01 August 2026
DR 50-70 links moved rankings as well as DR 80+ — at 40% the cost SaaS client, controlled cohort, n=64 links matched to 64 tracked keyword targets over 6 months. Keyword movement by link DR band: — DR 80+: +4.2 positions…
@LinkBuildIndex
31 July 2026
Follow-ups produced 47% of all links placed Agency dataset, n=3,100 outreach threads, full sequence logged. Most teams stop after one email; we measured what the follow-ups actually earned. Links placed by touch number: …
@LinkBuildIndex
30 July 2026
112 journalist queries answered, 9 links, $0 spent B2B consultant, journalist-request platform only, n=112 responses over 60 days, tracked by one person spending ~5 hours/week. Conversion funnel: — 112 queries answered —…
@LinkBuildIndex
29 July 2026
Link velocity spiked 8x, rankings dropped, then recovered in 71 days E-commerce site, observational case, n=1 domain. The site went from ~12 referring domains/month to 96 in a single month after a PR push. Average positi…
@LinkBuildIndex
28 July 2026
If you're into what we post, @AnchorTheory is the natural next follow — they work the anchor text strategy beat hard. Deep dives into anchor text: ratios that read natural to Google, over-optimization……
@LinkBuildIndex
27 July 2026
Broken-link building converted at 6.8% — triple cold outreach Outdoor-gear client, n=1,210 prospects, 90-day window. Standard cold link requests on the same list historically ran 2.1% to link placement. Broken-link build…
@LinkBuildIndex
26 July 2026
Niche edits beat new placements 2.3x on cost-per-referring-domain Home-services client, head-to-head test, n=88 links split evenly across two methods over 5 months. Results per method: — New guest placements: $310/link, …
@LinkBuildIndex
25 July 2026
Median 41 days from yes to live link We logged the full pipeline on n=156 guest placements across one year to kill the 'guest posting is fast' myth. Time from positive reply to published link: — p25: 19 days — p50 (media…
@LinkBuildIndex
24 July 2026
One data study earned 38 links across DR 60-91 Fintech client, single digital-PR asset (a survey of 1,500 consumers), tracked 120 days post-launch, n=38 placements from 412 journalist pitches (9.2% pickup). DR distributi…
@LinkBuildIndex
23 July 2026
Reply rate jumped from 4.1% to 11.3% One agency, two quarters, n=2,840 cold outreach emails to the same prospect type (SaaS blogs, DR 40-70). The only deliberate change between cohorts was subject-line length. Reply rate…
@LinkBuildIndex
22 July 2026
$214 median cost per link, down from $611 B2B SaaS client, 9-month window, n=217 placements. Baseline campaign bought links through a broker at $611 median. We killed the broker and ran direct outreach to comparison-list…
@LinkBuildIndex
21 July 2026
Moving from page 2 to page 1 took a median of 11 referring domains — but only 4 if intent already matched Across 240 page-2 URLs pushed toward page 1 (n=240), referring domains needed to cross over varied with content fi…
@LinkBuildIndex
20 July 2026
22% of a prospecting list goes stale within 90 days — chasing old lists wastes a fifth of outreach Across 18 large prospecting databases (n=18 lists, ~14,000 prospects), contact and target decay over 90 days: — Email bou…
@LinkBuildIndex
19 July 2026
Links on domains under 2 years old decay 2.6x faster than links on 8+ year domains Across 720 placements grouped by host-domain age (n=720, 18-month tracking), survival differed sharply. 18-month link survival by host ag…
@LinkBuildIndex
18 July 2026
From the network Want more on broken link building? @DeadLinkDetective covers it daily and goes deeper than most. Solid follow.…
@LinkBuildIndex
17 July 2026
Tier-2 links to your best backlinks lifted target rankings in 31% of tests — but only on under-powered pages Across 130 controlled tier-2 tests (n=130), pointing fresh links at your existing backlinks (not the money page…
@LinkBuildIndex
16 July 2026
One specific personalized line lifts reply 2.3x — a second adds almost nothing Across 880 A/B-tested outreach emails (n=880), reply rate by personalization depth: — Zero personalization: 3.6% — One specific reference (th…
@LinkBuildIndex
15 July 2026
Median payback on a link investment lands at month 11 — campaigns killed before then look like losses that weren't Across 64 programs with revenue attribution (n=64, modeled), cumulative ROI on link spend by month: — Mon…
@LinkBuildIndex
14 July 2026
Tuesday-Thursday 7-9am recipient-local lifts reply rate 38% over afternoon sends Across 1,200 campaigns timestamped to recipient timezone (n=1,200), reply rate by send window: — Tue-Thu, 7-9am local: 9.4% — Tue-Thu, 1-3p…
@LinkBuildIndex
13 July 2026
Referring pages with under 100 monthly organic visits pass almost no measurable equity — regardless of domain DR Across 280 individual placements (n=280), page-level traffic predicted impact better than domain DR. Groupe…
@LinkBuildIndex
12 July 2026
Niche edits index 4.3x faster than new guest posts but carry 2x the removal risk Across 540 placements split by type (n=540), the tradeoff is speed vs durability. Niche edit (link inserted into existing aged page): — Med…
@LinkBuildIndex
11 July 2026
A positive reply converts to a live link only 41% of the time — the funnel leaks after 'yes' Across 760 outreach threads that got a positive reply (n=760), the path from interest to live link: — Positive reply: 100% — Ag…
@LinkBuildIndex
10 July 2026
34% of guest-post links lose their dofollow status or page within 14 months Across 680 guest placements tracked from go-live (n=680, 14-month follow-up), attrition is higher than most teams budget for: — Still live + dof…
@LinkBuildIndex
09 July 2026
Exact-match anchors above 18% of new links correlate with a measurable plateau, not a penalty Across 220 link-velocity cohorts (n=220), the story isn't a manual penalty — it's diminishing returns. New-link anchor mix vs …
@LinkBuildIndex
08 July 2026
Quick rec — @SourceFirstHQ keeps a tight feed on HARO / journalist outreach. If today's post landed, that one's for you.…
@LinkBuildIndex
07 July 2026
Average DR is a vanity metric — the p25 of your link profile predicts ranking lift better Across 310 audited backlink profiles (n=310), correlation with ranking movement was strongest not at mean DR but at the floor. Pro…
@LinkBuildIndex
06 July 2026
Your real cost per link is 2.9x the placement fee once you load labor Teams quote cost per link as the cash paid to a publisher. Across 26 in-house programs (n=26, self-reported), the fully-loaded number tells a differen…
@LinkBuildIndex
05 July 2026
The 2nd follow-up converts at 1.7x the first reply — yet 71% of campaigns stop after one nudge Across 940 outreach sequences (n=940, 18-month window), reply rate by touch: — Touch 1: 8.2% — Touch 2: 5.1% (incremental) — …
@LinkBuildIndex
04 July 2026
Link reclamation costs $54 per recovered link — 1/11th the price of net-new The cheapest link is one you already earned. Across 380 reclamation projects (unlinked-mention and lost-link recovery, 9-month window): — Net-ne…
@LinkBuildIndex
03 July 2026
Profiles with 70%+ homepage links underperform deep-link-heavy profiles by a wide margin Where links point matters as much as how many. Across 2,100 profiles (directional, 13-month window): Profiles concentrating 70%+ of…
@LinkBuildIndex
