Link building can require a number of dependencies around timing, quality of content, contacts and more. That agencies and freelancers are using 'Retainer' or ''Project' base billing is the best way to account for the resources required.

No surprise here. Agencies go with retainer fees because that gives a lot of flexibility. This is more suitable and profitable because link building is a combination of research, content, pitching, and followups.

The quality of the backlinks plays such a big role in SEO that I wouldn't agree to a retainer fee, I think that's why the trend is going back from hiring agencies/freelancers moving more to do it in-house.

I believe we'll continue to see this trend downward year over year due to Google frowning upon paid links. This method seems to work best for agencies with freelancers, as the client is paying a higher premium to the agency who then pays a fraction of the price per link to the freelancer.

I would be interested to know what falls under "performance" in link building. Does everyone have the same definition? Or do some people think it's deliverables like the amount of links, while others think it's rankings & traffic, and some only look at actual conversions?

I think 16% is still high considering that no one can guarantee a live link. This can create a trust issue between the agency/freelancer and the client.

This is very interesting because it shows how hard it is to get quality backlinks.

I agree that a specific number of links isn't the best possible goal of a campaign, and the devil is in the details. But I hope some targets — or group of targets — is set so campaigns and cooperation can be improved the next time.

It is common for any outsourced campaign or service to have KPIs and targets, typically these are per contract or year as it is difficult to judge or gauge the potential of each campaign individually. I would question why over 40% said this was not something they did? How do they measure performance? Are they using other metrics like traffic and revenue instead and, if so, it would be interesting to hear how they attribute this back to the link building.

I’m surprised by this result, I feel like a lot of agencies I know of set link targets. It’s amazing to see that we are moving away from creating a ‘link guarantee’ for clients as it can create a lot of stress for those working on the account and it means the industry is moving more into a strategic approach for link building rather than building links for the sake of it. From my experience, it’s not about the number of links you build, but the quality and relevance of the links so it’s encouraging to hear that the industry is moving to this way of thinking.

When working with clients as a Link Building Services Provider or Agency, it's easier to set a target of links to be built, and then be transparent about how many of these links will be live at the end of the month. It's standard to expect 60%-70% of the links will be published by the end of the sprint.

I was very surprised by this number, as most of my link builder friends all have contracts with clients based on a specific number of links.

Over the years, I have seen a huge increase in the demand for link building, not just your classic core link building tactics but mainly through creative campaigns. 'Creative' link building is definitely increasing and becoming ever more valued in the industry. Journalists are far savvier now to people building links so it’s important to create campaigns that add value to a journalist and tell stories that make sense for your client's niche.

Businesses are realising the importance of having digital visibility, thus the demand for digital PR activities are high. It's pretty much evident that most of the new prospects in agencies certainly look out for this in the pitches.

It shouldn't be a surprise that the easiest industries to build links in are those which are considered to be "fun", "creative" and "entertaining". I use quotation marks because there are always opportunities to make any industry more creative and fun. But it's not that straightforward for various reasons, and in the age of social media and video content, being entertaining within a pharmaceutical company is much more challenging than in a fashion retail company.

It's more challenging, but not impossible.

I'm surprised that gaming (if that means gambling) isn't higher up in this. Accounting and law have so many angles that are relevant to other niches - lots of different prospects lists you can target.

This is really surprising! Our team delivers digital PR services for a pharmaceutical company, and link building results for that brand have been fantastic this year - above those in other industries.

There are always going to be industries that are harder than others to build links in (e.g. due to linking policies of particular industry publications, the limited number of topics which can be utilised for stories to remain relevant, and more). It should encourage thinking outside of the box, beyond content marketing (which has still been picked as a key link building technique this year), to other tactics that could help to get cut-through and drive valuable links in the right spaces.

Although unfortunately we won't be able to change publications' minds on external linking policies.

It’s interesting to see ‘accounting, banking or finance’ voted as the second hardest sector for link building as there is plenty of potential in this space for quick win, reactive tactics.

I think there’s a big lesson here around identifying the blockers with finance clients early on in the relationship. Common issues include the extra layer of consideration that’s required from internal legal and compliance teams and the red tape associated with that.

My advice is to establish ways of working from the get go, understand the internal review process and help make sign-off as easy as possible for stakeholders.

Interesting how the topics people find the hardest are the ones that are requiring more 'EAT' consideration and factual information. These also tend to be some of the more challenging to get "creative" with. I wonder what part of this is due to struggles for sign off of ideas rather than difficulty to actually build the links, though?

In many areas like health care, it makes sense to build backlinks naturally. Via Article Cooperation with medical platforms, medical practices, laboratories, clinics, etc.

No surprise here. In my experience, most sites discussing health-related topics are hesitant to link to external sources. Unless your client is a .gov, .org, or .edu, you're going to have a difficult time getting placements on medical sites or pages.

Every single industry is harder as link building is nothing but relationship building. I am surprised to see healthcare tops the list. Often the high visibility publications look out for an expert opinion as the journalists will not have a healthcare background in most cases.

I think the context of the world we're living with in 2022 has massively affected which industries are hardest to build links in. For example, since the pandemic, it's been much harder to get cut through and offer genuinely valuable or expert advice in the health and pharmaceutical industries.

In a similar vein, the cost of living crisis has also completely shifted the landscape in terms of building relevant, news-worthy stories for the finance industry. For this reason, when coming up with ideas for link building content aimed at these industries, we have to be particularly sensitive to what audiences may be experiencing right now, and always aim to offer genuinely helpful insights or advice where possible.