Link building is an SEO tactic that can provide a big payoff—and a big payment. Much planning goes into link building, including strategy, content creation, technical improvements, and on-page optimization. Even after all of this is set up, the results of this tactic aren’t immediately guaranteed, which can be confusing for those not well-versed in link building.
However, businesses understand that organic traffic is a big part of the digital marketing puzzle. Without visitors finding websites on the internet, how will they learn about products and services?
Determining ROI from link building is as simple as calculating a formula, but various aspects can affect the timing of results.
Why Does It Take So Long to See Results?
Many moving parts are at play when new content is created for websites.
First, the search engine needs to crawl and index the content. This means that the search engine has to find the content, scan it, and determine which query it can rank for. Depending on how often your site is crawled, this process can take days or even weeks.
The index is like a library where search engines store the content by keywords. When someone inputs a query, the search engine’s algorithm determines the most relevant results to show. Google uses over 200 ranking signals to determine content relevancy. Additionally, the algorithms have become so sophisticated that various aspects and factors determine ranking in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
Competition is another factor that affects results. For instance, software as a service is a saturated market where most companies are vying for similar keywords. It will take longer to see results when competing with 2,000 other brands that have invested time and thought into their SEO. On the other hand, competing in a niche with lower competition can yield results more quickly.
Editors can also affect the results timeline. When content is sent to editors, the content creator has no control over when the editor publishes it. Site editors are notoriously busy and receive hundreds of outreach emails a day, making it so your content may get noticed later than you would like.
Link Building ROI Challenges
- Non-financial benefits: Link building can generate many non-financial benefits, such as brand awareness, improved user experience, and increased authority and trust. However, there is no real way to measure these benefits.
- Long-term ROI: Link building can take up to six months to a year to see significant results, making it difficult for stakeholders to justify investment.
- Isolating link building efforts: Multiple factors influence customers, making it challenging to isolate events related to link building or other SEO tactics.
- Difficulty forecasting: Many variables affect link building, and what is successful today may not be successful tomorrow. There are no guarantees in link building, and the constant changes in search engine algorithms mean that SEO professionals must keep updating their tactics.
What Happens After Three Months Of Link Building?
You can typically start to see some action around the three-month mark. However, this depends on the link building tactic you use. Let’s look closer at some of the strategies that could be determined as “quick wins:”
- Find broken links on other websites and contact the site owner to suggest a suitable replacement.
- Unlinked brand mentions occur when other websites mention your brand without linking to your website.
- Check existing links to strategize your outreach efforts more effectively.
- Conduct a backlink gap analysis to understand where your competitors get backlinks from and create content surpassing them.
- Update old content and reach out to websites showing the value of the content.
It’s important to note that while these are considered “quick wins,” these tactics may still take some time due to challenges outside your control (publisher timelines, indexing, etc.).
Here is a client that started link building in October 2021. You can see the steady rise in traffic after about three months of consistent link building from our team.
It’s important to note that these are not guaranteed results. However, they are typical results we see during this time, which should give you a good idea of what to expect from your link building efforts.
What Happens After Six Months Of Link Building?
Six months is usually the consensus for when you can start to see link building results. After this time, most publishers have accepted (or refused) outreach, the links have been placed, and the search engines have had time to crawl and index the sites. If all goes well, you may see an uptick in traffic, rankings, or both. Other developments you may see include:
- Improved Domain Authority (DA)
Earning quality backlinks from reputable sites will likely increase your website's domain authority, which can lead to improved search engine rankings over time.
- Better Crawling and Indexing
Backlinks help search engines discover new pages on your website, leading to more frequent crawling and indexing of your content.
- Growth in Referral Traffic
If links are placed on relevant, high-traffic websites, you'll likely notice an exciting increase in referral traffic. This provides direct value beyond SEO and opens up new opportunities for your business.
- Strengthened Brand Authority
Being linked to respected publications or industry-specific sites can enhance your brand’s reputation and make you more authoritative in your niche.
- Early Signs of Conversions
With increased traffic and higher-quality leads driven by relevant backlinks, you may start seeing a rise in conversions (e.g., inquiries, sign-ups, sales), especially if the links are from industry-related sources.
Six months is often when momentum starts building, but sustained efforts will continue to compound these results.
This graph shows that the client saw a rapid increase in organic traffic after six months of link building. The links were given time to spread authority and link equity to the linked pages, and the search engine was given time to crawl the sites.
Remember, these are not guaranteed results. These are typical results we see during this time.
What Happens After A Year Of Link Building?
After a year of consistent link building, the results are typically more significant and can lead to a sustainable competitive edge. Here's what usually happens:
- Significant Improvement in Domain Authority (DA)
Over a year, you can expect a more noticeable increase in domain authority, especially if you’ve earned high-quality backlinks from authoritative and relevant sites. This can substantially impact your site's overall credibility.
- Higher and More Stable Keyword Rankings
By the 12-month mark, many of your targeted keywords, including competitive ones, should rank much higher. These rankings are likely more stable as Google views your site as a trusted source within your niche.
- Substantial Increase in Organic Traffic
As your rankings improve across a broader range of keywords, you should see a significant boost in organic traffic. Consistently acquiring backlinks will support long-term growth.
- Enhanced Brand Visibility and Authority
By this point, your brand is more established in your industry. You may be recognized as a thought leader, especially if backlinks have come from high-profile publications or influencers within your field.
- Increased Lead Generation and Conversions
Combining higher rankings, better traffic, and improved authority will naturally lead to more qualified leads and conversions. This can result in increased inquiries, sales, or other desired outcomes.
- Sustainable Competitive Advantage
After a year of link building, the cumulative effect of the backlinks will give you a sustainable competitive advantage over sites that haven’t invested as much in building their link profile. This makes it harder for competitors to surpass your rankings quickly.
- Positive Feedback Loop
The authority gained from a strong backlink profile makes it easier to acquire additional backlinks, creating a positive feedback loop. As your content becomes more authoritative, others are more likely to link to it organically.
At the year mark, the full effects of link building begin to manifest, providing substantial ROI and positioning your website for ongoing success in SEO.
The client saw more organic traffic growth the longer they did link building. However, traffic dipped due to Google's multiple algorithm and spam updates. But, they persisted in consistent, white-hat link building and saw rapid growth in the coming year.
Again, these are not guaranteed results. These are typical results we see during this time.
The Compound Interest of Link Building
Link building is like compound interest in the way both grow exponentially over time, creating a snowball effect where early efforts lead to increasing returns. Just as you invest money in a savings account, each backlink acts as an "investment" in your website’s authority. Over time, as you accumulate more quality backlinks, the cumulative effect strengthens your domain’s authority.
The true power of link building is realized over the long term. Like compound interest, results may seem modest initially, but the benefits multiply over time with consistent effort. Like saving or investing, link building requires patience and regular effort. The value accumulates slowly, but the longer you persist, the greater the eventual payoff.
