Link building is an important yet expensive method to get credibility and trustworthiness from search engines. In simple words, Link building is a process of gaining related links that match the content from other websites. There are several legitimate approaches that you can use to earn backlinks. Always remember that quality links that match your website's niche are more valuable.
- Link building means earning backlinks from relevant and credible websites for referral traffic and discovery.
- The quality of the links matters more than the quantity.
- Create content that is useful for people, so that they can cite it.
- Use safe approaches to link building like digital PR, broken link building, and more.
- To avoid Google Spam, stop buying links primarily for rank manipulation.
Link building is the process of earning links from other websites to pages on your site. In SEO, these links are called backlinks. These links help search engines and readers discover and understand your content. The goal is not to collect many links but to earn relevant links that genuinely help readers to find useful information.
A good link building strategy makes it easy to earn credible links that bring qualified leads instead of just traffic. Want to know the best proven strategy that successful businesses use to grow their backlinks? Keep reading; this guide has everything that you need for link building.
Backlinks should increase positive user experience instead of replacing it.
What is Link Building in SEO with Examples?
In simple words, Link building is the practice of getting other websites to link to your website. This step helps improve the visibility of the website in a specific niche for search engines and AI results. A link from another site to yours is known as a backlink.
A backlink is also called an inbound link. Don’t confuse inbound links and internal links, as both are completely different terms.
Internal links are a process in which you link one page of your own site to another page of the same website for in-depth information on a specific but related topic. Google uses links to discover new pages and understand the relevance of these pages, but adding links primarily to manipulate ranking is against Google guidelines.
For example: If an SEO blogging website uses your website’s link to refer to some information, this increases the credibility of your website and is called a backlink in terms of SEO.
What Affects a Backlink’s Value?
A backlink doesn’t always mean credibility. Not all backlinks have the same value and importance. A relevant link inside a helpful article is more meaningful than a random link in a footer, comment, or unrelated directory. These are some of the common factors that affect the backlink’s value.
| Factor | Checklist |
|---|---|
| Relevance | Is the linking site related to your topic or niche |
| Editorial Placement | The placement of the link should be in the useful content, not in the footer or comments |
| Source Quality | Does the site publish credible, trustworthy, and useful content |
| Anchor Text | Is the text natural and descriptive? |
| Traffic Potential | Can the link send real visitors and leads |
| Technical Accessibility | Is the linking page accessible and indexed |
The 3R Backlink Test
Practise these quick tests before choosing a link.
- Relevance: Is the content and the source site’s audience getting benefit from your page?
- Reputation: Is the source trustworthy, spam-free, and editorially managed?
- Reach: Can the link bring visibility, visitors, or citations?
How to Build Backlinks?
There are several methods that you can use to get links. Here are some of the most useful methods along with the process.
Earn Links: Publish informative and original content that other websites cite without being asked for. Content like research, tools, templates, expert guides, and useful stats.
Ask for Links: Reach out to sites that mention your brand but are not linked to you.
Build Relationships: Connect with creators, podcasters, industrialists, and journalists to contribute useful and unique insights or participate in interviews.
Fix Broken Links: Search for a relevant but dead page with backlinks, create a better replacement of the content on your site, then contact the website linking to the broken page.
Add Links: Submit what your business does to relevant industry directories and local listings. You can also create social media and business profiles.
Repurpose Content: Turn a guide or report into infographics, LinkedIn posts, webinars, press releases, and newsletters.
Note: Buying links is another method, in which you directly pay websites to link their content to your page, but this is an inauthentic method, and it also violates Google guidelines.
Link Building Tools
These are three all-in-one tools that help in finding the relevant links that match the content and niche of a website.
Ahrefs
Ahrefs helps in finding competitor link opportunities and broken links. You can use it as a link intersection to find websites that link to competitors but not your website. This helps in providing a prospect list for outreach. Contact websites still pointing to the broken backlinks, create a better replacement, and ask the site to use your content.
Semrush
Semrush is a powerful SEO tool that helps you audit your backlink profile and find competitor gaps. Use backlink gap to compare several domains and identify referring domain that links to the competitor’s website but not yours. You can use tools like Backlink Audit to review suspicious links, monitor new and lost backlinks, and organise a workflow.
Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a free monitoring tool. It helps discover and check for manual actions. Use the links report to see external sites linking to your website, your most-linked pages, anchor text, and internal links. Export these data to review whether links come from relevant sites or not.
How much does Link Building Cost?
Link building costs vary based on several factors, including method, niche content, and the authority of the target website. These are some of the link building approaches.
DIY Outreach: Also called Do-It-Yourself outreach. It means managing everything, starting from marketing and sales to community engagement, by yourself without the help of any third-party agency.
Freelance Outreach: It is a simple and open way of finding and pitching potential clients directly through emails and chats instead of waiting for them to come or depending solely on any job board.
Agency Link Building: It is a digital marketing partnership in which an agency purchases high-quality and relevant inbound links from other websites to increase visibility.
Digital PR: It is a relationship-building method in which website owners pitch original content to journalists, editors, and publishers rather than paying or requesting links.
Guest Post Production: This process includes the exchange of content with links. In this process, original content for publishing is shared with third-party websites in exchange for a contextual backlink.
All of these approaches offer different pricing based on your needs. The table below provides an overall price range.
| Approach | Price Range |
|---|---|
| DIY Outreach | $0-$500 per link, in addition to your time |
| Freelance Outreach | $200-$600 per link, cheaper than that of an agency |
| Agency Link Building | $250-$1,000+ per link |
| Digital PR | $500-$2,000+ per link |
| Guest Post Production | $150-$700+ all-in per post |
Rather than judging cost per link alone, you can calculate cost per qualified referring domain using this formula:
Cost per referring domain = Total campaign cost / New relevant referring domains
Start Link Building For Your Website Today
Start by choosing one credible and useful niche. Research, checklist, template, or calculator. Then find relevant sites that already link to similar content or competitors. Directly pitch using emails and personalized email outreach; explain how your resource can help readers. Keep track of referring domains, referral traffic, and linked pages. Link building is important for growing your website’s visibility and credibility in both traditional and modern searches, i.e., AI results.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between nofollow and dofollow backlinks?
The difference is simple: dofollow links pass search engine authority and influence website ranking, while nofollow tells search engines not to pass direct ranking equity.
Is buying backlinks safe?
Paid link placements can be legal only when qualified with rel= “sponsored” or rel= “nofollow”.
What is meant by link building?
Link building means earning links from other websites to your pages. This is an indication to search engines that the sites are credible and trustworthy.
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