Search Engine Optimisation
Link Building Services
What is link building?
Link building is a tactic deployed through a variety of strategic methods to gain links from external websites and point them to your website. These are called backlinks.
Simply put, when you prompt another site to link to yours, you are link building.
Why is link building important?
Link building is vital to any search engine optimisation (SEO) campaign because Google, Bing and other search engines use it as one of the top ways their algorithms determine page rank. Backlinks are considered a hefty vote of confidence because they tell search engines the content is trustworthy and engaging.
Not all links are created equal and that is why link quality should always be considered above link quantity. A quality link is one that comes from a website that’s relevant to your business and that, ideally, has a decent amount of domain authority (more on that later).
Tactics like buying links, link exchanges and other poor and spammy attempts to game the system violate the search engine’s guidelines and they can get you down-ranked or even banned from the search engines. Needless to say, it’s best to avoid partnering with a link building agency that takes the easy road (it generally goes nowhere).
Link building at Indago Digital
We design and implement innovative strategies for each individual client based on tactic feasibility and the highest ROI deliverables. We categorise our strategies based on what will have the greatest impact on our client’s backlink profile, authority and search visibility, and start there.
Our link building services have been fine-tuned over many years to strictly comply with Google’s guidelines, policies and protocols. When it comes to link building, we adhere to a 100% sustainable white hat approach to achieve valuable referrals and improve page rank.
What is White Hat Link Building?
To explain what white hat link building is, we’ll start by describing its alter ego: black hat link building. The black hat approach to link building is motivated by accruing as many links as possible, usually by indiscriminately buying them in high volume or negotiating an exchange.
As the search engines exist to deliver relevant content, they understandably deter the use of these practices to preserve their search experience. As a result, buying up shady links can get your site penalised (downgraded in rank) or, worse still, delisted all together.
White hat link building, on the other hand, is a more painstaking alternative but it’s one of the most effective ways to improve your domain authority and, consequently, your search engine rank.
What sort of techniques are used in link building?
When you invest in a link building strategy, you are paying for a link building specialist to:
Build relationships
These could be relationships with aligned business, trade press, media, blogs or any other relevant site that could see a benefit in sharing your content with their visitors. These relationships are important not only for their ability to share links on your behalf but, over time, they can build into a network that can lead to collaborations, referrals and other opportunities outside of link building.
Distribute content on your behalf
Content is king, that much is true, but it can only serve you if you find effective ways to distribute it to get it seen, consumed and shared. A link building specialist can help you distribute content such as blogs, infographics, videos and reports to sites that will promote their existence and give you bang for your content creation buck.
Leverage your digital PR
While traditional PR still holds its own as a valuable way to spread your word, digital PR has gained an important place alongside it’s traditional counterpart with the emergence (and in most instances, domination) of online media publications. Your link building specialist can look at relevant media and build relationships with the key online publications to share newsworthy articles and stories. News outlets are usually regarded as having strong domain authority so a digital PR backlink can yield positive ranking results.
Broken link building
Broken link building is the process of updating content that external sites are linking to but that is no longer live on your site. You can either recreate the page or divert it to another.
No one wants to link to dead pages which is why broken link building can be effective. Once the page is updated, the process of broken link building begins. Your link building specialist will contact the referring domain and send them the updated URL. Et voilá! You have a revived link and their content is valid once again.
The process is simple but, as with all things quality link building, it takes time, planning and a methodical approach.
Brand mention link requests
It’s great to be noticed but when it comes to link building, if your brand is mentioned but there’s no link with that love, it’s of little value from a referral point of view.
…and the list of tactics goes on (as you’ll see below in our Periodic Table of Link Building and Acquisition).
(Visit The Periodic Table Of Link Building & Acquisition Tactics to learn more.)
It’s a painstaking 1:1 approach but doubling down on building your domain authority through link building is one of the most effective ways to outmanoeuvre competitors, grow your reach and drive qualified search traffic.
How much does link building cost?
There’s no sugar coating it, link building is an investment both in spend and in length of commitment. It takes time to build momentum and see results (at least 3 – 6 months) but dedication to a quality-first approach to link building will be rewarded.
Sure, you’ll achieve better search rankings but it’s also important not to lose sight of the actual purpose of link building. By having your links strategically placed and mentioned on relevant sites with content that is genuinely appealing to their visitors, you build an invaluable network that consistently refers qualified traffic to your site.
How do you measure the effectiveness of link building?
Your first port of call is to look for an increase in the number of referring domains. Simply put, an upwards trajectory is a positive indication that your investment is making an impact. The reason why we look at referring domains rather than backlinks is that, typically, the greatest benefit comes from the first backlink generated by an external domain and then diminishes from there.
Referral Traffic:
Drill down into your referral traffic reporting and you’ll see which referral domains are driving the most traffic and the pages they’re driving that traffic to. If you set up goals in Google Analytics, you’ll also be able to track how many visitors among the referred traffic are completing a conversion action.
Side note: As we said earlier links are not created equal, so counting the number of links you’re accruing doesn’t really count as a reliable KPI. Focus on metrics like referral domains and referral traffic to help you measure overall campaign performance.
Organic Search Traffic:
While your traffic growth can be attributed to any and all of your SEO activities, measuring your organic search traffic will give you an indication of the headway your SEO strategy is making (of which link building plays a large part).
Domain Authority:
There are a number of SEO tools out there that will measure your domain authority including the Domain Analysis tool by Moz. Taking a snapshot of your domain authority at the outset of your campaign will give you a yardstick to continue measuring by over time. With that said, be prepared for a slow build as domain authority metrics don’t shift quickly.
These sites allow you to measure Page Authority too and it’s worth keeping an eye on both to ensure they’re simultaneously on the rise.
Indago Digital’s Link Building Methodology
We have streamlined our link building processes to be as seamless and user-friendly as possible. Our approach is to use a variety of tactics to understand what works and to build a profile that generates organic visibility. We also employ content writers and link builders to generate quality links rather than rely on external agencies and SEO’ers.
Discovery - We have become a leading link building agency because we immerse ourselves in your business to really understand what you do, who you exist to serve and what your external environment looks like.
From there, we are ideally placed to determine who among your fans and followers, peers, aligned businesses, trade publications, media outlets and industry blogs has sites with the highest authority and we set our sights on them.
Strategy - Our link building strategies are aimed at reaching the people who run the sites determined to be most advantageous in the discovery phase with content and/or link-driven partnership ideas that are highly shareable.
This is backed up by ongoing campaign outreach to secure links and ensure important elements like anchor text are created correctly to maximise effectiveness.
Campaigns - Ongoing outreach activities are used to ensure that a minimum bottom-line of link acquisition is upkept month-on-month. Specialised campaigns are launched intermittently to increase the top line of links acquired over time.
We’ve established tactics and techniques to gain links from a variety of sites that are deemed by Google to have domain authority, e.g. universities and media publications.
In addition, the Indago Digital team has developed proprietary tools to enhance our efforts by targeting the backlink profiles of our client’s competitors.
Cultivation and nurture - We consistently create and maintain relationships via social, email and phone to build trust and, in turn, earn links. These activities are key to establishing high quality links and achieving lasting results
Reporting - We track and report on links, ranking improvements and domain/page authority improvements.
The data we collect is used to inform recommendations to our clients on content they should develop to maximise shareability.
Discover Our
SEO Solutions
Meet Our
SEO Agency Team
As an SEO agency, we hand-pick skill sets to maximise your search engine potential.
In an ever-changing industry, we stay ahead of the latest SEO trends and tools by learning from industry events, internal integrated training and shared-knowledge sessions. Our SEO team consists of developers, data scientists, creatives and content writers.
With over 60 years of combined experience in a broad range of verticals such as travel, finance, retail, hospitality and more, we’ve perfected the craft of profitable SEO.
SEO Testimonials
Successful Stories ![]()
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Head of Digital - Employsure ;When I started at Employsure, Indago Digital were already running our SEO campaign and with strong results. Since then we’ve started to work even more collaboratively, we have embarked on some innovative projects and the results have been even better. They employ good people who are keen to work hard and know their stuff when it comes to SEO.
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Digital Marketing Manager - Noble Oak Life ;We always bought into the fact that SEO was a critical channel for us to be investing into but hadn’t had the success we were hoping for through other agencies. Although we’ve a long way to go the early signs are positive. SEO sessions and conversions are up! We’ve now decided to use their PPC services as well.
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Digital Marketing Manager - The Merivale Group ;Like any relationship, it’s important that you put your best foot forward. The on-boarding process with indago digital has been the most seamless I’ve experienced, and we’ve been impressed with the results they’ve been driving.
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Director, Digital Marketing - Expedia ;We’ve worked with Gary & Indago from day one. They’ve been instrumental in helping bring the Helloworld brand to life online through various performance marketing means. Their team of experts focused on everything digital from paid search, organic (SEO), mobile web/app, analytics, re-targeting. Unlike most other agencies, Indago felt like a direct extension to the core helloworld team & elected to be involved in strategic meetings to achieve the desired results.
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Digital Marketing Manager - Contiki Holidays ;We moved to indago digital as we wanted an agency who would provide us with the support and face to face time we require. We’re a brand that employs customer-centric people and wanted an agency that held those same values. After six months of working with indago, we now have an agency who shares our values and is driving our business forward through proven expertise and hard work.
