What are your experiences with outsourcing linkbuilding?
-
For us, any indian/3rd world linkbuilding vendor - do NOT hire them, they will ruin your link profile. If you give them very specific directions & find the right company/guy they can be decent for guerilla (blog/forum/etc) linkbuilding.
What are your experiences?
-
I was hoping to find better responses here, like where to find quality linkbuilders to outsource to LOL
Guess I haven't had enough coffee yet and am still sleeping....
-
There are pros and cons to outsourcing your SEO and link building work.
Pros:
1. Lower costs for your company - Not having to source, hire, train, and pay for an in-house SEO team can save you a lot of money.
2. Lots of choices - If you have a business process that you'd like to outsource, there's probably several companies out there who can do it for you.
3. Experience - Outsourcing link building to a company saves you the time from learning the ropes by yourself. They take the guesswork out of the equation and just give you the solution you need.
Cons:
1. Lack of control - Because these people are usually not in your direct area of influence, outsourcing can be prone to error.
2. Lots of choices - Yes, this is also a con. Because there are too many players on the field, it may be difficult to tell apart the experts from the 'horror stories.'
3. Language barriers - Communication with someone from another country can suffer because of the language barrier. Your instructions may be clear to you, but can be misinterpreted by a non-native English speaker.
What can you do to make sure that you're outsourcing SEO right?
1. Be clear about what you want, when you want it, and how you want it - Sure, it may take a bit more of your time to create a process, but it will be worth the time and headaches you save by reducing the errors your vendors may commit.
2. Do your research - Oftentimes, clients outsource their SEO to someone who promises "Instant Page 1 on Google." If you did your research, you know that this is probably untrue (unless they're Google or Charlie Sheen). Know what they're offering and what you're paying for - it's all about managing expectations.
3. See if they practice what they preach - Do a link:sitename.com query on Google to see if the company you're outsourcing to is doing their own SEO right. If you find that they use blackhat techniques to inflate their own rankings, you might want to stay away from them with a 600-foot pole.
It's true, outsourcing can sometimes be a nightmare. But with a little preparation and research, you can make it go smoother.
Cheers!
-
The only way to do it is to hire your own guy in a different countrie and keep tabs etc like a regular employee
-
"You is not happy with link?"
"O K. No probleming. I give you 10,000,000 Free Directory Submission last night, now you will have top google. U pay now?"
-
I've heard nothing but horror stories....
-
I have not had any luck outsourcing link building. The only way I have heard people are successful are if you give them step by step instructions with a list of sites to build links on.
-
I've found them to be good when you give them a list of URLs, but only when they are fluent with english so they can contact/post whatever you ask. Just gotta keep looking for the right people
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Weekly Linkbuilding Task List
I am trying to create a weekly link building task list for my team. We are 3 people. Does any one have any suggestion? For example: 1 - Write x blog posts. 2 - Comment on x relevant sites. 3 - Outreach x people. 4 - Publish x guest post. 5 - Produce and Distribute x info graphic. Does any one have any suggestions? what else should I add to the list? How many of each?
Link Building | | Felip30 -
Help with blog for linkbuilding location.
I work for a company that has www.widget.com. This is the site we do all our business under. Right now there is no linkbuilding so I would like to create a blog to start linkbuilding. We also own www.widget.info. Can I run the blog under .info and still get the credit on the .com or are they considered completely separate entities that have nothing to do with one another? The reason I would prefer it on the .info is it gives me complete control. By putting it on out .com I have to talk to the developers to install wordpress and mysql, when I would much rather just be able to do it on my own. Any ideas?
Link Building | | EcommerceSite0 -
Are directories still an option for linkbuilding
I know that after the recent slate of Google updates, many free directories got taken down. We've typically used the list of directories placed on SEOmoz (www.seomoz.org/directories). Before adding a site to a directory, we always check to see if it is indexed by Google. Is this still a safe option or should directories be avoided?
Link Building | | TopFloor0 -
Should I outsource any SEO work or can I do it all?
My website needs a lot of improvement and we are working on it but I also don't want to fall behind on the SEO work. I am guessing that I can do much of it myself through SEOmoz.org but is there a part that busy folks should get others to do? Any feedback will be greatly appreciated. Thank you, Utah Tiger
Link Building | | Boodreaux0 -
Outsource Link Building?
Currently we are in the process of creating a new ecommerce website. The site is not live yet, but we have done all of the planning and brainstorming and now are just doing all of the dirty work to get things ready to go live. We are devoting a lot of time on merchandising and developing the site, but currently do not have the resources to put together a good link building campaign in house. Does anyone have any recommendations for outsourcing the link building? The last thing we want is to hire someone that submits to bad neighborhoods and only directories. Is there a good, better, best scenario we should be looking at for pricing, ect? Obviously, like most who are starting a new site, cost is an issue at least until the site gives some sort of sign of life. Also, we are in the Pittsburgh area. We don't need to go local with this, but if there is someone particularly good in the area it would be nice. Thanks in advance.
Link Building | | ClaytonKendall0 -
Outsourced link building?
My company is looking at outsourcing part of our SEO - some supplementary link building to boost some deep links. What does the SEOmoz community think of outsourcing link building? Every company that I've researched seems to employ very low quality techniques, which ends up with a bunch of spammy/sidebar/links page/comment links. Are there companies that specialise in high quality link building? We would definitely be looking for people that would do things like write engaging guest posts, etc, rather than spamming our brand across the internet. Are there any lessons that you've learned that you can share with me?
Link Building | | AlecPR0 -
Linkbuilding help discussion
I've seen a couple of questions about outsourcing linkbuilding. The general tone is that it is a very dangerous practice to select any service or to hire someone without a very thorough vetting of their past projects. This makes sense to me. But my businesses don't have the resources to hire an employee or an established seo firm. I am developing a sound linkbuilding practice from what I learn here at seomoz. The trouble is I just don't have the time to do it to the scale necessary. I can afford to hire an assistant/contractor for $15/hr or less. Would it be a good idea to hire someone from elance or odesk and work very closely with them to make sure they build quality links? Do you think this is better than hiring someone who says they can get me to google #1 for a specific keyword for $100 or so? Does seomoz or anyone else have any recommendations on where to go to find quality help? Thanks
Link Building | | JesseCWalker0 -
Cost affective way to automate linkbuilding?
I have done manual link submissions to directors and other places in the past. As a business owner i find it extremely tedious and find no time for it at all. I have outsourced it since and seen moderate results. There are systems like linkvana etc which promise to give high pr links, are they good? is there any other way to get niche relevant links automatically & cost affectively? Thanks
Link Building | | SamBuck0