How to Build Backlinks: A Complete Guide

Backlinks are still the single strongest ranking signal in Google’s algorithm. That hasn’t changed in 18 years, and I don’t see it changing anytime soon. I’ve built links for 850+ clients across every niche you can imagine, from local plumbers to SaaS companies burning through six figures a month on content. The strategies that work today look nothing like what worked in 2015, but the core truth remains: sites with strong backlink profiles outrank sites without them. Every single time.

Here’s what I’m going to break down for you. Every type of backlink, how Google treats each one, the free methods that actually produce results, and the honest truth about buying links. I’m not going to sugarcoat anything. Some of this will contradict what you’ve read on other SEO blogs.

Types of Backlinks You Need to Know

Before you build a single link, you need to understand what you’re building. Not all backlinks carry the same weight. Google uses specific HTML attributes to categorize links, and each type sends a different signal. I’ve seen clients waste months chasing the wrong types, so let’s get this right from the start.

Dofollow Links

Dofollow links are the gold standard. They pass PageRank, they signal trust, and they directly influence your rankings. When someone links to your site without adding any special attribute, that’s a dofollow link by default. These are the links you want most of your effort focused on.

I track every link my clients earn, and dofollow links from relevant, authoritative sites consistently produce the biggest ranking jumps. One dofollow link from a DR 70+ site in your niche can do more than 50 links from random directories. That’s not an exaggeration. I’ve measured it across hundreds of campaigns.

Nofollow Links

Google introduced the nofollow attribute back in 2005 to combat comment spam. For years, the SEO world treated nofollow links as worthless. That changed in 2019 when Google announced they’d treat nofollow as a “hint” rather than a directive. In 2026, nofollow links from high-authority sites absolutely carry some value.

I’ve seen ranking improvements from nofollow links on sites like Forbes, Wikipedia, and Reddit. The key is context. A nofollow link from a relevant, high-traffic page sends real signals to Google. Don’t ignore them, but don’t prioritize them over dofollow opportunities either.

UGC (User Generated Content) Links

The rel=”ugc” attribute tells Google that a link came from user-generated content, like comments, forum posts, or community contributions. Most major platforms apply this automatically. Reddit, Quora, and WordPress comment sections all use some version of this.

UGC links won’t move your rankings directly. But they drive referral traffic, build brand awareness, and create a natural-looking link profile. I tell every client the same thing: a backlink profile with only dofollow editorial links looks suspicious. You need UGC links, nofollow links, and branded mentions mixed in to look natural.

Sponsored Links

The rel=”sponsored” attribute is specifically for paid placements. If you’re paying for a link through advertising, sponsored content, or any kind of commercial arrangement, Google expects you to use this attribute. Sponsored links don’t pass PageRank in the traditional sense.

Here’s where it gets interesting. Most sponsored content placements in 2026 don’t actually use the sponsored attribute correctly. That’s a risk for both the publisher and the advertiser. I’ll get into the gray areas of paid links later in this article.

Free Backlink Methods That Actually Work

Let me be straight with you. Most “free backlink” strategies you’ll find online are a waste of time. They worked in 2012. They don’t work now. But there are still legitimate free methods that produce real results if you’re willing to put in the effort. The trade-off is simple: free costs time instead of money.

Business Directory Submissions

Directory submissions aren’t sexy, but they’re foundational. Every site needs a base layer of directory links. I’m talking about Google Business Profile, Bing Places, Apple Business Connect, Yelp, and industry-specific directories. These links establish your entity in Google’s knowledge graph and build trust signals.

For local businesses, I submit to 40 to 60 relevant directories in the first month of any campaign. For online businesses, that number drops to 15 to 25. The key is relevance. Don’t submit to every directory you can find. Pick the ones that actually serve your industry. A dentist should be on Healthgrades and Zocdoc, not on a tech startup directory.

Social Profile Links

Setting up branded profiles on major platforms takes an afternoon and gives you a consistent foundation. Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, GitHub (if relevant), and any niche platforms in your space. These are mostly nofollow, but they establish your brand’s digital footprint.

I set these up for every new client within the first week. Not because they’ll rocket you to page one, but because they’re the baseline Google expects to see. A legitimate business has social profiles. A spam site doesn’t. It’s that simple.

Forum and Community Participation

This is the free method with the highest upside if you do it right, and the fastest way to get penalized if you do it wrong. Real participation in communities like Reddit, niche forums, Slack groups, and Discord servers can drive traffic and earn natural links. The keyword is “real participation.”

I spent 6 months building up a Reddit account for one of my SaaS clients. Genuine answers, helpful comments, no link dropping. When we finally started mentioning the product where it was genuinely relevant, those posts drove 400+ visits per month and earned 12 organic backlinks from people who discovered the product through Reddit. That’s the right way to do it.

Blog Commenting (Done Strategically)

Blog commenting as a link building strategy died years ago. But blog commenting as a relationship-building strategy? That’s alive and well. I’m not talking about dropping “Great post!” with your URL on 500 blogs. I’m talking about leaving genuinely insightful comments on 10 to 15 blogs in your niche, consistently, for months.

The goal isn’t the comment link itself. The link is nofollow or UGC anyway. The goal is getting on the blogger’s radar so they eventually mention you, link to your content, or agree to collaborate. I’ve secured guest post placements on DR 80+ sites purely because the editor recognized my name from their comment section.

Content Syndication

Republishing your content on platforms like Medium, LinkedIn Articles, and industry publications can earn you backlinks and traffic without creating anything new. The trick is using canonical tags or adding a “Originally published on [your site]” link at the top. This signals to Google where the original content lives.

I syndicate about 30% of my clients’ content to Medium and LinkedIn. The results vary wildly by niche. B2B and tech content performs well on LinkedIn. Lifestyle and personal finance content does better on Medium. Test both and track what drives actual referral traffic back to your main site.

How to Get .edu Backlinks

Let me be honest about .edu links. They’re valuable, but not for the reason most SEO blogs tell you. The old myth was that .edu domains carry special authority in Google’s algorithm. That’s not true. Google has confirmed this multiple times. The real reason .edu links matter is that educational institutions tend to have very high domain authority, strict editorial standards, and tons of incoming links themselves. A link from a university page is powerful because of its authority, not its TLD.

Scholarship Page Strategy

This was the go-to .edu link building tactic from 2015 to 2020. Create a scholarship, get universities to list it on their scholarship pages. It worked brilliantly until Google caught on and universities started ignoring these requests. In 2026, this strategy still works but requires a legitimate scholarship with real funding.

I ran a scholarship campaign for a client last year. We offered $2,500 to students in their industry niche. It cost the client $2,500 plus about 40 hours of outreach time. The result was 8 .edu backlinks from universities with DR between 65 and 88. That’s a cost of roughly $312 per .edu link plus labor. Worth it for most businesses, but not the free lunch it used to be.

Resource Page Outreach

University resource pages are goldmines if your content genuinely belongs there. Professors and librarians curate resource lists for students, and they’re happy to add high-quality content that helps their students learn. The key phrase is “genuinely belongs there.”

I’ve had the best success with resource page outreach when the client has original research, in-depth guides, or interactive tools. A generic blog post won’t cut it. But a well-researched guide with original data? I’ve seen response rates of 15% to 20% on outreach to .edu resource pages. That’s dramatically higher than standard link outreach, which typically sits around 3% to 5%.

Research Citations and Alumni Associations

If your company publishes original research, surveys, or data studies, academic citations happen naturally over time. I’ve seen single data studies earn 20+ .edu backlinks within a year, all without any outreach. Professors cite interesting data in their coursework and publications. Give them something worth citing.

Alumni associations are another angle. If you or your team members are university alumni, many schools list alumni businesses on their websites. It’s a quick win that most people overlook. I’ve secured .edu links for 3 clients simply by filling out alumni business directory forms on their alma maters’ websites.

How to Get .gov Backlinks

Government backlinks are the rarest and most difficult to earn. But they’re also some of the most powerful links you can get. Government domains tend to have massive authority, and they link out very selectively. Getting a .gov link signals serious legitimacy to Google.

Government Resource Pages

Some government agencies maintain resource pages for citizens and businesses. The SBA, state economic development offices, and local chamber of commerce sites (many run on .gov domains) all link to useful resources. I’ve successfully pitched detailed guides on topics like tax preparation, business licensing, and workplace safety to government resource page curators.

The success rate is low. Expect 1% to 3% response rates on .gov outreach. But when it works, a single .gov link can move your rankings more than 10 regular links combined. I’ve tracked this across multiple campaigns. One client jumped from position 12 to position 4 for their primary keyword after earning a link from a state government resource page. That was the only new link they built that month.

Local Government Opportunities

Your city or county government website probably has a business directory, event calendar, or community resource page. These are .gov links hiding in plain sight. Register your business, sponsor a local government event, or get listed in your city’s business database.

I always check local government sites for my clients. About 40% of the time, there’s an obvious opportunity that nobody in their competitive set has taken advantage of. Free .gov links from your own city’s website. It takes 20 minutes to apply.

Public Data and FOIA

This is an advanced tactic, but it’s incredibly effective when done right. File FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests for data relevant to your industry, then publish the results as original research on your site. Government agencies sometimes link to published analyses of their data, and journalists love unique government data for their stories.

One of my clients in the environmental space filed FOIA requests for pollution data, analyzed it, and published interactive maps on their site. That project earned them 3 .gov links, 45+ editorial links from news sites, and a feature in a national publication. It took months of work, but the ROI was enormous.

Should You Buy Backlinks?

Here’s where I’m going to be more honest than most SEO consultants. Google’s official stance is clear: buying links that pass PageRank violates their guidelines. Period. If they catch you, you’ll get a manual penalty that can destroy your organic traffic overnight. I’ve helped clients recover from link-buying penalties, and the process takes 6 to 12 months minimum. Some never fully recover.

That said, the line between “buying links” and “paying for content placement” is blurry in 2026. And pretending it isn’t helps nobody.

The Gray Area

Guest posting with a fee attached. Sponsored content with dofollow links. “Content partnerships” where money changes hands. Niche edits where someone charges you to add your link to an existing article. These all technically violate Google’s guidelines, and they all happen at massive scale across the web. Every single day.

I’m not going to tell you to buy links. But I’m also not going to pretend that every site ranking on page one built all their links organically. The reality is messier than any SEO blog will admit. What I will tell you is this: the risks are real, the penalties are devastating, and cheaper link sellers almost always use patterns that Google can detect.

Risks of Buying Links

Google’s spam detection has gotten incredibly good. SpamBrain, their AI-based spam detection system, has been identifying paid link networks since 2022 and it keeps improving. Common patterns that trigger detection include sudden spikes in backlink acquisition, links from sites with no real traffic, and footprints left by link sellers who use the same network of sites repeatedly.

I’ve audited sites that bought packages of 50 to 100 links from popular link vendors. In most cases, 60% to 80% of those links came from sites with under 100 monthly visitors. They were effectively paying for links on dead sites. Google ignores these links at best and penalizes you at worst. That’s money thrown in the trash.

Safe Alternatives to Buying

Instead of buying links directly, invest in things that earn links naturally. Original research, data studies, and industry surveys consistently earn the most links per dollar spent. A $3,000 investment in a thorough industry report can earn 30 to 100+ organic backlinks over 12 months. Compare that to buying 30 links for $3,000 from a vendor, half of which Google will ignore.

Digital PR is another approach I’ve been pushing hard with clients in 2025 and 2026. Creating newsworthy content, data-driven stories, or expert commentary and pitching it to journalists. It’s not free, because it takes time and skill, but the links you earn from news sites are the safest and most powerful links you can get. One client’s digital PR campaign earned them links from 23 news publications in 3 months, all dofollow, all from sites with real traffic.

When Paying Might Make Sense

Sponsored content on high-authority, real publications with the proper rel=”sponsored” attribute is legitimate. You’re paying for the placement and exposure, not the link value. If the publication has real readership and the content is genuinely useful, this is advertising, not link buying. Just make sure the sponsored attribute is applied correctly.

Paying for premium guest post opportunities on established publications where you provide genuine expert content is another gray area I’m comfortable with. The fee covers their editorial time, not the link. There’s a meaningful difference between paying a journalist to feature your expert insights and buying a spammy guest post on a PBN site with 50 monthly visitors.

External Links: What Actually Works When Linking Out

Most articles about backlinks focus entirely on getting links to your site. But the links you send out from your own site matter too. Outbound links tell Google what topics your content relates to, which sources you trust, and how your site fits into the broader web.

How Outbound Links Affect SEO

I’ve tested this extensively across my own sites and client projects. Pages that link out to 3 to 5 relevant, authoritative sources consistently outrank identical pages with zero outbound links. Google has said that outbound links are not a direct ranking factor, but every test I’ve run says otherwise. My theory: outbound links help Google understand your content’s topic and context, which indirectly improves rankings.

Don’t hoard PageRank by refusing to link out. That’s an outdated 2010 strategy. Link to genuinely helpful resources for your readers. If someone else wrote the definitive guide on a subtopic, link to it. Your readers will thank you, and Google will understand your content better.

Nofollow Rules for Affiliate Links

If you’re linking to products with affiliate tracking, those links must be nofollow or sponsored. This isn’t optional. Google has been cracking down on affiliate sites that pass PageRank through affiliate links since 2023. I’ve seen sites lose 40% of their traffic for this alone.

Set up a process so every affiliate link on your site automatically gets the rel=”nofollow sponsored” attribute. In WordPress, plugins like ThirstyAffiliates handle this for you. Don’t rely on manually adding attributes to every link. You’ll miss some, and that inconsistency is exactly what Google looks for.

UGC Links Explained

The rel=”ugc” attribute is still misunderstood by most site owners. Google introduced it in 2019 alongside the sponsored attribute, and adoption has been slow. But if you run a WordPress site with comments, forums, or any user-submitted content, understanding UGC links matters for both your outbound and inbound link strategy.

What UGC Links Mean for Your Site

When you add rel=”ugc” to links in user-generated content on your site, you’re telling Google “I didn’t vouch for this link, a user submitted it.” This protects your site from being associated with spammy links that users might drop in your comments. WordPress adds nofollow to comment links by default, but switching to ugc is more precise and gives Google better signals.

For links pointing to your site with the ugc attribute, treat them as brand awareness tools rather than ranking signals. A ugc link from a popular Reddit thread or Quora answer can drive hundreds of visitors to your site. The link might not directly boost your DA, but the traffic and brand signals absolutely help your SEO long-term.

Managing UGC on Your WordPress Site

If you allow comments or user submissions on your WordPress site, audit your link attributes right now. Make sure all user-submitted links have rel=”ugc nofollow” applied automatically. The Akismet plugin catches most spam, but legitimate comments with links still need proper attribution.

I run a simple setup on all my client sites: Akismet for spam filtering, manual approval for comments with links, and automatic ugc nofollow on all approved comment links. This takes about 15 minutes to configure and prevents any UGC link issues permanently.

Quality vs. Quantity: Building the Right Link Profile

I’m going to give you the most important piece of link building advice I know, from 18+ years of doing this professionally: 10 high-quality links will always outperform 1,000 low-quality links. Always. I’ve never seen a single exception to this rule across 850+ client campaigns.

Metrics That Indicate Link Quality

Domain Rating (DR) or Domain Authority (DA) are useful starting points, but they’re not enough. I evaluate link quality using five factors: domain authority, relevance to my client’s niche, the linking page’s organic traffic, the editorial context of the link, and whether the site has real human visitors.

A DR 40 link from a niche-relevant blog with 5,000 monthly visitors is worth more than a DR 80 link from an irrelevant mega-site. I’ve tracked this across hundreds of link building campaigns. Relevance beats raw authority every time. The ideal link combines both, but if you have to choose, pick relevance.

How Many Backlinks Do You Actually Need?

This depends entirely on your competition. I pull the backlink profiles of the top 5 ranking sites for my client’s target keywords and calculate the average number of referring domains. That gives me a realistic target. For low-competition local keywords, you might need 10 to 20 quality referring domains. For competitive national terms, you might need 200+.

The pace matters too. Earning 50 links in week one and zero links for the next 3 months looks unnatural. I aim for consistent, gradual link acquisition. For most clients, that means 5 to 15 new referring domains per month. Slow and steady wins the link building game.

Red Flags in Backlink Profiles

I audit backlink profiles for every new client, and I see the same problems repeatedly. Sudden spikes in link acquisition followed by nothing. Clusters of links from the same IP range or hosting provider. Links from sites with zero organic traffic. Exact-match anchor text on more than 5% of backlinks. Any of these patterns can trigger manual reviews or algorithmic penalties.

If you’ve inherited a messy backlink profile from previous SEO work or link buying, don’t panic. Google’s disavow tool still works. I’ve submitted disavow files for dozens of clients and seen rankings recover within 2 to 4 months in most cases. The key is being thorough. Disavow entire domains, not individual URLs, and include every toxic source you can identify.

Putting It All Together

Building backlinks in 2026 comes down to three things. Create content worth linking to. Build genuine relationships with people who can link to you. And be patient enough to let compound growth do its work.

I’ve watched clients go from zero organic traffic to 50,000 monthly visitors in 12 months with nothing but consistent content creation and strategic link building. No shortcuts. No paid link packages. No PBN schemes. Just solid fundamentals executed week after week.

Start by auditing your current backlink profile using Ahrefs or Semrush. Identify your gaps compared to competitors. Then pick 2 to 3 strategies from this guide and execute them consistently for 6 months before expecting significant results. Link building isn’t a sprint. It’s the longest game in SEO, and the sites that play it patiently always win.

Frequently Asked Questions