Link building services that earn quality backlinks.
Links are still one of the strongest signals Google and AI engines use to decide who to trust. Our link engine finds, vets and paces opportunities automatically, so you get more of the links that count and none of the kind that get sites penalised.
Shown's link building service earns quality backlinks for South African websites, as part of our Growth plan (a once-off build from R29,950, then from R9,950 a month) or quoted on its own. Link building is earning links (backlinks) to your website from other sites, and it is the core of off-page SEO services. Search engines treat relevant links from trusted sites as votes of confidence. Shown builds links through automated prospecting and vetting, human-written outreach, digital PR, directory citations and local partnerships, and never through private blog networks or paid link farms.
What our link engine automates
Automation does the slow, repetitive parts at a scale no manual team matches. People make the judgement calls.
Prospecting
Sites that link to your competitors, mention you without linking, or cover your topic and area, found in bulk.
Spam filtering
Traffic, relevance, outbound-link patterns and network footprints checked. Link farms and blog networks never make the list.
Natural velocity
Outreach and submissions drip out over weeks. A sudden spike of links is one of the clearest spam signals there is.
Monitoring
Every link is re-checked, so you know it is still live, still followed and still pointing at the right page.
The links we build
| Link type | What it is | Why it works |
|---|---|---|
| Digital PR | Data, stories and expert comment for journalists and editors | Editorial links from sites Google trusts most |
| Resource and guide links | Your best guides placed on pages that list resources | Topically relevant and long-lasting |
| Unlinked mentions | Sites that already mention you, asked to add the link | Usually the easiest links to win |
| Local links | Suppliers, associations, sponsorships, chambers of commerce | Proves where you operate, for Maps and local search |
| Citations | Directory and platform listings with your details | Consistency for Maps and facts for AI answers |
| Contextual links | Useful articles for real South African sites in your field | Contextual link building: links inside relevant text that send real readers |
Questions buyers ask us
Are backlinks still important in 2026?
Yes. Links remain one of the ways search engines judge authority, and AI engines lean on the same trusted sources. What changed is quality: a few relevant links from real sites beat hundreds of junk ones, which can now do harm.
How many links will I get each month?
It depends on your plan, your market and the kind of links available. Every link we build appears in your monthly report with where it is, when it went live and whether it is followed.
Is automated link building safe?
Automating the finding, checking, pacing and monitoring is safe and makes the work better. Automating the creation of links, with bots posting to forums and blog networks, is exactly what Google penalises. We only do the first.
Can I buy link building on its own?
Yes. It is part of the Growth and Authority plans and also available on its own. Email us your site and competitors for a quote.
Works best together
Every service feeds the others. Links lift pages, listings feed Maps and AI answers, and good pages make every link worth more.
SEO services
Technical fixes, pages built for the exact searches your buyers type, and content that answers them better than anyone else in your market.
Local SEO & Google Maps
Google Business Profile work, reviews and suburb pages that put you in the Maps pack where local buyers pick who to call.
AI search (GEO & AEO)
Get named when buyers ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot and Google AI Mode who to use. Tracked prompt by prompt.
Directory listings
Your business listed and kept identical across Google, Bing, Apple and 60+ South African and global directories.
Programmatic SEO
Hundreds or thousands of useful pages generated from real data, every one indexable, unique and linked properly.
E-commerce SEO
Category, product and filter pages that rank against the big marketplaces, with the technical base to scale.
SEO consultants
Strategy, audits, migrations and traffic-drop recovery from SEO specialists, for in-house teams or a second opinion.
Free SEO audit
Where you rank, where you are missing from Maps and AI answers, and the three fixes worth doing first.
Get a free audit.
Send us your website and the searches you want to win. You get a short audit back: where you rank today, where you are missing from Maps and AI answers, and the three fixes worth doing first.
Or write to [email protected]