SEO Link - Building Research for a Marketing Agency [outsourcing]

Client

A marketing agency operating in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland reached out to us to build a local partner database for SEO backlinking purposes. Their goal was to strengthen their clients' visibility through high-authority domains and content publishing partnerships in the local Scandinavian market.

Challenge

 The main challenge was to identify websites with strong SEO metrics that offered opportunities for sponsored or guest content. Our client required a transparent process and clearly defined selection criteria. The key requirements were:

• Geographic focus: Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, Denmark)
• Domain Rating (DR) above 35 (Ahrefs)
• Organic traffic over 1,000 visits per month
• Indications of willingness to collaborate: presence of phrases like "guest post," "write for us," or "sponsored post"

Solution

SEO Analysis via Ahrefs

We began by screening thousands of domains using Ahrefs. The primary filters were DR > 35 and monthly organic traffic > 1,000. This step allowed us to quickly eliminate low-value websites and focus only on those with tangible SEO potential.

Semantic Filtering

Next, we applied semantic analysis to identify signals of editorial or commercial collaboration opportunities. We scanned each selected site for phrases like "guest post," "write for us," or "sponsored post." We also included sites relevant to the marketing agency's target industries, even if they didn't explicitly advertise these opportunities - due to their strong content alignment.

Contact Database Creation

The final step in our collaboration with the client was creating a database of personal contacts within marketing departments or company owners, depending on the firm's size. The data selection process looked as follows:

1. Qualification of the company based on competitive potential.
2. Verification of the presence of a marketing department
   
   1. If yes - look for a marketing contact,
   2. If no - look for the owner’s contact.
3. For each identified person, we prepared personal email addresses.
4. Each company website was analyzed, and the dataset included:
   
   1. All found phone numbers,
   2. All found email addresses (personal and general),
   3. Company details: description,industry and SEO data related to the site.