Custom Signals Expectations Guide
Table of Contents
If you’re wondering how to do competitor based link building, specifically competitor link research and manual outreach… but don’t want to handle all of the intricate strategies that an effective parity-based link campaign demands, our custom signals campaigns are a great way to achieve competitor parity with top-ranking sites for your target terms. If you aren’t using custom signals in your current client campaigns, you will want to build them in soon. It provides effective, yet affordable competitor link research, as well as link outreach and account creation, that effectively moves the needle to maximize campaign results.
Custom signals is a custom link-building service you can purchase as a one-time package or a monthly link-building campaign. We go into more detail about specific questions and expectations below.
Quality of Articles – What Does Basic AI-Generated Content Mean?
Quantity of links (We put as many links as are allowed per platform and we do not ever spam articles with anchors)
Will there be Irrelevant info in this AI Content, such as services that the company does not provide? The short answer here is Not Anymore! We have implemented our own content team in the custom signals department as well as updated our intake forms to allow our clients an opportunity to provide topics/keywords/services that we do NOT want to write about. So this issue is solved, but please let us know if you receive any irrelevant content and we will get that rewritten. Of course, you can always ask for proof approval if needed!
Relevance of Properties for Article Submission Add-on Explained
As for article directory submission sites, these are rarely going to be niche or locally relevant. Instead, they are generally large article publishing sites we use to source brand mentions and for link diversity. The site doesn’t need to be topically relevant to gain benefit as a brand mention. For example, sites like Wikipedia, Forbes, and Huffington Post are not niche or locally relevant, but links from these are certainly not ignored by Google. Therefore, we do not operate under the assumption that Google would ignore a link from sites such as Tumblr, Medium, or Behance either. In fact, this tactic is part of a tested and proven strategy for link diversity and Brand Authority! It is also likely the top 3 competitors are diversifying their backlink profile with these same types of sites, otherwise, they would not be in the top 3 to begin with. Article submission add-ons also unlock access to 2500+ words of monthly content generation that you can then use elsewhere in sites, blogs, and social posts!
Can I Improve Rankings Using Only the Custom Signals Service?
While custom signals are a very strong tactic for local and even national SEO, it is often not the only thing recommended to rank a GMB listing and dominate the local space. We recommend checking out our other local services as well. In particular, our Accelerated GMB Campaigns and Monthly GMB solutions. You can also continue to grow your rankings and strengthen your listing with our local SEO guides available in the blog. Great Backlinks Alone is Not Going To Be a Silver Bullet, But They Will Certainly Move The Needle!
Discount Alert!!
Get $30 OFF Custom Signals now! Just add them to your cart and using the code CustomQA30 at Checkout. We recommend ordering the highest hour amount for signals as this coupon code is only good ONCE per user.
What does Manual Outreach Mean?
We will personally reach out to domains on behalf of your client to procure links that are not readily available via a submission form or account creation. We find and prioritize all opportunities then reach out via email to the webmasters where needed and possible! We prefer to use a branded/domain-based email address for more effective link placement, which is provided by you in your order (if possible). We see much better link acquisition when we reach out from branded accounts as opposed to generic gmails or unrelated addresses.
Why do you need a Domain-based email?
A domain-based email is required for verifications on most account-based sites we will submit to. If we don’t have the domain email, we can’t submit to that site and won’t be featured on domains where your competitors are! Furthermore, we have seen much better link acquisition when we reach out from branded accounts as opposed to generic gmails or unrelated addresses. Link indexing is also a consideration here as the accounts/links appear much more natural to algorithms!
What about paid links?
As mentioned previously, we find all links and prioritize their value then open up to the submission stage. If we find paid links in our competitor research, we highlight those links with prices and instructions in the report. Suffice it to say that not all paid links are great, but if we highlight and report them in our parity-based research, we have found them to be valuable links your competitors are using to build their brand authority and backlink profiles. It will be up to you and your client to decide whether the benefit outweighs the cost as well as to follow through on making that link purchase.
How Long Will These Links Be Live?
Link longevity depends solely on the specific platforms for each link. Some are guaranteed for a year or less…some longer. Other account-based sites and links are there for life as long as the accounts are used and not purged for stagnation. However, you can certainly influence the longevity of these links by using them in your link building and making them an integral part of a holistic content strategy. Use them or lose them as the old adage goes!
Should I grab the Unlock PDF, E-Doc, and Image Sites Add-on?
This will depend on the type of business the target website/GMB represents. For information-based businesses that can benefit from PDF, E-Doc, and Image Sites, it makes sense to take advantage of links and media placements on such sites. However, the benefits are not limited to only this type of business. The add-on makes a great additional brand mention and can certainly benefit all types of brands. They can even rank well and populate in search as an Image, PDF Infographic, or E-doc if they are seen as a relevant, authoritative signal for the search term used! Just because your business isn’t in an industry where E-docs, PDF Infographics, and Images are prevalent, doesn’t mean that they wouldn’t be useful brand mentions for your backlink profile!
Should I Grab the Unlock Monthly Signal Boosting Add-on?
Yes, this will only further improve indexation rates for these new links. This is even more important for new brands and entities that may have weak brand authority and shallow backlink profiles.
Do I need the Hand Written Content Upgrade?
Generally, this is only necessary if/when you are in a niche or industry that is highly regulated. Otherwise, the AI-Generated Content is great and goes through a strong quality control review before it makes it to you, so no worries there. You can also ask for proof approval of said content and edit it yourself if you’d like.
There are several things to consider here. How competitive is the niche? How many links do the competitors have? How NEW is the target entity/site url? How many links does it currently have? Where is the site or GMB currently ranking for target keywords/search phrases? We highly recommend making sure your client is aware of these metrics and they are conscious of the real expectations Custom Signals can or can’t do on its own. If you are using Custom Signals as your only backlink building tool, we recommend buying as many hours as possible. The Bigger, The Better! If you are using them as an add-on to one of our managed campaigns then you may consider what link building is baked into those packages before choosing how many hours to add-on. Either way, the best, most competitive, decision is going to be parity based. What does the competition have and how long is it going to take to reach parity?!
Do I need the Hand Written Content Upgrade?
Generally, this is only necessary if/when you are in a niche or industry that is highly regulated. Otherwise, the AI-Generated Content is great and goes through a strong quality control review before it makes it to you, so no worries there. You can also ask for proof approval of said content and edit it yourself if you’d like.
How Many Custom Signal Hours is Enough? How Many Should I Buy?
There are several things to consider here. How competitive is the niche? How many links do the competitors have? How NEW is the target entity/site url? How many links does it currently have? Where is the site or GMB currently ranking for target keywords/search phrases? We highly recommend making sure your client is aware of these metrics and they are conscious of the real expectations Custom Signals can or can’t do on its own. If you are using Custom Signals as your only backlink building tool, we recommend buying as many hours as possible. The Bigger, The Better! If you are using them as an add-on to one of our managed campaigns then you may consider what link building is baked into those packages before choosing how many hours to add-on. Either way, the best, most competitive, decision is going to be parity based. What does the competition have and how long is it going to take to reach parity?!
Discount Alert!!
Get $30 OFF Custom Signals now! Just add them to your cart and using the code CustomQA30 at Checkout. We recommend ordering the highest hour amount for signals as this coupon code is only good ONCE per user.