How To Do Them The Right Way
If you are serious about your SEO and want visibility across AI engines…
You need to diversify your backlink profile!
One of the best ways to do that is with link inserts. They offer a ton of unique benefits that will boost your overall SEO:
- They’re easier to build
- Cost less than guest posts
- Impact your search engine rankings quicker
- Don’t require you to create content
But before you start building link insertions all over the internet, there are a few things you need to know first.
In this blog post, I will tell you everything you need to know about link inserts and show you 4 proven link insertion strategies to build them effectively.
And the BEST part, I will also share a power strategy for getting your content cited by AI search engines such as ChatGPT and Claude
What Are Link Insertions?
Link inserts (also known as niche edits) are links that get placed into existing content on a page already indexed by Google and AI search platforms.
It’s a proven link building strategy that can boost SEO while also generating more organic traffic for our target website.
Link insertions have become popular because:
- The outreach process is much quicker
- You don’t have to create a piece of existing content to place the link
What does this really mean?
It’s easier and faster to get link insertions placed on other websites. And you get the benefit of them being placed on an existing page that’s already been indexed!
That means you’ll often see the positive impact of each link placement quicker across both traditional search and AI-powered platforms that increasingly rely on established, authoritative content.
How Do Link Inserts Work?
Link insertions work by reaching out to a relevant site and requesting a link be added to an already indexed piece of content.
Sometimes, the website owner will just add your link to your content. Other times, you’ll need to write a brief description to be placed with the link insertion.
It depends on the target website and its editorial guidelines.
Why would someone insert a link to your site?
The short answer is: They won’t!
During the outreach campaign stage of your link insertion campaign, you need to pitch to each website owner to try to secure a link.
The main value proposition is that your website/content is a resource that would benefit their audience.
You get the link and they can recommend your content which helps their readers.
Sounds good, right?
Here’s the truth:
Most website owners understand the value of link insertions. That means they usually request an editorial fee to add the link to their content.
Finding website owners who will give you a link insertion for free is getting harder and harder.
But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible…
Guest Posts VS Link Insertions
Guest posts and link insertions are different link building strategies.
Guest posting requires you to write and publish an article that include a link to your site on another website.
LINK INSERTION
Link insertions just require the website owner to “insert” a link into existing content on a website.
But which one is better?
I see so many SEOs arguing guest posts vs link insertions online.
The truth is that guest posts and link insertions work hand in hand. Both should be a core part of your link building strategy.
Let me explain:
Link insertions often require minimal effort compared to guest posts, making it easier to build links. And because the existing page you’re inserting the link into is already indexed – it takes less time to see the positive impact on your rankings.
Guest posts help build:
…simultaneously. While they take longer to gain traction, they often offer a bigger boost to your website’s overall domain authority.
The bottom line is that guest posts and link insertions add value to your link profile in different ways.
A diversified link building strategy should involve both link insertions and guest posts to maintain visibility across traditional search and AI-powered answer engines.
4x Link Insertion Strategies You Can Use
Ready to build link insertions for your own website?
Here are the top 4 proven link insertion strategies that work for both traditional SEO and generative engine optimization (GEO) right now.
1. Outsource Your Link Insertions
Link building is hard work.
In fact, 80.9% of surveyed specialists think link-building will become harder and more expensive over the next 2-3 years due to growing competition and tightening editorial standards.
It takes a lot of time, resources and money to build high quality links that actually boost website domain authority and rankings.
According to BuzzStream, the average price for a link insertion is $141.
If you want to build link insertions but don’t have the time to build them yourself – Outsource it to a trusted link building service.
Let professionals take care of your link building needs while you focus on growing your business.
This is the easiest way to build links that actually help you rank higher.
But not all link building services are created equal…
Hiring a link building agency you can trust can be challenging. There are tons of dodgy services that deliver sub-par results.
Who do we recommend?
LinksThatRank
They have a reputation for building the highest quality links in the industry.
They also take quality control seriously, meaning you get higher-quality links that actually increase rankings and organic traffic.
2. Broken Link Building
The internet is full of broken links.
This creates an opportunity to build tons of links while helping clean up the web.
Broken link building is when you find a broken link on another website and suggest a piece of content on your site as a replacement for that link.
The site owner fixes the broken link and you get a nice link insertion backlink.
Win-win, right?
To start you need to find broken links on topically relevant websites.
Go to Google and search for the target keywords you want to rank for.
Add each domain ranking at the top of the Google search results to a spreadsheet.
Next, you need to find broken links on each of your target sites.
There are two ways to do this:
If you are serious about broken link building, Ahrefs is by far the best way to do broken link building at scale.
I will be using Ahrefs for this example.
Read my complete Broken link building tutorial if you want to see how to use Check My Links for free.
Find Broken Links
Sign up for Ahrefs and log in to your account. Get the first website on your list, add it to “Site Explorer” and click “Search”.
Under “Pages” on the left, click “Best by links”, filter by 404 and click “Show Results”.
This site has 18 “dead” pages on their site.
Some of those pages have decent Dofollow backlinks!
These are your outreach targets.
Spend some time looking through the backlink profile of each of these pages to find good link insertion opportunities.
Found some?
Now, paste the orginal dead page into Wayback Machine and click search.
Wayback Machine is a free web archive that shows you how the content used to look on the dead page.
Look for the blue dates on the calendar – You might need to go back a few years.
It should bring up an existing page that looks something like this:
If you have a similar piece of content on your website, you can suggest it as a replacement.
Otherwise, you’ll need to create a piece of content that closely fits. You’ll have to make a judgment call because creating good content takes time.
And the site owner is not guaranteed to add your new content as a replacement link when you notify them of the broken link.
Let The Site Owner Know About The Broken Link
You first need to find an email address for the right person to contact.
Use a tool like Hunter.io to quickly find the right person and email address to contact.
You can also look for an email address manually on their website!
If you are having trouble finding the correct email address to contact, follow my email address lookup guide. It has all the answers you need!
Write an email and click send!
Explain that you came across a broken link and just wanted to let them know. Then, suggest your own content as a replacement.
Be friendly and don’t be pushy.
Your goal is to help them first and then ask for the link!
Follow the email template in our broken link building guide if you need more help.
3. Press Mention Link Building
Press mention link building is the easiest type of link insert you’ll ever build.
It takes 5 minutes to set up and has a very high success rate.
Here’s how it works:
If your brand is mentioned online without a link, that’s a missed opportunity. Fortunately, it’s often an easy fix…
You just need to get in touch with the website that mentioned you!
First, you need to set up a way to track mentions of your brand online. Google Alerts is the best tool for the job and it’s completely free.
Login to Google Alerts and create an alert for your brand name and your website’s URL.
Enter the necessary information and click on “Create Alert” to finalise it.
If you need some help we’ve created a complete how to set up Google alerts tutorial with some bonus tips for SEOs.
Now, every time your brand gets mentioned online, you’ll get an email from Google Alerts with the website and page where your brand was mentioned.
All you have to do is reach out to the site owner.
Look on their website or use Hunter.io to find the right email address to contact. As a last resort, you can use their contact form.
But ideally, you find an email!
Now, write an email to them using the template below:
Hey [NAME],
I’ve seen you mentioned us on [PAGE].
Thanks a lot!
By the way, I saw you haven’t linked to our site. It’d be of great use for your readers if you added a link, so they can learn more about us.
Here’s the target URL you can use: [URL].
Thanks a lot,
[YOUR NAME]
Remember to tailor each email to the recipient.
Don’t just copy and paste the template!
A personal touch can significantly boost your chances of getting a response.
Press mention link insertions are one of the most passive link building tactics that every business should take advantage of.
Go set up those alerts now!
4. Resource Pages Link Building
Many websites have resource pages containing tools, guides, relevant articles and other websites they use and recommend to their audience.
The resource pages link insertions strategy is pretty straightforward:
- Find resource pages within your industry
- Reach out and ask if you can get listed
That’s it!
Here’s how to do it step by step:
Head over to Google and use the following search operators to find relevant resource pages:
These will bring up a ton of potential link insertion opportunities!
Sift through the search results and write down any pages in a spreadsheet that fit your content.
These are your resource page targets!
Keep in mind that resource pages come in many formats:
- Static pages that list recommend resources
- News articles with a list of resources
- Monthly round-up posts
- Blog posts with the best resources
You get the point!
Getting linked in any of these is great! But how you approach the outreach process depends on the type of resource page.
Let me show you that now…
The next step is to reach out to each of the website owners and get your website/content added to the resource page.
The truth is that this is easier said than done.
So, I recommend a two-prong approach for each target website:
- Send an initial outreach email that doesn’t ask for anything
- Then pivot to a pitch focusing on securing the link insertion
The first email could look something like this:
Hey,
I am a frequent reader of #INSERTROUNDUPNAME# – thanks for putting it together every #WEEK/MONTH/YEAR#.
When you featured #INSERTURL# it really helped me to #INSERTRESULT#
Looking forward to the next round-up!
Thanks again for putting it together all the time!
– Your Name
Once you get a response, you can pivot to a pitch!
It’s as simple as that.
Don’t forget to customise the first outreach email based on the type of resource page you want to get listed in.
It will make it much easier to pitch in your second email!
Using Link Inserts For LLM Authority
Want to get your content referenced in LLMs (Large Language Models) like ChatGPT and Claude?
AI search is changing the way that people discover content. More people are using ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity instead of going straight to Google.
But here’s the problem…
Most link building strategies completely ignore this shift. LLMs only reference content that is authoritative and trustworthy.
Backlinks are one of the key factors that LLMs use to determine this.
Link inserts are particularly effective because they are being placed within content that AI search engines and LLMs already find credible.
With contextually relevant link inserts, you are essentially hacking the system.
You get to leverage the authority of already indexed pages that AI systems have recognised as trustworthy.
Here’s how I do it:
1. Find LLM seed sites
Start by finding high-performing content that is already sourced in LLMs.
Go to an LLM like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and search with deep research or extended thinking mode to get more sources like this:
Search for any of the following:
- Your target keywords
- Questions related to your target keywords
- Semantic keywords
You can do this with multiple LLM models like Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and more.
Export every source URL referenced.
Next, cross-check each of these sources with a tool like Ahrefs. Ensure each domain gets at least organic search traffic from Google and LLMs:
Remove each URL from the list where the domain doesn’t get enough traffic from LLMs.
What you are left with is a list of domains that rank well in search and URLs from those domains that are actively being sourced in LLMs.
These are perfect targets!
2. Build linkable assets
Create high-quality content that you can use for outreach. LLMs love citing:
The key here is to create great content that is relevant to site owners and that AI models will want to reference in answers.
It should be valuable and unique. Add images, graphics, charts, tables and call-out boxes to make the content pop.
The goal is to ensure that the content is so valuable that site owners will naturally want to link to it.
3. The last step is outreach.
Use a tool like Hunter.io to find the website owner’s or manager’s email address.
Frame your content as something that adds value to their audience. This could be:
- Original statistic data
- New updated data
- Missing explanation
- Helpful resource
- Out-of-date information on their page
Here’s an example of an outreach email you can use as a template:
Hi [First Name]
I love your article on [Their Article Title], especially the section on [Specific Detail].
I recently published [Your Article Title], which includes [Unique Angle: new data, updated stats, case study]. I think it would fit perfectly alongside your point about [Relevant Section].
Here’s the link: [Your URL]
Do you want to add it to your article as a reference? I can even provide a custom, branded graphic to make this section really stand out.
Thanks,
[Your Name]
Personalise it with your own angle based on the content you created.
As a bonus, offer a free, branded graphic that they can add when they reference your content. This is a great way to secure the link insert.
Reach out to each website owner and pitch your content as a link insert for the target URL.
The truth is that LLM authority takes time to build. But link inserts give you a head start by placing your content within established, AI-recognised sources.
Don’t want to do all of that work?
Let our team at LinksThatRank build link inserts for you. We specialise in building contextually relevant link inserts that AI search engines recognise as trustworthy and authoritative.
What You Need To Know About Link Insertions
The truth is that to really see the benefit of SEO, you need to build links.
And link insertions are a great way to do that!
But there are a couple of things that you need to know before you build your first few link insertions.
Paying For Links Is Against Google Guidelines
Buying or selling links to manipulate search engines’ algorithm is against their terms of service.
Anytime you exchange money (or anything else) for a link from someone’s website, you violate Google’s webmaster guidelines.
That includes link exchanges!
Does that mean you shouldn’t do it?
Often when you reach out to get a link insertion, the website owner will respond saying they can but you will need to pay an “editorial fee”.
That’s just the nature of link building!
This is really normal, and many people do it.
When you build link insertions properly on relevant sites, the chances of Google penalising you are extremely low.
But you need to know what you are getting into.
Link Building Always Comes With Risks
I’m not trying to scare you…
But the truth is that if you do any link building to improve your website’s visibility, you go against Google’s guidelines. Period.
That means that link building always comes with some risk.
Now you can see why the whole topic of “white hat link building strategies” is kind of stupid.
All link building is, in theory, “black hat” because it’s against Google’s webmaster guidelines.
Links are essential to SEO, and people will still need to build them manually – especially the big sites.
If you aren’t building links, you will ultimately lose out to your competitors.
That’s just the way it works!
The key is to only build high quality links from trusted and authoritative sites.
Want to learn more about what a high quality backlink looks like?
Check out our ultimate link building checklist
It has everything you’ll ever need to know about link building!
If you do run into any issues with Google penalties, we offer a dedicated Google penalty recovery service to get you out of trouble.
LinksThatRank: The Best Link Building Service For Link Insertions
LinksThatRank is the best link insertion service for link insertions that we can recommend.
They have a reputation for building the highest quality links in the industry.
And they have the results to prove they know what they’re doing…
Here’s an example of one of their recent case studies from 2025:
They’ve also simplified the buying process which makes link building accessible to anyone regardless of how big or small your website is.
Every link they build:
- Passes a strict 23-point quality control checklist so you only get excellent links
- Includes anchor text selection to make sure you don’t trigger an anchor text penalty
- Is placed with 1,000 words of content by default
- Includes internal pages and external links to link placement pages to appear more natural
- Is guaranteed not to be on a strict blacklist of sites with “write for us” pages, known guest post farms and PBN networks
LinksThatRank is so serious about quality that they even went as far as to build their own link building tool to identify toxic backlinks!
All this means you end up with great link insertions that actually move your website forward and provide link juice.
If you want someone else to take care of your link building, check out LinksThatRank
Pro Tip: Before outsourcing your link insertions, determine how many links are needed to accomplish your website goals.
Wrapping It Up
There you have it…
Everything you need to know about link insertions, including an abundance of ways to build them!
Link insertions are a great addition to your overall link building strategy and offer topical relevance.
They offer many unique benefits and will help you diversify your backlink profile with relevant links.
Remember:
Don’t ONLY build link inserts.
It’s best to combine it with other link building strategies so you end up with a strong and natural-looking link profile.
If you need someone to take care of your link building for you, then make sure that you check out LinksThatRank.
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