Link building has a reputation problem, and it earned it. Too much of what's sold as link building is paid placement on sites that exist to sell links, which Google's spam policies explicitly target. We do the slower, harder version: creating things worth citing and getting them in front of the people who write about your industry.
Do backlinks still matter for SEO and AI search?
Yes. Google's guide to its ranking systems says PageRank, which analyzes how pages link to one another, is still part of its core ranking systems. Links also drive discovery and referral traffic. For AI search, mentions on trusted third-party sites tend to shape which brands assistants recommend, so earned coverage helps both.
What's changed is which links count. Google has spent years training its systems to ignore or neutralize manipulative links, so a hundred links from irrelevant blogs can be worth nothing, while one link from a respected trade publication in your field can move a page. Relevance and editorial independence matter far more than volume. Google said its December 2022 link spam update used SpamBrain, its AI-based spam-prevention system, to detect both sites buying links and sites used to pass outgoing links.
That shift makes white-hat link building more durable, too. Links earned on merit aren't what Google's next spam update is designed to catch. You can read Google's own description in its guide to ranking systems.
Which link building tactics do we use?
We use six white-hat tactics, chosen per client based on industry, assets and goals: digital PR, original data studies, resource page outreach, broken-link building, partnerships and associations, and local links. Each one gives a site owner or journalist a real reason to link that has nothing to do with payment.
Digital PR
Newsworthy stories, expert commentary and reactive pitches to journalists covering your industry. A Chicago personal-injury firm commenting on new state traffic-safety data earns links a directory never could.
Data studies
Original research built from your own data, public datasets or surveys, published with a clear methodology. Reporters and bloggers cite data they can't find anywhere else, often for years.
Resource page outreach
Universities, associations and industry sites maintain curated resource lists. If you've published a genuinely useful guide or tool, we find the lists where it belongs and make the case.
Broken-link building
We find dead links on relevant sites that point to content that no longer exists, then offer the site owner a working replacement you've published. It solves their problem first.
Partnerships and associations
Suppliers, integration partners, trade associations and co-authors already have reasons to link to you. We make sure those links exist, point to the right pages and describe you accurately.
Local links
Chambers of commerce, local news, community sponsorships, events and city guides. For a dentist in Austin, these matter more than national coverage, and they reinforce local SEO.
Most campaigns center on a linkable asset: something on your site that deserves links. For RapidClaims, a US healthcare-AI claims platform we work with, that meant building an ICD-10 resource hub, the kind of reference content people in medical billing look up every day. A B2B SaaS company in Boston might publish an annual benchmark built from anonymized product data. If you don't have an asset yet, building one is step one.
Local businesses can find more on local link sources in our local SEO guide, and our city pages show how we approach individual US markets.
Which link building tactics do we refuse to use?
We don't buy links, rent placements on private blog networks, sell monthly link packages, swap links at scale or use automated link-building programs. Google's spam policies classify buying or selling links for ranking purposes, excessive link exchanges and automated link creation as link spam, and the risk lands on your domain, not the vendor's.
- Private blog networks (PBNs): networks of sites built or bought mainly to pass links. They're link schemes by design, and when a network is detected, every site it links to is exposed.
- Paid guest posts and link insertions: paying for a post, or for a link added to an existing article, without a sponsored or nofollow attribute.
- Link packages: "50 high-authority links a month" is a product, not a strategy. Fixed volume promises usually mean link farms or PBNs.
- Excessive link exchanges: "link to me and I'll link to you" deals and partner pages built only for cross-linking.
- Low-quality directories and bookmarking sites: links that exist only to be links.
- Keyword-stuffed anchors in widgets, site-wide footers or forum signatures.
Paid placements aren't banned outright. Sponsorships and advertorials are fine as long as the links carry rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow", which Google's link qualification guidance asks for. We use them for visibility and referral traffic, never to pass ranking credit. Our guide on how to choose an SEO agency lists more red flags to watch for.
What makes a backlink worth earning?
A backlink is worth earning when it comes from a relevant site with a real audience, sits in editorial content, and was placed because the author chose to cite you. Third-party authority scores are useful proxies, but they're estimates from SEO tool vendors, not metrics Google uses.
| Signal | Worth earning | Red flag |
|---|---|---|
| Relevance | Covers your industry, customers or location | Unrelated topics, or "write for us" pages in every niche |
| Audience | Real readers and organic traffic | Little or no traffic despite a high authority score |
| Placement | In the body of an article, cited for a reason | Footer, sidebar, author bio or a "sponsored links" page |
| Outbound linking | Links out selectively | Every post links to unrelated commercial sites |
| Anchor text | Your brand name, URL or a natural description | Exact-match commercial keywords, repeated across links |
| How it happened | An editor chose to cite you | Payment, a swap or a guaranteed placement |
We check every prospect against these signals before outreach. You can check your existing profile's anchor mix with our free anchor text analyzer, and pressure-test a pitch or study title with the headline analyzer.
How does our link building process work?
Our process starts with your existing link profile and your competitors', not with outreach. We identify the gap, decide which pages need authority, build or improve the assets that deserve links, run targeted outreach, and report on every link and mention earned. Campaigns are planned in advance and adjusted monthly based on what's working.
- Link gap analysis. We compare your referring domains with those of the competitors who outrank you, and separate links worth matching from ones best ignored.
- Target pages. We pick the pages where more authority will move revenue, often service, category or comparison pages, and plan internal links from linkable assets to them.
- Assets. We build or improve the content worth citing: a data study, a tool, a definitive guide or expert commentary.
- Outreach. Personalized pitches to relevant journalists, editors and site owners. No mass templates and no scraped lists of thousands.
- Reporting. Every link and unlinked mention logged with URL, date, placement and tactic, alongside rankings and traffic for the target pages.
Because links and AI visibility overlap so heavily, we also track where your brand is mentioned without a link. Those mentions can still shape how AI assistants describe and recommend you, which is central to our AEO and GEO work. Our generative engine optimization guide explains why co-citation matters.
How do you report on link building results?
We report every link individually, with the linking URL, the page it points to, its placement, the date and how it was earned. Then we connect links to outcomes: rankings and organic traffic for target pages, referral visits, and brand mentions in AI answers. You should always know exactly what you're paying for.
We don't report on link counts alone, and we don't promise a fixed number per month. Earned links arrive in uneven batches. A data study might earn many links in its first weeks and keep collecting citations for months, while a quiet month might bring two links that matter more than twenty that don't.
For AI visibility, we re-run the buyer prompts that matter to you and note when a newly earned source starts appearing in answers. That's one of the clearest signs that coverage is working beyond Google.
If you want a second opinion on a past vendor's work, or on whether your existing profile carries risk, start with an SEO audit. It includes a backlink review and a clear recommendation on what, if anything, needs cleaning up.