Link Building Support for SEO Agencies: Choosing the Right Outsourcing Model

ALT TEXT: SEO agency team reviewing backlink prospects, outreach progress, and campaign reports to plan outsourced link building support. 

When adding a new client to your SEO agency, you don’t want to overstretch your team. 

You can generate links that can be useful in an involved process requiring research, outreach, writing, and careful reporting. 

It’s very important to know what kind of support you actually need from your link building service, how it all involves you, what you want to be, and what standard of work you are expecting from everyone involved. 

There is no such solutions to outsourcing which can adjust into one size framework.

Depending on your situation, you may want to use a freelancer or look at using an agency or marketplace. Having an understanding of what each comparison of outsourcing models offers can help.

Decide What You Are Outsourcing

Identify the different steps you’ll need to take to build links. 

This could include creating a strategy for the target pages, researching and qualifying prospects, researching contacts, outreach, coordinating content, checking placements and reporting. 

Depending on what your team wants to do, you may want to focus on the strategic aspects and communication with clients whilst outsourcing the research or building links itself. You may want to have an agency that manages the whole process.

Create a list of what you expect them to do, how many links you expect them to build per month, how quickly you want things done, and what needs approving. This will help when considering different proposals. 

Often people pay for a wide-ranging service but only need a few hours of specialist support.

Compare the Main Ways to Add Capacity

In-house team

Having someone in-house can provide consistency to your agency. You can create consistent processes, and they’ll have a better understanding of the clients’ requirements over time. 

They’ll also be able to have a good relationship with your account managers. However, you’re paying a fixed cost to recruit, pay, train, and manage them. 

If you want to have consistent link building as part of your core offering, then in-house would be a good option.

Freelancer

If you want someone to have specific skills such as researching prospects, digital PR, or outreach writing, this is often a good option. 

If you have a specific project or need extra help, then a freelancer could be a good option. Before hiring, make sure they have examples of their work in this area. Ask how they qualify websites, what their availability is, and how they’ll communicate with you. Whilst they may work alone, you’ll need someone to approve the strategy and results.

Agency or specialist provider

A specialist provider may have a range of roles covered. This can help if you have multiple campaigns to complete. 

Make sure you know who will be working on your account, how they’ll report, and if they’ll be contacting publishers. 

Ask how they deal with opportunities that aren’t suitable and what they’ll do if a placement gets taken down. Don’t be fooled by a high number of links being promised.

Marketplace

Using a marketplace can make it easier to find and compare freelancers with different skills. If you have a specific task to complete, this could be a good option. 

Make sure you read up on what the service includes. Agree on what they’ll deliver. Different platforms will have different ways of communicating, paying, and dealing with disputes.

Set Quality Standards Before Work Begins

Whether you’re using someone to research or build your campaigns, set some guidelines to ensure you’re protecting your clients. 

Let them know what industries and pages you’re targeting, what kind of sites you want, and anything to avoid. Ask for clear records of outreach and placements. 

Ensure what they’re doing is relevant, has a good editorial fit, and the page is accessible.

Be wary of anyone promising ranking improvements or a fixed number of high-authority links. 

There are a lot of factors that affect how your links perform in search. You shouldn’t be guaranteed any results from a placement. 

Avoid anyone using tactics such as private networks, paid links (that look like editorial), and mass outreach, which could harm your client’s reputation. If they can’t explain their methods clearly, think twice before using them.

Protect Client Data and Accounts

When you’re outsourcing, you want to make sure you’re keeping your client’s data secure. Only give them the information they need. Where possible, use separate accounts. Give them the least amount of access. 

Don’t share passwords with them in regular communications. Agree how they’ll store your prospect lists, campaign documents, and contact details. 

If they need access to an email or analytics tool, use the permissions within the tool and limit their access once the work has been completed.

This doesn’t have to affect how quickly you can get things done. Create a quick onboarding document including confidentiality, approved tools, access, client-specific limitations, and who will be approving. 

Keeping clear boundaries will help you avoid accidentally sharing any information and means you can easily bring the project back in-house or use another provider.

Use the Same Briefing Discipline for Other Freelance Work

When outsourcing visual content for a business, make sure you’re using the right people by looking at their relevant portfolio. 

Tell them where the images will be used, what you expect, and what you expect the images to look like. When building a campaign for food, using a food photography quote checklist for getting a quote for food photography can help. 

Using a marketplace like Osdire allows you to hire freelancers in creative, technical, and marketing areas. The ordering process also allows you to hold payment until approved.

A Simple Way to Choose

1. Identify the gaps: What do you need them to do? How much? What skills?
2. Select the right option: What do you need? How much continuity, flexibility, and oversight?
3. Try something small: Give them a small task with clear deliverables.
4. Look at evidence: How was the process handled? Was there good communication? Was the quality good? Were they reporting?
5. Set clear access and standards: Ensure they have approval, are keeping things confidential, and have the right account access.

Outsourcing works best when you’re looking to add to an existing process. Make sure you have some clear standards for what good work looks like. 

Keep the strategy in-house and only scale once you’ve seen they can deliver to your standards. This means you have flexibility but won’t compromise on quality or client confidence.

Frequently Asked Questions

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