How to Become A Link Building Specialist: 5 Skills You Need

Link building is a crucial part of SEO, and behind every successful strategy is a knowledgeable link building specialist making it happen.

But what does a link builder do? And what skills are needed to become one? 

In this blog post, we’ll learn who exactly a link building specialist is and explore their daily responsibilities. You’ll also discover the essential skills and SEO tools needed to succeed in this role.

Who is a Link Building Specialist?

A link building specialist is someone who helps websites rank better on search engines by building a strong backlink profile. 

These backlinks are external links placed on other websites that point to specific pages on a client’s site. These pages can be a blog post, a service page, or any relevant page.

So, why is the role of a link building specialist important?

• They improve the client’s website authority in its industry or niche.
• They help the site rank higher on Google.
• They bring more relevant traffic to the website.
• They help Google understand and trust the site better.

 Next, we’ll look at what responsibilities link builders actually have!

What are the Link Building Specialist’s Responsibilities?

Responsibilities can vary between agencies. In some companies or freelance setups, link builders may handle a broader range of tasks.

But in our link building agency, we have automated the whole outreach process, so our link builders don’t need to search for websites or do cold outreach. 

Their main job is to manage relationships and make sure the link exchanges are done correctly.

So, our link building specialist responsibilities include:

• Communicate with partners to create and maintain strong relationships.
• Keep several channels for communication, like email, LinkedIn, and Slack.
• Coordinate link insertions with the content team to ensure timely exchanges
• Sends link exchange requests with ready text edits 
• Follows up with partners regularly to avoid delays or missed opportunities
• Check that links are live after they’ve been placed
• Tracks all exchanges in a shared spreadsheet

In some cases, link builders may also do manual outreach, especially when looking to build new relationships, but it’s rare for us.

On top of that, link building specialists also create frequent reports and conduct performance checks to track the progress of their work. These reports help demonstrate the impact of their link building efforts and key results.

Now that we have a clear picture of the responsibilities, let’s get into the most important link building specialist skills needed to succeed!

5 Must-Have Skills Every Link Building Specialist Needs

If you’re looking to become a link builder or want to know how to find professional link building specialists, take these skills into account. 

Let’s find out below! Make sure to add these skills while preparing your resume for link building roles.

Good Communication Skills

As all of our link builder experts stated, having excellent communication skills is essential in this job. 

Here are some important points to keep in mind:

• Be fair: A link exchange should always be balanced. Offering 1 link in exchange for 5 is unfair and unlikely to work. Our team even insists that sometimes, being more generous than your partner can help build stronger trust and long-term collaboration. 
• Provide extra value: If possible, offer to help your partner with tasks that might be hard for them. You can suggest doing their link insertions, especially if you have a separate team of content writers.

• Don’t be pushy: Remember, there’s a human behind the screen. So, treat your partners with respect. Avoid pressuring them, as this may hurt future collaboration. For example, even if a partner agrees to your link request now, after you really insist on it, it may be only because they need an exchange link at the moment. But later, they might hesitate to contact you, knowing you’re harder to work with.
• Respect their time: A simple, polite message can show consideration. For example, if you add a new link request to your shared document, say something like, “Hey, I’ve added a new request. Please review it when you have time.” This shows that you value their time and workload.

Note: Having a good level of English is very important. Without it, you’ll face lots of miscommunication and difficulties.

Ability to Differentiate Bad and Good Domains

Another essential skill for a link building specialist is knowing how to tell apart a good website from a bad one. 

At our SaaS link building agency, we only place links on real SaaS websites. This is also common among many professional link builders. SaaS websites are usually more trusted and bring better results when it comes to improving search rankings.

Be careful with content-only websites. These are usually low-quality sites created just to sell backlinks. It’s easy to spot them by their random mix of topics, from skincare to football. They don’t have a real audience or purpose, and getting links from them can actually hurt your client’s site instead of helping it.

To identify a good domain for placing links, we look at several criteria:

• Domain Rating (DR): The site should have a DR of at least 50 for our clients.
• Organic Traffic: A good site should have a minimum of 1,000 monthly visitors

• Topic Relevance: The site’s content and focus must align with the client’s niche and target keywords.
• User Experience: Beyond just numbers, the site should be easy to navigate and natural to use.
• Site Structure: It must have a logical structure. Legitimate SaaS websites have a proper pricing page, a home page, and an active blog, which all indicate a trustworthy site.

By examining these factors, link building specialists ensure that they are placing links in good domains that will bring traffic to the client’s site.

Time Management Skills

Time management is one of the most important skills to have in every aspect of life, as well as in link building management. Time is an extremely valuable resource in link-building, and managing time effectively is crucial.

As a link builder, you have several types of responsibilities and deliverables each day. You also have a lot of waiting involved in your daily activities. Thus, depending on the priority of those tasks, you have to learn how to allocate your time to each of them.

To master effective time-management as link-building experts, try incorporating the following actionable tips.

Keep a physical journal or use daily journal templates for your tasks. Write down your tasks and daily priorities in it, and keep them in sight to avoid procrastination. Sometimes, it can be hard to memorize all the small details related to your tasks due to their complexity. This approach can be used in link building team management also to ensure everyone is on the same page.

Split the day into a few parts and dedicate each part to a certain type of task. Consider when it is during the day that you’re more productive and work on the most prioritized tasks at those productive hours. Moreover, you can use a work tracking app to monitor how much time you spend on various link-building tasks, including outreach, content creation, and research, to better understand your workflow and optimize your schedule.

Link-building involves communication via multiple channels. Therefore, always set time limits for each channel so that you don’t spend too much time on one channel. As a link builder, you should know – your inboxes tend to always be full which can result in focusing on one channel and neglecting other channels. Depending on your priority, devote time to each channel. 

Patience and Persistence

Professional link building requires patience and persistence in a lot of areas. It’s a necessary skill for those specialists who face the reality of not seeing immediate results. You simply can’t be impatient or anxious in this job. Partners may not respond to your messages, making you wait for hours and even days.

They may ignore and later reconnect, and they may also stop the partnership for an uncertain period of time, then come back to the partnership again. Another time, you may put a lot of effort into your message to a potential client and be rejected immediately due to certain reasons, such as a new competitor in the market.

But you shouldn’t get impatient or panic in these situations. There are a lot of unpredictable scenarios in link building and a lot of things outside of a link building expert’s control. That’s simply because there are several people involved in most of the processes.

Some things may take longer than expected in time. That’s exactly why approaching these situations with patience is a must in link building management so that everything goes well and great links can be built.

Flexibility and Fast Decision-Making

Flexibility is another important soft skill for a link building specialist. 

This is because, in link building, situations can change quickly and unexpectedly. That’s why it’s essential to adapt and find solutions fast.

For example, if you have a rejected backlink request because the anchor text is too specific or not closely related to the partner’s blog, don’t just give up. 

Instead, review your client’s other anchor texts and find one that fits better. Then, send a new request quickly while your partner is still online and ready to respond.

This ability to think on your feet and change your approach helps keep the link building process moving smoothly and increases the chances of success.

Next!

Proper SEO Knowledge

Last but not least, to succeed in link building, having strong SEO knowledge is just as important as good communication.

To do the job well, it helps to know:

• What SEO is, how it works, and what role backlinks play in it.
• Difference between do follow and no follow links
• Link building metrics that actually matter

In addition to this, technical SEO skills are also essential. 

For example, before placing a client’s link on a blog, you must check whether that blog post is indexed by Google. If it isn’t, the page won’t show up in search results, meaning the link will bring no SEO value to your client.

One quick way to check this is by typing into Google: site: domain + blog post title

If the page doesn’t appear in the results, it’s not indexed.

Knowing these basics is important to avoid useless backlinks and deliver real value to your clients.

Now let’s move on to exploring some of the best tools used by link building specialists!

Bringing It All Together

As you can see, link building is more than just exchanging links. 

It’s about finding the right websites, building real connections, understanding SEO value, and managing every step with care. 

Building strong backlinks with a team that does this daily can be way more effective and easier. So, if you need support, feel free to contact our experts.

FAQ about a link building specialist