Proven Strategies to Build High Quality Backlinks (Without Selling Your Soul)
Let’s get something out of the way first. Link building sucks. It’s tedious, rejection-heavy, and roughly 90% of the “strategies” you’ll find online are either outdated garbage or will get your site nuked by Google.
But here’s the annoying truth I’ve had to accept: backlinks still matter. A lot. Your domain authority isn’t going to magically inflate itself while you sleep. And off page SEO—despite being the part of SEO nobody wants to talk about—is still the thing that separates sites ranking on page one from those rotting in the digital graveyard of page seven.
So let’s talk about what actually works. No PBN nonsense. No “buy 10,000 links for $50” schemes. Just real strategies that won’t make you feel like a used car salesman.
The Uncomfortable Reality About Backlinks in 2024
Google’s algorithm has gotten scary smart. It can smell a spammy link profile from miles away. Those guest post farms you’ve been eyeing? Google knows about them. Those “blogger outreach” services promising you links from DA 50+ sites? Yeah, they’re selling the same links to your competitors. And their competitors. And basically everyone with a credit card.
Quality over quantity isn’t just a cliché anymore. It’s survival.
One genuinely earned link from a relevant, authoritative site will outperform fifty sketchy links from random directories every single time. I’ve watched sites with 200 quality backlinks absolutely demolish competitors with 20,000 garbage ones.
Strategy 1: Create Actually Useful Resources
This is boring advice. I know. But stick with me.
The reason nobody links to your content isn’t because you haven’t done enough “outreach.” It’s because your content doesn’t deserve links. Harsh? Sure. But someone had to say it.
Link-worthy content typically falls into a few categories:
- Original research with actual data
- Comprehensive guides that solve real problems
- Free tools that people genuinely need
- Controversial takes that spark conversation
Notice what’s missing? “Ultimate guides” that regurgitate the same information as everyone else. Nobody’s linking to your “Complete Guide to Email Marketing” when it says the exact same thing as the 47,000 other guides already ranking.
Speaking of email—if you’re in the affiliate space, building an email list without being annoying is actually a linkable topic because everyone struggles with it.
Strategy 2: The Broken Link Method (It Still Works, People)
Everyone says this strategy is dead. They’re wrong.
Here’s the deal. Websites die all the time. Resources get deleted. URLs change and nobody sets up redirects. This leaves thousands of broken links scattered across the internet like digital tumbleweeds.
Your job? Find those broken links in your niche, create something better than whatever used to be there, and reach out to the site owners. You’re not asking for a favor. You’re helping them fix their site while getting a link in return.
Win-win situations are the only sustainable form of link building.
Tools like Ahrefs or Screaming Frog make finding broken links easy. But if you’re trying to do keyword research and SEO without expensive tools, there are free Chrome extensions that’ll accomplish the same thing.
Strategy 3: HARO and Journalist Requests
HARO—Help A Reporter Out—is one of those things that sounds too good to be true. Journalists need expert sources. You need backlinks. The marketplace exists.
The catch? Everyone and their grandmother is now using HARO. So your pitches need to be:
- Fast (respond within hours, not days)
- Specific (answer the exact question asked)
- Credentialed (explain why you’re qualified to speak)
- Quotable (give them something they can actually use)
I’ve landed links from major publications this way. I’ve also sent hundreds of pitches that went nowhere. It’s a numbers game with a skill component.
Strategy 4: The Skyscraper Technique (With a Twist)
Brian Dean popularized this years ago. Find content with lots of backlinks. Create something better. Reach out to everyone linking to the inferior piece.
The problem? Everyone’s doing it now. Inbox fatigue is real. “Hey, I noticed you linked to X, but my piece is better” has become the digital equivalent of “I’m not like other guys.”
The twist that still works: don’t just make something longer. Make something fundamentally different. Add original research. Include expert quotes. Create custom graphics that people actually want to embed.
Better doesn’t mean more words. It means more value.
Strategy 5: Strategic Guest Posting (Not the Spammy Kind)
Guest posting got a bad reputation because people abused it. They’d publish garbage on any site that would accept it, stuff the bio with links, and call it a day.
That doesn’t work anymore. But strategic guest posting—writing genuinely good content for publications your audience actually reads—still builds both backlinks and authority.
The key differentiator? Write for sites you’d want to be associated with even if they gave you nofollow links. If you’re only interested in the link, you’re approaching it wrong.
Strategy 6: Build Relationships First, Ask for Links Second
This is the strategy nobody wants to hear because it requires patience. Actual patience. Like, months of it.
Start engaging with people in your industry. Comment on their content. Share their work. Provide value without asking for anything in return. Then, when you do have something genuinely worth linking to, you’re not a stranger sliding into their inbox.
I’ve gotten more backlinks from people I’ve built relationships with than from any cold outreach campaign. It’s not even close.
The Link Building Approaches I’d Avoid
Since I’ve been helpful, let me also save you from some expensive mistakes:
- Paid link schemes (Google’s getting better at detecting these)
- Link exchanges done at scale
- Automated outreach tools that blast templates
- Directory submissions (unless it’s a highly relevant, curated directory)
- Comment spam (please, just don’t)
Your domain authority will thank you for avoiding these shortcuts.
Tracking What’s Working
You can’t improve what you don’t measure. Google Search Console is criminally underused for tracking your backlink profile and understanding which links are actually moving the needle.
Set up a system. Track your outreach. Know your conversion rates. Treat link building like the data-driven marketing channel it is, not like some vague art form.
The Bottom Line on Off Page SEO
Building high-quality backlinks isn’t glamorous. There’s no secret hack I’m hiding from you. It’s a grind that rewards consistency, creativity, and genuine value creation.
But here’s what I’ve learned after years of doing this: the sites that win at link building are the same ones that win at everything else. They create remarkable content. They build real relationships. They play long games while everyone else chases shortcuts.
Your competitors are out there sending thousands of templated emails, hoping something sticks. You can beat them by simply being more human, more helpful, and more patient.
Now get out there and earn some links. The kind that actually matter.