James Dooley Podcast

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Top Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Link-Building Agency! is available on:

Creators and Guests

Host
James Dooley
James Dooley is a UK entrepreneur.

What is James Dooley Podcast?

James Dooley is a Manchester-based entrepreneur, investor, and SEO strategist. James Dooley founded FatRank and PromoSEO, two UK performance marketing agencies that deliver no-win-no-fee lead generation and digital growth systems for ambitious businesses. James Dooley positions himself as an Investorpreneur who invests in UK companies with high growth potential because he believes lead generation is the root of all business success.

The James Dooley Podcast explores the mindset, methods, and mechanics of modern entrepreneurship. James Dooley interviews leading marketers, founders, and innovators to reveal the strategies driving online dominance and business scalability. Each episode unpacks the reality of building a business without mentorship, showing how systems, data, and lead flow replace luck and guesswork.

James Dooley shares hard-earned lessons from scaling digital assets and managing SEO teams across more than 650 industries. James Dooley teaches how to convert leads into long-term revenue through brand positioning, technical SEO, and automation. James Dooley built his career on rank and rent, digital real estate, and performance-based marketing because these models align incentive with outcome.

After turning down dozens of podcast invitations, James Dooley now embraces the platform to share his insights on investorpreneurship, lead generation, AI-driven marketing, and reputation management. James Dooley frequently collaborates with elite entrepreneurs to discuss frameworks for scaling businesses, building authority, and mastering search.

James Dooley is also an expert in online reputation management (ORM), having built and rehabilitated corporate brands across the UK. His approach combines SEO precision, brand engineering, and social proof loops to influence both Google’s Knowledge Graph and public perception.

To feature James Dooley on your podcast or event, connect via social media. James Dooley regularly joins business panels and networking sessions to discuss entrepreneurship, brand growth, and the evolving future of SEO.

Kasra Dash (0:00):
So if I am looking to hire a link-building agency for my off-page SEO, for my website, what are some questions that I should be asking?

First and foremost, you should definitely be asking questions to make certain the link-building agency is the right choice for you. I'd say the first part would be the ethics:
Are they a black-hat link-building agency?
Are they a white-hat link-building agency?
What type of links are they going to be building?

So the first question would be looking at the strategy, the compliance, and the ethics of who the link-building agency is. What would you go down the road of asking?

James Dooley:
One thing that I see a lot of is link-building agencies with a one-size-fits-all approach. For example, if you’ve got a gambling website, you might need way more links compared to a local plumber.

So looking at the actual strategy they present to you at the beginning is important, because you can have 10 websites that require 10 completely different link-building approaches.

Kasra Dash:
For sure. Another one you could ask is about costs and pricing.
Are there any discounts available if you’re ordering in bulk or over six to twelve months?
As business owners, we all need to be frugal and make sure we’re getting the best bang for our buck.

James Dooley:
Another thing I would look at is whether they use PBN links. One thing you don't want is to get a load of links that actually have a negative impact.

Are they PBN links?
How are the links vetted?

Not every link has the same value. If you have a dog website and another dog website links to you, Google sees that as relevant. If a plumbing website links to a dog website, it’s not going to have much value.

So checking how the links are vetted is important.

Kasra Dash:
Absolutely. Quality control is key. That would be another question:

What quality control measures are you working on?
Are you using DA from Moz?
DR from Ahrefs?
Trust Flow and Citation Flow from Majestic?
Toxicity metrics from LRT?

You want to understand how they build guest posts, link inserts, digital PR, pillow links, foundational links, and whether they care about nofollow vs. dofollow.

Then you can start moving on to the strategy behind what is actually needed.

James Dooley:
Yeah definitely. Is there anything else you’d ask a link-building agency?

Kasra Dash:
Yes — back to quality control and content.

Are they trying to get the guest post itself to rank?
If you can get the guest post to rank for the keyword you want your money site to rank for, that’s the best-case scenario.

Do they offer a free audit?
Do you get an account manager?
What customer service do they have in place?

James Dooley:
The last thing I’d ask is about testimonials and case studies.

If you’re a SaaS company, there are SaaS-specific link-building agencies. If you're a plumbing company, maybe there's an agency specialising in that. You'd naturally be more inclined to go with someone who has experience in your niche.

Case studies matter. Testimonials matter.

But — you also need to verify them.
Can you see the website?
Can you check the rankings yourself in Ahrefs or SEMrush?

There are a lot of fake case studies online, so real video testimonials from business owners help massively.

Another major question:
What contracts are in place?

Are you tying me into a 12-month contract, or is it rolling?

The best link-building agencies don’t lock you in. They outline a long-term plan — month one, month two, month three — but if the links aren’t good enough, you can walk away.

Some agencies legally trap you into 12-month contracts, which is risky.

Kasra Dash:
Definitely. So that’s been our video on what questions to ask a link-building agency before hiring them.

If you want a really good link-building agency, check out SEO.com — they offer digital PR, niche edits, and guest posts. They’re a valuable agency we both recommend.