What is link building?
SEO Definition and Examples
Link building is the active process of acquiring backlinks from external sites in order to increase your domain's authority and improve your Google ranking.
Full Definition: What is link building
Link building covers all the strategies through which you obtain links from other sites to yours. White-hat methods: guest posting (writing articles for other sites), digital PR (getting cited in the media for original data or studies), broken link building (replacing dead links on other sites with your own content), creating linkable assets (guides, calculators, studies). Grey/black-hat methods (penalized): buying links, excessive reciprocal exchange schemes, link farms.
Why Does Link Building Matter for SEO?
Link building remains one of Google's strongest ranking factors. Domains with more quality backlinks rank higher for almost any keyword. The difference between #1 and #10 is often the difference in link profile, not content.
Source: Ahrefs — Link Building GuideFrequently Asked Questions about Link Building
Related Terms
Backlink
BeginnerA backlink is a hyperlink placed on an external site that points to a page on your site, signalling authority and relevance to Google.
Domain Authority (DA)
IntermediateDomain Authority is a score from 0 to 100, created by Moz, that estimates how well a domain can rank on Google results pages.
Anchor Text
IntermediateAnchor text is the clickable text of a hyperlink that tells Google and users what the page the link points to is about.
Nofollow vs Dofollow
BeginnerDofollow (default) lets Google follow a link and pass authority, while nofollow (rel="nofollow") signals the link should not be followed and passes no PageRank.
Put Link Building into practice
Explore how to apply this concept to your industry and city.
