Are You Even Ready for Link Building Services?

Are you even ready for link building services? Even if you’re willing to invest heavily in the best link building services available, it’s important to have a strategy in place.

You’ve established your business and invested in a website. You built your website to showcase your product or service, and you’re hoping your online presence attracts more customers. The problem is, you’re just not showing up in Google results as much as you’d like. You want to climb to the top of the search engines so more people will visit the website you’ve invested so much time and money into.

So you did some research and read about link building, which is a surefire way to get to the top of Google. The problem is, though, that even the best link building services will only work if you’re ready. And if you’re not ready, then link building can be a waste of time and money. 

If you’re seeking out link building services, you already know they can help move your site up in the search engine results pages (SERPs). High quality, relevant links from other websites to your website let Google know that your site is a good, trustworthy source of information, products, and services. Think of every good link as a little vote of confidence.

But if you’re not ready for link building, link building won’t work for you.

Your website needs to be ready for primetime, as they say in show business. No one wants to link to an ugly, unusable website. And, if you do manage to score a decent link and a user clicks through to find a terrible website with no good content or information, they’ll leave instantly– which can actually signal to Google that your website isn’t worth the proverbial “hill of beans.”

Also, if your expectations aren’t in line with what link building can actually offer you and do for you, you’ll think you’ve wasted your money. Then, you might seek out another link building service only to be disappointed again. You need to know what you’re getting into. 

Finally, you need to know how to vet a potential link building company. Some agencies are better than others, so you need to know how to find the service that best fits your needs. You need to equip yourself with good information so you don’t waste time or money. 

If you’re not ready for link building, you won’t see any benefits even if you’re paying for it.

So, are you ready for link building services? You need to get your website ready, get your expectations ready, and know what to look for in a link building agency.

Let’s start with your website. 

Is Your Website Ready for Link Building Services?

Even the world’s best link building companies have a hard time getting anyone to link to a shoddy website. If your website isn’t attractive, up-to-date, secure, and usable, you won’t be getting any links. Chances are, you already hired a developer and designer for your website (or used a professional template), so that part is likely taken care of already. If not, bookmark this article and come back when your website looks good and functions properly.

Beyond appearance and usability, you need to put some basic SEO work into your site, as well. If your website doesn’t have solid on-site SEO, doesn’t have worthwhile (and SEO-friendly) content, and doesn’t meet the technical SEO baselines, link building won’t do you much good.

SEO basics help Google recognize, categorize, understand, and rank your website. If you don’t have these bases covered, your incoming links won’t be nearly as powerful or beneficial. They’ll still help, sure, but they won’t give you the search engine visibility you need. 

First, we’ll take a look at on-site SEO since it’s pretty simple and straightforward. 

On-Site SEO

I’ll begin this section with a small disclaimer– there’s a bit more to on-site SEO than I’m mentioning here, but these are the essentials. You can dive as deeply into on-site SEO as you want, and many brilliant people make a living doing just that. I’m not trying to replace those experts. I’m just trying to give you a leg up and get your website ready for link building services. 

Here are the basics, along with some helpful links. 

IMAGES: Every image on your website needs to have an appropriate file name, an appropriate title, and descriptive alt text. 

Your image file names should ideally contain the name of your website/business and what’s being pictured in the image itself. So, for example, if your business was called Joe’s Cactus Emporium and you were featuring a photo of a saguaro cactus, you might name your file ‘joes-cactus-emporium-saguaro-1.jpg.’ It’s an easy naming convention to follow, and it helps Google understand your images and helps you keep your files organized. 

Next, we move on to image titles. The image title can absolutely contain the corresponding web page’s main keyword, but it should also be accurate and useful. If you’re Joe and you’re building a page about saguaro cacti, you could title your image something like ‘Saguaro Cactus in Mesa, AZ’ or just ‘Saguaro Cactus.’ Most content management systems (WordPress, SquareSpace, etc) have built-in tools to help you title each of your images. If you’re using something else, you can manually title an image with HTML. 

Next, you want to set the alternate text (“alt text”) for each non-decorative image on your website. Alt text helps people who use screen readers understand what each image on your website represents, and it can also help Google understand your images, as well. It’s a good usability practice to implement alt text as often as you can, even if it won’t help move the search ranking needle all by itself. So, Joe might set his image alt text to ‘A potted saguaro cactus on a concrete patio.’ Like image titles, most CMS will make it easy to set an image’s alt text. If not, you can also set it manually with HTMl. 

PAGE TITLES: Make sure you give each page on your website a name (you have to by default) and an SEO title, also known as a title tag. Your page’s SEO title can be the same as the page name, but it doesn’t have to be. Your page’s SEO title should always include the page’s main topic (keyword) and the name of your website/business, and should fall within the 50-70 character range limit. For example, Joe might use ‘Saguaro Cactus for Sale in Mesa, AZ | Joe’s Cactus Emporium.’ It’s 59 characters and describes a page perfectly. This is the title that will show when Joe’s page appears in Google’s search engine results. Again, your CMS should help you set an SEO title for any page on your website. You can also use HTML, but it’s a bit trickier. 

META DESCRIPTION: Each page on your website should also include a meta description. A meta description tells search engines what your page is about, but it is also part of the listing that appears on a search engine when a user finds your page. A meta description should be between 50 and 160 characters. An example: ‘We’ve been selling and cultivating the saguaro cactus in Mesa, AZ for over 50 years. Here you’ll find saguaros for sale, tips on saguaro care, and more.’ Your CMS should be able to help you set a meta description for each page. If not, you can use HTML.

Content

Written content is the backbone of your website. It helps your users, customers, and potential customers understand who you are and what you’re selling. It needs to be readable, formatted nicely, and easy to read for both people and search engines. It also needs to be relatively free from fluff and pumped-up word counts.

Before we tackle the bulk of your content, let’s talk about headings. Google uses headings to understand what each page on your website is actually about, and users use headlines to help guide the reading process. Headings should contain a page’s keywords (main topic) whenever it’s appropriate. You should also use H2s for more important headings, H3s for less important headings, and so on and so forth. Here’s a quick and handy guide.

Next, let’s talk about written content itself. Your content should include your page’s keywords, but it shouldn’t be so overstuffed with keywords that it looks like a machine or an alien wrote it. Sometimes less is more. Your content should be well-written and mostly free of errors (no one is perfect) and flow easily from one idea to the next. Break your content into small paragraphs to help make it easier to read. And, above all, make sure your content is actually useful and descriptive.

Putting a bunch of extra fluff and needless words onto a page because you read somewhere that pages with higher word counts rank better does not help anyone. It’s a turn-off for your users and potential customers, and it makes your website look messy. Instead of asking “how can I add more words so Google likes my page more?” ask yourself “how can I make this webpage more informative and useful?”

Linkable Assets

Speaking of “useful content,” you need to make sure you have at least a few linkable assets on your website. A linkable asset is just what it sounds like– a piece of content that’s so good, informative, well-produced, and useful that another website will absolutely want to link to it. If you’re Joe’s Cactus Emporium, you might write an ultimate guide on how to care for a saguaro cactus, where to place them in and around your home, how to safely handle them, and include as many details and factual references as possible.

A linkable asset allows you to show your expertise and prove why you’re better than your competitors. They’re great for search engines, too. If you want to learn more, I’ve written a complete guide to linkable assets.

Technical SEO

As the name implies, technical SEO can be a bit complex. Many smart people make their living by helping others with the intricacies of technical SEO. My goal here isn’t to give you an in-depth guide on technical SEO for your website, but to show you what to look for and help you test your website to see how it performs. 

Once you’re done reading this section and you’ve tested your website, you can determine if you’re good to go, if you can fix the issues yourself, or if you need to hire someone to get your website into ship-shape. 

Before you look into the next section, make sure you have both Google Analytics and Google Search Console running for your website. 

Technical SEO Factors:

• Mobile Friendliness: Your website needs to look good and function on desktop monitors, laptops, tablets, and smartphones of all sizes. If your pages won’t load, if they don’t scroll properly, or your content flows outside of the screen, you have a big problem to contend with. There are more factors at play here, too. Thankfully, you can test your site’s mobile friendliness with Google’s free tool and take the steps it suggests. 
• Sitemaps: If you use a common platform like WordPress or SquareSpace for your website, you already have a nice Sitemap. If not, you need to make one yourself. A sitemap tells search engines which pages exist on your website, and can be rendered in either XML or HTML. Enter ‘yourdomain.com/sitemap.html’ or ‘yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml’ in your URL bar to check and see if you have one. If not, you can use this guide. 
• Robots.txt: By default, your website’s robots.txt file, which tells a search engine if it’s okay to crawl your website or not, should be just fine. If you’re worried about it, you can enter the content of your robots.txt into this tool and check. Even if you’re sure it’s fine, I recommend running it through at least once. It’s almost always okay, but if it’s not then it’s a big problem. 
• SSL Certificates: Google strongly prefers websites with SSL certificates. A site with an SSL certificate is secure for users and displays as ‘https:’ instead of ‘http:,’ which is an easy thing to check for. If you’re selling any sort of product or service from your website, SSL is a must– both in Google’s eyes and your customer’s eyes. Several online vendors sell and install SSL certificates if you do not already have one. 
• Image Optimization: It’s not uncommon for people to use very large images for their website– these images are high resolution, but they’re way larger than they need to be. Unnecessarily large images can slow a website’s speed down to a crawl. If you have large images (over 2mb apiece), consider using a service like TinyPNG to compress and replace those images.
• Site Speed: Image size is just one factor when it comes to site speed. Google places great value on websites that load quickly for users, especially those on mobile devices. Large images, videos, unwieldy code, embedded ads, and many other factors can affect your site speed. You can check each page on your website with this tool and follow the suggestions it gives you. 
• Crawl Errors: Sometimes a search engine just can’t make sense of a webpage due to a code error or other problem, and then that page isn’t ranked or indexed properly. You can check for crawl errors in Google Search Console and fix them with this guide from Google. 

There are many other technical SEO factors to consider, but these are the basics. Once you’ve passed all of these tests and don’t see any other glaring errors with your site, including slow or broken pages, your website is likely ready for link building services. 

But are you ready? 

Link Building Services Vs. Your Expectations

If your expectations aren’t properly set, or if you think link building is some kind of magic, you may be disappointed with the results you get. When your website is ready, link building services are the most effective way to get the search engine rankings you want. But if you expect the impossible, or just don’t have your expectations in a certain sweet spot, you won’t be happy with the results.

Link building companies offer all sorts of different options, engage in different tactics, and package their services in different ways. But there are basically three universal truths about link building:

1. Link building is hard work, so it takes time
2. Once your links are built, it will take some time before you see results
3. With link building, you get what you pay for

In some ways, it comes down to that old adage: cheap, fast, and good– pick two. 

Regardless, a good link building service always takes time to get links, takes time to see results, and isn’t bargain basement cheap. 

So, let’s start with your expectations. What do you want from link building? Do you just want to see your website on the first page of Google? Do you want more web traffic? Do you want more sales? Usually, these things are connected. But if you’re laser-focused on traffic, you may not notice when your sales and search rankings go up. If you’re preoccupied with just your rankings, you may not notice when your traffic increases. You get where I’m going with this. 

You need to know exactly why you want to hire a link builder. 

Also, what does your timetable look like? When are you expecting results? If you have a big holiday sale coming up in December, you may not see the results you want if you start your link building efforts in September. 

Link building is just as much of a time investment as it is a money investment. Google works in its own way, and no one on Earth can force it to move you up in the search engine results. If someone promises you they can force Google to act, you should back away slowly and then run away quickly. 

If you work on a marketing team or are answering to a boss, what are their expectations? If they’re putting you under a crunch to deliver results with the link building service you’ve hired, they have to understand that no one can speed up the results once the links are built. 

Link building results can take anywhere from six weeks to six months– it all depends on your website, your industry, and your competition. If you adjust your expectations accordingly, you’ll be pleased with the results. 

What kind of money are you willing to invest in link building? Have you set aside a portion of your marketing budget? Do you have a set amount you want to spend in order to see results?

As with most things in the professional world, you get what you pay for with link building. Some people do offer cheap, fast links– but those links won’t be good. On the other hand, there are some companies who work a bit slower but provide good results at a reasonable price. And, if you want good links that come in fast, you’re going to pay a premium. 

It’s up to you to decide what your budget is. Many link building services will happily work with you on budget, but it’s something you need to think about ahead of time. 

What kind of reporting do you require? How do you want to see your results quantified?

Most good link building agencies offer robust reporting, but you need to let them know if you require that they focus on a certain metric. You can focus on traffic, sales, or just improvements in your search engine rankings. There are lots of other factors you can look at, as well. 

So now we’re coming full circle– what’s important to you, and how do you want your results measured? Which numbers are meaningful to you? If you and your link building company are on the same page in this area, you’ll have a fruitful relationship. 

You’d be surprised how often people purchase link building services without knowing what they want or even what link building can realistically offer them. It’s not a rare occurrence. Then, those people feel “burned” by link building, never try it again, and have a harder time competing in their industry. 

I can’t tell you what your expectations should be, only that you need to set them before you even contact a link building company. 

So, what happens when you do finally contact someone about link building services?

Are You Ready to Select the best Link Building Service?

Now your website is ready and you’ve set your expectations, so you’re ready to select the best link building service you can find and watch your website move up in the search engine rankings. Some people think selecting an agency is the hardest part of the process, but it doesn’t have to be. As long as you know what to keep in mind and how to vet a link builder, you’ll do just fine. 

There are several things to consider when you’re selecting an agency. All of them may not apply to your exact situation, but I encourage you to think about each of these items anyway. After all, there’s never any harm in doing a little thought exercise. 

REPUTATION: First and foremost, you’ll want to look into an agency’s reputation. If you’re courting multiple link builders, look into each of them, even if the price is right. You’d be surprised with what you can uncover just by looking at a company’s website and doing a couple of quick web searches. 

Poke around the web and see if you can find any customer reviews. Just search for ‘company name review’ on Google and you’ll likely find something. Next, check out the company’s website to see if they have any customer testimonials for you to read. It’s up to you to decide how realistic those testimonials are– if all of them are overly flowery and give unrealistic praise, it may be a sign that those testimonials aren’t real. As a real human being, you know how real human beings talk, so keep that in mind when you’re reading reviews and testimonials. 

Next, check to see how long the agency has been around. They should list those details on their ‘about us’ page but, if not, you can ask them directly via email or social media. Longevity isn’t the only thing that defines a good company, but experience is never a bad thing.

Finally, check them out on social media. What kinds of things do they post? How do they respond to comments and other replies? Do they have a positive attitude, and are they willing to freely share information and give out tips? In my experience, a company with a positive and generous presence on social media is almost always better to work with. 

RED FLAGS: Link building is an ever-changing field and every agency does things differently. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to link building. In some ways it’s both an art and a science, so you’ll see many different tactics and methods. There are, however, a few different red flags to watch out for. Keep these in mind and you can cut through the BS. 

Does the company offer passive link building? If so, look elsewhere. I’ve written about it before, but experience tells me that passive link building is an absurd myth. Passive link building refers to the school of thought that believes links will just come in, out of the blue, as long as your content and website are good enough. It’s basically sitting back, doing nothing, and expecting miracles to happen. If you want good links, you have to actively work for them. There’s nothing passive about link building.

If a service has no ‘about us’ page, no social media presence, and no way to verify that there are real human beings behind the company, steer clear. There are many small, strange link building operations that hide who they are because they get bad results or, worse, are total scam artists. 

If an agency isn’t clear about exactly what they do and how they build links, it’s best to avoid them. They may not be willing to reveal their exact “secret sauce” or tell you every detail of their operation, but they should be able to describe how they build links, at least in broad strokes.

If you’re working with an agency that builds links but takes every pain in the world to avoid calling what they do “link building,” you should look elsewhere. You want a link builder that’s enthusiastic about link building and the results it provides. If an agency is embarrassed about link building, then they’re probably not great link builders. 

If a link building agency pretends they have a silver bullet, proclaims they know secrets that no one else knows, or claims they have a sure-fire method to rocket you to the #1 Google result, don’t trust them. Strategies and tactics differ from company to company, but link building has been around for a long time. If someone claims they have a cure-all, they surely do not. 

Similarly, if an agency claims they work directly with Google or have any sway with Google at all, they’re lying. No link building agency on Earth has any control over Google or its search algorithms. None of us can sway Google even a little bit. 

And, lastly, if a link building service claims they are and will be the only one responsible for your success, look elsewhere. A good link builder knows that their efforts are just one part of a marketing machine that also includes on-page SEO, advertising, content, social media, and customer relationships. No one agency will ever be responsible for all of your success. 

PROOF: Once you’ve vetted a link building service’s reputation, you need to look into what kind of results they can provide. 

Does the agency have case studies or white papers that show their successes available? Most worthwhile link builders put together case studies to show their results. Case studies vary but, in general, they should show you how the company moved the needle, what their methods were, and what changed for their customers.  

CONTRACTS: Every link building service is different when it comes to contracts, and there’s no “right” or “wrong” way for them to go about it. You just have to decide what works for you.

Do you want to get into a six month contract? Would you feel locked in if you had to sign a contract? Would you prefer to pay monthly without a contract? Do you want to pay per labor hour or per link built? 

I find that paying for link building by the hour is never a great idea. 

Whatever the case may be, always discuss your options and see what works best for you before you’re blindsided by an unexpected contract. 

TRANSPARENCY AND COMMUNICATION: The final step in vetting your link building service is making sure you’re on the same page about transparency and communication. If you expect more communication than they’re willing to provide, or if they’re sending you so many emails that you get annoyed, it won’t make for a good relationship.

First, you’ll want to establish a reporting schedule. Most companies likely send a report at the beginning of each month, but it’s okay to want more reporting or less reporting. Make sure they’re willing to give you what you need and keep you updated.

Next, establish reporting expectations. What do you expect to see in each report? Which numbers matter to you? What do you value about their work? What are you investing in? This can include the number of links they built, the number of outreach emails they sent, traffic increases, search ranking increases, or anything else you’re interested in. If they can’t track something that’s important to you, they may not be a good fit. 

You’ll also want to learn who your contacts are at the company. Do you only speak to a project manager? Do you speak to the individual link builders? Do you talk to the owners of the company? Again, there are no correct answers here, just make sure you know how the person you’re talking to is involved with your link building project. 

I always find it’s also good to find out if there are alternate contacts. If your project manager is on vacation or just stops responding, who else can you talk to? This may never come into play at all, but it’s best to have an “emergency contact,” so to speak.  

Finally, agree on the amount of time your agency can spend answering questions, addressing concerns, and generally talking to you throughout the week.How long should you expect to wait for a reply after you send an email?  No one has an infinite amount of time, so you don’t want to stress your link building service out by demanding too much of theirs. But, at the same time, your reasonable questions and concerns need to be addressed. Some companies are willing to have a weekly meeting with their customers, and some do things in a less formal manner. This isn’t a case where there’s a “right answer,” just make sure you’re on the right page. 

Conclusion

That’s it. As long as your link building service’s price makes sense to you and you’ve thought about all of these factors, you should be good to go when it comes to choosing an agency to work with. 

I hope you found this article useful. There’s a lot here, but I don’t want you to pay for the best link building services if it isn’t going to help you. In order to reap the benefits of link building, your website needs to be ready, your expectations need to be ready, and you need to be ready to find the right company to work with. 

How did I do? Did I leave anything out? If you have any questions about your website, expectations, or hiring a link building company, please feel free to contact me or ask me in the comments.