publications, and professional associations show search engines that your content is relevant to your niche.

Social media: Although social media links do not typically pass on link juice, they drive traffic, increase brand visibility, and can indirectly influence your SEO by generating engagement.

Directories and listings: Links from directories like Yelp, Google My Business, and industry-specific directories improve your local SEO and make it easier for potential customers to find you.

Influencers and bloggers: When influencers and bloggers in your industry link to your content, it can lead to increased traffic and build social proof.

Types of anchor text

Backlink anchor text is the clickable text in a hyperlink that tells users (and search engines) what to expect when they click on a link. 

Here’s an example:

In the above example, the anchor text is “gait analysis.” When a user clicks on this link, they are directed to a blog that explores what gait analysis is.

Different types of anchor text include:

Exact match

The anchor text includes the exact keyword you want to rank for. The abovementioned “gait analysis” is a typical example of exact-match anchor text.

It’s effective for signaling to search engines what the linked page is about, but should be used sparingly to avoid over-optimization. 

Over-optimized anchor text can make your content appear spammy or manipulative, to both users and search engines. It can trigger Google’s algorithms and lead to penalties that can severely affect your website’s ranking.

Branded

Branded anchor text uses the brand name, for example “Nike” or “Adidas.” This strengthens brand recognition and trust. It is also a natural form of linking and helps avoid over-optimization.

Naked URLs

The URL itself is used as the anchor text—for example, “http://www.yourwebsite.com.” 

Naked URLs add natural diversity to the anchor text profile and are often seen as more authentic by search engines.

  The placement of links

Where you place a link on a page can greatly affect its value. 

Links within the main content are more valuable than those tucked away in sidebars or footers. This is because search engines regard in-content links as more natural and relevant.

Why a Natural Backlink Profile Is So Important for SEO 

Backlinks are a key ranking factor for search engines, and they translate into some major SEO benefits:

Climb search rankings: Backlinks are votes of confidence for your website and influence your position in search results. The more quality backlinks you have, the higher you’re likely to rank.

Improve organic traffic: Backlinks lead visitors from other websites directly to yours. The more backlinks you have, the more potential traffic you can attract.

Boost your domain authority: Backlinks contribute to your domain authority, which is a score that reflects your website’s overall credibility. 

But search engines don’t necessarily favor backlink profiles stuffed with high-quality backlinks from authoritative websites. 

Instead, they prefer to see a varied backlink profile with different types of: 

• Links
• Sources
• Nofollow and dofollow attributes
• Placements
• Levels of quality

Not all links are going to come from high domain authority (DA) websites like the New York Times. In reality, many backlinks will come from lower quality sites or everyday people posting on social media. 

Maintaining a healthy backlink profile doesn’t have to break the bank – our link-building pricing guide can help you plan an effective, cost-conscious strategy.

This variety mirrors how content organically spreads online.

If a website only has high DA backlinks, it can look like an attempt to manipulate search engine algorithms.

What Does a Bad Backlink Profile Look Like? A poor-quality backlink profile is one that relies heavily on links from spammy, low-authority, or irrelevant websites.  In addition, it lacks diversity and has an imbalance of nofollow and dofollow links. Having a poor link profile can have a devastating effect on your SEO strategy. Search engines may view your site as untrustworthy, which can lead to lower rankings and even penalties.

Watch Out for Toxic Backlinks

Toxic or spammy links are those that come from low-quality websites or websites with little to no relevance to your industry.

Remember, not all low-quality backlinks are toxic. Having some low-quality links is important for maintaining a natural link profile. 

While Google typically overlooks a few of these links, having too many can signal that you’re trying to manipulate its algorithm. 

Here are some examples of spam links:

Link farms: These are networks of websites created solely for the purpose of link exchanges without offering any real value.

Casino or gambling sites: These websites are associated with spammy practices and low-quality content. Having backlinks from such sites can damage your website’s credibility.

Private blog networks (PBNs): These are groups of blogs controlled by the same person or entity that create backlinks to a single site. 

Comment spam: This involves leaving links in the comment sections of blogs or forums that often have no relevance to the content.

Other backlink pitfalls to avoid

While spammy backlinks are toxic to your SEO, other types of links (even those that aren’t necessarily spam) can also be harmful.

Here are some other pitfalls to avoid when building links:

Irrelevant sites: Avoid backlinks from sites that have no connection to your niche. They don’t contribute to your SEO and can make your link profile look unnatural.

Exact-match anchor text: Too many exact-match anchor texts can appear manipulative and may trigger penalties.

Non-contextual links: Links that don’t fit naturally within the content can be seen as spammy and manipulative.

How to Perform a Backlink Analysis

A backlink audit involves analyzing all the backlinks and domains pointing to your site to assess their quality and relevance. 

This process helps you compare your performance to competitors, identify potentially harmful links, and find new link-building opportunities.

Before conducting a backlink audit, export a list of your backlinks from the Google Search Console. Here’s how:

1. Log in: Access your account and select the website you want to audit.
2. Navigate to the report: On the left-hand sidebar, click on the “Links” tab.
3. Export: In the Links Report, you’ll see an option to export the data.
4. Download: Decide whether you want to export the file as a CSV, Google Sheet, or Excel file.
5. Review: Review the domain authority, relevance, and value of your backlinks.

The data from the Google Search Console provides a complete and accurate view of your backlink profile, but it’s time-consuming to manually inspect each link. 

To inspect your backlink profile, use popular tools like Majestic, Moz, or Semrush.

How to do a backlink audit with Ahrefs

Step 1: Get an overview of your backlink profile

First, get a big-picture look at your backlink profile. 

Open the “Site Explorer” tool in Ahrefs, then type in your domain:

Then, check the overview report. This shows you key SEO metrics, like how many backlinks and referring domains are pointing to your website:

Step 2: Benchmark your website against competitors

Benchmarking your website against your competitors helps you know where you stand in comparison to them. 

This is your first step to knowing how much work is needed to close the gap.

On the overview page, click on the “Competitors” dropdown and enter their respective URLs:

Then, click on “Backlink profile” to see how your website stacks up against those of your competitors:

In the above example, Ahrefs has shown steady growth in referring domains over the past two years. 

The website is doing well, but to climb up the ranks and beat their competitors, they need to ramp up their link-building strategies. 

If you aren’t sure who your competitors are, click on “Organic Competitors” in the left-hand sidebar to see a list:

Step 3: Identify your best-performing content

Finding out the types of content that naturally attract the most backlinks shows what your audience finds most valuable.

This can help you replicate success and refine your content strategy.

In Ahrefs, go to the left-hand sidebar, click on “Pages” and select “Best by Links”:

Look for patterns in the types of content that generate the most backlinks to inform your content creation strategy.

Apart from their home page, Ahrefs’ Backlink Checker tool attracts the most backlinks. Investing in more free tools and utilities could help them replicate their success. 

Step 4: Refresh existing content

Look for pages with high backlinks but low traffic. 

These pages may have untapped potential due to outdated content or poor SEO.

To investigate this further, click on the “Top Pages” report under the “Legacy” column. Then, filter the report to show pages with low traffic but many referring domains:

In the example above, Ahrefs’ Backlink Checker has the 3rd lowest traffic on their site, but has almost 7,000 backlinks pointing to it.

This indicates that the page is valuable, but it’s not attracting as much traffic as it should. 

Step 5: Find and fix broken links

Google and other search engines love well-maintained websites. 

Broken links create a poor user experience and waste potential SEO value, so it’s important to keep an eye on your internal links and the inbound links coming from other sites.

  How to fix broken internal links

Open Ahrefs and go to the left-hand sidebar. Click on the “Best by Links” report, then select “Internal Backlinks.”

Use the filter option to show links that return a 404 Not Found error:

In the example above of the mothering blog Pregnant Chicken, there are a high number of pages that return a 404 error.

If the owner of this blog wanted to fix these links, they have two options:

Correct the URL: If there’s a page that the broken link should point to instead, update the URL.

Remove the link: If the page is gone and there’s no replacement, remove the link to avoid leading visitors to a dead end.

  How to fix broken external links

Switch to the “External Backlinks” tab in Ahrefs, and filter by 404 Not Found:

In the example above, we can see that many of the pages with broken links are over five years old. 

This likely means that they were removed without implementing proper redirects.

If the owner of this blog wanted to improve their back profile, here’s what they could do:

1. Update the content: Update the content that contains broken links or write new replacement content that is more current.
2. Contact site owners: Send a message to website owners with broken links and ask them to update it with an active link to your content.
3. Provide correct URLs: Make it easy for them by providing the correct URL that they should link to instead.

Step 6: Remove harmful links

Dealing with harmful links helps you maintain a clean backlink profile and protect your site’s SEO. 

If you come across any links that could be damaging, you might need to disavow them with Google’s Disavow Tool. 

But first, you’d need to spot the harmful links. These could be from:

• Private blog networks (PBNs)
• Low-quality guest posts
• Spammy forums
• Irrelevant sites

Disavowing links should be done with caution because not all low-quality links are harmful. 

In fact, they could be helping your backlink profile appear more natural. Disavowing all lower quality links could unintentionally harm your SEO. As a rule of thumb, disavowing is only a good option if you have a high number of spammy links or have been the target of an SEO attack.

Search engines are sophisticated, and can differentiate between truly toxic backlinks and innocent ones from low-authority sites. 

If you only have a handful of toxic or low-quality links, skip the disavowal process and focus on building more high-quality links instead.

Step 6: Regularly maintain your backlink profile 

Building a strong backlink profile is a great achievement, but it’s just the first step. 

Your backlink profile requires ongoing maintenance. Here are some tips to keep your link profile healthy:

Set up alerts: Ahrefs’ Backlink Alerts can notify you whenever you gain or lose a backlink. This allows for a quick response to new opportunities.

Review regularly: For websites with high traffic, consider weekly reviews. Less active websites can get by with reviews each month.

Comprehensive audits: In addition to regular reviews, do a deep dive with a full backlink audit every few months to identify link-building opportunities.

Keep building links: Link building isn’t a once-off strategy. Your competitors are building links too, and they can overtake your ranking in the SERPs if their efforts exceed yours. 

Improve Your Backlink Profile with Authority Builders 

If you’re ready to take your backlink profile to the next level, Authority Builders is here to help. 

Since 2016, we’ve built relationships with webmasters across various niches to secure the best link placements—and we always ensure that your links come from authoritative sites with real traffic.

Ready to see the difference that high-quality backlinks can make? Get in touch with us.