Before we jump into our link building guide, let’s start at the beginning and cover what SEO means.
The Role of Link Building in SEO
Our simple SEO guide below covers all of the fundamentals, including common myths about backlinks and the role they play in modern SEO.
SEO Basics: The Simple SEO Guide for Website Owners [UPDATED]
Despite the fact link building is only one cog in the wheel, it continues to play an important role in SEO by signalling trust and relevance to search engines, but it’s just one element of SEO along with many others, including developing high-quality content, keyword optimisation, and technical SEO practices.
Editor’s Note [18.02.25]: We originally published “Backlink Your Way to SEO Success: An Up-To-Date Link Building Guide” in 2017. After seven years, it was clear that the guide needed an update to bring it in line with current guidelines and best practices. We’ve made everything easier to read and digest, as well as adding additional useful information and linking in with our latest guides and articles on SEO.
Backlinks: Let’s Start With the Basics
What Are Backlinks?
So, what are backlinks and does link building help your SEO? A backlink is a URL anchor on another website (other than your own domain) which links to a page on your site.
Backlinks from reputable sites act as “votes” of confidence, helping content rank higher, but with Google’s anti-spam algorithm and helpful content updates, quality matters more than quantity, making authentic, well-earned links essential.
Strategies like guest blogging, content marketing, and influencer outreach can build strong backlinks, but the emphasis should be more on earning backlinks than building them. Above all else, avoid spammy, low-quality sources to prevent penalties that will harm your overall SEO efforts.
A balanced SEO strategy that includes natural, authoritative backlinks and engaging, well-structured content can significantly boost search rankings.
These kinds of backlinks are sometimes also called inbound links. Along with great content, backlinks are one of the main ways that search engines like Google and Bing determine how relevant and trustworthy your content is and combined they help to determine how well your content matches a user’s search query (keyword search).
For more information on backlinks and the role they play, take a look at our guide below.
Now you have the background, let’s get stuck in.
What is Link Building? A Definition
Link building is the process of building or acquiring backlinks to your website.
We’ll cover the importance of link building and the various strategies for gaining backlinks below, but first, let’s break things down into really simple terms:
A general definition of link building includes:
- Manually building links by submitting your site to directories or requesting backlinks.
- Publishing guest posts or articles on other blogs.
- Publications newsworthy content on digital PR outlets and news websites.
- Blogger and influencer outreach.
- Publishing visual content like infographics to attract backlinks.
- Using social media and social networks to share your content.
- Publishing a banner or advert on related sites that link back to you.
- Earning links naturally through simply producing high-quality, shareable content.
All of the above link building methods (and more) will result in backlinks, but not all should be pursued.
While they all seem innocent enough, many of these methods could backfire if not undertaken in a natural, ethical way. For example, some of the above methods could be achieved by paying for links or using tools to automate link building to boost SEO. Don’t do this.
Option 8 will always be the most effective and safest method of link building, as you’re not actually building anything. Instead, you are earning links.
Failing that, methods that emphasise building or gaining links slowly and naturally, as a result of genuine and thoughtful marketing is the next best option. If your marketing efforts and backlinks provide genuine value, you will have nothing to worry about.
The Importance of High-Quality Link Building
Since 2012, when Google updated its search algorithm with the Penguin release, the quality and integrity of backlinks have become more important than ever. A part of Penguin’s job is to identify backlinks that are unnatural or are generated from untrustworthy sources. As a result, the quality of every link you achieve for your site is important.
The building blocks of an effective SEO strategy start with content and link building. Image via Pixabay.
The aim of the game with Google is to be a search engine that operates on a democratic basis and not one where sites that have the deepest pockets perform best.
In this sense, backlinks provide a great way for Google to ascertain which sites have received the most ‘votes’. If another website is linking to yours then they must be vouching for your content, but on the other hand, if this ‘vote’ comes from a questionable source (of low-ranking domain authority) then it counts for little, nothing or worse and it can count against you.
Quality backlinks are about securing genuine votes from real people who can vouch for the authority and relevance of your content. Securing these kinds of backlinks is usually hard work and takes time and effort but is ultimately more rewarding in terms of improving your SEO visibility than using ‘quick-fix’ or Black Hat SEO tactics.
To summarise, backlinks are essential to achieve SEO success, but the way you go about link building is even more important.
Which Link Building Strategies Are Effective?
We can’t create a link building guide without talking about the most effective strategies.
Below, we have dedicated an entire article to this topic, so for our top 10 link building strategies, please read our guide below.
Best Link Building Strategies: Top 10 Tips for Building High-Quality Backlinks
An effective link building strategy should combine as many techniques as possible to secure quality backlinks in the most natural way. It should use natural White Hat SEO methods and be designed using the most up-to-date guidelines and best practice SEO techniques to avoid falling foul of any search engine guidelines for link building.
Understanding the Difference Between Black Hat SEO Techniques, White Hat & Grey Hat [UPDATED]
The most effective strategies for link building remain centered around creating quality relevant content that is informative and useful.
Content should always be written for humans first whilst still making good use of well-researched and targeted (but not over-optimised) keywords.
SEO Keyword Analysis & Planning: How to Choose the Best Keywords For Your Website
Visual content marketing including infographics, videos, and images are an important part of a well-performing SEO strategy as Google understands that visitors generally respond better to visual content than text.
Lastly, and you’ll find us saying this more than once, quality over quantity is the key.
Types of Link Building Methods
There are plenty of ways to build or earn backlinks, some good and some bad.
Building quality links can help you net the best catch online. Image via Pixabay.
Online PR
Links from Press releases should be NoFollow meaning they don’t technically get you any link juice, according to Google, but applied correctly, an online press release distribution programme through the right channels can work very effectively.
The key to making this technique work is to first acknowledge that press releases aren’t likely to be a golden chalice but an opportunity for great exposure. Secondly, if you do succeed in getting your press release onto the right sites then it can generate some favourable returns.
Sadly, too many companies believe that press releases are simply a great way to create backlinks and don’t craft these useful pieces of content well enough to maximise their potential.
As with other areas of an SEO strategy, planning is essential and targeting your press release correctly can boost its effectiveness.
Blogger Outreach
People who run successful blog sites are now considered to be some of the most influential players online. Sites that have built a reputation for having a fresh and innovative voice often provide authority backlinks to other sites that are relevant to their niche.
Getting a backlink through blogger outreach can, therefore, be a powerful source of link juice.
However, as with anything worthwhile, getting one isn’t easy and requires time and commitment to build a relationship and provide something useful in return.
Bloggers are powerful influencers and can positively impact SEO. Image via Pixabay.
Critically, researching your potential link sources is important and will help to ensure that you aren’t wasting your time.
It’s a long-term investment for the payoff of a rewarding backlink that could generate organic traffic as well as boost your rankings.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is a term used to describe a variety of digital marketing techniques, including online press releases and blogger outreach.
Well-written and well-optimised content is the primary way to get your site found on a search engine. Text that is easy to read, unique, meaningful and engaging and has something of value for humans.
Search engines use bots to crawl the text on your website and they use sophisticated algorithms to rate your content on these factors. Great content can perform well in search engine rankings but the missing link is, of course, the human touch (i.e. what do people actually think).
This is why backlinks are so important, search engines rely on these little anchors to indicate to them that the content on your site is relevant and informative enough for other people to want to reference the page.
So don’t ignore the ability of your content to earn organic and natural backlinks. The more unique, interesting, well-researched and informative your content is, the better its chances are of attracting natural backlinks.
Utilising social bookmarking and networking sites like Reddit is about tapping into the power of community up-voting.
Social bookmarking creates a digital repository of links and URLs related to any given niche or topic and other users get to ‘down-vote’ or ‘up-vote’ how relevant and useful these links are to the community.
Used well, sites like Reddit can be very powerful – getting linked on a popular subreddit or thread can generate a high volume of organic traffic, as well as providing influential signals to search engines like Google.
As with any backlinks you generate, the onus is on the quality rather than the quantity so choosing relevant social bookmarking sites is important.
Of equal importance is your online presence insomuch that you are a giver and not just a taker. Posting your own links continuously without providing balance, your bookmarks will quickly become buried as spam by other users.
Sharing URLs on social bookmarking is about giving as well as taking.
Infographics
Infographics are a powerful way to build backlinks and can create up to three times more engagement than other forms of content marketing.
A well-researched and well-designed infographic on a relevant topic can have serious momentum in terms of shareability and boost your organic backlink growth.
Creating infographics should follow the same method as with any content and start with good planning and research. Determining what you’ve got to say and who you are saying it to; spending time and effort simply producing a sales document is unlikely to achieve the reach you are targeting.
Video Content
Just like infographics, video content is a fast way to engage your audience and can be up to four times more effective in creating engagement than simple text alone.
Publishing videos to platforms like YouTube provides a great way to enhance your marketing strategy.
YouTube videos can embedded on your own website, but also to gain exposure and traffic through YouTube itself (it’s a search engine), backlinks added via your YouTube video descriptions and also through Google video searches.
How Expensive is Link Building?
Getting Free Backlinks
The cost of a link building strategy doesn’t need to break your budget. Below, we’ve how to get free backlinks.
How to Get Free Backlinks for Your Website: Our Top 10 Methods [UPDATED]
With ideas from claiming free backlinks to rewriting existing content, there are plenty of ways to improve your reach with quality backlinks.
Buying Backlinks
The first thing to state is that paying for backlinks is technically fine as long as you disclose to search engines like Google that you are paying for them by applying a nofollow attribute to the links. This tells search engines that you are not doing this to game the system or artificially boost your SEO. For more on this, read Google’s guidelines below:
Next, you may be wondering, “If it’s against the rules, can buying backlinks still be effective in SEO?”
There is no short answer to this one; buying backlinks can land you in hot water with Google, but many websites continue to do this and it works for them.
There is no doubt that wholesale link building should be avoided at all costs as this can lead to a swift reprimand from Google. However, legitimate links from quality sites that are relevant and authoritative can still help your SEO.
While buying backlinks may work in the short term, the reality is that Google will most likely discover what you are doing and discount those links or penalise you in the near future.
Our advice is simple – don’t do it! The risk is too great and there are plenty of ways to get backlinks for free.
In addition to not buying links, make sure you avoid the following black hat techniques:
- Link networks (PBNs for example).
- Automated link generation software.
- Link trading.
For more information about the risks of buying backlinks, check out our guide below.
Is Buying Backlinks Safe? Do Paid Links Have a Place in Modern SEO? [UPDATED]
The Importance of Tools for Link Building
Building quality backlinks requires more than just registering your site with several online directories and getting it right takes time and hard work. The focus is on research and networking to build trustworthy links that will stick.
So, what tools are available that can help you climb the rankings?
Link Building Tools
Firstly, using tools like Moz’s Link Explorer can help you understand what is working for your competition so you can level the playing field.
Next, finding the right keywords is important to maximise your outreach potential. Understanding the profile of where your backlinks are coming from is essential and there are plenty of tools to analyse this. Don’t forget Google Search Console. It’s free and provides one of the best places to analyse your existing link profile.
Just go to Links > Top linking sites
Sometimes the best link building tools are free
There are also tools that help you research a target network of powerful influencers so you can make direct pitches for blogger outreach.
Tools to Check Competitor’s Backlinks
Understanding why your competitors are outperforming you in the SERP stakes is key to planning an effective link building strategy.
Fortunately, you don’t need to go undercover to get this kind of information as backlink analysis of any website is straightforward. It’s a simple process to analyse what backlinks they have achieved and it can be invaluable, but unfortunately, most free tools only give limited information.
Tools to check competitor backlinks
You may need to pay for a subscription to get the most complete data about your competitor’s backlinks, but once you have this, you’ll be armed with lots of inspiration and ideas for your own link building.
Check Backlink Quality and Trust Flow with Majestic
Majestic has produced their own unique tool to help webmasters identify sources of quality backlinks.
Using two key flow metrics (Trust Flow and Citation Flow), Majestic indicates not just how authoritative a backlink is but how useful it is in terms of traffic generation.
Both are similar to metrics used by large search engines and can help you analyse the performance of backlinks your site already has. You can use Majestic to check backlink quality as well as other SEO performance criteria.
Analyse Backlink Metrics with Moz
Checking the Domain Authority of a site is another way to help ensure that the backlinks you are building come from a quality source and are likely to help your SERP rankings rather than damage them.
Moz has produced a powerful SEO tool to help deliver important backlink metrics to analyse your existing links and inform your research on your growth strategy. Moz’s backlink tool closely mimics the PageRank algorithm that Google uses to perform its searches and can be an extremely powerful way to monitor backlink data.
Tools to check backlink metrics like Domain Authority
Sticking to the Rules
Not all backlinks are created equal and whilst some can boost your SEO rankings, others can harm your online presence.
Link Building within Google’s Webmaster Guidelines
Google’s aim is to create and collate the results of quality sites and reward those that are regarded as trustworthy, authoritative and relevant.
Thankfully, Google has done an excellent job of providing support. Google’s Search Essentials (formally Webmaster Guidelines) are simple but great place to start, but it’s not the only place. Here are some additional Google resources that are worth reviewing:
- SEO Starter Guide: A beginner-friendly resource covering the fundamentals of SEO, including link building, content optimisation, and technical best practices.
- Google Search Documentation: Comprehensive documentation detailing how Google Search works and providing guidance for site owners to improve their visibility.
- Creating Helpful Content: Insights into Google’s expectations for high-quality, user-focused content that aligns with search intent.
- E-E-A-T Guidelines: Explanation of the Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness framework, which Google uses to assess content credibility.
Avoiding Google Penalties with White Hat SEO Tactics
The differences between Black, White and Grey Hat SEO techniques can make a huge difference in how well your domain performs in the search engine rankings.
Get it right and you can enjoy the rewards that a successful SEO campaign can reap but, get it wrong and you could significantly damage your standings with Google as well as affect your online visibility.
Ostensibly a way of determining whether an SEO tactic legitimately falls into Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, White Hat tacticians are the good boys of the link building world. They create natural links using content that is well-optimised but with humans in mind. They generate inbound links from domains with good levels of trust and authority.
Conversely, Black Hat SEO tactics are employed by companies looking to manipulate their page rankings using techniques that could incur penalties if they are detected by Google. Plagiarism, cloaking and paying for links are all examples of Black Hat techniques.
What’s the Worst That Could Happen? Pitfalls of Black Hat SEO
Black hat SEO tactics are employed by plenty of companies building backlinks. They are even employed by link building companies that claim to be totally White Hat.
Since Google launched the Penguin update in 2012 to help create a fairer ranking system, there have been many high-profile cases of companies being penalised for falling foul of the rules. Expedia, BMW and Overstock have all been reported as having their sites castigated for flouting the rules on link building.
Penalties like these have led to significant drops in rankings and overall traffic loss. In some instances, these penalties have negatively impacted revenue or have had a huge impact on share prices and negative publicity.
In the worst cases, businesses have gone under as a result of link building penalties, so it’s fair to say that it’s just not worth the risk.
Wrapping Up Our Link Building Guide
You should be in no doubt that performing well in SEO is no accident and requires a well-informed, well-prepared strategy. It also requires time, effort, and creativity to create high-quality content and promote what you are doing. If you get this right, you will earn backlinks for free without needing to do any link building at all.
At Opace we don’t just understand SEO, we consistently deliver successful SEO services to help our clients achieve amazing results. If you need help or support, just get in touch and a member of our friendly team will be happy to help.
We hope you’ve found our link building guide useful. If you have any comments, ideas or insights that you would like to share about link building, drop us a comment below or reach out to us on social meda.
It’s a great handy article for increasing DA. A good internal link structure can really help in better SEO and hence domain authority of a site. But most of the newbies tend to put the same anchor text across articles. A variety of anchor text is what one needs to put to make the most out of interlinking.Loved all the tips and the linked resource pages. Thanks for sharing. Take care and have a great day