# Link building guides, organised by topic > Agent-friendly Markdown of https://www.buildseo.org/guides — full index for AI agents: https://www.buildseo.org/llms.txt Six topic hubs covering how to build, verify, price and report links — and how to get cited by AI search. Each starts with a pillar guide and branches into focused articles. ## Directory submission _Commercial_ Directory links still help when the directory is real, relevant and indexed. Bulk submission to low-quality directories is what Google calls link spam. This guide shows the difference and how to run submissions properly. Pillar guide: [Directory submission in 2026: the complete guide](https://www.buildseo.org/guides/directory-submission.md) - Best directories for SaaS in 2026 (planned) - Best directories to list an AI tool (planned) - Business directories by country (30+ countries) (planned) - Free vs paid directories: which are worth it? (planned) - Directory submission checklist (planned) - 7 directory submission mistakes that waste links (planned) - [Directory submission service](https://www.buildseo.org/solutions/directory-submission-service.md) ## Link verification _Problem-aware_ "Submitted" isn't "live". A link only counts if the page loads, the link is in the HTML, it points where you expect, and the page can be indexed. Here's how to check all of it — once, and on a schedule. Pillar guide: [How to check if a backlink is live, indexed and dofollow](https://www.buildseo.org/guides/verify-backlinks.md) - Link removal rate: how many links disappear? (planned) - Lost backlinks: why they vanish and how to recover them (planned) - How to check if a backlink is indexed (planned) - Dofollow vs nofollow: how to check any link (planned) - Backlink monitoring tools compared (planned) - How to audit a client's links (planned) - [Submitted Is Not Live (build log)](https://www.buildseo.org/blog/submitted-is-not-live.md) ## Cost per link _Commercial_ From $40 marketplace posts to $550+ premium editorial links, prices vary 10x by model. The number that matters is cost per link still live at 90 days. Pillar guide: [How Much Does Link Building Cost in 2026?](https://www.buildseo.org/blog/link-building-cost.md) - [Cost Per Link: how to calculate it](https://www.buildseo.org/blog/cost-per-link-what-it-actually-means.md) - [Retainer vs cost-per-link](https://www.buildseo.org/blog/link-building-agency-retainer-vs-cost-per-link.md) - [The hidden cost of manual link submission](https://www.buildseo.org/blog/the-hidden-cost-of-manual-link-submission.md) - Link building ROI calculator (planned) - Link building packages compared (planned) ## Agency operations _Commercial_ Agencies lose money on link building in three places: staff hours, vendor markups and clients who don't believe the report. This playbook fixes all three. Pillar guide: [Link building for agencies: the operating playbook](https://www.buildseo.org/guides/agency-link-building-playbook.md) - [White-label link building](https://www.buildseo.org/solutions/white-label-link-building.md) - Link building report template for clients (planned) - How to price link building for clients (planned) - Scaling link building without hiring (planned) - Link building SOP for agencies (planned) - Client onboarding checklist for link building (planned) ## Authority metrics _Informational_ Domain Authority, Domain Rating and Authority Score are third-party estimates — useful for comparison, easy to game, and not used by Google. Here's how they differ and how to judge a site properly. Pillar guide: [Domain authority explained: DA, DR and what actually matters](https://www.buildseo.org/guides/domain-authority-explained.md) - DA vs DR vs Open PageRank (planned) - How to judge a publisher before you submit (planned) - Spam signals: 10 red flags on a link source (planned) - [Why we stopped buying Domain Authority](https://www.buildseo.org/blog/why-we-stopped-buying-domain-authority.md) - [Free Domain Authority Checker](https://www.buildseo.org/free-tools/domain-authority-checker.md) ## AI search visibility _Emerging_ AI assistants answer with a few cited sources. Getting into that shortlist takes crawl access, pages that are easy to quote, and a brand that shows up across the web. Here's the checklist. Pillar guide: [How to get cited by AI search](https://www.buildseo.org/guides/get-cited-by-ai-search.md) - llms.txt: a practical guide (planned) - robots.txt for AI crawlers (planned) - AI citation tracking: how to measure it (planned) - Brand mentions and LLM visibility (planned) - [AI Search Readiness Checker](https://www.buildseo.org/free-tools/ai-search-readiness-checker.md) - [llms.txt Validator](https://www.buildseo.org/free-tools/llms-txt-validator.md) ## Put the guides on autopilot BuildSEO runs discovery, qualification, copy, submission and verification — and bills only for links verified live. 14-day free trial · Pending and rejected submissions are never billed · Cancel anytime Start your 14-day free trial: https://www.buildseo.org/pricing.md · Talk to a human: sales@andolasoft.com --- [Compare](https://www.buildseo.org/compare.md) · [Guides](https://www.buildseo.org/guides.md) · [Pricing](https://www.buildseo.org/pricing.md) · [BuildSEO AI](https://www.buildseo.org/index.md)