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You can have great content, clean technical SEO, and perfectly optimized pages, and still feel stuck. No matter what you do, rankings don’t move. Sound familiar?

Most of the time, the missing piece is link building, which is time-consuming, tricky, and easy to get wrong.

That’s why many businesses choose to outsource it. Not because they can’t do it themselves, but because doing it takes focus, experience, and the right connections.

In this article, we’ll explore why you should outsource link building, how it all works, and when is the right time for your business to make that move.

Let’s start

What is Outsourced Link Building?

Outsourced link building refers to hiring an agency or a specialist outside of your company to handle getting backlinks for your website. 

There are three main ways to outsource link building:

• Work with a link building agency: Agencies focus on creating real, sustainable backlinks for your website. You usually pay for a batch of links. This approach gives you a balance of quality, reliability, and expertise.
  
• Hire a freelancer or teammate hourly: Here, you pay for the time spent, not the number of links. It can be flexible, but results depend heavily on the person’s experience, and it may take longer to see some real results.
  
• Get backlinks from marketplaces: Platforms like Insert.Link allows you to browse available domains in your niche, provide your target URL and anchor text, and place your order. The platform handles the rest. This is fast and easy, but it may not always guarantee permanent, relevant links.

Which option is best depends on your goals, budget, and needs. For most businesses, outsourcing to professional link building services is the most reliable and cost-effective choice, and here’s why we recommend it.

Why Outsource Link Building?

Outsourced link building, when done right, can highly benefit your business, and here’s how. 

Access to Real Partnerships

Building strong relationships with website owners and link builders takes a lot of time and effort. Most businesses simply can’t manage and maintain connections or partnerships with hundreds or thousands of people. 

Professional link building agencies already have these relationships in place. At SayNine, we work with 3,000+ partners worldwide, which means your business gets relevant, backlinks faster, more consistently, and with far less effort than doing it in-house.

It Saves Time

Link building is time-consuming. If you decide to do it in-house, you’ll need to deal with tasks like link prospecting, writing and sending outreach emails, following up, negotiating backlink placements, and tracking links, which usually take hours every week. 

When you outsource backlinks, all of this work is handled for you, so your team can focus on other important areas of your business.

It’s More Cost-Effective

Hiring an in-house link builder is expensive, especially if you are just getting started. 

Beyond salaries, you’ll need to invest in tools, software, training, and onboarding. Even in that case, there’s no guarantee they will deliver the quantity or quality of backlinks you need. Outsourcing gives you predictable costs and results without long-term commitments.

At SayNine, the link building cost is relatively low thanks to automated processes. This means less manual work, faster execution, and fewer resources spent on repetitive tasks, which helps us deliver backlinks at a more affordable price without compromising quality.

When Does Outsourcing Link Building Not Make Sense?

Link building outsourcing can save time and get results, but it’s not always the right decision. For some businesses, it works really well, but there are cases where it just doesn’t make much difference.

For example, if you’re after something very specific, such as unlinked brand mentions or listicles for a very specific niche, outsourcing usually isn’t the best choice. These types of links are hard to scale with an outside provider.

In situations like this, we recommend handling link building in-house. Backlink outsourcing works best when you want steady, consistent links without needing highly specialized or one-of-a-kind placements.

Here are the most common questions we often hear during free consultations and a few we believe everyone should ask to choose the best link building company.

How to Outsource Link Building in 3 Steps

Get SEO Basics Done

Before outsourcing link building, make sure your website is in good shape. Backlinks work best when you have a strong SEO foundation.

Start with technical SEO optimization:

• Fix broken links
• Clean up redirect chains
• Resolve canonical issues
• Make sure your sitemap works properly
• Improve page speed

Next, focus on your content:

• Answer real questions your audience is asking
• Solve their problems clearly and simply
• Keep content well-structured and easy to read
• Target the right keywords
• Optimize for both Google and AI search results

Once these basics are covered, link building starts to make sense. After all, SEO works as a system. If one of its components is not optimized properly, it won’t bring real, sustainable results.

Choose Your SEO Strategy

Once your website is ready, the next step is choosing the right SEO strategy. 

This is when you decide not just how many backlinks you want, but what kind of backlinks actually make sense for your business.

For example, if you are a company offering email marketing software, it’s recommended to get backlinks from other SaaS or tech websites. Other brands might focus more on niche guest posts or brand mentions. 

Your strategy should also reflect what you’re trying to achieve. If your goal is to rank specific pages, you’ll need backlinks pointing directly to those URLs. If you’re focused on brand visibility, brand mentions pointing to the homepage may be a better fit.

Research Link Building Agencies 

Once you have got the basics and chosen your strategy, it’s time to do some research to find the best link building agencies. 

• Start with a Google search. Try keywords like “link building services” or “best link building agencies” to start your research. 
  
• The next thing you can do is use LinkedIn search to find link building agencies. Check their profiles, company pages, and the content they share.
  
• Ask for referrals. Word of mouth still works. Ask other founders, marketers, or agency owners who they trusted for their link building. Personal recommendations can save you a lot of trial and error.

Once you narrow down the list of potential agencies, it’s time to dig deeper to understand if they meet your goals, needs, budget, and expectations. Below, we’ve put together a list of questions you should ask before outsourcing to any agency. 

Ask These 12 Questions Before Outsourcing Link Building to An Agency

Here are the most common questions we often hear during free consultations and a few we believe everyone should ask to choose the best link building company.

Question #1: Do They Have Any Real Case Studies?

It’s easy for an agency to say they’re experienced or can improve your rankings, but talk is cheap. What really matters is proof. Ask if they have real case studies that showcase how they’ve helped other businesses grow through link building.

Review the case studies, look at the strategies they used, and what results they delivered. If they don’t have any to show, that’s a red flag. A good agency should be proud and open to share its wins and success stories.

Question #2: Can They Show a Backlink Sample?

Wondering about where your backlinks will actually appear? That’s quite normal. Just ask the link building company to share a real example of a backlink they’ve built for another client.

Again, credible and trustworthy agencies will be open to sharing this information if they are confident in their offerings. 

Question #3: What’s Their Pricing and Do They Offer Discounts?

Pricing information is one of the most important questions you should ask for. Especially when you are a business with a tight budget, every dollar counts, so exploring all the available pricing models, including custom backlink packages, upfront, is a must to avoid any surprises or confusion. 

When looking for a link building company, be careful not to fall into the trap of agencies offering overly cheap backlinks. While $2 backlinks might seem a great deal, they won’t do much for your SEO. These backlinks usually come from irrelevant or spammy websites, which can negatively affect your rankings. 

However, don’t assume that expensive always means better. A high price tag doesn’t guarantee quality.

Good backlinks typically start at $100, which is a reasonable price. But make sure to use payroll software to track these expenses properly and categorize them under marketing or SEO costs. This keeps your budgeting clean and helps assess ROI more accurately. And to make things even easier, we offer affordable pricing that can help you grow your business without breaking the bank. 

Oh, and here’s a little tip: if you’re ready to commit for a year, don’t forget to ask about discounts. (And, yes, we’ve got some great ones.)

Question #4: Do They Have a Test Run or Trial Period?

If you’re unsure whether link building is the right fit for you or don’t want to commit long-term, ask the agency if they have a trial period. This gives you a chance to see how they work and what kind of backlinks they build, without locking into a full contract.

By the way, we offer a test run. Check out our link building pricing for more details.

Question #5: What Strategies Does a Link Building Company Use?

It’s important to learn about the strategies the agency uses to build backlinks. 

You’ll want to hire a link building company that uses white-hat strategies like link exchanges or guest posting. Avoid services that rely on paid backlinks or excessive direct exchanges.

Important: Black-hat strategies not only harm your SEO but may also get you a Google penalty.

Question #6: What Types of Websites Do They Build Backlinks From?

A good link building company offers relevance and quality. But what if the agency you are considering is building backlinks mainly from public blog networks (PBN), directories, forums, or news and magazine websites? 

While these sites have surprisingly high metrics, the quality leaves much to be desired. So, what’s a better alternative?

SaaS backlinks are the answer. They come from legitimate businesses that are actively working to grow their websites. As these sites and their metrics improve, the value of your backlinks increases too.

It’s far better to have 20 SaaS backlinks each month than 100 poor backlinks from irrelevant and untrustworthy sources.

Question #7: What Results Do They Promise?

Businesses seek various goals when investing in link building. Some want to promote specific pages, others want to rank higher on Google, or achieve more brand awareness. 

A link building company that claims to provide the best services will be honest about whether they can help you achieve your goals, because you want to see results for the investments. 

When clients ask us, “How long do backlinks take to work?”, we always say that it usually takes three months to achieve solid results from backlinks. In some cases, you can see improvements in just a few weeks, too. It all depends on different factors like how well your website is running and how compelling your content is.

Be cautious of agencies promising things like “We’ll get you to the top of Google in a week.” Those kinds of claims are a red flag and won’t lead to the results you want. 

Question #8: Does a Link Building Company Have a Reporting System?

A clear reporting system is key when it comes to measuring the effectiveness of the link building efforts. 

It’s a good idea to ask upfront how the agency keeps track of the backlinks, where they’ll share the results, and when they’ll share the monthly reports. 

At SayNine, we have two reporting systems in place. 

A dedicated client sheet: When onboarding new clients, the first thing we do is create a client sheet that clients can access anytime. They can see exactly which domains they have backlinks from, and all the key metrics like Domain Rating (DR) and Traffic.

A monthly report: When the client batch is ready, our customer success manager sends over a detailed backlink report. It includes important updates on:

• Domain Rating (DR) change
• Traffic change
• Target keyword(s) position change
• Total number of backlinks provided
• Number of backlinks built for each anchor 
• Number of backlinks built for each URL

This way, our clients know how the backlink campaign is progressing and stay in the loop.

Question #9: What Metrics Do They Use to Measure Results?

Every agency has its own way of measuring the results, depending on the SEO tools they use. So, make sure to ask what metrics they use to assess the quality of a backlink to understand if their reporting aligns with your SEO goals

For example, we use Ahrefs and focus on link building metrics like Domain Rating (DR), traffic, and keyword position changes. 

Question #10: What Are the Contract Terms and Cancellation Conditions?

Before working with an agency, learn the contract terms and how cancellation works. Ask whether there’s a minimum commitment, how to cease the contract if needed, and if any fees apply. This way, you can avoid unexpected obligations or extra charges.

At SayNine, we offer both monthly and yearly contracts (the yearly ones are more budget-friendly). And if you ever need to cancel, just give us a two-month notice, and there are no cancellation fees.

Question #11: How Long Do Backlinks Stay Live and What If They’re Removed?

When investing in backlinks, it’s important to know how long they’ll stay active. Plus, you should also ask the agency what happens when a backlink gets removed. Are they going to fix it or compensate with a new one? 

At SayNine, we guarantee our backlinks will stay live for at least 12 months, though they last even longer. As we exchange backlinks, it’s rare for them to be removed. Even if it happens, we’ll either fix the link or offer a replacement.

Question #12: Do Clients Approve the Websites Before Links Go Live?

We’ve been hearing this question a lot, and here’s the deal: we don’t work with pre-approvals. 

However, if you are concerned about the quality of a backlink and want to have more control over the process, it’s better to ask the agency if they have that option. 

How to Tell If a Link Building Company Isn’t a Good Fit

Should you blindly trust a link building company just because it showed up on a “Top 10” list or a friend recommended it? Absolutely, not.

Even if the referral comes from a good place, it’s still important to look out for red flags before you commit. Below are a few warning signs to watch out for:

• They promise 1,000+ backlinks every month: We’re not saying it’s impossible to build thousands of backlinks in a month, but doing it consistently without sacrificing quality? That’s unrealistic. If the link building company provides that many links monthly, they’re likely backlinks from forums, news, or magazine websites, which are all types of backlinks you should avoid. 
  
• They offer backlinks at an unusually low price: Of course, everyone wants to pay less and get more, but $2 or $5 backlinks are a red flag. They mostly come from shady sources and won’t help your SEO but hurt your rankings and even lead to Google penalties. 
  
• They communicate using a generic Gmail account: If the link building company uses a basic Gmail account, that’s not a good sign. A legit and trustworthy business will communicate via a proper company email. 
  
• They guarantee quick results and a #1 ranking on Google: Run the other way if someone promises instant rankings or the top first position on Google. Ok, but jokes aside, real SEO doesn’t work like that. Rankings depend on many factors like your website’s health, content quality, brand reputation, and more.

Final Thoughts

There are two ways to approach link building: rush in and hope for the best, or ask the right questions and get what you paid for. We vote for the second one.

Now that you know what to ask, you’re one step closer to finding a team that provides the best backlink services (and doesn’t ghost you after the invoice).

And, if you’ve got questions, we’re just one call away! Schedule a free consultation with us to learn more!

FAQs about how to outsource link building