GlossarySEO
What is link building?
Also called: backlink building, link acquisition, off-page SEO
Definition
Link building is the work of getting other websites to link to yours. Links help search engines discover pages and judge their importance, which is why link quality and how links were earned both matter.
Link building, explained
Google's ranking systems guide lists link analysis systems and PageRank among its core systems: they use how pages link to each other to understand what pages are about and which might be most helpful. A link from a relevant, trusted page is a vote that a page is worth something. That's why links still matter, and why people have tried to fake them for decades.
Google's spam policies define link spam as creating links to or from a site primarily to manipulate rankings. The named examples include buying or selling links, excessive link exchanges, automated link creation, advertorials with links that pass ranking credit, low-quality directory links, widget and footer links distributed across sites, and forum spam. Links bought for advertising are fine if they're marked rel="sponsored" or nofollow.
The methods worth a founder's time are the ones that would make sense even without SEO. Launching on relevant platforms and curated directories. Being useful in communities where your buyers are. Publishing original data or tools people cite. Digital PR and answering journalist requests. Guest articles for publications your buyers read. Partnerships and integrations that naturally come with a listing. Reclaiming unlinked mentions and fixing broken links to your site.
The methods to avoid are the ones sold as shortcuts: link packages, private blog networks, automated exchange networks, paid posts without disclosure, and "DR 70 links" from sites that sell to anyone.
Expect it to be slow. A handful of relevant, editorial links usually does more for a new site than hundreds of weak ones, and a steady trickle over months looks and works better than a burst.
Why it matters for founders
A new domain with no links struggles to get pages crawled, indexed and ranked. Earning a first set of relevant links is often what moves a young site from invisible to indexed.
Example
A new API tool gets its first links from a launch listing, eight relevant directories, an integration partner's docs page and a guest tutorial on a developer blog. Over the next quarter, its docs start ranking for long-tail queries.
Common mistakes
- Buying link packages or "guaranteed DR" links.
- Joining automated link exchange networks.
- Chasing link count instead of relevance.
Sources
- Google Search Central: A guide to Google Search ranking systems
- Google Search Central: Spam policies for Google web search
Checked
Related terms
- BacklinkA backlink is a link from another website to yours. Search engines use backlinks to discover pages and as one signal of which pages are trusted and worth ranking.
- Link schemeA link scheme is any practice of creating links to or from a site mainly to manipulate search rankings, such as buying links, excessive link exchanges or automated link building. Google calls it link spam.
- Digital PRDigital PR is earning coverage, mentions and links from online publications by giving journalists something worth covering, such as a story, original data, a useful tool or expert commentary.
- Referring domainsReferring domains are the unique websites that link to your site. Ten links from one site count as one referring domain, which is why SEO tools treat referring domains as a better measure than total backlinks.
- Editorial linkAn editorial link is a link another site's author or editor chose to add because it helps their readers, without payment, a trade or any requirement. It's the kind of link search engines are designed to reward.