Existing profile audit
What you already have, including links from previous agencies that carry risk. Knowing what is in the profile matters before adding anything to it.
What makes a link worth having
Relevance and genuine editorial choice. A link from a site whose readers would plausibly become your customers, placed because the linking page needed a reference, carries weight. A link bought from a high-scoring domain nobody reads carries risk and, increasingly, nothing else.
The industry still sells on domain authority scores because they are easy to put in a proposal. Those scores are third-party estimates, not signals any search engine uses, and optimising toward them selects for exactly the sites that sell links — high scores, no readers, and a footprint search engines have been detecting for a decade.
The better test is whether you would want the referral traffic. If a link would send you plausible customers, it is probably worth having regardless of its score. If the only argument for it is a metric, it is probably part of a network and the risk is real rather than theoretical.
Digital PR is the version of this that works at scale, because it produces links as a by-product of something independently useful. A genuine data story, an expert comment on a live issue, a tool people want to reference — these earn links from publications that do not sell them, which is the only category worth accumulating.
We do not buy links, exchange them, or place them through networks, and we will decline the work rather than do it quietly. Beyond the policy question, bought links are the single most common cause of the penalties we get called in to recover from, which makes them expensive twice.
What the programme delivers
The programme delivers an audit of your existing profile including anything that looks bought, a target list built on audience overlap rather than domain scores, earned placements through digital PR and expert commentary, and reporting that separates earned links from everything else.
Relevance-based targets
Sites whose readers plausibly become your customers, selected on audience overlap rather than on a third-party authority score.
Digital PR assets
Data stories and expert commentary journalists have a reason to cite, because sustainable link acquisition is a publishing problem rather than an outreach volume problem.
Expert commentary programme
Your named specialists made available to journalists covering your category, which produces links and brand mentions from publications that never sell either.
Disavow recommendations
Where a historic profile carries genuine risk, a considered recommendation — used sparingly, since over-disavowing is its own well-documented mistake.
Honest reporting
Earned links separated from directory entries, syndication and anything else that inflates a count without adding authority.
How the programme runs
The programme runs continuously: audit what you already have, build a target list on audience overlap, create assets worth citing, then run outreach to journalists and editors who cover your category. Authority gains compound over quarters rather than appearing in weeks.
- 01
Audit the existing profile
What you have, where it came from, and whether anything carries risk. Previous agencies frequently leave a footprint nobody has looked at since.
→ A profile audit with risk flags
- 02
Build targets on relevance
Sites whose audience overlaps yours, judged by whether the referral traffic would be worth having. Domain scores inform the list; they do not select it.
→ A relevance-ranked target list
- 03
Create something worth citing
Data, research or expert perspective a journalist has a reason to reference. Outreach without a reason to link is the least efficient activity in this discipline.
→ Published assets built for citation
- 04
Outreach and commentary
Direct approaches to editors covering your category, plus making your experts available on live stories. Slower than buying and the only version that lasts.
→ Earned placements, reported individually
- 05
Report honestly
Earned editorial links counted separately from directories and syndication, so the number in the report reflects work rather than volume.
→ A monthly earned-link report
Earned links compared with bought links
The distinction matters commercially rather than only ethically. Bought links produce a faster count and carry penalty risk that compounds, while earned links accumulate slowly and survive. Most penalty recovery engagements we take on begin with a bought-link profile somebody inherited.
| Earned | Bought | |
|---|---|---|
| Speed | Slow — quarters to compound | Fast — a count within weeks |
| Selection basis | Audience overlap and relevance | Domain authority score |
| Durability | Persists, and is hard to reverse | Devalued or penalised when detected |
| Referral traffic | Real, sometimes substantial | Effectively none |
| Risk | None | Manual actions and algorithmic suppression |
| What we do | This | Decline the work |
Signals you need this now
You need this when your content is strong but nothing ranks competitively, when a previous agency built a profile nobody has audited, or when competitors outrank you on pages that are demonstrably worse because their authority is higher than yours.
- Your content is strong but competitive rankings never arrive
- A previous agency built links nobody has audited since
- Competitors outrank you with demonstrably worse pages
- Your link profile is mostly directories and syndication
- You have data or expertise nobody has ever pitched to journalists
- You inherited a site and do not know what is in its profile
- You are recovering from a penalty and need a clean approach
What clients see
Authority gains are the slowest lever in search and compound over quarters rather than weeks. Digital PR assets frequently produce their own referral traffic and brand mentions before any ranking effect appears, which makes the intermediate months easier to justify internally.
Where this fits
Related SEO services
Common in these sectors
The adjacent disciplines
Deciding between options
Questions about link building services
Each answer is written to stand alone in 40 to 60 words — the shape an AI Overview or Perplexity citation lifts. Ships with FAQPage schema.
Do you buy links?
No, and we will decline the work rather than do it quietly. Beyond violating search engine guidelines, bought links are the most common cause of the penalties we get called in to recover from — which makes them expensive twice over.
How many links will we get each month?
We do not commit to a monthly count, because a target quantity is what drives agencies toward bought placements. We commit to a scope of assets and outreach, and report earned links individually so you can judge their quality rather than their number.
Does domain authority matter when choosing targets?
It informs a list without selecting it. Those scores are third-party estimates rather than signals engines use, and optimising toward them selects for sites that sell links. The better test is whether you would want the referral traffic.
Should we disavow our old links?
Sparingly and only where there is genuine risk. Over-disavowing is a well-documented way to remove authority you were benefiting from. We recommend it where a profile carries real liability and advise against it far more often than for.
How is digital PR different from link building?
Digital PR earns links as a by-product of publishing something independently useful — data, expertise, a live comment. It is the version that scales without buying, because publications that never sell links will cite something genuinely worth citing.
How long before links affect rankings?
Three to six months before authority gains compound meaningfully, and longer in competitive categories. Digital PR assets often produce referral traffic and brand mentions earlier, which makes the intervening period easier to justify internally.
Find out whether this is your constraint.
Thirty minutes with a senior strategist. We pull your live visibility while we talk and tell you plainly whether a link building services is what you need — or whether your problem sits somewhere else.