A stock photo business approached us with one clear goal: build 20–30 high-quality backlinks to support long-term growth. While their domain already had strong authority, they wanted to maintain their DR, improve keyword visibility, and increase organic traffic in an increasingly saturated market.

Client background

The client operates a stock photo platform that offers a vast library of royalty-free images, AI-generated visuals, and inspiration based on the latest design trends. Despite a feature-rich product and growing demand for visual content, their site wasn’t getting the organic visibility it deserved.

To stay ahead of competitors and attract more users organically, they needed editorial backlinks from trusted websites in the design and SaaS spaces publications where their ideal audience spends time.

The challenge

Our client came to us with high expectations and a high DR. Their domain rating was already 88, and they wanted to maintain this while earning links that would support traffic growth.

The real challenge?

Securing links from high-authority SaaS websites. These domains often have strict editorial standards, rarely accept third-party content, and are highly selective about their outbound links.

Many were already inundated with outreach and hard to break into without strong relationships.

Project goals

• Maintain the client’s Domain Rating (DR) of 88 by securing high-quality, niche-relevant backlinks from authoritative websites in the SaaS and design ecosystems.
  
• Increase organic traffic to targeted landing pages and blog content by improving visibility for high-intent keywords like “royalty-free images” and “AI image generator.”

These goals were directly aligned with the client’s broader content marketing strategy, aimed at attracting creative professionals and marketers through search-driven discovery.

What we set out to do

Primary goal: Build 20–30 high-quality backlinks from authoritative SaaS and design-related websites.
Success metrics: Maintain Domain Rating (DR) of 88 and increase organic traffic to core pages
Timeline: 9 months (and ongoing)
Target keywords: Design trends, AI image generator, royalty-free images, stock images

Our approach

We focused on one core strategy to meet the client’s needs and the challenges of the niche:

1. Niche edit links

To meet the client’s quality standards and domain requirements, we prioritized niche edit placements on authoritative SaaS and design-related websites.

These edits involved inserting contextual backlinks into existing, indexed articles that were already performing well in search.

This approach helped us:

• Secure fast, SEO-relevant links from aged and trusted content
• Improve referral traffic from pages already ranking for relevant terms
• Maintain a natural backlink profile with diverse and topic-aligned anchors

We carefully review every site for relevance, DR, and audience alignment, avoiding low-quality placements and over-optimized content.

Every link was carefully placed with varied anchor text and aligned with the client’s top-performing or newly published content.

Key takeaways

Quality over everything: A high DR doesn’t mean you stop building links, it means you have to build better ones.

Niche relevance is non-negotiable: Links from SaaS and theme-related sites added both topical depth and traffic potential.

Keep it natural: Balanced anchor text and contextual placements helped maintain a clean and trustworthy backlink profile.

Results compound: Even without huge traffic spikes, the cumulative impact of solid links helps maintain authority and sets the stage for future growth.

High-authority backlinks secured

We successfully secured backlinks from trusted and highly relevant domains, including:

• opencart.com 
• portotheme.com
• thimpress.com 
• curator.io
• woostify.com 
• gracethemes.com 

Each of these placements was chosen not just for authority, but for its contextual alignment with stock photos, design resources, or site-building tools.

Results: Sustained authority and traffic growth in a competitive niche

After 9 months of targeted link building, the campaign delivered measurable improvements that aligned with the client’s long-term SEO and visibility goals:

Domain rating stability: DR 88 maintained

Starting point: DR 88
Current status: DR 88 (sustained through multiple algorithm updates)

Despite operating in a highly competitive niche, the client maintained their Domain Rating, a key signal of authority and trust, through consistent link acquisition from relevant, high-DR websites.

Traffic explosion

The site saw a significant spike in organic traffic across key pages, especially blog content targeting design professionals and marketers.

• Increased visibility for informational and commercial-intent keywords
• Blog posts began ranking on page 1 for multiple mid-volume queries
• Referral traffic also improved from contextually relevant backlinks

This surge in traffic brought in more qualified visitors actively searching for design assets, AI tools, and royalty-free content.

Keyword visibility gains

With a focus on terms like:

• Royalty-free images
• AI image generator
• Design trends
• Stock images

The site saw improved rankings and visibility for both primary and long-tail keywords. Many previously stagnant blog posts started appearing in Google’s top 20 results.

The real impact

The combination of sustained DR, high-quality backlinks, and strategic keyword targeting led to a surge in both traffic and search presence.

With the campaign still ongoing, the client is in a strong position to expand their keyword footprint and continue compounding growth through content and SEO.

The bottom line

Even top-performing websites need consistent link-building efforts to stay competitive. 

Our work helped this visual content brand secure links from relevant, authoritative sources and maintain a DR of 88, a clear signal of trust and credibility in the eyes of search engines.

The campaign continues, and we’re already identifying the next round of opportunities to drive traffic and expand keyword coverage.