Link building has evolved over the years. It has to be done right, and the links have to be relevant, come from trusted sources, and be thoroughly vetted.
Gone are the days of dodgy links from Fiverr vendors. It’s a time-intensive and often fairly large part of any SEO budget, but with good reason. Whether you’re outsourcing to link building agencies or are doing the work yourself, the time and tool costs alone can be sky-high. Therefore, whether you’re opting for blogger outreach or digital PR, you need to know that your money is going to the right people.
Below, I’ve listed ten of my favourite services for link building, whether as a fully outsourced agency option or via specific tools that you can use yourself. Either way, there are sites in this guide that you’ll want to check out, so do some digging around and find which approach will suit you best.
How do you decide on a link building strategy for your website?
Good question, and it’s one you need the answer to prior to engaging fully with a service or outsourced campaign. I’m going to outline how my white label agency, Complete White Label (first in this list), approaches justifying a link building strategy so that you know exactly what needs to be looked at.
Also drop us a message if you want this breakdown done for your site. It’s totally free so don’t feel like we’re going to pester you afterwards…we’re not!
How to create a realistic link building strategy
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- Before even getting into the data, you need to be aware that link building takes a long time. 6-12 months is not a lot of time in SEO terms, and whilst you’ll usually see results sooner if you’re also doing things like content and tech SEO, you also might not. There are no guarantees of how long things will take, especially if you’ve got a brand new domain with no authority (it well then naturally take longer). I’m saying this from the outset because some less-reputable agencies may try to give you a timeframe of when you can expect position #1 results for your target keywords, without so much as even looking at the current authority of your site. Good SEO takes times and patience, and link building is one part of that. If it was easy and quick, everyone would be doing it… so it’s better to strap-in for the long-term and stick to a strategy.
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- Look at your competitors and the wider search landscape for your sector or broader cluster of primary keywords. How many good quality links are competitors building each month? How are they doing it? If they’re getting 50 links per month but only 5 are actually of any quality, then we can get a good idea if a baseline of links that will be required.
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- Look at your backlinks. Are there any quick wins that can be done? For example, citations for local SEO, and also outreaching to websites already linking to competitors? We look at this too for the initial few months just to ensure that any quick-wins are taken care of alongside an ongoing strategy.
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- What are the long-term opportunities? We look at things like data and stat landing pages, content for passive outreach, and broader digital PR strategies for your site. If the opportunity is there, we at least need to discuss it.
- We can then outline what is required for your site based on quality link velocity of competitors, quick-win opportunities, and long-term approaches to broader campaigns.
No site is the same as an another, so it’s worth going through this process to outline exactly what will be effective over the long-term.
Alright, top-level strategies aside, let’s get into the actual guide.
10 Link building services & platforms for effective outreach in 2021
1. Complete White Label
Complete White Label offers link building services that you can order through a handy form. It’s my service hence the ‘we’ in the below summary! And while you’d be perfectly in your right to say ‘well it’s your company, of course you’ve put it first’… here’s why. Complete White Label is the result of years of link building, learning outreach strategies, dealing with dreadful outsource providers, and it’s a combination of all of the things i’ve learnt and put into an outreach team.
You have full pre-approval of the links we build. We use tools like PitchBox, Ahrefs, SEMrush, Hunter and many more to make the process as bespoke and data-driven as possible. And when we do get a blogger who says yes and also passes our metrics (as well as the checks behind the scenes), you also can pre-approve the content we send them on your behalf too.
Unfortunately, poor and spammy backlink tactics can result in harmful links that can have a long-term negative impact on your website. Sadly, some backlink companies still sit under the “black-hat” umbrella. Complete White Label has been designed to ensure this doesn’t happen and your website only experiences high-quality, relevant links from reputable sites.
If your website has received harmful or spammy backlinks, get in touch, and we’ll perform a backlink audit to review the links and provide you with recommendations.
One of the more popular options we have on the site is blogger outreach with pre-approval of both the website you’ll be getting a link on, and the content we send to them in order to ‘seal the deal’.
While attaining backlinks focus on news sites, industry and nationals, blogger links are often neglected. Blogger links have had a bad reputation, but like any form of link building, if it’s done correctly, it will be valuable. Our service alienates the “black hat” links and focuses purely on reputable and relevant publishers. It’s an excellent way to develop your backlink profile and domain authority.
We group the bloggers into three categories; DR20+, DR30+ and DR50+. Each offering is based on your requirements and budget and I’d be happy to run-through why you might need one blogger outreach package over another. Same goes with editorial outreach too, just drop me a message and I’d be happy to discuss.
2. Outreach Consultant
Have you considered using a freelancer to support your outreach activity? If not, it’s something to keep on the radar, as there are many benefits involved, including building a long-term, trusting relationship – which you don’t get from using a tool. They can often be cheaper than using an agency or link building/ PR tool.
When using a freelancer, you’ll find that the links obtained are valuable and high-quality, and more effort goes into the outreach process. Also, most freelancer PRs have previously worked in an agency environment and have a huge book of contacts. Plus, like most PR professionals, they’ll have a strong relationship with journalists, which improves the chances of securing a high-quality backlink that will generate links from other sources.
Working with a freelance PR/ outreach specialist is something we recommend for all business sizes, especially for small businesses. They’ll become an extended team member, have the skillset and experience to attain high-quality backlinks from various sources to help grow your website’s online presence while saving you money using a tool or agency.
I offer outreach as a monthly, ongoing service, so if you’re serious about landing links that your competitors can’t get, message me and I’d love to chat all things links!
3. Qwoted
If you’re looking for professional speakers or figures within your industry, then have a look at Qwoted.
Qwoted’s database consists of experts from all backgrounds and PRs, so whether you’re looking to include an expert opinion to validate your article or a specialist to outreach your content, you can rely on this tool.
In addition to sourcing contacts, Qwoted also provides you with stats on how your article is performing. These include audience information to find out who is reading your work and if they’re relevant or an untapped demographic, how many people your content has reached – which is great for categorising content styles that are working and ones that aren’t.
Understanding how your content is performing is critical. You’ll learn more about the types of articles your target readership are interested in and generate a positive impact on your site. It’s also great to report these stats to your clients or stakeholders within the business.
To gain a backlink, Qwoted also allows outreach specialists to connect with journalists, receive updates on upcoming projects that might be relevant. Another smart feature that I like is the in-app messaging, so you have direct contact with the journalist and the option to see when your request has been seen. It’s an intelligent way to stay on top of media requests and outreach.
4. Editorielle
Editoielle is suitable for PRs, brands and businesses from a variety of sectors and journalists. Industries include travel, fashion, beauty, business, health, kids, finance and fitness.
We mentioned earlier about PR professionals going freelance; well, the story behind Editorielle is similar. Owner, Felicity, spent over 12 years working as PR in luxury fashion, and she’s combined her experience with what outreach specialists, brands and journalists want to see from a backlink tool.
You can sign-up for the daily newsletter for free or receive press opportunities from £10* a month. There’s no contract involved, so that you can cancel any time. There are two options available for brands/ businesses – individual sign-up and team sign-up. For the latter, there is a set monthly fee, which depends on the number of people receiving the journalist requests, but you get access to all the industries. So, if you’re an agency working with multiple clients from various sectors, this option might be more cost-effective. Editorielle has a 30-day free trial available using code FREEPRESS.
Editorielle is easy to use. For PRs, brands and businesses, you sign-up to receive journalist requests, speak to your clients or stakeholders and pitch to the journalist.
5. #JournoRequest
#JournoRequest is the most common, free outreach tool out there, and it’s available through Twitter. Anyone can use it, whether you’re working on a content marketing campaign and want to outreach to journalists, influencers and other site owners, or a journalist looking for content for an article.
All you need to sign-up is a Twitter account and set up alerts for #journorequest or #journorequests.
When scrolling through the requests, it can be overwhelming to find relevant ones, but don’t lose interest. Just make sure you remember to opt for “latest”, as Twitter automatically put the tweets in popularity order, and some of the requests might be outdated. It also might be more beneficial to ensure your Twitter profile is set to public and not private, so you’re not losing out on opportunities, whether that’s sending a request or responding to one. Replies or tweets sent from private accounts might not be visible.
So, test the waters. Create a tweet, include #journorequest and hit send.
6. Press Plugs
Press Plugs is another popular backlink tool that supports PRs, agencies, businesses and journalists. It’s key to remember that while these types of tools are designed to generate backlinks or receive content for articles, they’re also fantastic for networking and building contacts.
There are four packages available:
- Business – receive journalist requests and PR toolkit to support businesses with PR, build relationships, and more.
- PRs – access to journalist requests, PR toolkit, build relationships, plus more.
- Journalists – access to PRs and businesses, free tailored service, plus more.
- Freelancers – information provided on request, plus more.
Each package has a 7-free day trial available.
Likewise, with other outreach tools, Press Plug works in the same way. You register to receive requests directly to your email inbox, choose the most relevant or interesting ones, pitch to your client or stakeholder, respond to the request and receive backlinks.
This tool is great for businesses, as you can connect with journalists directly. Journalists often require professional quotes or contributions to an article, so using a tool such as Press Plug is advantageous to you and them. Also, you’ll only receive email notifications on journalist requests relevant to your sector, which is great if the business sits in a niche industry.
7. Response Source
Response Source is another fantastic outreach tool that’s suitable for outreach specialists and journalists.
For those looking for backlinks, there are different options available. You can find the relevant industry and publication type – websites, blogs, news etc., and Response Source will provide you with a list of media outlets and contacts. The journalist profiles include email and phone numbers, social media profiles, a bio, relevant news articles they’ve published and categories they’re interested in. The profiles will also tell you how/ if the journalists wish to be contacted – which is critical to building a trusting relationship.
Also, Response Source has a media request section to see upcoming projects and deadlines sent by journalists. If you’re planning on using this tool, we highly recommend checking daily for the media requests and creating a content diary of their upcoming projects, so you know when to pitch and avoid missing out on backlink opportunities.
You can create specific media lists, so you can refer back to them and send outreach emails through Response Source. Before sending an outreach email through this tool, we recommend sending a test email to see how it looks.
8. UK Linkology
UK Linkology supports SEO activity and ensures the backlinks are high-quality and relevant. One of the benefits of using this is the filtering of poor quality links that could harm your website, resulting in Google penalising you.
Likewise, with Complete White Label, UK Linkology reviews every link received in your campaign to ensure it’s not spammy. If it gets flagged as potentially being harmful, it will get blocked. However, while UK Linkology does check all links, we still advise you to go through them in case some have been missed so that you can disavow them immediately.
One of the most significant differences between UK Linkology and other backlink tools is that UK Linkology is an SEO agency. This is key for ensuring backlinks are high-quality and relevant to support website performance, including keyword positioning.
UK Linkology also provides keyword opportunity analysis, competitor review, the estimated number of backlinks and timeframe for rankings. You can also request a free audit.
There are different packages and costs available to make the service as relevant to your business and campaign as possible. The packages include custom link building, international link building, gambling and iGaming, plus more.
9. FATJOE
FATJOE offers a blogger outreach service, as well as additional SEO ones such as content support. If you’re a small business or freelancer with limited resources and time, FATJOE might be what you’re looking for. You just let their team know the context around the campaign, keywords and websites you want to target, and they’ll do the rest for you, including outreach and creating the content to send out.
FATJOE will review the links and analyse the blogger sites before committing to a backlink to ensure it’s relevant and harmless. But their team will update and provide you with the backlinks, and we advise you to check over them too.
One of the services we like that FATJOE offers is keeping a record of the links received to ensure your website isn’t duplicating or targeting the same site. This is critical, as attaining backlinks from the same source can weaken the link juice. Unique links are more valuable.
Similar to UK Linkology, FATJOE isn’t an outreach tool; it’s an SEO-link building agency. So, be sure to let them know your targets and provide a detailed brief.
Various packages are available, depending on the DA of the sites you want to target and budget.
Conclusion
Ultimately, whichever service or platform you choose, you need to accept that you’re in this for the long-run. Link building is a strategy that is very often missed by a lot of businesses because it can be difficult to get the processes in place to scale effectively, or simply find reputable services that aren’t scamming you with dodgy links.
Do your own research, have a dig around, and get your authority to where it needs to be with a careful and considered link building strategy that leaves your competitors behind.
