Yardage book · Month 1 of 18
1. The First Tee
- Club
- Brand SERP
- Par · score
- 45 · 46 Bogey
- Links · quotes
- +2 domains · 0 quotes
Backlink and brand-SERP audit; baseline of 14 US-relevant referring domains and zero golf-media links.
Links & Lough Golf Travel
Golf travel tour operator · Dublin, Ireland · 18 months · Authority
How a Dublin golf-tour operator earned its place on the US golf media circuit
+112referring domains from golf & travel media
Read it like a round of golf: eighteen holes, one per month. Par was the US position we planned for “golf tours ireland”; the score is where it actually landed.
Links & Lough Golf TravelCard of the round
- Holes
- 18
- Under par
- 13
- To par
- -13
Hole 18, Card Signed: from position 46 on the first tee to 2 at the flag.
The lie of the land
Local knowledge, playing off the back tees.
American golfers planning Irish links trips found US-based operators everywhere. This Dublin operator had local expertise but almost no authority in American golf media.
The searches that matter here happen in Texas, Ohio and California, months before anyone flies. Those results were owned by US operators with years of coverage in American golf and travel media. Links & Lough knew which links play best in a westerly and which caddies to ask for, but Google had no outside evidence of it. The job was to earn that evidence where US golfers already read.
Course survey: what the audit found
Authority
14US-relevant referring domains
against a median of 340 for the five US operators ranking above it. None from golf media.
Link profile
0golf-media links
Existing links were Irish directories, a tourism-board listing and two partner hotels.
Brand SERP
3 / 10results it controlled
Brand search led with a review aggregator, an outdated directory page and a competitor ad.
Expertise
Nonenamed expert on the site
Twenty years of on-the-ground knowledge, but no author pages, bios or quotable data.
Link targets
2pages worth linking to
Homepage and a contact form. No guides or data a US writer could cite.
Unlinked mentions
9citations without a link
Golf and travel titles had already named the company, but never linked.
Club selection
Four clubs, one round.
The engagement ran on our Authority plan. Every month leaned on one main tactic, chosen for the shot in front of us. The domain counts below are the links each tactic earned over the 18 months.
Driver
Digital PR
Distance off the tee. Two data-led stories (the Links Fee Index and a wind-and-daylight study) gave US editors a reason to cover a Dublin operator.
+27 domains
Long iron
Golf-media links
Accurate approach work. Targeted outreach to US golf magazines, newsletters and podcasts, pointed at course guides rather than the homepage.
+37 domains
Wedge
Expert commentary
Feel around the green. The founder answered journalist requests on weather, etiquette and booking windows, with a named and credentialed byline.
+32 domains
Putter
Brand SERP
Holing out. Schema, consistent profiles and reviews meant US golfers who searched the name after reading a piece found a credible branded results page.
+16 domains
The round, month by month
18 holes. -13 to par.
Pick a hole to open its page in the yardage book. Two bogeys came early, while coverage was still building; from the turn onwards the round never went over par.
| Hole / month | Out | In | Tot | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Target pos. (par) | 45 | 40 | 35 | 30 | 26 | 22 | 19 | 16 | 14 | 247 | 12 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 64 | 311 |
| Achieved pos. | 46 | 40 | 33 | 29 | 27 | 21 | 18 | 16 | 12 | 242 | 11 | 9 | 9 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 56 | 298 |
| To par | +1 | E | -2 | -1 | +1 | -1 | -1 | E | -2 | -5 | -1 | -1 | E | -1 | -1 | -1 | -1 | -1 | -1 | -8 | -13 |
| New ref. domains | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 49 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 63 | 112 |
- Eagle: two or more places ahead of target
- Birdie: one ahead
- Bogey: one behind
Front nine
- 1The First Tee · Brand SERP. Backlink and brand-SERP audit; baseline of 14 US-relevant referring domains and zero golf-media links.Bogey
- 2Dune Gap · Digital PR. Scoped a data study pricing green fees at 40 Irish links against comparable US resort courses.Par
- 3The Index · Digital PR. Launched the Links Fee Index: an embeddable table and methodology page, pitched to US golf-travel desks.Eagle
- 4Caddie's Card · Expert commentary. Founder author pages, credentials and a press kit so journalists could cite a named Dublin expert.Birdie
- 5Press Box · Expert commentary. Daily journalist-request triage: links-weather, caddie etiquette and booking-window commentary.Bogey
- 6Atlantic Carry · Golf-media links. First outreach wave to US golf magazines, travel newsletters and golf-podcast show notes.Birdie
- 7Clubhouse · Brand SERP. Organisation schema, consistent profiles and a review programme to clean up the branded results page.Birdie
- 8Wind Line · Digital PR. Seasonal ‘When to play the west coast’ wind-and-daylight study, pitched before US spring planning.Par
- 9The Turn · Golf-media links. Turned existing brand mentions into links; reclaimed 9 unlinked citations from golf and travel titles.Eagle
Back nine
- 10Long Fetch · Expert commentary. Guest spots on US golf podcasts; each episode page links to a course guide, not the homepage.Birdie
- 11Pot Bunker · Golf-media links. Course-by-course guides built as link targets for writers covering individual links courses.Birdie
- 12Second Edition · Digital PR. Year-two refresh of the Links Fee Index; original coverage updated its numbers and its links.Par
- 13Dogleg · Golf-media links. Regional US angles: travel-time and fee comparisons pitched to golf columns in six US metros.Birdie
- 14Ocean Road · Expert commentary. Quoted on shoulder-season value and group-trip logistics in US travel and personal-finance press.Birdie
- 15Sitelinks · Brand SERP. Branded search won sitelinks, a knowledge panel and review stars; directory listings pushed down.Birdie
- 16Roundup · Expert commentary. Expert roundups on Irish links etiquette and packing for wind; two syndicated to golf networks.Birdie
- 17Trade Desk · Golf-media links. Trade-press features for US golf-travel agents, linking to the group-tour itineraries.Birdie
- 18Card Signed · Digital PR. Consolidation: internal links from earned pages to money pages, plus a year-end media summary.Birdie
Card signed: results
What 18 months put on the card.
Modelled scenario for a fictional business — not a client result. Rankings and traffic are never guaranteed; see our Terms.
+112
Cumulative new referring domains, one point per month.
+186%
US organic sessions, indexed to month 0 = 100.
19 → 52
Tour enquiries per month.
34
Expert quotes placed, kept in pencil.
| Keyword | US vol. / mo | Before | After | Movement |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| golf tours ireland | 6,600 | 46 | 2 | |
| irish links golf trip | 2,400 | 38 | 1 | |
| ireland golf vacation packages | 3,600 | 61 | 4 | |
| best links courses ireland | 4,400 | 72 | 6 | |
| golf trip to ireland cost | 1,900 | 100+ | 3 | |
| dublin golf tour operator | 480 | 12 | 1 | |
| links and lough reviews | 210 | 9 | 1 |
The 19th hole
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