It’s no secret that links are one of the strongest ranking factors for search engines such as Google. If your website has plenty of strong backlinks (to the right pages), you’ll see an improvement in your rankings. The problem? Most link builders are improvising.
Many businesses are very new to SEO and they need a link building plan. According to a 2025 BuzzStream study, only 32% of link builders follow a documented, repeatable process — meaning 68% are building links without a real plan in place.
That’s a massive missed opportunity, because the SEOs who do build links strategically win the compounding benefits: better link quality, more consistent velocity, and rankings that actually hold.
This guide gives you that documented plan. It’s a nine-step link building plan you can apply to any website, any industry, at any stage of growth.
What is a link building plan?
A link building plan is a structured set of rules and guidelines for how to build links for your website. It includes instructions such as:
- What kind of links you want to build
- What the end goal of your link building campaign is (the metrics for success)
- Which pages you want to build the links to
- Which link building techniques you use
- How and when success is measured
A link building plan gives you direction and helps you determine what kind of links you want to build to achieve your desired results.
Whether you just launched a new website or one that has been up for years, a link building plan is a must if you’re serious about SEO. Your in-house SEO team or outsourced agency can use it to stay on budget and build the kinds of links that move the needle for your website.
Before creating your link building plan…
Here’s the scale of the challenge: 95% of all web pages on the internet have zero backlinks pointing to them, according to Backlinko’s analysis of over a billion pages. That means the playing field is wide open for anyone willing to build links systematically — but it also means links don’t happen by accident.
You should know that no two link building plans are the same, as there are unique circumstances for each website. Here is a checklist of things to go through before creating your plan — or using our link building plan template above.
- Determine who your audience is. How they consume content and purchase and what kind of ROI you can expect from SEO.
- Determine your link building budget. High-quality backlinks require serious investment. Current market data shows the average cost of a quality link is $360–$1,500+, with premium editorial placements from high-authority domains often exceeding that. Agencies and in-house SEO teams allocate an average of 32–36% of their total SEO budget to link building — a useful benchmark when setting your own. For a full breakdown of what to expect at different budget levels, see our link building cost guide.
- Define your goals and KPIs. Know what success looks like before you start. At a minimum, set a target number of referring domains (benchmark against the top 3 results for your target keywords), a monthly link acquisition pace you can sustain, and a minimum quality floor for links you’ll accept — for example, Domain Rating 40+, real organic traffic, and topical relevance to your niche. Useful KPIs to track throughout your campaign include: referring domain growth, Domain Rating changes, keyword rankings for target pages, and cost per link acquired.
- Take a look at your competition. The link building strategies they use, the velocity of links they build, their content marketing efforts and successes and more.
- Learn what makes for good and bad links. While you can tell quality content apart from the bad content, you should learn what makes for a good link: target page, anchor text, domain rating, website relevance, etc.
Site owners should know all of these things before starting out their own link building operations or outsourcing the work. Worry not though, because websites such as ReportCard have lots of in-depth content around link building and search engine optimization.
With that out of the way…
The only link building plan you will ever need
If you’re a digital marketing expert, creating your unique plan is going to be much easier, but the plan below applies to anyone who wants to improve their backlink profile. Here is a step-by-step guide to building links that make a difference.
Step 1: make your website and branding spotless
Make it easy for others to link to you by having a clean, well-structured website with great design and user experience. You want high-quality links from great websites, and other site owners want to link to amazing websites. If your website looks outdated and spammy, your chances of landing great link opportunities plummet.
Make sure you have a great hero image, all the relevant links in your navigation bar, as well as a copy that clearly explains what kind of problems you solve, and for what kind of target audience. Make sure your website loads quickly and is optimized for all types of devices.
If you don’t know where to get started, take a look at some competitor websites before consulting with an experienced designer to get tips for improvement.
Step 2: clean up your online presence
Besides your own website, you need to appear like a reputable brand in front of others. This means creating your social media profiles (if you don’t have them already) and making sure they’re all on-brand.
Social links contribute slightly to your overall SEO success, and they also help with building relationships with other brands, partners and link builders. Most importantly, make sure all your social profiles link back to your website.
Step 3: get links from directories
Online directories are places that list websites operating in a certain industry or area. Getting links from directories should be one of the first link building tactics you should try out, because most directories will link back to your webpage for free.
You can get a good number of homepage links from these websites. Also, you get a unique chance to check whether the information in the directory is correct: your address and contact information, among other things. This is a must for local SEO backlinks.
You can get directory backlinks on autopilot through services such as BrightLocal. For international businesses and those not bound by location, you’ll have to do some manual work to get new links from directories.
Step 4: do a website content audit
Before you build backlinks to your website, you should see how your website is already performing. If you have a brand new website, don’t skip this step because you want to learn what you can do in the future to see if your link building efforts are working or not.
A tool such as Ahrefs can give you a quick overview of your SEO performance
Use an SEO tool to find out what kind of content you already have and how it’s performing in terms of Google search performance and the number of backlinks. There are many great options out there, from free ones such as Google Analytics and Google Search Console to paid ones like Ahrefs, SEMrush and Moz. You can use these for a full SEO audit or just a backlink audit depending on your needs.
With these tools, you’ll be able to answer some of the following questions:
- How much organic traffic do I have?
- What are my best pages in terms of organic traffic?
- What is my current and desired domain authority/domain rating?
- What is my top performing piece of shareable content and why?
- Which pages get the most backlinks and where do these backlinks come from?
- Which pages don’t get any traffic and/or backlinks and why?
- What existing content do I have that could be great for attracting backlinks?
- What are the top keywords that I rank for and what keywords do I want to rank for?
- What do my internal links look like? Do I have enough links pointing internally to my most important content?
- What is my ratio of dofollow and nofollow links?
This step is essential because you need to know where you stand before choosing the best link building tools and methods to get where you want to be.
Step 5: competitor analysis
Analyzing your competitors is a part of every great SEO strategy. This is why it’s essential to analyze your own website performance first. You probably already know who your biggest competitors are, and SEO tools like Ahrefs will show you how they stand in terms of SEO. And the best part is that you can do an audit of their website without special access — all you need is an Ahrefs subscription.
When doing a competitor analysis, you’ll be taking a look at the same things as you do with your own website, with a few small tweaks. You want to look at their most valuable content, top pages and linkable assets, what type of content performs best and where they have the largest number of links.
You want to pay special attention to the websites where your competitors have links from. You can do this with a simple gap analysis in Ahrefs. You can learn:
- Which websites your competitors have links from, but you don’t
- Which of their pages have the highest number of links and are potential money pages
- Which websites you could reach out to and get links from — if these bloggers linked to your competitors, they are likely to link to you too
With these tools, it’s easy to do a competitor analysis on a regular basis, which we strongly recommend.
One often-overlooked dimension of competitor analysis is link velocity — how quickly your competitors are acquiring new backlinks over time. In Ahrefs, navigate to a competitor’s Referring Domains report and switch to the historical view to see their monthly acquisition pace. If a competitor is consistently adding 20–30 new referring domains per month and you’re building 5, your plan needs to account for that gap.
Also note which specific content pieces are attracting the most links for each competitor. These are your proven formats and topics — content the market has already confirmed it will link to. Use these findings to guide Step 6.
Step 6: create linkable assets
Link building becomes a lot easier once you have something on your website that is worth linking to. Especially if you want to do relationship-based link building and not outright pay for links, you want to provide value with your content. And valuable content tends to get a lot more links than thin content that no one reads.
Example of a linkable asset from Zendesk
Some examples of linkable assets include:
- Infographics
- Ultimate guides and walkthroughs
- Cheat sheets
- Unique research with relevant statistics
- Roundup posts with relevant industry expert quotes
Having this kind of link-worthy content ensures that other bloggers will link to you naturally at some point, instead of having to write manual outreach emails all the time. High-quality content makes life easier for your link building team and is a great long-term investment for the brand.
Not all formats earn links equally. Research consistently shows that content over 3,000 words earns 3.5x more backlinks on average than shorter posts. Original data and research — surveys, proprietary analysis, industry benchmarks — earns the most links per piece because it becomes a citable primary source. Free tools and calculators earn passive links for years. Infographics earn links when they make complex data easy to embed and share.
Before creating something new, check what you already have. If an existing piece is already attracting some high-authority backlinks, improving and re-promoting it is often faster than starting a new asset from zero.
Step 7: choose the best link building strategies for your goals
There are many different ways to build links and we’ve talked about them in detail on the ReportCard blog. Depending on how much time and budget you have and what kind of results you’re hoping to get, you can try out one, more or all of the techniques available.
Not all link building strategies are equal — and the landscape has shifted significantly. Here’s where to start, ranked by current effectiveness:
- Digital PR — the most effective link building strategy in 2026. Digital PR means creating genuinely newsworthy content — original research, data-led stories, expert commentary — and pitching it to journalists and publications in your industry. When they publish it, the links are truly editorial: earned because your content had news value. A well-run campaign can generate 15+ backlinks from high-authority publications in a short window. 48.6% of link building professionals now name it their most effective strategy — far ahead of any other tactic.
- Guest posting (also known as guest blogging) — writing content for other websites in your niche in exchange for a backlink. Still one of the most widely used tactics and a reliable way to build topically relevant links at scale.
- Broken link building
- Pursuing unlinked brand mentions
- HARO link building — a great approach for brands who are new to link building
- Link exchanges
- Niche insertions
- Links from resource pages
- Link reclamation — a more advanced strategy that requires better SEO expertise
- Getting links from podcasts
- Creating and promoting infographics
Whichever strategy you opt for, there is a high chance that bloggers won’t naturally link to you without you asking first. This is why you need to do targeted outreach — and get in touch with websites that would link to your old or new content assets. We cover the full outreach process in Step 8.
For more on individual tactics, see our complete guide to backlinking for SEO.
Step 8: build your outreach process
Choosing a link building strategy without a repeatable outreach process is like knowing what you want to say but having no way to say it. Outreach is how most links actually get built — and having a documented process is what separates teams that get consistent results from those that burn out after a few weeks.
The outreach loop
Every link building outreach campaign follows the same core loop:
- Prospect — Identify target websites. Use the competitor gap analysis from Step 5 as your starting list: you already know these sites link to content like yours. Supplement with searches for relevant resource pages, guest posting opportunities, and broken link targets in your niche.
- Qualify — Apply your quality floor from the pre-plan checklist. Minimum DR, real organic traffic, topical relevance. A smaller list of well-qualified targets will always outperform a mass-spray approach.
- Personalise and contact — Generic outreach emails get ignored. Reference a specific piece of their content, explain why your resource is relevant to their audience, and make the ask clear. Three to five sentences is enough.
- Follow up — A single follow-up 5–7 days after your initial email can double your response rate. Don’t send more than two touches per prospect.
- Track — Log every outreach contact: URL, contact name, date sent, response, outcome. This data feeds directly into Step 9.
What good outreach looks like at scale
Plan for a minimum of 50–100 outreach contacts per month to generate a consistent flow of 5–15 links. Response rates for cold outreach typically sit between 5–15%, so volume matters alongside quality. If you don’t have the bandwidth in-house, this is where working with a specialist link building service pays off — the prospecting and outreach infrastructure already exists.
Not sure where to start? See our roundup of the top link building companies to understand what a professional outreach operation looks like.
Step 9: track results and adjust
Link building is a long-term investment. The only way to know whether your plan is working — or where to course-correct — is to track the right metrics on a consistent schedule.
What to track and how often
Monthly:
- New referring domains — the most important leading indicator. Track in Ahrefs (Referring Domains → New) or Google Search Console (Links report).
- Domain Rating / Domain Authority changes — your site’s overall link authority. Moves slowly, but should trend upward over 3–6 months of consistent effort.
- Outreach response and conversion rates — if you’re sending 100 emails and getting 0 links, the problem is your prospecting, your pitch, or your content asset.
Monthly or quarterly:
- Keyword rankings for target pages — the downstream effect of links. Track in Ahrefs, Semrush, or Google Search Console’s Performance report.
- Organic traffic to linked pages — rankings only matter if they produce traffic.
Quarterly:
- Cost per link acquired — divide total link building spend by quality links earned. Track this over time to improve efficiency and demonstrate ROI internally.
The adjustment loop
Every month, ask three questions:
- Are we hitting our referring domain target?
- Are the links we’re getting meeting our quality floor?
- Are target page rankings improving?
If the answer to any of these is no, diagnose before scaling. A plan that generates low-quality links at high velocity is worse than no plan — it can attract a manual penalty and set your site back months.
Use backlink monitoring tools to get alerts when you gain or lose links. And whenever you notice a significant drop in referring domains, run a fresh backlink audit to identify what changed and why.
How long does link building take to work?
The most common question when starting a link building plan: when will I see results?
Here’s what the data shows:
- Initial indexing: Google typically discovers and indexes new backlinks within 2–4 weeks.
- Ranking movement: Most SEOs report measurable ranking changes after 10–12 weeks of consistent link building. Competitive keywords can take 6–12 months.
- Traffic impact: Meaningful organic traffic growth typically requires 4–6 months of sustained effort, assuming you’re targeting keywords with reasonable search volume.
This is why having a documented plan matters. When results feel slow — and they will at some point — a clear record of what you’ve built and when gives you the confidence to stay consistent rather than switching tactics prematurely.
What does a 90-day link building plan look like?
If you’re starting from scratch, here’s a realistic month-by-month breakdown:
Month 1: Complete Steps 1–4. Clean up your site and branding, establish social presence, get directory listings, and run your content audit. Set your goals and KPI baselines.
Month 2: Complete Steps 5–6. Run your competitor analysis, identify or create your first linkable asset, and begin prospecting for outreach targets.
Month 3: Launch Steps 7–8. Pick your primary strategy, run your first outreach campaign, and start tracking results in Step 9.
Results from Month 3 activity typically start showing up in Months 4–5. That timeline is completely normal — stick to the plan.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a backlink and a referring domain?
A backlink is a single hyperlink pointing to your site. A referring domain is the unique website that link comes from. If one site links to you five times, that’s five backlinks but only one referring domain. Referring domain count is the more meaningful metric — 50 links from 50 different websites is far more valuable than 50 links from the same site.
How many backlinks do I need to rank?
It depends entirely on your competition. For low-competition keywords, fewer than 10 high-quality backlinks may be enough. For competitive terms, the top-ranking pages often have backlinks from hundreds of unique domains. The right approach: check what the current top 3 results have in terms of referring domains, and use that as your target benchmark.
How long does it take to build backlinks?
Outreach-based link building typically takes 2–8 weeks per link, depending on response rates and publication timelines. Digital PR campaigns can generate links faster — sometimes within days of a story going live — but require more upfront preparation. Plan for meaningful ranking movement after 3–4 months of consistent effort.
What is a good link building velocity?
For most small-to-mid-size websites, 5–15 new referring domains per month is a healthy, sustainable pace. Spiking to 100 links in a week and then going quiet for months looks unnatural to Google. Consistency matters more than volume.
How much does link building cost?
It varies widely. DIY link building costs primarily time. Buying placements or working with an agency ranges from $360 to $1,500+ per quality link, with premium editorial placements often exceeding that. For a full breakdown by tactic and quality tier, see our link building cost guide.
Is link building still worth it in 2026?
Yes. Despite evolving search and the rise of AI, backlinks remain one of Google’s top three ranking signals. Pages ranking #1 have 3.8x more backlinks than pages in positions 2–10. What’s changed is that quality, relevance, and editorial context matter more than ever — a link from a relevant, authoritative publication is worth more now than it’s ever been.
What is the safest link building strategy?
The lowest-risk strategies are those that earn links editorially: digital PR, original research, linkable content assets, and broken link building. These look natural because they are natural — another site chose to link to you because your content had genuine value. Avoid link schemes, link farms, or any service promising guaranteed links at scale. If a tactic feels like a shortcut, Google’s algorithms are increasingly effective at identifying it.
Wrapping up
If you’re ready to beat the algorithm and win in Google search engine results, start by using and adapting this link building plan. It fits just about any budget, industry and type of website out there and you can use it to create great content and build amazing links.
And if you don’t have the resources in-house to build great links, delegate the job to someone you can trust. At ReportCard, we’ve built all types of high-quality links for multi-million dollar brands in various industries. And we can build them for you too.
Get in touch today to see how we can scale your link building!
