Link building strategy: build a plan in 7 steps

What is a link building strategy?

Link building is the practice of earning links from other websites. The strategy is the decision that comes first: why these links, to which pages, by what means, at what pace, and how you will know whether it works.

Step 1: make sure the site is ready to receive links

A link amplifies what already exists. If it points to a page that is slow, poorly indexed or competing with another page on the site, the effort is wasted. Before any campaign, run three checks:

• Technical: pages indexed, no errors or redirect chains, reasonable load time. Our technical SEO audit checklist covers these points.
• Content: does the target page answer the query better than the pages already on page one? If not, rework it first.
• Internal links: does the page receive links from your strong pages? Internal linking is free and redistributes the authority you receive from outside.

Step 2: choose the target pages and their goals

List three to ten pages, no more. For each one, note the target query, the current position shown in Search Console and what the page brings in (quote requests, sign-ups, sales). Three families come up often:

• Service or product pages, close to conversion, but hard to get cited as they are.
• Pillar pages (in-depth guides) that naturally attract links and pass them on through internal linking.
• Linkable assets: original data, a free tool, a template, a study. These are what earn links with nothing in return.

A good plan often promotes a linkable asset, then passes its strength on to the commercial pages through internal links.

Step 3: measure the gap with your competitors

Start with your own data. The Links report in Search Console shows your top linking sites, your most linked pages and your anchor texts. Google notes that it is a sample, limited to 1,000 rows per table, and that the report does not show whether a link is nofollow.

For competitors, you need a third-party tool. Identify the two or three sites that hold page one for your target queries, then list the domains that link to them and not to you (Link Intersect in Ahrefs, Backlink Gap in Semrush). That table becomes your outreach list, to be sorted by topic and real audience rather than by score.

Step 4: define a natural anchor plan

In its link best practices (updated in December 2025), Google describes a good anchor as descriptive, reasonably concise and relevant, and asks you not to stuff it with keywords. You do not always control the anchor the publisher picks, but you can steer your requests:

• Brand and URL: the foundation of a credible profile.
• Descriptive anchors: a phrase that says what the page offers ("our method for calculating...").
• Exact-match keyword: a minority, and never repeated word for word from one link to the next.

Step 5: choose tactics that match your resources

The right mix depends on what you can produce: content, data, relationships or budget. The table sums up the common options.

Two limits come straight from Google's spam policies: excessive link exchanges and paid links that pass ranking credit count as link spam. A sponsored link must carry the rel="sponsored" or nofollow attribute, and it is up to the publishing site to add it.

Step 6: set the budget, pace and quality criteria

The budget is split between production (linkable assets, data, visuals), outreach time and, where relevant, sponsored placements. Plan a steady pace you can sustain over time, rather than a spike followed by nothing.

Criteria to check before accepting a link, whether it comes from a platform or a direct contact:

• The site has a real audience in your industry (articles that are read, commented on, shared).
• The page that will carry the link is indexed and covers a topic close to yours.
• The site does not publish dozens of unrelated sponsored articles.
• The link sits in the body text, where it helps the reader, not in a footer or a list of partners.

Step 7: track results and adjust every quarter

The number of links earned is not a result. Instead, track the SEO metrics that matter, one target page at a time:

• Referring domains gained and lost, and the page they point to.
• Changes in impressions, clicks and positions of the target pages in Search Console.
• Referral traffic brought by the links and the related conversions in your analytics tool.
• Anchor distribution, to spot over-optimization before it becomes a problem.

Google does not publish any timeframe for a link to take effect. Read a trend over several weeks rather than a one-off snapshot, and reallocate the budget every quarter toward the tactics that produced useful links.

Sample six-month link building plan

How we build a link building strategy at Synqro

At Synqro, we start by collecting the client's real data: brochures, figures, cases, positions taken. That is the raw material for linkable assets, and it keeps us from producing generic articles nobody has a reason to link to.

Every quarter, a review helps us reprioritize: if the technical side or the content is holding things back, links wait. Our SEO and GEO services are billed from €1,000 to €5,000 per month before tax, depending on the scope.

Key takeaways

• A link building strategy starts from the pages that bring in business, not from link opportunities.
• The site must be ready before the first campaign: technical, content, internal linking.
• Linkable assets are the safest and most durable tactic.
• Paid links are declared with rel="sponsored" and treated as advertising.
• You measure rankings and conversions, not a number of links. To build the skills in-house, see our guide to link building training.