Originally published February 22, 2025. Updated October 16, 2026.
Someone offers you hundreds of backlinks. Another person tells you to comment on blogs, join directories, and post everywhere. It’s easy to spend a lot of time on links without knowing what the work is meant to achieve.
I prefer a more practical approach: create something useful, make it easy to reference, and build relationships with people whose readers could benefit. A link should make sense to the person following it.
Key Takeaways
- A backlink is a link from another website to yours.
- Relevance and useful context matter more than a link quota.
- Paid advertising links and user-generated links need appropriate handling.
- Social sharing can support discovery without guaranteeing ranking credit.
- Measure referral visits and qualified inquiries alongside search performance.
Written by Dotty Scott
Founder of Premium Websites, Inc.
Empowering small businesses to go from Invisible to Invincible.
Table of Contents
- What Is Link Building?
- Create Something Worth Referencing
- Look for Relevant Opportunities
- Make Outreach Helpful
- Evaluate Common Link Opportunities
- What About Paid Links and Sponsorships?
- Do Social Posts and Forum Profiles Count?
- Measure More Than the Number of Links
- Start With a Clear Purpose
- Common Questions
What Is Link Building?
Link building is the work of earning or arranging links from other websites. A link can introduce your business to a reader, cite your expertise, or point to a resource that explains something well.
It can also help search engines discover pages and understand relationships. That doesn’t turn every link into an endorsement with the same ranking value. I wouldn’t promise a ranking result from a specific link count.
Create Something Worth Referencing
Start with the questions your clients already ask. A clear explanation, original example, useful checklist, or documented project can give another writer a reason to cite your site.
For a service business, a detailed explanation of a difficult decision may be more useful than another generic list. Publish the information on a stable page with a descriptive title, and check that someone can understand it without filling out a form first.
Look for Relevant Opportunities
Think about professional associations, local organizations, interview hosts, suppliers, and industry publications that already have a sensible connection to your work. An accurate member profile or an editorial contribution may help people discover your business.
Evaluate each opportunity on its own merits. For business listings, my directory-selection guide explains how to assess relevance and accuracy. A recognizable platform name doesn’t guarantee useful traffic or ranking credit.
Make Outreach Helpful
If your resource would improve an existing article, explain the connection briefly and let the publisher decide. Suggest a specific relevant page, rather than requesting a keyword-heavy link from every site you can find.
For interviews or guest contributions, prioritize a real topic you can teach. Follow the publication’s editorial and disclosure policies. A collaboration should offer something beyond an exchange of links.
Evaluate Common Link Opportunities
These are different kinds of activity. Don’t treat them as interchangeable sources of guaranteed SEO value.
| Opportunity | Useful purpose | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Editorial mention | Reference a relevant resource or expertise | Context, accuracy, and editorial independence |
| Business directory | Help people find and contact you | Relevance, ownership, and accurate details |
| Sponsorship | Reach suitable potential clients | Terms, disclosures, and link qualification |
| Social sharing | Introduce useful content | Referral visits and real engagement |
| Bulk backlink package | Often sold mainly on volume | Actual sites, method, and manipulative promises |
What About Paid Links and Sponsorships?
Google’s link-spam policy warns against links created primarily to manipulate rankings, including paid ranking links, excessive exchanges, low-quality directory links, and automated link creation.
Advertising and sponsorship can be legitimate. Google’s outbound-link guidance explains sponsored, nofollow, and ugc attributes. If you’re paying for exposure, discuss appropriate disclosure and link qualification with the publisher. Don’t buy a promise to pass ranking credit.
Do Social Posts and Forum Profiles Count?
A social post can bring a reader to your website or help someone discover a resource they later reference. That is useful without assuming the social link passes ranking credit.
Forum participation should help the discussion and follow the community’s rules. Don’t add signatures or comments just to plant links. I have long-standing forum connections from my own work, but that experience isn’t a reason to promise the same outcome from mass-created profiles.
Measure More Than the Number of Links
Use Search Console’s Links report to review examples of external links and top linking sites. It’s a sample, and older links may remain in the report after a page changes.
Then look at referral visits, relevant inquiries, and search performance over time. Record the work and costs so you can judge whether it deserves continued effort. One relevant inquiry can matter more to your business than a long list of links nobody uses.
Start With a Clear Purpose
Pick one useful resource and one relevant way to introduce it. Check the destination page, contact options, and mobile experience before seeking more visitors.
If your website needs stronger content first, start with my content-distribution guide or schedule a Discovery Call. We’ll discuss the work that makes sense for your business.
Common Questions
How many backlinks does my business need?
There’s no universal count that guarantees results. Evaluate relevant opportunities and the usefulness of your destination pages.
Can I pay for advertising that includes a link?
Yes, but don’t confuse legitimate advertising with buying ranking credit. Follow disclosure rules and Google’s guidance on qualified paid links.
Should I disavow every unfamiliar backlink?
No. An unfamiliar link alone isn’t a reason to act. Investigate meaningful concerns with an experienced SEO professional before making broad changes.
Read the rest of the posts in this series: The Honest Truth about Your Website
- Is Your Website Actually Working? (Or Just Sitting There Looking Pretty)
- Why the Phone Isn’t Ringing (And It’s Probably Not What You Think)
- The Truth About AI-Built Websites (What They Don’t Tell You Before You Click Generate)
- The Truth About Wix, Squarespace, and DIY Website Builders
- What a Good Web Designer Actually Does (And Red Flags That Say Run)
- Why Your Competitor Shows Up on Google and You Don’t
- What Is Schema Markup (And Why You Should Care)
- Does Your Business Show Up in ChatGPT? Here’s How to Find Out
