Building a link building team
-
I just joined SEOmoz and I have enjoyed all the information.
I currently outsource link building to an agency that charges $50 per link. For this, they handle the anchor text creation, the surrounding text and solicitation, acquisition and monitoring. I know they send the actual work to their independent contractors.
How do you find those independent contractors so that I can build my own network of contractors and save the client money?
-
Hi Drew. Did you ever find some good link building freelancers who do link building right?
-
Hi Steve, I really appreciate the perspective. I'm going to consider moving the account. You and Ryan have given me the perspective I needed. Thank You.
-
Sorry, reading it back it looks like I was a bit blunt when stating the issues. One thing I will say, judging by the number of other links on the blog they must have some pretty convincing sales people lol. But yeah honestly there's a tonne of other places out there that will get you some great links. I don't know how much it works out that you're paying them monthly, but there's some great SEO companies you could probably hire for a similar amount (maybe less?) who would do a good job with your link building. Half of the people on these boards probably run them lol. Check out the SEOmoz market place and get a few quotes... and don't forget, Distilled have just opened up a branch in the USA, and they're endorsed by SEOmoz so you can't go wrong there!
-
Your points are well taken. I have spent a great deal of time researching this today and really appreciate the feedback. I had a feeling this might be the case but I'm thankful to have the affirmation.
-
Concur. Looks like a link farm and your link isn't surrounded by content so much as it's surrounded by a ton of other links. Definitely look for another solution.
-
Thank you Ryan
-
Okay, based on that blog... before I say this, please get the opinions of others too as I'm aware I'm starting to sound too negative here... you're being taken for a bit of a ride.
That blog is spammy, irrelevant, full of links to random sites, contains dire content (probably dupe but haven't checked), looks like a domain purchased for it's old page rank as it doesn't fit the content, etc... etc...
That is far, far from a quality link and isn't worth 5 cents let alone $50.
Run a mile!! If that's what they've been doing, you could have achieved the same results for $50 one-off.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news
-
Great expansion on the line of thinking from Steve here. Thumbs up. @Drew T, questions like these are the things you'll want to consider and map out for someone(s) that you task with building links. Ultimately some of the best relationships you'll cultivate online will come from more than just getting a link, but actually connecting with other people that are in your niche.
-
Hi Steve. Thanks for the time. Here is a link to a pretty typical result...http://www.hanoverstables.com/. We were doing about 1500 per month and now we are around 2250 or so. We are in the storage business with 2 of our top 10 keywords in the top 3, another 5 holding stable at 14 (up from say page 3/4) and another 2 or 3 well outside the top 50.
Our conversions are only up 10-15% during the same period. We have done on-site optimization, we add 10 relevant articles per week across our targeted keywords. We do not have a big directory presence and are not in yahoo, dmoz, or many niche directories.
We have over 120 links going on any given month.
-
Hmm, iffy. I think you're probably doing the right thing looking elsewhere (in my opinion). If you have low traffic (not saying you have) then a 50% increase isn't a lot, plus, how much of an increase in conversions are you getting would be the more important question.
All I mean is, if you're in a field that's not competitive, you started off low with no rankings, and they got you a few low value links which bumped you up to having a couple of okay ranks, which are driving some "not-so qualified" traffic, then that's not worth $50 per link. You could have done that yourself pretty easily, or employed someone at $10 per link.
But...
If you've got some good rankings out of it which are driving good, targeted traffic due to those links then great
Edit Also, how many other links are there on these blogs going to other sites, are the blogs spammy? Care to share one?
-
No they do not. They have encouraged me to review links in yahoo explorer. I've noticed through yahoo site explorer that we have more low quality blog sites that give us a link with 15 or so relevant words around the link. The link is a desired keyword as the anchor text. I've also noticed an emergence of sites that give only a link with the anchor text in the blog-roll.
Organic traffic has increased more than 50% since we engaged them 6 months ago so I feel it's working.
-
I hope they're good links then. $50 is cheap for a great link, expensive for a worthless one... do they not provide anything so you can see the value of the links?
-
Thank You Ryan. I appreciate your time in answering my question.
-
You can use websites like oDesk, Rent-a-coder, Craigslist, or many similar other sites to bring on outsourced contractors. With a careful plan you can probably attain a much higher rate of return.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Link building - unique root domains
Hi there, I was wondering when asking for a link, does where on this page it is? For example will someone's high traffic website (e.g. example.com ) provide more page authority than another link on this site ( e.g. example.com/blog ). If this is the case, is it best to get links from multiple pages if possible or will this not effect SEO? Thanks
Link Building | | charliedavi0 -
How do I find and can I trust link building companies
I'm finding it hard to build quality links. I don't want to employ a link building company as I can't find anyone I can trust. I also don't know what is a realistic rate of pay for link building work.
Link Building | | mark_baird0 -
Guidelines for keyword-targeting and link building?
Hello, Every month, I set a goal of targeting 10 - 15 relevant keywords for my website. I then attempt to boost my site's rankings for these terms through a combination of content writing and white hat, non-paid link building. My question is: Are there general guidelines for keyword-targeting and backlinks? Is it healthy to target 10 - 15 different keywords (or more??) like this per month?
Link Building | | BBEXNinja0 -
Have SEOmoz members ever considered joining forces with link-building?
I really hope this isn't interpreted as gray hat or spammy, so please let me know if it is! I'm just always racking my brain to try to come up with creative link-building strategies. Since we're all SEOs who are presumably doing some form of link-building, what if we got together and examined one anothers' sites, to find opportunities for links? I'm sure that still doesn't make sense, so I'll try to clarify. OK, I've been seeing an in-house guy around here that works for a place that sells coat hangers. What if I had an existing blog post that mentioned coat hangers, allowing me to make that phrase a link to this site? LET IT BE KNOWN THAT I'M NOT SUGGESTING A FREE-FOR-ALL OF POINTLESS LINKS! I'm only suggesting this to be done in instances where it makes sense and makes copy more informative! I know a lot of kinks would have to be worked out (like making sure people are giving and not just taking) but I wanted to throw the general idea out there first to see if it's even a good idea.
Link Building | | UnderRugSwept0 -
Outsource Link Building?
Currently we are in the process of creating a new ecommerce website. The site is not live yet, but we have done all of the planning and brainstorming and now are just doing all of the dirty work to get things ready to go live. We are devoting a lot of time on merchandising and developing the site, but currently do not have the resources to put together a good link building campaign in house. Does anyone have any recommendations for outsourcing the link building? The last thing we want is to hire someone that submits to bad neighborhoods and only directories. Is there a good, better, best scenario we should be looking at for pricing, ect? Obviously, like most who are starting a new site, cost is an issue at least until the site gives some sort of sign of life. Also, we are in the Pittsburgh area. We don't need to go local with this, but if there is someone particularly good in the area it would be nice. Thanks in advance.
Link Building | | ClaytonKendall0 -
Can someone recommend a proven link building company?
Hi there. Can someone please recommend a link building company? Can somebody recommend a tried and trusted linking building company that they have used and have really good results from? There are so many link builidng companies out there all promising they can deliver X,Y AND Z! Please help if anyone can recommend a company has am going roun in cricles! Thanks guys Gareth
Link Building | | GAZ090 -
SEO MOZ LINK BUILDING TOOLS
So I learnt that in link building you need to send an email to someone from where you want the inbound link coming in from. In this case, are there any tools withing SEO moz that allow you toactually search for links and also provide you the contact email? Thank you, Vijay
Link Building | | vijayvasu0