For any website, link building is one of the most important elements to improve SEO. However, not every business owner has the expertise, experience, or time to implement an effective link building strategy. The process is not only time-consuming but requires resources as well to make it a successful one. As a result, business owners hire link building service providers to boost their rankings in search engine results, and increase visibility. Unfortunately, choosing the wrong link building agency can do more harm than good. From low ranking on SERPs and a low ROI to getting penalised – a lot could happen. Therefore, it’s extremely important to partner with the right link building agency, especially if you’re in the UK, to make the most out of a link building strategy.
But the key question is – how do you understand that the link building agency you choose is a legit one? It becomes even more important when you consider the massive number of link building service providers out there with each one claiming to be the best! In this guide, we’re going to share some insider tips to help you partner with the best link building agency in the UK.
- Presence of a link building strategy
Any leading Link Building Agency UK should understand that it’s a solid link building strategy that builds the foundation of the entire process. The team has to be able to create a strategy by digging into your website and gathering all the information they would need to acquire high-quality links. So, before finalising any particular agency, be sure to learn more about how it will create the strategy. A reputable link building agency should follow a research-driven approach to the process while being able to identify your main competitors to help you get a competitive edge. Another notable consideration is whether or not the agency is ready to align its strategy with your business objectives. If it does, be prepared to answer lots of questions regarding your business model and goals.
- Tools used by the agency
While link building is a difficult process and requires specialised skills, there are some tools that can help to increase the chances of the success of a link building strategy. While some tools are available for free, some require payment. However, many of these tools are difficult to access and may not be within your budget. Before you choose a particular link building agency in the UK, ask the shortlisted ones what kind of tools they will be using to acquire backlinks for you. Also, ask if the price of these tools is included in your package cost or if you’ll be billed separately for them? In case it’s the latter, make sure you know and make arrangements for the additional cost element in your budget. Contact Us
- Use of diverse methods
Link building isn’t just about getting you a backlink via guest blogging. Yet, you’ll find many companies simply focusing on guest blogging and not going the extra mile to diversify their methods. Ideally, you should choose an agency that thinks outside the box and uses different methods to help you get and promote a wide variety of different links.
There are different ways that reputed link building agencies take to diversify their methods. For instance, you may not just want all the links to point to your landing page. Rather, you may want to spread the link juice to some other pages too, which could be your product/service pages, the contact page, the portfolio page, etc. Again, links can be got not just from guest blogs but even from other avenues like local business directories, press releases, NAP citations, etc.
Your chosen link building agency should be able to take advantage of different opportunities and ensure it uses a balanced mix of all these methods, not just one or two. The more diverse methods an agency uses, the more likely it is to opt for manual link building and not automated ones, which means it will be better suited to handle your customised link building requests, if any.
- Results and claims backed by proof
You shouldn’t believe everything a link building agency says. Some may claim to be the best link building agency in the UK and yet fail to show proof of their work or results. However, any good agency shouldn’t have problems backing their results or claims with adequate proof. They could readily share some case studies or examples of having assisted businesses in link building and generating good results for these clients. Even when an agency has worked with clients that want to remain anonymous, or have made the agency sign non-disclosure agreements due to which they can’t name these clients, they should still be able to show at least 3 to 5 proof-backed cases of their link building campaigns’ success.
Irrespective of what type of business you run or what industry you belong to, you should check your short-listed agency’s link building work to understand if they can deliver the results for your business that you desire. When checking the results delivered by an agency, you should also ask questions related to their approach to link building, the steps they propose to take for boosting your website’s traffic, etc. A successful agency won’t shy away from answering these questions or showing you proof of its success. And the ones that do or are reluctant should be best avoided.
- Reputation
Checking the reputation of a link building agency is crucial before making your final choice. You can check the website of such an agency to find client reviews, reading which would give you a good idea of how good or bad the agency is.
You could even visit review websites to read what past clients of the agency have to say about its service, professionalism, communication, etc. People who have paid for a product or service are likely to be either satisfied or dissatisfied with their reviews, thus reflecting their opinion transparently. If you don’t find too many bad reviews or if you across the agency’s satisfactory reply to its dissatisfied clients, it would indicate the service is worth considering.
You may even conduct a cold search to find negative reviews, if any, about the agency that might be located somewhere deep on the internet, which is why they aren’t shown among the first few SERPs (search engine result pages). For instance, if you’re using Google search, put the agency’s name in quotation marks and then add another word like ‘bad,’ ‘negative,’ or ‘scam’ outside the quotation marks to find if someone has something bad about this agency.
- Communication
The link building agency you are ready to choose should be quick to respond to all your doubts, questions, and concerns. They should be eager and happy to answer all questions you have or solve all your issues. In case the agency takes over 24 hours to respond, you should start considering other options. It’s important to remember that you shouldn’t be chasing the agency’s personnel for answers. Rather, they should be willing and responsive to your queries.
If they aren’t or don’t maintain a regular mode of communication during the initial process where you’re comparing multiple link building providers, imagine what they would do if you end up signing them! Not knowing what’s happening or why it’s happening or even having an update of the progress would make you lose control of your link building process and this would be terrible for your business.
