Since 2017, Backlinks Global has worked with more than 4,000 brands across 64 countries: agencies, start-ups, ecommerce shops, digital banks, universities, gaming companies. Over the years I have noticed that almost everyone arrives with the same question, «how many links do I need?», and that it is almost never the right question.
These are the lessons I repeat most often when someone asks me for advice.
1. Nobody buys links. They buy trust
No one wakes up wanting a backlink. They want their customers to find them, to take them seriously and to see their name when they search for the category. The link is the vehicle. Trust is the product.
When I understood this, I changed how we sell. I stopped talking about the number of links and started talking about which publications make sense for a brand, and why.
2. The right outlet beats the big outlet
A software company for restaurants that appears in a hospitality business title reaches the people who decide. A passing mention in a huge general news site reaches a lot of people who will never buy. Big is not the same as right.
3. Every country is a different game
What works in the UK does not copy across to Spain, Mexico or Brazil. The publications people read change, the tone changes, prices change and even the topics outlets will accept change. Working in 64 countries taught me to distrust any plan that says «let's do the same everywhere».
4. Transparency before payment
The worst stories I hear from new clients have one thing in common: they paid without knowing where they would be published. That is why, on our platform, clients see the outlet, its metrics and the price before they buy, and approve the text before it goes live. It is not generosity. It is the only thing that builds a long relationship.
5. Shortcuts are expensive
Blog networks, packages of hundreds of unnamed links, promises of «undetectable» links. Google describes all of these in its link spam policies. I have seen brands spend months cleaning up what another supplier sold them as a shortcut.
6. AI changed where trust is earned, not how
Part of your audience now asks ChatGPT or Gemini before they search on Google. Those tools build answers from sources they already trust. Which ones? The same ones that always mattered: serious publications, well-linked guides, real people quoted by name. The groundwork has not changed; there are simply two places you now need to appear. That is why we started treating SEO, digital PR and GEO as one strategy.
7. Consistency beats intensity
The brands with the best results are not the ones that run one big campaign and disappear. They publish every month, in a few well-chosen outlets, and they measure. Boring? A little. Effective? Very. It is also the only way to learn which outlets bring readers and which only bring a link.
What I would tell someone starting today
Pick one page that really matters, five publications your buyers read and a three-month window. Measure before and after. If you want to see the outlets in your market and what they cost before you decide, explore our media catalogue. If you would rather we did it for you, that is what our backlink service is for.
More than 4,000 brands later, I still believe what I believed on day one: if no one mentions you, you do not exist. The difference is that I now know much better where it is worth being mentioned.
This article was drafted with AI assistance and reviewed by Gustavo Cáceres.