Different Types of Links | Examples of Backlinks for SEO 2024

Over the years, SEO strategies have matured and there are hundreds of various types of backlinks in April 2024.

Businesses ask why is my competitor outranking my website with fewer links?

There are many different types of links used for SEO and not all backlinks are equal. The positioning of the hyperlink on the web page, HTML code might label the backlink as a nofollow attribute or the domain in which the link is placed could be much stronger than an auto-generated web2 backlink.

A decade ago all backlinks would improve your rankings in the SERPs but gone are the days of link farms and link exchanges in April 2024.

Link building is about earning trust through outreach and high-quality content and less about spammy techniques that try to trick search engines.

In our Different Types of Links guide, you will understand everything you need to know about backlinking for improving your SEO.

Table of Content

1 Are Backlinks Important For SEO?
2 All Link Building Types
3 Why Is Link Building SO HARD?
4 Final Thoughts About The Different Types of Links
5 All Link Building Agencies
6 Keywords Associated With Different Types of Links

Are Backlinks Important For SEO?

Backlinks are still the number one SEO ranking factor in [monthly] so very important for your search engine optimisation strategies.

Backlinks are about quality just as much as there are about the number of links. Having a single backlink from an authoritative website is better than thousands of links from mediocre websites.

Not all backlinks are equal and where your hyperlink is featured on the page plays a large part in the strength of the link juice passed.

The page’s context and relevance can contribute to the strength of your backlink.

In April 2024 the importance of backlinks for SEO is paramount to you achieving those page one rankings. But research and source the best backlinking companies to carry out your link building because in the wrong hands you can cause more harm than good.

All Link Building Types

Here are all the different link building types for SEO in April 2024.

In-Content

The highest quality type of link is a contextual main body backlink.

The in-content links that produce the best results on your SEO are those found within the web page’s content.

In-content links are also referred to as contextual links and are integral to the flow of the content.

Contextual main body links could be used for both internal linking or external links to relevant sources.

You can get contextual links from the following sources:

Footer Links

Links in the footer are generally sitewide hyperlinks across all web pages on a domain.

Sitewide and Footer links are mostly just ignored or devalued by Google, but could end up with you looking spammy.

Web design companies regularly get footer links on websites they have built. These footer links are great for driving referral traffic if a user likes the design of the website and might want to hire a web designer.

It is worth noting also that not all footers are sitewide and you can create bespoke footers for specific clusters on your website.

Nav Bar Links

Links in the navbar are generally sitewide hyperlinks across all web pages on a domain.

Sitewide and Navbar links are mostly just ignored or devalued by Google but could end up with you looking spammy.

The links in the navbar are generally created for user experience in helping visitors navigate around the whole website.

It is worth noting also that not all navbar links are sitewide and you can create bespoke footers for specific clusters on your website.

Sidebar Links

Links in the sidebar are generally sitewide hyperlinks across all web pages on a domain.

Sitewide and sidebar links are mostly just ignored or devalued by Google, but could end up with you looking spammy.

The links in the sidebar are generally created for user experience in helping visitors navigate around the whole website to the most important money pages.

It is worth noting also that not all sidebar links are sitewide and you can create bespoke footers for specific clusters on your website.

Homepage Links

Links on the homepage are usually the holy grail of link building with the most power generally on the home pages of domains.

If you are able to receive an in-content homepage link on a relevant domain this could be worth the power of 10,000 average backlinks.

You can receive huge jumps in the Google rankings with just a few homepage backlinks.

This is why PBN homepage links are so popular amongst affiliate marketers, as they see the strength these backlinks can produce.

Guest Post Links

Guest post links are backlinks to your website from articles online, that have enabled you to post your own piece on their site as a guest.

These links are an excellent opportunity to include plenty of keywords in the title, URL and sometimes anchor text, as this can help theme the post around what you and your business is all about.

Guest post links often have little to no power because of the fact that it’s on a brand new post, however these can then be powered up by tier 2 links.

Niche Edit Links

Niche edit links are backlinks to your website that have been injected into an existing post on a site.

These links can act as a great source of power back to your site, as niche edits can be hand-picked to ensure there’s plenty of power from the page that links back to you.

Typically they are a little less relevant than a guest post, which is why it’s good to have a balanced link profile and not just look at the most powerful methods alone.

Tier 2 Links

Tier 2 links are backlinks that are built specifically to power up your tier 1 links, with the intention of bolstering the strength of your link profile.

These links are typically quite easy to come by, and are often ordered in bulk to ensure that plenty of new domains are pointing to your tier 1s.

This technique can really lift your sites position in the SERPs, as the more power your tier 1 links are that link to your site, the more power your site has.

Pillow Links

Pillow links are backlinks that are built to offer a cushion for your backlink profile, helping it to look natural and enabling you to build more powerful links successfully.

Pillow links consist of link types such as blog comments, Wikipedia links, directories, profile links and more.

These links are typically nofollow, and whilst not distributing much power to your site, they’re a necessary part of a link building campaign.

Blog Comments

Blog comments are links within the comment section of a blog post back to your site, and are almost always nofollow links.

Whilst blog comments typically don’t offer the power of other backlinks out there, these can act as excellent foundational links, diversifying your link profile and making it look much more natural to Google.

Blog comments can also be applied to niche relevant blogs really easily too, helping Google to understand what industry your website is in through correlation.

Online Directories

Online directory backlinks were the rage in the SEO community years ago.

The links from these directory websites have diminished and nearly all online directories are nofollow attribute backlinks (meaning no page rank is passed).

If you are looking to rank for local SERPs the business listing sites like Yelp, BBB, Thomson Local and Yell are great places to start for your link building efforts.

Real businesses get listed in these online directories and they give great benefits for local search terms for the following reasons:

Include NAP information (Name, Address, Phone Number)
Nofollow Link Diversity
Naked URL Anchor Text Diversity
Link Velocity
Brand Reputation Management

The NAP mentions of your brand help build trust and also is a big ranking factor for improving the rankings of your GMB Map Listings.

You can purchase a bulk DFY citation service for affordable prices from companies like SEO Butler, ABC or SEO Builder.

.EDU Links

The .edu websites tend to have higher domain authority which is good for driving authority (page rank) through the backlinks.

To earn .edu links your outreach skills need to be creative in trying to help students on assignments related to your industry by providing them with data and looking to encourage them to share the post with others.

Consider offering students a work experience placement to help secure the powerful .edu backlinks.

.GOV Links

.Gov links are link specifically from websites ending in .gov, and with these being domains affiliated with the government, they’re often particularly high in domain authority.

Acquiring .gov links can be tricky, but having some links from these sites can seriously help lift your rankings in the SERPs, as well as adding trust to your brand online.

There’s some great .gov link providers out there, but be careful who you’re buying them off, as sometimes these sites can be disguised as .gov links, but are actually PBNs.

.ORG Links

.Org links are backlinks specifically from website ending in .org, and are generally easier to acquire then links such as .edu or .gov.

.Org links offer similar benefits to .gov links, in that they’re typically of high domain authority and strength, helping to bolster your link profile and search engine ranking positions.

These backlinks can be acquired yourself, but this can be time consuming and expensive overtimes. Instead, maybe try checking out some of the providers of this link type online.

Editorial Links

Editorial links are links that you acquire naturally as a result of creating good quality content that gets picked up by other website editors.

Content editors and newspaper journalists can use you as a reference for their own content, trusting you as the reliable and informative source for their piece.

These links can be hard to come by, but by consistently publishing engaging and informative content, you may be able to acquire some of these links too.

Internal Links

Internal links are backlinks from one page on your website to another page on your website.

These links are super easy to do yourself, and can help tell Google which pages on your site are the authority for certain topics.

A top tip with internal links too, is to not worry too much about being overly-aggressive with anchor texts, as this is much less risky than over-aggressive anchors on external links.

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External Links

External links are backlinks from pages on other people’s website that point back to your website.

These links come in many forms, including guest posts, home page links, social media links, blog comments and much more.

External links are a great way to help power your website up and improve the trustworthiness of your site, but with these you do have to be somewhat careful with your anchor text selection, as over-optimisation can be risky.

Forum Profile Links

Forum profile links are backlinks to your website that come from your profile page of an online forum.

These links vary in whether they’re nofollow or dofollow, and typically don’t offer as much power as some other link types.

Despite this, forum profile links can offer a good amount of diversity to your profile.

Social Media Profile Links

Social media profile links are backlinks to your website that come from your social media profile page of a particular social media platform.

This can come from sites such as Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr and more, and vary in whether they’re dofollow or nofollow.

Link forum profile links, this link type also offers a lot in the way of link type diversity.

Social Media Post Links

Social media post links are backlinks to your website that come from posts on social media sites, as opposed to from a profile page.

This link type is often times nofollow, but is a great way of diversifying your link profile whilst promoting your brand or service to potential customers online.

These links can be very beneficial beyond link building, as popular social media posts can be a great way to attract new business.

Industry Directory Links

Industry directory links are links from industry specific directory websites that link back to your business.

It’s important that when acquiring these links, you avoid any spammy or non-relevant directory listings and stick to the higher quality, niche specific ones instead.

This link type is a great foundational link type, helping to create a genuine and convincing link profile to later build some serious strength to your site.

Local Directory Links

Local directory links are backlinks from directory websites that are localised to your specific area and link back to your business.

These local directory links can be important when acquiring links that your competitors have, and help to tell Google what your business is about and where it’s based.

Like industry directory links, local directory links are brilliant as a foundational link type, giving the foundations for further link building to be carried out.

Ebook Links

Ebook links are backlinks from ebook profile pages that link back to your website.

This link type does require you to write an ebook and upload it to a site, so this may be a link type more specific to certain industries than others.

However, you can also hire a writer to write an ebook for you, saving you time and focusing more on finding the right sites to built links for your website.

Local News Site Links

Local news site links are backlinks that point back to your website from local news companies online.

This links type is acquired similarly to how editorial links are, in that the link is gained through a reporter or journalist referencing you within their piece.

The different here is that these links are specifically from local news sites, as opposed to a broader news website.

HARO Links

HARO links, short for “help a reporter out” links, are backlinks acquired by finding reporters that are reaching out for new stories to write about.

To go about acquiring this link type, searching for “HARO” followed by your industry is a good way to find reporters looking for the latest niche relevant scoop.

Simply source the reporters, find the site or sites they write for, and if they’re good, contact them about the piece you can provide.

Manual Outreach Links

Manual outreach links are backlinks that point to your website from other websites that you’ve contacted asking for a link.

This method is a great way of generating real, niche relevant backlinks to your site, but can be time consuming.

Typically though, these make for great links that can then be powered up using tier 2 links to help rank your business online.

Google My Business Links

Google My Business links, sometimes called GMB links, are links from a Google My Business profile that point back to your site.

The positive of a Google My Business link is that it’s a Google property, so it’s a great way to tell Google who you are and where you operate.

Whilst these links might not be the most powerful, they certainly have their own benefits, and are worth considering if you don’t already have this set up.

Branded Anchor Text Links

Branded anchor text links are backlinks to your website where they anchor text for the link is your brand.

These types of links are built to help Google associate your business with its brand name, and are considered a safe form of anchor text.

Often times, when you acquire natural links, website owners will use branded anchor texts to reference your business.

Exact Match Anchor Text Links

Exact match anchor text links are backlinks to your website where the anchor text for the link is your exact keyword you’re looking to rank for.

Exact match anchor text links are an extremely effective way to help a page rank, because you’re specifically telling Google that a page is about a certain key phrase.

You have to be careful with this anchor text type though, as this can easily be over-done and end up having a negative effect on your rankings.

Naked URL Anchor Text Links

Naked URL anchor text links are backlinks to your website where the anchor text for the link is simply the URL of your website.

This is seen as a clean way to do your anchor text, and helps to have a few of these to then allow for more aggressive anchor text on other links.

Like with any anchor text though, you don’t want all of your anchors to all be naked URL. With anchor text, variety is key.

Partial Match Anchor Text Links

Partial match anchor text links are backlinks to your website where the anchor text for the link is a variation of the keyword you’re looking to rank for.

This is a healthy way to do your anchor text, as it tells Google what your link is all about without being overly-aggressive and forcing too many exact match.

Remember to not use too much of anything when it comes to anchors, though.

Reverse Sink or Swim Links

Reverse sink or swim links are backlinks pointing back to you with your keywords added into the title, URL and content of the piece.

This link type can be done aggressively, by using LSI variations and exact match key-phrases in the URL and title to ensure the piece is tightly themed around what you’re looking to rank for.

It’s important that you’re somewhat careful with you anchor text here though, as this can end up being over-optimised if you apply the same philosophy to each anchor.

Infographic Links

Infographic links are links from sites that have shared your infographic image, and often the link will credit the source.

For this link type, a bespoke infographic is required. We’d recommend taking your time to create a brilliant one, as the better the infographic, the more likely people will share the URL, giving your image more chance of going viral.

You can also use specific infographic sharing websites to do this link building technique, but this is typically a less powerful method.

Q&A Links

Q&A Links, short for question & answer links are backlinks acquired by answering a question on a Q&A website such as Quora.

These links don’t offer much in the way of power as they’re almost always nofollow, but answer the right question and they can generate some serious traffic to your website.

Additionally, these links do operate well as pillow links, so they certainly do serve a purpose in a link profile.

Reverse Image Search Links

Reverse image search links refer to acquiring links by searching for who’s used your images online, and contacting them asking for the image to be attributed back to your website.

This technique is an excellent way to pick up some seriously powerful links from unique domains, but does require sinking some time into.

This lesser-known method is one that’s becoming more popular within the industry as of late.

Links from YouTube

Links from YouTube are backlinks pointing back to your website that appear in either the YouTube description of a video, or your YouTube profile.

YouTube links don’t carry much power, but with YouTube being a service owned by Google, it’s a good idea to have your own channel with your branded links on it, as this is a good sign to Google that you’re a legitimate business.

These links are more of a pillow link than anything, but they’re definitely a healthy link to have for diversity and trust.

Hacked Links

Hacked links are links that have been added to a website without the site owner knowing, often times hidden somewhere that’s difficult to locate.

This link type is not only morally wrong, but illegal too, so if anyone ever suggests hacked links to you we’d strongly recommend turning them down.

Instead, its much better to focus on building a genuine, trustworthy link building profile with longevity in mind, as that’s what Google likes.

Partnership Links

Partnership links, are acquired by being a partner with another company, and that company including you on their page as being a partner company.

These links are often reciprocal, and can be very powerful, especially if the link is added to the home page of another site.

This link type will not be acquirable for everybody, but if you’re the right business and have good connections within your industry, it’s certainly a link building method worth taking a look at.

Links from Reviews

Links from reviews are backlinks to your website that reviews your product, service or company online.

Some companies that review you may ask for payment for the review, or even a complimentary product to test as part of the review deal.

These links can be very valuable, particularly when the review is positive and generates a genuine buzz online.

Wikipedia Links

Wikipedia links are backlinks that link to your website from official Wikipedia pages online.

This link type can be notoriously challenging to do successfully, with a lot of Wikipedia links being removed by moderators.

Find a Wikipedia link provider that can make these stick though, and you’re laughing.

Dofollow Links

Dofollow link are backlinks from websites that tell Google to pass power through to your website.

This link type can be very influential to your search engine rankings, if linking out from strong pages.

These are certainly the most powerful types of links you can acquire, however for diversity and to look natural, its always important to build nofollow links to your website as well.

Nofollow Links

Nofollow links are backlinks from websites that tell Google to ignore the link back to your website.

As a result, nofollow links are typically a lot weaker than dofollow links, but can still be very valuable.

Despite this, as of November 2019, Google changed its nofollow link to be a hint directive, meaning they can now pass juice but have to have other signals to do so.

This link type helps diversify anchor text, link type and makes you look more natural, all important factors to carry out when bolstering your link building campaign.

GSA Links

GSA Links are an automated, randomised link blast often used in tiered link building to power up your more important backlinks.

Generally, this link method is seen as black-hat and risky, however many SEOs over the years have documented their success when building these to their links.

It’s not recommended at all that GSA is built to your main money page, so be sure to be careful if you do choose to use this method, however we would not recommend it.

Competitor Links

Competitor links are backlinks to your website that were acquired based off your competitions backlink profile.

This term is sometimes called “The Skyscraper Approach”, and involves building the all of the best links that your competitors have to become the authority within your niche.

This technique can be using website analysis tools such as aHrefs and Semrush, which are great places to find your competitors backlink profiles.

Image Links

Image links are backlinks from websites where the link is either the image itself, or the caption of the image.

These links are still great for link type diversity and because they’re often dofollow, however because they’re not contextual they generally have less power than links in the main body of the content.

Overall, it’s seen that this technique shouldn’t be the focal point of your link building profile, but more done sporadically and mixed in with other link types, too.

Why Is Link Building SO HARD?

Link building is so hard because there’s so many factors to creating a diverse, powerful link profile that helps improve your website’s rankings.

With so many different link types and ways to carry out your campaign, understanding your industry and what’s needed to rank in it is more important than ever.

Additionally, even with the best link profile in the world, poor content and a bad website can drag an entire site down, which is why its crucial you have a holistic approach to your marketing campaign as a whole.

Final Thoughts About The Different Types of Links

When developing a link building strategy for your own website you need to consider a diverse backlink profile.

It’s not always SEO metrics that matter when finding new link building opportunities.

Homepage links are the strongest type of links but if your link building efforts are solely concentrated on only homepage links you run the risk of a Google penalty.

The positioning of the hyperlink and how the links are presented are just as important for your SEO efforts in April 2024.

The best link building advice that will help increase your site’s organic rankings and traffic is to look for powerful, relevant backlinks and have a focus on link diversity.

The best backlink profiles have a natural-looking feel with different strengths and placements pointing to your websites.

All Link Building Agencies

Here is the full list of the link building companies we have reviewed:

The top-rated link building company reviews were updated in April 2024.