Backlinks are one of Google’s top ranking factors, but not all links are created equal. In this guide, you’ll learn what link building is, why it matters, the safest and most effective tactics to use, and which risky methods to avoid so your SEO efforts last long-term.
What is Link-Building and Why is It So Important?
Link-building is the process of getting other websites to link to your website. These links are used by search engines to evaluate their reliability and authority. Your website is more likely to rank highly in search engine results pages (SERPs) if it has a large number of relevant and high-quality links pointing to it.
Almost every element of SEO is supported by effective link-building by increasing brand authority, boosting visibility, and generating traffic.
DR and Traffic
Domain Rating (DR) and traffic are two metrics that are frequently linked to link value. Most SEO tools have their own metric to measure the strength or authority of a website. For example, DR (Domain Rating) is used by Ahrefs, DA (Domain Authority) is used by Moz, and Authority Score is used by Semrush. Each of these scores is calculated using the tool’s own formula, factoring in things like backlink quantity, quality, and traffic data.
Because it communicates authority and trust to Google, a backlink from a website with a high DR (such as 60+) and a lot of organic traffic is usually worth more. These links have greater link equity, which can raise your pages’ potential ranking. These metrics are not used by Google itself and are third-party estimations. Google has its own methods for evaluating link quality that aren’t disclosed to the public. Still, DR, DA, and Authority Score can provide a useful benchmark for prioritizing link opportunities because they give us an idea of a site’s strength.
No-follow vs. Do-follow Links
Each link online can have specific attributes that tell search engines how to treat it. These attributes influence whether a link passes SEO value (also called link equity) or just acts as a reference without affecting rankings. Common link attributes include do-follow, no-follow, sponsored, and UGC, each serving a different purpose in SEO strategy.
Do-follow links transfer the linking site’s SEO value to yours. When it comes to building links, these are the best because they pass full link equity from the referring page to your page.
No-follow links instruct search engines not to pass SEO value, meaning they typically do not transfer equity. However, they’re still not useless. No-follow links from reliable websites, like Wikipedia or media outlets, can still increase credibility, increase traffic, and raise brand awareness.
In addition to do-follow and no-follow, there are sponsored and UGC links that impact equity flow. Sponsored links can also be paid links and search engines treat these like no-follow links that do not pass equity. UGC links are user-generated content like blog comments or forum posts. These also do not typically pass equity, though they can help with referral traffic and brand signals.
Equity flow in simple terms:
- Do-follow: Passes full equity.
- No-follow: Passes little to no equity.
- Sponsored: Passes no equity (to avoid manipulating rankings through paid links).
- UGC: Passes little to no equity.
Do-follow links are ideal for transferring ranking power, but a natural backlink profile should include a mix of link types. Even links that don’t pass equity can still benefit your SEO by driving traffic and building brand trust.
Link-building tactics
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to link-building. A diversified strategy that includes multiple tactics is more sustainable and effective long term. Below are eight tactics to incorporate into your SEO strategy.
- Reporter Outreach Links
- Contributor Links
- Broken Backlinks
- Statistical Links
- Internal Links
- Unlinked Mentions
- Resource Page Links
- Citations
Reporter Outreach Links
This tactic involves providing expert commentary or quotes to journalists through platforms like HARO (Help a Reporter Out), Help a B2B Writer, or Qwoted. By responding to relevant queries, brands can earn high-authority, editorial backlinks from reputable publications such as Forbes, Insider, and Fast Company. These backlinks often come from high-domain rating (DR) sites, which significantly enhance SEO performance. This can also boost brand authority, trust, and reputation, while driving high-quality traffic. Reporter Outreach links increase a brand’s credibility and reputation, especially in competitive industries where trust is important.
The more value you provide to journalists, the more likely your quote will be published and the higher the chances of securing impactful backlinks.
Contributor Links
Contributor or guest posting is when you publish original content on third-party websites while including backlinks to your own site. This tactic gives you control over the anchor text and the surrounding content, allowing for more strategic SEO optimization. Maintaining anchor text diversity is critical. Relying too heavily on exact-match keywords can raise red flags with Google and lead to penalties. Instead, it’s best to aim for a natural mix of branded, partial-match, and generic anchors.
This strategy is effective for content-driven companies such as SaaS providers, marketing agencies, eCommerce brands, and B2B service businesses. To get the most out of contributor links, it’s important to choose your target sites and keywords strategically. Prioritize websites with a strong domain rating, relevant audience, and active content engagement. Look for platforms that accept quality guest contributions, maintain editorial standards, and align with your niche or industry. It’s also important to choose keywords that support your broader SEO goals like targeting high-value, mid-to-low competition keywords that match user intent. Contributor links enhance your backlink profile, build trust, and drive long-term search visibility.
Broken Backlinks
Broken link-building is a tactic that involves identifying pages on other websites that contain 404 links and offering your own relevant content as a replacement. This strategy is mutually beneficial because you help the site owner fix a broken user experience, while gaining a high-quality backlink in return. It works best when you already have content that closely matches the original topic.
This method is especially effective for content-rich websites, educational platforms, nonprofits, SaaS companies, and agencies. It’s good to focus on reputable sites in your niche and prioritize broken pages that once had a high number of backlinks or traffic. Broken link-building can pull in highly relevant, editorial backlinks that improve SEO performance and boost domain authority over time.
Statistical Links
Statistical link-building is publishing original data like surveys, studies, or trend roundups that people naturally want to reference and cite. These data-driven assets attract passive, organic backlinks over time as journalists, bloggers, and researchers refer to your findings in their own content. By sharing credible statistics (e.g., “68% of marketers prefer short-form video”), your brand can become a source for authoritative insights, which strengthens SEO.
This tactic works especially well for data-oriented companies, SaaS platforms, research firms, marketing agencies, and B2B brands. Focus on creating data that’s timely, unique, and relevant to trending topics. Make your stats easy to cite by using clear formatting and visuals like charts or infographics. Statistical content can be a long-term tactic to earn links that fuels authority and discoverability.
Internal Links
Internal linking connects pages within your website and plays an important role in user experience and SEO performance. It helps search engines crawl and index content, while distributing authority from high-performing pages to newer or underperforming ones. Internal links also reinforce relevance, which signals to search engines how your site is organized and which pages are most important. This is one of the simplest and most controllable elements of link-building!
A good internal linking strategy helps:
- Distribute authority (link equity) from high-performing pages to newer or underperforming ones.
- Guide search engines in crawling and indexing your content more efficiently.
- Signal topical relevance by showing how different pages relate to each other.
- Improve user experience by helping visitors easily find related information.
Search engines use internal links to understand your site structure and determine which pages are most important. Equity from external backlinks can flow through your internal links. If one page has strong authority, linking it to another relevant page can help boost that page’s visibility. Some “best practices” include auditing regularly, linking from authoritative pages, using descriptive anchor text, ensuring each link has a purpose, and keeping a good site structure. Strong internal linking supports SEO rankings and can also increase on-site engagement, time on page, and conversion potential.
Unlinked Mentions
An unlinked mention is when another website references your website without including a hyperlink back to your site. These mentions come from trusted sources already familiar with your brand, so the likelihood of securing a backlink is high with minimal effort. A simple outreach email is usually all it takes to request the mention to be turned into a clickable link.
This tactic is effective for established brands, growing startups, thought leaders, content creators, and SaaS companies that generate regular media attention. We must personalize each outreach message, referring to the exact location of the mention, and briefly explaining how linking adds value to the user. Prioritize mentions from high-authority domains and those related to core topics to gain the most SEO benefit. Consistently converting unlinked mentions can significantly strengthen your backlink profile.
Resource Page Links
A lot of websites maintain resource pages that list helpful tools, articles, or services, making them great targets for link-building. These pages are specifically designed to link out to valuable content. They offer a natural and highly relevant opportunity to earn backlinks. This tactic works great for comprehensive guides, checklists, tutorials, research reports, and free tools that provide value to the target audience. Resource pages enhance your site’s authority and can also drive consistent traffic over time.
To find these opportunities, look for pages with titles such as “Best Tools for [X],” “Top Resources on [X],” or “Helpful Guides for [X],” and tailor your pitch to show how your content fits into their existing list. Companies that produce high-quality and educational content are well-suited for this approach. Use search operators in Google to uncover potential pages, and focus on sites with strong domain authority and topical relevance.
Citations
Citations are online mentions of your business’s name, address, and phone number (NAP), found on directories like Yelp, Google Business Profile, Yellow Pages, and the Better Business Bureau. These listings are important for local SEO because they help improve visibility in local search results while also signaling trustworthiness and legitimacy to users and search engines. Consistency is very important because discrepancies in the information can confuse search engines and weaken your local SEO efforts.
This tactic is important for local businesses, multi-location franchises, brick-and-mortar stores, and service-area businesses like plumbers, dentists, or real estate agencies. To get started, claim and optimize your listings on top-tier directories, ensure your NAP information is exactly the same across every platform, and add other info like business hours, categories, images, and reviews where available. Maintaining accurate and widespread citations increases the likelihood of showing up in proximity-based searches and “near me” queries.
Tactics to Avoid
While the above tactics are safe and sustainable long-term, some link-building methods can actually harm your rankings and lead to long-term SEO damage. These spammy techniques (also known as “black hat”) include buying links from low-quality sites, participating in link schemes, excessive reciprocal linking, using automated link generators, or stuffing exact-match anchor text unnaturally. Search engines can detect these manipulations and your site can receive a manual penalty.
A manual penalty means a human reviewer at Google has flagged your site for violating their Webmaster Guidelines. This can result in your pages being demoted or completely removed from search results. Recovery can take months or even years. The worst part is that your site’s reputation with Google may never fully return to its original level of trust. That’s why it’s critical to avoid shortcuts and focus on natural, high-quality link-building.
Diversifying Your Link Profile
Relying on only a single link-building method can expose your website to risks from algorithm updates or over-optimization penalties. Maintaining a diversified backlink profile including a mix of no-follow and do-follow links, both high domain rating and niche-relevant sources, as well as media placements and citations gives more opportunity for a more organic appearance to search engines and contributes to building authority.
Investing in multiple link-building tactics ensures your SEO strategy is positioned for sustained growth.
