Building Links: Will It Be As Important in 2023?

Author: Guy Sheetrit Updated Date: March 7, 2026 Category: Online marketing

With so many SEO avenues out there now – PPC, ORM, social media ads, optimized content – it’s not uncommon to hear people wondering if building links is still going to bear any relevance in 2023.

Granted, people asking that betray how little they actually know about SEO. However, the fact remains that not everyone knows how vital a healthy backlink strategy is, let alone how to establish one that works.

But I’m
getting ahead of myself, let’s tackle the dumb question first.

Is
link building still a big deal, SEO-wise? YES!
How much of a big deal? Let’s put it like this:

There
are well over two hundred ranking factors that Big-daddy Google accounts for to
position a site on its results pages. Out of all of them, they have only been
completely straightforward about the three biggest – Content, links pointing
to a site, and their machine-learning algorithm. For a deeper dive, explore our guide on Google Ads.

So, let’s talk a bit about a few things that go into building a healthy and effective backlink strategy.

Strap
on.

Table of Contents

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Advanced Optimization Techniques for Better Results

Taking your marketing efforts to the next level requires advanced techniques that go beyond basic implementation. These strategies leverage deeper insights and more sophisticated approaches.

Data-Driven Decision Making

Advanced optimization starts with robust data collection and analysis. Implement comprehensive tracking across all user touchpoints to understand customer journeys. Use cohort analysis to identify patterns in user behavior and lifetime value. A/B testing at scale becomes possible with sufficient traffic, enabling continuous improvement of every element.

Personalization at Scale

Deliver individualized experiences without manual intervention through dynamic content and machine learning. Segment users based on behavior, demographics, and preferences. Implement recommendation engines that serve relevant content automatically. Personalization increases engagement rates by an average of 20% according to McKinsey research. For a deeper dive, explore our guide on Email Marketing Age.

Automation and Efficiency

Scale operations through strategic automation. Identify repetitive tasks that can be automated without sacrificing quality. Implement marketing automation for lead nurturing, scoring, and follow-up. Use AI tools for content optimization, subject line testing, and send-time optimization.

Future-Proofing Your Strategy for 2026 and Beyond

The marketing landscape evolves rapidly. Building resilient strategies requires anticipating future trends and adapting proactively.

Emerging Technologies

Stay ahead of the curve by understanding emerging technologies:

AI and Machine Learning: Automate personalization, content creation, and optimization
Voice Search: Optimize for conversational queries and featured snippets
Privacy-First Marketing: Adapt to third-party cookie deprecation and privacy regulations
First-Party Data Strategy: Build direct relationships and own your audience data

Sustainable Marketing Practices

Build marketing systems that last:

Create owned media channels (email list, blog, community)
Diversify traffic sources to reduce platform dependency
Build brand authority that transcends algorithm changes
Focus on retention and lifetime value over acquisition

Companies with diversified marketing channels and strong first-party assets show 40% more resilience during platform changes.

Yes, There’s a Wrong Way to Do It

One important thing to understand right from the get-go is that, for a link-building strategy to work and be sustainable in the long run, it has to be done right. And when it comes to link building, there are plenty of ways to do it wrong.

Google identifies these as “link-building schemes,” and the long and short of them is to try and use black-hat SEO techniques to create links with the specific intent to manipulate SERPs.

A few
common examples of practices that fall under this classification:

Buying or selling links that
pass PageRank.
Excessive link exchanges, or
partnerships exclusively for the sake of cross-linking.
Using automated programs to
create backlinks to a site.
Requiring links as part of ToS.

Stuff like that will end up hurting a site more than helping it, and end up costing a lot of money, even if you thought you were getting ahead of the curve. No, a truly efficient link-building strategy has to be nurtured from the ground up, earning backlinks organically.

It takes
time, effort, and a lot of know-how on the types of content needed to get
attention from other sites – Especially those high-authority sites that will
have the most impact.

Strategies to Build High-Quality Backlinks

When it’s all said and done, a link to your
site acts as a unit of value to Google – It basically means that others have
found your content valuable enough to redirect people to it. The more important
or relevant the site, the more valuable it seems.

That’s the basic premise of why we want
sites linking to our content. And once you understand that, it doesn’t take a
genius to figure out that valuable, engaging, and appealing content should be
at the core of every link-building strategy.

Create Quick-value Articles

While in-depth discourses and interesting,
lengthy opinion pieces are a big part of any inbound marketing strategy – and
will generate links on their own – their main objective is not to create
backlinks.

These pieces are there to showcase expertise and give visitors truly engaging and interesting content to sink their teeth into. When the focus shifts to generating backlinks, leaner, more punchy articles tend to perform better.

Of those, well-made listicles and stats
breakdowns usually deliver an above-average amount of backlinks.

Listicles (list posts) are ubiquitous on the internet. They are articles that list any assortment of elements that convey immediate value to the reader. Top Tens, Tips lists, Examples, and Media selections, are all fairly popular types of listicles that can be quickly put together.

Stats Breakdowns take a similar approach, providing an analysis or breakdown of a
topic by compiling statistics around it and discussing their possible
implications.

The key to quick-value articles lies in relevance. They need to tackle topics that are in the current public consciousness, or might be highly interesting to broad audiences.

Leverage Visually Interesting Content

While usually more time-consuming to
produce than regular content, visually interesting content can be a fantastic
source of backlinks for a long time after it goes live. It can also be a
colossal waste of resources if you don’t know what you are doing.

Don’t produce visual content without having strong indicators that it will perform well in some manner. They should be relevant and valuable to their target audience and actually appeal to their sensitivities.

As for the types of visual content that
perform the best for generating backlinks, both infographics and video content
stand out.

Infographics
are great to condense a lot of information in a visually appealing way. What’s
better, there are plenty of sites out there dedicated almost exclusively to
curating and linking to great infographic content.

Videos are
some of the best tools to grab people’s interest and have them paying
attention. Quality video content is highly sought after and often linked back
to by most sites. Its only drawback is that they are more difficult to produce.

Perform Broken Link Campaigns

Here’s another effective link-building strategy that revolves around delivering value to site admins and owners.

The premise is simple, reaching out to
other sites and notifying them of broken links on their website while providing
a suitable replacement link from the site that’s trying to generate the
backlink.

Broken links are detrimental to a site’s ranking, so there’s immediate value in letting someone know of them, and an immediate motivation to get them fixed.

The easiest way to do this is by
using a tool to detect a website’s broken links and compiling a list. Then,
contact the site with a tailored email letting them know of their problem and
proposed solution. It is one of those great strategies that, although seemingly
simple, can provide great results.

Monitor Mentions and Follow Through

Similar in the application to broken link campaigns, constantly monitoring a site or brand’s mentions can provide a consistent way to generate backlinks.

When a site (or its associated
company/brand) is doing a good job, it will eventually capture the
attention of third parties – Bloggers, users, other websites – who might
mention or reference back to it without a link.

Platforms like the aptly named Mention can track these instances. Once you
identify the ones that are worth contacting, ask them for a link. More often
than not they will be willing to do it.

Guest Blogging

Guest blogging has been for years one of
the most reliable ways to build high-quality backlinks to any given site.

The idea is that once a website has a
reliable content generation setup, you reach out to other sites with content
pitches covering topics relevant to their audiences. Once approved, the piece
containing useful links back to the original website will be published on the
target site. Pretty straightforward.

The best way to go about it is to do a bit
of research for target sites publishing content on topics related to the
original site’s niche. Then prioritize them by Page Rank or Domain
Authority, and contact them with tailored pitches for articles that they
might be interested in publishing.

As more target websites accept and publish your
content, it can be used as a good reference to get other sites to accept and
publish your site’s content, building credibility and, of course, backlinks.

The Golden Rule of Building Links

While
all these methods bring something to the table in terms of building backlinks
for a site, there’s an underlying task through all of them that also doubles as
a golden rule for the practice: Outreach is essential.

The world’s most amazing site (content-wise) will consistently fail to generate backlinks if it doesn’t have an effective outreach program behind its link-building efforts.

As
important as creating an optimized piece of quality content, it is equally
important to reach out strategically and let the right people know it exists.

If you consistently and efficiently apply
an outreach campaign, the results will be swift and thoroughly impact your
site’s rank and exposure.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is this guide about?

This comprehensive guide provides strategies and best practices for achieving success. Following these approaches can help improve your results and competitive advantage.

Q: How long does it take to see results?

Results vary. Most strategies require 3-6 months before significant improvements. Ongoing optimization and consistency are essential for sustainable success.

Q: Do I need professional help?

While basic implementation can be done independently, professional guidance often accelerates results and helps avoid costly mistakes.

Q: What are the most important factors for success?

Key factors include thorough research, consistent execution, quality over quantity, regular performance monitoring, and adapting to industry changes.

Q: How do I measure success?

Track KPIs like traffic, conversions, revenue, and engagement rates. Regular analysis helps identify areas for improvement.

Q: What channels should I focus on?

Most businesses benefit from SEO, content marketing, social media, and paid advertising. Start where your target audience is most active.

The Evolution of Digital Marketing Strategy

Digital marketing has transformed dramatically over the past decade, evolving from simple banner advertisements to sophisticated, data-driven strategies that leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Modern digital marketing requires integrated approaches combining multiple channels into cohesive customer experiences.

Content Marketing Best Practices

Content remains the foundation of successful digital marketing, serving as the primary mechanism for attracting organic traffic, building brand authority, and engaging target audiences.

Data-Driven Marketing Decisions

Modern marketing success depends on sophisticated analytics enabling data-driven decisions.

Building Brand Authority

Establishing thought leadership provides significant competitive advantages including increased brand awareness and customer trust.

Maximizing Marketing ROI

Proving marketing ROI requires clear objectives, sophisticated tracking, and continuous optimization.

Learn More: Home

The Modern Link Building Landscape: What Actually Works in 2025

Google’s link quality assessment has evolved dramatically since the original PageRank algorithm. Today, links are evaluated not just for authority metrics (DA, DR) but for topical relevance, anchor text distribution, traffic verification, and editorial context. A single link from a genuinely relevant, trafficked page on a real publication can outvalue 50 links from low-traffic “authority” blogs.

The sites winning in competitive SERPs today are earning links through a combination of digital PR, content-based outreach, and systematic relationship building — not bulk outreach or link schemes.

Link Acquisition Strategies With the Best ROI in 2025

Original Research and Data: Proprietary studies, surveys, and datasets generate passive links for years. A survey of 500 industry professionals with interesting findings will get picked up by journalists, bloggers, and industry publications without active outreach. Tools like Typeform (survey), Screaming Frog (data collection), and Data.gov (public datasets) make this accessible even for small teams.
Journalist Sourcing (HARO/Connectively/Qwoted): Responding to journalist queries with expert commentary is one of the highest-ROI link building activities available. A 15-minute response to the right query can land a link on Forbes, Inc., or a major industry publication. Response rate improves dramatically with specific data points, contrary opinions, and named expert attribution.
Broken Link Building at Scale: Use Ahrefs or SEMrush to identify broken outbound links on high-authority pages in your niche. Create replacement content, then notify the linking site. Conversion rates of 5-15% are common because you’re solving their problem, not creating one.
Strategic Guest Posting: Guest posting still works when done selectively. Target publications where your target customers actually read, with real editorial standards, on topics directly aligned with your core content pillars. One guest post on the right site beats 20 on generic “write for us” directories.
Unlinked Brand Mentions: Use Ahrefs Alerts or Brand24 to monitor mentions of your brand without a link. A simple, polite email requesting a link converts at 20-40% — they already think you’re worth mentioning.

Link Velocity and Natural Profile Development

Google’s algorithms detect unnatural link acquisition patterns — sudden spikes in links, uniform anchor text distribution, links from the same IP ranges, or links appearing faster than a site’s content cadence would logically generate.

A natural link profile looks like: varied anchor text (branded, naked URL, topically relevant, generic), diverse referring domains (not all in the same niche), links appearing over time correlated with content publication, and a mix of dofollow and nofollow links (nofollow links from real sources are a positive signal, not neutral).

If you’re conducting active link building, mirror natural patterns: acquire 5-10 links from a campaign, then pause outreach for 2-3 weeks before the next push. This pacing looks more organic and reduces algorithmic sensitivity.

Auditing Your Existing Link Profile

Before building new links, audit what you have. Toxic or low-quality links can drag down otherwise strong pages. Monthly link audits should check for:

Links from domains with spam scores above 30 (Moz) or Trust Flow below 10 (Majestic)
Links from hacked/compromised sites (sudden drops in referring domain traffic)
Over-optimized anchor text patterns (more than 20% of links using the same exact-match keyword)
Links from clearly irrelevant industries or foreign-language sites with no logical connection

For genuinely toxic links, first attempt removal via email outreach. If unsuccessful after two attempts, submit a disavow file through Google Search Console. The disavow tool is not a cure-all — use it surgically, not as a routine maintenance step.

By Guy Sheetrit
Nov 11, 2019

Building Links: Will It Be As Important in 2023?

Advanced Optimization Techniques for Better Results

Future-Proofing Your Strategy for 2026 and Beyond

Yes, There’s a Wrong Way to Do It