Link building remains one of the most impactful — and most challenging — aspects of SEO. Despite years of algorithm updates, backlinks from authoritative, relevant sites continue to be one of Google's strongest ranking signals.
The key is to build links that are earned, relevant, and genuinely add value. This guide covers 10 strategies that work in 2025, along with practical advice for executing each one.
1. Digital PR
Digital PR involves creating newsworthy content — original studies, surveys, data visualisations, or expert commentary — that journalists and publishers want to cover. When they do, they link back to your site as the source.
A well-executed digital PR campaign can earn dozens of high-authority editorial links from national publications in a matter of weeks. It's one of the highest-ROI link building strategies available.
2. Broken Link Building
Find pages in your niche that link to dead URLs (404 pages). Reach out to the linking page's owner, let them know their link is broken, and suggest your content as a replacement. Because you're doing them a favour, response rates tend to be higher than cold outreach.
Use Ahrefs or Screaming Frog to find broken links at scale on sites in your niche.
3. Resource Page Link Building
Many websites maintain "resources" or "useful links" pages that curate the best content in a given niche. Find these pages and pitch your best content as an addition. Because these pages exist specifically to link out, they're receptive to relevant pitches.
4. The Skyscraper Technique
Find content in your niche that has earned many backlinks. Create a significantly better, more comprehensive, more up-to-date version. Then reach out to the sites linking to the original and show them your superior version.
5. Guest Posting
Write high-quality articles for relevant blogs and publications in your industry. In return, you typically receive a link back to your site in the author bio or body of the content. Focus on genuinely good publications — low-quality guest post farms can actually hurt your site.
6. HARO / Journalist Outreach
Help A Reporter Out (HARO) and similar platforms connect journalists with expert sources. By providing expert quotes and commentary for articles, you earn editorial mentions and links from high-authority news sites and blogs.
7. Original Research and Data
Publishing original research, surveys, or data sets gives others in your industry a primary source to cite. If your data is useful and trustworthy, links come naturally over time as others reference your findings in their own content.
8. Link Reclamation
Find mentions of your brand, products, or content that don't include a link. Reach out and politely ask for the mention to be turned into a clickable link. Tools like Ahrefs Alerts or Google Alerts can notify you of new brand mentions in real time.
9. Competitor Backlink Analysis
Analyse the backlink profiles of your top-ranking competitors using Ahrefs or SEMrush. Identify sites linking to them that could also link to you, and create a targeted outreach list. If a site linked to your competitor, it's likely open to linking to similar content.
10. Internal Link Sculpting
While internal links don't earn external authority, they distribute the authority you already have across your site more effectively. Audit your internal link structure and ensure your most important pages receive links from high-authority pages on your site.
Key Takeaways
- Link building takes time — think in quarters, not weeks.
- Quality always beats quantity. One link from a top-tier publication outweighs 100 low-quality directory links.
- The best link building strategies start with creating genuinely link-worthy content.
- Diversify your tactics — don't rely on a single strategy for all your links.