What is Link Building in SEO?

Link building is a collection of SEO tactics used by link builders that lets businesses acquire backlinks to their websites. Relevant and authoritativ...
Ajay Paghdal
Outreach Labs Founder

Link building is a collection of SEO tactics used by link builders that lets businesses acquire backlinks to their websites. Relevant and authoritative incoming links earned naturally help a website rank for target keywords and generate quality organic leads. 

Inbound links are used as a top three ranking factor in search engine ranking algorithms. High-quality content combined with strong link building strategies boosts domain rating, domain authority, and PageRank, leading to better rankings. Editorial dofollow backlinks are the best links that offer the highest SEO benefit. 

However, building or earning backlinks to your site is complex. It requires expertise, knowledge, existing relationships, and good communication skills to get other sites to link to your domain. A strong link building plan consists of manual outreach to secure white hat inbound links, leveraging tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, BuzzStream, Hunter.io, Connectively (HARO), and others. Modern link building platforms assist in identifying linking opportunities, monitoring progress, and building genuine connections. 

Also, quality is more important in link acquisition compared to quantity. You should not build hundreds of backlinks from spammy domains that sell links. Instead, a link from a genuine and niche-specific website is more useful. It is better to stay away from link schemes like PBNs (link farms), comment spam, link wheels, and others, which can lead to Google penalties. You should avoid unnatural links as they harm domain reputation and credibility, leading to lower rankings, and in extreme cases, entire site deindexation. 

Let’s discuss the do’s and don'ts of link building to understand why links matter, what role they play in SEO, and how you can earn non-paid links while maintaining link diversity. 

What is Link Building?

Link building is defined as the process of acquiring one-way hyperlinks from external websites to improve Google rankings and boost link equity

High-quality backlink acquisition covers different link building techniques like guest blogging, niche link insertions, digital PR, broken link building, natural link earning by creating link assets, and other tactics.

Anchor text, link co-occurrences (the context around the link), and PageRank (link equity) distribution play an impactful role in link building. You should use natural anchors, relevant co-occurrences, and a mix of dofollow and nofollow links to have an organic backlink profile.

Also, link relevance and authority play a decisive role in link building. The link relevancy vs. authority matrix below gives a clear idea of the types of links to acquire and which ones to avoid. High authority links that are relevant and hard to achieve are best for SEO. On the contrary, links with low authority and low relevance should be avoided at all costs.

Link relevance vs. authority matrix showcasing the role authority and relevance plays in link building

Both internal and external links improve a domain’s rating. Hence, you should acquire external links and optimize internal links to pass maximum link value to your target landing pages. Also, you should avoid creating artificial backlinks that violate the spam policies for Google search

What is a Link or Backlink?

A backlink is a hyperlink pointing to any page of your website from another relevant domain. 

Here is an example of a backlink pointing to Outreach Labs:

Example of a backlink in SEO

The HTML structure of a backlink is:

<a href="https://outreachlabs.com">Outreach Labs</a>. 

Here, Outreach Labs is the anchor, while the target URL specified in the href attribute is the linked page.

There are three major link attributes that influence the flow of link juice. These are ‘nofollow,’ ‘sponsored,’ and ‘UGC.’

Nofollow instructs search engines not to pass the flow of link value from the referring domain to the linked page.

Sponsored tells search engines that the linked page is an advertisement and should be considered as a paid link.

UGC or user-generated content tells search engines that the backlink is created by the user and the referring domain does not endorse the link, and hence, it should not be counted as a vote.

If no attribute is added to the link, then by default it is counted as a dofollow link. Follow links pass the maximum link equity and are most helpful for SEO.

Unpaid and naturally acquired editorial backlinks from high-traffic domains boost domain authority, improve search rankings, and increase organic traffic. On the contrary, inbound links acquired via large-scale article submission, link farms, comment spam, or other low-quality link building techniques harm rankings and invite Google penalties.

What is an Anchor Text?

Anchor text is what you click to reach the linked page. The link text is of a different color to indicate its interactive nature. Here is an example of a branded anchor:

Example of a branded anchor in SEO

You can define anchor text in HTML as:

<a href="https://outreachlabs.com">Outreach Labs</a>

Here, Outreach Labs is the link text.

Anchor links can be of different types in SEO. The table below lists the varieties of anchor texts with an example for each: 

Type of Anchor Text Description Example
Exact Match Uses the exact target keyword. <a href="https://outreachlabs.com">link building services</a>
Partial Match Includes the target keyword along with other words. <a href="https://outreachlabs.com">specialized link building services</a>
Branded Uses the brand name as the anchor text. <a href="https://outreachlabs.com">Outreach Labs</a>
Generic Uses generic terms like “click here” or “learn more.” <a href="https://outreachlabs.com">learn more</a>
Naked URL Displays the URL itself as the anchor text. <a href="https://outreachlabs.com">https://outreachlabs.com</a>
Image Anchor Uses an image as the clickable anchor, with the alt text providing context. <a href="https://outreachlabs.com"><img src="image.jpg" alt="link building services"></a>
Long-Tail Contains a longer phrase or sentence, including keywords and additional context. <a href="https://outreachlabs.com">trusted link building services for SEO</a>
Exact Match Branded Combines the brand name with the exact target keyword. <a href="https://outreachlabs.com">Outreach Labs link building services</a>
LSI Anchor Text Uses related keywords or synonyms (Latent Semantic Indexing) to provide context. <a href="https://outreachlabs.com">SEO backlink solutions</a>

Anchor text tells users and search engines about the link context. A natural mix of URL, generic, branded, and exact-match keywords is useful for an organic backlink profile.

What is a Link Builder?

A link builder is a professional SEO who runs various link acquisition campaigns to improve the reputation of a domain. The role of a link builder is to build a strong and natural link profile by acquiring healthy backlinks based on a number of link quality parameters. 

A link building manager checks the referring domain’s authority, organic traffic, domain rating, content quality, external links quality, outbound links quantity, link type, and other metrics before acquiring a link from that domain. 

The primary duties of a link builder are:

  • Performing off-page optimization by acquiring high-quality backlinks through outreach and guest blogging on niche-relevant websites.
  • Identifying link prospects based on thematic relevance and overall domain rating. A number of link building tools are used for this purpose.
  • Preparing anchor text and maintaining a mix of dofollow and nofollow links for a natural backlink profile.
  • Creating link assets like infographics and guides while suggesting content ideas for effective link building campaigns.
  • Building tier-2 links pointing to tier-1 links and indexing new links to enhance link equity flow and ensure search engine recognition.
  • Monitoring backlink placement and tracking new links vs lost links to maintain a healthy domain profile.
  • Auditing the domain profile regularly and disavowing harmful links provided the domain is penalized.
  • Analyzing competitor backlinks to uncover hidden and easy-to-acquire link opportunities to increase the flow of incoming links.
  • Preparing and sharing detailed link building reports to track campaign progress and outcomes.

Link builders have excellent knowledge of search engine optimization. They remain aware of the different link spam updates like SpamBrain, Penguin, and core spam policies to ensure the link building campaigns do not violate any Google links policies.

Experienced link builders have excellent communication and analytical skills to build data-driven and effective link acquisition plans.

What are the Types of Link Building?

Link building is broadly divided into two major types. These are white hat and black hat link building. Let’s understand both these forms of link acquisition: 

  • White Hat Link Building: Links acquired naturally via white hat link building methods like high-quality guest blogs and thematic link insertions fall under this category. White hat links follow Google-approved link building practices and do not violate any Google spam policies. You should always go for white hat link building because they are safe for getting reliable and long-term results. Also, naturally earned links help to avoid Google penalties.
  • Black Hat Link Building: Backlinks created using unethical black hat SEO tactics like link farms, blog comments, low-quality web directories, paid links, and other spam links that violate search engine guidelines fall under this category. You should not create black hat links as it invites algorithmic and manual penalties

Why is Link Building Important in SEO?

Link building is essential in SEO because it increases domain rating and enhances a website’s authority in the eyes of search engines. 

BuzzStream published a survey that proves that pages with more referring domains rank for more keywords. 

Graph showcasing that high number of median referring domains rank for more keywords, thus highlighting the importance of backlinks in SEO

By acquiring hyperlinks from reputable websites, a site gains valuable link equity, which directly contributes to improved SEO rankings. High-quality backlinks, particularly from high-traffic sites and relevant sources, tell search engines that the linked content is credible and authoritative, ensuring long-term SEO success.

Quality incoming links are impactful for distributing link equity. Editorial links and white hat links, especially those that dofollow, raise website metrics like domain rating and PageRank. 

Good link building not only boosts SEO rankings but also supports brand awareness by placing links on high-traffic sites within the same niche. 

Ultimately, a strong link building strategy for quality backlinks ensures consistent growth. Links from reputable websites improve organic rankings and also create a foundation for sustainable SEO performance, enhancing both visibility and credibility over time.

What are the Best Link Building Strategies?

The different strategies for building backlinks are:

Do Guest Blogging

Guest posting is the technique of collaborating with other web admins and publishing your content on their website with contextual backlinks. More than 60% of companies publish between one to five guest blogs per month. 

Pie chart showing a higher share for companies writing one to give guest blogs per month

Finding suitable guest posting opportunities is a time-consuming task, and hence, should be done by experts (We are good at it! You can check out our guest posting services). 

Guest blogs can be free or paid and vary from site to site. The average price for paid guest blogs is between $200-$300 or more. It depends on the site metrics, like the domain rating and organic traffic.

Guest post backlinks build new relationships and improve your brand recognition. Besides improving your SEO domain reputation, It also drives relevant referral traffic to your site. 

You can find niche-specific guest post opportunities by using different Google search queries like:

  • "Write for us" + [niche] (e.g., "Write for us" + fitness)
  • "Guest post" + [niche] (e.g., "Guest post" + technology)
  • "Become a contributor" + [niche]
  • "Submit an article" + [niche]
  • "Guest blogging guidelines" + [niche]
  • "Accepting guest posts" + [niche]
  • "Contribute to" + [niche]
  • "Inurl:guest-post" + [niche]
  • "Intitle:write for us" + [niche]
  • "Submit guest post" + [niche]

Another great way to identify blogs accepting guest posts is to perform competitor analysis. By using SEMrush or Ahrefs, you can locate all your competitor backlinks. 

For instance, in SEMrush, you can place your competitor URL in the search bar, go to “Advanced filters,” then select “Blog” under “URL Type.” This way, you can find all the domains where your competitors place their guest posts.

SEMrush dashboard makes it easy to find guest posting sources by analyzing your competitor data

Once shortlisted, email the web admins of the selected domains and request them for guest posting. You should pitch your topics or take action based on their guest blogging guidelines. Wait for their response, and once your application is approved, prepare a high-quality article with original information. Your article will soon be published after some revisions if required.  

For effective SEO guest posting for backlinks, select websites based on different domain-level metrics like domain authority, domain rating, domain traffic, type of link, and content quality. Also, use long-tail and contextually relevant anchors.

You should avoid sites that are solely created for selling backlinks (link farms, PBNs, and other link schemes). Also, do not build backlinks from domains that have low-quality content or excessive OBLs. Instead, choose sites that have thematic relevance, well-written content, and a low OBL count.

High-quality guest blogging with dofollow links improves domain authority, increases referral traffic, generates leads, improves SEO rankings, and boosts your domain credibility. 

Overall, you should avoid large-scale guest posting and use a combination of methods to build backlinks to your site. It is also okay to build a mix of dofollow and nofollow guest post links for a natural link profile. 

Get Link Insertions

Thematic link insertion is another powerful link building strategy that helps you build white hat links from existing, high-quality content on authoritative websites. 

Relevant link edits let you secure excellent editorial links from pages that already rank higher on Google, thereby improving your site's ranking and increasing your site authority. 

A key aspect of this white-hat SEO technique is to choose pages with low OBLs (outbound links) and analyze site metrics such as URL rating, organic traffic, and topical relevance before proceeding. You can find the number of OBLs on a page using tools like the Website Links Count Checker. The tool shows the number of external links, their anchor, and the type of link (no/dofollow).

Website Links Count Checker from Small SEO Tools is an excellent tool to identify external links in a page

You can check domain-level metrics using tools like the Ahrefs Website Authority Checker

Ahrefs Website Authority Checker

A challenge in niche link edits lies in finding pages that have thematically relevant content based on your target landing page, especially in smaller niches with fewer websites. 

To identify suitable link targets, use Google search operators like "Intitle" and "Inurl" combined with your primary keywords. For example, if you are looking to build links to your French learning website, you can easily find pages that provide links to sites like yours by combining the two operators.

Google search screenshot showing the usage of intitle and inurl operators to identify relevant link insertion opportunities

Additionally, tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush help analyze page-level metrics and refine your outreach campaigns.

Effective outreach campaigns for link insertion require personalized link insertion outreach emails that clearly explain how your link adds value to the existing content. 

You should ensure natural link placements with anchor text relevancy for maximum SEO benefits. Prioritize pages with quality content and strong topical relevance, and approach the right website owners for collaboration.

Thematic link edits improve your site’s ranking, increase traffic, and build authority through editorial links placed within contextually relevant content. By focusing on quality and avoiding low-authority sites selling links to bad neighborhoods like casinos and CBD, you can ensure sustainable and impactful results for your SEO efforts.

Use Broken Backlink Replacements

Broken link building is a highly effective link building strategy where you identify dead links on niche-specific websites and replace them with your own links. 

Link acquisition by identifying broken external hyperlinks helps site owners maintain high content standards while providing you with white hat links that improve your site's ranking and authority. 

You can find broken link opportunities on resource pages or niche-specific websites. To find resource pages, use targeted Google search queries such as:

  • "resources" + [your niche] (e.g., "resources" + technology)
  • "useful links" + [your niche]
  • "inurl:resources" + [your topic]
  • "helpful sites" + [your niche]

While doing your research, use tools like the Check My Links Chrome extension to identify broken links on a page quickly. 

Check My Links Chrome extension showing broken links in a page

Once you locate a dead link, use SEMrush or similar tools to find all websites that link to that broken URL. This allows you to broaden your reach and secure multiple link opportunities from a single broken link. 

SEMrush link analysis helps to locate hyperlinks pointing to a broken link page

Choose pages with strong metrics (e.g., URL rating, organic traffic) and ensure anchor text relevancy to avoid Google penalties. Avoid using irrelevant or low-quality content as replacements and focus on building long-term relationships with site owners through value-driven outreach.

After identifying broken links, craft outreach emails offering help to the website owner by pointing out the issue and suggesting your content as a replacement. Make sure your content is contextually relevant and fits naturally into the page where the dead link was located.

Broken backlink replacement not only secures natural placements but also drives traffic, improves authority, and contributes to a sustainable, white-hat SEO strategy. It is especially useful for businesses targeting thematic relevance and seeking to enhance their link profile effectively.

Leverage Digital PR

Digital PR link building is one of the modern link acquisition strategies that build backlinks through media coverage.  By earning trustworthy links from reputed domains, you build brand authority. 

Links from digital PR also help in acquiring third-party social proof by creating and promoting strong content tailored for news publications, blogs, and industry websites. Unlike bulk press releases with exact match anchors, digital PR emphasizes quality and natural link acquisition through legitimate outreach efforts.

Editorial HARO links earned through digital PR are among the most powerful, as they come from high DA and DR websites with high editorial standards. 

You can earn media backlinks by creating strong, newsworthy content and pitching it to journalists, bloggers, and high-authority websites. 

Digital PR success depends on creating useful content such as original research, thought leadership articles, or visually engaging infographics based on current news trends. It is different from traditional link building methods. Digital PR content includes data-driven pieces, survey content, newsjacking, expert commentary, and unlinked mentions. 

Table listing the different link building tactics under traditional and digital PR

Link building outreach campaigns should prioritize high-authority sites and publications to ensure the links acquired are of the highest quality. Personalized pitches to journalists or editors play a crucial role in gaining coverage and securing links.

Create Linkable Assets

Linkable assets are high-value resources crafted to attract natural backlinks from thematic websites. 

Some of the top forms of linkable assets are in-depth guides, original research, data-driven reports, infographics, interactive tools, case studies, and videos. 

The biggest advantage of preparing high-quality linkable assets is that they help you naturally attract relevant organic inbound links to your site. Also, a high number of dofollow organic links is useful for ranking competitive keywords, strengthening topical authority, and driving organic traffic. 

You should follow Google EEAT principles to curate link-worthy content. Google considers four important factors when analyzing content quality. These are the efforts one has taken to produce content like insightful research and manual editing. Google also prioritizes content originality and presentation of the content, such as whether it provides a satisfying experience to the users. It also considers the factual accuracy of the content. When you produce content that is EEAT-friendly, your chances for ranking higher increase. High rankings mean more traffic and greater chances of attracting natural backlinks. 

Google EEAT gives importance to the effort put into the creation of content, incurring originality, accuracy, and expertise of the author

The cost of creating well-written linkable assets is between $500 to $5,000. 

To create linkable assets, research audience needs and pain points using tools like SEMrush or AnswerThePublic. Craft content that delivers value and solves specific problems of your target demographics. For example, if you are promoting a VPN service and wish to find out the top question-based searches on the topic, AnswerThePublic will display all such long-tail queries.

Answer The Public displaying the most relevant search queries for the seed keyword

Once you have identified your topic, ensure your content is visually appealing, accurate, and personalized with audience interests. Avoid generic topics or targeting unrelated audiences, as these mistakes undermine the asset's effectiveness.

Linkable assets attract backlinks organically, boost domain authority, and drive consistent traffic. The strategy requires significant effort and investment but delivers long-term value when executed with precision. 

Gain Links From Unlinked Brand Mentions

Unlinked brand mentions refer to instances where your brand name is mentioned in online content without a clickable hyperlink to your website. These mentions can appear on blogs, news articles, forums, or social media platforms. Identifying and converting these mentions into backlinks is a key SEO strategy that boosts site authority and search rankings.

You can find unlinked brand mentions using tools like Google Alerts, Ahrefs, or SEMrush. These tools help track mentions across the web and determine whether they include a backlink. This process can be time-consuming and may require experts to analyze opportunities efficiently.

For instance, in Ahrefs, go to Content Explorer and search for a brand name after excluding your domain. You will find all the domains that mention your brand but without a hyperlink. 

Ahrefs is a great tool for finding unlinked brand mentions

These sites are great for outreach. But, do not pursue links on pages with low-quality content or spammy domains.

Unlinked mentions are usually free to convert into backlinks, though some high-authority sites may request compensation, which can range from $50 to $300 depending on their metrics, like domain authority and traffic. The quality of backlinks from these mentions depends on the credibility of the referring domain, its relevance to your industry, and the placement context.

To leverage unlinked brand mentions, start by setting up monitoring tools to track your brand name across digital platforms. Once you identify an unlinked mention, reach out to the website owner or editor with a polite and concise email request, asking them to hyperlink the mention to a relevant page on your site. Explain how linking to your website adds value for their audience by providing direct access to related information.

For effective results, focus on mentions from high-domain authority sites, thematic relevance, and contextually fitting pages. Avoid generic outreach emails or targeting low-quality websites, as this can harm your link-building efforts. Additionally, ensure that the linked page aligns with the content where your brand is mentioned.

Converting unlinked brand mentions into backlinks is a cost-effective strategy that strengthens your backlink profile, improves SEO rankings, and enhances referral traffic. However, the process requires consistent monitoring, relationship-building with site owners, and a focus on quality to deliver long-term benefits. Balancing unlinked mention backlinks with other link-building strategies ensures a natural and diverse link profile for sustainable growth.

What are the Types of Links To Build?

Links are of the following types: 

Dofollow Links

Dofollow links are standard links that pass SEO equity or “link juice” to the linked page, making them essential for improving search engine rankings. Follow links have no special attributes like nofollow or UGC, signaling to Google that they endorse the linked content. 

Here is an example of a follow link in SEO:

Dofollow link HTML

High-quality and editorially-given dofollow links come from trusted domains, significantly boosting your site’s authority. They are especially useful for building rankings and domain credibility. 

You can acquire dofollow links by using any of the top link acquisition tactics like guest posts, niche link insertions, digital PR, and others. 

Also, you should never buy backlinks in bulk and always maintain link diversity for a natural backlink profile. Doing so will keep your domain safe from Google penalties. 

Nofollow Links

Nofollow backlinks include the rel="nofollow" attribute. Here is an example of a nofollow link in SEO:

Nofollow link in HTML

Link with rel="nofollow" instructs search engines not to pass SEO value or ranking credit. While nofollow links do not directly impact rankings, they help to diversify your link profile. 

High-quality nofollow links from authoritative sites help earn co-occurrences and citations and pass relevant referral traffic to your main site. They are particularly useful in cases where you aim to drive traffic or build brand awareness without risking penalties associated with link schemes. 

You can acquire nofollow links using a mix of tactics like guest posting, press release submission, industry-specific web directory submission, infographic embeds, and other strategies.

Editorial Links

Editorial links in SEO are links naturally embedded within the content of a website and are editorially given by site owners or writers without any direct request or compensation. 

Organic links are earned through the merit of your content, such as original and insightful blog posts, data studies, or expert opinions. They are highly valuable as they align with Google guidelines, promoting natural and sustainable link building practices. 

The quality of editorially earned backlinks is unmatched since they often come from top-ranking domains.

To build editorial incoming links, create top-notch content that is shareable and relevant, encouraging site owners to link naturally. They bring long-term SEO benefits, but their main downside is that they require significant effort and time to earn, as they cannot be directly controlled.

User-Generated Content (UGC) Links

UGC links are created by users on platforms like blog comments, forum posts, Quora threads, and profile pages. These links use the rel="ugc" attribute to indicate that the link was added by a third party and not endorsed by the site owner. 

While UGC links can be easy to acquire, they vary widely in quality. Links from high-traffic and reputable platforms can provide some value, but those from spammy sources like low-quality forums or article directories can harm your rankings and violate Google guidelines. 

User-generated hyperlinks are useful for driving traffic and participating in community discussions but are risky links when overused or abused. 

You can acquire UGC links by engaging in meaningful discussions on customer review sites, blog comments, and forum posts or by publishing content on user content-driven platforms like LinkedIn Pulse and Medium. 

The Ahrefs Site Explorer shows the number of UGC links pointing to any domain. You can use this tool to identify your competitors' UGC links and pick the most relevant ones for your link building strategy. 

Ahrefs dashboard showing UGC links

UGC links are risky and should be acquired in moderation. They should only be built from high-traffic domains and should be purely contextual. When done right, they help in diversifying your link profile.

What is a White Label Link Building Service?

White label link building firms offer world-class link building under your brand name, by helping you earn contextually relevant editorial links on sites with real traffic. 

Link building agencies following the white-labelling process follow Google guidelines and avoid practices like PBNs, link farms, low-quality directory links, and large-scale forum or blog comments. 

Links are built from sites with genuine organic traffic and a low number of outbound links, ensuring quality through targeted site selection and custom outreach. 

Organic link builders use tactics like writing guest blogs, creating press releases, and acquiring niche link insertions. They prioritize quality control, offer transparent pricing, and provide insightful reporting to ensure compliance with Google link schemes. 

As a trusted white-labeling partner, organic link building agencies help SEO services scale ethically and sustainably.

What is the Role of Content in Link Building?

Content plays a crucial role in link building by serving as the foundation for earning natural links. Original, stats-based, and EEAT-friendly content that aligns with user intent not only attracts readers but also encourages other websites to reference and link back to it. 

High-quality content enhances credibility, especially for YMYL topics (Your Money or Your Life), where expertise, authority, and trust are critical. Incorporating images, videos, and other visual elements enhances engagement and shareability, making the content more appealing to potential link sources. 

By addressing user needs and providing valuable insights, content becomes a key driver for successful link acquisition, supporting both authority building and organic traffic growth.

How to Measure the Success of a Link Building Campaign?

Your link acquisition campaign should yield good results, and you should be able to measure them. Start by analyzing changes in domain authority and domain rating, as these reflect improvements in your website's overall credibility. Check the number of backlinks gained during the campaign, but also evaluate the quality of inbound links to ensure they come from authoritative and relevant sources.

Monitor your progress by tracking organic rankings for target keywords and assessing your organic search visibility, which indicates how well your site is performing in search engine results. Regularly check your backlink profile to confirm that links are diverse, high-quality, and free from spam. Finally, compare the cost of your link-building campaign to the outcomes achieved, ensuring the ROI aligns with your business goals. This comprehensive evaluation provides clear insights into the effectiveness of your strategy.

How To Create Link Building Report?

When you create a link building report, you’re not just sharing data; you are telling the story of your campaign’s success. 

A well-structured report highlights performance in a way that is easy to understand and impactful.

Prepare a clear link building report template and use a cover page that outlines the campaign, timeline, and objectives. Make it polished but straightforward; no fluff, just the essentials.

Summarize the big wins since stakeholders care about results. Showcase a summary of published links, their domain metrics like DA, DR, and organic traffic, and whether they are follow links.

Track everything — referring domains, links gained or lost, and the anchor text distribution. Analyze link equity to show how these backlinks are strengthening the site’s authority. Visualizing the data with charts makes it even easier to digest.

A good report doesn’t just show what happened; it explains why it matters. Highlight how these backlinks are improving rankings and driving organic traffic. With a clear, easy-to-read format, you’re showing not just the data but the value behind the strategy.

What is Important in Link Building? Quality or Quantity of Backlinks

In link building, quality far outweighs quantity because high-quality inbound links have a greater impact on SEO and rankings. More than 93% of link builders prioritize quality over quantity. 

Links from respected domains with strong metrics, such as high SEMrush authority scores, Ahrefs domain ratings, and Moz domain authority, signal trust and relevance to search engines. 

Also, links from domains with substantial organic traffic are more valuable, as they indicate that the domain itself is authoritative and actively engages its audience. 

Quality also depends on factors like positioning and type, where dofollow, contextual, and unpaid links provide the most SEO benefit. You should always prioritize quality over sheer numbers for long-term growth, avoiding penalties, and enhancing your site's authority.

What Factors Affect the Quality of a Backlink?

Here are the top factors that impact the overall value of a link:

Domain Reputation

Domain reputation is one of the primary factors that can make or break your backlink profile. 

You can track the reputation of referring domains by using tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Moz. 

SEMrush lets you measure their website authority score, Ahrefs offers a domain rating check, and Moz lets you track the authority of a domain

Moz DA checker tool which is free to use

Higher scores mean more value, and lower scores mean the site is not reputed. You should prefer links from domains having good site authority scores and domain ratings.

All these three metrics can help you determine a domain’s importance in the eyes of search engines. It is important to note that Google does not endorse these three metrics. However, they have a strong correlation with better rankings, meaning sites with higher authority scores gain higher rankings easily. 

Link Relevance

Relevance determines how closely aligned the content of the linking page is with your website’s topic. It goes beyond general themes to include niche-specific content and contextual alignment. 

Search engines prioritize links that come from pages closely related to your subject matter, as they signal natural relationships and user value. 

Tools like Ahrefs or Semrush can help you analyze topical relevance by examining shared keywords and thematic overlaps. For example, SEMrush lets you calculate the topical authority of a domain with respect to the seed keyword. A high score is excellent, while a relevant or moderate score is good. 

SEMrush showing topical authority of a domain with respect to the primary search term

High-quality backlinks come from pages where the content naturally complements your site, while irrelevant links from unrelated industries or topics provide little to no SEO benefit and could even harm rankings.

Anchor Text

Anchor text is the clickable text of a hyperlink and serves as a ranking signal by describing the linked page’s content. It influences link value based on its specificity, natural usage, and variation. 

Tools like Ahrefs and Majestic let you analyze anchor text profiles to identify patterns. For example, SEMrush classifies anchor text into seven different types:

  • Money
  • Compound
  • Branded
  • Organic
  • Other
  • Naked
  • Empty

; AD 4nXc4I GQJ5AsiKxrQU vCyOnFdigSDxRZZTtDAKqxTqsmt823ysZ4jBy8RTmTE tVNZuyX2KTntAJQEAHdVFPhpYt3TdLYQ G83JyEj7WFhZbLmvxv0N0eYk8VReQbuu3IIBcK3Fcw?key=IoqkZgmDu6 4OFLNarlXdser

Out of these, Money and Compound anchors are dangerous for your link profile.

Over-optimized anchor text, such as repeated exact-match keywords, can trigger penalties from search engines. 

Ideally, the anchor text should be descriptive, varied, and relevant to the context of the link. 

Low-quality links often feature vague or spammy anchors like “click here” or overly stuffed keyword phrases that seem unnatural.

Placement

Placement refers to where the link appears on the linking page, impacting its visibility and SEO value. Links placed higher in the main content are more valuable because they are contextually relevant and likely intentional. 

Links placed higher in the content body is good for SEO

Links placed in footers, sidebars, or comment sections carry less weight, and too many of them create an unhealthy link profile. To evaluate, check the link’s HTML location and its surrounding text. 

High-quality backlinks are always placed within well-written, relevant content, while low-quality ones are placed in unrelated sections or appear on pages filled with ads and irrelevant external links.

Link Type

Link type determines whether search engines follow the link to pass SEO value or ignore it. Dofollow links pass ranking signals, while nofollow links, marked with the rel="nofollow" attribute, do not transfer SEO equity but can still provide referral traffic. 

Tools like Screaming Frog SEO Spider or Ahrefs can help identify link types. For example, Ahrefs provided a complete breakdown of the dofollow/nofollow referring domain data.

Ahrefs showing the total referring domains pointing to any domain

The most impactful backlinks are dofollow links from authoritative and relevant sources. 

Nofollow links from reputable sites like news outlets or forums can still bring value, but artificial backlinks (whether dofollow or nofollow) from spammy sites provide little benefit and can lead to search engine penalties.

What are the Best Link Building Tools?

​​If you want to find lots of new opportunities for acquiring solid links regularly, you should use some of the popular link building tools.

Link acquisition software helps to scale your link building efforts and saves time. By using the right software, you can reverse engineer your competitor’s backlinks, audit your link profile, analyze link anchors, and also streamline outreach. 

Here are the leading link building tools to help you build authority backlinks:

  • SEMrush: You can use the SEMrush link building tool to find and acquire authority and niche-specific backlinks. Enter your domain, and the tool will automatically find all relevant link prospects. You can also mark the selected prospects based on the outreach strategy. With SEMrush, you can also analyze your competitor backlinks and perform a backlink gap analysis to find all the referring domains that link to your competitors but don’t link to you. 
Backlink Gap Analysis in SEMrush
  • Ahrefs: With over 35 trillion backlinks, the Ahrefs crawler is one of the best in the industry. With their Content Explorer feature, you can easily find resource pages that haven’t been updated for a long time so that you can message them and request them to add your link. You can see the DR, page traffic, and the number of referring domains to that page so that you select only the best prospects. Also, with the help of the Site Explorer, you can easily analyze the backlink profile of any domain. Some of the domain and page-level metrics you can check are Domain rating (DR), URL rating (UR), Domain traffic, Page traffic, Linked domains, and External links. 
Ahrefs dashboard showing resource pages that are great for link outreach

 

Ahrefs domain backlink profile analysis

 

Ahrefs showing different referring pages pointing to a domain

 

  • Hunter.io: If you are building links, you need an email outreach platform to send professional emails to prospects. Hunter.io is the industry’s favorite tool to find verified email addresses, avoid bounces, and protect the sender's reputation. You can send personalized link building emails at any scale without worrying about reaching the spam folder. The best part of the tool is that you can find the email addresses of people behind a website to reach the best person. 
Hunter.io dashboard showing email ids of people associated with a particular domain

 

  • Respona: Respona is an outreach and link-building platform that simplifies campaigns through automation, including email personalization, verified contact discovery, and link opportunity identification. It helps businesses secure high-quality backlinks and enhance digital PR, driving organic traffic and boosting brand visibility. The best part of the tool is that it offers plug-and-play templates for different link building techniques to fine-tune your outreach emails.
Respona offers templates for each link acquisition tactic

 

  • URL Profiler: With URL Profiler, you can enhance your link building strategy by quickly auditing backlinks, analyzing anchor text, and identifying link opportunities. You can uncover high-quality link prospects, check link metrics from platforms like Moz, Majestic, and Ahrefs, and even harvest email addresses for outreach. This makes it an essential tool for efficient and effective link building campaigns.
URL Profiler can be used to process thousands of URLs at once and is available for both Windows and Mac

 

What are the Challenges of Link Building in SEO?

Link building in SEO comes with challenges like managing the technical elements of links and building links at scale while ensuring quality. 

Also, unrealistic expectations often arise when clients demand quick results, despite the time required for effective strategies. Crafting compelling content to attract links and handling email outreach can be labor-intensive, especially when faced with low response rates. 

Here are the top challenges that link builders face while maintaining quality in link building campaigns.

  • Finding Pure Niche Sites: Identifying websites that perfectly align with your niche can be tough due to limited availability and competition. Serpstat did a survey to find the most difficult areas for link building. Science, law, gambling, accountancy, and education are the most competitive niches (see graph below). You can overcome this by performing competitor analysis using tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush to locate high-value sites and leverage community outreach for untapped opportunities.
Graph showing the most challenging link building niches

 

  • Performing Manual Outreach: Crafting personalized emails and following up without spamming requires time and effort. Effective outreach involves writing good emails with winning pitches and offering value to site owners. Use email automation tools to streamline this process while maintaining a personal touch.
  • Analyzing Domain-Level and Page-Level Metrics: Evaluating sites for DA, DR, and organic traffic, and avoiding low-quality domains takes skill. You can overcome this challenge by using link building tools to filter sites with strong metrics and ensuring links adhere to Google link schemes.
  • Producing Original, EEAT-Friendly Content: Creating engaging, EEAT-friendly content that includes multimedia like images or videos is essential for contextual and editorial inbound links. Crafting well-written and original content takes time and effort. 
  • Diversifying Link Building Tactics: Another challenge with link building is the diversification of link earning tactics. Relying on a single approach can limit success and risk algorithmic penalties. You should implement white hat tactics, mix guest posts, community outreach, and other strategies, and maintain the correct ratio of dofollow and nofollow links.
  • Staying Up-to-Date With Trends: Link building trends evolve, requiring constant learning to avoid outdated practices. It is essential to follow industry blogs to adapt to changes while maintaining ethical standards.
  • Tracking New and Lost Links: Monitoring backlinks can be time-consuming. You should know the ROI of link outreach and also track your links every month or week to measure the returns on your links spending. Tools like Google Search Console or Ahrefs can help to track link performance and address lost links proactively.

What are the Best Link Building Services?

There are several popular options for effective link building services. They help you build the best links, not with AI-generated content or black hat tactics, but with genuine outreach. Some of the well-known and trusted backlink building companies are:

  • Outreach Labs: That’s us. Our link acquisition services have helped companies like Dialpad, Envato, Lendio, and others build great links that are not so easy to get. As top-rated outsourced link builders, we offer monthly blogger outreach services, which contain a mix of guest posts, digital PR, and link inserts. You can also buy standalone links. The average cost per link is $214, with variations based on domain rating (DR). Good Link Inserts (DR 20-34) cost $180 per link, Better Link Inserts (DR 35-49) are priced at $229 per link, and Best Link Inserts (DR 50-80) are $299 per link.
Build exceptional quality links with Outreach Labs

 

  • The Hoth: Their link building services are designed to enhance domain authority and boost search rankings. They help businesses secure high-quality backlinks through targeted outreach. Their link building team also offers link insertions, placing links in existing, authoritative content. You can trust The Hoth for their white-hat strategies, ensuring compliance with Google’s guidelines. Their backlink services start at $150 per post for a backlink from a site of 20 DA. Higher authority links, like those from sites with DA 50, cost $375 per link.
The Hoth link building agency

 

  • Fatjoe: They offer white-label services designed for agencies and SEO teams. Their team delivers high-quality links with transparent pricing and superfast turnarounds. Their à la carte link building offerings include Niche Edits, Blogger Outreach, and Media Placements on high-authority sites. Trusted by over 40,000 agency accounts since 2012, FATJOE simplifies link building while maintaining exceptional service standards. Their pricing starts from $63 per placement for DR10+ sites. Higher-tier placements include DR20+ for $84, DR30+ for $105, and DR50+ for $293, all featuring genuine outreach and high-quality, in-content backlinks from aged, indexed blog posts.
Fatjoe niche edits link building service

 

  • Rhino Rank: With a money-back guarantee, white-label pricing, and dedicated customer support, Rhino Rank continues to be the go-to choice for professional and effective link building solutions. The agency offers three core link-building services, each designed to boost SEO with high-quality backlinks. Curated Links start at $55, providing natural placements in pre-existing, authoritative content. Guest Posts, starting at $70, deliver 750+ words of niche-relevant content published on real websites to enhance topical authority. Visual Links, also starting at $55, diversify link profiles by incorporating image-based backlinks into aged, authoritative web pages. 
Rhino Rank link acquisition agency

 

  • Search Intelligence: Search Intelligence Ltd offers high-impact Digital PR link building services starting at £5.5K per campaign, delivering 10+ links from top-tier publications like Forbes, Bloomberg, Nasdaq, Yahoo, and The Sun. Their white-hat approach leverages reactive PR through trending events, expert commentary, and data-driven campaigns, securing backlinks in the world’s most reputable sites. With no long-term contracts, scalability for up to 100 links per month, and the largest digital PR team globally, Search Intelligence ensures exceptional results for businesses across industries. Perfect for SEO agencies, affiliate marketers, and in-house teams seeking premium backlinks.
Search Intelligence Digital PR backlink service

 

Ready To Grow Your Links? 

Partner with experts in link building. At Outreach Labs, we only select the best domains that work for your business at an affordable pricing. We follow ethical link building techniques to grow your backlink profile. Our 100% white hat link building service is great for businesses of any size. Sign up to acquire a mix of guest blogs, digital PR, and link inserts for a diverse and strong link profile. 

 

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