Digital PR assets
Original research, data studies, or expert commentary built specifically to be newsworthy. Each asset is designed around a story angle, not a keyword.
SEO / Link building
Link building without the schemes Earned links
Digital PR, editorial placement, and mention reclamation. We will also tell you the four tactics we refuse to run and why they cost you more than they earn.
Link building has a bad name because most of it is bought. A vendor sells a package of fifty links, they show up in a spreadsheet, and six months later a manual action or an algorithm update wipes out the gain and takes trust with it. We do not run that model. We run digital PR, editorial outreach, and mention reclamation, all of it earned by giving a publication something worth linking to.
This page exists because prospects ask us directly whether we buy links, and they deserve a direct answer. We do not. Every placement we generate comes from a real editor deciding your content, data, or expert commentary belongs in their story. That process is slower than a purchase order. It is also the only kind of authority that survives a core update.
The other half of this program has nothing to do with outreach. Most sites are sitting on link equity they already earned and are wasting through poor internal linking. We audit the internal graph before we chase a single external placement, because a site that cannot move authority from its homepage to its money pages will not benefit from new links either.
If your last SEO vendor reported a rising link count with no context on domain quality, relevance, or placement type, that report was measuring volume instead of value. We report on referring domains that matter, not the total that looks impressive on a slide.
What it is
What the program actually includes
Three channels, run in parallel, plus the housekeeping most agencies skip.
Digital PR is the primary channel. We build newsworthy assets, original data, expert commentary, or genuinely useful tools, and pitch them to journalists and industry publications covering your space. A placement from a real outlet passes editorial judgment before it exists, which is exactly what makes it valuable and exactly what makes it slower than a purchase.
Unlinked mention reclamation is the fastest win most sites have never claimed. Your brand, your founder, or your product gets mentioned in articles and reviews without a link back. We find those mentions and ask, politely, for attribution. It is a low-effort request because the writer already decided you were worth naming.
Internal link equity is the part that never shows up in a link-building pitch and is often the highest-leverage move available. Every backlink you earn passes authority into whichever page it lands on. If that page is not connected to your priority pages through a deliberate internal link structure, the authority stalls there instead of compounding.
None of this touches purchased link networks, private blog networks, reciprocal link schemes, mass guest post placements, or directory blasts. We will explain exactly why below, because understanding the failure mode matters more than taking our word for it.
Fit
Who this is for, and who it is not for
We would rather say no early than sell a program that cannot work.
This fits when
- You have real expertise, data, or a genuine story a journalist would want.
- You want authority gains that survive an algorithm update.
- You are willing to let placement quality outrank placement quantity.
This is not a fit when
- You want a specific link count delivered on a fixed weekly schedule.
- You expect results from a purchased package rather than earned outreach.
- Your site has no content or data worth writing about yet, in which case start with content strategy.
Deliverables
What you get
A program built on outreach and reclamation, reported honestly.
Journalist and editor outreach
Direct pitching to writers and publications covering your industry, tracked so you see exactly who was contacted and what they said.
Unlinked mention audit
A full sweep for existing brand mentions across the web that have no link attached, with outreach to convert the strongest ones.
Internal link equity map
A diagram of how authority currently flows through your site and where it should flow instead, with the specific link changes required.
A written no-list
A short document naming the tactics we will not run on your account and the mechanism by which each one eventually backfires.
Referring domain reporting
Monthly reporting on new referring domains that filters out low-quality and irrelevant placements instead of counting every link the same.
How we run it
How a link program runs here
Four stages, run on a monthly cadence rather than a one-time sprint.
Step 1: Link profile audit
We pull your current backlink profile, flag anything that looks manipulative or toxic, and map internal link equity before pursuing a single new placement.
Step 2: Asset and angle development
We identify what your business actually has that is worth covering, data, expertise, or a real story, and shape it into something a journalist can use.
Step 3: Outreach and reclamation
Pitching runs in parallel with mention reclamation, since reclaiming an existing mention is faster and often converts at a higher rate than a cold pitch.
Step 4: Internal linking pass
As new links land, we route the authority they bring into priority pages through deliberate internal linking rather than leaving it stranded on a blog post.
Step 5: Monthly reporting
You get a report on new referring domains, their relevance and quality, and what pitches are in progress, not a raw count meant to impress.
Do you buy links or use link networks?
No. We build digital PR assets, pitch journalists directly, and reclaim unlinked brand mentions. Purchased links, PBNs, reciprocal schemes, and directory blasts create short-term counts that carry manual action and algorithmic risk, so we do not run them under any account.
Where this connects
Link building does not run alone
It depends on work happening elsewhere in the pillar and beyond it.
Link building has nothing to pitch without assets worth covering, which is why it runs downstream of content strategy and the pillar pages it produces.
Knowing which publications and link profiles your competitors already own comes out of competitor analysis before we build the outreach list.
New links only compound if the pages receiving them are structured to hold authority, which is set during on-page optimization at the template level.
See how link building fits alongside the other eleven programs back on the SEO hub where we explain how a full program is scoped.
A strong PR placement is also a citation opportunity for AI assistants, which is the focus of answer engine optimization since assistants weight the same earned mentions search engines do.
Questions
Link building questions we get asked
See what your link profile can actually support
We start with an audit of what you have before pitching a single new placement.