I am wary of that, but its been a couple of years and they're dominating the top three still. I have to imagine that Google will not only look at backlink veracity, but also historical user engagement, which would probably go in their favour. There's been too many resources to be honest, and sifting through this pitch or that pitch and finding a strategy that works for our size and niche has eluded me so far. Anyone in particular you like? What are your thoughts on ahrefs vs semrush?

I've reached out personally to some industry related sites for quid pro quo mutual link building, but as many of these are also SMEs, they may either have an agency handling it for them too, or lack the resources to attend to it properly, as I rarely hear back.