Author: Ryan Walshf

Date: 05/05/2026

Backlinks are something that visitors to your website do not see (unless they have used a link to find you that is!). Therefore, the website’s backlink profile, that is, the collection of links that link to that particular website, is often invisible to a shopper.

However, it’s the backlink profile that largely determines a website’s authority.

And because authority is such an important metric, it can determine where the website ranks in search engine results. Therefore, leveraging backlinks, that is, gaining more relevant and powerful links, can still massively impact the performance of search engine optimisation.

 

What exactly are backlinks?

Backlinks are also commonly referred to as “inbound links”. Put simply, all links are direct hyperlinks from one website to another. Now, this is convenient for a shopper because they can be transported to another website or business with the click of a mouse when trying to locate say a product that they want to purchase.

However, from a search engine optimisation perspective, consultants often refer to these links as “votes of confidence” for the business. This means that Googlebot crawls and indexes links regularly and takes note to how many backlinks the business has accumulated.

If, therefore, the website has a large collection of quality links, well, this acts as a good vote of confidence in your business. It basically shows that a lot of other brands/businesses have chosen to link to you; therefore, this gives Google the impression that the business is trusted and respected.

 

What are the primary types of backlinks?

Backlinks could be split into many different categories, such as the domain authority they offer, the country of origin, for example, is it from a .com or a .co.uk link. Then there’s which business sector they are relevant to.

However, we could take a broad-brush view and split backlinks into two main categories: “do-follow” and “no-follow”.

Let’s explain what each of those means right now:

 

What is a do-follow backlink?

A do-follow backlink passes through SEO value. These links cumulatively enhance the website’s authority. As those who are interested in search engine optimisation will know, authority is a key part of Google E-EAT.

 

No-follow backlinks

A no-follow backlink doesn’t pass any seo value, yet they can still pass referral traffic. This basically means that the link is still fully usable for transferring a visitor from one website domain to another. However, with that said, the “link juice” or the “link equity” doesn’t pass through, so there’s no search engine optimisation benefit from a no-follow backlink.

 

Are backlinks still considered an important part of SEO?

We think that this is a really good question. The reason we say that is simple: there’s so much conversation online about GEO, AI, and, for example, optimising a website for Google AI Overview visibility.

Therefore, the traditional ranking factors, such as backlinks, are almost lost in the conversation and are not discussed as often anymore.

Therefore, many businesses will be wondering: Well, is it still considered important to build links?

We would say absolutely and most definitely.

Here’s why backlink building is still a critical part of the optimisation process:

 

Improved rankings

Every large marketing agency will know that to get a business on the first page in the SERP’s, especially for competitive keywords, you still need backlinks.

 

Domain authority or DA score

The best experts in the business will tell you that once you have a strong backlink profile leading to the website and its key pages (say the homepage), optimising new pages becomes much easier to do.

For example, if you have a bunch of links pointing at, say, the homepage, they can then funnel link juice to the connected pages. Which basically means that once you add a new post or page, it can rank higher automatically because the domain name may already have strong domain authority.

 

Backlinks can bring in traffic.

When your website is mentioned, say on other blog post, this can bring in more visitors.

It does, of course, depend on how popular the connected websites are. For example, if it’s a website with millions of readers per week, this could bring a huge number of new visitors to your website if you were to earn a backlink from such a blog post.

 

Improved local SEO

Many businesses believe that backlink building is only for national or international brands; however, this is not the case.
As a matter of fact, a local business could gain an advantage and higher rankings if it earns high-quality links.

 

What makes a good backlink?

Here’s the golden rule for backlink building: quality is the name of the game.

We get it, running a business, especially a small business, you’re always going to be short on time.

Therefore, this is the trap, and the mistake that so many businesses make, they build rubbish, low-quality and even spam links.

They don’t, therefore, understand that this will harm your search engine optimisation, sometimes to the point that Google will actually implement a manual action penalty.

We won’t go into great detail here regarding what a link penalty is; however, let’s just say you most definitely want to avoid that scenario.

 

Here’s what contributes to a link to being a good quality backlink:

Relevant

So, again, when it comes to backlink building, think about building a highly relevant set of links.

Don’t take the approach that more is better, because, well, it’s not if it comes at the cost of link quality.

Think about relevance and ask: Well, is that link relevant to my business sector?

Does it relate to the services or indeed the products that we sell?

For example, perhaps a link from an approved pet insurance company to your veterinary practice, well, that would be relevant, wouldn’t it?

However, a link from your friends’ wedding cake business to your veterinary practice wouldn’t be relevant.

 

Authoritative

Now, what businesses have to appreciate is that it’s harder than ever to get a business onto page one of Google.

Therefore, the backlinks you build should all be authoritative; they need to come from pages with high domain authority.

For example, if you have earned backlinks from well-known organisations and brands within your business sector, this can definitely help improve the DA score.

Natural

Backlinks should be built naturally; for example, if your business offers fantastic customer service and is well known for what it does, you can naturally attract backlinks.

Equally, if you have written helpful content marketing, this will, over time, start to gain links as well.

 

But how does backlink building help support improving local SEO?

You may want to appear in both the organic results and the local map results?

If your business wants to appear in Google’s local map results, often businesses will need quality local backlinks.

 

Local visitors

Let’s say a website is created to offer local tourism advice mentions your pub, or let’s say your restaurant that sources local seafood.

This is just an example of how a local business could support another local business by building backlinks.

The point being made here is simple: local backlinks can help bring in elevant visitors who are interested in your business’s products or services.

 

Create valuable and useful content marketing.

Here is a super important point: too many businesses see writing content marketing and building backlinks as just tasks that need to be completed.

This often means that instead of really creating quality work or focusing on building quality links, it just becomes a matter of writing one more business post or trying to earn one more link!

This approach does not work.

Instead, in terms of link building, if you focus your efforts on creating valuable, useful work, potentially thousands of people could read it.

It helps them solve a problem they may have.
Such as how to perform an oil change on a specific car make.

Therefore, if the website then gains a large number of organic visitors, some visitors may want to link to that exact page, as they feel it would be of interest to their own audience.

For example, a car part manufacturer linking to a well-known mechanics website. Therefore, these links are built the way SEO consultants refer to as “naturally built.” When they are naturally built, this is most definitely what Google rewards and prefers.

Google doesn’t want any business buying links or building spam links en masse.

What actually happens then is that built into the core Google algorithm are spam detection methods.

If they see that the links built are of low quality, the website could actually attract a link penalty.

 

Offer your knowledge

Sometimes, a respected website, let’s say the Solicitors Journal, if you are a lawyer, asks for solicitors’ opinions on a certain subject.

Therefore, when you contribute to the article and the discussion, you open up the opportunity for your business to obtain a backlink from that article. This means that you have contributed to the article; therefore, your name or the business you work for could receive a do-follow backlink.

 

Competitor backlink building

This is something that agencies, in particular, invest a considerable amount of time in.

That is competitor backlink building; it basically involves, for example, seeing who your main three competitors are online. Then analysing their backlinks using a tool such as Ahrefs or, let’s say, Moz Pro.

For example, you might instantly spot that there’s an organisation that your client belongs to.

For example, are a member of an organisation such as the FMB, the Federation of Master Builders. However, your client doesn’t appear on the list, yet a set of competitors do.

Therefore, sometimes it’s just a matter of reaching out and asking for your client to be added to the list.

This is why we would say that competitor backlink building can be really effective, and really good at spotting opportunities where you can get a client a quality backlink relatively quickly sometimes.

 

Here are some common backlink building mistakes that you should avoid:

Don’t buy backlinks

It’s far better to publish helpful guides that will be useful to your customers.

For some readers and other businesses they may choose to voluntarily link to you.

Don’t therefore buy links, for example, “low-cost link packages”- as these are a sure-fire way of attracting and getting hit by a link-building penalty.

 

Don’t ignore link quality.

I know that we have mentioned this a few times in this article, yet it’s so important to remember and to keep in mind.

The reason is that we know how marketing departments within a business and marketing agencies themselves get sometimes put under pressure to build links.

The logic is therefore “more is better”; however, this is not true when it comes to backlink building.

Some companies can actually start with a really good set of do-follow and no follow backlinks.

Yet by subsequently building spam links, you’re then actually diluting the power and effectiveness of all the links.

The point that we are trying to make is simple: quality should be the name of the game.

 

Do we need to keep building backlinks?

Yes, that’s the short answer- but only quality links.

The reason is that when you gain a new link, it’s not cast in stone and there forever.

Sure, some backlinks can be in place for many years.

However, sometimes, some can get deleted and lost.

The reason is that a business may update the page, thereby choose to use other links. The backlink is then severed completely, and the link equity is lost.

Therefore, it’s better to keep building links- but they must be quality!

 

 

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