Backlinks have risen to high importance in the past few years for optimizing the off-page SEO of a website. Before any of the backlinks mattered, web browsers were reliant on the content of a webpage to rank it. However, with the coming of the Page Rank algorithm in 1998, the SEO game changed completely.
Google announced that to assess a webpage for ranking, it would now consider how many other pages were referring to it. Ever since then, healthy, and organic backlinking practices have been evolving. In fact, a survey found that the first search result today has an average of 3.8 times more backlinks than the pages ranking 2nd onwards.
Today, search engines like Google focus more on the quality of the backlinks as well, in addition to quantity. Your business can hire a link building company to help you create a robust backlink profile, or you could automate some parts of this process and cut back on the costs a little bit. Let’s understand whether you should hire a professional or automate your link building.
What Is Automated Link Building?
Automated link building is exactly that: instead of manually searching for backlinking opportunities and reaching out to publishing websites, you can automate a large part of what goes on in the background to save time. Here are a few ways an automatic link building tool can help you:
- By providing you a link repository where you can publish articles and request backlinks, segregated by industry and niche
- Automatically posting articles to selected links
- Reaching out to prospects for opportunities on link building
- Submitting your profile to websites that allow profile creation, for example LinkedIn, with your links and contact details
Automated link building tools help you reduce the manpower you need to accomplish this task, however, there is a big limitation. In places where captcha or user verification has been set up, your automation tool may run into a wall.
Manual vs. Automated Link Building
Manual and automated link building are both immensely useful in their own spheres of utility. It depends on the needs of your business, the budget, and the approach you wish to take for building a good link profile that determines which option is better for you.
Here are a few major differences between manual and automated link building to consider before deciding.
| Feature/Property | Manual Link Building | Automated Link Building |
| Proactiveness | Humans can display proactiveness and recognize opportunities better. In case a great opportunity shows itself, humans can tackle it better. This could translate into long-term link building partnerships and many more great avenues online.
For example, the owner of your target site could reach out to you for regular content, and a human would recognize that. |
Automated link building tools are built on the concept of Robotic Process Automation. They treat all the opportunities equally and in the same way. The responses, whether via emails or comments, would be automated with templatized messages and information, and it could actually take a good link building opportunity away from your business.
Automation tools aren’t proactive. |
| Pricing | A link building service will comprise industry-trained individuals who know the tricks of the trade. They may also have contacts with various publishers in the niche your business functions in. While this would help your link profile grow, your budget may not allow hiring such high-profile professionals when a simple automation tool can do the job for you. | Automated link building tools are an upfront investment. You can purchase this tool once and keep using it to build your link profile. Down the line, you can invest in more plugins and functionality to improve its utility and scope of link building. If you are looking for a quick fix that is within budget, automation might be the answer. |
| Evolution of Strategy | Humans are better capable of evolving a link building strategy that has long-term visibility. Professionals can help chart out building an excellent, high-quality link profile a few years down the line, without any downsides and interruptions. These strategies are well-thought and tested, ensuring a good response once the wheels are in motion. | Automation tools cannot strategize. They are essentially bots that follow an algorithm to work. They are programmed to follow commands and execute them efficiently. The opportunity to strategize link-building for the long haul is lost on automation tools.
These tools only help you with a quick database and execution – you are on your own for everything in between. Unless, of course, you decide to invest in an AI-enabled tool. |
| Effectiveness | Link building is rarely effective from the get-go. Manual link building takes time to reach out, form connections and agreements to slowly build a strong, expansive link profile. However, its effectiveness increases exponentially with a carefully fostered network.
Only a human touch can achieve a professional networking setup for link building. |
Automation tools are lightning-fast when it comes to the discovery of opportunities for link building. They have a ready database of publishers and avenues to post content on. They also help you with outreach by reducing the time it takes to prepare the communication and send it through. Automation tools are highly effective in managing the time it takes to initiate link building. |
| Time Required | Manual link building is a matter of extreme patience, great networking, and communication skills. It requires timely follow-ups and delivery of content to be published. With manual link building, the motto is “Slow and steady wins the race.” | Automated link building helps you drastically reduce the time it takes for opportunity discovery. It also helps with ready and templatized communications to save time. You can automate emails and messaging, saving more of your time there. However, the link building would still take its own sweet time. |
Which is Better?
It really depends on what you seek from your link building activities. In the end, every business wants a high-quality backlink network on its webpage. If you are looking for a long term association that generates continuous opportunities with super high-quality and impressive potential for increasing ranking, you may want to hire link building professionals for their knowledge and experience.
On the other hand, if you are looking for an immediate boost in links and seek something that is within your budget, is fast and doesn’t need much human intervention, you can opt for the link building automation tools. However, it is more like a temporary fix – link building is a conscious process that requires consistency and patience.
Conclusion
Did you know that about 58% of professionals believe that link building really impacts search engine rankings? Manual and automatic link building – both – have their own benefits in certain situations. Consider the points highlighted above to make an informed choice.