The Link Building Playbook For SEO Agencies

You’re an SEO Agency looking to streamline your link building.

You know how important backlinks are for boosting your clients’ sites to the top of Google and elevating your profits to new heights. And you know that in the midst of an ever-changing SEO landscape, being two steps ahead of your competitors is the ultimate key to success.

But - big but - you aren’t using a tried-and-tested link building playbook to help you not just play the game, but dominate it.

And as a result, you’re missing the secret ingredient to make you the tastiest SEO agency out there.

Have we hit the nail on the head?

In this article, we’re going to explore the ins and outs of what that secret ingredient is - our coveted link building playbook. Aka, our proven method for successfully skyrocketing our clients’ growth.

Be warned: what you’re about to read is an exclusive insight into how we remain go-to industry experts whose swim lane is trustworthy, profit-driven link building.

Split into four distinct stages, let’s start from the top.

For the basis of our strategy, we use an innovative scoring system powered by AI to make this process a breeze, uncovering comprehensive insights that are guaranteed to set our clients apart.

In a nutshell, our AI Link Strategy combs over your links (and your competitors’ links) and assigns them a score using link points and domain ratings. We compare tier 1 links, tier 2 links, and the links to your target keyword pages.

Before our clients know it, they’ve received a complete, bespoke link building strategy ready to be implemented over a 6-12 month period.

Ready to get down to the nitty-gritty?

Here’s exactly how we do this to score our clients’ links:

The most accomplished SEOs in the industry consider two critical pillars for a backlink.

When we examine backlink profiles, we evaluate each link's quality by analysing its relevance and authority.

And to accomplish this, we examine every link using AI and score it accordingly.

First up, we break up the links by their authority into the following categories:

DR 0-29 DR 30-44 DR 45-59 DR 60-74

(Don’t worry, we haven’t forgotten about DR 75+. More on that in a second.)

Then, we analyse each link individually to give them a score based on our scoring system, which looks like this:

Relevant domain - 1 point
Relevant content - 1 point
Traffic 1000+ - 1 point
Link farm - 1 point only

The max amount of points a link can get is 3.

If a link is found on our database as a link farm (queue the sirens), none of the other points will count as this is a low-quality link.

Picture it like trying to drive a car with the hand brake on - that low-quality link will, quite literally,  hold you back.

Our relevancy score determines if the referring domain is in the same niche as our clients’ target URL.

We categorise links by their DR to not only gauge their authority, but to evaluate them based on traffic and cross-reference them with our "Link Farm" database to identify low-quality links.

A higher link score = better quality.

We’re then able to provide our clients with a breakdown of points by DR range, ultimately comparing them to their competitors’ scores.

The payoff? Being able to build a strategy that focuses on high-quality links to close the authority gap.

For links with a Domain Rating of 75 or above - aka the champions of authoritative links - we conduct an in-depth analysis of high-authority backlinks to our clients’ root domain.

The links that fall into this category usually come from established publications and are highly valued by Google's E-E-A-T algorithm, which stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness, and is used to assess the quality and credibility of sites.

If you want to improve your clients’ website credibility and search engine ranking, you can bet that harnessing the power of links with DR 75 or above is a winning strategy.

Next up, we conduct a Tier 1 Domain Level Audit.

This involves calculating the average link points of our clients’ competitors and then subtracting this value from the link points of our clients’ sites.

(BTW, these competitors aren’t just found randomly. Rather, we carefully hand-pick relevant competitors based on a deep analysis of our clients’ niches.)

As shown below, we can then see the link point discrepancy between the two for each DR rating. Through some good ole’ reverse engineering, that gap is the key to understanding how many links you will need.

If the difference is ever zero or less, we can be confident that our clients have built enough links within each DR range to maintain a competitive edge.

Now, shifting focus to how many tier 2 links our clients need, we repeat the same analysis process.

We examine the backlinks our clients have from other websites (i.e., the sites that link to our clients’ sites).

Why?

Because this strengthens the authority of the sites linking to our clients’ sites, and can improve your site's ranking massively.

Building a strong foundation of tier 1 links is crucial, with tier 2 links playing a vital role in supplementing and reinforcing that foundation.  

Think of it like building a house.

Just as you can’t maintain a sturdy structure without reliable support beams, you can’t ensure a resilient online presence without high-quality tier 2 links.

Hot tip: To boost your link quality, we recommend building tier 2 links to your most authoritative and relevant links.

After analysing all tier 2 backlinks, we simply categorise all tier 1 links based on the number of tier 2 links pointing to them.

And here’s where we point our magnifying glass back onto our clients’ competitors, comparing the two to identify strategic opportunities to come out on top.

Now it’s time to do the same for our clients’ inner pages!

We will look at the tier 1 backlinks leading to our clients’ pages for the keywords they want to rank for.

This will help figure out how many links are needed to rank for each keyword. The trick is to analyse multiple keywords, which will spread the backlinks out across relevant pages.

After specifically examining the links pointing to our clients’ pages, we can compare them to how many links point to the top 3 pages that are currently ranking high for the target keyword.

Similar to our analysis at the domain level, we’ll compare our clients’ pages with their competitors’ pages to identify the number of link points for each page.

This golden information is what allows us to calculate the average and determine the difference in link points.

To seamlessly do the above, we provide clients with keyword breakdowns so they can clearly see the data for the keywords they want to rank for.

These breakdowns provide that all-important comparison between them and their competitors on a platter.

A very shiny platter which makes things incredibly easy to understand.

This way, we spare our clients the stress of having to be a link building expert (that’s our job), on top of everything else that comes with running a successful business.

Based on the total link point discrepancy from the keyword breakdowns, we are then in a prime position to divulge how many links our clients need to build across niche edits, guest posts, and tiered links.
 
Another hot tip: We don’t recommend building links that are below DR 30. The authority is too low and it’s better to focus your efforts on building higher quality links!

So, by following the strategy up to now, you’ll have a pretty solid idea of what you need to do to outshine your competitors and boost your profits.

The last step is for you to identify which pages you need to build the links to.

For our clients, we make it easy by giving them a detailed monthly plan.

This plan tells them exactly which pages to link to, for each type of link, and the specific number of links they should aim for.

Voilà!

Your streamlined, foolproof, link building strategy. Done and dusted. Just like that.

Now that your strategy has clued you up on how many links and what type of links you need, it’s time to ensure your agency is focusing on the quality of those links.

Side note, this next part to the playbook is one of the most frustrating and time-consuming parts of off-page SEO, but it’s also incredibly powerful.

Outreach - the process of securing high-quality backlinks from relevant and authoritative sites - will skyrocket your clients’ growth with enhanced brand visibility and organic traffic*.

              *When done correctly through extensive planning and perseverance.  

If you’re sticking to building all your clients’ links in-house, you need to ensure you have the resources, expertise, and ability to dedicate time to creating a proven and adaptable outreach method.

You also need to consider how you’re going to scale your outreach process, all whilst maintaining personalised communication and relationship building.

This consists of creating personalised messages for your target sites, so get creative with your messaging to ensure high open rates and replies. Oh, and don’t forget to manage the replies, negotiate with the sites, and ensure you send the right content with the right anchors to the right site.

As you’ve probably gathered by now, we weren’t lying when we said outreach takes a lot of time to get right.

This is why at Profit Engine, we’ve established a streamlined and dependable outreach process that looks like this:

          1.    Planning

Start by analysing your major competitors. Without understanding their successes and their shortcomings, you can’t expect to outshine them.  

Next, we want to identify the websites currently ranking for the keywords your client wants to target. By understanding the link landscape of your clients’ keywords, you’re guaranteeing insights into potential collabs and prospects with your clients’ niches.

Then you’ll be able to plan out content titles to build relevancy and align with your overall SEO strategy.

Establishing low-quality links with hardly any relevance = red flags to Google. Think low rankings, penalised sites, and a tarnished reputation.

Establishing high-quality, relevant links that can be trusted = green flags to Google. Think high authority, high visibility, and high rankings.  

         2.    Content

Speaking of relevant titles, we can now turn our focus to the content itself.

Start by managing a team of writers and creating detailed content briefs to ensure that your content is not just good, but great.

After this, if you want your content to remain relevant and impactful, you need to build out a process for content management. Why? Because without a robust process to manage the inevitable content change requests from various sites, you and your clients will be left in the dust.  

With a content management process in place, you’ll be able to respond promptly to all of these constant changes without having to worry that your content won’t keep up with the dynamic nature of SEO.  

*Important reminder alert*

If we haven’t already made it clear enough, to get good links on good sites, your content needs to be top-notch.

After all, a talented content team will be the backbone of your SEO success. As Semrush explains, Google considers backlinks as “votes of confidence”, and each vote suggests that your content is valuable, credible, and useful.

          3.    Prospecting

To ensure that each and every one of your outreach efforts are tailored and targeted, you need to go through every site so that you can create personalised outreach messages.

We place heaps of emphasis upon personalisation within our outreach strategy because by making our outreach messages as compelling and relevant as possible, our positive responses increase tenfold.   

But how do we know the best sites for our clients’ content?

Enter: Pitchbox.

Investing in Pitchbox will help you identify the best sites for the highest possible impact. We love it because it helps us provide customisable outreach messages that align perfectly with our clients’ goals.

But just be wary that it may take you some time to master its features since Pitchbox is quite complex for beginners. It also isn’t cheap, so make sure to budget for this when you’re looking at your numbers.

(Or, if you want to skip the Pitchbox hassle, let us do your outreach for you.)

          4.    Outreach Template Creation

You have less than 8 seconds to grab your reader’s attention.

So when you’re trying to establish meaningful connections and build the best backlinks out there for your clients, you need tailor-made, handcrafted outreach messages designed to maximise response rates.

Sounds simple, right? It is, but we’ll be honest with you, crafting these messages requires a decent amount of effort to pay off and can be time consuming. This is why at Profit Engine, we provide our clients with a plug-and-play outreach template ready to go.

After you’ve mastered your outreach process, it’s important to set up an efficient management system that will ensure your links are strategically organised to boost your clients’ profits.

Trust us when we say, streamlined link management from start to finish is what’s really going to help your hard work with strategy and outreach lift off.

To do this, think about scale. Avoid complicating things with multiple spreadsheets. Focus on creating a simple, well-oiled management machine and forget about complex systems.

This is what we do, because we know how important it is for SEO agencies to have an easy grasp of link locations, completion status, and due dates.

Which is why we created our bespoke templated management system for our clients.

Our Agency Link Tracker simplifies your link tracking into one user-friendly, organised, and scalable solution tailored for SEO agencies, easily displayed in a management excel sheet which looks like this.

As you can see, the sheet clearly outlines our clients’ link types, the site they want these links to be built to, and their tiered link types.

We like to include a section for anchor text too, because this means we can ensure we diversify the text used for each link.

So, what does the management sheet look like in practice? And how can you use it for your own agency?

First, choose your link type.

Pop in your target URL.

Once you’ve filled in your anchor text and invoice numbers, you can then watch the sheet work its magic by clicking on ‘Create Order’.

The sheet then automatically makes a new tab along the bottom for every single page URL you input, making it easier to track links across multiple different sites.

You don’t need to have multiple different documents to track all your clients. This way, it’s all in one place.

This not only makes life easier, but provides room to grow and expand with more and more clients. Which means more and more profit. And who wouldn’t want that?

Speaking of tracking, you will also see the ‘Tracker’ tab within the sheet which is your golden ticket to ultimate link organisation.

The tracker tab being within the management sheet means that you can keep on top of the links that need to be completed for each domain alongside their due dates. You will even be able to see which of your clients are inactive and when they last ordered with you.

If it isn’t already obvious, the tracker makes it extremely easy to find your links.

You can click on any link under the domain heading, and you will be taken to the designated page for that domain which includes all the links and their status of completion.

If there are links that are yet to be completed, the status tab will ensure you’re always kept in the loop for every. single. link.

We also never forget to include SOPs (and suggest you don’t either), because this helps our clients scale their SEO practices easily whilst getting consistent results.

Think of the
management sheet as a roadmap that keeps the link building process transparent, organised, and results-oriented.

What more could you - or your clients - want?