Strategy
Link building for beginners: a practical guide to your first backlinks
Link building means getting other websites to link to yours. Search engines treat those backlinks as a signal of trust and relevance. Beginners should start with a few relevant listings, publish content worth linking to, and ask relevant sites for links. Avoid buying links, because cheap links can lead to penalties.
A backlink is a hyperlink on another web page that points to yours. [Wikipedia's entry on backlinks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backlink) notes that search engines treat backlinks as a major signal of a site's rank and importance. Google described each link as a vote in its early PageRank work, and that idea still shapes how link building is taught.
Why do links matter for SEO?
Links help search engines judge how important a page is and what it is about. They also send visitors. Lseo's beginner guide describes backlinks as votes of confidence, and Ahrefs describes them as votes that signal a page's importance, loosely based on Google's PageRank.
Quality matters more than quantity. Firstpage's guide says the relevance and authority of the linking site matter more than the number of links, and that links from low-quality sites add little value. One relevant, trustworthy link can do more than many weak ones.
What does anchor text do?
Anchor text is the clickable words of a link. Wikipedia says search engine crawlers examine it to judge how relevant the link is to the target page. Ahrefs advises against trying to control anchor text too tightly, because over-optimised anchors can trigger penalties. Let the anchors describe the page naturally, and mix brand names, generic phrases and your key topic.
What are the four types of link?
Ahrefs divides link acquisition into four categories: adding, asking, buying and earning. The table below sets out each type and what it means for a beginner. The verdicts follow the sources' advice.
| Type | What it means | Verdict for a beginner |
|---|---|---|
| Adding | You place a link on a site you control, such as a social profile or a business directory | Useful as foundations, low value on their own |
| Asking | You ask another site owner for a link, for example through guest posts or resource pages | The main way to win real links; expect low success rates |
| Buying | You pay for links | Avoid; Google treats it as manipulation and may penalise |
| Earning | Other sites link to you because your content is worth citing | The best long-term route, but it needs promotion |
Where should a beginner start?
Start with links you control. Ahrefs describes adding links as the foundation for a new site, and lists social profiles, directories, review sites and forums as the usual places. Lseo's guide adds that local and industry-specific directories are worth using, while Firstpage warns that adding links in bulk can look spammy. Choose a few reputable listings, complete them well and stop there.
Which directories are worth it?
Use directories that are relevant to your industry or location, and skip any that accept every site. Lseo's guide describes directory submissions as useful for local SEO when you choose reputable, industry-specific or local directories. A listing with an accurate name, address and phone number also supports your local SEO checklist work.
How do you earn links by making something worth linking to?
Links follow content that others find useful. Itseeze lists in-depth articles, original research, infographics, videos and interactive tools as formats that attract links. Ahrefs adds surveys, studies and useful tools. Choose one format you can produce well, and make it the most complete answer on its topic.
Ahrefs also notes that content must still be promoted, because good work rarely gets found on its own. Share it with the people who would find it useful, and monitor who links to it.
How do you ask for links without spamming people?
Asking is where most beginners spend their effort, and where most of the results come from once the first links are in place. Lseo recommends finding relevant partners, writing a personal message and following up politely. Firstpage recommends building the relationship first and expecting some rejection.
Ahrefs gives a realistic benchmark: getting five links from a hundred outreach emails is considered a good result. Plan for low response rates, and personalise each message with a reason the site owner would care about.
How do guest posts and broken links work?
Guest posting means writing for another site in exchange for a link. Lseo advises choosing reputable, relevant sites and following their guidelines. Ahrefs notes that guest posting is popular and can be spammy, and that pitches work best when they fill a gap in the site's content.
Broken link building means finding a dead link on a relevant site and offering your own page as a replacement. Lseo recommends tools such as Check My Links and Broken Link Checker to find them. Pitch only pages that genuinely replace the dead link.
How do you find sites worth asking?
Look at who links to your competitors. Lseo suggests finding sites that link to several competitors but not to you, then reaching out with better content. Ahrefs describes the same approach as replicating competitor backlinks. Use a backlink tool to see the list, then judge each site on relevance before you contact it.
How do you get your first backlinks, step by step?
Work through these steps in order. Each step is small, and the order keeps your effort focused on links that will last.
- Fix the basics on your site: a clear home page, working pages and a sitemap in Google Search Console.
- Create one linkable asset, such as a guide, a checklist or a short data study, that answers a real question for your customers.
- Complete a few reputable directory and business listings, with the same name, address and phone number everywhere.
- Find five to ten sites that link to your competitors and are relevant to your topic.
- Send each one a short, personal message that explains why your asset helps their readers.
- Write one guest post for a relevant site that accepts contributions, following its guidelines.
- Check your new links each month in Search Console and a backlink tool, and remove any links you did not earn.
What should a beginner avoid?
Several practices can hurt a site, and the sources agree on them.
Should you buy links?
No. Itseeze warns that buying links can lead to penalties, and Firstpage says it is a waste of money. Wikipedia describes link farms and private blog networks as paid or manipulative routes that search engines have devalued. Google's Penguin 4 update, launched in January 2017, "devalued such link spam practices", according to Wikipedia.
Are link exchanges or mass directories safe?
Avoid them. Firstpage warns that adding links in bulk can look spammy, and Lseo's guide says to choose reputable directories only. Reciprocal link schemes are easy to spot, and they add little value.
How much anchor text should you use?
Do not repeat one exact-match phrase across every link. Lseo and Firstpage both warn that overusing the same anchor can look manipulated. Mix brand names, generic phrases and descriptive text.
Does social media help link building?
Social links are usually nofollow, so they pass little direct value. Lseo notes that they can still increase how many people see your content. Treat social promotion as a way to reach people, not as a link source in itself.
Do nofollow links help?
Nofollow links are links that tell search engines not to pass a vote. Ahrefs says nofollow links generally do not pass votes. Firstpage makes the same point when it contrasts followed links, which pass value, with nofollow links.
A nofollow link can still bring visitors and visibility, so it is not worthless. Count it as a referral and a brand mention, not as a ranking signal.
How long does link building take?
Results take time. Itseeze cites an Authority Hacker survey in which just over 89 percent of link builders said results can take one to six months. The figure is from that survey, not from our own data, and it should be read as a range rather than a promise. Lseo advises patience and consistency.
How do you measure progress?
Track referring domains, not just the number of links. A single site linking to you ten times counts once as a referring domain. Lseo suggests tracking rankings, organic traffic, backlink count, referring domains and authority metrics. Ahrefs and Moz each have their own authority scores, such as Domain Rating and Domain Authority. Use them to compare sites, not as a Google measure.
Set goals you can influence, such as the number of new referring domains a month or the number of content pieces you promote. Avoid targets copied from another site, because they depend on the site's size and niche.
01What is link building and why is it important for my website?+
Link building is the process of getting other websites to link to yours. Backlinks act as endorsements that can improve visibility, authority and rankings. Lseo's guide describes them as votes of confidence that search engines can read.
02How do I start with link building as a beginner?+
Improve your content, find relevant sites in your field, and ask them for links. Start with a few reputable directories, write one guide worth citing and reach out to five to ten relevant sites. Keep at it consistently.
03Are all backlinks equally valuable to my site?+
No. Authority, relevance, the context of the link and the diversity of sources all matter. Itseeze's guide says to consider the linking site's authority, how relevant its content is, and whether the link sits in a sensible place on the page.
04What are some common mistakes to avoid in link building?+
Avoid buying links, joining link schemes, chasing quantity over quality, using spammy sites and overusing exact-match anchor text. Lseo's guide lists these among its common mistakes, and Firstpage warns that adding links in bulk can look spammy.
05How can I measure the effectiveness of my link building efforts?+
Track referring domains, organic traffic and rankings for your target pages, and check new links each month in Search Console or a backlink tool. Use these together, because a rise in links without a rise in traffic may mean the links are not relevant.
06How do I evaluate the quality of a backlink?+
Check the linking site's authority, how relevant its content is to yours, and whether the link sits in a sensible place in the content. A link from a relevant page in your field is worth more than a link from an unrelated directory.
07What are the risks of using link-building services or buying links?+
Search engines may penalise these practices, which can lower rankings or remove pages from their indexes. Itseeze's guide makes this point, and Wikipedia notes that link farms and paid networks have been devalued. A penalty can take a long time to recover from, so check any service before you pay.
08Do nofollow links help rankings?+
Nofollow links generally do not pass a ranking vote, according to Ahrefs. They can still bring visitors and visibility, so keep them in your mix, but do not count them as ranking links.
09Should I pay for links to speed things up?+
No. Buying links is the practice that sources warn against most consistently. Put the same money into one useful guide or a relationship with a relevant site, which can earn links that last.
10Can a beginner do link building without an agency?+
Yes, for a small site. Start with the steps above and track the results monthly. Ahrefs notes that many businesses eventually outsource link building because it takes a lot of time, so an agency becomes useful once the work grows. Our off-page SEO and link building service covers that work.
11What are the best first links for a new site?+
Start with reputable directories, business profiles and any partners or suppliers who already link to you. Then move to outreach and guest posts once you have one guide worth citing. Avoid any link you cannot explain to a site owner in one sentence.
12Does a link from a directory help SEO?+
It can help a little, especially for local search, if the directory is reputable and relevant. Ahrefs describes directory and profile links as foundational links for a new site, with low value on their own.
13How do link building and technical SEO fit together?+
Links help a page rank, but the page must first be crawlable and indexable. Check your technical basics before you spend effort on outreach. Our SEO audit checklist covers the checks, including backlinks and the pages they point to.
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