Link-building campaigns can be challenging, but setbacks don't have to derail your efforts. This article presents expert-backed strategies to overcome common obstacles in link-building and turn them into opportunities. From personalizing outreach to leveraging data-driven approaches, discover how to transform setbacks into link-building victories.
20 nodes / Raphael Larouche / Aleksa Marjanovic / Matthew Goulart / Andrei Kurtuy / Fahad Khan / Vikrant Bhalodia / Cal Singh / Cache Merrill / Bennet Bronson / Fredo Tan / Steve Morris / Sanjay Prajapat / Wayne Lowry / Rasmus Norgaard / Max Shak / James Allsopp / Jason Hennessey / Sahil Kakkar / Marc Bishop / Vaibhav KakkarRaphael LaroucheFounder & SEO Specialist / seomontreal.io
During one link-building campaign, I hit a wall when almost every outreach email I sent was either ignored or marked as spam. At first, I kept trying to tweak my pitch, but nothing changed. I realized the problem was that my emails looked too generic and were getting filtered out before anyone even saw them. So I switched it up, started personalizing every message, mentioning something specific from the site I was contacting, and kept the emails short and genuine. Responses picked up almost immediately, and I ended up landing some solid backlinks that way. The lesson was simple: if your approach isn't working, don't be afraid to change it completely and get more personal.
Aleksa MarjanovicFounder & Chief Marketing Officer / Eternal Urns
In link building, sometimes the best move is exchanging your target keyword for a mid-volume alternative the competition hasn't realized exists.
My e-commerce business needed a link-building tool several months ago during a link-building campaign. Specifically, I required an affordable tool to help me identify the difficult keywords a site (such as a competitor's site) was ranking well for. As I was searching, the keyword we had been targeting suddenly increased in Keyword Difficulty from around 25 to nearly 55 after a couple of major competitors published extensive, comprehensive guides.
At the time, I was working with an agency, and we pivoted quickly. We conducted our Search Engine Marketing (SEM) research and discovered that while our targeted keyword had become too competitive, another keyword, "bronze memorial signage," was slowly growing in volume but had an acceptable Keyword Difficulty (KD) and great commercial intent.
We shifted our outreach approach, created new linkable assets around the new term, and pitched them as authoritative resources to niche publications and associations in the memorial and architectural space. This agile strategy not only rescued the campaign but also provided higher-quality referring domains. It made me realize that in link building, the factor that hinders progress is stubbornness; sometimes the best move is to exchange your target keyword for a mid-volume alternative that the competition hasn't yet recognized.
Matthew GoulartFounder / Ignite Digital
Hi,
One of our biggest link-building setbacks occurred during a campaign for Volpe Financial Solutions. We pitched over 200 niche finance sites—with zero traction. The mistake was related to over-targeting authority and ignoring relatability. So, we pivoted. We repackaged the pitch using client-generated FAQs, simplified the content, and reached out to lifestyle and small business blogs instead. Within 30 days, we secured 38 high-quality links and saw a 43% increase in branded search volume. Sometimes the answer isn't more links; it's better context.
Another key adjustment came from our work with Mes Amis Barbershop. Local barbershop content wasn't appealing enough for traditional link outreach. So we partnered with local influencers who embedded backlinks in service review blogs and even haircut tutorial videos. That unconventional move helped boost local rankings and organic traffic by 110% in under 3 months. The lesson: When the door doesn't open, build a new entrance.
Cheers,
Matthew Goulart
Founder, Ignite Digital
https://ignitedigital.com
Andrei KurtuyCo-founder & CMO / Novorésumé
First-time founders often chase hollow metrics like backlinks, only to find they offer very little value. At Novoresume, we learned this the hard way. Early on, we followed the standard SEO playbook, zeroing in on guest posts, keyword targeting, and link placements. But we saw no real traffic increase, jump in rankings, or tangible growth. Weeks and months of dedicated effort yielded zero impact.
We pivoted. Instead of reaching out for links, we focused inward, creating content that answered real job seekers' toughest questions. We scoured every community platform from Reddit to Quora, surveyed HR managers and candidates, and built data-backed resources like a definitive ATS guide.
The result? We gained organic links from universities, coaches, and top blogs, without outreach. Our content became a magnet, driving traffic and trust. Now, every outreach campaign and link-building effort we initiate offers value that's hard to resist. Every partnership is now an authentic one that provides actionable guidance to new audiences and communities, offering mutual benefits that need no convincing!
Fahad KhanDigital Marketing Manager / Ubuy Canada
One of the extremely complicated obstacles I encountered in the Links Campaign was when the Target and Authority website, which had created a great relationship with us, unexpectedly deleted a definitive link to our content. After weeks of effort, it was like hitting a brick wall. Instead of being discouraged, my team and I adapted and quickly turned our strategy into identifying broken links on their website. I carefully studied their blogs with other broken external links. We then politely reached out to let them know about the broken links we found, and subtly provided some of these dead links with updated content associated with ideal alternatives. This not only helped them improve their site, but also restored valuable links on their side, providing some others, turning a failure into an unexpected victory.
Vikrant BhalodiaHead of Marketing & People Ops / WeblineIndia
We encountered a challenging situation during one of our link-building campaigns when Google rolled out an algorithm update. Many of the backlinks we had built over months lost value overnight because the sites hosting them dropped in authority. It was frustrating because the team had worked hard, and suddenly our rankings dipped.
Instead of rushing into more guest posts, we took a step back. We reviewed the entire backlink profile and spotted patterns that many of those sites weren't as stable as we thought. So, we narrowed our outreach to blogs and industry platforms that had held steady through past updates. We also started pitching podcasts and SaaS directories, which brought in backlinks in a more natural way.
Within a few months, the site's rankings bounced back. More importantly, the new links felt stronger and less dependent on any one strategy. That experience taught us not to put all our efforts into a single link-building method.
Cal SinghHead Of Marketing & Partnerships / Equipment Finance Canada
My role at Equipment Finance Canada is the development of strategies that facilitate growth and foster long-lasting relationships with customers. An example of a hurdle overcome in our marketing process is that of a link-building campaign to increase the authority of our website. Our early challenges were failure to get responses to our outreach efforts to key influencers and blogs.
I did not get discouraged but changed our approach. I started creating connections with smaller and more active platforms and thought leaders in the financial sphere. By working together, such as through guest posts on blogs and webinars, we obtained valuable backlinks which contributed to better SEO and domain authority for our site.
This experience also made me understand the need to be persistent and open-minded in marketing. Our link-building objectives were achieved, and traffic to our sites increased while search position improved as well, because of the emphasis on good relationships and the variety of our contacts. It reminded me that change is sometimes the key to success, and one must persevere through one's misfortunes.
Cache MerrillFounder / Zibtek
I once led a link-building campaign for a fast-growing SaaS startup that suddenly lost its top referral partner overnight when their legal team flagged our guest post. That was my toughest obstacle—weeks of outreach and relationship-building evaporated in a single email. Rather than panic, I treated it as a learning moment: I paused the campaign, audited our content and partnerships for compliance gaps, and brought in a contract specialist to streamline approvals.
Next, I diversified our outreach to include industry bloggers and niche influencers, tailoring pitches with clearer legal language and examples of safe, value-driven collaboration. Within six weeks, we rebuilt 12 high-quality links—recovering 80% of our lost referral traffic—and established a repeatable approval workflow that prevented future hiccups. This experience taught me that resilience and process refinement turn setbacks into stronger, more scalable link-building strategies.
Bennet BronsonOwner / Gorilla Storage
During a link-building campaign for our self-storage business, one of the biggest challenges we faced was obtaining high-quality, relevant links in a niche that doesn't naturally attract much editorial attention. Many general directories or guest post opportunities weren't industry-specific, and the links either lacked authority or felt disconnected from our local SEO goals. Initially, we attempted a broad outreach strategy, but it wasn't effective in improving our local search visibility for specific locations.
We adapted by focusing on local relevance instead of just domain authority. We began targeting local business blogs, chambers of commerce, real estate websites, and even local event pages where we could offer helpful content or resources in exchange for a mention. A turning point came when we partnered with a local moving company on a relocation guide, which was picked up by several community sites and drove significant traffic to our location pages.
Understanding storage SEO means recognizing that it's not just about volume or generic backlinks; it's about building signals that reinforce your relevance to a specific area. Once we embraced this approach and focused on context rather than just metrics, our local rankings and conversions improved. The key was being willing to pivot and get creative rather than pursuing the same link targets everyone else in the industry was chasing.
We once ran a guest post campaign targeting mid-sized blogs and industry sites. The plan looked good on paper, but most of the sites either ghosted us after a few back-and-forths or asked for money to publish. We lost a lot of time chasing cold leads that never turned into backlinks.
So we shifted gears. Instead of cold outreach, we focused on people already in our orbit—partners, users, agencies—individuals who liked the product and had relevant audiences. We offered value first, like featuring them in roundups or giving them early access to tools. It paid off with higher-quality backlinks, actual referral traffic, and better long-term relationships.
Steve MorrisFounder & CEO / NEWMEDIA.COM
I'm Steve Morris, the CEO and founder of NEWMEDIA.COM. Here's my input for your piece about the challenges of link building and how to get past them.
We faced one of our toughest challenges trying to build links for a client in the overcrowded SaaS market. Our PR outreach was effective, and the campaign ended up securing the kinds of links agencies usually dream about, with placements in The New York Times, Oprah Magazine, Cosmopolitan, and other well-known, credible publications. On paper, these should have been a huge boost. But our rankings barely moved.
For a moment, it felt like the standard best practices had just quit working altogether. In hindsight, the root issue was pretty simple. It was how these big sites handle pagination and archive their articles. Most of the links ended up deep within multi-page lists and quickly got lost in barely accessible archives. While those placements looked impressive in our reports, Googlebot wasn't likely to pass much ranking value from spots almost no one, whether human or crawler, ever visits.
Once we realized that landing "brand name" links wasn't enough to drive results in this field, we went beyond just switching tactics and instead took a closer look. We put together a full forensic breakdown of how our client's top five search competitors were getting links. Using Majestic, Open Site Explorer, and trusty Excel, I compared over 80 different factors involving links, context, and anchor usage. The differences were clear. Our client had a suspiciously high 29% of all anchors exactly matching their target keywords, while the top performers barely went above 2.5%. We also noticed repeating trends, with things like .edu discount links and listings in specialized directories actually driving not just rankings, but real traffic and conversions.
Sanjay PrajapatTech Content Writer / igmGuru
During one of our major link-building campaigns for a SaaS client, we initially relied heavily on content promotion through social media and niche communities, expecting the high-value content to attract backlinks organically. However, after several weeks, the traction was significantly lower than anticipated. Despite investing in great visuals and SEO-optimized blog posts, the content wasn't earning the number of quality backlinks we aimed for.
The challenge was clear: our promotion strategy was too passive. So, we quickly pivoted to a more proactive approach—targeted outreach. We built a refined prospect list of websites and blog editors who had previously linked to similar content or operated in adjacent niches. Instead of using generic outreach templates, we personalized each message by referencing specific pieces they'd published and explaining how our content would add unique value to their readers.
We also repurposed the content into tailored assets—such as infographics, bite-sized stats, and expert quotes—to make the offer more link-worthy for different types of publishers.
This shift not only improved our response rate but also led to a 65% increase in quality backlinks within a month. The experience taught us that in competitive niches, simply promoting content isn't enough—strategic, value-driven outreach is key to cutting through the noise.
Wayne LowryCEO / Scale By SEO
We had an ironic situation in which we had a link-building campaign at one point where 80 percent of our outreach emails were going to the spam folders and the response rate as low as zero after a couple of days. It would be easy to point the finger at the copy or offer but the problem was found much deeper, our domain was on a spam blacklist because of a previous virtual assistant scraping data too forcefully.
We stopped the campaign and started ground up. We purchased a new domain, warmed it up over 30 days of sending at low volume manually and rewrote all our templates so they sounded like a person rather than a marketer. We ceased to use scraped lists as well. Rather, we used links that were given by podcast guests, newsletter contributors, and Slack groups. The quality increased, and the hit rate started to increase, too, because links were coming in at about 60 bucks apiece, a half of our regular price. The failure has made us retrace our steps and re-engineer our process on relationships rather than volume. The change was the difference between everything functioning.
Rasmus NorgaardGroup CMO / TITAN Containers
During one of our early international SEO pushes at TITAN Containers, we encountered a major setback when launching a link-building campaign across several new country domains. The challenge was that many of the outreach efforts were falling flat. Despite crafting regionally relevant content and offering strong value propositions, we struggled to get replies, let alone placements. It became clear that our approach, while effective in English-speaking markets, didn't translate culturally or linguistically in others.
Rather than continue pushing the same strategy, we paused the campaign and re-evaluated with local insight. We partnered with native-speaking freelancers in each region to rewrite our outreach emails, localize content assets, and suggest more culturally aligned link targets. We also shifted some of our efforts toward digital PR and unlinked brand mention reclamation, tactics that required less cold outreach and more strategic relationship-building.
The result was a measurable improvement in domain authority across those new sites and an increase in organic traffic from local search engines. The key takeaway was that scalability in link-building doesn't mean one-size-fits-all. Adapting our tactics to the local context not only helped us recover from the initial setback but also made the entire international SEO program more sustainable in the long run.
Max ShakFounder/CEO / nerDigital
One link-building campaign that tested everything we thought we knew happened early in Nerdigital's growth, when we were working with a SaaS startup in a highly competitive space—think dozens of near-identical products fighting for the same keywords and publisher attention.
We had built a solid strategy: a mix of high-quality guest posts, digital PR outreach, and broken link replacement. Everything looked great on paper. But two months in, we hit a wall. Response rates plummeted, even from publications that typically welcomed our content. Worse, the links we did earn weren't moving the needle in terms of rankings or referral traffic. The client was understandably concerned—and so was I.
At that point, we could've doubled down and just tried to "do more," but instead, we took a step back and re-examined the landscape. That's when we noticed something: nearly every competitor was running the exact same playbook. The outreach emails, the guest post topics, even the CTAs—they all felt copy-pasted. We weren't losing because our quality was poor. We were losing because we sounded like everyone else.
So we shifted the approach completely. Instead of pitching traditional content, we started leading with data. We created a proprietary mini-report using the client's internal user data, paired it with a short survey of their user base, and turned it into a compelling insights piece with original graphs, quotes, and takeaways. Then we reached out not just to SEOs, but to journalists, product bloggers, and even podcast hosts who covered the space.
Perhaps the most frustrating setback we encountered in our link-building campaign occurred when one of our most important publishing partners suddenly altered their content policy. As a result, dozens of quality placements that we had secured were removed or had their links taken away in a single night. It hit hard--not only in the number of links lost but also in terms of client demands and schedules. This challenge compelled us to reconsider how we managed relationships with publishers and approached risk management in our outreach strategy.
To adjust, we diversified our publisher base overnight and created redundancy in all campaigns. We also started to monitor the behavior of press managers, which helped us predict possible changes in attitudes much earlier. This preventative approach was a means through which we were able to shift our focus before issues could worsen. We also improved our client communication; transparency became our key priority, as every setback was accompanied by a clear course of action.
This process taught me that successful link-building is not only about acquiring links--it's about establishing a flexible and resilient process. The best advice I could give to others is not to rely too heavily on a single strategy or alliance. Establish good relationships, be flexible, and have a backup plan. In this field, adaptability is far more crucial than adhering to a rigid strategy.
A finance blog removed our client's link without warning two weeks after publishing a custom guest post. We had followed all guidelines, but the editor cited shifting internal policies as the reason. Losing that asset was disappointing because it had already generated traffic and shares. We reached out diplomatically and asked if we could rewrite a new piece with a different angle.
That conversation restored the relationship and gave us another chance to publish with even greater exposure. It reinforced that relationships still matter deeply in digital PR, even amid automation. We now train our outreach team on soft skills and negotiation strategies. That recovery helped us reframe failure as a doorway to better content.
Sahil KakkarCEO / Founder / RankWatch
We misjudged a content collaboration partner's audience size based on outdated data, expecting higher engagement and link impact. When results underperformed, we did not blame them; we owned the oversight and learned. We recalibrated our evaluation criteria to prioritize engagement rates over social following alone. That adjustment helped us refocus on quality over superficial metrics.
We also built a lightweight scoring system to forecast link equity before investing time in each partnership. That made our campaigns more predictable and less emotionally reactive. The result is stronger and steadier link-building performance across verticals. We now use that framework in every pitch planning session.
Marc BishopDirector / Wytlabs
Our Shopify client experienced a brand reputation crisis due to a viral customer complaint, causing some publishers to cut backlinks. We acted quickly by launching a rapid-response editorial campaign to address concerns and clarify policies. That helped shift the narrative and reopen communication with wary publishers. We earned new placements from outlets covering ethical brand practices.
This challenge reminded us that link-building depends on public sentiment as much as search signals. We integrated brand monitoring into our SEO toolset permanently. That gives us faster alerts and helps us protect link integrity in real time. The result is a more resilient strategy built on transparency.
We built an incredible evergreen guide for a tech client that got featured widely but not always with backlinks. Influencers loved the insights but often cited the content without linking to it properly. That made it harder to measure SEO impact despite clear brand exposure. We responded by personally reaching out and requesting proper attribution one-on-one.
Surprisingly, many agreed to update the link once we explained the mutual benefit clearly. That experience showed us the power of polite persistence and direct follow-up. We added a tracking system to monitor unlinked brand mentions moving forward. That proactive step continues to pay off in silent link equity growth.
We immediately adjusted our entire link and anchor strategy so it looked much more like that of the market leaders, with more natural anchor diversity. Within six months, the client's rankings and revenue completely flipped direction, and these results have stuck even with Google's latest Core and Spam algo updates. This situation was a powerful reminder that you can't just rely on surface-level metrics and spreadsheets. Continuous, deep analysis of your real competitors is vital. As Semrush's 2024 report pointed out, almost half of SEO professionals now see this kind of competitive analysis as absolutely critical for turning around campaigns.
That pivot changed everything. We secured placements not just on niche blogs, but in mid-tier media sites and industry newsletters that had previously ignored us. Referral traffic improved, backlinks grew faster—and just as importantly, we helped the client reposition themselves as a thought leader, not just another tool.
The lesson? When a strategy stops working, it's not always about effort—it's often about context. Adaptation in link-building isn't about finding a new tactic every time. It's about seeing the landscape clearly, and being brave enough to try something that might not scale right away, but earns real trust and attention. That's what gets you noticed—and linked.
