Link Building Built on Real Relationships, Not Link Farms
Links are still one of the strongest signals Google uses to decide what ranks. Which is exactly why so much of what’s sold as “link building” is worthless at best and actively dangerous at worst, private blog networks, directory spam, and sites that exist purely to sell links to anyone who asks.
I build links the way I’d want them built on my own site. Outreach to real publications with real audiences, content genuinely worth publishing, and complete transparency about where every link comes from before it goes live.
You’ll never get a report from me listing “high DA sites” you’re not allowed to see.
How it works
1. Backlink audit Before building anything, I look at what you’ve already got. Sometimes the problem isn’t a lack of links — it’s a profile weighed down by bad ones, or good links pointing at the wrong pages.
2. Competitor gap analysis Which sites link to your competitors but not to you? That’s usually the fastest route to relevant, achievable targets — they’ve already shown they’ll link to businesses like yours.
3. Target list Real sites with real traffic, relevant to your industry or location. You see the list. If there’s something on it you don’t want, it comes off.
4. Outreach and content Guest contributions, expert commentary, resource placements, digital PR. Whatever fits the target and your business.
5. Reporting Every link disclosed, with the site’s authority metrics and context on how it was earned.
Why cheap link packages cost more
If you’ve been offered a hundred links for a few hundred pounds, those links come from somewhere — usually a private blog network, or sites that exist only to sell placements.
Google has spent two decades getting good at spotting these. The best case is that they do nothing. The worst is a manual penalty that takes months to recover from, and a disavow process that removes whatever value the rest of your profile had.
Fewer, better links from sites with genuine audiences will always outperform volume. It’s slower and it costs more per link. It also works.
FAQs
How many links do I need? There’s no universal number. It depends on what your competitors have and what you’re trying to rank for. The competitor gap analysis answers this properly — that’s why it comes first.
How long until link building affects rankings? Typically two to four months before you see meaningful movement. Links take time to be crawled, indexed, and factored in.
Do you guarantee dofollow links or specific anchor text? No, and be wary of anyone who does. Guaranteed placements usually mean paid links on sites that sell to anyone — exactly what you’re trying to avoid. I aim for dofollow and relevant anchors, but a genuine editorial link on the publisher’s terms is worth more than a guaranteed one on a compromised site.
Is link building still worth it? Yes. Google’s own documentation still treats links as a core ranking signal, and every study of competitive SERPs finds authority strongly correlated with rankings. What’s changed is that quality matters far more than volume.
Can you clean up bad links from a previous agency? Yes. That’s part of the backlink audit — identifying genuinely harmful links and, where necessary, disavowing them. I’ll always show you the list before anything is submitted.
Not sure whether links are your problem?
Book a free 15-minute call. I’ll run a backlink audit beforehand and
tell you honestly whether link building is where your budget should go.