Publisher, agency and writers are the same team. You deal with whoever controls the editorial side, the server, and the link permanence. Audit, plan, execution, reporting, all under one roof.
A standard netlinking agency brokers links through third-party publishers. It takes the order, negotiates the placement, delivers. Between you and the publishing site, there is at least one layer of intermediation. When the agency isn't the publisher, it can neither guarantee editorial quality nor control the permanence of the site hosting your link.
Our model is different. We operate the network of media we publish on. Publisher, agency and writers are the same team. When you ask us for a placement, the strategic steering, writing and publication all happen under one roof. No relays, no stacked margins.
The practical consequence: we can stand behind editorial quality, link permanence, and campaign coherence over time. Not because we promise it, because we control every link in the chain.
An agency that doesn't own its sites can only promise what its publishers are willing to deliver.
The structural rule of the market
The word "agency" covers very different practices. Here are the four models that dominate the market, with their trade-offs.
The agency runs its own editorial media and publishes there for its clients. No middleman, full control over site quality, article angle, and link permanence.
The agency owns no sites but selects and negotiates for you with third-party publishers or marketplaces. The agency margin stacks on top of the link cost. Quality varies with the partner network.
Not strictly an agency, you decide on each placement yourself from the catalogue. More granular control, but the strategic steering stays on you.
You access a self-serve catalogue but the agency stays available to run a complex campaign or a cluster. Best of both worlds, on the condition that the same team wears both hats.
Every netlinking agency promises quality and expertise. Five concrete questions separate the real editorial teams from middlemen with no added value.
An agency that owns its sites can stand behind the editorial, the audience, the permanence. An agency brokering third-party publishers can only watch. Ask the question: "Who runs your sites?" The answer changes everything about the real quality of placements.
Serious agencies show a public grid or explain their pricing model on the first call. The ones that send a "custom quote after diagnosis" negotiate case by case, creating significant gaps between buyers for the same service. Transparency saves time on both sides.
Ask to see articles already published on the network sites. The tone, length, originality say everything about the writing. If the samples look like generated content, padded product sheets, or repeated templates, long-term SEO will fall behind. A real editorial line shows up in five minutes of reading.
An agency that pitches ten links per month without looking at your existing profile, your target pages, your direct competitors, is applying a template rather than a strategy. Ask what guides the anchor mix, time spread, site selection. If the answer fits in two vague sentences, that's a bad sign.
Monthly reporting on positions, traffic, link indexing. Without that regular touchpoint, the agency delivers links and you find out the results three months later, too late to fix. Reporting belongs in the service, not in a premium add-on.
The flow of an agency engagement at Stringer. Audit, plan, execution, reporting. You sign off at every step, we don't move forward without your green light.
Before suggesting anything, we look at what's already there: volume, variety, anchors, any visible footprint. The audit reveals what's missing and what to avoid. One hour of work that calibrates everything else.
Target pages, goals, anchor mix, publication schedule, budget. Everything written down before the first order. You sign off before we execute.
Site selection matched to each target page, briefs sent to writers, drafts signed off, publications spread out. No middleman between the plan and the result.
Each month, a check on positions, traffic, links delivered. If a page isn't moving, we identify why and adapt. The plan evolves with real data.
Three practices we see regularly that drag down results. Here's how our model avoids each one.
Many agencies broker independent publishers without controlling editorial quality or site permanence. You end up with links that can disappear in six months.
All our sites are operated in-house. No ghost publishers, no sites that change hands, no links that vanish. Permanence is built into the model, not a sales promise.
Without an audit or a tailored plan, the agency applies a standard format to every client. Direct competitors get nearly identical campaigns, which kills the differentiation effect.
Every campaign starts with an audit of the existing profile. The plan accounts for your direct competition, your priority pages, your sales cycle. No plan recycled from one client to another.
Without regular visibility on results, you find out three months later that the campaign isn't producing the expected effect. Zero room to fix.
Monthly check on positions, organic traffic, link indexing, adjustments to plan. Included in packs at no extra cost.
Our sites, our writers, our strategy. No middleman, no hidden margin, no surprises.