Let’s talk about backlinks for website growth—because not all of them are created equal, and understanding their differences can make a big impact on your SEO results.
Now, when we say backlinks, we’re talking about things like guest post bio links, comment links, press release links—all of which play different roles in how search engines view your website. If you want better rankings, you need more than just content—you need a strong, well-thought-out link-building strategy as part of your digital marketing efforts.
Why? Backlinks for website growth have a direct influence on where your site shows up in Google’s search results.
Tools like DA PA Checker—which stands for Domain Authority and Page Authority—can help evaluate how powerful a site is. And one of the things they look at? The type of backlink strategy you’re using.
Here are a few key factors that determine how valuable a backlink is:
First, the authority and number of referring domains. If you’re getting links from high-authority sites, that’s a big win. It strengthens your backlink profile and improves your credibility in the eyes of search engines.
Second, check whether a backlink is do-follow or no-follow. This is especially important when you’re dealing with review sites or paying for links. Do-follow links pass SEO value; no-follow links generally don’t.
And finally, the placement and type of the backlink itself—whether it’s in the main content, a bio section, or in a comment—makes a difference in how impactful it is.
So in today’s discussion, we’re going to break down the types of backlinks for website growth that are actually worth your time and effort. We’ll also cover how backlinks help improve your rankings and how to choose the right ones for your SEO game plan.
What Are Backlinks?
Backlinks—also known as inbound links or incoming links—are links that point from one website to another. In simpler terms, when a website includes a hyperlink that directs its visitors to your site, that link is considered a backlink to your website. Backlinks for website growth are essential because they act like votes of confidence from other websites. When a reputable site links to your content, search engines like Google see it as a signal that your content is trustworthy, valuable, and worth ranking higher in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
Types Of Backlinks That Are Useful
Guest Post Backlinks
Guest blogging means writing articles for other websites that share a similar audience, and including links back to your own site to help improve your organic search rankings. This strategy is one of the most effective ways to earn backlinks for website growth. When creating a guest post, you can add one or more backlinks, with the goal of gaining valuable links from the host site. Bloggers typically produce carefully researched content that offers useful information on particular subjects, allowing them to reach specialized audiences on external platforms while also securing quality backlinks for website growth.
Effect Of Guest Posting on Rank
Google’s algorithm prefers guest blogging backlinks when the guest posts provide users with valuable and informative content. Such links help increase brand visibility within a specific topic or niche by guiding visitors from one website to another.
However, Google can easily identify an excessive number of low-quality guest posts. This means that in SEO, the quality of backlinks is far more important than the sheer quantity.
How To Create A Guest Post Link
The main point is to avoid spamming by overloading websites with too many backlinks. Instead, focus on building your authority on Google by creating high-quality, original, and plagiarism-free content. Equally important is forming genuine connections with reputable sites within your niche. By earning backlinks from the right sources that are relevant to your industry, you not only improve your search rankings but also attract targeted traffic. This combination of valuable content and strategic outreach helps build a strong, trustworthy backlink profile that Google values and rewards.
Natural Blog Commenting
Earlier, comment backlinks were a popular way to build links. Website owners would leave comments on blog posts and include links back to their sites. This was a common strategy until around 2005, when Google introduced the nofollow attribute, which basically stopped those links from passing SEO value.
People also used forum backlinks by dropping links or anchor text in high-traffic blog discussions to boost their site rankings. At first, this worked pretty well and was easy to spot. But over time, it turned into a spammy tactic, annoying bloggers and content creators everywhere. So, what started as a clever method quickly became something people wanted to avoid.
Effect of Blog Commenting On Rank
In today’s SEO landscape, the nofollow attribute is frequently applied to blog comment links to prevent them from influencing search engine rankings. Because of this, many people consider blog comment backlinks as a form of spam or low-quality link building. Despite this general perception, there are still bloggers and webmasters who recognize the value of nofollow links, particularly when the comment and the link are genuinely relevant and add meaningful context to the article or the website where they are placed. When done thoughtfully and with relevance in mind, these nofollow links can foster engagement, drive targeted referral traffic, and build relationships within the niche community. So, while nofollow blog comment links may not directly boost SEO rankings, they can still contribute positively to your online presence when used appropriately and with genuine intent.
How to Build A Blog Commenting Backlink
Blog commenting can be as simple as interacting on social media. When done using an official account linked to your business or website, it can be a smart way to gain a potential quality backlink.
However, this approach only works well if the link you include is relevant to the topic being discussed. Avoid dropping unrelated or forced links, especially on blog posts that have no connection to your product or service. Posting irrelevant comments or linking to sites with spammy backlinks can do more harm than good. Relevance and authenticity are key to making this strategy effective
Author Bio Backlinking
Published articles showcase a writer’s expertise, so linking to the author’s profile can be an effective way to drive organic traffic. Using acknowledgment backlinks—like adding the author’s name or profile link as anchor text—is a classic yet effective blogging strategy.
Writers often add quality backlinks to their own websites or personal profiles, especially after contributing to industry-related events or publications. It’s also common to include links to related retailers, partner websites, or social media profiles to enhance credibility and broaden the article’s reach.
Effects Of Author Bio Backlinking on Rank
In some cases, webmasters see this method as a valuable way to enhance user experience by offering readers more context about the writer. Including the author’s bio, complete with a link in the anchor text, not only helps build trust but also serves as a subtle way to drive organic traffic to the linked website. When readers find the content insightful, they often click on the author’s name to learn more—leading them to the site mentioned in the bio.
However, it’s important to ensure that the author bio page adheres to Google’s quality rating standards. This means the content should be accurate, relevant, and aligned with the overall topic of the article. A well-optimized and trustworthy author bio can improve credibility, enhance engagement, and support long-term SEO performance.
How To Build an Author Bio Backlink
One effective way to boost your online presence is by linking the author’s bio through anchor text placed strategically within a website. This not only helps establish the author’s credibility but also drives traffic to their personal or professional profiles. However, it’s important to note that if the site where the link is placed lacks authority or is deemed untrustworthy, Google may view the backlink as spammy or manipulative.
To make the most of this strategy, it’s a good idea to enhance the author bio by incorporating branded backlinks—links that point to official websites or recognized platforms—and by using brand-specific anchor text. This adds authenticity to the link and helps Google better understand the context and relevance of the content. When done correctly, this approach not only strengthens your backlink profile but also supports your brand’s visibility and trustworthiness in search engine results.
Editorial Link Building
Editorial backlinks are highly valuable and are earned when high-quality, original content gets naturally referenced by other websites. These links typically come from sites that offer informative, well-researched articles that genuinely help users.
Such backlinks are created by adding contextual links to related content or credible sources, enhancing the article’s depth. Since they are earned through valuable content, not forced, they’re considered one of the most natural and effective ways to boost authority and drive organic traffic.
Effects Of Editorial Backlinks on Rank
What makes this type of backlink particularly effective is its uniqueness and the genuine value it offers to readers. These links are usually placed within high-quality content and point to reputable, relevant sources. As a result, they help boost a site’s credibility, authority, and search visibility. In the eyes of search engines like Google, editorial backlinks signal that your website is a reliable source of information, making this strategy one of the most powerful tools for improving rankings over time.
How To Build Editorial Links
The effectiveness of editorial links is closely tied to the quality of the content they are associated with. These types of backlinks are typically earned when a piece of content is original, insightful, and provides meaningful solutions to users’ questions. When your article stands out by offering unique perspectives or valuable information, it increases the chances of being referenced by other authoritative websites, naturally boosting your traffic and search engine visibility.
It’s important to avoid the temptation of purchasing editorial links. Paid links often lack authenticity and are not viewed by search engines with the same level of trust as organic ones. In fact, relying on paid editorial links can harm your website’s credibility and may lead to penalties if detected. Instead, focus on creating high-quality, user-focused content that other sites will genuinely want to link to. This natural approach ensures long-term SEO benefits and helps establish your site as a trustworthy, authoritative resource in your niche.
Private Blog Network Linking
There are networks of websites, often referred to as private blog networks (PBNs), that exist primarily to exchange or sell backlinks to other website owners. These networks are designed to manipulate search engine rankings by artificially boosting the authority of linked sites. While they may generate significant revenue for those who operate them, the practice is rooted in manipulation rather than genuine content value.
Because the backlinks are not earned naturally but are instead placed for the purpose of influencing search engine algorithms, this approach is considered a violation of Google’s webmaster guidelines. As a result, using such tactics carries a high level of risk. Search engines have become increasingly advanced at detecting unnatural link patterns, and websites associated with these networks can face penalties or even de-indexing.
In today’s SEO environment, relying on PBNs or similar schemes offers little long-term value. Instead, it’s far more effective—and safer—to invest in authentic, high-quality content that earns links organically through relevance, authority, and usefulness to readers.
Effects Of PBN Linking On Rank
Because of strict search engine guidelines, using this method is strongly discouraged. Private Blog Network (PBN) link-building lacks transparency, often leaving marketers uncertain about where and how their links are being posted.
Over the past few years, Google’s algorithms have significantly advanced to detect and crack down on such manipulative tactics. As a result, using PBN backlinks is against Google’s policies, and doing so can lead to serious penalties, including ranking drops or even complete removal from search results.
How To Build PBN Backlinks
This method was once effective in ranking high-earning and prestigious sites. Nowadays, this technique is considered black hat SEO, which carries many risks.
Social Media Backlinks
Social media platforms provide an effective way to gain backlinks and drive traffic to your website. With the rise of social media marketing, sharing links on popular platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram has become a key strategy to increase visibility and user engagement.
By posting links to blog articles and web pages, businesses can reach a broader audience and encourage natural backlinks from users who find the content valuable. While social media backlinks may not always directly boost SEO rankings, they help increase brand awareness and referral traffic, which can lead to more organic links over time. Engaging actively on these platforms is a smart way to build links and grow your online presence.
Effects Of Social Media Backlinks On Rank
Google does not view social media links as part of any approved link-building schemes or SEO strategies. While search engines index social media platforms similarly to regular websites, they generally do not factor social media links into their ranking algorithms.
From an SEO standpoint, backlinks gained through social media sharing don’t usually provide direct ranking benefits. However, having an active and verified social media presence can help establish the credibility and authenticity of a brand or individual, which is valuable for overall online reputation.
How To Build Social Media Backlinks
Social media-type backlinks are considered no-follow links and are labelled as user-generated content. However, bloggers or web admins can use social media platforms to extend their reach and generate more traffic.
On social media websites, audiences can find links to relevant trending tags that will lead them to their source. This indirect yet highly effective digital marketing method is usually employed by e-commerce stores.
Auto Backlink Generation
Automated tools are sometimes used to acquire backlinks, but this approach is against Google’s webmaster guidelines and can result in penalties, which assigns a bot to do the work. The bots target specific websites using anchor texts and comment links, which are generally considered spam.
Effect Of Auto Backlink Generation On Rank
It contravenes Google’s webmaster guidelines to generate backlinks through automation, a technique that can adversely impact your website’s ranking.
Initially, these links might help one gain rankings. However, once the search engine discovers they are auto-generated, it might attribute them to link scheming, and all your efforts will go to waste.
How To Build Auto Backlinks
For organisations to release announcements and updates, Press release links can contribute to your ambition to rank higher in search engine results. It is still possible to indirectly gain traffic by mentioning a publication as part of your site’s source.
Directory Page Linking
Industry directories, such as specific directories for a particular industry or niche, can be helpful in obtaining relevant backlinks for your website. The information in these catalogues is used to develop an authentic background for the types of backlinks. Instead of focusing on quantity, this method should aim for high quality rather than the relevance or quality of the backlinks, including irrelevant directory links. An example of this is Hipages or Yellow Pages.
Effect of Directory Page Linking on Rank
Website directories have verified and authentic data to help you find websites and online businesses. When searching, ensure you are targeting relevant directories to avoid wasting time.
How to Build Directory Page Links
Any reputable website, blog, or article can be listed in web directories. By leveraging free backlinks from authoritative directory sites, you have the opportunity to acquire a large volume of backlinks from high-authority sources.
However, these types of links often fall under the category of unnatural linking. Depending on the quality and nature of the directory, including such backlinks might actually harm your website’s ranking rather than help it. Therefore, it’s important to fully understand the risks and considerations before using this strategy.
InfoGraphics Links
Infographics offer a visually engaging method to inform and educate an audience about a particular subject or niche, while also including outbound links to relevant websites or sources. This approach combines graphical illustrations of data or research with supporting text to provide clear and meaningful context.
By sharing these infographics on social media platforms or embedding them within blog posts—along with a link back to your website—you can effectively drive more traffic to your site and increase audience engagement.
Website Footer Linking
Typically, these links appear in a web page’s footer and are consistent throughout the website. Many SEO experts embed keyword-rich text into the bottom of the page as part of their strategy.
However, as they say, excess of anything is terrible, and excessive use of this technique can be considered spam.
SideBar Links
Sidebar links are featured on each website page and are popular for grabbing users’ attention. Since these links appear on every page, more clicks redirect them to your website.
Effect of Sidebar Linking On Rank
This technique appears to be effective for generating traffic. However, search engine policies classify this method of linking as spam, which classifies this technique as an unnatural way of connecting. Search engines like Google may reach out to penalise websites featuring such links.
How To Build Sidebar Links
Sidebar links are also known as site-wide links. These backlinks come featured as rich anchor text or pasted naked as a source of information to follow. However, this technique is not very effective in improving search engine visibility.
Brand Backlinks
Different linking strategies help improve your website’s SEO by building authority and driving traffic. Guest blogging and editorial links earn valuable backlinks from relevant sites. Infographics attract shares and links, while quality directory listings provide trusted backlinks. Social media boosts brand awareness and can lead to natural links. Author bio links establish expertise, and branded badges encourage others to link to you as a mark of recognition. Combining these strategies creates a strong, diverse backlink profile that helps improve your search rankings and grow organic traffic.
Conclusion
Backlinks for website growth are vital for SEO, but quality matters more than quantity. Focus on earning natural, relevant links through valuable content like guest posts and editorial mentions. Avoid risky tactics like private blog networks or automated links, which can harm your site. While social media links don’t directly boost rankings, they help build brand awareness and traffic. Building a trustworthy, diverse backlink profile through genuine connections is the most effective way to secure backlinks for website growth and ensure long-term SEO success.
FAQ’s
What are backlinks?
Backlinks for website growth are links from other websites that point to your site, signaling trust and authority to search engines.
Which backlinks help SEO the most?
High-authority, relevant backlinks—like guest posts and editorial links—are the most valuable for improving rankings.
Are blog comment backlinks useful?
Mostly no, because they are usually no-follow and seen as low-value, but relevant, genuine comments can still drive traffic.
Why avoid Private Blog Networks (PBNs)?
BNs are risky, considered black hat SEO, and can lead to penalties or removal from search results.
Do social media links improve SEO?
Social media links don’t directly boost rankings, but they help increase brand awareness and drive referral traffic, which supports backlinks for website growth.