Link Building
Editorially earned links from sites with real traffic. Every URL disclosed monthly. No private networks, no paid placements, no directory spam.
We earn links editorially — through outreach, original data and genuine relationships — and we disclose every single one to you as a live URL every month. We do not use private blog networks, buy links, use paid guest-post marketplaces or build directory links at volume. This is slower and more expensive than the alternative. It is also why no client of ours has taken a manual action for links we built.
## The policy, in plain terms
Digital PR built on original data. Expert commentary placed with journalists. Genuinely useful resources that earn links on their own. Relationship-based editorial placements on sites with real traffic and real readers. Reclamation of unlinked brand mentions and broken links pointing at your competitors.
Private blog networks. Paid link placements. Guest-post marketplaces. Comment and forum links. Directory submissions at volume. Reciprocal link schemes. Anything we would be uncomfortable explaining to a Google search quality engineer.
## Full disclosure, monthly
Every month you receive a complete list of every link built, as live URLs, with the referring domain’s traffic and topical relevance noted.
Ask any agency you are considering for exactly this, for a recent month, for a real client. The ones who send it within a day are the ones worth talking to. The ones who explain why they cannot are telling you something, and it is not a secret worth keeping.
## Why this matters more in 2026 than it did
Brand mentions now correlate more strongly with visibility in AI-generated answers than backlinks do — one large study put the correlation at 0.664 for mentions against 0.218 for links. (Ahrefs, 2025) That does not make links irrelevant; Google still uses them, and an editorial link almost always comes with a mention attached. What it does mean is that the *kind* of link matters more than the count. A placement in a publication your buyers actually read earns you a link, a mention, and a chance of being cited by an assistant. A network link earns you a number in a spreadsheet and a risk.
## Volume expectations
Six to ten editorially earned links a month on a Growth retainer, more on Scale. If an agency is promising forty, ask where they are coming from, and then ask for the list.
Questions buyers ask us
These are the questions that come up most often on first calls. If yours is not here, ask — we answer in writing within one working day.
How many links will I get per month?
Six to ten on a Growth retainer, more on Scale, and it varies with your sector. Genuinely earned links are lumpy — a good data story can produce twenty in a fortnight and then a quiet month follows. We would rather report the truth than smooth the numbers with filler links.
Do you buy links?
No. Not through marketplaces, not through ‘sponsored content’ fees, not through networks. This is a written policy, and the monthly disclosure list is how you verify we are keeping it.
What happens if a link you built looks bad to me?
Tell us and we will pursue removal, and explain how it got through. That is a conversation we would much rather have than have you discover it yourself.
Can you help after a manual action or link penalty?
Yes — penalty recovery and link audits are work we do regularly. It is also why our policy is what it is; having cleaned up other people’s link profiles, we are not inclined to build the same problem for you.