Link building is an important part of SEO for building authority, driving referral traffic, and increasing your visibility in AI-powered search.
But there are many different ways to build links, and not all of them have the same potential impact on your site's authority. This guide explains what link building is, what makes a link worth pursuing, and the two categories of link building tactics you should consider using.
What is link building?
Link building is the process of earning hyperlinks from other websites to your own. Search engines use links as signals of relevance and authority, while readers use them to discover useful context and new sources.
The best campaigns do both jobs well: they give a real audience a reason to click and give search engines a clear reason to trust the page being linked to.
Prioritise links that are relevant, editorially earned, and genuinely useful to the audience on the referring page.
What makes a good link?
A good backlink is more than a URL placed on a page. Before you invest time in outreach, use these four checks to decide whether the opportunity is worth pursuing.
Relevance
The referring page and its audience should make sense for your topic.
Editorial context
The link should be naturally included in useful, original content.
Real audience
Look for sites that attract people who could actually benefit from your work.
Durability
Choose relationships and resources that can keep earning attention over time.
Two link building tactics worth using
There is no single “best” link building tactic. The right mix depends on your assets, relationships, and the type of audience you want to reach.
Earn links with useful assets
Create original research, tools, guides, and visual resources that make other publishers want to cite your work.
Explore content assetsBuild relationships with outreach
Reach out with a clear, relevant reason to collaborate, contribute, or improve an existing resource.
Explore outreachBuild link-worthy content assets
The most sustainable campaigns start with something worth referencing. That might be a proprietary dataset, a practical calculator, a deep guide, or a point of view your industry does not have yet.
- Start with a recurring question. Find the topic your audience and industry keep coming back to.
- Add something new. Combine first-hand experience, data, examples, or a useful framework.
- Make it easy to cite. Use clear headings, source notes, quotable takeaways, and shareable visuals.
Make outreach more useful
Outreach works best when it starts with relevance rather than a generic request. Explain why the resource fits the reader, what it adds to the existing page, and how you can make the update easy.
“The best outreach email is often the one that proves you already understand the page you are writing to.”
— A practical rule for thoughtful outreachHow to measure results
Track the outcomes that match the job of the campaign. Referral sessions and assisted conversions show audience value; relevant referring domains and earned mentions show authority growth.
Link building compounds when every new asset and relationship makes the next one easier to earn.