If you've been teaching yourself SEO, you've probably noticed that SEO can be simplified into two buckets: Content & Backlinks.
The content side is pretty simple: On-Page SEO helps Google understand what keywords your website should rank for.
But backlinks are what actually move your website from rank 67 to rank 13 to rank 4 for your target keywords.
You can still find directory niches that rank without backlinks, but the real test of your SEO skills comes when you step into competitive niches where backlinks become essential.
If you watched my recent video where I broke down how long it took two of my directories to hit #1 on Google, you already know that building backlinks can speed up your success big time - and these were for lower competition niches!
With that said, you can build backlinks manually and it works!
But if you're curious how the best SEOs in the world build links, here are three of the most simple, but powerful observations I've learned around building backlinks:
1) You likely don't need that many backlinks, if you focus on the quality of links > quantity of links
I recently watched a podcast with Chris Koerner and Peter Askew, the founder of DudeRanch.com, a directory for....well, dude ranches (I didn't know this was a thing).
Take a look at how many backlinks his $60k/year website has - 1,941 total backlinks according to ahrefs.
Now, that's a ton of backlinks right?
Yes, but remember, not all backlinks are created equal.
When we take a closer look and filter the backlinks by "Best Links: Only", we get a better idea of how many links are actually contributing to the success of this website from an SEO perspective.
Out of 1,941 backlinks, only 19 are actually pulling most of the weight according to Ahrefs.
For those curious, a "best link", accoridng to Ahrefs refers to high-quality, authoritative, and relevant links that provide significant value to a website's SEO, rather than just the sheer quantity of links. These links come from strong, reputable domains, are typically "do-follow" (passing link equity), are contextually relevant to the page they link to, and are often found on authoritative pages that receive significant organic traffic.
This isn't to say that the other 1,922 links are useless. I'm certain there are smaller backlinks pointing to DudeRanch.com that are acting as nice authority-boosters.
But your goal of ranking #1 becomes more feasible when you can set your goal to build 20 high-quality backlinks rather than 2,000 backlinks.
2) The quickest way to build quality backlinks is to buy them or mass-email publishers within your niche
The best SEOs out there are either buying links outright or running massive outreach campaigns, emailing hundreds of publishers and offering money for backlinks or guest posts.
Here's how this works (a simplified explanation):
When you're looking to buy backlinks, you're likely either:
When you're using cold outreach to email publishers, you're:
- Research your competitor's backlinks and approaching their referring domains and offering money for a link swap
- Cold emailing websites that show up on the front page of Google for your target keyword, also offering money, for a niche edit or guest post
p.s. I'm not affiliated with any of these and you should do your research before buying any links!! More deets on what a good link looks like below.
Before you go off purchasing backlinks, know that most SEOs who buy links usually have a clear monetization game plan.
Maybe they own an e-commerce business selling protein powder and they're willing to spend $500 per backlink to try to rank #1 when people type "protein powder" into Google.
Or it's a SaaS that wants to rank #1 for comparison keywords like "Best Hubspot alternatives".
In my opinion, 99% of the time you shouldn't even think about buying links until your website is already indexed, ranking and you've proven that what you built is valuable to your target audience. This goes for directories, SaaS, marketplaces, e-commerce and any other online business.
Personally, the only time I even think about buying backlinks is when my directory’s already ranking on page two or three, and on-page SEO alone isn’t moving the needle anymore.
3) If you’re buying links, know what you’re getting and learn to tell good links from bad ones.
I've spent a couple thousand dollars on backlinks in the last couple years and I'm embarrassed to admit that I did so thinking "the more links, the better."
Did the backlinks actually help? Yeah, marginally.
Did I overpay considering the quality of links that I received? Definitely.
Most backlinks start at around $80-$100 per backlink. And that's considered cheap for a backlink.
I learned that what matters most is having full transparency on the exact referring domain and page your backlink is coming from.
Back when I first purchased backlinks, this is what happened:
- I would pay $95 for a backlink
- I'd describe my niche, target keywords and the ideal type of website that my backlink would be on
- Two weeks later, they told me that my link had been successfully placed
Here's the problem: I never received any information about the website I was received a link from until the link was placed. And it took me a long time to realize that...that's kinda shady.
So I spent over a year and half researching and finding examples of what high-quality links are.
Finally, I learned that a high-quality link is one with:
- Topical relevance to your niche (a thrifting directory should get backlinks from thrifting-related articles or websites)
- Real traffic (the article where your backlink lives actually gets consistent monthly visitors)
- Low number of linked domains (the article doesn't link to 2000 other links, effectively drowning out the effectiveness of your link placement. This is also a sign of a spam backlink.)
- Domain rating (DR) is above 30 (the referring domain is authoritative and trusted by search engines)
Today, if I'm purchasing backlinks, I'm making sure I know exactly what I'm buying and where my backlinks are coming from.
Then, I'm diving into ahrefs or SEMrush to make sure it meets all these requirements.
Only then will I feel 100% comfortable knowing that my backlink vendor is valid.
Lastly, and I hope this goes without saying, those Fiverr gigs offering 100 backlinks for five bucks are a complete waste of time and money!
Best,
Frey
