Link-building campaign: from choosing publishers to tracking links

This page is for the marketing or SEO manager who has already chosen the pages to strengthen and now needs to move to execution. A link-building campaign turns a strategy into a dated plan: which publishers, which topic for each one, which anchor pointing to which URL, which brief, at what pace, and how to check that every link is actually live.

For the overall framework of this lever, start with the guide to netlinking.

Campaign vs strategy: who decides what

The strategy sets direction: priority URLs, the link gap with competitors, acceptable risk, budget. The campaign answers "when, how many, on which publishers, and with which checks".

A campaign therefore starts with a short list of URLs whose content is ready and for which links are the remaining lever. Buying links to a weak page (thin content, no internal linking) spends the budget on a problem that is not a link problem.

Start from the URLs to strengthen

An effective campaign rarely targets an entire site at once. First sort candidate pages by their role:

• Money pages: pages that capture conversions (demo requests, quotes, contact).
• Pillar content: guides, resource pages, studies; they deserve to be cited and attract links more easily.
• Supporting content: more specific articles that reinforce a pillar and distribute authority through internal linking.
• Stagnating pages: they get impressions but have hit a ceiling; what they lack is an authority advantage.

Start with the latter, on two or three URLs, to run in the process before widening the scope.

The path of a link-building campaign, step by step

Each step produces a decision and a deliverable that the next step uses:

The placement log is the most underestimated deliverable: for each link, it records the source URL, date, target URL, anchor, attribute and the publisher's metrics. Without it, you cannot later connect a change in ranking or citation to a specific action.

Choosing the campaign's publishers

How attractive a publisher is for your domain comes down to five criteria:

• Trust Flow gap: a publisher with a Trust Flow clearly higher than yours is attractive; below your own Trust Flow, it adds little.
• Shared topics: the publisher's Topical Trust Flow must overlap with yours.
• Traffic trend over 24 months: a growing or stable site is worth more than a declining one.
• GEO performance: a domain very often cited by ChatGPT ("GEO gem") or sometimes cited adds a chance of being named by AI.
• Price per Trust Flow point: the value-for-money measure for comparing two offers.

Editorial coherence comes first: a prestigious generalist media site can carry less weight than a niche site close to your subject. What a publisher catalogue should display before purchase is covered in the page on the netlinking platform.

The publisher that already links to you

A media site that already points to your domain does not bring a new referring domain. Yet the reference metric is the number of unique dofollow referring domains, not the volume of backlinks. Favour a new domain, and vary the formats: an article published for the occasion, an insertion in an already indexed page, a contribution tied to a partnership.

One topic per publisher: write for the media, not for your keyword

The topic of a link-building article serves the publisher and its readers first. An editor gladly publishes what interests their audience and turns down a text written around your keyword. The link gains legitimacy in a topic the publisher could have covered on its own.

What makes a good topic

Before approving a topic, check that it ticks these boxes:

• It fits the editorial line of the publisher and its readers' questions.
• It touches the theme of the target URL without copying it, so the link makes sense for the reader.
• It leaves room for semantic context around the link (a dedicated paragraph, industry vocabulary).
• It avoids risky themes for the brand: controversies, tragic events, sensitive subjects.

A campaign's anchor profile

The anchor is the clickable text of the link. The distribution of the four types should resemble a natural profile, where the brand dominates. Indicative shares, to adjust to your existing profile:

The anchor plan is decided per target URL, not link by link. Before each cycle, review the anchor profile already in place on the URL: if the exact-match anchor is already there, the next link switches to a brand or partially optimised anchor.

Naming is not linking

The brand mention in the article and the link to your page carry two different signals that add up. The link carries the SEO signal; the mention carries the GEO signal, because ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and AI Overviews name brands whether or not there is a link. For details on what generative engines retain, see the page on backlinks and AI.

Sitewide links: the exception

A link repeated across every page of a site (footer, sidebar) creates artificial volume. Prefer a single contextual link; if a sitewide link is justified (strong partnership), use a brand anchor or a naked URL.

The brief for a link-building article

The brief turns an intention (getting a link) into a useful, stable and coherent article. Written before the order, it includes:

• Target keyword and intent: the query targeted by the URL to strengthen and what the searcher is looking for.
• Topics to cover: the angles expected in the article, consistent with the topic approved for the publisher.
• Questions to answer: those the publisher's readers ask about the subject.
• Semantic field: the industry vocabulary expected around the link, for strong semantic context.
• URLs to strengthen and anchors: each client link, its anchor and its position in the body text.
• GEO instructions: the brand, its accepted spelling variants and the sentence that introduces it.
• Publisher constraints: length, number of client links, external links, free or imposed anchor, who writes.

A contextual link inside genuinely useful content is more likely to be clicked, retained and interpreted as legitimate. General writing rules (structure, headings, direct answers) belong to SEO copywriting; the brief adds what is specific to the link.

GEO instructions: brand and spelling variants

Specify how the brand should appear: exact name, accepted variants, and an introductory sentence that says what the company does. Ask the writer to name the brand in the body text, not only in the anchor.

Who writes the article

The article is written by you, by a service provider or by the publisher. At Incremys, the Content Factory (a network of vetted writers) or the publisher handles it depending on the offer, at the time of writing. The brief and the review stay on your side; if the writing falls to you, count one article to write per link.

Publisher constraints to know before ordering

Each publisher sets its own rules; noting them before purchase avoids an unworkable brief:

For Google, a paid or partnership link is declared with the rel="sponsored" attribute, and this attribute is treated as a hint, not a directive. A publisher that only places nofollow links does not count towards dofollow referring domains, but can count for GEO if it is cited by AI.

Timeline and velocity: spread rather than push

Velocity is your link acquisition rate. Too sudden a rise looks like an artificial pattern; erratic acquisition hands the advantage to competitors. Spread the campaign and avoid spikes: if your site has never earned links, no spike in month one; on an active site, increase in steps. The pace of your direct competitors gives the order of magnitude.

Weekly and monthly cadence

A monthly cycle keeps feedback loops short. A simple organisation splits the work as follows:

• Week 1: review metrics (Trust Flow, Citation Flow, Topical Trust Flow, anchors) and select the month's URLs.
• Week 2: qualify publishers, approve topics, write briefs.
• Week 3: writing, review, publication.
• Week 4: check published links, report and reallocate towards what works.

The quarter is used to rebalance source types, observe target URLs, adjust the anchor plan and reschedule lost links.

Production statuses

Each article in the campaign carries a status that shows where it stands and who needs to act:

• Not started: the topic and brief are approved, writing has not begun.
• In progress: the article is being written.
• To review: the text awaits your approval.
• To rework: the review requested corrections.
• Ready to publish: the text is approved and sent to the publisher.
• Published: the article is live and moves on to checks.

Post-publication checks and link tracking

A link ordered is not a link acquired. Each publication goes through a check in the following days:

Verified links then enter presence tracking, because a link can disappear after a site rebuild or a content clean-up.

Lost link: the procedure

The difference between a well-managed campaign and a fragile one shows when a link disappears. The procedure follows five steps:

• Detect the loss through presence tracking.
• Assess what is at stake: a link to a money page or a secondary link.
• Contact the publisher to restore it.
• Check whether the link is covered by a lifespan guarantee.
• Reschedule the target URL for the next cycle if the link does not come back.

Links bought through the Incremys platform benefit from a 24-month guarantee, with an active or expired status in reporting, at the time of writing.

Measuring the campaign: rankings and citations

Reporting tracks each link and its effects, URL by URL:

• Link presence: live, lost, not verified.
• Publisher and anchor profile: the domain's Trust Flow, distribution of the four anchor types.
• Rankings of the keywords of the strengthened URLs.
• AI citations: ChatGPT citations gained or lost, question by question.
• Traffic and conversions: organic and referral traffic, conversions tracked in Google Analytics 4.

Compare each page with itself, before its first link and today. This reading establishes a correlation over time, never causation: an honest report does not claim that a link produced a citation. The detailed time-based reading is covered in the page on backlink history.

Depending on your situation

Depending on where you stand, the next step happens on another page:

• You do not yet know which URLs to strengthen: URL-level diagnosis and budget belong to the backlinks strategy.
• You want links without buying them: the methods are described in the guide on how to get backlinks.
• You are going to pay for placements: the framework is set out in the page on buying backlinks.
• You want to review your existing profile: go through a backlink analysis.
• You are unsure whether to outsource the campaign: compare the options in the page on netlinking service providers.

To manage this plan in one place, the Incremys Offsite media module organises the campaign: URLs to strengthen, topic per publisher, anchors per target URL, brief, production statuses and sending to the publisher. Campaigns run with another provider can be imported (publisher URL, strengthened URL, anchor, link detected or not) to be tracked in the same reporting.

FAQ: running a successful link-building campaign

What is a link-building campaign?

A link-building campaign is the execution plan that secures links and mentions pointing to specific URLs. It sets the publishers, topics, anchors, briefs, timeline and post-publication checks. The strategy decides which pages to strengthen; the campaign organises the when, the how many and the how.

How many links per month?

There is no number of links per month that suits every site. The right pace stays consistent with the domain's history and with that of direct competitors. Spread placements over several months, increase in steps and avoid any sudden spike, especially on a site that has never earned links.

Which anchor for each link?

The brand anchor should dominate the profile, complemented by partially optimised and generic anchors; the exact-match anchor stays rare. The choice is made URL by URL, after reviewing the anchors already in place. A brand anchor has one advantage: it carries both the link for SEO and the brand mention for GEO.

What should a sponsored article brief contain?

A sponsored article brief contains the target keyword and intent, the topics to cover, the questions to answer, the semantic field, the URLs to strengthen with their anchors, GEO instructions on the brand and the publisher's constraints. It is written before the order and serves as the reference for the review.

Who writes the article?

The article is written by the advertiser, by a service provider or by the publisher, depending on the publisher's offer. Check this before purchase, because it changes the production workload and lead time. Whoever writes it, the brief stays the same and the pre-publication review remains on the advertiser's side.

How do you check that a link is correctly placed?

A link is correctly placed when it points to the right URL, with the planned attribute and anchor, within the body text of an indexed source page. Check these points in the days following publication, record the actual date in the log, then track the link's presence over time.

Are sitewide links useful or risky?

Sitewide links are risky when they create artificial repetition, for example a footer link with an exact-match anchor on every page. Prefer a contextual link within specific content. If a sitewide link is justified by a genuine partnership, use a brand anchor or a naked URL.