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How To Choose the Best Quality Link Building Services

By Manick Bhan on Jan 28, 2022 - 18 minute read

Quality link-building services are important for any online business. Without high-quality links, your website may not rank as high as you would like in the search engine […]

four hands coming together with the text quality link building services on top

Quality link-building services are important for any online business. Without high-quality links, your website may not rank as high as you would like in the search engine results pages (SERPs). And, when you don’t rank well, you’re not able to attract as much traffic. And whether you have an e-commerce site or a brick-and-mortar, a lack of traffic could spell disaster for your business.

Fortunately, there are quality link-building services available to help build your brand’s online presence and domain authority. These services can help you to increase your website’s visibility and attract more traffic. They can also help you to improve your website’s search engine ranking, which can lead to more sales and conversions.

However, with so many choices, it can be difficult to choose the best value for your business. This article will walk you through how to compare high-quality link building services

How Does a Link Building Strategy Work?

Finding the best link building service requires that you have a foundational understanding of how link building campaigns work. This knowledge will empower you to better recognize a reputable company in addition to understanding exactly what you’re paying for.

What is a Backlink?

example of a backlink

Unsure of what a backlink is? You’re not alone. We find that many site owners have heard of backlink building, but they don’t fully understand how the strategy works. Starting with the foundational knowledge of backlinks is a great place to start.

A backlink is a hyperlink that points from one website to another website. Backlinks are incredibly important for SEO because they are one of the main factors that Google uses to determine a website’s authority and relevance.

What Determines the Quality of a Backlink?

a screenshot of DA

There are many factors included in determining a quality backlink from a spammy backlink. Some of the most important factors are the authority of the website that is linking to you, the relevance of the content on the website that is linking to you, and the trustworthiness of the website that is linking to you.

What is Domain Authority?

Domain Authority (DA) is a metric, created by Moz, that measures the strength of a website’s backlink profile and determines how likely it is to rank in the SERPs. This metric is often the determining factor of the price you will pay for high-quality backlinks.

How Do Backlinks Affect a Site’s Domain Authority?

Backlinks are one of the key factors that affect a website’s Domain Authority (DA). The more high-quality backlinks a website has, the higher its DA will be. 

This is because high-quality backlinks are seen as a sign of trust and authority by Google. As a result, websites with more high-quality backlinks will rank higher in search engine results pages than those with fewer or no backlinks.

What are some link-building tactics sites use to build DA?

cartoon arm flexing with da on the bicep

There are many link-building tactics that you can use to improve your website’s link popularity. 

Some of the most effective techniques include:

  • Creating valuable content that people will want to link to
  • Participating in link exchanges with other websites
  • Submitting your website to directories and search engines
  • Creating click bait – content that is so interesting or useful that people will want to link to it
  • Sponsoring events or donating products to charity auctions
  • Creating press releases and submitting them to online news outlets
  • Posting comments on other websites and including a link to your website
  • Creating blog posts and including links to other related blog posts
  • Using social media sites to promote your website and links to your content

Which Link Building Strategy Will Work Best for You?

There is no one definitive answer to the question of how to build backlinks. However, there are a number of common methods that can be effective.

Creating Valuable Content

One approach is to create valuable content that can naturally attract links from other websites. This might include blog posts, infographics, or video content. One way to determine if your content is linkable is to consider if it’s something influencers would post or share.

Creating Press Releases

Another approach is to use tools like HARO (Help a Reporter Out) to connect with reporters looking for sources, and provide them with information that they can use in their articles.

Participating in Link Exchanges

You can also reach out to other websites and ask them to link to your content. This can be a useful way to get links from high-quality websites.

Social Media Promotion

example of social media

You can also attract links naturally by promoting your content on social media and other websites, and by engaging with other bloggers and website owners.

Whatever approach you choose, be sure to focus on creating quality content that will interest your target audience. That way, you can attract links from other websites that will help improve your SEO.

What Is White Hat Link Building

white hat with black background that says white hat link building = higher quality backlinks

There are many different ways to build links, but the most effective and White Hat way is to create valuable content and attract links naturally. White Hat practices are considered ethical and aligned with Google’s linking guidelines.

In other words, when you create content that is truly useful and interesting to your target audience, they will want to use it and share it. This signals to Google that your site produces far-reaching value. If you focus on creating great content and building relationships with other bloggers and website owners, you will be able to build high-quality links naturally and ethically.

What Is Black Hat Link Building?

Black hat backlink is the opposite of white hat link building strategies. If white-hat link building follows Google’s guidelines, black hat tactics are all about optimizing a website by skirting around these guidelines. These manipulative tactics are highly frowned upon in the search engine optimization industry.

When it comes to a black hat link-building campaign, the result is an artificially inflated DA. And while this can work in the short term, in the long-term unethical linking practices can threaten a website’s ability to sustain ranking search results.

Additionally, if a site or SEO service has a long track record of black hat practices, Google can block them from search results.

White Hat Strategies for High-Quality Backlinks

a hand holding a square of wood that says quality is the best business plan

There is no one process to gaining links that will work for every website. However, there are some key principles that you should always keep in mind when pursuing links from a link building service.

1) Quality over quantity: Don’t pursue links just for the sake of having more links. Make sure that each and every link you acquire is high quality and will be beneficial to your website.

2) Research your target audience: Know who your target audience is and what they are interested in. This will help you determine where to pursue links from. A good digital market service will provide this research for you as part of the link building process.

3) Variety is key: Don’t rely on only one or two sources for links. Spread your net wide and pursue links from a variety of sources using a variety of tactics.

4) Don’t be afraid to ask: Don’t be afraid to reach out to websites that you think would be a good source of links for you. Many website owners are happy to share links with others who are interested in their content.

5) Stay up to date with changes: Keep up to date with the latest changes in the world of SEO and link building. This will help you stay ahead of the curve and ensure that your link-building efforts are effective.

6) Use keywords naturally: When crafting your anchor text, never force a keyword into the outbound link if it doesn’t make sense. It’s better to have the right anchor text rather than a lot of links that mislead site visitors. Furthermore, webmasters will flag your site as producing poor-quality content. This will result in rejections from editorial publications and can create a red flag in Google’s indexing.

Why Choose White Hat Link Building Services

When you follow Google’s guidelines, you can rest assured that your investment will last the test of time. On the other hand, black hat link building tactics can get your site penalized by Google with a manual action and result in being expelled from the SERPs.

Furthermore, Google’s 2021 LinkSpam update essentially devalued the link equity of any spammy links. Google’s algorithm, PageRank, now assesses types of links differently when calculating site authority. Sites without the quality of backlinks Google would expect from white hat link building strategies saw a major drop in their search engine rankings.

How to Choose A High-Quality Link Building Services

When choosing a quality link building service, be sure to consider the following factors:

  • The service’s experience and expertise
  • The quality of its links
  • The service’s pricing
  • The service’s customer service and support
  • The quality of its website auditing and analysis tools

By considering these factors, you can be sure that you are choosing a quality link-building service that will help your business to succeed online.

Know Your Options

While searching for the best link building service, you will find a wide array of service types. Some are more effective than others, however, the price can vary wildly depending on the SEO link building service you choose and the number of links you’re looking for.

1. Custom Link Building Services

If you’re looking for high-quality, effective custom link building services, custom link building (or curated link building) is the way to go. 

Unlike automated link-building services, custom link builders will ensure your site receives backlinks with strategically integrated keywords and a balanced number of links per domain.

A Higher Price Tag for Better ROI

A paper with graphs on it with a finger pointing to one graph

A custom link building agency costs a bit more than an automated service, but often the quality of links is much better. This is because their experienced link builders will work with you to create a custom link building strategy tailored to your specific needs and goals. 

Most custom link building services include keyword research and guaranteed white hat links. Not only is this provide a vote of confidence, but custom links improve your search ranking and help you attract more traffic from inbound links. 

Another bonus of high-quality links is general brand-building through industry-relevant backlink placements.

2. Blogger Outreach Services

female blogger sitting at a desk

Effective blogger outreach is an important part of any successful link building campaign. This approach can also be quite time-consuming, which is where an experienced digital marketing agency can save you time and money by engaging with influential bloggers. This approach works by asking bloggers to link to your site within their content.

A quality link-building company has the connections and the ability to ensure your linkable assets wind up on the most powerful marketing channels. When a blog has a high domain authority, you can reach a wider audience.

A More Affordable Link Building Technique

If you’re on a tighter budget, you can find a link building agency that assists with outreach site identification rather than a full-service guest post service. These companies will help you identify and connect with the right bloggers to reach your target audience.

3. Guest Blogging Submissions

Unlike blogger outreach, guest blogging requires that you provide blogs with written content or linkable assets. While this kind of link building campaign is a bit more involved, it allows you to have more control over your hyperlinks and backlink-associated keywords.

Guest post services are a way for bloggers to get content for their blogs and a link building technique that pays off. When comparing digital market services, you may want to ask if they provide link building packages with a guest blogging option.

If so, you will want to ask if they can either provide a writer for a guest post or provide a placement guest posts that your company can provide.

4. Editorial Backlinks

Similar to guest blogging submissions, editorial backlinks provide high-quality backlinks from beneficial link building activities. These backlinks appear on news outlets and are a form of HARO that provides reputable news sites with high quality content in exchange for contextual links.

How do editorial back links differ from guest blogging? These pieces often require a high quality content creation with a sophisticated level of thought leadership. Often this level of knowledge takes years of experience in a niche.

5. What Is Manual Link Building?

man sitting at his laptop with the words link building

Manual link building is a process of building links to a website by manually contacting other websites and requesting that they link to the website. This can be done by emailing the website owner, submitting a request on the website’s contact form, or finding the website owner’s contact information and emailing them directly.

6. White Label Link Building

white label link building on a white label sitting on wood

There are a number of different ways to go about link building, but one of the most effective is through white label link building. In this approach, you work with a third party that provides links from their own network of websites. This can be a great way to get quality links quickly and easily.

If you’re looking for a reliable and effective way to build links, then white label link building is a great option.

Backlink Services to Avoid

As a site owner, you must use your own due diligence in selecting backlink services that are ethical. This becomes tricky when you take into account that low-quality and high-quality backlinks often look about the same on paper–especially when you’re contracting for a lot of links.

To avoid over-paying, participating in tactics that will harm your backlink profile in the long run, and black hate tactics, be on the lookout for:

Private Blog Networks

There is a lot of discussion these days around private blog networks (PBNs). Put simply, a PBN is a group of websites that are privately owned and used for the purpose of ranking higher in SERPs. Typically, these websites are related in some way – for example, they may all be owned by the same person or company, or they may all be related to a specific topic or industry.

How Do PBNs Work?

The idea behind using a PBN is that you can improve your website’s ranking in SERPs by linking to it from these other websites.

So, is using a PBN effective? The answer to that question is a little complicated. On the one hand, using a PBN can definitely help you improve your website’s ranking. On the other hand, if you are caught using a PBN, your website could be penalized by Google.

Ultimately, whether or not using a PBN is effective depends on a number of factors, including how well you execute it and how careful you are in hiding your PBN from Google.

But to play it safe, you will want to avoid any link building service company that uses PBNs. Furthermore, a reputable link building company would never jeopardize their client’s site’s rankings.

Reciprocal Linking

Reciprocal linking is the process of agreeing to link to someone’s website in exchange for their site linking to yours. While it may seem like an easy option for building backlinks, trading links is against Google’s linking guidelines. 

How does Google know if a site is trying to manipulate their SERP rankings through link exchanges? Their webcrawlers note when two sites have new backlinks to one another as they index the sites.

Premium Link Building Services Worthy of Your Budget

There are a variety of ways to build links, but one of the most effective is to use a premium link building service. These services have access to link building experts, high-quality link directories, and other resources that can help your website rank higher.

If you’re looking for a premium link building service, here are a few to consider:

LinkGraph

LinkGraph is a link building service company that is growing quickly. Not only does LinkGraph have a proprietary keyword research tool and provide high authority links, but their SEO link building experts also act as an extension of your team.

LinkGraph services include:

  • White-hat link building
  • White label link building service
  • Access to white-hat link building
  • Unparalleled ​​quality of service
  • Backlink packages for clients of all sizes

Moz

moz logo

Moz or SEOmoz is a well-known and respected SEO company that offers a variety of premium link building services. Their services include:

  • Link building
  • Content marketing
  • SEO consulting
  • Outreach link building

What to Ask a Potential Link Building Company

When discussing your backlink strategy with a custom link building campaign, always ask for a list that shows each site’s authority where your links will be placed. This is an extremely important ranking factor and can help you avoid a manual penalty from Google.

If you’re paying a premium for custom white hat backlinks, be sure to verify:

  • The number of backlinks you will receive
  • How the service defines “a good backlink”
  • If you will have a dedicated account manager
  • That you will receive contextual link placements
  • If your package includes a technical SEO audit, including an in-depth backlink audit
  • Do their link building specialists use a variety of techniques, such as HARO and a social media strategy
  • How they approach their each their client’s niches

Quality Backlinks = Higher Search Engine Ranking

When you invest in quality backlinks, your site will be rewarded with link building that works. No matter which link building company you choose, be sure they follow white-hat link building practices and have an experienced link building team.

LinkGraph offers award-winning integrated agency experience, including link building that works

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