---
title: "Stop Chasing Backlinks. Create the Experience Worth Citing"
url: "https://backlinkbuilding.io/insight/stop-chasing-backlinks-create-the-experience-worth-citing/"
author: "Aviad Faruz"
published: "2026-09-25"
updated: "2026-09-25"
---

# Stop Chasing Backlinks. Create the Experience Worth Citing

Most link-building plans begin too late. The page already exists, the business wants authority, and someone is asked to find a list of websites and write the perfect email.

Outreach then has to carry the whole strategy. The sender is asking a writer to care about an asset that may not contain anything the writer could not have found elsewhere.

I run [FARUZO](https://www.faruzo.com/) and three event venues in Jerusalem. The most useful link-acquisition lesson I learned did not begin with an outreach template. It began with an experience a writer could actually have.

### The link was not the deal

For the venues, I invited guests who already wrote about local experiences to visit. There was no request for a backlink and no obligation to publish. If someone chose to write, the article came from a real visit rather than an SEO brief.

Some visits became firsthand writeups with links inside the story. I do not attach a ranking, traffic, lead or booking number to the practice because I do not have a clean result on record. What I can say is that the link belonged to an editorial account of an experience. It was not sitting in a directory or inserted into a generic paragraph.

That distinction changed how I think about link acquisition. The scarce asset is not a longer prospect list. It is source material another writer cannot reproduce by summarizing the first page of search results.

### Build something observable before writing the pitch

A useful editorial source gives a writer something to inspect. It might be a process, a physical experience, an original dataset, a customer policy, a tool, a mistake with a documented consequence or a decision that runs against the usual advice.

The source does not have to be large. It has to be specific enough that the writer can ask questions that would not make sense for every business.

Google's guidance on helpful, people-first content asks whether a page provides original information, reporting, research or analysis and whether it demonstrates firsthand expertise. Its guidance for AI search makes a similar point: non-commodity content should bring a unique viewpoint or in-depth experience rather than recycle what is already online.

Those ideas are usually treated as writing advice. They are also operating advice. A business has to produce the raw material before a writer can turn it into original reporting.

### Make the evidence easy to use

A real experience can still be difficult to cover if the facts are scattered. The writer should not have to reconstruct the basic context through ten emails.

Prepare a small source packet before making contact:

- Identify who is involved and why that person's role is relevant.
- Explain what happened, with the date or timeframe when it matters.
- Attach the facts, records, images or pages that support the account.
- State what is unknown, private or not supported by a clean number.
- Name the page that would genuinely help a reader who wants more detail.

Choose the destination page last. If the useful next step is a policy, tool, category or research page, send that page. Do not default to the homepage or force a commercial destination into a sentence that does not need it.

The packet should make verification easier without writing the editor's conclusion. The writer still decides whether the experience is relevant, what it means and whether any link belongs in the piece.

### Give the writer an independent reason to care

Weak outreach begins with the benefit to the sender: exposure, authority or a followed link. Source development begins with the reader's question.

The difference appears in the material you offer:

| Weak outreach asset | Stronger editorial source |
| --- | --- |
| A generic company introduction | A specific operating decision and its constraints |
| A request to mention a product | A real experience the writer can inspect |
| A suggested keyword-rich anchor | The most relevant page for the reader's next question |
| A promise that the story will perform | Facts, images and limits the editor can verify |
| A mass list of publications | A short list chosen for topic and audience fit |

This does not mean every business needs to stage an event for journalists. It means the story must exist before the pitch. Outreach can introduce the evidence. It cannot manufacture the reason the evidence matters.

### Keep the link optional

Editorial independence is not an obstacle to link acquisition. It is what makes the link worth having.

Google's link-spam policy lists money, goods or services exchanged for links, excessive link exchanges and automated link creation among its examples of manipulative practices. A complimentary visit conditioned on a followed link would turn an experience into a transaction. That is not the model I used, and it is not one I recommend.

My boundary is simple. I do not require a link, a positive review, specific anchor text or a promise to publish. The writer has to be free to decide that there is no story.

If a relationship includes payment, sponsorship or a gifted product, disclose it and let the publisher decide how any link should be treated. A business should not disguise a commercial arrangement as independent coverage.

### Track the stages separately

Link-acquisition reporting often collapses several different events into one success count. A contact accepted an invitation. A writer requested information. An article was submitted. A page went live. A link appeared. These are different outcomes.

For each opportunity, keep three URLs separate:

- the source opportunity or conversation;
- the published article, if one exists;
- the outbound page the article actually links to.

Then verify the live page. Check whether the article names the correct person or business, whether the link is present, where it points and whether the surrounding sentence makes sense. Do not call a submission an earned link, and do not treat a brand mention as a link.

This slower accounting prevents a large activity number from hiding a small editorial result. It also shows which experiences writers found worth covering, which is useful input for the next piece of source material.

### Outreach should introduce the evidence

Outreach still has a role. A good editor cannot discover every relevant operator, dataset or local experience without help. The email can explain why the source fits the publication and make the evidence easy to review.

The email should not be doing the job of the story. If the pitch disappears and nothing distinctive remains, the business is not ready to ask for coverage.

The durable sequence is to create something worth examining, preserve the evidence and approach the writer whose audience has a reason to care. A link may follow, or it may not. Either way, the editorial decision remains with the publisher, where it belongs.

---

Aviad Faruz is the CEO of [FARUZO](https://www.faruzo.com). He operates personalized-jewelry businesses and three event venues, and builds the automation and SEO workflows behind them.