Backlink Opportunity Database

Status: [To Build]

A curated, admin-managed database of directories, listing sites, social bookmarking platforms, and press release sites where clients can self-serve build backlinks. An AI agent matches each tenant’s domain, region, and business type to the most relevant entries and surfaces them directly in the existing backlinks list as sourceType: "directory_opportunity" or "competitor_gap" rows.

Concept

The existing pipeline handles cold outreach (DM sends emails on behalf of the client). This feature handles self-serve link building — a curated list of sites the client can go to themselves and submit their business, with step-by-step instructions for each.

Both types live on the same /seo/backlinks page. sourceType determines which detail panels are shown.

Directory Database Structure

Categories (from spreadsheet)

Additional planned categories:

• Forum & Community Sites (Reddit, Quora, Stack Overflow, niche forums)
• Review Platforms (G2, Capterra, Trustpilot, Google Business Profile)
• Resource / Wiki Sites (Wikipedia citations, AboutUs, Crunchbase)

Data Model

BacklinkDirectory

Table: backlink_directory
Managed by superadmins. Tenant-agnostic.

Indexes:

• [category, subcategory] — agent filtering
• [regions] — region-based filtering
• [isActive]

Steps JSON shape

type DirectoryStep = {
  order: number
  title: string
  description: string
  url?: string  // direct link to the page to visit for this step
}

Example:

[
  { "order": 1, "title": "Go to the submission page", "description": "Visit the business listing form.", "url": "https://example-directory.com/add-listing" },
  { "order": 2, "title": "Create an account", "description": "Sign up with your business email. Use the same domain as your website." },
  { "order": 3, "title": "Fill in business details", "description": "Enter your business name, website URL, description (150–300 words), and select your category." },
  { "order": 4, "title": "Submit for review", "description": "Click Submit. Approval typically takes 2–5 business days. You'll receive a confirmation email." }
]

Backlink model extensions

Three new fields added to the existing Backlink model:

Why copy steps onto the Backlink row: The directory entry may be edited or deactivated. Each Backlink row preserves the instructions that were current when it was created.

Status values by sourceType:

Agent: opportunity-matcher

Queue: agent__opportunity_matcher
Credit type: backlink_opportunity_match
Trigger: On-demand (DM or client initiates) or post-onboarding setup chain

Input: { tenantId } — agent loads tenant domain, region, business category, and client context internally.

Process:

1. Directory filtering: Query BacklinkDirectory where isActive = true and regions contains the tenant’s region (or "GLOBAL"). Filter by subcategory match against the tenant’s business type.
2. Deduplication: Skip directories where a Backlink row already exists for this tenant (directoryId match).
3. Relevance scoring: LLM scores each filtered directory 1–10 based on client context + business type. Drops entries scoring < 4.
4. Competitor gap discovery: Crawl competitor domains (from Tenant.competitors) and find listing sites they appear on that are not in the BacklinkDirectory DB — propose these as sourceType: "competitor_gap" rows.
5. Backlink row creation: For each result, insert a Backlink row with sourceType, directoryId, steps (copied), relevanceScore, outreachStatus: "opportunity", domainRating, linkType.

Output: N new Backlink rows; no email, no campaign created.

Manage Portal — Directory Management

Route: /templates/backlink-directories (or /settings/backlink-directories)

Seeding Plan

The spreadsheet defines ~3 category groups × ~10 subcategories. Initial seed data will cover approximately:

• 200–300 Business Directory entries (one per major industry subcategory × top 15–20 directories)
• 50–80 Social Bookmarking entries (top bookmarking/aggregator sites per subcategory)
• 30–50 Press Release sites (free + paid tiers)

Seed file: packages/db/prisma/seed/backlink-directories.ts
Format: array of BacklinkDirectory objects matching the model fields above.