SEO Backlinks in the context of SEO are links on other websites that point to yours. They may be in the form of a hyperlink on the text, an image that is clickable, or even a button. All these are regarded as backlinks, and they are instrumental in assisting your site and specific pages to achieve a higher ranking in search engines.
Google intends to offer the best and reliable information to the users. Backlinks are a credibility indicator of sorts- basically, they serve as references or recommendations by other websites. The better the sites linking to your content, the more legitimate your site will be. As an example, a page containing 100 backlinks will usually be regarded as more authoritative than a page with only one link.
But it can not be only the quantity; the quality also counts. A single backlink and a high authority site, such as a large news source, will have far more weight than multiple backlinks and low-quality or irrelevant sites. In assessing the value of a backlink, Google examines the authority, relevance, and trustworthiness of the site linking to the target site.
And after acquainting you with the importance of SEO backlinks, we will take you through 10 techniques that have been tried and tested to be effective in getting high-quality website backlinks.
Step 1: Find Your Major Competitors
Pro tip: Check how often they post, how many sites link to their articles, what type of keywords they rank: are they primarily branded or do they also go after more generic industry keywords?
Step 2: Discover Their Most Successful Content
Enter a competitor URL into a tool such as Ahrefs Content Explorer or SEMrush to find out which of their blog articles are getting the most traffic and earning the most website backlinks. These are your best link opportunities targets.
Step 3: Write and Email Your Outreach Pitch
Having found out the sites that are linking to your competitors, contact the same sites. Write a brief, value-packed email telling them how your content would enhance their audience should you be included or mentioned in the same post.
Suppose you have just released a new and high-converting product page. Backlinks to such a new and optimized page will be much more useful than the links to an outdated resource.
This is where link moves enter the picture.
This is an outreach strategy where you contact websites that have already linked to your brand and ask them to update their link to direct to a more relevant or valuable page – a new product, a localised landing page, or just a superior resource.
Even though the original link is still valuable, the update assists in sending SEO power and traffic of users to the content that can better serve your current objectives, such as conversions, targeted traffic, or achieving better rankings in new keywords.
Broken link building is an old-school SEO strategy that still works in 2025. The concept is straightforward. Identify links to pages that have gone 404, and provide your similar content as an appropriate alternative. Make sure to scan the page with Ahrefs, Screaming Frog, or Check My Links (Chrome extension) to find dead links.
Reach Out -Email the owner or editor of the site with the bad link and point out the dead link to them, and offer your content as a more up-to-date and useful replacement.
Why it works: By reporting a broken link and providing a ready-made replacement, you make it a win-win situation because you are doing the webmaster a favor.
The Broken Link Building is an old but effective technique to use, as it begins with value. This can be done by finding broken links on a site and providing a suitable alternative, then you are assisting the webmaster prior to your request.
However, before pitching, it is always important to consider the relevance of your content. Your guide on financial resources for single parents, in turn, is not going
to be helpful on a page dedicated to resources that storm chasers use. That is because irrelevant pitches seldom work out–and can hurt your credibility.
Target pages where your content would be natural. The more compatible the better chances that the site owner will change the link to your preference.
Reciprocal linking can be an efficient and fast method of obtaining high-quality backlinks for SEO, in case you have a good network of customers, vendors, or partners.
Consider this as a reciprocation of values. As an example, your favorite restaurant can be connected to the website of their food delivery partner through the Order Now button- both of you win.
When relating a reciprocal link, emphasise the value-add to their readership:
“Your customers will be able to find out more about the products you use and, perhaps, order them to personal use, just by clicking the link to our page.”
Only keep in mind: do not overuse this trick. Some well-placed, relevant mutual links can be valuable, but too many can bring up warning flags with the search engines.
Guest posting is not dead; however, it has to be thought out and strategically performed.
It is not the case of forcing the links to any site that will accept them. That practice is old, and it may cause Google penalties. Rather, work on developing topical authority and providing real value to new audiences.
Pitch to websites only where:
This tactic resembles broken link building, except that, rather than suggesting an update to outdated content, you’re simply providing your long-form resource as a new entry on established lists.
These searches will bring up pages that are actively managing useful content. Your task is not to find the broken links and stop at that, but to position your resource as a fresh and useful discovery.
Relevance and quality are the clues to succeeding here. Your guide should provide a clear value to the audience of the page- either it will be more current, more detailed, or simpler to grasp in comparison to the current resources.
Link reclamation (sometimes called unlinked mentions) is the practice of identifying instances where your brand is mentioned online, but not linked to, and then contacting the site owner to ask to be added as a missing backlink.
These mentions will frequently be found in:
The trick is particularly effective when the brand already enjoys some sort of visibility. And the most wonderful thing is? Such link opportunities are also unique to you; your competitors cannot replicate them since mentions already exist about your brand.
Keep It Short: Reporters Haven’t Got All Day
Brevity is also important when contacting journalists. They get hundreds of emails every day, and your pitch has to be short and scannable.
There should always be a direct link to the post in which your brand is mentioned. Do not make them look, it is enough to hide it under old articles, and you will have lost their interest.
In many industries, top-ranking content on Google often takes the form of “Best [Product/Service]” lists. Instead of trying to outrank posts titled things like “136 Best Tools for [X],” a smarter move is to request inclusion.
It all lies in your pitch:
Be clear on what is so special about your product or service and why it has to be included in the list. Editors will desire to make their content all-inclusive. They can always revise the post and make it more valuable to readers in case you are providing an alternative that is better or was ignored. Also, note that some websites might charge a publishing or sponsorship fee.
The next clever trick would be to give testimonials in return for backlinks. It is particularly effective with organizations or instruments with which you are already familiar and have confidence in.
This strategy is also applicable to roundup-type content. After your own “Best [X]” list goes live, make sure to contact businesses or people listed and to tell them they appeared on your list. People will be more than happy to link back to your article as a way of self-promotion, and in exchange, you will have a quality backlink.
This is also an effective approach to local journalists and news outreach. To take a few examples, when you publish a study or report that identifies well-performing regions, cities, or organizations, contact local media contacts and tell them they have been singled out. This tends to yield backlinks on local news websites with high domain authority.
Content syndication and co-marketing are effective forms of strategic partnerships that help you to take advantage of the traffic and trust of other respected brands within your niche.
Begin by finding authoritative blogs or websites in your niche. Seek partners in which the value proposition is evident on both sides – be that similar audiences, complementary products, or content objectives.
Then, run content programs together, like co-authored blog articles, expert round-ups, interviews, or co-branded assets. Such projects provide an opportunity for organic high-quality backlinking between the two sites, which helps you to reach more people and increase domain authority in a manner that is natural and beneficial to both groups of audience.
The SEO situation is constantly changing, and Google is improving at detecting manipulative or poor-quality link schemes. In other words, organic, editorial backlinks with good, solid, useful content are the way to go. Whenever you are getting a mention on a Best Of list, providing a journalist with a valuable resource, or even entering into a strategic partnership with an industry ally, you must always think about how your content benefits the audience.
Backlink SEO building is not a set-and-forget activity either; the more time passes, the more effective such links become. Then, by diversifying your strategies, hitting the relevant sites, and never failing to deliver value, you will gradually develop a backlink profile that will not only skyrocket your positions but will also contribute to your brand recognition.
It can be concluded that it is better to invest in quality rather than quantity, and your backlink strategy will reward you not only in terms of SEO but also in the long run, brand trust and recognition.