The What and Why of Link Building
Link building remains one of the most influential components of search engine optimization, but its role — and the way it must be approached — has changed significantly over the last several years. Today, link building is less about volume and tactics, and more about relevance, authority, and trust.
Search engines like Google use links to evaluate credibility. When a reputable website links to your content, it sends a signal that your site provides value worth referencing. Over time, these signals help search engines determine where your pages belong in search results — particularly for competitive queries.
However, not all links are created equal. Modern link building is a strategic, content-driven discipline that must align with your business goals and broader SEO efforts.
What Link Building Actually Does for SEO Today
At its core, link building helps search engines understand three critical things about your website:
- Authority: Are other credible sites willing to reference your content?
- Relevance: Do the linking sites operate within related industries or topics?
- Trustworthiness: Are the links earned naturally, or manipulated artificially?
High-quality inbound links help distribute authority across your site, improving the visibility of not just your homepage, but also service pages, blog articles, and other key conversion points. This is why internal linking structure and external backlinks must work together — one without the other limits long-term performance.
Importantly, link building is no longer a standalone SEO activity. It is tightly connected to content strategy, digital PR, local SEO, and technical site health.
Strategic Link Building Starts With Clear Intent
- Publishing in-depth, original articles that other sites naturally reference
- Contributing expert commentary or guest content on industry publications
- Earning citations from research roundups or topical resource lists
If your goal is to strengthen local visibility and service credibility, link building should focus on:
- Accurate inclusion in relevant local and industry directories
- Membership-based links from chambers of commerce or trade associations
- Local press mentions, sponsorship acknowledgments, or community partnerships
In both cases, links should be earned because they make sense — not because they were forced into existence.
The Importance of Natural Link Distribution Across Your Site
As a general guideline, your site should include a healthy amount of contextual linking — both internally and externally — integrated naturally into your content.
This ensures:
- Key pages are discoverable and crawlable
- Authority flows through the site rather than stopping at the homepage
- Users are guided to relevant next steps without friction
Over-optimized anchor text or repetitive linking patterns can raise red flags, so balance and intent matter more than hitting arbitrary percentages.
Link Building Tactics That Create Risk, Not Results
Tactics to avoid include:
- Paid or incentivized backlinks that exist solely to influence rankings
- Link exchange schemes designed to artificially inflate authority
- Injected or hidden links placed without the site owner’s consent
- Low-quality network links from unrelated or spam-heavy sites
These approaches undermine trust signals and can damage long-term visibility. Recovering from link-based penalties is often more costly than building links correctly from the start.
Building Links the Right Way Requires Consistency
Sustainable link building is not a one-time effort. It requires ongoing content development, relationship building, and performance monitoring. When done correctly, it compounds over time — strengthening rankings, improving referral traffic, and supporting overall digital credibility.
Whether you manage SEO internally or rely on outside expertise, link quality should always take precedence over speed or scale.
Looking Back: How Link Building Strategy Has Evolved
For additional context on earlier link building approaches and foundational strategy concepts, you can review our original article here: Link: How to build links with strategy
If you’re unsure whether your current link profile is helping or hurting your visibility — or if you want to build a sustainable strategy aligned with modern search engines — JTech can help. Schedule a consultation to evaluate your link building efforts and identify opportunities that support long-term growth.
About Chris Pontin
Chris is JTech’s Production Project Coordinator with over 15 years of experience in web development and design. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Information Systems and is CompTIA A+ certified, blending technical expertise with creative problem-solving. An adept writer as well, Chris contributes to content creation alongside leading project coordination and overseeing platform maintenance—helping deliver thoughtful, user-focused digital solutions.