Measuring the impact of link building is more complex than for other channels, because the effect shows up with a delay and mixes with the influence of content, the website's technical state and changes to algorithms. It is worth tracking several indicators at once: the number and quality of new referring domains, not individual links, the trend in rankings on the pages the links pointed to, referral traffic from these sources, and a comparison of the link profile with competitors. When evaluating a supplier, it is essential to avoid paying by the number of links, because that directly motivates buying low-quality placements. A realistic horizon for assessing results is three to six months, and it is the trend that is evaluated, not individual monthly fluctuations.
See also: Domain authority, Natural growth of a backlink profile, Agency reporting.
