But you need to vet providers carefully. Follow a 6-step process: define clear goals, shortlist quality services with proven quality control, test with a small order, establish communication systems, monitor results, then scale what works.
Avoid red flags like cheap links, guaranteed rankings and no quality control process.
There aren’t many things that impact your SEO rankings as much as link building.
Not only that…
…But links also play a large role in getting mentioned in LLMs like ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini. As AI search engines become a normal part of people’s lives, generative engine optimisation (GEO) is something you need to pay attention to.
Bottom line – Backlinks are a non-negotiable in modern SEO.
The problem?
Link building is-
- Hard work
- Time consuming
- Frustrating
Most people struggle to build quality links consistently, and it’s only getting more expensive. Website owners know the value of a link from their site and charge accordingly.
That’s where outsourcing comes in.
You order the links you need and let the pros handle the link building while you focus on business growth.
But you need to be careful who you outsource your link building to.
In this post, I’m going to walk you through my 6-step process on how to outsource link building properly and avoid hiring the wrong service.
Why Outsource Link Building?
Quality link building takes a lot of time, money and expertise to do properly.
For most businesses and even SEO agencies, it makes more sense to outsource link building to professional services that have the relationships, tools and experience to get results.
Considering outsourcing your own link building?
Here are four reasons why it’s worth it for your business.
1. Leverage Specialised Expertise
Link building is a specialised skill.
It takes years to gain the experience and skills needed to deliver consistent links each month.
Let me explain:
This is how many links the average link builder places based on their experience:
Link Builder Experience vs Average Links Per Month: • Less than 1 year: 7 links • Between 1 to 2 years: 13 links • Between 2 to 5 years: 15 links • Over 5 years: 25 links
The numbers tell the story, right?
Link Building Statistics show that it takes about 3-6 hours to build just one quality link. And that’s if you already have the tools and processes in place.
Professional link building services employ the best link builders who know exactly what they’re doing.
They stay up to date with algorithm changes and best practices. More importantly, they’ve built links for thousands of sites and know what factors will lead to quality links (and what won’t).
Here’s the thing to keep in mind…
Not only does that mean professional link builders can build backlinks efficiently, but they can also optimise each placement for maximum effectiveness.
Trusted link building services have the expertise to deliver quality links that have a bigger impact on your rankings. That’s why so many marketing and SEO agencies outsource link building.
Let the pros handle the links while you focus on growing your business.
2. Reduce Costs
Here is something that most people don’t realise…
Outsourcing your link building can actually save you money.
Building links in-house is expensive. The entire process requires a range of different skill sets and resources.
You’ll need-
- Premium tools – $300 to $500 per month for tools like Ahrefs, Semrush and Pitchbox
- Content writer – $50 to $150 per article for guest post content
- Link placement fee – $100 to $300 per link that the website owner charges
Not cheap, right?
And that’s if you build the links yourself.
Want to hire an experienced in-house link builder? Expect to pay anywhere from $60,000 to $80,000 per year in salary alone.
Add all that together, and you’re easily spending $6,000 to $10,000+ per month in overhead – before you’ve even built a single link. Not to mention you’re managing the entire process and all the headaches that come with it.
Outsourcing flips this on its head.
Think about it…
You pay per placement and only for the links you need. No salaries, no tool subscriptions, no extra payments to the site owner.
And it takes less than 5 minutes to order all the links you need.
When you add up the costs of link building plus your own time cost, most businesses get a higher ROI simply by outsourcing.
3. Save Time
Link building is incredibly time-consuming.
Let’s say you have all the tools and processes in place to build links. You still have to spend time-
- Find quality opportunities
- Auditing each link for relevance
- Doing personalised outreach
- Following up
- Negotiating placements
- Implementing quality control
- Tracking everything
I can tell you from experience, there is a lot of back and forth when it comes to link building. Nothing is ever straightforward, despite what people say.
To build a single link, you might need to send 50 to 100 outreach emails. And that's just for one link…
Multiply that by the 10, 15 or 25 links you need per month.
That’s literally hundreds of hours being sucked into link building that you could spend on growing your business.
When you outsource, all of that is handled for you. You’re paying per placement, so time doesn’t matter.
It’s like having a dedicated link building team working for your business while you get to focus on what you do best.
4. Scale Your SEO
Here’s the main problem when you handle link building yourself…
Scalability.
Your time is limited…
If you’re building 5 links per month now, scaling to 20 links per month means 4x your time investment. Do you have the capacity for that?
For most business owners, it’s simply not realistic.
The last thing you want is to become the bottleneck for your SEO growth because you don’t have enough hours in the day. When you get momentum, you need to keep momentum.
Outsourcing makes this easy.
Need more links this month? Just order them.
Professional link building services have the teams and processes to handle increased order volumes without sacrificing the quality of placements. This level of flexibility is crucial as your business grows.
Think about it like this…
If you have a launch in the next three months, you can ramp up your link building by simply ordering more links to meet the launch date. Then, as slower periods set back in, you can dial down.
You can’t hire and fire people that quickly with an in-house team. It’s just not possible.
Outsourcing gives you the flexibility to scale up and down your link building whenever you need it!
When Outsourcing Makes Sense
You’re probably thinking…
“How do I know if outsourcing is right for me?”
The truth is that outsourcing may not be for everyone. So I put together a quick checklist to help you decide if it makes sense for your business.
Outsourcing link building makes sense if you- • Don't have the time to consistently build quality links • Are not seeing results from your current link building • Need to scale quickly to keep up with growth • Would get better ROI focusing on strategy, sales and marketing • Can't afford an in-house link builder's overhead • Are in a competitive niche like finance, health, legal or SaaS
If you answered yes to just one of these points…
…it’s worth considering outsourcing your link building.
Remember:
Quality link building services charge per placement so you can even start with a simple 3-6 month test. Once you start seeing results with the service, you can get a discounted link building package.
That way you’re not locked into any long-term commitments and can scale up and down as needed.
6 Steps To Outsource Your Link Building
Ready to outsource your link building?
Follow my proven six-step process to ensure you pick the right link building service for your business.
Step 1: Get Clear On Your Goals
Building links without clear objectives is like running a race that doesn’t have a finish line.
You need to know what you’re trying to achieve and what success looks like.
Goals shouldn’t be arbitrary and lofty. They should be clear, specific, measurable and most importantly…
Tied to real business outcomes.
For example, a bad goal would be to say “I want to increase organic traffic by 30%“.
Why?
Because more traffic doesn’t necessarily result in better business outcomes.
A good goal would be defining 3-5 commercially valuable pages that you want to rank on the first page of Google over the next 6 months.
That’s clear, measurable, and will drive real growth in your business.
Here are some things to consider:
- Number of links per month: Should be defined by your target keywords, current website authority, level of competition and link building budget. Follow this tutorial.
- Authority of links: Higher DR links cost more, but typically have a faster and stronger impact on your site rankings overall. Follow this tutorial.
- Target pages: Choose the most commercially important target pages for your business that will increase leads and sales. Follow this tutorial.
- Niche requirements: If you’re in a sensitive or YMYL niche like health, finance, gambling, or CBD, you’ll need more specialised link building and a higher budget.
Document everything before you move on.
You need to clearly write down your goals so you can see if the link building is working for your business.
Step 2: Shortlist Potential Link Building Services
This is where I see people making the most expensive mistakes.
Not all link building services and agencies are created equal. Some deliver consistent results, while others sell you spammy links that are either ignored by Google or even worse…land you in hot water with a penalty.
Before you order any links you need to know who you’re ordering links from, their past results and whether they deliver quality placements that will actually boost your SEO.
What does that mean?
This is what I look for: • Quality control process • Complete transparency • Track record of results • Quality reporting
The biggest one on that list is quality control. Everything else flows directly from that.
You want to ensure that the link building service you hire has a proven and verifiable quality control process in place that ensures you only get quality links that boost SEO.
For example, at LinksThatRank, every link we build is manually reviewed by a team member and passes our 23-point quality control checklist.
We also ensure that the link is not on our backlink blacklist of over 60,000+ blacklisted domains of known PBNs, spam sites, link networks, publicly sold links and sites with “write for us” pages.
This quality control is what allows us to deliver results like this:
And this…
The quality of the links will directly impact results. You want to be confident that the service you hire has a transparent, detailed quality control process and the results that prove it works.
Step 3: Start With A Test Order
As tempting as it may be, never go all in immediately.
Place a small test order of 2-5 links first.
Any link building service worth its salt will allow you to purchase a small quantity of links to test them.
Why?
Because they should be able to confidently deliver high-quality links in a reasonable delivery timeline, whether you order 5 or 25.
A test order allows you to evaluate: • The quality of placements • Guest post content quality • Delivery timeline • Order process • Communication and reporting • Anchor text accuracy
Think about it like this:
Would you marry someone without dating them first?
No, right. It’s the same when it comes to hiring a link building service. Do a test order first to get to know them, their process, team and service quality.
Then you can decide if you want to go all-in or not.
Keep In Mind: It typically takes 4 to 12 weeks to see the impact of the links on your rankings. But you can evaluate the overall quality of the links without needing to wait that long.
Step 4: Establish Clear Communication
I cannot stress this enough:
Once you’ve validated quality, you must set up systems for ongoing success. This isn’t necessarily on the agency side as much as it’s an internal process for your business.
Let me explain:
Your strategy, priorities and needs will change over time. That means you need to put the optimisation in search engine optimisation.
Most link building services provide reports for each link they build. The best ones have custom dashboards where you can see all the links as they’re placed.
This keeps you informed of where you’re up to with your link building campaign.
With that in place, you need to create your own-
- Feedback loop process
- Strategy update process
Feedback is essential. If a link is placed that doesn’t fit your brand or live up to the standards the agency promised, you need to let them know.
Create an internal process so you can check links quickly as they’re placed and flag any issues as they arise.
Most services welcome feedback so they can optimise your placements over time. Ideally, build a relationship with your account manager.
You’d be surprised how much of a difference a good point of contact makes!
The last part here is strategy.
Once pages start ranking for your target keywords, your link building priorities will change. That’s a normal part of link building.
For example, you might be building 3 links per month to a specific URL. But once that URL hits the first page, you want to scale back to just one link per month. That's just a smart use of resources.
Create a process for evolving your strategy so you’re always maximising each link placement and the impact it has on your site.
Step 5: Monitor Results
Link building is about results.
You only want high-quality, authoritative and relevant links that increase your results consistently.
How do you know it’s working?
Short answer: By tracking the results.
means you need to be tracking:
- Keyword rankings for pages you’re building links to
- Monthly organic traffic
- Monthly referral traffic
- Link retention
All of these should be up and to the right. And if you’re building links consistently, your overall Google Search Console traffic should look like this:
You will experience small dips and jumps from time to time, that’s completely normal. But when you zoom out to a 12+ month view, you should see a consistent growth line.
One big thing to keep in mind…
Track link retention. Make sure that all links that are built for you stay live.
Great link building services make this easy to do, but you should also set up your own tracking system. This can be as simple as adding each link to a spreadsheet with the:
- Domain name
- Article URL
- Linked page
- Domain authority
Then, every month, just click on the article URL and check to make sure that your link is live.
Quality link building services offer guarantees on link retention. So if you notice your link drops off, contact your service immediately.
Step 6: Scale What Works
Here’s the biggest benefit when you outsource link building…
As you get results you have more money to invest. And the more links you build, the more your entire SEO compounds.
That’s what you want, right?
Once you’ve found a link building service that delivers results:
- Increase link volume slowly
- Lock-in a monthly link building package
- Expand strategically
Packages can save you a lot of money in the long run. With LinksThatRank, we offer monthly link building packages that will save you 10% to 16% per link.
This is a great way to expand your strategy.
It gives you: • Predictable discounted pricing • Consistent link velocity • Flexibility to change target URLs and keywords whenever you need
That’s how the big brands do it!
Red Flags To Avoid
Let’s be honest:
The link building industry has its fair share of bad actors. There are some clear red flags you should know before choosing a link building service.
Prices Too Good To Be True
Quality links cost $170 to $350+ per placement.
If you see someone offering a DR 50 link for $50, you can be highly confident that this is a spammy link from either a PBN or link network.
Those types of links will either get ignored by Google or, in the worst case, get you penalised. It’s just not worth the risk.
Stick with quality link building providers that charge reasonable prices.
Guaranteed Rankings
Don’t fall for this unethical marketing and promises.
No legitimate provider can guarantee rankings because no single person has complete control over Google’s algorithm.
Think about it…
Links are one of the core pillars of SEO. But you also need quality content and good technical SEO working together with the links.
How can anyone guarantee results for something they don’t control?
They can’t.
Instead look for link building services that have a proven track record. That means real results from real clients.
That way you can be confident they deliver the quality links you need!
No Quality Control Process
If they can’t explain how they vet sites and choose placements…
…avoid them at all costs!
Links represent your brand. You don’t want garbage placements on low-quality websites.
Choose providers that have a transparent and documented quality control process.
Quality control is one of the most important parts of link building!
Won’t Show Example Sites
Protecting publisher sites is normal.
So it’s totally reasonable for a link building service NOT to disclose the exact URLs of sites they’ve published links on.
But they should be able to provide a sample upon request.
In a lot of cases, link building agencies won’t publish samples publicly. But you can reach out to them and they will send you sample sites with metrics privately.
Sites With “Write For Us” Pages
Any site that advertises a “write for us” page is a Google penalty waiting to happen.
Why?
Because it’s like a giant sign to Google saying, “We have guest posts here”. In most cases Google will ignore any links from those kinds of websites.
Avoid them.
Wrapping It Up
Outsourcing your link building is one of the smartest moves you can make for your SEO.
It saves you a ton of time, money and ultimately means you end up with better quality links.
But you need to do it properly.
Follow the 6-step process above to properly vet link building services before committing. Then, place a test order for 2-5 links and move over to a discounted monthly package only when you’re happy with the link quality.
Need help getting started?
Check out LinksThatRank for guest posts or link inserts.
You can order individual links and we offer the strictest quality control process in the industry. With over 20,000+ links built for clients, we know how to build quality, relevant links that boost authority and rankings.
Place a test order and let our team handle the link building so you can focus on business growth!
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does outsourcing link building cost?
Link building costs vary widely with individual links from quality agencies typically costing $170 to $350+. Monthly link building packages are usually discounted between 10% to 16%, and often range from $700 to $20,000+ per month, depending on the number of links being built. If you are outsourcing link building for a sensitive niche like finance, health or legal, expect to pay a bit more due to the nature of these industries.
How do I know if a link building agency is legitimate?
A legitimate link building agency is transparent about their methods, has a clear quality control process, case studies from real clients and reasonable pricing. Avoid any agency that guarantees rankings, offers very cheap links or is unable to explain how they vet and choose placements.
How long does it take to see results from outsourced link building?
You should start to see some initial results within 1-3 months and more significant results within 3 to 6 months. Major increases in website rankings, authority and organic traffic typically take 9 to 12+ months, depending on your industry, level of competition and current website authority.
Should I outsource all my link building or keep some in-house?
For most businesses it makes sense to outsource link building because it ultimately delivers a higher ROI. Building quality links requires a significant time investment, premium tools and a diverse skill set. It’s often better to outsource the link building so you can focus on business growth and not get bogged down with links.
What’s the difference between guest posts and link inserts?
Guest posts are new articles written and placed on a different site that contain a link back to your site. They offer more control over content and branding, but require more effort to create. Link inserts are adding a link to an already existing piece of content that has been indexed. They are faster to build and you benefit from the page’s established authority, but get less control over how your link and brand are positioned.
