Link acquisition is the process of earning placements and securing editorial backlinks from high-authority and relevant websites.
Google treats links as a vote of confidence, which is why more links mean more chances of ranking and citations in AI overviews and LLMs.
However, not all links are treated equally, and earning niche-relevant placements can become harder with growing work and team. This is why employing a link acquisition service is best for brands and businesses looking to save time and cost.
This blog will discuss everything you need to know about link acquisition, how it’s done, strategies and techniques, and the benefits of hiring a trusted link acquisition expert agency.
What is Link Acquisition?
Link acquisition is the process of securing placements on third party websites thorough manual outreach, editorial placement, digital PR, and partnerships.
The methodology is different and more complex than typical link building. In link acquisition, you have the opportunity to set a benchmark for third-party websites, such as SEO metrics (DR, traffic, etc), relevance, and contextual link placement.
A typical link building campaign can have backlinks from PBNs, placements on irrelevant and low-quality websites, forum links, profile links, blog comments, etc. These are mostly nofollow and will not be crawled by Google and other search engines.
These activities can hurt the rankings of your website and invite a Google penalty for building unnatural links. Link acquisition secures natural links, placed contextually in the content from a topically relevant page/blog and website.
These earned links via link acquisition techniques help Google and AI better understand your website/services/products and rank on relevant terms. The more links you have from trusted and relevant websites, the better chances you have to rank on relevant keywords and attract organic traffic and leads.
So, if you are evaluating a website for backlinks, keep these factors in mind, as Google uses them to assess the quality and value of backlinks:
1- Relevance
The backlink should come from a website or page related to your niche. For example, a dentist link building campaign should focus on earning backlinks from health publications rather than unrelated websites like gaming blogs.
2- Authority
Backlinks from established and authoritative websites generally carry more weight. For example, a mention from a major industry publication can be more valuable than links from several unknown blogs.
3- Placement
Where the backlink appears on the page also matters. A contextual link placed naturally within an article is usually more valuable than a random link in the footer or sidebar. For example, a link to your SEO guide within a paragraph discussing link building makes sense to both readers and search engines.
4- Credibility
Look at the overall quality of the website before getting a backlink. A real publication with genuine content, organic traffic, and clear editorial standards is a better choice than a website created mainly to sell links. For example, in local link building, backlinks from established local news sites are more credible than from blogs and websites publishing hundreds of unrelated guest posts.
Why Is Link Acquisition Important for SEO?
An SEO strategy is incomplete without link acquisition. Yes, you can hire the best SEO teams to perform technical audits for your website, develop and implement the best on-page SEO strategy with top-notch content and in-depth guides.
Still, your website won’t rank for competitive industry keywords because it lacks high-authority backlinks. That is how important link acquisition is for business, and it has become more important with the ever-evolving Google ranking system and the introduction of LLMs and AI overviews in search.
Brands and businesses now want to rank on relevant queries and questions in LLMs and AI overviews, because that is where their customers are. Leads from LLMs are highly convertible because you are cited as a solution by ChatGPT or Claude.
Contextual links and media placements are the answer to ranking higher in Google SERPs and getting cited in AI answers. We had a client this year who is a third-party logistics provider.
His only concern was visibility in ChatGPT and other LLMs. At the time he came to us, he was nowhere to be found for relevant questions.
We had a meeting to set targets and results he wanted to achieve. He specifically told us that he doesn’t care about Google SERPs; he wanted to get featured in the top 3 in all answers related to his industry on ChatGPT.
We did a competitor analysis of brands that are cited on ChatGPT on 3PL-related queries. We targeted two main queries.
- Best 3PL company in USA
- Best 3PL fulfillment companies for Shopify
We shortlisted relevant websites in the ecommerce, retail, and business niches for manual link building and outreach. Our team contacted these publications for listicle placements, with the goal of securing a top position for our client and keeping that placement permanent.
Most of the placements were on articles about the best 3PL companies, while a few targeted Shopify-related topics. After securing just six placements, our client began appearing among the top three recommended brands in ChatGPT for queries related to Shopify fulfilment companies. We also did some Qwoted link building for this client to secure editorial mentions on high-authority websites.
We have been tracking these queries weekly, and for the past three months, our client has consistently appeared in ChatGPT recommendations.
This proves the significance and importance of a premium link acquisition service. The client had a DR 54 website with healthy traffic and no technical issues. Still, they were falling behind competitors in rankings and citations.
A link acquisition expert or agency will analyze SERPs and LLM answers, followed by a competitor analysis and content audit, before drafting a link acquisition strategy.
Benefits of Link Acquisition
Here are the key benefits of link acquisition for your brand and business website. Your link acquisition strategy should always align with your business goals, SEO strategy, and overall marketing objectives.
Here are the key benefits of link acquisition for your business:
1. Improve Rankings for Commercial Keywords
Quality backlinks can help your service, product, and category pages compete for commercial keywords.
For example, if you run a real estate business, acquiring relevant real estate backlinks to your service and location pages can help you compete for keywords like “real estate agents in Miami” or “homes for sale in Miami.”
The goal is not to build links to random pages. You should acquire backlinks to pages and keywords that can generate traffic, leads, and sales.
2. Build Topical Authority
Earning backlinks from websites within your industry can strengthen your website’s topical authority. For example, ecommerce link building should focus on earning backlinks from ecommerce blogs, retail publications, business websites, and relevant industry publications rather than unrelated websites.
This also helps search engines better understand what your website is about and which topics it should be associated with.
3. Get Your Brand in Front of Potential Customers
Link acquisition helps you get your brand featured on websites where your potential customers are already looking.
Getting your 3PL company featured in a “Best 3PL Companies for Shopify Stores” listicle gives you more than just a backlink. It puts your brand in front of ecommerce businesses actively looking for a 3PL provider.
These placements can increase brand awareness, bring relevant traffic, and generate potential leads.
4. Increase Visibility in AI Search
Link acquisition from listicles and established websites can also support your visibility across AI search platforms. Brand mentions, listicle placements, and references across relevant third-party websites can strengthen the online presence of your brand.
5. Generate Referral Traffic and Leads
Link acquisition can bring relevant referral traffic and potential leads to your website. In SaaS link building, getting featured on SaaS, technology, and business websites can put your product in front of users already looking for similar solutions.
A relevant backlink can improve rankings while also bringing potential customers directly to your SaaS website.
Best Link Acquisition Strategies & Techniques
Every effective link acquisition strategy starts with giving editors and writers a reason to link to your page or blog. To make that happen, you need to create something valuable and informative.
In digital PR and journalist outreach, this can be original research, industry data, surveys, or interesting findings. Journalists can use these insights in their upcoming stories and link back to your website as the source.
Apart from journalist outreach, your link acquisition strategy can include infographics, images, free tools, data sets, and other linkable assets. The idea is simple: create something journalists, editors, and writers find useful enough to mention, quote, and link to.
Here are 7 link acquisition techniques and strategies you can use for your business. I have further divided these into tiers:
1- Digital PR & Journalist Outreach (Tier 1)
Digital PR and journalist outreach yield the best and most relevant backlinks for a business. It also helps in improving brand awareness and improving direct leads and traffic.
An electrician business mentioned in a Forbes article gives clients a solid reason to trust their services. The link juice and equity passed from Forbes.com is an added advantage.
Similarly, a Cybersecurity SaaS brand mentioned by editors on websites like TechTimes, Cybernews, etc. Will improve thier brand positioning and trust, while also improving their overall SEO and rankings.
I put this at no.1 because it provides everything a good backlink needs to have. The websites have high domain authority and online presence. The topic is relevant to the business, and the placement is editorial. These links and mentions are the best you can get for your brand and are regularly used by our team for link acquisition.
How to get Digital PR links
Here are a few things you can do to secure digital PR links:
Create a research-backed topic around your business or industry. It can be something like the number of people paying rent in Miami vs Chicago, supported by recent data, facts, and findings.
Use journalist outreach platforms like Muck Rack to find journalists covering your industry. If you are in real estate, reach out to real estate and housing journalists with your research and explain why it can be valuable for their audience. If the research is interesting, they may cover it and link back to your website.
You can also use HARO, Featured, and Qwoted to provide expert opinions related to your industry. These can be questions about finance, consumer behaviour, industry trends, or even marketing strategies working for your business.
We specialize in HARO link building and have secured more than 550 mentions and placements for clients across multiple niches. Our team first understands your industry, business, and expertise before we start pitching journalists on your behalf.
The process requires daily monitoring and consistent pitching, which can be time-consuming for business owners. This is why our clients hire us to manage journalist outreach while they focus on running their business.
Contact us to discuss your business goals and get a free link acquisition strategy for your website.
2- Linkable Assets (Tier 1)
Linkable assets give bloggers, journalists, and website owners a reason to link to your website. Instead of creating another generic blog, you create something useful that people can reference in their own content.
The best asset depends on your industry and what your audience finds useful. It can be:
- Original research and industry data
- Free tools and calculators
- Statistics pages
- Infographics and charts
- Templates and checklists
- Detailed industry guides
How to Build Links With Linkable Assets
Start by finding topics in your industry that already attract backlinks. Competitor backlink analysis can help you find their most linked pages and understand what type of content journalists and bloggers are referencing.
Next, create something better or offer information that is not easily available elsewhere. If you run a mortgage website, you could create a mortgage affordability calculator or publish a report comparing average mortgage payments across major US cities.
Publishing the asset alone will not always bring links. Find journalists, bloggers, and websites that have previously covered similar topics and reach out to them with your asset.
Linkable Asset Example
Suppose you run an ecommerce software company. You could analyze thousands of online orders and publish a report showing the busiest ecommerce shopping days, average order values, and return rates throughout the year.
Ecommerce and retail journalists writing about online shopping trends can reference your findings and link to your report as the original source.
3- Image & Infographic Link Building (Tier 1)
Infographics and images are the most underutilized link acquisition techniques used by SEO agencies. Why? Because It requires in-depth research on a topic related to your business and then turning the key findings into an image that is easy to understand and share.
Infographics are highly shareable on social media and can also attract real traffic to your website, which may lead to conversions. Journalists and editors are also looking for meaningful infographics to add to thier blogs so it looks visually appealing.
Creating a research-backed infographic or images relevant to your industry is the best link acquisition strategy you can employ. However, since this requires the efforts of two teams, a research team and a design team, most link acquisition agencies skip it.
How to get image and infographic links?
Start with a topic in your industry that can be explained better visually. Research the topic, collect recent data and statistics, and turn the most interesting findings into an infographic, chart, or image.
Publish the infographic on your website with supporting content, and make sure your website is mentioned as the original source.
Next, find journalists and bloggers who have already covered similar topics. Reach out to them with your infographic and explain how the visual can add value to their existing or upcoming content.
You can also find websites using outdated infographics on the same topic. Offer your updated version and ask them to credit your website with a backlink if they decide to use it.
4- Guest Posts and Niche Edits (Tier 2)
These are tier 2 link acquisition strategies. You find relevant websites and bloggers in your business niche, manually reach out to them, and offer well-researched content in exchange for a backlink.
Niche edits or link insertions are when you ask editors to add a link to your website or page in an existing blog that is ranking for relevant keywords. This provides link equity, improves online visibility, and increases leads directly from that website.
Both are part of the tier 2 link acquisition strategies and often require a professional link acquisition company with SEO tools like Ahrefs and Semrush.
How to do it?
I highly recommend hiring a link acquisition expert or agency for guest posts and niche edits. The process requires experience with SEO tools, website analysis, prospecting, and manual outreach.
We provide premium niche edits and blogger outreach services to our clients. You will receive a list of relevant prospects with their domain rating and organic traffic in a spreadsheet. After careful selection, our outreach manager contacts the selected websites for placements. All links are earned through outreach, and if a publisher asks for an editorial fee, we will let you know before proceeding.
If you want to do it yourself or simply check whether your link acquisition agency is doing things the right way, here are the steps to follow:
a) Get Ahrefs or Semrush
b) Identify competitors and check their backlink profile on Ahrefs
c) Filter the list by DR and traffic
d) Export the list in a spreadsheet. Open every website individually and check their content and team
e) Contact only the ones with high DR, healthy organic traffic, relevant traffic, and a real team behind the brand.
You can also find relevant websites for guest posts and niche edits by using Ahrefs Keyword Explorer.
- Type in your industry keywords and see which websites and blogs are ranking for these terms
- Filter the list by DR and organic traffic, and contact those with relevant content and a team.
5- Resource Page Link Building (Tier 2)
This is similar to niche edits, which we discussed in the previous strategy. However, in resource page link building, you reach out to editors and website owners and ask them to link to a useful resource on your website from one of their existing pages or blogs.
But why would they link to your resource? Because you have created something valuable that can help their readers. It can be a detailed guide, research study, free tool, checklist, template, or another useful resource. This makes it a win-win situation for both websites.
How to Do Resource Page Link Building?
Start by creating a resource that provides real value to people in your industry. In B2B link building, this could be an industry report, ROI calculator, buyer’s checklist, free template, or a detailed guide that helps businesses solve a specific problem.
Next, find websites and blogs that have already linked to similar resources. You can use Ahrefs or Semrush to analyze competing resources and find websites linking to them.
Reach out to the editors or website owners and introduce your resource. Explain what makes it useful and why it would add value to their existing article or resource page. If they find it valuable, they may add your resource as an additional reference and link back to your website.
6- Broken Link Building and Unlinked Brand Mentions (Tier 2)
You can utilize Ahrefs to find broken links on industry-relevant publications and offer your resource page as a replacement. The success rate is low in broken link building, but the results are worth the effort, especially if you can replace a dead link on a high-authority and relevant website.
Don’t outreach every website with a broken link. First check what the deleted page was about and whether you already have a similar resource on your website. If not, you can create a better and updated version before contacting the editor. You can use the Internet Archive to check the content on that page.
Unlinked brand mentions are comparatively easier. Your business, product, research, or founder may already be mentioned on websites without a backlink. You can find these mentions through Google, Ahrefs, or brand monitoring tools and ask the editor to add a link to your website.
How to Do It?
Find broken outbound links on relevant websites through Ahrefs and shortlist the ones you can replace with a useful page from your website. Contact the editor, point out the broken link, and share your resource as an alternative.
For unlinked mentions, search your brand and product names and exclude your own website and social profiles. Once you find a genuine mention without a link, contact the editor and ask if they can credit your brand with a backlink.
Keep your outreach short. You are already giving the editor a reason to make the change by either helping them fix a broken link or properly crediting a brand they have mentioned.
7- Listicle Link Building (Tier 2)
Listicles are part of the tier 2 link acquisition technique. Instead of simply adding your backlink to an existing article, the goal is to get your business, product, or service included in a list of recommended companies.
For instance, a cybersecurity company can target articles like “Best Cybersecurity Companies for Small Businesses,” while a SaaS brand can look for “Best CRM Software” or other relevant comparison listicles.
These links can provide SEO value, but the bigger advantage is visibility. You are getting your brand in front of people who are already comparing companies and may be ready to buy.
How to Do Listicle Link Building?
Search Google for “best,” “top,” and “recommended” lists related to your product or service. You can also use Ahrefs to find listicles where your competitors are already mentioned.
Shortlist relevant articles with good rankings, traffic, and authority. Outreach for link acquisition starts with contacting the editors and explaining why your company or product deserves to be included in their listicle.
Share useful information about your product, pricing, features, and what makes your business different. Give the editor a genuine reason to add your brand rather than simply asking for a backlink. If possible, try to secure a position near the top of the list instead of simply getting added at the bottom.
There you have it. These are some of the best link acquisition strategies for earning editorial backlinks and media placements.
Most of these strategies require research, prospecting, outreach, and consistent follow-ups. I recommend hiring a link acquisition freelancer or agency to manage the campaign, so you can focus on running and growing your business.
3 Best Link Acquisition Services & Agencies
The best link acquisition services don’t simply sell backlinks. They earn them through journalist outreach, editorial placements, digital PR, and manual outreach to relevant websites.
Before hiring a link acquisition service provider, ask these questions:
- How do you find and qualify websites for link placements?
- Do you manually outreach journalists, editors, and website owners?
- Can I approve websites before the placement?
- Will the backlinks be relevant to my industry and placed contextually?
- Do I pay before or after the backlink goes live?
If all the answers seem legitimate, ask for samples of link acquisition campaigns they have worked on in the past. Check the links they secured, website quality, relevance, and results.
If the sample placements are good and they can logically explain their process, they should be good to go. Here are the best link acquisition agencies and services:
1- HAROLinked: Best Overall Link Acquisition Service
HAROLinked is our top choice for businesses looking for a fully managed link acquisition service. Instead of selling links from a fixed database, we earn placements through journalist outreach, digital PR, blogger outreach, niche edits, listicles, and manual outreach.
We have secured more than 550 media mentions and placements across multiple industries. Our team first understands your business, competitors, and link building goals before finding relevant opportunities and pitching journalists and editors.
We also provide white label link building services for SEO and digital marketing agencies. Our team works behind the scenes, from prospecting and outreach to securing placements, while you manage the relationship with your clients. This allows agencies to offer link building without hiring and managing an in-house outreach team.
You also know where your links are coming from. We share relevant prospects, SEO metrics, and placement opportunities for approval instead of building random backlinks just to meet a monthly link target.
2- Dofollow.com: Best for B2B and SaaS Link Acquisition
Dofollow.com is another established link acquisition agency, particularly for SaaS and B2B companies. Their approach focuses on manual outreach and earning backlinks from relevant and authoritative websites rather than relying on link marketplaces.
They also provide case studies showing the SEO results of their campaigns, which is something you should always look for when selecting a link acquisition company.
3- uSERP: Best for Content-Led Link Acquisition
uSERP is another well-known agency offering link building and digital PR services. Their approach combines content, outreach, and authority link acquisition, making them a suitable option for SaaS and other competitive online businesses.
They are more suitable for companies looking for an established agency and a larger-scale link acquisition campaign rather than simply purchasing individual backlinks.
Link Acquisition Best Practices & Mistakes to Avoid
A successful link acquisition campaign is not about how many backlinks you can build. The quality of the website, relevance of the page, placement of the link, and how you earned it matter more.
Here are some practices I recommend following when acquiring links:
1- Prioritize Relevance and Quality
Don’t select websites just because they have a high DR. Check their organic traffic, ranking keywords, content quality, niche relevance, and whether there is a real business or editorial team behind the website.
A DR 50 website closely related to your industry can be a better placement than a DR 80 website publishing content on every possible niche.
2- Don’t Build the Same Type of Links
Your backlink profile should not consist entirely of guest posts or niche edits. Use different link acquisition strategies, including digital PR, journalist outreach, listicles, resource pages, guest posts, and editorial mentions.
This also gives you different types of placements instead of relying on a single link acquisition technique.
3- Keep the Placement Relevant
Getting a backlink from a relevant website is not enough. The page and surrounding content should also make sense for your link.
If you are linking to an ecommerce fulfilment service, getting the link from an article about ecommerce operations or shipping is much more relevant than forcing it into an unrelated business article.
4- Don’t Over-Optimize Anchor Text
You don’t need your target keyword in every backlink. Repeatedly using the same exact-match anchor can make your backlink profile look unnatural.
Use branded anchors, URLs, partial-match keywords, and other anchors that naturally fit within the content.
5- Avoid Automated and Spammy Link Building
Stay away from tools and services promising hundreds or thousands of backlinks within a few days. These links usually come from profiles, comments, low-quality directories, PBNs, and websites created primarily for link building.
Good link acquisition takes time because you have to research prospects, check websites, find contacts, pitch editors, and follow up.
6- Don’t Buy Placements Without Checking the Website
Some legitimate publishers may ask for an editorial or publishing fee. Paying the fee should not mean accepting whatever website is offered to you.
Check the website, traffic, relevance, content, and proposed placement before approving it. If the website exists mainly to publish paid guest posts across unrelated niches, skip it.
Follow these practices throughout your campaign rather than checking backlink quality after the links are already live. A smaller number of relevant editorial links is usually a much better investment than building links just to increase your referring domain count.
Conclusion
Link acquisition is not about getting as many backlinks as possible. The goal is to earn relevant and contextual links from websites that can improve your authority, rankings, brand visibility, and referral traffic.
Start with digital PR, journalist outreach, linkable assets, guest posts, niche edits, listicles, and other strategies discussed in this guide. Always check the website and placement before building a link.
If you don’t have the time or resources to manage research, prospecting, and outreach yourself, work with a link acquisition agency that can manage the complete process for you.
In that case, I’d make the answers a little more natural and useful instead of forcing them to be short:
Frequently Asked Questions
1- What is link acquisition?
Link acquisition is the process of earning backlinks from relevant and authoritative websites. This can be done through journalist outreach, digital PR, guest posts, niche edits, linkable assets, listicles, and other manual outreach strategies.
2- What is the difference between link acquisition and link building?
Link building is a broader term and can include everything from directory and profile links to guest posts and editorial backlinks. Link acquisition is more focused on earning relevant and contextual placements from real websites through outreach and relationships.
3- How many links should I acquire each month?
There is no ideal number that works for every website. It depends on your competition, current backlink profile, keywords, and business goals. I would rather acquire five relevant editorial links than 50 links from websites that have nothing to do with your industry. Here is a guide on the number of links you need to rank in 2026.
4- How long does link acquisition take to show results?
You may start seeing ranking improvements within a few months, but there is no fixed timeline. It depends on the quality of links, competition, your existing website authority, content, and how consistently you are acquiring links.
5- Should I hire a link acquisition agency?
You can manage link acquisition yourself if you have the SEO tools, outreach experience, and time to do it consistently. If not, hiring an agency or freelancer can handle prospecting, outreach, follow-ups, and placements while you focus on your business.