Outsourcing Link Building: What to Include in Your Brief (2025)

Intro

Outsourcing link building can save you time, scale your SEO, and unlock new rankings—if you provide a strong brief. In 2025, agencies and freelancers expect clarity, specificity, and direction. Without a clear brief, you risk wasting budget on irrelevant links, bad placements, or misaligned expectations.

Here’s everything to include in your link building brief to ensure quality and alignment from day one.

1. Your Website and Business Overview

Provide a quick summary of your site and what you do. This helps the link builder understand your niche and find relevant domains.

Example: "We’re a B2B SaaS company offering marketing automation tools for startups and SMEs. Our key pages are product-led, and we focus on driving organic conversions."

2. Campaign Goals

Clearly state what you're aiming to achieve. Goals can vary from brand visibility to ranking specific pages.

Common link building goals:

• Improve DR or authority

• Rank for competitive keywords

• Drive traffic to landing pages

• Support a content pillar or SEO campaign

3. Target URLs

List the pages you want to build links to, with optional notes about why each is important.

Example:

• /pricing — high-converting page for organic traffic

• /blog/email-marketing-guide — supports top-of-funnel visibility

4. Focus Keywords and Anchor Text Preferences

Include your target keywords and suggested anchor text. Also mention how strict you are on anchor usage—some briefs prefer partial-match or branded anchors to avoid over-optimization.

Example:

• Keyword: email automation tools

• Preferred Anchors: “email automation tools”, “Ranktracker platform”, branded/URL anchors accepted

5. Link Type Preferences

Indicate what types of links you want:

• Guest posts

• Niche edits

• Editorial mentions

• Resource links

• PR placements

Be specific if you want a certain mix.

6. Quality Metrics

Define your minimum requirements. This helps weed out low-value sites.

Suggested criteria:

• Minimum DR 30

• 500+ monthly organic traffic

• Indexed in Google

• Real, niche-relevant blogs only

• No PBNs, AI-generated content, or spammy link farms

7. Geographic or Language Targeting

If you serve a specific country or audience, say so.

Examples:

• “We’re targeting US-based traffic only”

• “Please prioritize English-language blogs with UK audiences”

8. Competitor Backlink Inspiration

List any competitors you want to emulate. This helps the link builder find similar placement opportunities.

Example: "We’d like backlinks similar to what you see on tools like Moz, Semrush, and Ahrefs."

9. Content Guidelines (If Providing Guest Posts)

If the agency will be writing content for your links, share:

• Tone of voice and brand guidelines

• Word count minimums

• Topics to avoid

• CTAs or internal links (if needed)

Example: "Please avoid AI-generated content. Prefer 800+ word articles with value-first angles. Keep tone professional yet accessible."

10. Reporting Expectations

Clarify how often you want updates and what should be included.

Standard reports should show:

• Linking domain

• DR and traffic

• Anchor text used

• Link type (guest post, edit, etc.)

• Live URL

• Indexation status (optional)

11. Budget and Timeline

Be transparent about how much you’re spending and what turnaround time you expect. This avoids delays or mismatched expectations.

Example: “We need 10 links this month, budgeted at $100/link, delivered over 3 weeks.”

12. What You Don’t Want

Make it clear what to avoid. This saves everyone time and keeps your backlink profile clean.

Common exclusions:

• No casino, adult, or crypto sites (unless you're in those industries)

• No sites with zero traffic

• No exact-match anchor spamming

• No links on AI-generated content

Final Tip: Use Ranktracker to Monitor Results

Even with a perfect brief, you still need to track the impact of every backlink. Ranktracker makes this easy by combining keyword tracking, backlink monitoring, SERP analysis, and domain evaluation—all in one dashboard.

Use Ranktracker to:

• Monitor link growth and indexation

• Track keyword improvements after links go live

• Evaluate new domains with our Backlink Checker

• Spot toxic or low-quality links early

A great brief plus Ranktracker’s toolkit equals safe, scalable link building in 2025.