Are there any safe ways left to build links?
Much has been said about the death of guest blogging for SEO, ever since Matt Cutts wrote a piece on his blog about how guest posts are dead. He since clarified that it’s the intent, not the method, that’s dead; guest posting for explicit SEO benefit is gone, but guest posting for value with SEO on the side will work out just fine. Even so, it caused an uproar, with many webmasters terrified to guest post and many more searching for alternatives.
What link building strategies work in 2026, and what should you avoid?
Backlinks are the gold dust of the SEO world.
They’re highly coveted, and fortunately for website owners and developers, not quite as hard to come by as tiny particles of the precious metal.
To hit the jackpot of backlinks though, you’ll likely need to put in some serious time and effort.
Here we explore why link building is so important, and look at how you can increase the amount of backlinks to your website.
Backlink Basics
Before we get stuck into the meaty part of link building, let’s first determine exactly what backlinks are and why you need to concern yourself with them.
What Are Backlinks?
Backlinks are the clickable links you’ll find on other websites that link back to your own website. Link building refers to the process used to create a strong backlink profile, whereby numerous reputable websites feature links back to your site.
Why Build Backlinks?
Search engines like Google use algorithms to determine where your website should rank amongst their search engine results.
One of the key signals in Google’s algorithms is authority, and a good proportion of backlinks work to boost a website’s authority, effectively helping it to rank better.
Though a tonne of backlinks isn’t going to guarantee that you hit the number one spot on Google, it is going to give you some serious sway and have a direct impact on where you feature in SERPs.
Main Methods for Building Backlinks
Now we know what link building is and why we should invest time and energy into it, but where is the best place to start to build your empire of backlinks?
There are several ways you can encourage other websites to link to your website, and some are more effective than others. The main ways to get backlinks to your site include:
Working Strategies
Manual Link Building
You can start your link-building journey by adding a link to your website to online directories and social media platforms.
This typically involves creating a profile and listing your business contact details and services, along with a hyperlink to your website or a specific webpage.
You could also comment on forums with a link and recommendation to your website.
This is the easiest, but also the least influential way to link build, because if you can post a link on a website, so can your competitors. Search engines give little value to these kinds of backlinks as a result, however, they aren’t entirely worthless.
Even the biggest brands and companies out there feature links on online directories and in their social media profiles, and though these have little influence on search engine rankings, they do help create an overall footprint of your business that can build authority as part of the bigger picture.
Guest Posting
Yes, guest posting isn’t dead. You just have to remember to focus on value with a link to your site taking the back seat. No overly-optimized keyword anchor text here, and don’t even think about cramming 6-7 links to pages on your website in the text unless you’re providing a ton of value with them. Guest posting is indistinguishable from being an irregular contributor to a blog, unless that blog explicitly calls out your post as a guest post. As long as you’re providing value and your opinions align with the host site, there should be no issues.
Link Outreach
Reaching out to other websites and asking them to feature a link to your website is what’s known as ‘link outreach’.
This can be highly effective or completely futile, depending on your methods and the type of pages you want linked.
There are numerous reasons you could approach a website and ask them to link to your site, for example, you could offer to write a guest post featuring your link or point to a survey you’ve created that’s relevant to their content. You could also approach websites that already mention your products or services, and ask that they change the mentions into hyperlinks.
Forums
Investigate popular forums such as Reddit that maintain prevalence amongst your target audience. Getting a link or mention from a forum like Reddit can significantly boost your website’s visibility and credibility, driving increased traffic and improving its search engine ranking due to Reddit’s high domain authority.
Social Links
Sure, social links are generally nofollowed, but that doesn’t mean they’re worthless. After all, they funnel a lot of traffic to your site, and that traffic can then perform actions that further increase your search ranking. You should, at minimum, have a presence on LinkedIn, Facebook, TikTok, and X. Use Instagram and Pinterest if you can support it, due to the sheer value of engagement from the site.
Editorial Links, Especially Local
If you’re a local business, there are few links more valuable than those earned from local news agencies or respected regional publications. These editorial mentions help reinforce trust, authority, and real-world prominence – factors Google strongly associates with local search visibility. Online-only businesses and blogs can benefit just as much from industry-relevant publications, particularly authoritative sites that already command topical trust.
Brand Mentions
Some time ago, Google patented a system whereby they can recognize contextual mentions of a brand name and use those to provide search relevance, as a sort of implicit link. While there is no sign yet that they are implementing such a system, it could come in the next few years, and it can’t hurt to build a larger reputation just in case.
Natural Links
Links you earn, rather than links you scheme to build, are incredibly valuable. There’s almost nothing better than a link coming in from a site based on the owner of that site genuinely liking your content and encouraging readers to read it. There’s just something ineffably valuable in the genuine recommendation that paid recommendations just don’t have. Of course, some natural links are better than others, and some might come from domains you may rather disavow, but that’s entirely up to your analysis.
Interviews
An interview brings mutual benefit to the sites of both the interviewer and the interviewee. As interviewer, you get to post valuable content on your site and have the interviewee link back to the text. As an interviewee, you get wider exposure for your opinions, as well as a boost to your reputation. After all, if someone is asking for your opinions, you must be a reasonable authority.
Be Link-Worthy
The best way to get plenty of backlinks is to be link-worthy. This means having content on your website that other websites find so useful or interesting that they want to link to it. Of course, having great content isn’t much use if nobody knows about it, so you’re still going to need to market your website to get it in front of people.
Tips for Effective Link Building
Link building can, at times, feel soul-destroying. It’s easy to spend hours on end trying to convince people to feature your link on their website, without really achieving much at all. To avoid falling into this backlink pit, consider these tips:
Remain Relevant
Consider the types of website you will be relevant to.
If you have a website selling pet accessories, there’s no point wasting your time asking to be featured on a muscle-building blog. However, you might be a better fit to be featured on a blog about dog-friendly hotels, or a website for horse-riding enthusiasts.
Relevant links are not just easier to justify; they are also more useful for readers and more natural from an SEO point of view.
Seek out websites that already feature your keywords, and approach them directly to suggest that they feature a link to your web content. If your content is interesting and valuable to their readers, they may have no problem featuring a link to your site, but the chances of getting a response at all are greatly increased if you already have a relationship with the person you’re approaching.
This is why networking is vital for backlink development.
Network, Network, Network
If you get a cold email from someone you’ve never heard of asking to feature their link on your website, are you even going to respond to that email?
Are you likely to go as far as including a link to their site on your own?
How about if a LinkedIn connection asks you the same favour?
Or if someone you chatted to at a business convention last year makes the same request?
The power of connection is huge in link building, so make a habit of enhancing your network before you need to ask for favours.
Authority First
Not all backlinks carry the same weight.
A backlink from a reputable website is going to be much more influential for your pet accessory business compared to a backlink featured on your neighbour’s blog about their new kitten.
With this in mind, focus attention on link building with domains that are deemed to have authority, as this is going to have a more direct impact on your ranking.
Broken Methods
Buying Links
Any link you have to pay for is a link that’s circumventing Google’s rules for good, organic links. Sure, Google might not realize you purchased the link, and it might provide you with a little value for a little while, but if and when they catch on you’ll suffer for it. This is particularly dangerous if you rely on paid links for a large portion of your backlink profile. Google wants to keep money out of SEO, so trying to use money for search benefit – outside of paid ads – is a surefire way to cross the line.
Some website owners are in the business of paying for backlinks or accepting payments for backlinks, but this is risky territory since it’s considered a manipulation of search engine algorithms and could result in your website being penalised.
Link Spam
This one has been dead for quite a while. Automatically posting spam comments with links to your site? That’s firmly in the realm of shady online pharmacies these days. Unless you’re peddling bootleg Viagra, don’t let a robot anywhere near your link building. Automation is a killer.
Reciprocal Links
Two sites that mutually respect each other and reference each other all the time is perfectly fine. Two sites that don’t really have much to do with each other, but trade URLs on a 1:1 basis constantly, are going to suffer. Reciprocal links, particularly in high volumes, end up causing more harm than good. Don’t be afraid to link to a site that linked to you if it’s natural and valuable; just don’t take anyone up on an emailed offer of several links if you just link to their not-so-high-quality page first.
Press Releases
The problem with press releases is twofold. First, you have the issue of duplicate content. If you write a compelling press release and send it to 100 news agencies, and half of them publish it, that’s a lot of duplicate unnecessary content out there. The second issue is a spinoff of the first; overly optimized and duplicated link anchors. One sign of an unnatural link profile is too many links using the same anchor text. Cut out both of them by eliminating press releases entirely, or limiting them to just certain sites with customized press releases for each.
Link Wheels and Pyramids
The concept behind a link wheel or a link pyramid is like making apple cider from crabapples. You start with bad, otherwise-worthless fruit. You squeeze and squish and filter the fruit into pulp, then juice, then cider, each step of the way making the product more pure. At the end, you have filtered cider ready to consume. The problem with these methods is that they rely on all sites, even the spammiest low-tier sites, to have a tiny amount of valid link juice, which is filtered and amplified until it becomes quality references linking to your main site. Unfortunately, like cider, rotten apples can spoil the batch; when Google flags those sites as spam, the entire foundation is kicked away and your house of cards crumbles.
Directory Submissions
Submitting to a few highly targeted, legitimate, filtered industry directories is a perfectly fine link building tactic. Submitting to dozens or hundreds of low-content, unfiltered generic directories is doing nothing for you but putting your link on a site with little or no link juice. It’s an old link scheme, and it does nothing to help your site.
Overall, link building isn’t dead; it’s not even particularly harder to do. You just have to be careful about where you put your link and, more so, how you put it there. Don’t pay for links, don’t trade for links; earn links.
Conclusion
Link building isn’t dead; it’s just evolved. By focusing on providing value, earning natural links, and avoiding outdated or black-hat methods, you can build a strong backlink profile that enhances your site’s SEO. Remember, the key is to earn links through quality content and genuine relationships, rather than trying to manipulate search engines.
Ready to see how your SEO efforts are paying off? Contact us to find out how we can help you fine-tune your strategy and boost your rankings.
