Types of backlinks: which help your site and which hurt it
A guide to the common kinds of backlinks: editorial links, guest posts, links in published articles, directories, forums and PBNs, with which help and which Google treats as link spam.
Editorial links: the best and the hardest
These are links a writer or editor adds because they found something on your page worth pointing to: a study, data, a useful guide or an expert view. You rarely ask for them directly; you earn them with content worth mentioning or through relationships with journalists and bloggers in your field.
They are valuable because they are entirely natural and come in a fitting context, but they are slow and you can’t control their timing or wording. So if your plan has deadlines, you will need other, more organised sources alongside them.
Guest posts
You or the publisher write a new article on their site that includes a link to your page. The advantage is that you choose the site, the subject and the target page, and the article can genuinely help the site’s readers if it is written with care and adds something new.
Google’s spam policies list among their examples of link spam paid articles carrying links that pass ranking credit, and links with keyword-optimised anchor text in guest posts distributed on other sites. So discuss the link type with the publisher and know it before ordering; the guest posting guide covers the steps that make it work.
A link inside an already published article
The publisher adds your link to an older, indexed article that may already get visits from search. Because Google has known the page for a while, a reader can reach you from day one without waiting for a new article to be indexed.
Make sure the article is genuinely close to your subject and that the link sits in a natural sentence that serves the reader, not in a paragraph squeezed in out of context. Know the link type and how long it will stay before paying.
Home page and sitewide links
A link on a site’s home page is seen by almost every visitor, so its value in exposure and visits is clear. Links repeated in the footers or templates of many sites, on the other hand, are named explicitly among Google’s examples of link spam.
If you choose a home page link, make it a site close to your field, in a format visitors understand as an ad or a partnership, and don’t rely on it alone. It is closer to a billboard in a busy spot than to an editorial recommendation.
Directories and profiles
A company profile on well-known platforms, or a listing in real business directories, helps people find you and confirms your brand’s details. Many of these links carry nofollow, and that is normal: their value is presence and trust more than rankings.
Google does, however, list low-quality directory and bookmark site links among its examples of link spam. The rule: if nobody visits a directory and nobody reviews what gets published there, it isn’t worth your time. We gathered well-known platforms worth joining in the free backlinks list.
Forums and comments
Genuine participation in a forum or community in your field can bring interested visitors, especially when you answer a question and link to a source that helps the person asking. These links are usually marked ugc or nofollow; their value is the people who click them.
Mass-posting links with optimised anchor text in comments, forum posts and signatures is named explicitly by Google as link spam, and it can hurt your brand’s reputation with people before Google ever reacts.
Private blog networks (PBNs) and automated links
A private blog network is a set of sites created or bought only to pass links, and automated links come from software that posts them by the thousand. This is exactly what SpamBrain was trained on: Google says it detects sites that buy links and sites created to pass them, and neutralises unnatural links.
Even without a penalty, you end up paying for links that don’t count. If your link profile shows traces of old campaigns like this, read toxic backlinks and disavowing links before taking any action.
How to choose the right mix
No single type is enough. A new site usually starts with a basic presence on well-known platforms, then guest posts and links inside articles on sites that suit its field, plus content that earns editorial links over time.
On the Linkaza marketplace each publisher states what they offer: a new article, a home page link or a link inside an existing article, with the link type and the price of each option. Compare them on audience and relevance before price.
Sources & further reading
Choose the publisher before you order.
Compare publishers, prices and placement terms, then submit your order from the Linkaza dashboard.
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