Outsourcing Link-Building: Is It Worth It?
Natalia Toth
Every (or nearly every) in-house marketer hates link-building.
That’s why most link-building-related search terms on Google are ‘link-building agencies’ or ‘link-building services’. Professionals don’t want to waste their time on this soul-crushing process, so they prefer to hand it over to someone else.
Outsourcing seems like an easy option. But… is it truly worth it?
Let's take a look at the pros and cons of outsourcing backlink building, how to make the most out of it if you decide to outsource, and how building links in-house can be easy. We’ll share our own experience of growing Ranking Raccoon’s site authority and scaling traffic with only in-house effort - and at zero (!) spend.
The Risks of Outsourcing Backlink Building
1. High Costs
The link-building industry is big business. And by “big,” we mean $3,000+ per month big.
While writing this blog post, I found the site of a medium-size link-building agency. Their plans start at $2,999/month and go up to nearly $10K. That’s more than most startups have in their entire monthly marketing budget.
One-off services aren’t cheap, either. Another SEO agency I found on the web charges a minimum of $350 per single link. If you want a thousand links, be ready to pay the price of a nice seaside cottage in Portugal.
Sure, you can find cheaper options on Fiverr or Upwork, but then another problem arises.
2. No Guarantees
Backlinks are important, but they aren’t magic spells.
No agency or freelancer can guarantee you’ll rank in the top 3 — especially in competitive niches like legal, SaaS, or fintech, or within short time spans (less than 6 months).
And if they do make that promise? That’s a big red flag. And it gets bigger if they can't share specific success stories, even after you asked for them.
As a Reddit user put it,
"If you’re considering outsourcing, do your homework. Ask for sample placements, and a detailed rundown of their process. And don’t settle for anyone offering quick wins — that usually means cutting corners."
3. No Contact With Editors
If by any chance your links get taken down after your agency contract has expired, it's hard to restore them.
Since your link-building campaigns were outsourced, you have no direct relationship with the site editors, which means no way to ask for reinstatement or build ongoing collaborations. You’re at the mercy of your contractor — and their inbox might be long abandoned by then.
4. You Might Get Links That Actually Hurt
It’s often hard to judge the quality of the links you’re paying for. Do they make sense in the context? Are they from legitimate sites with real traffic?
A low-quality backlink can hurt more than help. If someone promises you 500 backlinks for 'just $20' or guarantees first-page results in 30 days... well, that’s not link-building. That’s link-spamming. And Google frown upon this.
An in-house marketer on Reddit shares their experience:
"Be careful. A lot of outsource link building services cut corners with automated outreach or low-quality placements. If they can’t show you where your links will go or how they’re acquired, walk away."
That said, outsourcing is the right choice in many cases. Let's see the main benefits it brings.
The Pros of Outsourcing Backlink Building
1. You Save a Ton of Time
Backlink outreach can eat up days and weeks.
If you’re the only marketers juggling SEO, content, social media, and product updates, outsourcing can feel like a lifeline. Someone else handles the grunt work while you focus on higher-impact activities.
2. You Don’t Need to Be a Link-Building Pro
A good agency or freelancer already has the knowledge, tools, and systems in place. They know what anchor text to use, which pages to prioritize, for maximum value, how to personalize outreach, what metrics to look at and when it's time to make adjustments.
3. You Can Tap Into Their Network
SEO agencies usually have relationships with high-authority sites that you’d never get into cold. If they’re legit, they can help you land links you’d struggle to get on your own.
When Does It Actually Make Sense to Outsource Link-Building?
Outsourcing can work, for sure, but you need to prepare for it to achieve the best results.
Here’s when outsourcing link-building might actually make sense:
1. You’ve Validated Your Product-Market Fit
Before spending money and time on backlink building, make sure there's enough market demand for your product or service.
Links amplify interest, but they cannot create it from zero. Building links to a product nobody’s searching for is like buying ad space for a play no one’s attending.
2. You Have Clear, Realistic SEO Goals
Before you invest in serious link-building campaigns, you need to come up with SEO goals. A popular framework is the SMART model: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound.
An example: "We want to rank on page 1 for five specific keywords in six months" or "We want to hit 10K monthly organic sessions by Q3."
These goals help you (as well as your chosen agency or freelancer) stay focused and accountable.
3. Your Site Is Technically Sound
No amount of backlinks will save a site with slow load times, broken links, or crawl errors.
Before outsourcing, make sure your technical SEO is in good shape. Otherwise, you're just pointing users (and Googlebots) to a frustrating experience.
Read more: The SEO Checklist for SaaS: 6 Steps to Improve Performance
4. You Have Enough Useful, Link-Worthy Content
Best-quality sites usually have strict guidelines as to whom they can link to. Even the best outreach can’t compensate for mediocre content.
Make sure you’ve got valuable resources for your target audience — like how-to guides, original research, or in-depth blog posts — that others actually want to link to. So great content makes outreach 10x easier.
5. Your Content Ranks — but Not Quite High Enough
If you’re stuck on page 2 or hovering below the top 5, backlinks might be the boost you need.
When technical and on-page SEO are solid, a well-targeted link-building campaign can help push your content over the edge.
Don’t Want to Outsource? Here’s How We Built 300+ Backlinks In-House (For Free)
At Ranking Raccoon, we did it all ourselves.
We kicked off our blog from scratch, and in just 10 months, landed 304 backlinks to our homepage and articles — 215 of them being dofollow. We started with zero domain authority and zero organic traffic.
Now, we’re at DA 38, ranking in the top 10 for competitive keywords, and getting traffic not just from Google, but also from ChatGPT and Gemini.
All of that at zero cost.
You may ask, how?
Most of our backlinks were built... right on Ranking Raccoon.
It’s a spam-free link-building networking platform where you connect directly with real SEOs and editors. Once your site is approved, you get AI-powered partner suggestions based on your niche and content. You can instantly find relevant resource pages or blog posts that match your keywords, and discuss a backlink exchange with site owners in chats.
If you're not yet building backlinks the easiest way...what's holding you back?
So… Is Outsourcing Link-Building Worth It?
It can be, but only if you’re ready for it, and only if you choose the right partner.
Otherwise, you might end up overspending for links that do nothing (or worse, hurt your rankings).
If you're not ready to outsource, you don't have to. You can build strong, relevant backlinks in-house without burning your budget or your team’s time. We at Ranking Raccoon are the living proof.
If you want to try the same approach, come join us at Ranking Raccoon. It’s free, and you might just find your next best backlink a few clicks away.
Natalia Toth
Head of Marketing