8 Types Of Link Building In SEO To Improve Authority and Search Engine Performance

If you’re wondering how many types of link building in SEO are out there, you’re in the right place.

Links are like votes of confidence for your website. As SEO gets tougher, it’s crucial to know the kinds of links that can really boost your site’s ranking.

But here’s the catch—Google doesn’t play nice with low-quality or spammy links. If your site’s full of those, you’re in for some trouble.

Google’s been clear about their approach:

“We want users to find sites that offer a great experience and give them what they need. That’s why we’ve made changes like Panda to push higher-quality sites to the top of search results and lowered the rankings of sites with poor content placement.”

For anyone serious about SEO, losing rankings is a worst-case scenario.

So, how do you avoid that? 

You need to build high-quality links that show your site is trustworthy and relevant.

In this blog, we’ll break down the types of link building in SEO that can improve your authority and give your rankings a serious boost.

Let’s jump in!

Types of Link Building in SEO

When it comes to boosting your site’s visibility, understanding link building types in SEO is key. There are several ways to build links, each offering unique benefits. So, how many types of link building in SEO are there? 

Let’s break it down and explore the strategies that can help elevate your site’s rankings and authority.

1. Internal Linking

An internal link connects one page of your website to another page on the same site. Both users and search engines rely on these links to discover content. For users, these links help them move around your site and find what they’re looking for. For search engines, internal links are essential for navigating your site and indexing pages—if a page isn’t linked, it’s unlikely to be found.

There are different kinds of internal links. Besides the links on your homepage, menu, or post feed, you can include links within your content, known as contextual links. These links guide users to related or interesting content and help search engines understand the relationship between different pages on your site.

Pages with more internal links pointing to them appear more important to search engines, which can boost their rankings. So, having a solid internal linking structure is key to good SEO.

As websites expand and get more complex, orphaned content can become a problem. Orphaned content refers to pages on your site that don’t have any internal links leading to them. This is an issue because if there’s no link pointing to these pages, search engines like Google can’t easily find or index them.

2. Natural Link Building

Natural link building happens when other sites link to your content on their own. This usually comes from creating content that people find useful, interesting, or worth sharing. The good thing is that these links help boost your site’s authority without you having to do anything extra.

The trick? Make content that stands out—stuff like detailed guides, detailed infographics, or fresh research. When your content is good, people in your field will naturally want to link to it.

Natural link building is all about getting these organic links. It’s not about paying for them or trading favors; it’s about earning them because your content is worth it.

Search engines love these natural links because they show that your site is trusted and relevant. They show that your content is good enough for others to share without any paid or black hat methods. The more you collect, the better your chances of climbing up in search rankings, making your content available for a larger audience.

How to get natural links:

• Create high-quality, unique content that offers real value.
• Publish in-depth articles, guides, or original research.
• Engage with your audience on social media and online forums.
• Be consistent with delivering useful and relevant content.
• Make sure your content is easy to share and worth sharing.
• Connect with others in your industry who might want to share your content.

3. Manual Link Building

Manual link building is a smart way to boost traffic and strengthen your brand’s presence.

To put it simply, manual link building involves techniques that a person handles, not some automated tool.

Here are a few common manual link-building methods:

• Writing testimonials.
• Guest posting.
• Networking with influencers.
• Leaving thoughtful comments on relevant blogs.
• Publishing high-quality press releases.
• Building strong relationships.

The key here is focusing on quality, not just cranking out links. Instead of bombarding websites with link requests, the goal is to create valuable connections through quality content, steering clear of spammy tactics.

When done right, manual link building offers a reliable way to grow your referral traffic.

You’re in charge of deciding where to place links, how they’re built, and who gets the credit.

Yes, this strategy takes more time and effort than some others, but it’s a solid investment if you’re aiming to climb the search engine rankings.

Doing this the manual way means you’re in control. You decide where your links go, how they’re crafted, and who gets the spotlight.

4. Self-Created Link Building

Self-created links are basically DIY backlinks that you or someone on your team sets up, usually as part of your marketing efforts. They’re not as organic as natural links, but they can still fit into a broader SEO plan.

Here’s how people usually go about it:

• Dropping links in blog comments.
• Adding anchor text in press releases.
• Including links in guest post signatures.
• Setting up user profiles with links.
• Posting in article directories.
• Customizing text on external pages to link back to your site.

But here’s the catch: Google’s pretty sharp at spotting these tactics and doesn’t exactly love them. They might devalue these links or, worse, hit you with a penalty if they think you’re trying to game the system.

5. Editorial Link Building

Editorial links are like gold in the world of SEO—they’re the kind of links you don’t have to beg, buy, or trade for. These are often called earned links because they naturally come your way when you have content that others find genuinely valuable.

Not every page is going to attract these kinds of links. For instance, an eCommerce product page isn’t likely to score an editorial link. But create something like a helpful guide or a handy online tool, and you could see tons of other sites linking back to you simply because they want to share it with their audience.

What makes editorial links so valuable is that they play nicely with Google’s rules. They align with Google’s ranking system, where links are like votes that help decide which pages deserve a top spot in the search results.

So, here’s the takeaway: The more quality backlinks a page has, the better its chances of ranking high. Plus, you can use internal links to pass that SEO goodness to other pages on your site, giving them a boost too.

6. Resource Link Building

Resource pages are like curated lists of useful stuff—whether it’s articles, videos, podcasts, infographics, or even comics—that help visitors get what they need. Some of these pages just list links, while others add a little description to each one.

You’ll often find resource pages linking to:

• Articles and blog posts
• Podcasts and videos
• Tools and calculators
• Infographics
• Forums or communities
• How-to guides

The key to getting your content linked on a resource page is simple: be the best at what you do. The most respected resource pages are picky, so you want to make sure your content stands out as their top choice.

When your content gets featured on a resource page, you gain a valuable backlink, and the page owner gets fresh, relevant content to share.

It’s a win-win, and many creators of resource pages are always on the lookout for quality submissions to improve their site.

What makes resource page link building so straightforward is that these pages are designed to link to other sites! You can confidently pitch your content to them. And if you spot an opportunity, you can create something even better than what’s already listed.

Resource page link building is a unique strategy because it’s all about adding value where it’s already expected.

7. Broken Link Building

Broken link building is all about spotting those dead links on other websites and offering a fix by suggesting a link to your own site. It’s the fifth most widely used tactic—according to Aira’s annual state of link-building report, which crowdsources opinions from over 250 digital marketing professionals.

A link becomes “broken,” “dead,” or “invalid” when it leads to a page that no longer exists or can’t be accessed. Most of the time, you’ll be hunting for links that throw up a 404 Not Found error, which means the page is gone. You can then reach out to the site owner and suggest they replace the broken link with a working one from your site.

But you don’t have to stop at 404 errors—you can track down other types of broken links and work to take them over.

This approach can be a great way to build up backlinks, which are links from other websites that lead to yours. Not only can this bring more traffic your way, but it can also boost your SEO since Google sees these backlinks as a vote of confidence.

The more high-quality backlinks you have, the more your site is seen as an authority, which can help you climb the search engine rankings.

Broken link building often has a higher success rate than other strategies because you’re genuinely helping web admins fix an issue on their site, giving them a good reason to link to you.

Plus, this method can help you:

• Score backlinks on pages that already have traffic and authority.
• Snag links that once pointed to your competitors.
• Spark ideas for creating content that’s highly linkable.

8. Directory Link Building

Backlinks are key players in digital marketing and SEO. They come from directory submission sites and help build up a website’s link profile while giving its domain authority a boost.

These links are not just SEO essentials—they also bring in targeted traffic in a big way.

The process of directory backlinking is pretty straightforward: you submit your website URL to a directory site. This can be a general business directory or a more specialized niche one. The important part is picking the right directory so that your link matches your site’s content and goals.

Here’s the gist:

• Directory: A site that lists businesses.
• Link Building: Creating links back to your site.
• Directory Link Building: Earning a backlink by listing your business in directories

Directory backlinks give businesses and website owners a chance to strengthen their online presence. Whether it’s improving keyword rankings, getting more visibility in search results, or boosting domain authority, they help push a website higher up in the digital space.

One example of a service that helps with this is Search Atlas by LinkGraph. They offer tools that can generate high-quality backlinks and analyze link-building opportunities. By sticking to Google-compliant strategies, Search Atlas is a solid choice for those looking to enhance their link-building efforts.

Conclusion

Before you dive into link building, it’s important to understand the risks involved. Using the wrong link building types in SEO can backfire and hurt your site’s ranking instead of helping it.

Google is smart enough to spot when SEOs try to cheat the system with tactics like private blog networks (PBNs), directories, link farms, or spammy comments. These artificial link-building methods are exactly what search engines hate. If Google catches you using them—even by accident—it could tank your site’s ranking.

To avoid this, focus on building links that look natural to Google and other search engines. This approach will boost your chances of seeing your site’s rankings improve over time.

Get the backlinks your site needs by hiring a freelance expert who knows how to secure links from top-tier DA sites. Start improving your rankings now!