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Link building is the process of getting other websites to link to pages on your site. Those links can help search engines discover pages, give readers a path to useful resources, and provide a relevance signal—but acquiring more backlinks does not guarantee higher rankings.
What link building means
When another website links to one of your pages, it creates a backlink, also called an inbound link. Link building is the work of earning or obtaining those links. Common industry descriptions group the methods into adding links, asking for them, buying them, and earning them by publishing something worth citing. That is a practical taxonomy, not an official Google classification. Ahrefs’ link-building guide describes these approaches.
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Why links can matter
They help people and search engines find pages
A link can send a reader to a related resource, bringing referral visits when someone clicks it. Google also says links help it discover pages to crawl and can be a signal of relevance. A link is one input among many, not a standalone ranking guarantee. Google’s guidance on crawlable links explains how links support discovery and context.
Backlink studies show association, not cause
In a 2025 analysis of the top one million US keywords by search volume, Ahrefs reported a Spearman correlation of 0.248 between backlink count and top-20 ranking positions. Ahrefs characterized the observed correlations as weak or very weak and cautioned that correlation does not establish causation. The result is an observational finding from one vendor’s study—not a Google ranking rule and not evidence that obtaining a particular link will improve a page’s position. Ahrefs’ 2025 SEO statistics gives the study context.
#1 Best Overall
How to build links in a reader-first way
Create something worth citing
Publish a genuinely useful resource for a specific audience: for example, original data, a practical tool, a clear explainer, or a well-maintained reference. Then share it with people or publications that serve that audience. The aim is to give an editor a real reason to cite the page, not simply to manufacture a backlink.
Make a relevant, specific request
Contact a site owner or editor only when you can explain why your page would help that site’s readers. Point to the relevant page and describe its value accurately. Do not ask for a link on an unrelated page or demand an exact-match keyword anchor; editorial choice and reader usefulness matter more than a particular phrase.
Rank #2
Keep real business listings accurate
For a real business, accurate profiles and relevant directories can help potential customers find basic information. Treat them as discovery and referral channels, not a mass-submission ranking shortcut. Easy-to-add links may have little or no value for search rankings, as Ahrefs notes in its link-building guide.
How to assess a link opportunity
- Audience relevance: Would visitors to the source page reasonably benefit from the destination page?
- Editorial reason: Does your page add information or utility that a real editor might choose to cite?
- Referral value: Could the placement help people discover something worthwhile even if it had no effect on search visibility?
- Natural anchor text: Does the linked wording describe the destination clearly and concisely in context, without cramming in keywords? Google recommends descriptive, relevant anchor text. See its link guidance.
- Commercial transparency: If money, sponsorship, or affiliate compensation is involved, is the relationship clear and is the link qualified appropriately?
Do not use a third-party authority score, a target backlink count, or a prescribed anchor-text percentage as a guaranteed measure of ranking benefit. Google does not specify a magical ideal number of links on a page, and its guidance is about useful, understandable links—not a universal backlink quota.
Rank #3
Which link-building tactics can violate Google’s policies?
Google defines link spam as creating links to or from a site primarily to manipulate search rankings. Its examples include buying or selling links for ranking credit, excessive link exchanges, automated link creation, and certain advertorial or guest-post links that pass ranking credit. Google says sites that violate its spam policies may rank lower or not appear in search results. Review Google’s link-spam policy before pursuing a tactic that promises links at scale or a ranking boost.
- Do not pay for links intended to pass ranking credit.
- Do not create links automatically or exchange them excessively.
- Do not publish paid guest posts or advertorials with links that pass ranking credit.
- Do not force keyword-heavy anchors onto unrelated sites.
How to handle paid, sponsored, and affiliate links
Payment alone does not make an advertising or sponsorship link a policy violation. Google says paid links should be qualified with rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow" so they do not pass ranking credit. Google separately asks publishers to mark affiliate links with rel="sponsored". The distinction is between a properly qualified commercial link and buying a link to manipulate rankings. See Google’s link-spam policy.
A practical first step
- Choose one page that provides a clear benefit to a particular audience.
- Improve it so the useful information, data, or tool is easy to understand and cite.
- Identify a small set of relevant publishers or organizations whose readers could benefit from it.
- Send a truthful, personalized note explaining the page’s specific value; accept that an editor may decide not to link.
- Check that any resulting link is relevant, uses natural descriptive wording, and is properly qualified if it is paid or affiliate-related.
Google Search Quality Analyst Duy Nguyen put the broader principle plainly in a July 26, 2021 Google Search Central post: “Focusing on producing high quality content and improving user experience always wins out compared to manipulating links.” Read the post.
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