Types of Backlinks: The 11 That Matter and the 6 to Avoid

Link building advice usually treats backlinks as a single commodity. They are not. The difference in value between the best and worst types is not a matter of degree — it is the difference between a placement that moves rankings and one that does nothing at all.

Here are the eleven types worth pursuing, ranked by value, and the six to avoid.

The Eleven Worth Having

1. Editorial links from digital PR

A journalist cites your data or research in a story. Highest value available: genuinely earned, on high-authority publications, often syndicated to further sites from one placement.

Unpredictable and requires something genuinely newsworthy. Covered in digital PR.

2. Contextual links in relevant guest posts

An article you wrote, on a relevant site with real readership, linking naturally where it belongs. Reliable, predictable and controllable — the workhorse of most campaigns.

The caveat is that the site must be a genuine publication. Sites publishing forty guest posts a month exist to sell links and are recognised as such. See our guest post service.

3. Niche edits in established articles

A link added to an existing, indexed article. Often stronger than a new guest post on the same domain, because the host page already has age, authority and its own traffic. Faster too — details on niche edits.

4. Resource page links

Curated "useful links" pages on industry, educational or institutional sites. Highly relevant by construction and often on strong domains. Requires you to have something genuinely worth listing.

5. Unlinked brand mention conversions

Someone has already mentioned your business without linking. Ask. Highest success rate of any outreach — the editorial decision has already been made.

6. Local and community links

Chambers of commerce, sponsorships, local press, community sites. Low authority, high geographic relevance, and disproportionately valuable for map pack rankings. See local backlinks.

7. Industry association and membership links

Trade bodies and professional associations. Strong topical relevance, usually permanent, and they double as trust signals for customers.

8. Supplier, partner and dealer pages

"Where to buy", partner directories, dealer locators. Free, easy, and almost universally forgotten. Check every supplier and software vendor you work with.

9. Original research and data citations

Publish genuine data and it accumulates citations over years without further effort. Slow to start, then compounding.

10. Podcast and interview links

Show notes almost always link to the guest. Relatively easy to arrange and often on relevant, established sites.

11. Quality directory listings

A narrow category: genuine industry directories people actually use, not general submission sites. Modest value, but they contribute to citation consistency for local businesses.

The Six to Avoid

1. Private blog network links

Networks of expired domains built to sell links. Sold as high-DR bargains. Detectable through hosting footprints and outbound link patterns, and the primary cause of genuine link-based penalties.

2. Comment and forum signature links

Universally nofollowed on any site worth linking from, and worthless on the sites where they are not. Not usually harmful, just pointless.

3. Bulk directory submissions

"Submit to 500 directories for $50." These directories have no traffic, no editorial standard and no users. Zero value, and the pattern is a recognisable manipulation signal.

4. Site-wide footer and sidebar links

A link on every page of another site is treated as roughly one link and looks like a paid placement. Frequently sold as "thousands of backlinks."

5. Organised link exchanges

A handful of reciprocal links between genuine partners is normal. Structured exchange schemes and three-way rings are visible in the link graph and are what Google's link spam systems target.

6. Automated link building tools

Anything promising hundreds of links automatically. Everything they build falls into the categories above. See bad backlinks for what these actually produce.

The Grey Areas

Paid placements on real sites. Against Google's guidelines, widely practised, and structurally indistinguishable from earned links when the host site is genuine. Risk depends almost entirely on site quality. Our full position is on buy backlinks.

Scholarship links. Once effective, now so heavily abused that many universities nofollow or refuse them.

Infographic placements. Fine if the graphic is genuinely useful; worthless as a mass-outreach tactic.

HARO-style journalist requests. Legitimate and sometimes excellent, but response volumes have made success rates low.

How to Weight Your Mix

A healthy profile is varied. Something like: a majority from contextual editorial placements (types 2 and 3), a meaningful minority from earned links and PR (1, 5, 9, 10), and a foundation of relevance-signalling links (4, 6, 7, 8, 11).

Uniformity is the pattern to avoid. A profile consisting entirely of guest posts with commercial anchors looks exactly like what it is, even when every individual placement is defensible.

The Test That Covers Most of This

Would a real person plausibly click this link, and would you be comfortable showing the page to a customer? Nearly every worthless link type fails one of those, and nearly every valuable one passes both.

For how Google weighs links once you have them, see SEO backlinks. If you would rather have someone run the mix for you, that is our link building services.