SEO Atlas
LinksLink acquisitionLink earning

Link building

The practice of acquiring links from other websites, ranging from editorially earned citations to schemes that violate Google's link spam policy.

In full

Google's policy line is intent and compensation: links that others choose to give because content deserves them are fine, while links bought, exchanged, or created at scale to manipulate rankings are spam. The durable tactics — original research, digital PR, expert commentary, useful free tools, relationship-driven outreach — are the ones that produce links a person actually wanted to give. Measurement should focus on referring domains gained and their relevance, not link counts.

Example

A logistics firm publishes an annual port-congestion dataset that trade press cite each year without any outreach after the first cycle.

Related terms

Digital PR

Earning editorial coverage and links from media outlets through newsworthy assets — original data, expert commentary, campaigns — rather…

Link spam

Google's spam policy category covering links intended to manipulate rankings: buying or selling links, excessive exchanges, automated link…

Linkable asset

Content designed to earn links on its own merit — original research, free tools, definitive references, interactive data — rather than…

Guest posting

Writing articles for other publications; legitimate as an audience and authority tactic, but a link spam violation when done at scale…

Unlinked mentions

References to a brand, product or person in published content that do not include a hyperlink, and which can sometimes be converted into…

Where to read more

Tools that touch this

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