Venchito Tampon

Advanced Link Building Strategies in SEO for 2025

Backlinks remain one of the strongest signals that influence rankings. Even with all the changes in how users search (AI overviews, featured snippets, and LLMs like ChatGPT and Perplexity pulling answers directly from the top results in organic search listings), link building would remain a vital component of SEO.

Given that AI tools reference trusted sources, if your site, product, or content is cited often, it has a better chance of showing up as a referenced authority in search results and AI summaries and answers. 

This shift makes link building not just an SEO tactic but has become part of your brand visibility strategy. It helps in the overall packaging of your brand on search, helping you strengthen the following:

• Discovery - making sure people find you from organic search listings, LLMs, and curated bottom-of-the-funnel content of other publications.
• Reputation - proving you're a trusted source of information in your space.
• Conversions - sending traffic from diverse sources (referral traffic from other curated listings, ChatGPT, forum discussions, etc..).
• Brand positioning is at the top of your mind and the top of the search, as your target audience may find you in different places. 

Link building is no longer a game of pushing rankings; it is now a game of maximum visibility, where more visibility can help influence the purchasing decisions of your target customers. 

In this guide, I'll discuss advanced link-building strategies that go beyond the basics and help you stay visible in an SEO landscape shaped by AI and brand authority. 

1. Citation-Driven Links 

Search engines and AI tools like ChatGPT depend on sources they trust. These tools don't just look at who has a link. They look at who gets mentioned often across the web. This is where citation-driven link building becomes a powerful strategy.

What Are Citation-Driven Links?

Citation-driven links are backlinks from sites that mention your brand, services, or content in a trusted context. They are references found in curated lists, industry roundups, tool directories, and comparison content pieces (pages where decision-makers actually go to evaluate options).

AI Overviews, ChatGPT responses, and search engines use these mentions to assess credibility. If your website is included in well-known directories, comparison articles, and tool roundups, it tells algorithms your brand is relevant, trusted, and deserves its proper visibility.

 

How to Earn Citation-Driven Links?

Focus on getting featured in content where people are already looking for solutions. Here are actionable tips to help you earn citation-driven links: 

Pitch for Industry Roundups

Find blog posts that list the top tools, services, or companies in your space. These roundup pages already exist and are visited by people ready to decide. Your link building goal is to get your brand featured.

For instance, if you're promoting a project management tool (a highly saturated space), you can search for roundup articles like "Top Project Management Tool for Remote Teams" and "Best Trello Alternatives For Agile Teams." 

These similar posts attract high-intent readers and could influence LLMs (with the listicle posts that rank) to feature your product as one of the go-to solutions. 

Use an angle that makes your product stand out instead of a random, desperate email outreach pitch. Instead of just saying, "Please include this tool", show why your tool deserves a spot. You can say: 

"We'd love to be considered for your list of top tools for remote teams. Our platform has built-in video collaboration and task tracking that eliminates the need for separate Zoom calls—something many remote teams actively seek."

Add credibility with results, use cases, or testimonials. If possible, share a client success story or specific outcome. 

"One of our users reduced weekly meeting time by 40% after switching to our tool. We believe your audience of remote team managers would find value in that."

Offer something in return to increase your chances of link placements in those citation-driven pages. Mention that you'll share the post with your accounts once you're included to get more reach, or suggest adding a helpful quote or stat to make the post more comprehensive. 

Roundups exist to help readers compare, so highlight what makes your offer different or valuable from their point of view. 

Submit to Trusted Directories

Getting listed in well-known directories in your space increases brand visibility and the likelihood of being cited in AI answers. 

Circling back to our example earlier, if you're offering a project management app, you can target trusted directories to be listed, like:

• Product Hunt
• G2
• Capterra
• GetApp
• Software Advice

These platforms are often the first stop for people searching for tool reviews or comparisons (in fact, many software users go directly to those tool comparison sites to find credible tools). Those trusted directories often appear in AI summaries, listicles, and Google's top results for "Best X for [use/purpose]." 

To maximize your product listing, write a clear, benefit-focused profile. Focus on your product's purpose and how it helps. Use keywords naturally so AI and search engines understand what you offer. 

"A project management app built for remote marketing teams. Features include time tracking, real-time comments, and integrated campaign dashboards."

Ask your users to leave honest feedback. Reviews will help you stand out and influence decision-makers. 

You may also add visuals and product walk-throughs. Include screenshots or videos that explain your key features, improving your engagement and increasing your chances of being cited by bloggers or roundup writers. 

2. Strategic Content Placements (Link Insertions)

Many people are familiar with the term "link insertion" or "niche edits" when it comes to strategic content placements. These are about earning links from existing content that already has value.

Instead of writing a full guest post, you insert a backlink into a relevant paragraph of a published blog or article that is contextually worthy for the publisher to include your short-form content. 

Search engines trust pages that are aged, indexed, and performing well in page rankings (they rank for keywords, able to get search traffic). 

Adding your link to one of these strengthens your destination page by association, so you're not building from a newly indexed page or an article with a proven SEO value. 

Start with the right blog posts. Target high-quality blog content, not just any random blog, to get the best results. What you should be looking for:

• Blog posts with organic search traffic
• Topic that fit naturally with your content
• Sites that are open to updating older posts 

Prospect for industry-relevant blogs and publications. Then, use the advanced search operator (site:domain.com "topic") to find indexed articles of the target website. This helps you locate specific pages where your content could fit.

Then, you can use tools like Ahrefs or SEMRush to check if the domain gets traffic before diving into specific articles. You can filter for blog posts with organic traffic of 50 or 100>/month and page content with relevant topics or keywords. 

When pitching to these bloggers, make sure that your destination link makes sense for them to include in their existing content. If you're linking to a content marketing tool, don't force it into a post about web hosting (it would only dilute your website's off-page SEO relevance). 

Instead, find blog posts discussing similar services, related informational content, or complementary tools. The link should enhance the page's content, not distract readers. 

Many publishers would appreciate getting pitches to improve more of their old content, particularly with the intent to add or regain the search traffic that may have been lost. 

When pitching to publishers, you can offer value, such as improving the article with fresh data or adding a unique perspective on the article where it makes sense to link to your destination page for additional reference or resources. 

3. Digital PR

Digital PR has become a core strategy for many SEO and digital marketing strategies. It helps clients earn brand mentions and links by sharing stories worth covering.

The brand strategy works well, given that journalists, influencers, and content creators always look for credible sources, fresh insights, and original data to cite in their articles. 

Digital PR links are editorial and natural and often come from media sites or top-tier blogs, making them robust for SEO and brand visibility. 

 

Expert Commentaries

One powerful way to do digital PR is by offering expert quotes to journalists that help share the story they're writing. As reporters by profession, they can't simply quote their own opinions. They need external inputs and credible insights to support their content, making their written content more trustworthy. 

The best quotes are: 

• Concise (answers what they look for: tip, insight, or trend).
• Authority-driven (use data, experience, or unique takes)
• Actionable (something readers can think about or apply)

There are a couple of platforms where you can find quote requests and media opportunities, including: 

• Journo (new quote request platform by Search Intelligence UK)
• Qwoted
• Featured.com 

Another way to leverage expert commentaries is to send direct pitches to writers or editors. If you have an interesting list of tips relevant to your industry by first search for what topics they religiously write for (based on the past year's content), you can nudge them with your own sets of tips that will benefit their readers. 

Make sure you track these opportunities using Ahrefs or Google Alerts. Thank the writer and stay on their radar for future stories. 

Reactive PR 

Reactive PR is all about speed and relevance.

You earn backlinks by quickly responding to trending topics, breaking news, or cultural moments with expert insights.

Unlike general digital PR, where you wait for coverage, with reactive PR, you insert your brand into the conversation while it's still hot. So, the faster you react (in digital PR terms), the higher the chance your quote gets featured and your website gets cited. 

It works because journalists and content creators move fast. When a story breaks, or a topic goes viral, they need expert input immediately. If you're one of the first to offer a relevant comment, tip, or angle, you become the source they quote. 

Start reactive PR by monitoring the news. You can use platforms like:

• Google News – Track industry keywords and breaking headlines
• Twitter/X Trending Topics – See what's being discussed now
• Subreddits – Join niche communities in your space
• BuzzSumo / Exploding Topics – Catch early content trends before they peak

You can choose one or a combination of many to get more trending news as fast as possible. 

Create a reactive content calendar to harness the power of trending news. Map out important days and events such as:

• Upcoming Holidays
• Industry-specific awareness weeks
• Annual news cycles
• Recurring events (like product launches, sports finals, seasonal changes)

Instead of passively waiting for links, you build a system that maximizes reactive PR and has it ready. This way, you can respond within hours, not days. 

Data-driven Campaigns

This is one of the most reliable ways to earn press coverage using digital PR campaigns. Unlike reactive PR, where you wait for breaking news to take advantage of, data-driven PR involves publishing original data that supports a specific insight.

For the UK, US, and AU countries, journalists and bloggers love using fresh stats to strengthen their upcoming articles, and when they do, they credit you with the backlink (most to your homepage). 

Here are a couple of ways to generate valuable data, even with a small team: 

• Quick internal surveys: Send a short survey to your audience, email list, or LinkedIn connections (e.g., see State of Link Building Report or SEO Agency Survey).
• Customer usage stats show how users interact with your product or service. Your platform's insights are unique, making them difficult to replicate. 
• Market research: Use tools like Statista, Office for National Statistics (UK), Google Trends, or industry reports to pull data and then reframe it (or combine it with your other sets of data) to produce high-utility data insights.
• Publish data re-analysis - pull government or academic datasets and analyze them with a fresh angle (e.g., "Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, we ranked the top 10 fastest-growing freelance jobs in the U.S."). 

You can check our guide on digital PR tips for successful campaigns. 

4. Integrated Linkable Assets to Landing Pages

In the past, the long-term SEO strategy has been built around creating linkable assets to attract passive links, coupled with using them as a value proposition in manual outreach to get an initial set of links. From there, attracting link opportunities from publishers at their writing stage becomes more visible as the linkable asset ranks for informational research terms.

The model worked for traffic and got dozens of high-quality backlinks, which you can leverage further by internally linking from the most-linked page to commercial pages. This way, the links will pass SEO value to landing pages, increasing their chances of ranking for their respective keywords. 

Linkable asset creation was isolated. It created a unique backlink, but it didn't connect directly to pages that drive leads or sales. 

The best approach for developing an advanced link-building strategy in SEO is to integrate linkable assets into your landing pages and core site architecture. Surrounding it through topic clusters that push value toward your key pages helps in so many ways, such as:

• Backlinks earned by useful content also benefit pages where you convert visitors (no more internally linking from linkable page to commercial page).
• Authority flows naturally through your internal structure.
• Your highest-priority page ("commercial pages") gets stronger rankings, not just blog pages. 

By doing so, your most important pages—those that drive sign-ups, leads and 

Instead of keeping your content separate, you: 

• Build tools, visuals, or mini guides directly inside your landing pages.
• Create topic clusters where blog posts link to service or product pages.
• Turn high-converting pages into link-worthy resources, not just sales copy. 
• Make purchases and start earning natural backlinks, too. 

Don't treat content and conversion as separate. Think like this, "how can I make this page so useful that someone would choose to link to it?". 

Here are actionable tips for integrating linkable assets into landing pages:

Create Landing Pages with value-added content. 

Enhance product or service pages with:

• Interactive tools (e.g., calculators, ROI estimators, checklists)
• Quick-start guides or "how to use this" sections
• Case study snippets that give real-world proof 
• Infographics that explain processes visually

For example, a time-tracking SaaS tool can include a "Time Theft Calculator" on its product page, giving publishers and media outlets a reason to link directly to that page when discussing workplace productivity. 

Support Pages with Strong Internal Links. 

Build help articles, tutorial pages, and onboarding content that support your primary services. These can act as natural backlink targets when people search for instructions, definitions, or "how it works' content.

From there, you can use thematic internal linking to pass SEO value to the commercial page. 

Thematic Hubs (Topic Clusters)

Group related content together. A "hub and spoke" structure helps improve topical authority and link equity flow. 

• Hub = a central landing page
• Spokes = supporting blog posts or case studies that link back to the hub

Thematic hubs like this help landing pages rank for more competitive keywords and make them more discoverable to linkers looking for credible sources. 

5. Build Topical Authority 

A topical authority is about becoming the most trusted, complete, and referenced source on a specific subject. 

When you build topical authority, your website doesn't show up for one keyword (which most SEO still operate to this day), but you start ranking across dozens or even hundreds of related search terms. By becoming the go-to person or authoritative source in your space, others start linking to you because you're seen as the expert. 

 

Here's how to build topical authority and attract backlinks your competitors can't replicate:

Choose a specific, business-aligned topic. 

Pick one area where your product or service is highly relevant and where your team has deep insight or real experience to provide loads of "informational gain" that hasn't been brought to the table.

The level of specificity you get will make your content more valuable to a defined audience and more link-worthy in relevant articles and roundups. 

Build out subtopics that cover the topic thoroughly.

To become authoritative, your site should answer everything someone might ask within the space (a battle of high-quality "content volume"). 

When a journalist or publisher looks for expert-level information, your site will have it already written and easy to link to. The idea is that your competitors may have 1 to 2 posts on the topic, but you'll have 15+ highly targeted pages that connect and support each other. 

Structure it as a topic cluster.

I shared earlier about organizing your content into a hub-and-spoke model. Cross-links between pages so users and search engines can easily navigate your expertise. Potential linkers can quickly see the depth of your coverage, making it more likely they'll link to you rather than a thin, one-off post from someone else. 

Add unique value that others can't copy.

This is the step that locks in your backlinks. Include content elements based on your own data, tools, experience, or perspective (as I've shared in the integrated linkable assets section). 

These aren't generic tips; they are assets only you can offer. So, even if your competitor writes a similar post, they won't have your exact angle or insights, making your content the preferred link target. 

6. Value-First Outreach

Most link-building outreach fails because it's one-sided (most of the time). Value-first outreach flips that, offering something helpful first ("reciprocity effect"). 

Website owners, bloggers, and journalists receive dozens of link requests weekly. To stand out, your email outreach needs to answer one question: "What's in it for them?"

Value-first outreach earns links by earning trust first, and here are a couple of ways to test in your email outreach campaigns: 

• Link swaps—if you manage content for multiple clients or partners, offer a relevant link in return, but no direct change. This method helps you get exposure and stay within the conservative way of doing link building by using indirect or triangular swaps (not one-to-one link exchanges). 
• Improve their content with helpful additions—offer insight, data, or clarification to make their existing content more comprehensive. Do the work upfront to make it easy for them to say yes. 
• Share or mention their content first (scale it for priority link targets). If you already like their work, mention it in your content before asking for a link, giving them exposure and SEO value upfront. Then, use that goodwill in your outreach. 

Value-first outreach works best when you think like a collaborator, not a solicitor.

7. Get Links From Prospect Business Sites (Not Just Industry Blogs) 

When building the right types of backlinks, most outreach efforts focus on the usual: industry blogs, roundup sites, and content-focused publications. There's nothing wrong with that unless you're getting from sites with no significant and relevant traffic. However, there's a high-value group to target for links that, more often than not, are overlooked. These are business websites. 

Business websites are seen as legitimate by both users and search engines, as they have real-world operations, band equity, existing links from vendors, partners, and local institutions, and minimal outbound link spam. 

Getting links from these types of domains carries more weight in link value and is often more challenging for competitors to replicate. 

For example, if you sell premium workout mats. Instead of pitching fitness blogs, reach out to:

• Gyms or fitness studios that have a "Recommended Equipment" page
• Athletic trainers who list gear they use with clients
• Franchised gym chains that feature supplier shoutouts on their blog

Another example is if you offer eco-friendly packaging, don't just target green blogs. You can reach out to organic food companies that:

• Feature vendors or suppliers they work with
• Highlight sustainability partners in blog posts
• Have "Sustainability in Our Supply Chain" sections on their site

I can give you more examples, but the principles remain the same: find more business websites with existing resources or blog sections where you can get contextual backlinks to your site.

8. High Link Value with Strategic Content Distribution

Most content distributed on other websites ("guest posts") is treated as one-off link drops. The contributor writes the content, publishes it, and the backlink goes live. Done.

However, if that's where it ends, you're missing the actual value of external content assets. To build high-value backlinks, you need to shift from simply placing content to distributing content that ranks and drives traffic for you and the publisher.

It's a win-win scenario where both parties enjoy the benefits of high-utility content (the publisher gets more traffic while bringing this traffic to the one contributing the content). That's where strategic content distribution comes in. 

Strategic content distribution means creating external content pieces that are designed to rank and crafted to match gaps in your target publisher's SEO strategy. 

So, instead of just writing a random topic, you write:

• On a topic (or keyword) that's highly relevant to your target customers
• That fits well the publisher's niche
• That's currently missing from their blog or resources section
• That attracts search traffic over time, and they aren't tapping into it yet.

Instead of a mere guest post, you create content that significantly has an impact on your website, given that links:

• Sit on a page that ranks, not buried archive post
• The blog post continues getting traffic over time, sending indirect SEO and brand signals
• Content earns secondary links when others reference the post
• You're seen as someone who improves the site, not just using it for plain reasons. 

Here's how to distribute content strategically:

Find the right publishers. 

Look for websites that have decent domain authority (e.g. Ahrefs DR30+), regularly publish new content, rank for keywords related to your niche, and accept contributions or have a blog that could benefit from SEO support. 

You can use tools like Ahrefs, or SEMRush to assess traffic and ranking potential. 

Identify content and traffic gaps on their blog.

Before pitching, do a quick content gap analysis by asking what keywords and topics they are not ranking for and are missing entirely from their blog. Are there blog posts ranking on page 2 that you can help improve or refresh?

To spot thin content, you can use advanced search operators (site: domain[dot]com "topic) or tools like Clearscope or SurferSEO. 

Choose topics with the potential to get traffic or with steady search volume.

Target long-tail keywords with lower keyword difficulty (KD), a monthly search volume of at least 100 to 1,000, and that have a clear connection to your niche or target audience. 

These terms are easier to rank for and can help deliver long-term traffic to the publisher. 

Pitch content that helps them, not just you.

Craft your pitch around how the article can benefit their readers and increase traffic potential. 

A sample addition to your outreach pitch would be: 

"I noticed your blog doesn't currently cover [topic], which has consistent search volume and ties closely to your audience. I'd love to write a well-structured piece on that, including a few unique insights from our team."

"I'll optimize the post to rank for [keyword]—and link to your internal content where relevant, to strengthen your rankings."

You're positioning yourself as a content partner looking for a more long-term role in content distribution, not a self-serving contributor only asking for links. 

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Need link building? See our link building services and schedule your free strategy call. 

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by Venchito Tampon

The 5 UK's Best Link Building Services in 2025 [Honest Review]

Link building services can be a huge asset to your brand's overall SEO campaign.

With an agency specializing in link building, you can reap the benefits of pushing your webpages higher in Google SERPs, build your brand authority, and make your offer (products/services) a go-to solution in your industry. 

In this guide, I'll explore the five best link building agencies and provide tips for finding the UK's best link building services for your business. 

1. SharpRocket

 

Best for: Agencies, SaaS, eCommerce, and Enterprise Brands

Headquartered in: 100% remote, with headquarters in Manila, Philippines (serving UK clients)

Industries: e-commerce, B2C, B2B, and SaaS

Strengths: Keyword-driven content to drive rankings, increase passive links, and improve organic traffic

Recognizable clients: Credible, Shopify, and Eatigo

With over 10 years of experience, SharpRocket is the leader in acquiring backlinks that will help landing pages rank for their individual commercial keywords and drive organic traffic to the business. 

Our global link building agency is known for its high-quality, white-hat backlinks, which help brands increase their organic search presence. Their manual vetting and outreach process ensures that all acquired links come from authoritative, industry-relevant websites. This makes them a trusted partner for businesses looking to scale their SEO through link building. 

SharpRocket focuses on content-driven link acquisition, a method for helping brands earn natural, high-quality links through niche edits, guest posts, digital PR, and resource page link building. Their emphasis on customized outreach campaigns builds trust with clients, as each link placed aligns with strict link metrics and the client's SEO goals. 

With enterprise link building at our core, our link building services drive rankings, revenue, and brand recognition. We're proven to deliver, with over 15,000+ links and our 10+ years of experience for clients like Keypath, Zenbusines, and Fiddlershop— just check out our client case studies to see for yourself.

2. Search Intelligence 

 

Best for: In-house Teams

Headquartered in: Oxfordshire, England

Industries: Finance, SaaS, Tech, and Legal

Strengths: Reactive PR, Data-driven Campaign, Expert Commentary

Recognizable clients: Ahrefs, Bulk, VPNOverview

Search Intelligence is a leading digital PR and link building agency that specializes in earning high-authority backlinks from top-tier publications through data-driven PR campaigns. Their expertise lies in crafting newsworthy content that attracts organic media coverage, securing backlinks from sites like BBC, Forbes, The Guardian, and The Independent.

Search Intelligence's proven digital PR strategies make them a top choice for brands seeking high-authority, scalable link building solutions that drive both SEO growth and brand visibility. Their focus on data-backed storytelling ensures that clients gain credible, organic media placements that significantly impact search rankings.

3. Bulldog Digital Media

 

Best for: eCommerce

Headquartered in: London, UK

Industries: Retail and eCommerce

Strengths: Press release creation, Targeted PR outreach, and Journalist request for monitoring

Recognizable clients: La Redoute, Funky Pigeon, Carpetright

Bulldog Digital Media offers a unique, risk-free digital PR service with a pay-per-placement pricing model, ensuring clients only pay when placements go live. Clients set their monthly budget, and Bulldog's dedicated team executes PR strategies without upfront fees. Their flexible approach allows clients to adjust budgets as needed. ​ 

The agency's process includes monthly brainstorming sessions to develop PR story ideas, crafting press releases, monitoring expert comment opportunities, and building relationships with journalists and bloggers. This strategy has led to features in over 300 publications in the last year, enhancing brand visibility and authority. ​ 

Their commitment to transparency, flexibility, and results-driven strategies makes Bulldog Digital Media a trusted partner for brands aiming to enhance their digital presence through strategic PR initiatives.

4. UK Linkology

 

Best for: Local and brick-and-mortar businesses

Headquartered in: Derby, UK

Industries: Various sectors, including gambling and iGaming

Strengths: M-Flux V2 site assessment, extensive publisher database and gambling link building capability 

Recognizable clients: N/A

UK Linkology is a UK-based link building agency specializing in delivering high-quality, contextually relevant backlinks to enhance website authority and search engine rankings. Their proprietary M-Flux V2 formula assesses websites using five SEO metrics and a 33-point manual site check, ensuring that only reputable sites are selected for link placements.  

The agency boasts a vetted publisher database of over 61,000 sites, built since 2010, allowing them to cater to both English-speaking and international markets. They offer various services, including custom link building, white-label solutions for agencies, international link building, and specialized services for industries like gambling and iGaming. 

5. Click Intelligence

 

Best for: Digital marketing and SEO agencies

Headquartered in: London, UK

Industries: SaaS, iGaming, Travel

Strengths: White label solutions

Recognizable clients: eBay, AX Paris, Gumtree, Holiday Inn 

Click Intelligence also provides specialized link building services tailored to specific industries. Their iGaming Link Building strategy is designed for the competitive gambling sector, improving search visibility and driving business growth. 

They also excel in resource link building, positioning clients as industry experts by securing backlinks from existing listicles through targeted campaigns. 

 

Tips for Finding the UK's Best Link Building Services 

Interested in implementing a link building strategy but not sure where to start? Read more for tips on finding the best link building agencies and services.

Prioritize Agencies with a Proven Track Record

Look for agencies with a history of delivering high-quality backlinks for clients. Check their performance in case studies, online reviews, and industry reputation. 

A reliable link building agency should be transparent about its strategies and provide you with examples of its successful link placements. By looking at their live links from disclosed clients, you can easily assess if they are worth investing in.

Avoid agencies that promise quick results or use black hat techniques, as these can lead to penalties. Always verify the credibility of their past work before committing. 

For example, SharpRocket has been delivering thousands of quality links to clients since 2015. Its decade worth of experience and expertise can attest to the results it provided for past and current clients. Their proof of work with Shopify, Fiddlershop, and many other esteemed clients tells you how prolific they are in enterprise-level and eCommerce link building campaigns. 

Evaluate Their Link Building Strategies

Not all link building strategies deliver long-term results. Some agencies use link placement shortcuts that only harm rankings instead of improving them.

The best agencies focus on tried-and-true, white-hat techniques, such as guest posting, link insertions, digital PR, and product-led link building. These techniques require manual outreach to secure placements on relevant and trusted sites rather than relying on automated link schemes.

You should also look for agencies that provide detailed reports outlining link sources and the quality of acquired backlinks (based on agreed-upon metrics). 

Assess Industry Experience and Specialization

Some agencies specialize in specific industries, such as finance, SaaS, legal, or e-commerce, while others offer generalized services. If you operate on one vertical with one or multiple businesses, you can look for an agency that is already familiar with your niche so you can get more relevant and impactful backlinks.

Different industries have nuances in markets and methods, so having an agency with deep expertise in your market can help you gain more advantages for your link acquisition campaigns. 

From a content marketing perspective, it could help you develop more targeted content that aligns with your audience, given that there's a higher level of familiarity with the market and the audience the agency is writing for. 

Verify the Quality of Their Link Sources

You should consider agencies that can secure links from relevant, editorially controlled sites with strong domain authority (Ahrefs' DR) and organic traffic. 

These contextual backlinks pass more value than other types of links. Avoid agencies that place links on low-quality directories, private blog networks (PBNs), or spammy sites. 

Look for Transparent Reporting and Communication

The best link building services provide clear, detailed reports showing their built links, along with metrics such as Ahrefs DR, organic traffic (data from SEMRush traffic), and anchor text usage. 

With them providing you with regular updates, you can keep track of campaign progress and effectiveness, helping you decide whether to ramp up more links to achieve better results or dedicate other links to your other businesses. 

Avoid agencies that fail to disclose their link sources or use vague reporting methods. 

You could glimpse the agency's willingness to serve through your initial interaction after you submit an inquiry through their contact forms. The best link building agencies are responsive to inquiries and ones that provide realistic timelines and set clear expectations.  

Consider Pricing and Value for Money

Pricing varies significantly among link building agencies, depending on link quality, strategy, and industry demand. Link building comes with investment, so make an allowance in your budget when seeking the right fit for your link building needs. 

Be wary of cheap services that offer bulk link packages. These often use low-quality sites or automated tactics. 

On the other hand, expensive services should justify their costs with premium placements and overall legwork (or inclusions) in their services. Request a breakdown of costs to ensure you’re getting real value for your investment.

By following these guidelines, you can identify a reputable UK link building service that supports the sustainable growth of your SEO team (either you're an in-house SEO or agency). 

 

FAQs

You may be thinking a lot about finding the right link building provider right now, so here are some frequently asked questions about link building services. 

What Do Link Building Agencies Do?

Link building services help businesses improve their search engine rankings by getting more relevant, quality backlinks. These services use various strategies to build organic, contextual links that enhance a website’s authority and credibility in Google's search results.

They execute campaigns and strategies to improve the site's crawl rate, search potential in rankings, and potential assisted conversions through: 

• Manual outreach – Securing backlinks through personalized communication with website owners and publishers.
• Guest posting – Publishing high-quality distributed content on authoritative websites with embedded backlinks.
• Digital PR – Earning links through media outreach, data-driven campaigns, and newsworthy content.
• Niche edits – Placing contextual links within existing high-authority content.
• Resource link building – Getting links from resource pages that reference useful industry content.

Why Is Link Building Important?

Link building is a crucial aspect of SEO strategy, as search engines use and highly consider backlinks as a ranking factor. High-quality backlinks signal trust and authority, leading to better organic rankings and increased website traffic. Effective link building can also:

• Strengthen brand visibility and industry credibility.
• Drive referral traffic from authoritative sources.
• Improve search rankings and domain authority over time.
• Support long-term organic growth without relying solely on paid ads.

What Is the Average Cost of Link Building Services?

The cost of link building varies based on factors like link quality, outreach strategy, and industry competitiveness. Pricing typically falls within these ranges:

• Blogger outreach campaigns – $250–$1,000 per link
• Digital PR link building – $5,000–$15,000 per month
• Guest posting services – $100–$700 per post, depending on site authority
• White-label link building – Custom pricing for agencies outsourcing services

At SharpRocket, link building services are tailored to deliver topically-relevant, high-quality backlinks to move the websites' most important pages higher on Google's SERPs. Their pricing is structured to ensure that clients receive guaranteed, authoritative, niche-relevant links that drive real SEO value.

Fuel SEO Growth with Link Building 

There are many link building agencies and services to choose from, but it's up to you and your team to find the one that best fits your brand's SEO goals and objectives. At SharpRocket, our team of link building specialists and strategists can get high-quality backlinks that fit several needs— we have almost 15,000+ backlinks secured that generated traffic revenue for our clients to actually prove it.

Looking to take your SEO to the next level with link building efforts? Check out our link building services and get a free link building roadmap. 

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by Venchito Tampon

Outsource Link Building - Needs, Benefits, and How-to [Templates Included]

If you’re running an SEO agency with growing link building needs, you’re facing some crucial decisions. Taking on more SEO clients is vital to growth, but ramping up more backlinks to improve clients’ website rankings comes with major financial and operational responsibilities.

Outsourcing link building is a strategic decision and process that allows businesses and SEO agencies (like you) to scale, allocate resources effectively, and focus on core operations. 

With growing demands, checklists, and to-dos in every SEO campaign, most companies lack the in-house expertise, time, or tools to execute a successful link building campaign.

The central question we’ve always been asked is, “When and when not to outsource link building”? Let’s answer that right here. 

When and When Not to Outsource Link Building?

You outsource link building when:

• Your team lacks specialized knowledge in link prospecting, link qualification, outreach, and producing both product-led and content-led assets. 
• You need to scale link-building efforts without hiring and training an in-house team (or dedicating some SEO specialists to link acquisition). 
• You want to focus on growing your business (client acquisition, service delivery, client satisfaction, etc..) while a link-building agency handles the backlinks part. 

It is not ideal to outsource link building when: 

• You haven’t built your website's initial and proper SEO foundation (technical SEO, on-page SEO, site architecture, content, etc.). You can’t rely solely on link building to rank your clients’ websites. 
• You prefer a lower cost per link with full control over link sources and outreach strategies.
• You’re serving $1,500/month client retainers with fewer budgets allotted for link building (this kind of budget constraint makes outsourcing impractical). 

Benefits and Downsides of Outsourcing Link Building

If you’re thinking of outsourcing link building, consider both its benefits and downsides. 

Link building is worthwhile, whether in-house or outsourced to a trusted link-building agency, if you balance them and discern the right option based on your current situation and context. 

Benefits of Outsourcing Link Building

Expertise, Experience, and Efficiency

This is the primary reason why SEO agencies and businesses want to outsource link-building work to someone else. More often than not, if the in-house team doesn’t have the built-in processes and experience required to acquire backlinks for clients—it consumes more time than they would think of if they did link-building in-house.

Speaking of experience, observing nuances in link building for each niche market takes months and years. If you’re an SEO agency, building links for vet clinics isn’t as easy as building links for a fintech website. The challenges within each market require expertise to overcome even just the initial roadblocks. 

Another example is doing competitor backlink analysis. An SEO beginner in link building would have focused more on link metrics when analyzing competitors’ links. 

However, that approach is just an initial activity for a link-building expert. He or she delves deeply into the types of links competitors built and assesses probable reasons for linking—which is more advanced. To reach that certain level of mastery, several hours of scanning backlink reports are required (and that’s what makes them “experts” in the process).

Scalability 

When discussing scalability, marketers only focus on the number of links. Of course, link building agencies can build more links in less time than an in-house team.

However, that’s only one part of scalability. Link-building agencies' biggest advantage is expanding linkable markets by conducting more outreach campaigns, giving the client’s brand more reach it deserves. 

Given their years in the SEO game, they have lists of tens of thousands of webmasters and journalists. With relationships they’ve built, it’s easier for them to nudge link requests, get more positive responses for expert commentaries in digital PR, or have more straightforward link inclusion on a resource page. 

Topping it off, as you scale link-building projects with an agency, you also get cost efficiency when adding more projects. That’s where discounts (or more links in exchange for referrals come in). 

In general, relationships with link-building agencies don’t have to be stiff—it can be dynamic and mutually benefit both parties. 

Preference For Link Types 

Outsourcing link building allows you to choose specific link types you want to integrate into your site’s backlink profile. 

Different agencies have several packages and options according to the types of links that you’re getting as a client. From niche edits to guest posting links, go way up to top-tier publications backlinks using digital PR.

Pro Insight: This link type preference is more strategic and beneficial than choosing links based on specific Ahrefs’ Domain Ratings (e.g., DR30 to 50, DR50 to 90). It’s now easy to purchase links from generic link vendors, so the best approach is to get backlinks from agencies that consider link types. 

Downsides of Outsourcing Link Building

Outsourcing link building also has its fair share of downsides that businesses must be fully aware of. 

Higher Costs 

This is the first on the list, and agencies and brands must consider their budget before onboarding a new link-building partner. 

For instance, if you’re an early-stage startup and still testing product-market fit (in other words, you haven’t had enough recurring customers to sustain your business), outsourcing link building (even outsourcing SEO at large) is not the best move. 

However, as you soon get more funding to test and invest in a solid marketing channel, you can now outsource SEO. This is based on my observations working with several startups (both funded and bootstrapped). 

Quality Control

You’ll only see the quality of links at the time of reporting, which means you don’t have full control over the outcome. 

Pro Tip: Start with a trial version or 3-month link-building project before investing long-term (more than a year) with your link-building agency. You have to test and see the actual live links they’ve acquired so you can rest assured of the quality before throwing more bucks into your investment. 

Dependency on External Partners

This isn’t very relevant to in-house SEO teams. But for SEO agencies that provide regular client reports, it’s important to have a good monitoring process with your preferred link-building vendor so you can sustainably see the outcome and, therefore, help you deliver regular backlink reports for clients.

This is to avoid any delays in backlink deliverables and to adjust strategies based on actual performance and your SEO recommendations with your clients. 

For example, if you change a strategy, let’s say you want to build backlinks to a new landing page (product/service feature), you could quickly and flexibly do it only if you have a good link building partner who’s willing to change the strategy as the need arises. 

That dependency on external partners is crucial when outsourcing link building projects.

Preparing Your Website for Link Building

As I mentioned earlier, your website must be optimized well to maximize the impact of backlinks. 

This approach ensures you strengthen your SEO campaign and avoid pointing backlinks to weak pages (or pages that don’t convert). It’s best to start linking your initial set of links to pages that matter most to you in terms of achieving search traffic (and to your client, in terms of achieving their business goals and revenue). 

Here are a couple of tips to prepare your website for link building:

• Technical SEO - improve crawlability and performance by boosting page load times, cleaning up code, etc. 
• On-page SEO - optimize each web page’s content and HTML, including the target keyword in strategic places (title tags, header text, images, and more). 
• Content Creation: Develop and publish content assets relevant to your audience (e.g., landing page copy, blog articles, infographics, resource guides, etc.). 

The reality is building backlinks alone is not enough to guarantee SEO success. 

Take the first actions on the listed items earlier to get Google to crawl, index, and receive your pages well, making them deserving of ranking in Google’s SERPs for their target keywords. 

Then the content promotion part, including link building—which you can outsource if you prefer—will have more impact on the overall SEO performance of your website. 

Budgeting for Link Building

A critical part of your decision to outsource link building is your budget. 

Generally, you have two options: doing link development in-house or outsourcing it to a link-building agency.

Both come with a cost. 

That’s why we created an in-house VS agency calculator to help you determine the actual total costs and cost per link for each option. This will help you decide which one is more cost-efficient and worth your investment for your website in the long run. 

Choosing the Right Link-Building Partner

Once you decide to outsource link-building to an agency, choose the right link-building partner. 

You must find a link-building agency that provides individualized care and doesn’t treat your clients' websites like statistics. Pick the wrong partner, and you’ll end up damaging your clients’ link profiles, and your clients will think you’re the one messing it up. 

Now, there are several ways to source link-building agencies. 

The best one is asking for recommendations from your SEO networks. Those you’ve known over the years and built trust in the quality of work are the ones you should highly consider. 

Given that you’re already familiar with the caliber of their service, you’re likely to end up with another good service from them for your current SEO campaign.

Be wary of link-building agencies, which you only see in any ads today. If you come across them, verify through their website and check their current and past clients and case studies - this would show if they can be trusted for results. 

Finally, once you have a list from different sources, it’s time to have a set of criteria to choose the best outsourced link-building partner. 

How to Outsource Link Building? 

Needless to say, not all link-building agencies are equal. Having a set of criteria to identify the best fit can help you increase your confidence in making the right decision. 

The number one mistake I’ve seen with agencies and businesses outsourcing link building is that they don’t have a set of criteria to base their decisions on, leading them mostly in making the wrong decision. 

To simplify things, I’ve created a spreadsheet to help you choose the best link-building agency.

Here’s a step-by-step process for filling out the spreadsheet (which is also included in the “Instructions Tab”). 

Step 1: Define Your Criteria

List down negotiable and non-negotiable criteria for your decision-making process in outsourcing link building. You can use the ECTEA model (Effectiveness, Cost, Time, Effort, Acceptance) to guide your criterion.

Step 2: Set Up the Decision-Making Analysis Sheet

In the Decision-Making tab, paste all your negotiable and non-negotiable criteria into separate columns.

Adjust columns and rows based on the number of criteria you have.

Step 3: Evaluate Link Building Agencies

Evaluate each link building agency based on your given criteria (both non-negotiable and negotiable). 

For non-negotiable criteria, mark "Yes" or "No" for each link-building agency.

Proceed only with agencies that meet all non-negotiable criteria (i.e., all "Yes" responses).

Step 4: Rank Agencies Based on Negotiable Criteria

1. For each negotiable criterion, mark "Yes" or "No" for every agency.
2. Assign a score from 1 to 5 (1 = lowest, 5 = highest) based on how well the agency meets the negotiable criteria.

Step 5: Calculate Weighted Ratings & Make The Best Decision

1. Compute the weighted rating by summing up the scores for each agency.
2. Consider the link-building agency with the highest overall rating.

This decision-making analysis template allows you to make a rational, objective decision based on your criteria. You can do it yourself or best with the team of stakeholders and decision-makers in your team in outsourcing link building.

Evaluating Link Building ROI

Link-building ROI warrants a new guide, which I’ll share soon. 

But in summary, if you want to see the value of your efforts, you should measure your link-building investment. 

Here are a couple of things our clients looked at (and highly consider) with their investment in our link-building agency:

Page-Level and Category-Level Performance: Measure link impact on individual pages of your target links, in terms of increase in rankings, organic traffic, and page’s traffic value. It’s easy to track this using Ahrefs or other link intelligence tools. 

ROI From Target Pages: If you select pages to build links to, you can track the return on investment you get from links that you outsource. 

First, determine your conversion rate, average order value, and lifetime customer value for that specific product/service. Set this benchmark based on the current conversion for that page from organic search - you can see it on Google Analytics. These value items will be your baseline in checking if there’s ROI from links. 

Share of Voice: Assess how much visibility your brand gains relative to competitors. SEMRush allows you to quickly see the share of voice—based on the competitors you input in the dashboard. 

Types of Link Building Services

Agencies have different link-building models to choose from:

Managed Link Building Plans

Agencies handle everything from strategy to execution, involving link-building strategy, prospecting, outreach, and reporting. This is a done-for-you service that takes your hands off everything related to link building.

Pay-Per-Link Pricing: 

This is arguably the best type of link-building service model. Given that you’ll only be paying for links you receive and have been reported by the agency, you only pay for actual results - not for monthly retainers with no guarantees of the number of links to be delivered. 

At SharpRocket, we operate on this pay-per-link pricing model. We want to serve our clients at the highest level and earn everything they pay us. 

If you need a few links to boost the rankings of your key pages or are looking for a reliable link-building partner to scale your link-building projects, contact us today for a discovery and strategy call. 

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by Venchito Tampon

Advanced Competitor Backlink Analysis For Mid-Weight SEOs [Template Included]

For years, competitor backlink analysis has been a universal process for any SEOs who are instantly looking for link opportunities. 

The approach not only presents a quick analysis of your competitors’ existing links but could also uncover insights into their current strategy and help you generate ideas for your link building campaign.

The typical process goes like this: 

1. Use a backlink analysis tool such as Ahrefs, Majestic, or Moz.
2. Review your competitors’ backlink profiles.
3. Identify the types of links they’ve acquired.
4. Start building links based on your findings.

While this provides a good benchmark, this type of analysis is not comprehensive enough to inform you of what’s happening in the industry from a link perspective and help you drive forward your next link building. 

In this guide, I’ll show how we do advanced competitor backlink analysis, which includes:

• Selecting different types of competitors for backlink analysis (not just your direct competitors).
• Doing link gap analysis to answer the question, “how many backlinks do I need to rank?”
• Seeing patterns in linking pages and understanding why the site acquired the links.
• Replicating the exact link building strategy (or doing even way better) to leverage available link opportunities in specific markets. 

Let’s get started. 

What is competitor backlink analysis?

Competitor backlink analysis is the process of reverse engineering your competitors’ backlink profiles to see their existing backlinks, uncovering insights and strategies for your own link building campaign.

How to Perform Competitor Backlink Analysis?

There are many link intelligence tools available on the market. I use Ahrefs throughout this guide, given its huge link database and useful features for better analysis.

Step 1: Identify websites with which to reverse engineer.

Competitor link analysis starts by determining the domains/pages you want to assess. 

I’ll give you the different types of websites or businesses on which to do competitor link analysis.

Direct Competitors 

For example, if you’re selling bathtubs in London, you probably have a list of direct competitors in your space (as you may have done market research as you start your business operations). 

If not, you can search for organic competitors ranking for the keyword you vet on. These are your direct competitors.

Direct ranking competitors are currently ranking for head terms you’re also competing with.

Ahrefs has a feature that shows you your direct competitors. You can find them by looking at “Organic Competitors” under “Organic Search.”

What it shows you depends on your input. 

Using the “domain” and “subdomain” target modes will show you organic competitors that rank in the top 10 organic search results for the exact keywords from which your website gets the most traffic. 

Using the  “exact URL” target mode or “path” target mode shows you competing pages that rank in the top 100 organic search results for the same keywords that your target gets the most traffic from in the top 10 results.

For example, using Ahrefs’ Organic Competitors to find competitors of a potential client - JustBaths, it shows two types of direct competitors:

• A niche direct competitor - e.g. Omnitub, an online store selling only bathtubs
• A brand with a competing product category - e.g.  Bathroom City with bathtubs as part of its product line/category (they’re selling other products besides bathtubs).

I could find link opportunities by reverse engineering both websites: Omnitub's exact URL/Path target mode and Bathroom City's Domain target mode. 

Big Websites

Direct competitors are the tip of the iceberg for competitor backlink analysis. There are many other niche-related sites where you can find thousands of link opportunities. 

For example, Wayfair UK is an online retailer that offers a wide selection of furniture, home decor, and household items. With DR73+, you can collect hundreds of link opportunities through backlink analysis. 

If I were building links​​ for this niche, I would start by assessing pages linked to the specific category page - Bathtubs. Then, once I exhaust the opportunities, I would look at sites linked to the entire domain (including links to other category pages). 

The benefit of competitor backlink analysis for big websites is that it widens your link prospecting scope. This means that after looking for highly relevant link opportunities (in our example, you only want to find bathtub-specific publications/blogs), it only takes time before you exhaust all opportunities covering bathtub topics. 

This is where you need to tap into 2nd to 4th degrees of backlink relevance, and it goes like this:

• 2nd degree of backlink relevance - websites that are not focused on your target content but have sections or categories strongly related to them. (e.g. home improvement, DIY, interior design, retailers with bathroom sections, etc..). 
• 3rd degree of backlink relevance - websites that do not focus on your target keywords and have no categories about them but belong to the same general industry. (e.g. home and garden, architecture and design, real estate, sustainability, etc..)
• 4th degree of backlink relevance - websites that don’t belong in the same industry/topic niche but can publish articles related to its core content theme and your website’s. (e.g. health and wellness, parenting, travel, luxury lifestyle, fitness and recovery, etc..). 

Conducting competitor backlink analysis for large websites allows you to tap into the second to fourth degrees of backlink relevance, expanding your list of potential link targets. 

Local & Geographical Websites

For local SEO, the more localized your links, the more significant their impact on your domain authority and linking pages. 

Look at local businesses within the geographical area, which may not necessarily be topically relevant but are within the local context. 

For instance, if you’re doing SEO for a wedding business in Manchester, you should also be searching for other local businesses in the area: 

• Hospitality Lifestyle
• Well-being Local Experience
• Tourism 
• Home & Interior Design 
• Professional Services 
• High-End Retail & Artisanal Shops

Pro Tip: Check local directories like Yelp to see what types and industries of businesses are getting the majority of listings. 

When you perform competitor backlink analysis for local businesses, you find specific linkable audiences with many opportunities for linking within the context. Since most are connected via associations and organizations, linking to other localized brands is highly possible - thus, providing you with higher chances of links.

Similar Content Competitors 

For product-led and content-led link-building campaigns, one effective way to promote a content asset is to contact publishers who link to similar content. Given their familiarity with the content’s theme, there’s a likelihood of getting links from these content publishers. 

For instance, if I published a sleeping guide for parents, I’ll check the ranking pages for the keyphrase “sleeping” for parents guide and do a competitor backlink analysis for these pages to see who linked to them. 

Pro Tip: Go one step higher by looking at other content assets that are not directly focused on your content’s theme. 

So in my earlier example, it could be any content piece about sleeping tips/guide: sleep science & research, healthy sleep habits & routines, work & productivity sleep optimization, fitness, recovery & sleep performance, travel & jet lag solutions, bedroom design & sleep environment, sleep tech & gadgets, etc..).

You may lack link opportunities when you over-narrow your competitor's backlink analysis. However, you can expand your applicable link prospects by examining other content’s themes.  

Step 2. Get Backlink Data of Competitors 

Plug each website into Ahrefs (or any link intelligence tool). 

Navigate to the Backlinks report page.

Filter for “one link per domain, " then export the data as a CSV. 

Step 3. Derive Insights and Strategy From Analysis  

The next step is to analyze the backlink data and uncover insights and ideas for a link building strategy. 

Initially, we start with a link gap analysis.

Link Gap Analysis 

Link gap analysis (or “backlink gap analysis”) determines the difference between your competitors’ links and yours. 

It answers the question, “how many backlinks do I need to rank?”.

Through link gap analysis, you’ll get an estimated number of links and how much effort you need to put into your link building campaign to rank within the top 3 spots for your target keyword. 

To simplify things, I’ve created a free tool that allows you to instantly see the links needed to rank for your target keyword.

Once you have a copy of this template, import your site’s backlink data and competitors’ - as new sheets. 

Rename the tab based on the name of the domain. 

In the “Link Root” column, change it to the sheet tab name (your domain and your competitors). If sheet names are correct, it’ll only pull relevant data from other tabs. 

Finally, it will show you important insights based on the gathered backlink information. 

Here are a couple of items you should notice quickly:

• “Links needed per month” - shows how many links you need to build per month to catch up with the average monthly links of your competitors. Change the timeframe depending on how many months you want to conduct your link-building campaign (e.g. from 12 months to 6 months). 
• “Link Gap Against Each Competitor” - gives you the link gap score between you and each individual competitor (based on their monthly links). 
• Dofollow Backlinks (on DR Buckets) helps you quickly assess links your competitors acquired (per buckets of Ahrefs’ DR).  It gives you an idea of what range of Ahrefs’ DR to focus on in your link building campaign (and not second-guess it when starting). 

Knowing how many links to build every month challenges your SEO team to focus on a strategy to hit the link goal. While you can’t one hundred percent do it, it’s better to have it than to wonder what to achieve every single month.  

Discover and Analyze Valuable Link Opportunities

One of my favorite tasks in competitor backlink analysis is scanning the lists of links to sites/competitors to see if I can find any interesting patterns, insights, or ideas.

The main point is that you should look for any type of page or link that has occurred on many of the backlink profiles you assess. This would uncover a strategy that, through proper execution, can help you land multiple links.

To make things easier, combine your competitors' backlink data (exclude yours). 

You can combine a group of CSV files into one using the Terminal app on a Macbook or a tool you search online. 

You may also write a prompt on ChatGPT and upload the CSV files.

 

Once you have a merged file, remove the following columns that you may not need in your scanning process:

• Platform
• Referring domains
• Linked domains
• Content
• Nofollow
• UGC
• Sponsored
• Rendered
• Raw
• Drop reason
• Discovered status
• Lost

Then, delete these ones after filtering out the rows:

• Language - delete rows that aren’t “en” or “blank (unless you’re trying to scan non-English pages for an international link building campaign).
• Referring page HTTP code - delete rows with “404” or “403”.
• Lost status - remove rows that aren’t 

Finally, you add a “Duplicates” column. For each referring page, we can see how many sites share the same referring page URL—this shows that it could be a resource/links page with links to all of your competitors. 

For Duplicates column, add this formula: =COUNTIF(A:A,A2)

The next step is where you’ll spend most of your time, given that you’ll be scanning each page URL based on certain metrics.

To help you better understand how this works in real-life, I’ll show you different examples of competitor link analysis - for SaaS, eCommerce, and local businesses. 

SaaS Example For Competitor Backlink Analysis

In this section, I’ll use the SaaS domains earlier as my example for competitors.

With their given backlink data, here are some interesting things I’ve found:

Backlink Analysis Technique #1: Duplicates + Filtering (Descending)

To see pages that are linked to 2 or more of your competitors. 

The higher the number of duplicates, the more competitors’ links are included on the page. Without even browsing the page itself, a page with a higher external link count  could mean that there are other sites it also linked out to (check column: External links).

Examples are roundup posts, links/resource pages, and group interviews. 

In my SaaS example, we have some of the best roundup posts (Duplo Cloud, Ensuzo, Zluri, Scrut, Insight Assurance).  

Direct and non-direct competitors and other publishers publish these roundup posts. This provides you with content insight: publish your own roundup post and make your software at the top of the list (as the best software for that category). 

For backlinks, you may reach out to other publishers (of related roundup posts) and try to get included. 

The more roundup posts that list you, the more visibility you gain, and the more likely that other publishers in the space will also include you in their roundups. 

Backlink Analysis Technique #2: Homepage Links

By assessing homepage links, you’ll often find interesting link building tactics. One in particular, in our SaaS examples, is links from testimonials (homepage) and links from case studies. Examples are Vellum and Incident. 

As soon as you gather patterns like this, you can also look at other similar link types. Search for page titles on your competitors’ backlink data using the keyphrase “case-studies”. It would reveal other case studies with Drata using other people’s products.

Link Building Tip: One good idea to test is to identify products and services your company has used, found satisfaction with, or has gotten results from. Offer your company a case study that the product/service can use for their middle-of-the-funnel content. 

You’ll likely get a higher response rate, given that most SaaS are looking for case studies/results pages to showcase on their website.

eCommerce Example For Competitor Backlink Analysis

Let’s have an example in the eCommerce space.

We follow the same steps when performing a competitor backlink analysis. We chose a couple of competitors and exported their backlink data individually. 

Backlink Analysis Technique #3: Filter By Ahrefs Domain Rating (Descending)

You'll see the most authoritative domains by filtering links from highest to lowest Ahrefs’ DR. These are gold nuggets for high-tier link-building opportunities. 

For example, we’ve seen high-tier publications that one of the competitors has acquired using expert commentary tips, which helps increase their thought leadership in the industry. 

Backlink Analysis Technique #4: Filter By External Links (<50) and Descending

By filtering links with less than 50 external links on the page and sorting them from highest to lowest, you’ll see resource pages, products/category list pages, and directories where your online store can be included. 

You can quickly​​ find it on the sheet by filtering words in page titles, such as “where to buy” or “store.” 

Backlink Analysis Technique #5: With Left and Right Context, Filtered by DR25+ (Ascending)

Scanning backlink data allows you to spot specific types of backlinks that count. 

For instance, by using information on the Left and Right context of the anchor text, you can quickly see editorial links on the list (editorial links are links where the publishers link out to other resources within the page's content). 

These editorial links typically have surrounding words on the anchor text - within an article. 

To spot them, filter out links with blank information on the left and right context. The remaining linking pages are most likely to be editorial links.

Local Business Example For Competitor Backlink Analysis

One last example is scanning for backlink data for local business competitors. 

For instance, if I’m trying to do a competitor backlink analysis for pet clinics in London. I can start looking for other pet clinics in other regions, as they would open up new angles and insights for link building. 

Below is a search result for the “pet clinic in Manchester” keyword. 

 

First, when scanning, I avoid directory listings and local citation sites that rank for the local keyword. I’ll try to find local business competitors. 

Then, I enabled the metrics bar in Ahrefs’ Chrome extension to see each website's unique referring domains instantly (saving me from consuming much of Ahrefs credit).

I want to find domains with many referring domains (RD) because doing competitor backlink analysis for these sites is a goldmine for link opportunities. 

Backlink Analysis Technique #6: “Find A” Directories and Citation Sites

In your scanning approach, you’ll undoubtedly come across a directory or listing site where you can submit your local business to be listed. 

In general, most national business listings won’t positively impact your rankings. Most of these sites don’t have a strict or real vetting process for local businesses to be listed, so Google doesn’t value directory links.

However, there are a few niche directories where your local competitors are also listed. Check if these directories rank for a decent number of organic keywords using Ahrefs. If they do, spend minutes submitting your local business to them. 

Also, find ones with a continuous vetting process in listings, like Pets Reunited - they remove fraudulent listings as soon as they receive scam reports and validate them. 

Although it doesn’t carry as much weight as other link types, such as editorial and digital PR links, finding directories with good search traffic could help diversify your backlink profile. 

 

Backlink Analysis Technique #7: Local Organization Finds

Other local links are local organizations, partnerships, and associations where your local business can be listed. Search them quickly on your backlink data sheet using “organization”. 

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You Don’t Have To Reinvent The Wheel

Regarding competitor backlink analysis, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. Instead, analyze backlink profiles from similar businesses in highly competitive markets. Identify their strongest link-building strategies, extract the most effective approaches, and adapt them to your local landscape. 

By continuously refining and applying these insights, you can build a robust backlink strategy that keeps you ahead of the competition.

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by Venchito Tampon

Ecommerce Link Building: Actionable and Proven Tactics for 2025

In 2025, you’ll see the savviest SEOs moving into eCommerce, where there is less competition and higher returns. Those particular about handling affiliate and display-ad sites now diversify their efforts into eCommerce, as it offers better opportunities. 

On top of this scenario, the demand for SEOs will significantly increase, given that traditional businesses continuously shift and/or add operations to their online shops.

Marketers who take advantage of this profiting market should master the basics and learn new ones to excel and dominate the competition. 

The fundamentals of SEO have remained the same for years (and will continue to be so for years to come): sound technical SEO, logic-based site architecture, data-driven UX, and strategic backlink placements. 

The latter - links matter more today. With AI content flooding search, links become a fundamental and most reliable signal of quality and authority, especially in eCommerce, where tons of business owners churn out AI content in their product descriptions and blog content, hoping for a sudden spike in organic traffic - which in reality, only stagnate their growth. 

In this guide, I’ll show you how to build strong, relevant, and high-performing backlinks to your eCommerce that have only proven to work. Some of these are scalable and can even be tested in various industries and/or types of businesses (other than eCommerce). 

Let’s get started.

Backlink Factors to Consider in eCommerce Link Building

Before diving straight into prospecting and outreach campaigns, here are the high-level considerations for starting any eCommerce link building campaign. 

1. Relevance

Google values backlinks from domains that share topical relevance with your site. For instance, an eCommerce store selling outdoor gear should get backlinks from sites or blogs focused on outdoor activities, gear reviews, or travel. 

Topical relevance extends even to the page's specific content—we call this “page-to-page relevance”. So, in our earlier example, getting links from a page discussing hiking gear is significantly more valuable than getting links from a general lifestyle blog (if all things are equal, of course). 

2. Trust and Authority

You want to get a link from a site that Google and users trust and consider authoritative. Link metrics, such as Majestic’s Trust Flow and Ahrefs’ Domain Rating and Page Rating, can measure this. 

Majestics, for example, handpicked seed sites and manually reviewed them to ensure they were legitimately reputable. This is a starting point for assessing a link's trustworthiness. Fundamentally, these sites only link to truly deserving pages, making it hard for anyone to manipulate the ratings for this metric. 

So, acquiring from a link on a site that’s being linked to by any of the seed sites of Majestic tends to have higher Trust Foow, which is genuinely worth your time if you’re pursuing links. 

On another note, you can use Ahref’s Domain Rating, which measures a domain from a scale of 1 to 100 based on the quality and number of unique referring domains the site acquires in a given time. 

One tip is to assess whether the page you’re getting links to receives internal links from other pages within the website. A well-linked page boosts the value and authority of your backlink.

3. Anchor Texts

Anchor text influences how search engines interpret the relevance of your backlinks. Overdoing it on one end (let’s say getting 100% exact match anchor texts on links could lead you to some penalties) or being too conservative (just having 5% exact match) boils down to your risk tolerance. 

I recommend getting an idea of what your competitors are currently doing regarding their link profiles. Analyze your competitors’ anchor text profiles to understand the ideal distribution.

For instance, in our link building agency, a healthy mix for our clients’ link profiles looks like 50% branded, 15% exact match, and 35% partial match. We optimize our strategy based on what we’ve seen on their competitors’ link profiles - not fully imitating as some of our competitors could be doing something wrong - the earlier mix is one to consider in our experience.

So, diversifying anchor texts goes like this: 

• Exact match: Your target keyword (e.g., "best electric violin")
• Partial match: A variation of your target keyword (e.g., "top-rated electric violin for beginners")
• Branded match: Your brand name (e.g., "FiddlerShop")

Topping it all, you want to also pay attention to words before and after the anchor texts used for links to maintain a natural context. This is where you see the sentiment types and language, whether or not it is going in your favor (if it’s giving a positive sentiment about your brand). 

Overall, focus on creating a balanced and natural-looking profile, using exact match anchors sparingly. 

4. Link Placements

The placement of a backlink significantly impacts its value. 

Links positioned higher on the page hold greater weight than links in the footer or sidebar. So, for example, a link in the first paragraph of a blog post receives more engagement and link value than one buried at the bottom.

If a page has several external links, aim to get the first link rather than the third or fourth external links. 

Context matters as well. A link surrounded by relevant and high-quality content holds more weight than a standalone link on a low-value page (brings back to the relevance factor mentioned earlier).

Aim for link placements that naturally integrate with the surrounding text. If you’re doing niche edits, ensure the surrounding texts fit and support the anchor texts.

5. Link Diversity

Diversity reduces the risk of overreliance on a single link type and signals to search engines that your site naturally acquires links from different sources. For instance, digital PR creates a robust and trustworthy backlink profile through a mix of editorial links from blogs, citations from relevant local directories, and mentions in top-tier publications. 

Remember that a diversified profile is less susceptible to algorithm updates and helps avoid risks from over-relying on a single link building strategy (often abused as more marketers utilize it).

Getting a no-follow link is also valuable. It helps diversify your link profile and is even more beneficial if it comes from a high-tier website. 

Which Pages to Build Links To?

One key area of link building strategy is prioritizing which pages of your eCommerce site to build links to. 

Start by analyzing your competitors' existing allocations to see what they’re doing and what Google has been rewarding them with lately in terms of rankings.

See how many links are pointed to the homepage, category (collection) pages, and some key product pages. This would give you insights on how many links you should target for each page in context with your website. 

Another approach is to create your own link allocation strategy based on your current domain authority. 

For instance, if your website is relatively new (say <DR25), you can point more links to the homepage (50%) and half of the links to blog content (50%). You want to pass more link equity to your homepage to build up its domain authority.

You can push more links to your category pages if you have a mid-tier authority site (DR25 to DR50). A good allocation would be 30% homepage, 50% collection pages, and 20% blog content.

You can allocate more to your key product pages for a high-tier eCommerce site with DR50 or higher. An ideal ratio would be 30% homepage, 30% collection pages, and 40% blog content.

Two things you’ll notice in this strategy: 

• Diversifying links to transactional and informational pages (blog content) to create a more natural link profile - instead of merely focusing on money pages.
• Few to zero links point to product pages, as Google became more biased towards ranking product listings instead of a single product page. 

11 eCommerce Link Building Tactics

Link building strategies for eCommerce in 2025 tend to target multiple objectives, including increasing brand and product awareness, improving Google’s SERPs (improving SEO), and enhancing brand positioning. 

Here are some tactics you can try.

1. Partner Outreach

Leverage your existing network to build links. It is easier to persuade someone who trusts or is already familiar with your brand's work.

Request backlinks from current partners from suppliers, distributors, or business partners. For instance, if your eCommerce site sells artisanal coffee, you could ask your bean supplier to include a link to your store in their "Partners" or "Retailers" section.

Attend local business events to connect with potential linking partners. Networking with industry stakeholders at trade shows or conferences takes a more extended shot at acquiring new customers or suppliers and expanding your lists of relationships with those who could potentially link to your eCommerce site. 

2. "Where to Buy" Pages

One effective product-led link building strategy is acquiring links from “Where to buy” pages. It leverages the brand or product to attract and/or earn links. It also showcases the product’s unique value proposition to position it as an obvious solution in the space.

If you’re a distributor or retailer, find manufacturers’ sites with where to buy pages and get included in their list pages. You can use advanced search operators to find these pages quickly. Few link prospecting phrases you can try:

• site:DomainName “where to buy”
• site:DomainName "store locator"
• site:DomainName "find a store"
• site:DomainName "retailers"
• site:DomainName "buy now"
• site:DomainName "purchase online"
• site:DomainName "shop online"
• site:DomainName "available at"
• site:DomainName "stockists"
• site:DomainName "authorized dealers"
• site:DomainName "find us"
• site:DomainName "distributors"
• site:DomainName "where available"

Highlight your product’s POV and reliability as a supplier to increase the chances for inclusion. 

You can also reverse engineer competitors to find sites linking to them from where to buy pages. We use tools like Ahrefs to find these opportunities. 

3. Digital PR (Expert Commentaries, Data-Driven, Reactive PR, and Product Updates)

Getting links from high-tier publications (ones with DR70 or DR90) contributes to building a strong reputation for your brand, as your product or any part of your brand becomes more visible to potential customers. 

Using digital PR as a forefront eCommerce link building strategy makes that goal reasonable and has been true to many successful link building campaigns for the past few years (you’ll find many SEO agencies integrating digital PR in their marketing services).  

Expert Commentaries

Position yourself or your brand as an industry thought leader by giving expert commentaries to journalists of top-tier publications. Many need expert opinions to solidify their current research and add more meat to their content. 

One effective approach to leverage expert commentaries in digital PR is to ask your client (or any thought leader in your organization) for expert tips on a given topic in your industry. 

You can also gather these expert tips from recently published articles in their blog section, which are still helpful today (“evergreen”). 

Curate these expert tips and craft a press release pitch to journalists who cover the topic. 

Pro Tip: Identify angles of expert commentaries by using this advanced search query on Google search (“expert reveals” “topic” ) to help you generate digital PR ideas. 

 

For client coverage in the UK, I use the search query “expert reveals” “topic”  site:.uk” (seeing that there are several digital PR-led links from UK-based publications) - it’s a good source of insights for angles on expert commentaries. 

Let’s say you sell premium beds, here are a few examples of expert commentary ideas you can create content on:

• A bedroom expert has warned against using washing-up liquid on windows: 
• Expert's 'eye-rolling' technique to get back to sleep if you wake up at 3am: 
• Bed expert says this is how you stay warm 'without spending any money'

Another popular approach to acquiring more links through expert commentaries is capitalizing requests for expert inputs on social media. 

Start by looking for PR-related posts on X with hashtags like #journorequest or #prrequest. These are posts from journalists actively looking for expert comments - and having you jump into the conversation by directly sending email pitches is an actual leverage you can take. 

You can also subscribe to platforms like Featured and Daily Press Roundup at PressFlow to receive notifications from publishers when expert commentary requests are made. 

 

To increase your chances of being featured, ensure your responses are concise, professional, and tailored to the journalist's query.

Data-Driven Campaigns

Conduct and present original research or gather your own data. These assets could be surveys, experiments, or analyses that offer fresh insights into a topic.

If you don’t have the capacity to collect your own data, you can source information from public databases. Then, find unique angles that you can use for your own content.

One way to spark digital PR ideas for datasets is by using Google’s search query: “study reveals” “topic” sites:.co.uk” - replace it with other TLDs (aside from .uk) if you’re in the US or Australia. 

 

Then, filter the search results from last year to the current year (if the current year is 2025, filter results from 2024 to 2025). 

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Since they published a similar dataset last year, they’re likely to be receptive to new, unique insights/angles on the given topic—this time, with a new dataset. 

Reactive PR

Reactive PR leverages trending topics and breaking news to gain quick exposure and backlinks. 

By identifying current trends, you can leverage the existing desire for journalists to cover the story, making it easy to get coverage for your input. 

Monitor current events and spot viral topics using tools like Google Trends and Twitter Trends.

For instance, if there’s a sudden spike in demand for eco-friendly products, and you sell sustainable packaging, you can create content or offer expert insights on the subject. 

Time-sensitive pitches are more likely to gain traction, so being one of the first to create content that resonates with a relevant trend increases chances for coverage (and more links due to the campaign).

Product Updates

Generate links from coverage of your new product updates, by sharing the behind-the-scene stories, founders’ commentary, or any interesting information about your new product (or its new product update) that would interest journalists and publishers. 

For more best practices, you can check out this guide for more digital PR tips.

4. Member Discounts

Offer exclusive discounts to linkable audiences (e.g., teachers, military personnel, nurses, first responders, etc..) by creating a dedicated landing page for each discount type. 

Highlight how the discount aligns with their readers’ interests to make the audience group feel personally catered to. 

Make a list of websites with roundups or list pages for discounts. Start your search by finding pages linking to your competitors, using Ahrefs or other link intelligence tools. 

Reach out and pitch your product for inclusion.

With a highly personalized email outreach, you’ll likely get a 5 to 15% conversion rate in your outreach emails using this eCommerce link building strategy. 

5. Affiliate Programs

Another eCommerce link building tactic that leverages deals and offers is affiliate programs. This strategy acquires links and offers a way to expand your brand’s network by adding a distribution channel for your products or services (affiliate network).

Launch, publish, and design an affiliate program page with the best-converting copy. Treat it like a linkable asset to attract publishers to link to your page. 

Get included on affiliate roundup posts, such as “top affiliate programs in [niche]”.

While most of the links from this technique come from the online marketing and finance verticals, the link value from high-DR sites is still worth pursuing. 

Monitor mentions of your affiliate program using Ahrefs’ Alerts or BrandMentions. Ask these site owners to credit mentions with links. 

6. Content Partnerships

Compared to new content (i.e. guest posts), existing pages with significant organic traffic (currently ranking for informational keywords) are pages worth pursuing for backlinks. 

This is especially true if you’re targeting the types of backlinks that drive business value to your pages in terms of lead generation and branding. Links from these pages can drive second-hand traffic to your eCommerce. 

Content partnerships, also known as niche edits and link insertions, comprise the majority of eCommerce sites' link profiles today. 

The ease, relevance, and value of niche edits play a significant role in driving quick wins to product category pages (many eCommerce SEOs find this type of page challenging to build links to).

The approach in prospecting for niche edit opportunities is almost similar when you prospect for guest post blogs (the only difference is you add published articles when doing link prospecting). 

The advanced search operator (site:DomainName.com “topic”) is used to find topically relevant blog posts. Filter the search results by two years from the current year (2023 to 2025, if the current year is 2025) to sort search results with recently updated, published pages.

Send outreach emails to publishers of these pages asking for niche edits. You can incentivize them by offering free products or reciprocating the link by linking to the best content from your blog (or other articles from your other websites). 

7. Product Reviews

Getting product reviews is still viable if the reviews are legitimate and honest. 

Focus on getting bloggers and influencers with an engaged audience (not necessarily massive, but targeted toward the potential customers you’re looking into). 

Send your products and clearly state that you want an honest review without any obligation to provide a positive outcome—this works better than forcing them to write biased and fabricated reviews.

I recommend asking for links to point to the product category page (where the specific product is located) or to the homepage (if it’s more properly context) - using branded anchor texts.

8. Reverse Engineer Competitors’ Links

Developing link building strategies in 2025 boils down to understanding what the top players do - replicating tactics but making it better for your site. 

Analyze competitors’ backlinks using tools like Ahrefs. You can use Link Intersect to uncover high-potential pages linked to your competitors, but not to you.

 

For instance, if you find several roundups or list pages that mention your competitors, contact them and ask for inclusion, emphasizing why your product/service deserves to be included. 

You’ll get insights rarely seen in reverse engineering competitors' link profiles. A few notable patterns you could find are:

• Specific link types that can easily scaled to target more link opportunities of the same kind (multiple links from a single link building strategy) -  (e.g. associations, local sponsor pages. etc..).
• Anchor text ratio (as mentioned earlier) so you can figure out the best percentage for anchor texts. 
• Linkable audiences that are likely to resonate more for links in your industry (i.e. parents, students, or veterans).
• Topical guides you can recreate (but doing it better and more comprehensive) - i.e. Guide to Buying a Violin.

Do this as part of your SEO tasks to generate new insights into link building and developing content assets with a high potential for earning links. 

9. Publish Content-Led Assets 

Many successful link-building campaigns we’ve executed for our clients in our link building agency (and even case studies we’ve seen in others’ SEO and digital marketing agencies) have produced content-led assets.

Create high-utility, value-driven content assets to better build and earn links through relationship-building and manual outreach approaches. 

Start producing guides to appeal to a broader audience that promotes and supports links for their audiences. 

 

Publish content around audiences that fit your current niche/topic. Linkable audiences include:

• Teachers
• Caregivers
• Parents
• Senior citizens
• Veterans
• Health conditions sufferers
• Job seekers
• The unemployed
• Local community
• Students
• Families of substance abusers

Aligning content with each intended audience's needs, interests, and challenges guarantees that links will be converted from each link building campaign.  

10. Links from Comparative Pages (“Best of X”)

In addition to publishing high-utility, value-driven content assets for links, we have added product-led link building as part of our core link building services. 

I’ve covered this entirely in my guide on product-led link building. The premise is simple: Leverage the unique aspects of our client’s product or service to attract and earn links.

We highlight the product’s unique proposition to position it as the best possible solution for the challenges, needs, and problems it addresses in the market.

Start by finding “best of X” articles and roundups for the product or service using Google search (with advanced search operator inurl:best “product category”) 

You can use Ahrefs to find more “best of” pages linked to your competitors. 

Reach out to the authors/editors of these articles and ask for inclusion. Offer insights into why your product stands out in terms of quality, value, or innovation. 

For example, this comparative content highlights our client as a premier choice for advanced cellos. 

11. Unlinked Brand Mentions

Tracking unlinked mentions of your brand is a 2013-ish link-building strategy. Still, it is considered highly effective in generating product-led links in 2025, especially for reputable eCommerce brands with extensive product coverage. 

Given that more publishers are producing content that highlights other people’s products in their roundups and different types of content, it is more common to see articles mentioning the brand (but without links).

Track unlinked mentions of your brand, product, and names of thought leaders in your organization. We use tools like Ahrefs’ Alerts, Mention, or Google Alerts to get notified of those brand mentions. 

Send pitches to authors of those articles and request that they convert the mention into a clickable link. 

Need help with link building? Get your free strategy call. Let’s talk.

If you liked this post, you can follow me on X @venchito14.

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by Venchito Tampon

How To Build Backlinks In Very Small Niches

One of the challenging parts of link building is creating a list of targeted opportunities where you’ll have chances of getting links. 

This is easy for industries where you can quickly think of audiences to target. However, you may find it very challenging for small niches, such as safety training manuals for niche construction tools and custom gaskets for commercial refrigeration. 

In this guide, I’ll show you practical ways to think outside the box so you can learn how to build backlinks in very small niches. 

1. Serve More Linkable Audiences

When building backlinks, it’s a common practice to ask what topics you should write about for other sites so they can link to yours. While that’s important, I recommend you start with audience research first. 

Think of the audience you want to serve as they’ll also give you links—in SEO lingo, we call them “linkable audiences.”

What Are Linkable Audiences?

Linkable audiences are people likely to share or link to content that resonates with their interests or values. These audience groups include educators, researchers, and web curators.

Their day-to-day work involves maintaining the website, mainly updating their resources or links pages with new links. So, doing SEO outreach to these folks doesn’t require much asking but instead sharing your newly published content that matches their audience's interests and needs. 

This approach removes the friction of constantly following up with audiences who won’t necessarily link to new content anyway. They know what to do once you send them new resource links because they, by nature of work, link to other sites. 

Here’s a list of highly linkable audiences. 

Find connections between your site’s content theme and these linkable audiences. For instance, in my sleeping blog before, I’ve published a couple of guides that target three of these linkable audiences:

• The Ultimate Parent’s Guide to Helping Kids Sleep Better
• PTSD Sleep Solutions: A Practical Guide to Restful Nights
• Veterans' Restful Nights: A Comprehensive Guide to Better Sleep

You can also use ChatGPT to generate topic ideas by connecting your brand’s thematic relevance and these linkable audiences. 

Choose content ideas that make sense to your site and could be expertly written based on your available resources (in-house content team, available data, etc..). 

2. Leverage Reverse Outreach

Reverse outreach is a link building strategy of creating content that naturally attracts links by getting in front of bloggers and publishers. Instead of contacting other sites for links,  you draw them to your site by ranking for highly referential or research keywords. 

This is one way to acquire links for very small niches without entirely relying on manual outreach. 

Start reverse outreach by developing resources that publishers and bloggers in your industry value. Examples of resources you can create are: 

• Industry reports (data)
• Statistics
• Calculator
• Case studies or research papers

You could expand your reach beyond the limited topics of your site. Use Ahrefs’ Content Explorer to find topics and existing linkable assets that highly rank for “research keywords”. Here are a few examples: 

• [Your niche/topic] industry statistics 2024
• Latest trends and data in [your niche/topic]
• Comprehensive [niche/topic] market report
• [Niche/topic] growth and projections statistics
• Historical data and insights on [specific aspect of niche]

People who use these search queries are likely during the research stage of their content creation process. And if they find one of your ranking content valuable, they’ll include it as one of their references/resources through links. 

Pro Tip: Look for new linkable content published by competitors or big industry publishers. This could inspire you to create more content for your blog. 

3. Capitalize On Your In-house Experts

If you create content similar to the other ranking pages, you create unoriginal content. 

Adding a component of first-hand experiences to your linkable asset brings unique perspectives and expands the body of knowledge already available on the web.

To publish more interesting content on your blog, you can interview and collaborate with your in-house experts and potentially other publishers from other sites. Their insights can position your content as authoritative and have higher information gain, increasing the likelihood of backlinks. 

You can also leverage expertise through a digital PR campaign. 

One new HARO-like platform is Pressflow, which helps connect experts and thought leaders with journalists and publishers looking for credible sources.

When you subscribe to Pressflow, you’ll be notified of the latest requests for insights and quotes. Browse for topics your team of in-house experts (or collaborated leaders) can contribute to, and send your thoughts as soon as you can (remember: time is your greatest ally in digital PR). 

For more actionable tips, you can check out my guide on digital PR best practices. 

4. Get Event Links Through Sponsorships and Partnerships

One underutilized link building strategy is event link building.

Getting backlinks through sponsoring events and partnering with organizers has a high relevance score, especially in a hyperlocal context, where you’re sponsoring events in local organizations.

Find local events within the industry, and see if they have dedicated event pages on their sites where you can get embedded or text links. 

Collaborate on their community initiatives by incentivizing through monetary or non-monetary means, supporting, or event-hosting workshops or meetups. 

Many small niches have local business groups or associations, as it’s one way for them to solidify their work and expand business connections. These relationship-building activities allow you to get link opportunities without the usual link begging. 

5. Use AI Tools for Content Ideation

One of the major challenges in creating linkable content for small niches is getting new insights and topics that are still on-brand. 

You can use AI tools like ChatGPT or the recent Ahrefs feature, “AI Content Helper”, to flesh out new insights and sections you can add to your content. 

 

Of course, you won’t fully rely on these tools to make the content for you. As we know by now, adding the experience and experience (or the entire EEAT) elements to content creation makes it more user-engaged and more likely to climb Google’s SERPs for its respective keywords. 

Use these tools just as a guide to support you with new ideas and differentiate your content so that it brings new information to the knowledge base and helps increase user engagement. 

6. Monitor New Links to Competitors

Reverse engineering other sites’ links helps generate new link types that can only exist within your small niche. 

For instance, one dominating unique link type in the wedding space is links from pages of wedding vendors, including florists and videographers. Given their local relevance, links from these types of pages give higher link equity than any other link type. 

If you’re in this niche, you can expand your link prospects by doing Google searches for wedding vendors in your city to find a few more resource pages and directories where your florist or videographer (or your local business) could be included. 

Scaling Your Efforts in Small Niches

While link building for small niches may present more challenges than having a big website that can reach multiple audiences, those few tips mentioned earlier could help you create a sustainable and impactful link building campaign.

By being more creative, persistent, and precise, you can expand your link opportunities and form genuine connections with partners and publishers within your industry. 

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by Venchito Tampon