SEO Backlinks 101: 25 Types of Backlinks You Need to Know

Hey there, SEO explorers!  Remember that time your friend’s awesome recipe got featured in a famous food magazine? That’s kind of like what backlinks do for your website. They’re like shoutouts from cool online places, telling the search engine gurus, “Hey, this website’s got the tastiest content, check it out!

But not all backlinks are created equal. Just like your friends, some backlinks are more valuable than others. In this blog, we will explain what backlinks are, why they are important, and how to get them. We will also show you 25 types of backlinks that you need to know, and how to use them for your SEO strategy. Whether you are a beginner or an expert, this blog will help you to master the link building strategy.

A backlink is a link from another website that points to your website. For example, if a website A links to your website B, then website B has a backlink from website A.

Backlinks are also known as inbound links, incoming links, or external links. They are different from internal links, which are links from one page of your website to another page of your website.

A diagram showcasing different types of backlinks.

Why are Backlinks So Important?

Think of them as popularity points in the eyes of search engines like Google. The more backlinks you have, especially from high-quality websites, the more trusted and relevant your site appears. And guess what? That means higher rankings in search results, bringing more visitors and boosting your online success!

However, not all backlinks are equally valuable. Some backlinks are more powerful and beneficial like {Captain America’s shield – strong and reliable}. Some backlinks can even harm your website’s ranking and reputation.{ like Loki’s mischievous pranks – not harmful, but not exactly helpful either}.  That’s why you need to know the different types of backlinks and how to get them.

Getting backlinks is not easy. It requires time, effort, and strategy. You need to create valuable and engaging content that attracts and persuades other websites to link to you. You also need to reach out to relevant website owners and bloggers and ask them to link to you. You also need to monitor and analyse your backlink profile and performance, and optimize your link building strategy accordingly.

20 Types of Backlinks in SEO

We will show you the 20 most beneficial backlink types that you need to know, and how to use them efficiently to boost your SEO strategy.

Organic and authoritative: Unlike guest posts or purchased links, editorial backlinks occur naturally when other websites mention and link to your content because they find it valuable and relevant. This endorsement from high-authority sites carries significant weight with search engines, boosting your ranking and organic traffic.

Trusted and natural: Editorial links aren’t forced or paid for, making them appear more genuine and trustworthy to both search engines and users. This adds credibility to your content and website, enhancing brand perception.

Long-lasting impact: High-quality editorial backlinks tend to be stable and long-lasting, providing ongoing SEO benefits without needing constant manipulation.

How to get them:-

One of the easiest methods to get editorial links is to use platforms that match journalists with sources like HARO and . Offer your original and data-driven insights to get featured in industry publications. This platforms send daily emails to both sources and journalists with queries and responses.

Check out our full-fledged blog on HARO link-building technique

A screenshot of a list of 25 Types of Backlinks listed on a screen.

Earning editorial backlinks requires patience and smart strategies:

Create exceptional content: Focus on publishing informative, insightful, and unique content that solves user problems. Research-backed guides, original data analysis, or innovative tools are more likely to attract organic links.

Promote your content actively: Share your content on social media, engage with relevant online communities, and reach out to influencers in your niche to spread the word and increase the chances of others finding it valuable enough to link to.

Build relationships: Networking with other website owners and editors in your industry can open doors for guest blogging opportunities or organic mentions in their content.

Monitor your backlinks: Use backlink tracking tools to identify potential outreach opportunities and monitor the health of your link profile.

Guest post backlinks, also known as guest blogging or guest posting, involve creating content for another website in your niche or industry. In exchange, you typically receive a backlink with a link back to your own website. These links serve as digital endorsements, signaling to search engines that your content is valuable and worthy of acknowledgment.

How to get them:-

Finding Opportunities: To get guest post backlinks, you need to find relevant and reputable websites that accept guest posts in your niche. You can use tools like [Google], [Microsoft Bing], [Ahrefs], or [BuzzSumo] to search for websites that accept guest posts in your niche. You can also use tools like [Hunter] or [Voila Norbert] to find the email addresses of the website owners or editors. You can then reach out to them and pitch them your guest post idea, and ask them to publish your guest post on their website.

Pitching Your Ideas: Craft a compelling pitch outlining the topics you’d like to write about. Tailor your pitch to match the target website’s audience and content style.

Creating Quality Content: Once your pitch is accepted, focus on creating a high-quality content. Ensure that your guest post is informative, well-researched, and adds value to the host website’s audience.

Incorporating Relevant Links: Strategically place links within your content that direct readers back to relevant pages on your website. Use anchor text that is natural and contextually fits into the flow of the article.

Author Bio and Backlink: Most guest posts conclude with an author bio section where you can introduce yourself and include a link back to your website. This is the primary backlink that boosts your site’s SEO.

Resource page backlinks are links that you get from other websites when they include your site or content in their resource pages. It is a web page that lists and links to useful and relevant resources for a specific topic or niche. For example, if a website has a resource page about SEO tools, and they include and link to your website as one of the best SEO tools, then you have a resource page backlink from that website.

Free business and marketing resources encompassing Types of Backlinks information.

To get resource page backlinks, you need to find relevant and reputable websites that have resource pages in your niche. You can use tools like [Google], [Microsoft Bing], [Ahrefs], or [BuzzSumo] to search for websites that have resource pages in your niche. You can also use tools like [Hunter] or [Voila Norbert] to find the email addresses of the website owners or editors.  Reach out to them and suggest your website or content as a useful and relevant resource for their resource page, and ask them to include and link to it.

 Imagine finding a broken vending machine. Bummer! But what if you fixed it and everyone could get their snacks? That’s a broken link backlink! You find broken links on other websites, offer your awesome content as a replacement, and boom – backlink! broken link building works in that way. Get them by: Using tools to find broken links, creating content that’s even better than the broken one, and contacting website owners politely

Once you’ve found your broken links, here’s how to claim it:

Craft Your Offering: Create high-quality content that’s even better than the lost page.

Reach Out: Contact the website owner and politely inform them about the broken link. Offer your content as a replacement, highlighting its relevance and value.

Sweeten the Deal: If they’re hesitant, offer additional incentives like social media promotion or a guest post on your website. Remember, sometimes a little extra treasure goes a long way!

Infographic backlinks are links that you get from creating and sharing infographics, which are visual representations of data or information. Infographics are popular and effective types of content, as they are easy to understand and share. They can help you attract and persuade other websites to link to your website, as they provide value and insight to their audience. Below is the example Inforgraphic.

To get infographic backlinks you need to follow these steps:

Choose a high-traffic and relevant keyword for your infographic topic.

Create a high-quality and original infographic that provides useful and interesting data or information for your target audience. You can use tools like Canva or Piktochart to design your infographic.

Publish your infographic on your website and include an embed code that allows other websites to easily copy and paste your infographic on their website with a link back to yours.

Promote your infographic on social media, email outreach, and submission to infographic directories and websites. 

Comment and forum backlinks are links that you get from leaving comments on blog posts or forum threads. They are usually self-created backlinks, as you can create them yourself by registering on relevant and reputable websites or platforms and including a link to your website in your comment or signature. However, they are often considered low-quality and spammy backlinks, as they do not pass much SEO value and authority to your website. 

They may also harm your website’s ranking and reputation if you use them excessively or on irrelevant or untrustworthy websites or platforms. 

Therefore, you should use comment and forum backlinks sparingly and carefully, and only on websites or platforms that are related to your niche and have high authority and traffic.

Pro tip: Here are four well-known forums you can leverage for backlink building:

  • Quora.
  • Reddit.
  • Stack Overflow.
  • BabyCenter.

A dofollow backlink is a hyperlink that carries SEO value, instructing search engines to follow it and consider it when determining the linked page’s credibility. In contrast to nofollow links, which do not pass on SEO value, dofollow links act as endorsements, signaling to search engines that the linked content is reliable and deserving of recognition.

                        <a href=”https://example.com”>Click here</a>

Nofollow backlinks are like road signs on the internet telling search engines, “Don’t follow this link too closely. A nofollow backlink is a hyperlink that comes with a specific HTML attribute instructing search engines not to pass on any SEO authority to the linked page.

                    <a href=”https://example.com” rel=”nofollow”>Click here</a>

Directory backlinks are like digital listings in the vast online phonebook of the internet. These links come from web directories, which are curated collections of websites organised by categories.

Types of Directories:-

  1. General Directories: Like the Yellow Pages of the internet, they accept listings from a wide range of industries and niches.
  2. Business Directories: Focus on local businesses, helping customers find them in their area.
  3. Niche Directories: Cater to specific industries or interests, connecting websites within those communities.
  4. Educational Directories: List educational institutions and resources.

Purchasing backlinks, often referred to as paid link building, occurs when a website pays another website for a dofollow backlink leading back to its own domain. Statistics from Authority Hackers reveal that a significant 74.3% of link builders resort to buying links, spending an average of $83 for each link.

While these numbers might seem compelling, it’s crucial to note that acquiring links through payment is considered a black-hat SEO strategy. Search engines, particularly Google, view such practices as link schemes and a direct violation of their policies.

If you decide to buy links, make sure they are from reputable and relevant sites, not from PBNs (private blog networks) that can harm your site. The best option is to get links from authoritative blogs that have real readers and editors.

Author bio backlinks are links that are placed in the author biography section of a web page, usually at the end of an article or blog post. These links typically point to the author’s own website, social media profiles, or other relevant pages. Author bio backlinks can help the author’s site gain more exposure, traffic, and authority, as well as establish their credibility and expertise in their niche. However, not all author bio backlinks are equally valuable for SEO. Some factors that affect the quality of these links are:

The relevance and authority of the site that hosts the author bio

The anchor text and context of the link

The number and diversity of other links in the author bio

The frequency and consistency of the author’s contributions

When you upload a video on YouTube, you can add links to your website in different places, such as the video description, the comments section, or the credits at the end of the video. These links are called video backlinks, and they can help you get more visitors to your site. However, there is a catch: these links are all “Nofollow,” which means that they don’t tell Google or other search engines that your site is important or relevant. So, they don’t improve your SEO directly.

But that doesn’t mean that video backlinks are useless. They can still help you get more exposure and traffic from YouTube searches, which are very popular and competitive. To do that, you need to make sure that your videos are optimized for the keywords that you want to rank for. That means using those keywords in your video titles, descriptions, and tags, as well as making your videos interesting, informative, and engaging. By doing this, you can increase your chances of ranking your videos on YouTube and getting more clicks on your video backlinks.

Social media backlinks are links from social media websites that point to your website.

Create a profile on popular social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, and Instagram. Add your website link to your profile information, bio, or about section. This will create a backlink from your profile page to your website.

Share your website content on your social media posts. You can use text, images, or videos to promote your content and include a link to your website. This will create a backlink from your post to your website and also drive more traffic to your content

Sacramento driving scholarship offers opportunities for families to explore the city while promoting safe and responsible driving practices.

Edu and Gov backlinks are links from websites that have the .edu or .gov domain extensions. These domains are usually associated with educational institutions or government organizations, which are considered to be authoritative and trustworthy sources of information. Therefore, getting backlinks from these domains can potentially boost your website’s ranking and credibility in search engines.

Imagine you love a product and leave a glowing review on their website. But hold on – if that review includes a link back to your own website, boom! You’ve snagged a testimonial backlink. 

Why are they powerful?

Win-win scenario: You provide valuable feedback, the business gets social proof, and you score a juicy backlink – everyone wins!

Credibility cocktail: Testimonials from reputable businesses scream trust and authority, making your website look even more awesome in Google’s eyes.

Targeted traffic: Links often appear on relevant websites, sending potential customers straight to your door.

Press release backlinks are links that you get from distributing press releases to various online platforms, such as news sites, PR distribution websites, and other reputable sources. These backlinks can help you boost your SEO strategy by increasing your website’s visibility, authority, and relevance.

Press release backlinks are different from other types of backlinks, such as editorial, guest post, or testimonial backlinks, because they are usually more formal, newsworthy, and time-sensitive. Press releases are meant to announce important news or events related to your business, such as product launches, awards, partnerships, or achievements. They are not meant to be promotional or sales-oriented, but rather informative and factual.

Link exchange schemes or backlinks are a form of link building strategy where two or more websites agree to link to each other for mutual benefit. The idea is to increase the number of inbound links, which can improve a website’s search engine ranking and authority. However, link exchange schemes can also be risky and ineffective, as they can violate Google’s guidelines and result in penalties or devaluation

There are different types of link exchange schemes such as:

2-way link exchange: A simple and direct swap of links between two websites.

3-way link exchange: A triangular linking structure where website A links to website B, website B links to website C, and website C links to website A.

Guest post swap: A content exchange where two websites agree to publish each other’s articles with links back to their own pages.

The footer section of your website contains sitewide links that show up on every page. They are located at the bottom of your website.

You can use the footer to link to important pages on your website that you want your visitors to access easily.

Google pays attention to footer links and evaluates whether they are useful for the user or just for SEO purposes.

Sometimes, you may have to link to external sources in the footer, such as acknowledging the company that created your website.

19 Profile Creation Link Building

Profile creation link building is a technique of creating profiles on various websites that allow you to add a link to your website or domain. These profiles can help you generate backlinks, increase referral traffic, establish authority, and improve visibility for your website.

Some examples of profile creation websites are:

Social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.

Business listing or directory sites, such as Yelp, Yellow Pages, Google My Business, etc.

Social bookmarking or content sharing sites, such as Reddit, Quora, Medium, etc.

PBN backlinks are links that come from a network of websites that are created for the sole purpose of boosting the ranking of another website. PBN stands for private blog network, which means that the websites in the network are owned and controlled by the same person or entity. PBN backlinks are considered a grey-hat SEO technique, as they violate Google’s guidelines and can result in penalties or devaluation.

Wrap it Up

We hope you enjoyed this comprehensive guide on the 25 types of backlinks that can boost your SEO. By using these backlinks strategically and ethically, you can improve your website’s ranking, authority, and traffic. However, we understand that backlink building can be a challenging and time-consuming task, especially if you are not familiar with the best practices and tools. That’s why we recommend you to check out our link building services at webzoidac.com.

From crafting irresistible guest posts to uncovering broken link goldmines, our expert team knows every backlink trick in the book. We’ll handle the heavy lifting, you simply enjoy the SEO fruits, like skyrocketing rankings and traffic.

Written by Kanika Negi

Kanika Negi is a seasoned SEO expert with a rich experience spanning over 4 years. Working as a Team Lead at Web Zodiac, she excels in meticulous research, fact-checking, and distilling complex topics into easily digestible content.

January 19, 2024

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