Choosing a link building agency: What to look for in proposals

Working with an experienced link building agency can significantly improve your visibility in Google, in AI Overviews, and in AI systems such as ChatGPT and Gemini. But providers vary widely: some work like a digital PR agency, while others sell links using methods Google has explicitly prohibited for years.

This article shows how to vet a link building agency, which metrics really matter, why Domain Rating alone is misleading, and how good link building strengthens your brand for AI search.

AI search changes what links are for

AI delivers more and more direct answers, and some search clicks are disappearing. That doesn't mean SEO is losing value. The clicks that remain come from people who want to dig deeper and are more ready to act. To reach them, your page also has to appear in AI answers.

These answers don't just cite the pages at the top of traditional rankings. For an analysis in March 2026, Ahrefs examined around 863,000 search results pages and 4 million URLs cited in AI Overviews. Only around 38% of cited pages ranked in the top ten for the same query, and around 31% didn't even rank in the top 100. Ahrefs itself notes that its methodology has changed from earlier studies and that AI Overviews keep evolving.

For link building, this means accumulating link equity to push a keyword up the rankings is no longer enough. Language models look at topical authority, brand mentions, and a genuine market presence. The goal of good link building is a footprint on the web that AI recognizes as reliable information about your company.

In its guide to AI search, Google itself says that artificially seeded mentions help less than many people think. Search's core systems prioritize high-quality content, and its spam systems filter out abuse.

We judge links by topical relevance and real traffic

A common flaw in proposals and reports: campaign success is measured solely by Domain Rating (DR, Ahrefs) or Domain Authority (DA, Moz). A high score is nice, but it isn't a goal. These metrics come from tool vendors, not Google, and they can be gamed. What actually matters:

• Topical relevance: A link from a DR 40 specialist site focused squarely on your industry, such as logistics software, is almost always worth more than a link from a DR 80 general news site covering crypto today and diets tomorrow. An off-topic link dilutes your own topical authority.
• Real traffic: If a site ranks for no keywords and has no real readers, a link from it is worth little, for Google and AI alike.

So have your contract guarantee that every link comes from a site with a defined minimum of monthly organic visitors, measured with a tool such as Ahrefs or Semrush. An agency unwilling to commit to such minimums in writing may be using domains with high metrics but no readers, often expired and re-registered domains.

Good agencies create content others want to cite

The strongest links come out of genuine conversation. That's why good agencies now work like content marketing and digital PR teams. Instead of asking for links, they create content that others want to cite:

• proprietary data analyses and surveys,
• expert commentary on current developments,
• in-depth expert articles and guides.

Journalists and editors cite this kind of content because it strengthens their own articles. For AI search, that matters twice over: a link earned on the merits of the content is editorial, credible, and useful to readers. Guest articles aren't throwaway filler but expert pieces that position your leadership or specialists as a credible source.

To illustrate: instead of buying a link on the phrase “best CRM software,” a software company publishes its own market study on CRM adoption and pitches the findings to trade media. The link follows as a source citation. That kind of signal is equally credible to search engines and language models.

Four warning signs to take seriously

Choosing the wrong provider doesn't just waste budget; it puts your brand's reputation at risk. Google explicitly classifies buying links for ranking purposes, excessive link exchanges, auto-generated links, and low-quality directory links as spam. According to Google, sites that violate these rules can rank lower or disappear from search results altogether.

1. Promised rankings

Nobody can guarantee a top spot on Google. The algorithms change constantly and depend on a great many factors. Guaranteed rankings by a fixed date are a warning sign. Have the agency explain exactly which methods it uses. A quick rise is then often followed by a crash, in the worst case a manual action after review by Google, which appears in Search Console.

2. Lack of transparency

A reputable agency explains before you sign how it earns links and on which sites they will appear. It shows examples of past placements, anonymized if necessary, and case studies from your industry. Agencies that keep their inventory secret usually have a reason: the sites belong to a network of low-quality domains.

3. Pick-from link lists

Many marketing leaders know the LinkedIn messages: a spreadsheet of thousands of supposedly high-quality sites to order links from. It's convenient, but risky. If a link comes from picking and paying for a row in a spreadsheet, anyone can buy it, including gambling affiliates and shady operators using the same lists.

That's not how a natural link profile is built. At best, you pay for a link that does nothing. At worst, Google treats it as part of a link scheme. Paid links only comply with the rules when marked with rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow" , and then they pass on no ranking value.

4. Packages priced below the necessary effort

Good link building pays off, but it takes work: research and strategy, content from subject-matter experts, editing, outreach to editorial teams, and sometimes publisher fees. Packages promising several strong links for a fraction of that effort almost always rely on fully AI-generated, barely reviewed content, link farms, or hacked websites. None of these links will help you in Google Search or AI answers.

For AI, the context around your brand matters

A traditional crawler like Googlebot follows the link, reads the anchor text, and passes on link equity. In our experience, a language model also weighs the context in which your brand appears:

• Tone: Is your brand discussed positively, neutrally, or negatively in the text?
• Co-mentions: Which other providers or experts appear in the same paragraph? Brands regularly mentioned alongside well-known brands in their field are more likely to be associated with the same topic.
• Placement: Is the link in the body copy, embedded in an argument, or isolated in an author box or sidebar?

So when reviewing delivered links, make sure your brand is actually discussed in the text. A link on the word “here” tells a model nothing. A link on your brand name, paired with specific attributes such as “reliable data” or “specialized in logistics,” associates your brand with those attributes.

Four questions to vet your future agency in the initial consultation

• How do you measure success beyond Domain Rating? A good answer covers the linking site's organic traffic, topical relevance, referral visits where possible, and how your rankings for target keywords develop. A weak answer: “We guarantee DR 50+ for all links.”
• Show us a campaign that didn't work, and how you responded. A good answer is honest: a piece of content didn't land, so the angle was adjusted. A weak answer: “Nothing ever goes wrong with us.”
• How do you make sure your content isn't treated as AI spam? A good answer: subject-matter experts write or thoroughly revise the content and add their own data, quotes, and experience that AI can't generate.
• Are there sites you never work with? A good answer: yes, for example sites with “write for us” offers in the menu, sites that obviously sell links, or sites with collapsing traffic.

Conclusion: link building is a long-term investment in your brand

In the age of AI search, link building is a long-term investment. It's about a lasting market presence, not quick wins that vanish with the next core update.

The right provider works like an extension of your team. It analyzes where you're missing links compared to competitors, tracks your mentions in ChatGPT, Gemini, and other AI systems, and looks at your visibility in search and AI answers as a whole. Our link building page describes how we approach this. Move beyond vanity metrics and focus on real authority, and you gain visibility that turns into inquiries and revenue.