Backlinks are a huge ranking factor—you need to spend time building them.

However, many website owners seem hesitant to start. They fear being hit by a Google penalty due to building the wrong links.

The problem is even worse if you’re new to link building. In this case, it can be hard to tell apart safe backlinks from spammy ones.

In this article, we’ll explain what makes a safe link. We’ll also look at some strategies you can use to build safe backlinks.

Key Takeaways

Natural organic links are the safest form of backlinks.
But there are also many proactive ways to build quality backlinks.
Guest posts, HARO, linkable assets, and broken backlink strategies can all result in safe links.
Always avoid spammy, automated link building practices.
The website the link comes from is just as (if not more) important than the strategy you use.

The Safest Way to Build Backlinks

Natural links are the safest form of backlinks. This is when people link to your website without any promotion on your behalf. They read your content, enjoy it, and point links in your direction.

Search engines like these links because they are given without any external influence.

The issue is that generating links this way can take a long time. If your site is new, people won’t see your content or link to it. Because of this, many people turn to link building.

The good news is that many forms of link building are entirely safe. You need to know how to build safe links and what you should avoid.

Being Passive Doesn’t Mean You Won’t Have Bad Links

Sometimes black hat SEOs will direct bad backlinks to your site as part of a negative SEO attack, even if you don’t actively build bad links.

These attacks are an attempt to trick Google into reducing your rankings by making it seem like you are building bad links.

The good news is that Google is good at identifying these attacks, and the algorithm will usually just ignore these links.

What Are the Types of Link Building You Should Avoid?

The easiest way to establish which backlinks are safe is to show which kinds aren’t. Luckily, Google provides very specific guidelines around the types of links it doesn’t like.

These guidelines tell webmasters to avoid “link schemes.” According to the search engine, this includes “any links intended to manipulate PageRank or a site’s ranking in Google search results.”

What is PageRank?

PageRank is a way to measure a page’s authority based on its backlink profile. The system was developed by Google and is still thought to form part of the Google Search algorithm. Link juice is a similar concept.

The document warns explicitly against the following types of link building:

Buying links or exchanging another form of value for links.
Excessive link exchanges.
Large-scale guest post campaigns with keyword-rich anchor text.
Generating automated links.
Requiring a link as part of a service.
Low-quality directory links.
Embedded widget links.
Footer links.
Forum signature links.

These links have three things in common: they are easy to generate, don’t go through any editorial process, and don’t benefit the reader in any way. Be sure to avoid these links.

What Happens When You Generate Unsafe Links?

Here’s the good news: Google tends to ignore bad links.

The algorithm can identify bad links, stopping them from passing on link equity. You won’t benefit from these links, but you won’t be punished either.

This means if you accidentally build the wrong type of link, you’ll probably be okay. You’ll have wasted time and resources to build the link, but Google won’t punish your site.

The exception to this is if you consistently build a large number of bad links. If you do this, you risk receiving a manual action. This is when a Google search engine evaluator looks at your backlink profile and decides that you have broken Google’s guidelines.

You’ll get a notification in your Google Search Console Account if you receive one of these penalties. You can recover from these penalties by removing the spam links and asking Google to reassess your website.

Ignored Links Can Feel Like a Penalty

It can feel like a penalty if Google ignores a link that it has previously considered valuable. If this happens, your rankings may decrease. But you aren’t technically being punished for having the bad link.

8 Effective and Safe Backlink Building Strategies

In this section, we’ll introduce eight link building strategies you can use to generate safe links. Use multiple methods to ensure a varied link profile to be extra safe.

1) Skyscraper Link Building

Skyscraper link building is when you create high-quality content and ask people to link to it. This is an excellent way to generate many quality backlinks when done right.

This type of strategy has two parts:

Deciding what kind of content to create as the basis of your campaign.
Using email outreach to promote it.

Here are some tips for how to do each step:

Part One: Creating Skyscraper Content

The content you use forms the basis of your campaign. It needs to be content that other websites are likely to link to.

You could guess what type of content this may be. But a better option is to look at the types of content that already have links.

Do this by analyzing your pages and those on your competitors’ sites.

Use Your Existing Content

Look at your existing content to see which pages have the most links. If some websites already find these pages valuable enough to link to, there is a good chance that other people will like them too.

Use a search engine optimization (SEO) tool, like Ahrefs or Semrush, to find your most linked-to pages and use these as the basis of your campaign. You could even update them to ensure they are as linkable as possible.

For example, our link building pricing guide is our most linked-to page other than our home page. If we were to start a skyscraper campaign, this would be an excellent article to base the campaign around.

Part Two: Promoting Your Content

The key to effective outreach is choosing the right kinds of sites and then sending persuasive messages.

First, decide which niches will find your content interesting. You can then create a list of websites in these spaces.

To find websites, search on Google for relevant keywords and create a list of the websites that rank. You can then use the competing sites feature on an SEO tool to see even more sites that make content on similar topics.

This is called link prospecting; you can check out a complete guide to the topic here.

You should now have a list of websites you can target. Use a tool like Hunter.io to find contact information for people at these sites. You could also search manually for relevant email addresses or social media accounts.

The next step is outreach. At this point, it’s tempting to send out an automated mass email, especially if you have an extensive list. But this is unlikely to pay off.

Instead, send personalized emails with information about your business, content, and why the blog should link to it.

Consider offering something in return to sweeten the deal, such as links or social shares. You can still use a template to save time, but it should include sections of personalized content.

2) Guest posts

A guest post is when you write an article on another website and use it to link back to your site.

When done correctly, it’s an excellent way to generate safe backlinks on legitimate sites that share audiences with your own.

To generate guest post links, you first need to identify websites open to publishing guest posts on topics you write about.

There are many ways you can find these opportunities. You can search on Google for terms like “[your keyword], “write for us,” and “[your keyword] “guest post.” Or you can find competitors that write guest posts and target the sites they publish on.

At Linkbuilder, we keep things simple by searching for long-tail keywords to find smaller publishers in the target niche.

We use the following strategy to do this:

Head to (the free) Google Keyword Planner in Google Ads.
Search for the target topic in the keyword ideas tool.
Sort them by competition from low to high.
Search for some of the low-competition keywords to see the sites that are ranking in Google.

This highlights many smaller websites we can target with guest post requests.

For more information about this strategy and an example, check out our guide to guest post prospecting.

How Do You Know These Sites Accept Guest Posts? :thinking_face:

The simple answer is that you don’t. But, we find that many websites are open to publishing guest post requests as long as you can show your article will be high-quality and benefit their website and audience.

The next step is to contact these websites to ask for guest post opportunities.

To do this well, you must write a compelling pitch and prove that you can create articles that benefit them.

This article about blogger outreach emails contains a complete guide on how to do this.

How to Ensure Your Guest Posts Are Valuable

There are two things you can do to ensure your guest posts are valuable.

The first is to post your articles on real websites, not link farms or Private Blog Networks (PBNs). These are websites that exist only to link out to other sites. Remember that Google warns explicitly against large-scale guest post campaigns with keyword-rich anchor text, so choose the sites you post on carefully.

Spotting spammy sites is relatively easy, and we have some tips on how to do this later in the article. But the key is to look at the site and decide whether it is a legitimate business.

The second tip is ensuring your articles aren’t marked as guest posts. Google knows that people use guest posts to build authority, so the algorithm has devalued these links.

Instead of publishing as a guest author, ask the website to make an author profile under your name to publish the content. Think of yourself more as a contributing author than a guest post writer.

Or you can ask the website to publish your article under the name of one of their existing writers.

3) HARO

HARO is a service that connects journalists and writers with story sources. The service is used by some highly authoritative publications like the New York Post, Reader’s Digest, and Forbes.

Becoming a source on HARO is a great way to generate backlinks if you are an expert in your niche. It’s also one of the few chances you have to get backlinks from this kind of publication, as they aren’t typically responsive to regular link outreach.

How Does HARO Work?

HARO is super easy to use. To start, head to the website and sign up for the newsletter.

You can choose from the regular edition or a specialist newsletter if you have expertise in a particularly high-demand topic.

You’ll then receive three emails a day filled with HARO requests. Search through them for topics in your area of expertise and reply in a way that provides the information the journalist asks for.

The best HARO opportunities are highly competitive. We recommend following the below tips when replying.

4 Top Tips for HARO Success

⌛ Aim to respond to requests quickly. We ignore any more than a day old, even if they fit our client well.

📨 Only respond to relevant opportunities. Most HARO emails contain around 50 requests—that’s a lot of backlink opportunities. It can be tempting to answer requests that don’t match your expertise, especially if the publication is authoritative. But doing this means your answer is unlikely to be chosen, and you’ll waste time on the response.

✍️ Be concise. Provide the information the writer asks for in as little text as possible. Ensure the text is well-written and error-free so the journalist can easily snip out the bits they need. Use a tool like Grammarly to check for errors.

📚 Include all relevant information. Include any information the writer asks for. This could include extras like a bio or a headshot.

4) Digital PR

Digital PR (also known as press links) is when you create a story to get media coverage.

When done right, it is an effective way to generate links rapidly on authoritative websites.

Digital PR is simple in theory. There are just two steps:

Create a story – It needs to be something a news organization will likely write about. The best stories are exciting and unique without being gimmicky. Including graphics and original research can help. Make sure your website looks trustworthy before starting one of these campaigns.
Distribute the story to journalists – This is the hard part. Once you’ve created your story, you need to distribute it to as many journalists as possible in the hope that they will post it. Look for people who write about relevant topics at significant publications and contact them via email or Twitter.

Getting initial coverage isn’t easy. But once one website covers the story; others will often pick it up if they see it performs well with the publication’s audience.

Here’s an example of digital PR in action:

We created this Trump Tax Timeline for an accounting client. We researched facts and figures about Trump’s tax payments and then made a distinctive graphic for the article.

It was a good story because it hit three criteria:

The information was helpful.
Donald Trump’s taxes were a big news story when we published the piece.
As an accounting institute, the business had authority on the topic.

The article generated over 150 backlinks, including those from authoritative sites like Mashable.

The Problem with Press Links

While these campaigns have extremely high backlink potential, they are not easy to run. Creating a story that hits the right balance between fun and gimmicky isn’t easy.

Likewise, distributing it to the right journalists is time-consuming. If you don’t have connections with these people, gaining their trust might be challenging.

But, the value these campaigns provide means they can be worth the effort.

5) Link Exchanges

A link exchange is when you build a relationship with another website and agree to link to each other.

This type of link building is a little controversial, and many SEO experts think you should avoid it. Google even warns against link exchanges when done “excessively.”

But this wording is essential. By mentioning that it is against excessive link exchanges, Google suggests it doesn’t mind the strategy when done in moderation.

The company probably understands that it is natural for websites to link to other websites that have already been linked to them.

There’s plenty of evidence to support this.

For example, research shows that many authoritative publications have reciprocal links. An Ahrefs study found that of 140,000 domains with at least 10k visits per month, 74% of these sites had reciprocal links.

What Is the Right Way to Do a Link Exchange?

The key to safe link exchanges is to ensure the links benefit both websites’ audiences.

Search for helpful content on the target website and think about how to link to it in one of your articles. You can then contact these websites and point out ways that they could link to your content.

If you’re not sure what kind of content to link, consider looking at their site’s most linked-to pages, as these are the ones that other websites find helpful.

You should also only exchange links with other trustworthy websites. Avoid any site that seems like it might be a link farm—a site that exists only to host paid links.

6) Testimonials

Testimonials are a simple way to build high-quality backlinks. You provide testimonials to businesses whose products you use and ask them to link back to you.

There are two ways you can do this.

The first is to provide testimonials for products you feature in your blog. This is great for people who run review websites.

Just publish a review of the brand’s product on your website and then contact the company to let them know you love the product and are willing to provide a testimonial. This strategy also helps you generate links from sites relevant to your niche.

The second option is to provide reviews for tools you use in your business. For example, if there’s a particular SEO tool or WordPress plugin you love, let the brand know that you’re willing to provide them with a testimonial.

When using these strategies, consider the types of businesses you contact. New companies without much authority are more likely to be receptive to your offer than established brands.

7) Unlinked Mentions

Unlinked mentions are when you find websites that have written about your brand but not added a link. You then contact the site to ask them to add one.

You can use free alert software to discover these mentions, making it an easy form of safe backlink building.

Unlinked mentions are a perfect strategy for brands with existing exposure and people who talk about them. But it isn’t helpful for new websites that don’t have people talking about their business online.

Here’s how to set up alerts for unlinked mentions.

Head to Google Alerts.
Type your brand name into the search bar.
Adjust the settings to your liking (we choose to be notified once a day or once a week rather than in real time).
Add your email and click “Create Alert.”

Once you receive the alert emails, monitor them to see if any mentions are unlinked. You can then contact the website or writer to ask for the link. Make the offer more appealing by providing something in return, such as saying you’ll share the final article on social media.

8) Broken Link Building

Broken link building is when you identify pages that no longer exist but have many links pointing to them. This happens when the page has been deleted, or the domain has expired.

You then contact all the websites that link to these pages and ask them to link to your page instead.

The strategy works because broken links negatively impact the user experience—website owners are typically happy to replace them with other relevant content.

Unlinked mention is a strategy we use with our clients as it can generate high-quality links on niche-relevant websites.

There are two main strategies you can use to find broken links.

Strategy One: Use LinkMiner

This is a simple yet time-consuming strategy. You need to find pages with many links and then use the LinkMiner Chrome extension to highlight which ones are broken.

We commonly look for resource pages, although other pages may also work

Increase your chances of finding broken links by filtering the Google search results for older pages because these tend to have more broken links. Just make sure the website is still active.

This is a good strategy because the LinkMiner plugin is free to use.

Strategy Two: Ahrefs

The second strategy uses Ahrefs to find broken backlinks on websites in your niche. It’s a simple four-step process that makes discovering these links easy.

Here’s how to do it:

Search for a popular website in your niche on the Ahrefs Site Explorer Tool.
Click to see the best pages by backlinks section.
Choose only to show links that return “404 not found” from the drop-down menu.
Filter these results by the number of referring domains.

Complete these steps, and you’ll end up with a list like the one in the image below. This shows the pages on the site that have links but no longer exist.

This is a super-easy way to see the highest-value broken backlinks on the page.

What Next?

Once you’ve found the broken link, put it into an SEO tool to see all the other pages that link to this page.

You then need to contact all these websites and recommend your page as an alternative to the broken one. If you don’t have a page that fits, consider creating one if the link potential is high.

This article goes through these broken link building strategies in more detail, so be sure to check it out.

Can Paying for Links Ever Be Safe?

Google doesn’t like people paying for links. So any link you pay for should be unsafe, right?

Well, that’s not always the case.

While plenty of unsafe paid links exist, and you should always avoid PBNs and link farms, many websites buy links without issue.

At Linkbuilder, we always try to avoid paying for links. With legitimate websites, there’s usually a way to negotiate around doing so, even if the website owner initially asks for payment.

But paying for links is common for some competitive niches, and building links without doing so is challenging. In these niches, it can be worth at least considering paying for links.

This article discusses our opinions on paying for links and when it makes sense.

How to Spot a Spammy Website

One of the most significant issues regarding backlinks isn’t the strategy you use so much as the websites you build the links on.

For example, writing a great guest post is possible, but placing it on a PBN site won’t bring many benefits.

Likewise, many legitimate websites use gray-to-black hat strategies like swaps or buying links. Getting a link from one of these sites, even using a non-white hat method, may benefit your site.

Signs To Look For to Distinguish Legitimate Websites from Spam Ones:

	Legitimate Website	Spammy Website
Content Quality	Original, high-quality content.	Poorly written, thin content.
Articles	Focused on a particular topic or niche.	Seemingly random topics. Be especially aware of casino or gambling topics.
Design Quality	Unique web design with original images.	Templated web design and stock images.
Business Transparency	Clear about location and contact information. Links to social profiles. Real names.	Non-existent or incomplete contact information. No links to social profiles.
Search Traffic	Consistent or growing organic traffic.	Minimal organic traffic or huge spikes and drop-offs.
Keywords	Ranks for a variety of keywords related to the niche.	Ranks for either very few keywords or spammy keywords.
External Links	External links in places that benefit the reader.	Many articles contain suspicious external links that offer little value to the reader.
Authors	The article’s authors are real people.	Articles are credited to “Guest author” or similar.

Not every good website will meet all of these criteria. But if the website has more than a couple of warning signs, we’d recommend considering whether the site is worth getting a link from.

What about Domain Authority?

Some SEOs use domain authority metrics like Moz’s Domain Authority (DA) and Ahrefs’ Domain Rating (DR) to assess a website’s quality. But these metrics can be easily gamed by black hat SEOs.

For example, buying an expired domain with a high DA is easy, and then building a spammy site. Most SEO tools won’t show when this is the case.

While these metrics are an excellent way to assess a link’s value, they aren’t foolproof. It would be best if you always used them alongside other data points.

How Many Links Can You Build Safely per Day?

You can safely build as many links as you want daily—as long as you do so within the rules.

Some people think you shouldn’t build more than a certain number of links because this is a sign of a link scheme. But there are plenty of occasions when legitimate websites generate many links daily.

For example, SaaS platform Singularity Energy recently went from 56 to 224 referring domains in a single day after news of its seed funding round was covered in the press.

These links come from legitimate business websites (including TechCrunch) and will not hurt the website.

Of course, if you use black hat practices to generate a large number of links automatically, then doing so slowly may help hide them from Google. But ultimately, the chances are that the algorithm will spot these links anyway.

Wrapping Up: Safe Backlinks Add Value

Safe backlinks tend to add value to the website that publishes it and the people reading the post.

If you build links with this in mind, the chances are that most links you generate will be safe.

And remember that Google quite understands links. The algorithm ignores most bad links rather than penalizes the websites that build them.

As long as you avoid spammy and automated link building techniques, you’re unlikely to suffer a penalty, even if you unintentionally build the occasional link on the wrong site.

Let Us Build Links for You

At Linkbuilder, we have a track record of building safe links for leading brands. We understand what makes a link safe or dangerous and use this to ensure you only get high-quality links.
Check out our case studies to learn more about how our processes lead to success. Or get in touch to see how we can help.