Link building is the process of earning links from other websites to pages on your site. For small businesses, link building works best when you create useful resources, build real relationships, and give publishers a good reason to cite your work.

Links can help people find your site and may support search visibility, but no link guarantees higher rankings or more traffic. Google uses many signals to rank pages, and it warns against creating links mainly to manipulate rankings.

These five link building strategies focus on useful resources and genuine relationships, not shortcuts.

What Makes a Backlink Useful?

A useful backlink helps people discover a relevant resource. Consider whether the linking page and its readers fit your topic, whether the link makes sense in its context, and whether your page offers something worth citing.

Do not judge a link by one third-party score or assume that every link needs to be marked “dofollow.” A link may still bring referral visits and help people find your brand even if it does not pass ranking credit. Focus on usefulness and relevance, not a target number of links.

1. Create a Resource People Want to Cite

Publish something that helps your audience answer a question or complete a task. This could be an original survey, a clear how-to guide, a checklist, a small calculator, a useful visual, or a carefully sourced collection of industry data. A visual resource can work well when it explains information clearly, as in this guide to creating engaging infographics.

Make the resource easy to use and keep it accurate. Add the date, explain how you gathered any data, and link to primary sources. If you compile facts from other publishers, cite them. Do not present someone else’s research as your own.

2. Send Relevant, Personal Outreach

Find articles, resource pages, newsletters, and organizations that already serve the audience your resource is meant to help. Read each page before contacting its owner. Suggest your resource only when it adds something useful that the page does not already offer.

Keep your message short and specific. Do not ask for a guaranteed link, send bulk messages, or imply that a publisher owes you a placement. A simple note could look like this:

Subject: Resource for your [topic] page

Hi [Name],

I found your page about [specific topic] while researching [subject]. I recently published [brief description of your resource], which may help readers who want to [specific benefit]. Here it is: [URL].

If you think it fits, feel free to include it. Either way, thanks for putting together a helpful resource.

Best,
[Your name]

Personalize every message. If the page is not a good fit, move on.

3. Write Expert Guest Contributions for the Right Audience

A guest article can introduce your expertise to a new audience. Look for publications your customers or peers actually read, then study their topics, style, and submission rules. Pitch a fresh idea that fits their readers instead of sending the same article to many sites.

Include a link only when it helps readers or when the publication allows a brief author bio. The publisher decides whether to include it and how to qualify it. Do not require a followed link as a condition of contributing. Google warns against large-scale guest posting when the main goal is to build links.

4. Offer a Helpful Replacement for a Broken Link

Look for a dead link on a relevant page and check whether you already have a page that genuinely covers the same subject. If you do, contact the publisher with the exact location of the broken link and your possible replacement. Be polite and let them decide.

Do not create a page just to chase a single link unless the topic is useful to your audience on its own. A broken link does not guarantee that a publisher will use your suggestion.

5. Build Local and Industry Relationships

Support useful projects with chambers of commerce, professional groups, community organizations, suppliers, and local events. You might share expert advice, take part in a joint project, or publish a clear report about a local issue. If the work is genuinely newsworthy, relevant local publications may choose to cover it.

Focus on the relationship and the value of the work, not on getting a link in return. This guide to using events to promote a business offers another way to think about community involvement.

How to Measure Link Building Results

Track the results that matter to your business. Review relevant referring websites, referral visits, inquiries or sales from those visits, and changes in the visibility of the pages you are improving. Your backlink analysis can help you review which sites link to you, but use those reports as clues rather than a scorecard.

Link building takes time, and results vary. A relevant link can be useful without causing a visible ranking change. Review your progress every month or quarter, then improve the resources and outreach that help your audience most.

Link Building Practices to Avoid

Google lists buying or selling links to manipulate rankings, excessive link exchanges, automated link creation, and keyword-rich links in paid or guest content among examples of link spam. Read Google’s spam policies before starting a campaign.

If you pay for advertising, sponsorship, or another placement, do not treat it as an earned editorial endorsement. Google recommends qualifying paid links with rel="sponsored"; rel="nofollow" is also accepted. See Google’s guidance on qualifying outbound links. The website publishing the link controls its markup, so discuss disclosure and link attributes openly.

• Do not buy links to pass ranking credit or promise reciprocal links at scale.
• Do not use automated tools to create backlinks.
• Do not demand exact-match keyword anchor text.
• Do not choose a guest-post site based only on a third-party authority score.

Frequently Asked Questions About Link Building

Does every backlink need to be dofollow?

No. A followed link is not a requirement for every useful link. Relevant links can bring readers to your site even when they do not pass ranking credit. Aim to earn appropriate mentions, not to control every link attribute.

Are paid links allowed?

Advertising and sponsorships can be legitimate. Paid links should be disclosed and qualified so search engines can distinguish them from editorial endorsements. Do not pay for links with the aim of manipulating rankings.

How many backlinks does a small business need?

There is no universal number. Start by publishing useful information and building relationships with relevant organizations and publishers. Measure whether that work reaches the right people and supports your business goals.

Final Thoughts About Link Building

Effective link building starts with something worth sharing and a clear reason for another site to mention it. Create useful resources, contact relevant publishers thoughtfully, contribute real expertise, and build genuine local or industry relationships. Avoid shortcuts that put rankings ahead of readers.

Originally published March 9, 2022; Republished October 25, 2026, to update content.