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Searchpedia SEO field notes Callum Bennett Callum

Outreach

SEO Link Building

Link building is the practice of getting other sites to link back to yours. I've done it for years, and here's how I'd start if I were you.

Beginner5 min readUpdated 2026-07-27Notes by Callum Bennett

What I’d do first

  • Audit your existing backlinks first
  • Create something worth linking to
  • Use competitor analysis to find targets
  • Focus on relevance, not volume
  • Track everything and be patient

The key is to think of link building not as begging, but as building relationships and creating something worth linking to.

More on SEO Link Building

Before you send a single email, audit what you already have. Log into Search Console and check your 'Links' report. See who's already linking to you. You might have unlinked brand mentions or broken backlinks you can reclaim. Also, look at your best content — pages with decent traffic or engagement. Those are your linkable assets. If you don't have any, create one. A solid guide, original data, or a useful tool. I once built a simple calculator for a client and it pulled in links from industry blogs for years. That's the kind of passive link building you want.

The path I'd take

  1. Competitor analysis. Use a tool like Ahrefs or Semrush to see who links to your competitors. Export those domains. Filter for relevance and authority. Don't chase every link — focus on sites that would actually care about your content.
  2. Broken link building. Find broken pages on relevant sites that have links pointing to them. Create something better on your site. Reach out and say, 'Hey, I noticed this page is broken. I've got a resource that covers the same topic.' It's helpful, not spammy.
  3. Guest posting. Write for other sites in your niche. But don't just do it for the link. Write something genuinely useful. Include a contextual link back to your site. I've had guest posts that drove more referral traffic than the link value.
  4. Unlinked mentions. Use a tool to find mentions of your brand or content that don't link to you. Reach out politely and ask if they can add a link. Most people are happy to.
  5. Digital PR. If you have a newsworthy story, data, or a unique angle, pitch it to journalists. This is harder but can earn high-authority links from news sites.

Watch-outs

Don't buy links. I know it's tempting, but Google's spam policies are clear. Paid links that pass PageRank can get you penalized. Also, avoid overusing exact-match anchor text. Keep it natural — mix branded, generic, and partial matches. And don't ignore relevance. A link from a random directory is worth less than one from a niche blog with 100 visitors a month. I've seen people waste months chasing low-quality links that did nothing. Finally, don't treat link building as a one-off. It's ongoing. New content needs new links. Old links can break. Keep at it.

When to stop

Stop if you're spending more time on outreach than on creating good content. Links follow quality, not the other way around. Also stop if you're using automated tools to spam comments or forums. That's a fast track to a manual action. And if you're not seeing any results after 3-6 months of consistent effort, reassess your strategy. Maybe your content isn't link-worthy yet. Go back and improve it. Or maybe you're targeting the wrong sites. Refine your list. There's no shame in pausing to rethink.

Next step

Backlink CheckerUse a backlink checker to audit your current profile and find opportunities.

Quick answers

What's the easiest link building tactic for beginners?

Unlinked brand mentions. It's low effort and often works because the site already knows you.

How many backlinks do I need to rank?

There's no magic number. Quality matters more than quantity. A single link from a high-authority site can be worth more than 100 low-quality ones.

Where to go next

More from Outreach

A step sideways

Sources

Primary documentation is linked directly. Anything commercial is marked nofollow.

Notes from Callum Bennett.