The problem: good pages that cannot compete on authority
Some pages do everything right and still sit in position six. The content matches intent, the technical setup is clean, the page is fast. What separates it from the pages above it is authority: the number and quality of other sites that reference it and its domain. Link building is the work of closing that gap. In competitive commercial categories such as insurance, software, finance and legal services it is often the deciding factor between page one and page two.
It is also the part of SEO with the worst reputation, because the shortcuts are so tempting. Paid placements, link exchanges, private blog networks and mass directory submissions produce fast numbers and a slow, expensive unwinding when Google catches up. We have cleaned up enough of those profiles to know that the only link building worth paying for is the kind you would be happy to explain to a Google search quality reviewer.
What link building is, and what it is not
Link building is the process of earning hyperlinks from other websites to yours in ways that make editorial sense: a journalist citing your research, an industry publication referencing your guide, a partner listing you as a supplier, a resource page including your tool. Search engines treat those references as signals of trust and relevance, weighted by how authoritative and topically related the linking site is. A single link from a respected trade publication in your sector can outweigh hundreds from unrelated low-traffic blogs.
What it is not: buying placements labelled “sponsored” and hoping they pass value, running networks of sites you control, swapping links in bulk, or submitting to every directory that will accept you. Those tactics are either explicitly against Google’s spam policies or worthless, and in several cases both.
Who this is for
Link building makes sense once the fundamentals are in place. If your site has unresolved technical problems or pages that do not match intent, links will not fix that and we would rather sequence the work properly. It is most valuable for businesses in competitive categories where competitors have clear authority advantages: SaaS and technology companies competing on comparison and category terms, finance and healthcare businesses where trust signals matter, and e-commerce brands trying to rank category pages against marketplaces.
What Axoria does
Backlink audit and gap analysis
Your profile compared with the competitors outranking you: which sites link to them and not you, which of your links are toxic or lost, and where the realistic opportunities are.
Linkable asset development
Original research, industry surveys, data studies, calculators, definitive guides and visual explainers designed to be the thing journalists and writers want to cite.
Digital PR
Story angles built from your data or expertise, pitched to journalists and editors at relevant national, trade and regional publications, with follow-up handled by people rather than sequences.
Editorial outreach
Personalised outreach to relevant sites for resource inclusion, expert contributions, broken-link replacement and unlinked brand mentions.
Partner and ecosystem links
Integrations, suppliers, customers, associations and event organisers who have a genuine reason to reference you and often already do without linking.
Profile hygiene
Monitoring for lost and toxic links, reclamation of links to redirected or dead pages, and disavow files prepared only where there is clear evidence of harm.
What we will not do
The line we do not cross
No private blog networks. No paid links intended to pass ranking value, including “guest posts” on sites that exist only to sell placements. No link exchanges or three-way swaps. No automated outreach at scale. No links from sites with no real audience, regardless of their domain metrics. If a client asks for volume that can only be achieved by crossing that line, we will decline the work and explain why.
We are also transparent about the grey area. Sponsored content with a rel=”sponsored” attribute can be a legitimate brand or referral investment, and we will help you evaluate it, but we will not present it as link building or count it toward SEO targets.
How we judge link quality
Domain Rating and Domain Authority are third-party estimates and are easy to inflate, so they are a filter, not a criterion. For each prospect we check whether the site has real organic traffic in Ahrefs or Semrush, whether it is topically related to your business or the page we want to link, whether its outbound links look editorial or transactional, whether the page that would link us has any visibility of its own, and whether a real person would plausibly follow the link. A site that passes all five is worth pursuing. A site that only passes on metrics is not.
| Criterion | What we check | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Relevance | Topical fit between the linking site, page and your target page | Relevant links pass more value and look natural to reviewers |
| Real traffic | Estimated organic visits and ranking keywords, not just metrics | Sites with no audience are often part of link-selling networks |
| Editorial standards | Outbound link patterns, content quality, presence of “write for us” pages | Sites that sell links devalue every link they give |
| Placement | In-content, contextual, on an indexed page, follow attribute where editorially given | Footer, sidebar and author-bio links carry far less weight |
| Target page fit | Which of your pages the link should point to | Links to commercial pages are harder to earn but worth more for revenue terms |
How campaigns are designed
Links are earned on behalf of specific pages, so campaigns start with the target list: which commercial or pillar pages need authority to compete, and what the authority gap is against the pages currently ranking. For a B2B software company trying to rank a “payroll software” category page against established incumbents, the plan might combine a data study on payroll errors pitched to HR and finance press (earning links to the study, which links internally to the category page), expert commentary placements in trade publications, and reclamation of the company’s existing unlinked mentions. For a consumer brand, digital PR campaigns built around survey data or seasonal angles usually outperform outreach.
We set a monthly cadence of ideas, production and pitching, and we are honest that outcomes vary. Some campaigns land dozens of national links; some land a handful. The measure is the movement in authority and rankings on the target pages over a quarter, not the link count in any single month.
Our link building process
Audit and target selection
Backlink profile review, competitor gap analysis and agreement on the pages that need authority and the sites most likely to provide it.
Asset and angle planning
Research, data or content assets planned to give journalists and editors a reason to link, aligned with your brand and subject expertise.
Production
Assets built and published on your site with internal links to the target pages; press materials, pitches and prospect lists prepared.
Outreach and PR
Personalised pitching and follow-up by our team, with a shared log of every contact, response and placement.
Reporting and refinement
Monthly report of links earned with URL, placement and quality assessment, plus authority and ranking movement on target pages. Angles that work get repeated.
Tools we typically work with
Ahrefs and Semrush for backlink data, competitor analysis, traffic estimates and link monitoring; Google Search Console for the links Google itself reports; media databases and journalist request services for digital PR; and a shared outreach log in a spreadsheet or CRM so you can see every conversation. We do not use automated mass-mailing tools, because personalised pitches to a short list consistently outperform templated messages to a long one.
How link building results are measured
Every link is reported with its URL, the page it points to, whether it is followed, the linking site’s estimated traffic and our quality grade. Over each quarter we report referring domain growth on target pages and the domain, ranking and organic click movement on those pages in Search Console, and referral traffic where links send visitors directly. We also report links lost, because retention matters. Link count on its own is not a target we accept, since it rewards exactly the low-quality behaviour we avoid.
What to expect
Editorial link building is slower and more variable than buying placements, and the first quarter is usually spent on assets and relationships that pay off in the second and third. Ranking movement on target pages typically follows link acquisition by several weeks to a few months. Digital PR outcomes depend partly on the news cycle. What you get in return is a link profile that survives algorithm updates and manual reviews, and assets that keep earning links after the campaign ends.
Link building is most effective as part of a full SEO programme where the target pages are also optimized on-page and supported by a content strategy. The role of authority in the wider picture is explained in our SEO guide.