What are the pros and cons of using a link builder? Can link building be outsourced?

[Saunders1865]

Hi, I have great content on my website which I would like to build external links to from other websites.  I am told this will increase my domain authority and ultimately help search engine ranking positions.  I have very limited time in my hands and now thinking of outsourcing the link building component to a specialist. Is this a good way of doing it? Could you recommend professional link builders?

[Marcus_Miller]

Hey Tony

Sure, fire me an email over to marcus@bowlerhat.co.uk or give me a shout on 0121 314 2001. Out of the office Fri Mon but in all day today.

Cheers
Marcus

[Saunders1865]

Thanks Marcus. Would it be possible to discuss this further with you?

[matbennett]

I'm guessing from the way you phrase the question that you are fairly new to SEO. If that is the case I wouldn't outsource link building.

There are some some good outsource link builders out there, but link building on it's own probably isn't going to do what you hope. Link building is one element of search engine optimisation. It's a vital part, but it's also a risky part (because it is hard to "undo"). Done by itself it is also unlikely to achieve much.

I would look for an SEO consultant to work with. They can then work out how much link building you need, and the methods that will work for your project.  Let the consultant then find and manage the link builder. Most will have people they work with anyway.

If you don't really know what you are doing then hiring a link builder  would be like me hiring a bricklayer and expecting them to build be a house.

[Marcus_Miller]

Hey Tony

That is very much a how-long-is-a-piece-of-string kind of question. You can, certainly outsource link building and have plenty of success with that, if that is indeed what needs to be done.

If you have some strong content and are continuing to add strong content then that very much helps the process and any link building can be built around the promotion of your content.

I have had a look at what I believe to be your site and certainly, you need some links. You have pretty much nothing in the way of external links and you could have a bit of  a chicken and egg scenario here. You need links to rank your content, but you can't get links till your content ranks and people can see it.

In my advice you would need a six month program that looks at building up a fairly solid foundation for your site and would include links from a variety of sources.

• Content Development, Sharing & Promotion
• Premium Directories and Industry Specific Sites
• Blog Comments / Forums / Q&A etc for referal value as much as anything else
• Guest posts from high quality sites
• Competitor Research
• Link Bait / Shareable content / Soft Conversions
• Social Media

Ultimately, a lot of what is done depends on how competitive the industry and the keywords you are chasing are and in many cases see what the competitors are doing, identifying weaknesses in their strategies and building exposure so people can't fail to find you.

That's just a very simple overview but the idea here is to identify a range of different link types from high quality sources that will provide referral traffic, increased exposure and a portfolio of links.

We would be happy to take a look at this for you or can certainly point you in the right direction of several good, UK based agencies that will take a sensible, content driven approach to building you a solid set of links that will help get your content out there.

Hope this helps
Marcus

[Debdulal]

_Yes, Outsourcing has attained some negative connotations but the thing is that it has its own benefits. All you need to do is to find a reliable outsourcing partner and there you go. And please for God’s sake, do not hire someone for the cheap because this is going to backfire sooner or later. Find an eligible candidate who really knows the difference between cheap, crappy link building and real online marketing.  _

[Visiblics]

Personally I would suggest not to outsource Link Building. However, there is no harm in outsourcing linking provided they build links manually/naturally without using only ethical ways.

Do not allow them build links via exchanging links with other directories. 99% of the companies claim to build one way links but they're involved in three way link schemes, which search engines can now track easily.

The best way for acquiring natural one way links is develop links by :

1. Quality Article Syndication (Do not spam by submitting just one low quality article into 100s of article directories)
2. PR Syndication
3. Guest Blogging
4. Blog Commenting (Do not spam)
5. Submitting website into global/local business web directories (choose directories carefully)
6. Do not run behind the PageRank, look for only quality and relevant websites
7. Use Social media to get your content voted
8. Create content posts on squidoo, hubpages, tumblr, etc.
9. Participate in forums/ top notch blogs

Hope this hellps