SEO Monthly budget was $4k? This helps!

In this post,

I’m going to show you how to structure backlinks if your monthly budget was $4k.

This is a common question I get from my readers and clients who want to rank higher in Google without breaking the bank.

But before I reveal my proven backlink strategy, let me ask you a question:

How much are you willing to invest in a single backlink?

If you’re like most people, you probably think that the cheaper the better, right?

Wrong.

The truth is, not all backlinks are created equal.

Some backlinks can boost your rankings and traffic, while others can harm your site and reputation.

That’s why you need to be smart about how you spend your money on backlinks.

And in this post, I’ll show you exactly how to do that.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

• How to find high-quality backlink opportunities that match your budget

• How to prioritize and allocate your resources for maximum ROI

• How to outsource and automate your backlink building process

• How to track and measure your results and adjust your strategy accordingly

Ready? Let’s dive right in.

How to Find High-Quality Backlink Opportunities That Match Your Budget

The first step of any successful backlink campaign is finding the right sites to target.

But how do you know which sites are worth your time and money?

Here are some criteria to look for when evaluating potential backlink opportunities:

• Relevance: The site should be related to your niche and topic. For example, if you have a site about dog training, you don’t want to get a backlink from a site about gardening.

• Authority: The site should have some level of authority and trust in the eyes of Google and users. You can use metrics like Domain Authority (DA), Domain Rating (DR), Trust Flow (TF), Citation Flow (CF), and traffic estimates to gauge the authority of a site.

• Quality: The site should have high-quality content and design, and not be spammy or low-quality. You can use tools like Ahrefs, Moz, Majestic, and SEMrush to check the quality of a site.

• Link profile: The site should have a natural and diverse link profile, and not be involved in any shady link schemes or practices. You can use tools like Ahrefs, Moz, Majestic, and SEMrush to analyze the link profile of a site.

• Engagement: The site should have some level of engagement from its audience, such as comments, shares, likes, etc. You can use tools like BuzzSumo, Social Blade, and SimilarWeb to check the engagement of a site.

Now that you know what to look for in a potential backlink opportunity, how do you find them?

There are many ways to find relevant and authoritative sites in your niche, but here are some of the most effective methods:

• Google search: Simply type in your keyword or topic in Google and see what sites rank on the first page. These are usually the most authoritative and relevant sites in your niche. You can also use advanced search operators like “inurl:”, “intitle:”, “intext:”, etc. to narrow down your results.

• Competitor analysis: Use tools like Ahrefs, Moz, Majestic, and SEMrush to find out who is linking to your competitors. These are likely sites that would also be interested in linking to you if you offer something valuable or unique.

• Guest posting: Guest posting is one of the most popular and effective ways to get high-quality backlinks from authoritative sites in your niche. You can use tools like BuzzSumo, Ahrefs Content Explorer, Google search operators like “write for us”, “guest post”, etc. to find guest posting opportunities.

• Resource pages: Resource pages are pages that list useful resources or links on a specific topic or niche. They are usually easy to find and get links from because they exist for the sole purpose of linking out. You can use Google search operators like “inurl:resources“, “intitle:resources“, etc. to find resource pages.

• Broken link building: Broken link building is a technique that involves finding broken links on other sites, creating a relevant piece of content to replace the dead link, and reaching out to the site owner to suggest your link as a replacement. You can use tools like Ahrefs, Moz, Majestic, etc. to find broken links.

Once you have a list of potential backlink opportunities, you need to prioritize and allocate your resources for maximum ROI.

How to Prioritize and Allocate Your Resources for Maximum ROI

Now that you have a list of potential backlink opportunities, how do you decide which ones to pursue and how much to spend on each one?

This is where you need to be strategic and smart about your backlink budget.

Here are some factors to consider when prioritizing and allocating your resources:

• Difficulty: How hard or easy is it to get a backlink from a site? Some sites may have strict editorial guidelines, high standards, or a long waiting time. Others may be more open and flexible. You need to weigh the difficulty of getting a backlink against the potential benefit.

• Cost: How much does it cost to get a backlink from a site? Some sites may charge a fee for a guest post, a sponsored post, or a link placement. Others may be free or require only an exchange of value. You need to weigh the cost of getting a backlink against the potential benefit.

• Benefit: How much benefit will you get from a backlink from a site? Some sites may have more authority, traffic, relevance, or engagement than others. You need to weigh the benefit of getting a backlink against the difficulty and cost.

To help you prioritize and allocate your resources, you can use a simple formula like this:

Benefit / (Difficulty + Cost) = Priority Score

The higher the priority score, the higher the priority of the backlink opportunity.

For example, let’s say you have two backlink opportunities:

• Site A: DA 50, 10k monthly traffic, $100 fee for a guest post

• Site B: DA 40, 5k monthly traffic, free guest post

Let’s assume that the difficulty of getting a guest post on both sites is the same (5 out of 10).

Using the formula above, we can calculate the priority score for each site:

• Site A: 50 / (5 + 100) = 0.48

• Site B: 40 / (5 + 0) = 8

As you can see, Site B has a much higher priority score than Site A, even though Site A has higher authority and traffic.

This means that Site B is a better use of your time and money than Site A.

Of course, this is just an example and you can tweak the formula according to your own preferences and goals.

But the main idea is to use some kind of system to prioritize and allocate your resources for maximum ROI.

Now that you know how to prioritize and allocate your resources, let’s see how to outsource and automate your backlink building process.

How to Outsource and Automate Your Backlink Building Process

One of the biggest challenges of backlink building is that it can be time-consuming and tedious.

You have to find potential backlink opportunities, create high-quality content, reach out to site owners, follow up with them, negotiate with them, etc.

That’s why it makes sense to outsource and automate some or all of these tasks.

By outsourcing and automating your backlink building process, you can save time, money, and energy, and focus on other aspects of your business.

Here are some ways to outsource and automate your backlink building process:

• Hire freelancers: You can hire freelancers from platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, etc. to handle some or all of your backlink building tasks. For example, you can hire freelancers to write guest posts, find backlink opportunities, reach out to site owners, etc. Just make sure to hire quality freelancers who have experience and expertise in SEO and backlink building.

• Use tools: You can use tools like Pitchbox, Ninja Outreach, Mailshake, etc. to automate some or all of your outreach tasks. For example, you can use tools to find email addresses, send personalized emails, follow up with prospects, track responses, etc. Just make sure to use tools that are reliable and effective.

• Use services: You can use services like 1stpage Agency, Fat Joe, Linkology, etc. to buy backlinks from reputable sites in your niche. For example, you can use services to buy guest posts, sponsored posts, link placements, etc. Just make sure to use services that are ethical and transparent.

By outsourcing and automating your backlink building process, you can scale up your campaign and get more results with less effort.

But don’t forget to track and measure your results and adjust your strategy accordingly.

How to Track and Measure Your Results and Adjust Your Strategy Accordingly

The last step of any successful backlink campaign is tracking and measuring

How to Track and Measure Your Results and Adjust Your Strategy Accordingly

The last step of any successful backlink campaign is tracking and measuring your results and adjusting your strategy accordingly.

You don’t want to spend your time and money on backlinks that don’t work or have a negative impact on your site.

That’s why you need to track and measure your results and see what works and what doesn’t.

Here are some metrics to track and measure when it comes to backlinks:

• Number of backlinks: This is the most basic metric to track. It shows you how many backlinks you have acquired from different sites. You can use tools like Ahrefs, Moz, Majestic, etc. to check the number of backlinks you have.

• Quality of backlinks: This is a more important metric than the number of backlinks. It shows you how relevant, authoritative, and trustworthy the sites that link to you are. You can use metrics like DA, PA, TF, CF, etc. to check the quality of your backlinks.

• Traffic from backlinks: This is the ultimate goal of backlink building. It shows you how much traffic you get from the sites that link to you. You can use tools like Google Analytics, Ahrefs, SEMrush, etc. to check the traffic from your backlinks.

• Rankings from backlinks: This is another goal of backlink building. It shows you how your rankings in Google have improved as a result of your backlinks. You can use tools like Ahrefs, Moz, SEMrush, etc. to check your rankings from your backlinks.

By tracking and measuring these metrics, you can see how effective your backlink strategy is and what kind of results you are getting.

But don’t stop there.

You also need to adjust your strategy accordingly based on your findings.

For example, if you find that some sites are giving you more traffic and rankings than others, you may want to focus more on those sites and get more backlinks from them.

Or if you find that some sites are hurting your site or not giving you any benefit, you may want to remove or disavow those links and avoid them in the future.

Or if you find that some methods are working better than others, you may want to scale up those methods and try new ones.

The key is to keep testing and experimenting with different strategies and tactics until you find what works best for you and your site.

And that’s it!

That’s how to structure backlinks if your monthly budget was $4k.

I hope you enjoyed this post and found it useful.

If you did, please share it with your friends and colleagues who might benefit from it.

And if you have any questions or comments, please leave them below.

I’d love to hear from you.

Thanks for reading and happy backlinking! blush