Link building is an important step in maintaining a successful online presence for your business. Any website that is creating backlinks around the internet is far more likely to draw in more business than those that are not doing any link building work. But if you don’t know how to do this, or simply don’t have the time, your best bet is to hire a link building service to do the job for you.
With so many options out there, and all of them claiming to be able to achieve similar results, choosing the right link building service for your website can be a trying task. Here we have gathered some information to help you make an informed decision when choosing a link building service, so that you don’t waste a lot of time in the process, and don’t end up disappointed.
1. Choose a company that promotes diverse methods
Some link building companies don’t go the extra mile when it comes to diversifying their methods. You need a service that will think outside the box, helping you to promote a number of different links.
There may be several different pages to your website and you may want more than the basic first page to be linked back to. Also, there are many ways of creating these links, such as press releases, local business directories, guest posting on blogs, citations, etc. You need a company that will take advantage of several different opportunities, not just one or two.
2. Test on your own personal websites first
This is a great way to find out what the results will look like when you use a link building service without risking ‘junk results’ leading to your professional website. If the report from your personal page, Tumbler account, blog, etc. returns junk results then you will know not to bother with using that linking method.
If you aren’t sure how to do this, there are several different tests you can do to see if your link building is working. Try looking under the Traffic section of Google’s Webmaster tools where you can see quite a lot of data related to how your links are working.
3. Learn about the company’s reputation
You can often find client reviews on the websites of these link building companies. Reading these reviews, and even getting in touch with some of the reviewers, can be a great way of learning the truth about the company in question.
People who have paid for a service and are either extremely satisfied or extremely dissatisfied with the results are very likely to express their opinion in an open way like this. You won’t often see haphazard, mediocre reviews, so this is a good way of finding out if this particular link building service is right for you or not.
You can also do a cold search for any negative reviews about the company that might be located elsewhere on the internet. When using Google search, put the name of the company in quotation marks and then add another word, outside the quotation marks, such as ‘negative,’ ‘bad,’ or ‘scam.’ If someone out there has something bad to say about this link building company, a search like this should help you find their review.
If this sounds complicated, you can also go to the company’s profiles in directories and social media platforms. You may be able to find reviews there. Google My Business and Google Maps in particular are great at showcasing reviews for companies.
4. Choose manual link building, not automated
Manual link building is by far the best method for link building. The reason for this is that you can only achieve customized, personal link building from manual work done by individuals rather than automated work done by a computer.
If you aren’t sure which method the link building service you are considering uses, ask them about a custom request you have for a very specific link building idea and see how they respond to this request. If they say that they can’t do this, it probably means they are using the automated method, and you should steer clear of this company.
You can also ask the company what kinds of websites they usually use to create your backlinks. The more diverse answers they give, the more likely they are using manual linking. It shows they are doing the groundwork to find the best places online to promote your link, not just using generic options.
Keeping these tips in mind should help you to select a great link building service that is right for your website. Look for good traits in your link building company prospects. Good luck with your search!
