Link Building

Link building is the process of acquiring external links from valuable websites, forums, social media platforms, and other sources to improve the position of a website in search engine results. A large number of high-quality links pointing to your website signals to Google that the site is useful to users, worth citing, and recommended to other internet users. However, not all links have the same strength, and low-quality links not only fail to increase the visibility of a site but can actually harm the SEO process. Therefore, link building involves creating a strong link profile, which is a collection of hyperlinks from domains that are highly rated by search engine algorithms and have already established their position on the web.

Why Do You Need External Links? – Benefits of Link Building

SEO, or increasing the visibility of a site on the web, relies on two types of activities – on-site SEO and off-site SEO. The former, as the name suggests, encompasses everything that can be done within the site – technical optimization, content creation, internal linking, eliminating errors, etc. The second type of activities, off-site SEO, is the process of acquiring backlinks (also known as external links) from other websites. This is essential for building a site’s authority and “convincing” search engine algorithms that your site deserves to be placed at the top of search results. Link building and the entire link profile indicate to Google’s crawlers which sites should be targeted for traffic.

Only the combination of on-site SEO and off-site SEO ensures effective positioning and allows you to gain a competitive advantage that will help you join the leaders in your industry. Therefore, link building is one of the key marketing actions if you want to grow your brand online.

Thanks to a valuable external link profile:

• You increase the authority of your domain,
• Your site ranks higher in search results for important keywords,
• You attract valuable traffic to your site,
• You use external websites to reach new potential customers,
• You increase your competitive advantage online,
• You gain long-term marketing benefits – once established, your position in search engines lasts longer compared to, for example, paid campaigns.

Naturally Acquired Links Are Not Enough

For most websites, external links begin to appear naturally – on social media, on partner brand sites, or in user comments recommending a product or service. However, in today’s highly competitive online environment, such links are insufficient. Industry leaders actively use professional link building services to acquire links from the best places on the internet. As a result, they gain many more links and thereby obtain a competitive advantage.

Moreover, if you leave linking to users and, to some extent, to chance, you lose control over the quality of your link profile. Some websites where links to your site appear may have low ratings in search engine algorithms and could be considered spammy. The more low-quality hyperlinks you have, the more “suspicious” search engine algorithms will be about the quality of your site.

Therefore, if you want to ensure that you are acquiring high-quality links that enhance your domain’s authority, professional link building is the solution.

One of the key principles of link building is ensuring that the acquired links provide real value to your website. This means selecting sites for linking that are relevant to your website’s topic or the industry you operate in, and that also have a high rating from search engine algorithms.

Equally important in link building is the diversification of the link profile, meaning ensuring that links are acquired from various sources across the web. These links can come from:

• Publicly accessible places on the internet, such as forums or SEO directories,
• Industry-specific websites, blogs, and other relevant pages – here, links are most often acquired through guest posting (publishing guest articles), purchasing sponsored content, or creating high-quality content that others will share,
• Social media platforms – e.g., links to blog articles shared in posts on Facebook or LinkedIn,
• PBNs (Private Blog Networks) – sites created specifically to host links. However, it is crucial that these networks are of high quality and well-regarded by search engine algorithms. SEO agencies typically use their own PBNs, where they place links to many of their clients’ websites. More expensive packages may also offer the creation of dedicated PBNs, which are developed specifically for a client and become their property. The client can continue using these sites even after the contract with the agency ends.

Link Building Must Be a Process

When building a valuable external link profile, it is crucial that the process resembles a natural acquisition of hyperlinks as much as possible. This means that link building should be spread over time, with links acquired gradually rather than in bulk. This is of great importance, as algorithms are highly suspicious of websites that suddenly acquire hundreds of links overnight. This signals to them that the dofollow links were purchased rather than generated organically. In the short term, this kind of link building might result in good rankings, but in the long term, it is very risky. There have been instances in the past where link building based on such a “blast” formula led to filters or penalties from Google. At best, such an approach may have no effect on the website’s position, but at worst, the site could be penalized by Google for engaging in unfair practices.

Dofollow and Nofollow Links

A link building specialist must also ensure that the acquired links are trackable by search engine algorithms, meaning they are tagged with the “dofollow” parameter. There are two types of links: “nofollow” and “dofollow.” What’s the difference? The first type sends a signal to search engine algorithms that although the link is present on a page, it should not be taken into account when evaluating the page by Google’s bots. This is a safeguard for website owners who, for legal reasons, are required to include a link on their site but do not want it to affect the value of the linked page. For example, links in the footer to the agency that created the website or links to stock photo websites placed under images may have this parameter. By default, some forums may also use the nofollow attribute if their administrators do not want the forum to become a space for link building.

Nofollow links generally do not affect a site’s rankings, so whenever links are acquired for our website, it is essential to ensure that they have the “dofollow” parameter, meaning they allow search engine algorithms to follow the link.

A very important aspect of building a strong backlink profile is the use of appropriate anchors. An anchor, or “anchor text,” is simply the text under which a specific link is attached on a page. Search engine algorithms favor diversified anchors whose content corresponds to the topic of the linked page. Let’s take an example.

If we link to an article explaining what local SEO is and use a general anchor like:

“You can find detailed information on this topic HERE.”

there is a high chance that the algorithm will consider the link as less valuable. Much more effectiveness can be achieved by using a more specific anchor, such as:

“You can find detailed information on this topic in the article LOCAL SEO.”

Basic Types of Anchors

It is also very important to use appropriate anchors when building a good backlink profile. As mentioned, an anchor is the text under which a specific link is embedded on a page. Search engine algorithms prefer varied anchors whose content matches the topic of the link. Let’s take an example.

• Anchor Zero Match – An anchor that does not contain any keyword related to the link and usually only informs the user where the hyperlink is, e.g., HERE, CLICK, LINK. This type of anchor provides little information to the algorithm, so it should be used cautiously.
• Anchor URL – The anchor is the URL copied from the browser’s address bar, e.g., https://verseo.pl/oferta/google-ads/. This is the least user-friendly anchor, so it is better to avoid using it.
• Anchor Exact Match – The anchor text contains the main keyword for which the page is being optimized, presented in its exact form. This is a useful anchor type, but it should not be overused, as the algorithm may perceive it as an attempt to manipulate search results.
• Anchor Partial Match – This anchor contains a keyword, but in a declined form, often combined with clarifying terms, e.g., instead of “google ads,” use “article about Google Ads campaigns.” This is a very good type of anchor that can be used frequently in link building.
• Anchor Brand Name – The anchor text contains the brand name. This type of anchor works well for building brand recognition.

When acquiring external links, it is important to use various types of anchors to ensure that the entire link profile is diversified and classified as natural by search engine algorithms. Therefore, link acquisition should be systematic rather than sudden.

Finally, it is worth noting that internal links, just as important as external links, play a crucial role in structuring the website in the eyes of indexing bots. They also indicate which subpages within the site are important and which serve only supporting functions. Internal links, therefore, deserve separate and serious attention and also impact search rankings.

Building a valuable link profile can be partially done on your own, for example, by leveraging industry connections to publish guest posts on other websites. However, it’s important to remember that the link profile is a critical ranking factor in Google. This is why most brands that appear at the top of search results rely on professional agency assistance to build it. In such cases, a specialist creates a customized link-building strategy for the client, determining methods, frequency of link acquisition, keywords, and many other aspects to fully leverage the potential of this ranking factor. Professional SEOs also track algorithm updates and continuously modify their strategies to achieve the greatest benefits for their clients.

So, if you want to compete for top spots in Google rankings, seek expert assistance. Fill out the contact form and get a quote for link building for your website!