How to earn quality links

Why links still matter

A link from another website to yours does two jobs. It sends visitors who trust the site they came from. And it helps search engines find your pages and judge how much other people value them. Google says links are one of many signals it uses, not the only one, and that a few relevant links do more than a pile of weak ones.

That last part is the whole guide in one line. The goal is not a number. It is a handful of links from sites your customers already read, earned because you gave those sites a reason to point at you.

What a quality link looks like

Before you chase any link, ask four questions about the site it would come from:

• Is it relevant? A garden blog linking to a garden shop makes sense to readers and to Google. A casino directory linking to the same shop does not.
• Is it a real site with real readers? It publishes its own work, people visit it, and it is not just a list of links for sale.
• Is the link inside the content? A link in a sentence that recommends you is worth more than a link in a footer or a long list of partners.
• Would you want it if search engines didn’t exist? If the only reason to get the link is ranking, it is probably the kind Google ignores, or worse.

Where real links come from

Most good links come from a short list of sources. Start with the ones that are already half yours.

1. Claim the links you already deserve. Search for your business name in quotes. Pages that mention you without a link are the easiest ask there is: they already like you. A polite note asking them to link the name to your site often works.
2. Fix your own broken links from other sites. If you moved or deleted pages, other sites may still link to the old addresses. Redirect each old address to the closest live page, and the value of those links comes back. Our crawl and indexing check shows how to find pages that answer “not found”.
3. Use the people you already work with. Suppliers, makers of the products you sell, local groups you sponsor, trade bodies you belong to. Many have a page listing stockists, members or partners.
4. Study who links to your competitors. Sites that link to two or three of your competitors but not to you are your warmest prospects. They write about your topic and they link out. Find out what they linked to, and whether you have something as good or better.
5. Make something worth citing. A useful guide, a small piece of original research, a clear price comparison, a free tool or template. Pages like these earn links over years, long after an email campaign stops. Our guide to finding content opportunities helps you choose the subject.

How to ask without spamming

Outreach is just a short email asking a site to consider linking to you. Most outreach fails because it is generic, long and all about the sender. A message that works is about the reader.

• Write to a person, about their page. Name the page you read and what you found useful on it. If you can’t say something specific, don’t send the email.
• Give one clear reason. Their link to a supplier is broken and your page covers the same thing; or their list of local shops is missing yours; or your guide answers a question their readers ask in the comments.
• Keep it short. Five sentences is plenty. Put the address of your page in the email, once.
• Follow up once, then stop. One polite reminder a week later is fine. A third email is spam.
• Only use published addresses. Write to the contact address the site gives for this kind of message, and honour any request not to be contacted again.

Tactics that break Google’s rules

Google’s spam policies describe link spam as links made mainly to manipulate rankings. These are the common forms:

Some links you never asked for will look spammy. Google says it ignores most of them by itself. The disavow tool in Search Console exists for a narrower case: you have, or had, links you or someone working for you built against the rules, often with a manual action as a result, and you can’t get them removed. Most sites never need it.

How to tell if it is working

1. Keep a simple list. Who you asked, when, about which page, and what happened. It stops you writing to the same site twice and shows which reasons get replies.
2. Watch the Links report in Search Console. Under Links, “Top linking sites” and “Top linked pages” show what Google has found. New links can take weeks to appear there.
3. Check referral visits in your analytics. A good link sends people. If a link sends nobody for months, it was probably not on a page anyone reads.
4. Look at the linked page’s searches. Over the following months, compare the page’s impressions and positions in Search Console. Links are one factor among many, so judge the trend, not a single week. See how to track rankings and AI visibility.

Links also feed AI answers indirectly. Sites that are cited and mentioned by others are easier for AI tools to find and trust. Our guide to brand and citation signals covers the mentions side.