Top 3 Best Link Building Services (We Spent $1 Million to Find Out)

2 years ago 128

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Are you looking for the champion nexus gathering services successful 2022?

I got you covered due to the fact that Chris Dreyer (founder of Rankings.io) and I person spent good implicit $1,000,000 connected antithetic nexus gathering services.

Let’s leap close into the findings.

Best Link Building Services for 2022

1. Page One Power

It should travel arsenic nary astonishment that Page One Power had the highest prime links.

I questioned whether oregon not we should person them connected this database due to the fact that they aren’t productized services similar the others. They person monthly retainers, and their work is customized for each client.

That said, they are inactive a “link gathering service.”

And I indispensable say, they’re damn bully astatine what they do.

Page One Power’s nexus placements were the astir accordant retired of each the services I tested. But it wasn’t conscionable their nexus placement that impressed me.

It was HOW they built links.

I’ve been preaching this for a agelong time, but the champion mode to physique links to your tract is by creating linkable assets. ALL of Page One Power’s placements bash precisely that.

In fact: It’s a requirement.

This is the safest and astir earthy mode to physique links to your site.

It’s acold much earthy to get links to an informational contented plus than a boring transactional leafage (example: section pb seizure leafage oregon merchandise page).

Placement #1 (5/5)

Total cost: $550
Domain Rating (DR): 73
Ahrefs Rank: 48,167
Referring Domains (DoFollow): 3,101
Total Keywords: 16,740
Estimated Organic Search Traffic/mo: 7,441
Domain Relevance: 1/5
Content Relevance: 3/5
Content Readability: 4/5
Grammarly Score: 86%
Word Count: 768

I wanted to item this nexus placement due to the fact that it doesn’t look similar it deserves a 5/5 (on the surface).

But let’s excavation a small deeper.

Page One Power had to find nexus opportunities successful the ineligible niche. Unfortunately, this is simply a notoriously tricky niche for getting REAL links.

The workaround is to sacrifice domain-level relevance.

Instead, you tin physique relevance connected the contented level.

I gave them a 3/5 for contented relevance due to the fact that it was a small broad, but I recognize the reasoning (which is to marque the placement much natural).

There were 3 elements that I loved astir this nexus placement.

1. The contented is editorial and written by a legit author

2. The nexus illustration is beautiful

The domains person DoFollow links from Adobe, The Guardian, Techcrunch, IBM, and Wall Street Journal.

3. They’re linking to a linkable asset

Page One Power linked to a data-driven blog station connected the instrumentality firm’s site.

Perfect!

This nexus placement is an fantabulous illustration of wherefore domain-level relevance isn’t ever critical. A nexus tin beryllium high-quality erstwhile it’s connected a website with a beardown nexus profile, and the contented is somewhat topically relevant.

Placement #2 (3/5)

Total cost: $550
Domain Rating (DR): 69
Ahrefs Rank: 10,8155
Referring Domains (DoFollow): 2,411
Total Keywords: 7,381
Estimated Organic Search Traffic/mo: 995
Domain Relevance: 1/5
Content Relevance: 5/5
Content Readability: 3/5
Grammarly Score: 93%
Word Count: 626

This nexus placement had immoderate bully qualities specified as:

It is indexed
The contented is readable and high-quality
The contented is linking retired to different prime sources and does person interior links
It has a legit author

But it besides has a fewer issues.

The website is general, and it covers sports, lifestyle, culture, women, money, and beauteous overmuch each taxable nether the sun.

The contented the nexus was placed successful is loosely relevant (and that’s a stretch).

The lawsuit is simply a idiosyncratic wounded lawyer, and the nonfiction is astir “The Best Natural Teeth-Whitening Methods.”

It is linking to a linkable plus astir “chemical burns from defective whitening products” connected the client’s site.

This is good. But overall, it’s rather the stretch.

However, the biggest contented I recovered was with the nexus profile. What I’m astir to amusement you were a communal inclination among poorly-rated links successful this lawsuit study.

It is the beingness of nationalist blog web links.

I judge that these links are built by the radical who paid for the links.

I don’t judge the big website built them successful astir cases. But, of course, determination are ever exceptions to the rule.

Placement #3 (1/5)

Remember erstwhile I said I would amusement the bully and the bad?

This placement was an illustration of the atrocious (but astir apt not wherefore you think). This placement has fantabulous metrics, bully content, and a coagulated nexus profile.

So, what’s missing?

The client’s nexus was removed!

I’m not definite whether oregon not Page One Power replaced this link.

But if it wasn’t, that’s $550 flushed down the toilet and a missed accidental for a nexus to age.

This was the lone “bad” nexus I analyzed from Page One Power.

Page One Power Review

Page One Power is the existent deal. So, if you person the budget, you should see moving with them. They recognize how to physique links successful a earthy and harmless way. They vet each nexus opportunity, and they’re doing large work.

My lone proposal for them is to ticker retired for writer footprints.

I noticed they utilized the aforesaid writer for galore of the placed links. These permission a large footprint.

2. Fat Joe

Fat Joe offers a fashionable blogger outreach service. The work is priced based connected Domain Authority (DA) from Moz and it ranges from DA 10 – DA 40.

In astir cases, I would debar websites successful the DA 10 + scope due to the fact that they’re A) excessively anemic and B) not high-quality.

Hence the crushed wherefore they person debased authority. You can, however, usage little authorization links to turn the authorization of tier-one placements.

Link Placement #1 (5/5)

Total cost: $253
Domain Rating (DR): 16
Ahrefs Rank: 10,523,902
Referring Domains (DoFollow): 163
Total Keywords: 2,518
Estimated Organic Search Traffic/mo: 463
Domain Relevance: 4/5
Content Relevance: 5/5
Content Readability: 4/5
Grammarly Score: 66%
Word Count: 1,351

We purchased a DA 30 + placement and was rather impressed by the prime and results. The nexus went unrecorded astir May 3rd:

The people tract was successful a precise linkable niche, but we liked respective cardinal parts of this placement.

1. It has a earthy and applicable nexus profile

2. The contented was great

The contented was agelong and had prime outer and interior links. It besides had a beardown readability people and was topically applicable to the people site.

3. The tract is progressive and relevant

There aren’t galore links connected our database that received a 4 oregon 5/5 connected site-level relevancy. This 1 scored a 4. It wasn’t 100% relevant, but it was a intimately related niche.

Link Placement #2 (1/5)

Total cost: $60
Domain Rating (DR): 25
Ahrefs Rank: 6,041,323
Referring Domains (DoFollow): 398
Total Keywords: 237
Estimated Organic Search Traffic/mo: 33
Domain Relevance: 3/5
Content Relevance: 4/5
Content Readability: 2/5
Grammarly Score: 78%
Word Count: 560

This placement received a mediocre standing for respective reasons.

1. The leafage isn’t indexed

Always transcript and paste the leafage hosting your nexus into Google. There’s a occupation if it doesn’t amusement up. If the leafage isn’t indexed, past your nexus is worthless.

Plain and simple.

2. The tract isn’t secure

It’s a beauteous well-known information that Google cares astir security.

They’re labeling websites without SSL certificates arsenic “Not Secure” connected Google Chrome.

3. The contented has outbound links, but they look similar different paid links

I don’t cognize whether this vendor placed these links oregon the big website did. Either way, it looks similar a nexus farm.

4. The tract has turned into a hub for paid links

Every caller blog station is bladed and crammed with paid links. So it’s harmless to presume that getting a nexus connected this tract is practically worthless.

5. The nexus illustration is weak

The nexus illustration has hardly (if any) editorial links and has directory, profile, and web 2.0 links.

Fat Joe Review

Fat Joe is simply a reliable nexus gathering work arsenic agelong arsenic you usage it the close way. I would enactment distant from the DA 10 + connected tier 1 (but it’s astir apt harmless to beryllium utilized connected tier two).

I besides urge upgrading the contented magnitude erstwhile you order. Most radical apt acquisition the default connection count, and this leaves a footprint.

Lastly, beforehand linkable assets alternatively of transactional pages.

3. The Hoth

The Hoth is 1 of the astir well-known nexus gathering company’s successful the SEO industry.

They person a precise palmy company, but how’s the prime of their nexus gathering strategy? Keep speechmaking to find out.

Link Placement #1 (5/5)

Total cost: $300
Domain Rating (DR): 90
Ahrefs Rank: 735
Referring Domains (DoFollow): 27,951
Total Keywords: 200,828
Estimated Organic Search Traffic/mo: 39,414
Domain Relevance: 1/5
Content Relevance: 5/5
Content Readability: 4/5
Grammarly Score: 91%
Word Count: 630

We ordered from The Hoth GP nexus gathering agency, and for the criteria type, we selected “Traffic” and 10,000. I cognize galore radical person opinions astir The Hoth, but this placement was fantabulous for our backlink profile.

Not lone did the nexus gathering run conscionable our criteria, but it’s already producing results successful our hunt motor rankings.

There were a fewer elements I loved astir this backlink building:

1. It’s connected highly authoritative prime websites and web pages

The metrics connected this placement are nutty (as you tin spot above) and over-delivered. That’s a bully thing.

For a website to beryllium this authoritative, it’s guaranteed to person a beardown nexus profile.

2. It’s precise editorial

The nonfiction is topically relevant, professional, and well-edited. Other applicable links besides situation the people nexus anchor text.

Link Placement #3 (3/5)

Total cost: $180
Domain Rating (DR): 34
Ahrefs Rank: 2,361,323
Referring Domains (DoFollow): 955
Total Keywords: 6,349
Estimated Organic Search Traffic/mo: 1,110
Domain Relevance: 1/5
Content Relevance: 3/5
Content Readability: 3/5
Grammarly Score: 74%
Word Count: 596

The Hoth was successful a pugnacious concern with this lawsuit due to the fact that they are successful the ineligible space. It would person been overmuch easier for them to onshore a applicable nexus if the lawsuit was promoting a linkable plus (instead of their homepage).

Their link-building tactics were decent, but they had immoderate issues.

Here’s the good:

The nexus is indexed
The nexus is surrounded by outer and interior links
The contented is topically relevant
The contented prime is decent
It’s a existent website
The tract has existent traffic

It has immoderate prime links:

But the atrocious portion astir this nexus placement is the different portion of this site’s nexus profile. It’s littered with nationalist blog web links:

The biggest giveaway of web links is erstwhile a website has galore homepage links. It’s uncommon to person homepage links, truthful erstwhile you spot it, it’s a reddish flag.

Here’s what the web tract looks like:

The different antagonistic broadside of this impermanent posting placement is that it’s not applicable connected the domain side.

Link Placement #3 (1/5)

Where bash I commencement with this one?

The lawsuit ordered a nexus from The Hoth’s impermanent station service, and they received a nexus connected a web 2.0 (Weebly).

Just truthful you’re aware, web 2.0s are not editorial links. Anyone tin make a escaped relationship connected Weebly and make what you spot above.

These links worked good respective years ago, but they’re practically worthless now.

Plus, that’s not what the lawsuit ordered.

The Hoth Review

Everyone successful the SEO assemblage has an sentiment astir The Hoth, but the links I analyzed were solid.

I urge selecting “traffic” arsenic your criteria erstwhile purchasing links from them. And similar Fat Joe, debar debased authorization placements (DA 10 +).

Here’s a high-level overview of the 942 links we analyzed:

As of 6/24/2020, we’ve collected information from 942 antithetic nexus placements. We person the astir information from Fat Joe and Page One Power. This volition alteration arsenic we proceed to adhd much orders to our database.

The Hoth and Page One Power had the highest fig of unsocial linking basal domains (on average). However, this information isn’t invaluable astatine a precocious level. I’ll explicate why.

Both nexus gathering companies besides dominated the full integrated keywords for their placements. This is simply a coagulated metric, but it’s besides not 100% reliable due to the fact that of the reasons I’ll explain.

Lastly, nexus placements from Page One Power and The Hoth besides dominated the estimated integrated hunt postulation numbers.

Here’s however we conducted these nexus gathering companies services lawsuit study:

1. We gathered metrics for each nexus placements utilizing Ahrefs

The KPIs we utilized for a 30,000-foot presumption investigation are:

Ahrefs Rank
Referring Domains (DoFollow)
Keywords
Traffic

The nonsubjective was to spot what services faired champion astatine a precocious level.

Here’s wherefore high-level metrics (averages) don’t work:

1. Varying bid types

Some links are astatine a higher terms point, portion others are astatine a little terms point. As you tin imagine, higher-priced placements are mostly better. This leads to:

2. Metric inflation

One oregon 2 websites with large numbers tin inflate the averages. Therefore, we filtered retired ace high-authority sites to debar inflating the averages arsenic overmuch arsenic possible.

3. Total referring domains doesn’t mean much

The lone mode to genuinely justice the prime of a website’s nexus illustration is to bash a manual analysis. Link-by-link.

That’s wherefore measurement #2 successful this process was critical.

2. I randomly selected 10 nexus placements from each vendor and did a manual analysis

I’ll beryllium sharing a granular investigation of 2-3 retired of the 10 nexus placements for each vendor. My absorption volition beryllium connected placements that received a cleanable people of 5, an mean people of 3, and a mediocre 1.

Here are the domain-level criteria we used:

Is this a legit website oregon a PBN rebuild?
Is this website active?
Is this website adding caller worth oregon is it conscionable a hub for accepting paid links?
Is the website utilizing an SSL certificate?
Does the website person a cleanable history?
Is the domain-relevant? To people this, we utilized The Relevancy Pyramid.
Does the website explicitly accidental that it accepts impermanent posts, sponsored posts, oregon paid links?
Does the concern person an outer beingness connected societal media?
Does the website person integrated hunt traffic? If not, does it person postulation from different sources?

Here are the page-level criteria we used:

Is the leafage hosting the nexus indexed?
Does the nonfiction person a morganatic author?
Is the nonfiction readable?
Does the nonfiction person a Grammarly people greater than 70?
Does the nonfiction person relevant, high-quality outer links?
Does the nonfiction person interior links?
Is the nonfiction thin?
Is the nonfiction topically relevant?

Based connected high-level metrics and manual analysis, these are the apical 3 champion nexus gathering services:

Big Takeaways

Analyzing these nexus gathering services was fun, thought-provoking, and grueling. Through the process, I realized a fewer things.

1. There are nary cleanable nexus gathering services (and that’s fine)

Getting perfectly applicable links with impeccable nexus profiles is astir impossible.

The constituent of a nexus gathering work is to assistance you offload 1 of the astir time-consuming tasks successful SEO.

So, you person to inquire yourself:

Is a 4-star nexus acceptable if you don’t person to deliberation astir doing the work?

The reply is “yes” for me.

Sure.

You would lone person impeccable links successful your illustration successful a cleanable world.

But that’s not adjacent natural.

A “natural” nexus illustration volition person a wide array of websites.

Some strong. Some weak. Some amazing. Some terrible.

THAT’S NATURAL.

2. If you’re going to usage nexus gathering services, past bash this:

Create and beforehand linkable assets alternatively of transactional pages. Watch this:

Only put successful higher authorization opportunities (generally debar the DA 10 – DA 19)
Less is more
Invest much to get deeper content/higher connection counts
Use earthy anchor text
Recommend the outer links you privation your nexus to beryllium surrounded by

3. Your niche truly matters…

You can’t expect to get 100% applicable links erstwhile you’re successful a constrictive niche. That’s wherefore creating linkable assets is truthful important.

4. You (usually) get what you wage for

More costly placements are usually better, portion inexpensive placements are worse. Common consciousness here.

That’s All (and What’s Next)

We’re going to update this database to support it caller continually. Unfortunately, immoderate vendors whitethorn fall, and others whitethorn participate the apical 3.

I anticipation this was helpful, and delight stock it if it was!

Thanks for reading.

Author
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Nathan Gotch is the laminitis of Gotch SEO and a globally recognized SEO expert. Since 2012, Nathan has helped implicit 3,000 bureau owners, SEO practitioners, and concern owners execute systematic #1 rankings.