The Data-Backed Guide To SEO Link Building 2025

If you want to dominate the search engine results pages (SERPs), successfully acquire customers before your competitors, and build more credibility, link building needs to be on your agenda for 2023 and beyond. With a quick search using a backlink tool, you can see just how many of your competitors are already doing link building. If they aren’t building links, you have an opportunity on your hands to become the ultimate competition. However, knowledge is power, so before you start your campaign, educate yourself on SEO link building, including what it is, how it works, and some fantastic techniques you can use. This is the only guide you need in 2023 for link building.

Link building in SEO is a process that involves getting other sites to include a link back to your website. These links are called backlinks and enable users to navigate from 1 page to another elsewhere on the internet (in this case, your page!). Not all of these backlinks work in your favor, though. Lower-quality links will not make the cut for a successful link building campaign.

As anybody can create backlinks and not just SEO link builders, it can mean you gain links without building them yourself so long as you give other websites a good reason to link to you. One site might link to you because you have a compelling source on your website that helps provide credibility to the content they’ve completed, while another might love the products you sell and want to share it with their readers in review content. If both sites were considered high-quality, you’d have 2 backlinks working for you rather than against you. You get the stamp of approval if an authoritative site links to yours! However, you can’t rely on getting links this way alone. You have no guarantee that these sites will not be not lower quality and spammy and impact your backlink profile negatively.

A solid link building SEO campaign ensures you always acquire relevant and authentic-quality links and can help clean up your profile. Don’t be tempted by getting a huge volume of lower-quality links; in other words, don’t get irrelevant non-authoritative links. They won’t help you and could be seen as manipulative. It is the high-quality links that will bring results. This will boost the authority of your web pages and help Google discover your page and learn more about it. If you want to get these high-quality links to increase organic traffic and your rankings, your campaign requires several link building techniques.

Link building requires you to gain links from third-party, relevant websites. It can work in several ways. You can earn them organically by having something link-worthy on your site, or you can use one of the many tried and tested techniques, as explored by SEO experts, to build links. For instance, you can ask for links, whether this is to a blog post, an in-depth guide, an eBook, or a case study you’ve created. If they have already mentioned you in their content but haven’t included a link, ask them to do so. You contact the website, and they will either say yes or no.

The secret to more success with asking is developing a solid blogger outreach strategy and guest blogging. With this, you can reach out to relevant authoritative sites with high-quality content and a link to your site and earn a great backlink. Most sites won’t say no to relevant high-end content. Just choose the links carefully. Remember, the ones you pick are what Google will view as most important.

Beyond these techniques, link building requires 3 main elements to work. This includes page authority, domain authority, and anchor texts. Each plays a vital role in you getting high-quality links.

Page Authority

Page Authority (PA), developed by Moz, is a score that will give web owners an idea of how well a certain page will likely rank on the SERPs based on its backlink profile. Each page is given a score between 1 and 100, considering how many links they have to that page, the number of no-follow links, domain name, 301s and 302s, and new vs. old links. Pages that earn a higher PA score are more likely to rank better. You can use this to determine which site could be better for building links based on which PA score is better. Choosing the right one could mean your own PA improves. Although other factors must be hit for sites to rank well, looking into the PA score of sites you are interested in getting a link from can give you confidence that they are viewed as authoritative for their backlink profile.

Domain Authority 

Each website has a Domain Authority (DA) score. Scores range from 1 to 100, with those on the higher end of the scale usually getting higher rankings than those with a lower score. The Moz scoring system considers linking root domains and the number of links a website has to calculate the score. Google does not use this score to rank websites, so it isn’t a metric that will improve your ranking. Instead, it helps web owners understand which sites are most likely to perform better than others based on the above information and is incredibly helpful for link builders. There is a higher chance that those with a higher DA will be more authoritative and at the top of the SERPs, meaning that if you gain a link from them, you get the authority passed onto you. You can learn the DA scores of relevant websites using helpful online tools.

Anchor Texts

Many will use anchor texts to represent the link. This is the clickable text that appears instead of a naked hyperlink (although this can be something people choose). Often this text appears as blue on the screen, but this is at each publisher’s discretion. This anchor text should describe what the linked page is about and give those clicking on it an idea of what to expect prior to landing on it. The best anchors will result in more people clicking on the link resulting in more traffic for you. They will also help Google understand more about your website. When you ask for links via blogger outreach and guest posts, you have more control over this anchor text. You can use branded anchors on their own or with keywords, opt for exact match keyword anchors, partial match, related keywords, generic, or naked. The anchor text always needs to be relevant and natural, but getting the optimization level right is crucial.

Link building has many benefits, so long as you focus on quality over quantity. It is excellent for driving organic traffic via search engines, making it the perfect campaign for competitive industries. A healthy backlink profile you’ve developed using link building techniques can improve your rankings for several pages and help you enjoy more visibility online. With better rankings, more traffic, and enhanced exposure, you have the opportunity to increase your sales and revenue. The more revenue you make, the more you can invest in marketing techniques and keep growing.

Beyond ranking benefits, you should see considerable positives in other areas. For instance, the more links you build at a high standard should also improve your DA and PA scores, and although these don’t impact your rankings, others can start to view you as an authoritative source and one of the leading experts in your industry. You come across as a more credible website with a good reputation when you have links on other sites. People are likely to click on the link on a trusted website because they believe that if the site trusts you, so can they. Plus, it’s not just the customers you improve relationships with. With link building, you will improve the relationships with other like-minded web owners in the same niche as you.

Why Are Links So Important?

The importance of link building should always be a talking point in any SEO guide designed to help businesses find success with backlinks because there are so many positive results from such a tactic.

Google has many ranking factors, and backlinks are 1 of these. These backlinks will determine which sites rank for particular keywords. The more a page has, the higher it could rank, provided other targets are also met. Therefore, if you want to rank highly, you must put all your best link building ideas into your campaign to build high-quality links. Search engines, like Google, can use these links to find and rank your pages, but they will also view these in a more favorable light when another authoritative site has done the linking. These links become signals to Google to say that your site is a quality resource and has had a vote of confidence from another, more authoritative site. Google will now see these links as valuable, credible, and useful.

How Do Links Impact A Site’s Rankings?

Google does have over 200 ranking factors they take into consideration when ranking websites. However, of those 200, there are 3 major ones to focus on, including backlinks. Google confirmed this in 2016 in a Q&A. Backlinks impact a site’s rankings because of the authority they pass on from other sites. The more backlinks you have from authoritative sites, the more votes of confidence you have, and these tell Google your site deserves more attention. The authority gets passed down to you, and if you have loads of websites doing this for you, all classed as authoritative sources in their own right, that is a lot of authority you are gaining, and that will improve your rankings opportunities.

The more links you have to a particular piece of your content or web page, and the more high-quality these links are, the higher up the rankings this page can move because you technically have more votes in your favor to do so.

Website Authority

Your website’s authority doesn’t directly impact your rankings but offers plenty of other benefits when improved, and backlinks help you do that. As DA and PA scores are calculated using information about your backlink profile, it only makes sense that as you work to improve it, the better your score will become. Naturally, the higher you move up the scoring system, e.g., from DA50 to DA60, the harder it is to progress, whereas it is easier to move from DA20 to DA30. These scores can signal to other websites how trustworthy your website is, showcasing you as a reputable option because although Google doesn’t use these metrics, it can give them a good indication of how they might feel about you. If you want to improve your rankings, seeing improvements in your DA eventually can inform you you are on your way. Having a better DA score than your competitors is also a great feeling!

Content marketing has stood the test of time and proved just how important it is in the world of SEO. In fact, content marketing can be a helpful technique to build links and has become one of the link building best practices. There are plenty of ways to get links, but it is becoming harder to get quality ones, so businesses are looking for ways to maximize their efforts and direct their focus to get the best return. Content marketing allows you to earn more links and build better relationships with your audience, gain more trust, become more visible, improve conversions, and establish your brand as an expert. So on its own, it is a pretty powerful technique to nail down. The links are an added bonus, but when you want to earn them through content marketing specifically, you will need to know the type of content perfect for this and other valuable assets that generally see more positive results from them. The aim is to focus on quality content, but the beauty of it is there are lots of options open to you about the exact direction you take it. This means that every campaign is different, and you can determine what type of content works for you and your audience the most but also gains you the most links.

Research And Data

When bloggers write content, they sometimes need evidence to back up what they are saying. This adds credibility to their piece and showcases them as an expert. However, not everyone can conduct this research and formulate data from it. What happens when they need to back up their statement and don’t have this primary research? They turn to secondary research, and this is where you have your opportunity to earn a link. If you can conduct studies and research into relevant subject matters within your industry, gather data, and form this into a blog or statistical article, when bloggers start researching statistics or facts, they now have a chance of coming across yours. You can become the go-to source for hundreds of publications, and the more links you start to gain, the more authority it earns and the higher up the SERPs it could move. The result? Even more traffic. You can become an expert in your field this way.

Visual Assets

If a picture can paint 1000 words, it may leave you wondering if the same mindset can be applied to earning links. After all, humans can process images much faster, so they often find visuals more engaging and interesting. The answer to this question is yes. Visual assets can become a fantastic way for you to earn links. You need to start creating visual content that people have a reason to link back to. This includes video content, images, infographics, picture guides, and maps. Remember, you won’t be the only brand trying to create valuable visual assets and earn links in return. Most businesses that embark down this road tend to hire a graphic designer to add to the quality of the asset. It is a completely scalable solution, resulting in more control for you with your marketing budget. Plus, with this, you get the benefit of your site becoming more appealing to look at with all your visuals.

Types Of Content

On top of creating linkable assets, like the above examples, there are plenty of different types of content that could help you earn more backlinks. Google will view in-depth definitive and how-to guides jam-packed with information designed to help the reader. However, it will also make you a valuable source to link to. Other great types of content include press releases and original interviews – pick experts from your industry to talk to and become the most talked about brand. Reviews are another form of content that could help you earn multiple links if done well. You can review products or services, but just make sure to follow Google’s latest guidelines on writing reviews. Although it is good to keep up with the latest trends in your industry, it is the evergreen content that may end up earning you more links in the long run. These can be updated over time and continually add value to you.

Email outreach is a process in link building that involves reaching out to other publishing sites through email. The reason for email outreach is to form a partnership, promote content that others can then link to naturally if they wish, or, of course, ask for a backlink. These emails are personalized, and the process is designed to build and develop relationships with other relevant bloggers out there. This is one of the best ways to gain high-quality backlinks. When asking for a backlink during the email outreach process, it can often be more beneficial to have content ready to go for their site. Guest posting enables you to create high-end content and offers more control. You can decide on anchor text, the page your link goes to, and how the link is included. Of course, guest posting isn’t the only technique that you can use with email outreach. Using email outreach, you can get in contact with domains with a better article than the one they have published for your competitor – this is often called skyscraper link building. For sites that have broken links, use email outreach to offer up a new link – yours! Broken link building is one of the types of campaigns that email outreach helps you achieve.

Find Site Owners

Before you start creating your emails, you need to find the right recipients. For the best results, you want site owners with plenty of authority from your industry. Look into the DA score to give you an idea of how much authority they have. Also, uncover what their backlink profile and organic traffic levels look like – the better these are, the better the site is for you.

When choosing your site owners, it is even better when these sites are already accepting guest posts. You can discover this using Google Search Operators and guest blogging directories, on social media with hashtags like #guestpost, #seo, or #blogging, or you can check what backlinks your competitors have using link building tools – this should tell you where their backlinks are from. Knowing what links they have indicates the sites that accept your industry and guest posts. You won’t be wasting time reaching out to bloggers that have no interest in publishing guest posts.

Find Contact Details

Some sites will have details of their email address on their about us page or sometimes in the footer of their pages. However, not all will, and it can be frustrating to find yourself in this situation when the site appears to be perfect in every single way. Fortunately, there are still ways you can find this information. If the site owner or site itself has a social media account, try and strike up a casual conversation there. LinkedIn is often one of the better ones to do it on, but others, like Twitter, can still work. After building a relationship, you can then take it further and ask for their email address after giving a compelling reason. They should happily pass this on to you if you provide them with enough value. Another way is to subscribe to their email list. There are also many link building SEO tools that can find any email address for any domain.

Get In Contact

Whether you’ve had previous contact or never had contact with the site owners before, getting the email copy right is a must. Make each email personal, authentic, and relatable rather than generic. If you’ve contacted them via social media, sending a generic email could see your recipient backing out of this relationship. Every email must hit the right tone of voice for that blogger. You don’t want any previous work to come undone with 1 email. The pitch should be less than 80 words – people want to know what you have to offer and don’t have time to read through chunks of text. As part of these 80 words, try to include a call to action (CTA), and if you haven’t already discussed it, mention some of their work that you’ve loved, perhaps things you may have in common, and of course, why you are getting in contact and how you can help them.

There are good ways to build links and illegitimate ways that are frowned upon. Black hat link building falls into the latter category, and any good SEO expert will tell you this technique is unethical if you bring this up with them. If there is a technique that you should not do, this is it. Black hat links go strictly against Google Search guidelines, and if you are found to have broken them, you can find yourself with a penalty. These links are built with the purpose of moving up the SERPs much faster by creating lots of links using automated programs, private blog networks (PBNs), or link farms in a very short space of time. They are designed to outsmart the algorithms, in other words. Despite the penalties, many site owners still use this tactic, but the consequences of doing so are severe. Although they give short-term results, you cannot maintain this in the long term, and eventually, you will see the negative impact of this method on your organic traffic. Link building has changed a lot over the years, and some site owners may find themselves conducting black hat link building techniques without realizing it if they haven’t been paying attention to the updates.

Signs Of Black Hat Link Building

Several critical signs show when a site owner uses black hat link building. The major sign is the domains being used. If they have low-quality content that doesn’t have a running theme to it, there is no information about who runs or owns the website, and there appears to be suspicious-looking external links, it may be part of a black hat link building scheme. If you look at your backlink profile and start to see spammy links from poor-quality sites like this, you may be involved in black hat SEO. Another sign is when a site earns a high number of links every month, but a significant indicator is when many of these are included in blog comments. Press releases with spammy links are another sign that black hat link building for SEO might have been used. Press releases are meant for people, not search engines, and any that come across this way will be classed under black hat techniques.

Google Penguin Update

Google released the Penguin algorithm in April 2012 and has continually updated it since then. This particular update focused on standing up against black hat link building techniques. They had had enough of the manipulative spam practices and wanted to reduce how many black hat techniques were used and how many people were using them. Originally, the update was designed to reward those who were not using such techniques and instead were building high-quality links organically. They helped these better sites with their search results, but it didn’t really have much impact on those using the black hat link building techniques. However, in 2016, Penguin became integrated with the core rankings system Google has in place. Now, the system works to devalue spammy links rather than just demote websites in the search results. The update meant these techniques became less effective and less appealing because of the manual actions they would face if they were still using black hat SEO.

Google Penalties 

When you are caught using black hat link building techniques, Google will issue a penalty. This is because these techniques go against their guidelines. It is important to note that it isn’t illegal unless hacking has taken place with links added to the website. Still, the impact of this penalty is pretty bad. Once the Google algorithm spots spammy links, you may see a drop in your rankings – a drop is a best-case scenario when compared to the possibility of being banned entirely on the search engine. When you are deindexed, your website will no longer appear in the search results, so you can no longer put yourself in contact with new traffic. Chances are that you wanted more traffic in the first place, and trying to take a shortcut has resulted in you getting none at all. All of these links you’ve created will simply go to waste, and you will have to work harder to come back from this. It is possible to recover when you’ve been hit by a penalty, but you will need reliable SEO experts who regularly deal with link building SEO services correctly.

With more knowledge on why link building is important, link building and content marketing, why you must stay away from black hat link building, and how to do email outreach, you may think you are ready to jump straight into building links. However, you must first arm yourself with some top strategies if you want the best outcome. A link building strategy is a plan for reaching a long-term goal. This generally has a long time frame, with shorter tactics built into it to help you keep it moving forward. It is important to remember that every business is different, so strategies can and do vary, which is why you must always consider your end goal when forming your strategy. This being said, some universal strategies will work for the vast majority of brands doing link building. To finish off this guide, you can learn about the 3 top strategies you should be considering using.

The best way to use these strategies is to seek Link Building services, as experts are well-versed in implementing these, but this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still know what and why these are the top recommended and understand the process a little bit more. After all, you will be investing your hard-earned money into this.

Start With Publishing Link-Worthy Content 

You need fantastic content on your site anyway to help your ranking efforts and maintain loyal customers, so working on building up your content portfolio online is a good investment. However, it is also one of the best link building strategies you can utilize. You need to slightly adapt your content marketing thinking when the purpose is for link building, as you need to ensure you have content that people want to link to. You must make this relevant to your audience, informative, and helpful, and provide a solution to a problem in your own unique way. Evergreen content is a good content type to focus on, as are how-to articles and your own research. Start this strategy by finding out what your audience wants to know and what problems they have, then run an audit to see where your current content has gaps. Can you update any pieces to be more relevant at this point? This all goes into helping you gain new links.

Broken Link Building

Keeping an eye on the competition offers plenty of benefits, one being it can help you earn more links than them. Unless they regularly check for broken links, they may have several broken links on various websites, and the sites themselves might not be aware of this either. This leaves you with an opportunity: a link building strategy to use. With broken link building strategies, you find broken links online and ask that website to swap the current link with yours instead. They will likely accept as they don’t want dead links on their website, as it doesn’t provide much value to their users. Using the Wayback Machine, you can see what the old link used to lead to and then create something better than this so that when you reach out to the site, you can tell them they have a broken link here but that you have a new in-depth guide that could replace this.

Outreach 

To build links, you need a strategy that gets you in contact with those in your industry and niche hosting these types of links already. Outreach strategies involve finding these suitable sites for you and contacting them. This often works in great harmony with guest blogging and broken link building strategies. However, you don’t necessarily have to have any content for them, just have something link-worthy, and they may link to you. For example, you may have a tool that could help those in your industry and is already proving quite popular. Spread the word about it using outreach strategies and gain an extra few links. Blogger outreach, where you supply guest posts to the sites, is often the preferred route of many because they have more control over how their link is used. Some even like to do blogger outreach strategies, providing guest blogs with a link to their helpful tool to replace a broken link on another site. There are lots of options open to you when you use this strategy.