Worked example
Linking root domains by language: an Austrian store, worked through
This is an invented example with invented numbers. It shows the order of decisions when your customers read German, Czech or Thai and your links should too.
The store, the numbers and the rivals below are made up to show a method. Nothing here describes a real customer or a real result.
The setup
Meet Lena, a made-up owner of a cargo-bike shop in Graz. Her site is German, it ships to Austria and Germany, and her category page sits on page two for the main search.
Her rivals have around 60 to 90 linking root domains each, mostly from German-language sites. Hers has 22. She has $90 for the first month and no wish to waste it.
Her hypothetical aim is modest: a clean German profile for one page, built from sites that a person in Graz or Vienna might open on purpose.
Her main worry is the same as yours: paying for something that looks impressive in a list and means nothing to a reader in Austria.
Her order of decisions
- 1
Fix the target
One category page, not the home page, because that is where a sale happens.
- 2
Set the language filter
German first. English donors are skipped even when their Domain Rating looks attractive.
- 3
Read the row, then the site
Traffic, niche and price come from the row. A quick look at the donor's pages tells her whether a bike shop belongs there.
- 4
Fill the basket and stop
She adds a handful of mid-priced placements, leaves the basket unpaid for a day, and reviews it again with fresh eyes.
Her basket before paying (all numbers hypothetical)
| Donor type | Language | Illustrative price | Why it made the cut |
|---|---|---|---|
| Regional cycling blog | German | $12 | Niche fits and readers are local |
| City lifestyle magazine | German | $25 | Broader audience, decent traffic |
| Parenting site | German | $18 | Cargo bikes suit families |
| Large English tech blog | English | $60 | Skipped: wrong language, high price |
Mistakes this method avoids
Four classic ways to burn a first budget.
Chasing the highest Domain Rating
A strong English site sends mixed signals to a German page and costs far more than it should.
Pointing everything at the home page
The category page sells, so it should receive the links.
Translating English anchor text word for word
Native phrasing reads better to people and to search engines alike.
Reordering too early
Placements need weeks to be crawled and weighed. A second order after three days only muddies the picture.
What she watches afterwards
Patience is the hard part. Lena checks Search Console for impressions on the category page each week and leaves the domain count alone until the placements have been live a few weeks.
If nothing moves, she does not panic. The page might need better copy, and the March 2024 core update showed how little a link can do for a thin page, so she waits, measures and reorders only from the donors that looked best.
The language filter is one tool among several. Use it with the country structure plan and the guide to counting domains per market.
She also keeps a note of every order in a simple sheet: date, donor, price, target page. In six months that sheet is worth more than any forum thread, because it shows which kinds of donors she keeps reordering.
She then compares her new count with the rivals' on the first of next month, using the method from the counting runbook.