Why You Should Ignore Link Promises and Focus on Real SEO Wins

If you've spent any time researching SEO, you've probably stumbled across a hundred different agencies promising hundreds of backlinks, quick wins, and guaranteed rankings. Let me be blunt: ignore all of it.

The Truth About Agencies and Link Building

Over the years, I’ve seen countless SEO agencies offer shiny packages—“Get 100 backlinks in 30 days!”—but what they don’t tell you is that most of those links are useless. At best, they’re irrelevant. At worst, they’re spammy and could hurt your site. And yet, so many businesses fall for it because it sounds impressive.

Back when I worked in the agency world, there was one tactic that actually made sense and produced real, valuable results: Fresh Mentions.

What Are Fresh Mentions?

Fresh Mentions is one of the simplest, highest-ROI SEO strategies out there. Here's how it works:

1. Find websites or articles that mention your brand but don’t link to you.
2. Reach out and politely ask them to add a link.

That’s it. No magic. No over-engineered strategy. Just good old-fashioned outreach. And the best part? These websites are already talking about you—they’re familiar with your brand. The hard part (getting noticed) is already done.

Why It's a No-Brainer

Fresh mentions are what I like to call the lowest-hanging fruit of SEO. You're not begging for a favor. You're simply asking for something that should’ve been done in the first place. And more often than not, editors are happy to oblige, especially if you make it easy and professional.

But most agencies don’t bother. Why? Because it doesn’t scale easily. They’d rather toss your site into a thousand sketchy directories or PBNs and call it a day.

What Actually Works in Link Building

If you’re serious about building sustainable organic traffic, forget about backlink quotas. Focus on:

• Content marketing: Create helpful, original, and interesting content. This includes blog posts, guides, videos, infographics—anything that solves a problem or answers a question.
• Digital PR: Earn links by being newsworthy or insightful. Tools like Qwoted can help.
• Building free tools or resources: Quizzes, calculators, or templates that people genuinely find useful.
• Real relationships: Reach out to peers, collaborators, and even competitors. Be part of the community you’re trying to rank in.

A Final Word of Advice

Avoid any agency that promises a set number of backlinks per month. SEO isn’t about hitting numbers—it’s about earning trust, authority, and relevance over time. And you don’t need to pay thousands to make that happen.

If you're handling SEO in-house or hiring help, focus on strategies that build long-term value. And when in doubt, remember this: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.