Link Building: How to Get High-Quality Links and Not Get Penalized by Google in 2025

“If you want to rank in Google, you need links.”
“SEO genius“, founder of Backlinko, Brian Dean

Basics of Link Promotion

Link building: what is it and why?

Link building is a leading method of search engine optimization that increases a site’s position in search results by growing its link mass.

Why are links needed? It’s simple. Other sites link to you — it means your content is useful. And if the content is useful — Google trusts you. A well-built link strategy will help you learn more about how to work with links correctly.

For 27 years, Google has been evaluating page quality based on the number of links. However, every year the role of “user” factors increases. Therefore, today the quality of link mass is important.

High-quality links pull your site to the TOP of the search results; low-quality ones pull it down. In severe cases, low-quality link mass can “knock” a site out of the index. To prevent such situations, it is worth ordering professional PBN creation. We will talk about this in more detail below.

Pitfalls when working with links

How Google punishes sites it didn’t like for violating external SEO rules

Penalty Type	Description	Consequences
Algorithmic filtering	Google lowers positions without notification	Loss of traffic, drop in search results. You will spend a long time looking for the cause…
Manual measures (Manual Action)	The Google team manually flags a site for “unnatural links”	Letter in Google Search Console, severe drop in positions.
Pessimization of individual pages	Only the weight of specific URLs decreases	Target pages are not indexed or ranked.
Full de-indexation	In severe cases, the site completely disappears from the search results	0 traffic, you will have to do a full audit and a reconsideration request.

Algorithmic filtering, manual measures, pessimization of individual pages, full de-indexation — all of these are consequences of promotion errors. You can find more successful and unsuccessful promotion examples in our cases.

What a beginner needs to know about donor sites

What is a donor site?

A donor site is a site that provides links. Accordingly, your site will be called an acceptor site. When choosing a donor site, the same caution is needed as when choosing a donor for a blood transfusion. Which specific donors to choose is described in detail in the article about PBN links.

Will a single link “kill” a site? The probability of serious sanctions depends on many factors. Primarily, on the age of the domain and the number of high-quality links.

Safety rules when choosing a donor site

For a young domain, as well as for a site that no one has dealt with for a long time, indiscrimination when choosing a donor is critically dangerous. Safe link building is the exclusion of potential donor sites that can drag your site into the depths of a search engine ban:

• • Sites created exclusively for earning from links (spam farms) with hundreds or even thousands of links from each page, sites without content. Google regards links from such sites as manipulative linking and rewards them with a ban.
• • “Black” and “gray” sector — casinos, pornography, drugs, escort services, weapons, dubious crypto sites, prescription and/or suspicious pharma.
• • Sites that have fallen under a ban are toxic and can contribute to a ban or a decrease in ranking.

It should be taken into account that a donor site may fall under a ban after the link has been placed. Therefore, link building requires caution with platforms located in the “gray” zone (a large number of links to sites of various topics, including “black”). This is especially important to consider when promoting casino sites.

The main mistake of beginners when growing a link profile: a too zealous desire for victory

“If you are building links, make sure they are useful to the user and are part of relevant content”
John Mueller (Google)

“Spammy” approach to placing links on forums

Link building on forums is a variety of crowd marketing, which, due to its “naturalness”, is offered to beginners as mandatory for a start. If crowd rules are violated, it will, in the best case, lead to the deletion of comments, in the worst — to Google sanctions.

Example of link placement with spam:

Signs of spammy link promotion understandable for search engine spider bots:

• • uniformity;
• • little text around the link;
• • no signs of dialogue;
• • published “off-topic” (the topic of the site being linked to is different from the forum topic);
• • the author is a newcomer to the forum, often with an unfilled profile.

Pay attention to these signs so as not to accidentally incur the wrath of the forum moderator and/or fall under search engine sanctions for link building with spam. The top 10 crowd marketing services will help avoid such mistakes.

Toxic link mass: what is it and how is it possible?

A site’s link mass is the sum total of all links leading to the site. It is the link mass that adds weight during ranking. This weight can “drown” you if the links are toxic. In such situations, it is worth thinking about SERM.

A sharp increase in link mass looks unnatural, therefore it raises suspicion of manipulation. Beginners with young sites especially often fall under Google sanctions.

A new domain has a “zero” credit of trust, and a rapid increase in link mass looks like a geometric progression (no links — 10 links, 100 links, 1000 links, etc.). Such link building is extremely unnatural.

Google sanctions “for rapid development” are diverse: from reducing the ranking of individual pages — to the complete drop of the site from the index (if the links are not of high quality). Algorithmic filtering is possible, where Google lowers all positions without bothering to report what exactly it didn’t like.

Anchor list rules: how not to get banned when working with external links

“If the anchor text looks like manipulation, Google will likely either ignore the link or punish you”
John Mueller (Google)

What is an anchor list?

An anchor list is a list of anchor texts. An anchor (also known as an anchor) is the text hiding the link, which is standardly highlighted in blue italics. When clicking on the anchor, the site to which the link leads opens.

Several types of anchors are distinguished:

Anchor Type	Examples	Description
Exact (Exact Match)	link building	Matches the key query
Partial (Partial Match)	link building — full guide 2025	Includes the key phrase within it
Branded (Branded)	buylink	Mentions the name of the brand
URL-anchor	buylink.pro	The link is the site address itself
Generic (Generic)	learn more, click here	Does not contain keywords
Anchorless	[1], [source]	Applied for quotes and technical links

An anchor helps search engine robots determine the topic of the page the link goes to. Therefore, for selling pages of goods and services, it is necessary to place links with “commercial” anchors, including the words “buy”, “order”, “price”, “cost”, and for a blog page — informational anchors like “how to choose”, “which is better”, etc.

Rules for the anchor list when working with links

Google’s main requirement is anchor variety, use of general and anchorless links, restrictions on keyword spam, especially in exact matches. The younger the site, the more careful you need to be with exact anchors. Young sites also need the right approach to promotion.

Anchor Type	Examples	Recommended Percentage
Branded and URL	site.ua, SiteName	40–50%
Partial (diluted)	where to buy a laptop, link building 2025	20–30%
Exact matches	buy a laptop, link building	10–15%
Generic and anchorless	here, click, source, learn more	10–20% (remainder)

General rule: the younger the site, the smaller the percentage of exact matches. The best start for a young site in a competitive niche is branded and url anchors.

Also, the quality of the donor should be considered. If the donor site is weak, it is better not to use it for exact anchors.

Sanctions for violations of anchor list rules

The most common cause of sanctions is over-spamming with exact anchors. Especially dangerous are “ugly” keys. These are queries that people love to type into the search engine but for some reason do not like to read in texts (“apartment Kiev rent daily cheap”).

Type of Violation	Possible Consequence
Mass use of exact anchors	Algorithmic reduction of positions
Anchors with commercial keys on weak sites	Ignoring or filtering of links
Manipulative anchor list without brands	Manual sanctions in Google Search Console
Excessive “anchor density” for a single query	Loss of positions for that key

Sometimes a notification «Unnatural links to your site – impacts links» comes from Google Search Console. This means the search engine perceives your links as unnatural.

It is necessary to review the anchor list and donor sites. Remove toxic links and dilute the link mass with natural links with branded and/or general anchors.

Where to start link building: where a beginner can get links

Step-by-step algorithm for growing links

1. 1. Preparation of the site for working with links
2. 2. Use to the maximum free links from Google (Facebook, Instagram, My Business, Google Maps)
3. 3. Directory submission remains relevant for young sites.
4. 4. Gradual increase of link mass by white methods (especially if you practice open site promotion, in which every step is strategically justified and does not cause suspicion in search engines).

Preparing a site for link building

Starting link purchasing for an unprepared site is the most popular mistake of beginners. Link building guru Brian Dean recommends first checking technical SEO. In his blog, he wrote a checklist for preparing a site for promotion:

• • audit of site structure and navigation
• • robots.txt files and sitemap (sitemap.xml), without which normal operation of search engines is impossible
• • mobile optimization
• • checking page load speed
• • audit of site page indexing, removal of duplicate pages
• • checking the operation of the 404 page and 301 redirects
• • thoughtful structure of landing pages that will receive links and convert traffic

Free Google tools (Google Search Console, Google Analytics) will help beginners carry out preparatory work.

Another necessary condition for successful link mass growth is high-quality content and internal SEO optimization. Proper internal linking is necessary; all pages must have unique readable URLs and meta tags.

If you are not sure about the readiness of the site for external promotion, you can order an SEO consultation on our website. A pleasant bonus will be a marketing analysis of competitors in the search results, which will help determine the tactics and strategy for building a link profile.

Free link building for beginners from Google

Start pages in Google-“related” social networks Facebook and Instagram. Publish links to your articles there, even if you do not plan significant investments in SMM. Also, working with reviews is mandatory, especially on such platforms as Google reviews.

Create a “My Business” account and register on Google Maps. Even if your business does not need this kind of promotion — it will increase the search engine’s trust. If you work for Western markets, do not forget about such an important review platform as Trustpilot.

Directory submission: an easy start for a beginner in link promotion

All the negativity regarding this method is related to the practice of mass submission, which leads to a ban. With careful selection of authoritative directories, submission is useful for young sites (in such cases it simply cannot be mass, because there are not many high-quality directories).

If you are building a link profile for a foreign market, it should be taken into account that most authoritative directories are paid. However, in individual thematic and regional niches, one can find free directories. Some paid directories have free stripped-down versions.

2025 Link Building Strategies for Beginners

A beginner’s strategy, like a doctor’s strategy, is “Mainly, do no harm.” If you are determined to have your site live for many years, adhere to all the rules.

• • Start with natural links (outreach, high-quality crowd marketing, web 2.0).
• • Use all methods of organic promotion simultaneously or alternatingly.
• • Strictly adhere to the anchor list rules.
• • For young sites, it is optimal to place up to 5-15 links per month in the first quarter, up to 20-30 links in the second, and up to 50 in the second half of the year.
• • Try not to publish links in batches (up to 2 links per day).

How many years is a site considered young? A young site is up to one year. Then it moves into the category of developing. The credit of trust increases up to 5 years, but links can already be bought from 2-3-year-old sites.

Methods for Building a Link Profile in 2025

“SEO without link building is like a car without gasoline — it may look good, but it won’t go far”
Neil Patel (leading marketer, SEO specialist, blogger, USA, San Francisco)

Outreach Link Building: A Brief Algorithm

What is outreach

Outreach is obtaining a link through live communication. A site is found in search and checked using tools. Owners are contacted, and a placement is negotiated.

The pros of the method are obvious:

• • a universal method of white optimization
• • visitor traffic from the target audience from the donor site to your site
• • optimal price/quality ratio even in cases where you will have to pay for the link

The cons include time costs, the need to use tools (including paid ones), and complete unpredictability of results.

One should be prepared for the fact that many webmasters will not answer your request, and many will refuse to place a link even for money. But, if this is “your” method, over time the percentage of successful cases will grow. If you need a result without wasting time and nerves, you can use the outreach promotion service, which we provide taking into account the specifics of the niche and budget.

Finding Suitable Sites

Organization: create a special table where you will record the found sites, owner contacts, communication methods, and the result.

Prepare the necessary tools for checking sites — potential donors — and proceed to selection.

Criteria for selecting a link donor site during link building

Indicator	Acceptable Value	Check Tool
Topic	Relevant or close to yours	Visually, manually
Site Structure	Clear navigation, live structure	Manual review
Content Uniqueness	Articles are not copied, without templates, interesting to the user	Copyscape, manual check
Organic Traffic	300+ visitors per month	Ahrefs
Domain Rating (DR)	DR ≥ 30 (Ahrefs)	Ahrefs
Spam Score (Moz)	Not higher than 10%	Moz
DoFollow Link	Yes (otherwise weight is not passed)	Ahrefs
Number of Outbound Links	< 100 from a page, < 1000 from a domain per month	Ahrefs
Link Diversity	Links lead to different sites, not only SEO	Visual analysis
Presence of SSL (https)	Yes	Browser
Loading Speed	Up to 3 sec	PageSpeed Insights

The table shows ideal indicators. A link from such a site is golden.

Since there are few ideal sites, deviations are possible when choosing. Domain Rating (DR) is a trust rating. A low trust rating with weak traffic indicates the uselessness of a link obtained from this platform.

A Spam Score above 20% should be alarming.

Brief Algorithm for Outreach Promotion

1. 1. Find the webmaster’s contacts. For this, tools like Hunter.io, Snov.io, or their analogs may be needed.
2. 2. Write a personal letter with a link placement proposal.
3. 3. Negotiate the deal.
4. 4. Obtain the link and track its quality.
5. 5. Enter the result into the table.

Most Popular Mistakes in Outreach Link Building

The most common percentage of responses to a letter to a webmaster during outreach promotion is 5%.

To increase the response percentage, specialists recommend:

• • learning how to correctly sell your own proposal (a rude “I will buy a link” can send your address to the “black box”)
• • avoiding templates and advertising clichés in the proposal so that the letter does not look like annoying spam
• • sending letters in the middle of the working day (by the webmaster’s time); there are more chances it will be read

A significant number of potential outreach opportunities are discarded at the text coordination stage. Therefore, if writing an article is planned, its plan should be coordinated with the webmaster, and you should be prepared that you have different tastes and ideas about texts.

We sincerely wish you luck in the difficult but interesting process of outreach link building. If you conclude that this is not for you, you can always count on our outreach link service.

Crowd Links

“Crowd marketing is not just throwing links around. It is help where your audience lives”
Neil Patel (leading marketer, SEO specialist, blogger, USA, San Francisco)

Crowd links or crowd marketing is the placement of links on forums, blogs, and internet review platforms during live communication with other users (translated from English, crowd — толпа).

The method has many advantages:

• • combines advertising and SEO promotion
• • brings the target audience to the site
• • looks absolutely natural (search engines love live communication)
• • is included in the list of necessary methods for young sites
• • extremely useful for online stores and service sites

The main problem of crowd marketing is the need to develop accounts on correctly selected high-quality platforms. Links from owners of “zero” profiles may subsequently be destroyed by a moderator. Moreover, platform visitors are suspicious of newcomers posting advertisements and are afraid to follow the link.

Therefore, it makes sense to turn to specialists who possess trustworthy accounts on forums by ordering a crowd link service.

Promotion on Web 2.0 Sites

Web 2.0 sites are platforms on the Internet where a user can maintain a blog, publish articles, upload media, share links, and hold discussions with other users. Most of these platforms are free; paid platforms have a free, somewhat limited tariff plan. More about the correct approach is written in our review of Web 2.0 sites.

Placement of links on Web 2.0 sites, if all rules are followed, looks absolutely natural. The method is often offered to beginners as an ideal way to obtain the first links.

Algorithm in link building with analysis of the most popular mistakes:

1. 1. Register on a live authoritative platform (WordPress.com, Blogger.com, Medium.com, etc.); a spammed “dead” platform is absolutely useless.
2. 2. Fill out the profile (articles from an empty profile may be deleted).
3. 3. Write unique relevant text at least 2500 characters long.
4. 4. Carefully insert the link, adhering to the anchor list rules.

The only, but important, disadvantage of such links is low weight. Therefore, Web 2.0 promotion must be combined with other promotion methods, building a strategy. For example, links from Web 2.0 are used as secondary links, reinforcing the action of links obtained by other methods, Tier 2.

Link Building to the West: Ukraine vs. USA

“It is impossible to create low-quality link building and hope for a long-term result. Google has become too smart.”
Marie Haynes, SEO consultant, professional in the field of site recovery after Google sanctions (10 years of experience, own company)

If comparing link-building strategies for the West, then in the USA Google is particularly strict. It is a market with high competition, an advanced audience, active platform moderation, and strict control of Google standards.

Parameter	USA	Ukraine
Link Exchanges	Practically absent	Actively used
Main Method	Outreach	Crowd marketing, link exchanges
Donor Site Requirements	High	More flexible
Risks	High when using low-quality links	Lower, but still present
Cost	Higher due to manual work	Lower thanks to automation

The “gray” zone — gambling, crypto, etc. — has the hardest time. Specialists joke: “Without paid links and PBNs, you are nobody, but be ready to start everything over at any moment.”

“Gray-black” methods are masked as white. In particular, PBNs are forced to prove their naturalness more diligently than regular sites:

• • maximally soft anchor list;
• • buying traffic;
• • masking as informational portals, travel blogs, and psychologists’ blogs;
• • placement on different domains, on different CMS, different templates, etc.;
• • using live and fake accounts on social networks.

There are niches (medicine, finance, law) where exclusively “white” methods work. Here the risk is too high and does not pay off with fast promotion.

Link Building Case Studies: What Actually Worked

Theory is the basis. But in SEO, without practice, there is no trust. Here are four fresh cases. Two from Ukraine and two from abroad. Each has a task, steps, and a result.

Referr × MyBus (Ukraine)

A local service launched from scratch. It was necessary to gather traffic and trust.
What was done:
• crowd marketing on local forums and reviews,
• careful directory submission,
• social profiles with branded links.

Result: traffic grew from 13 visits to 2000+ per month, donor domains — 41, links — 370. DR rose from zero to 9. The site established itself in the TOP-5 for regional queries.

Source: Referr — MyBus Case Study

Surfer SEO × The Links Guy (USA/UK)

Goal — to check if content outreach gives more than link packages.
What was done:
• prepared “definitive guides” for key topics,
• optimized guest articles for traffic,
• worked only with relevant platforms.

Result over 6 months: clicks 1.74K → 3.57K (+105%), impressions 254K → 1.16M (+356%). Growth purely on white-hat tactics.

Source: Surfer SEO Case Study

Hennessey Digital × Law Firm (USA)

A law firm fought for attention in a competitive niche.
What was done:
• Digital PR with an emphasis on news hooks,
• broken link building,
• work with media (USA Today, MSN, Yahoo).

Result: 40 links from top media, separately 14 links from large aggregators. DR grew from 39 to 41. The brand received mentions in key media and protected itself from “unnatural links” risks.

Source: Hennessey Digital Case Study

Conclusion: growth is driven by different methods. In local business — crowd and directories. In e-commerce — strict filtering of donors and PR. In competitive Western niches — content and media. The general principle is one: donor quality and anchor control are more important than quantity.

2025 Link Building Strategies

“People link to people, not to websites. Build relationships first.“
Neil Patel (leading marketer, SEO specialist, blogger, USA, San Francisco)

Modern link-building strategies in 2025 smoothly continue the trends of past years:

1. 1. Increased attention to user factors requires the “naturalness” of links. Therefore, outreach, influence marketing, and crowd marketing are in trend.
2. 2. The trend toward complexity, which has been emerging for many years, requires the use of several methods at once and the construction of an individual strategy for breaking into the TOP for each individual site.
3. 3. The combination of SEO (orientation toward key phrases with a move to TOP) and AEO (orientation toward answers with a move to zero position) is in trend.
4. 4. The combination of white and gray optimization is particularly relevant for competitive niches, as well as for the “gray” zone. “Outdated” methods, the death of which was predicted decades ago, continue their life. Moreover, pros successfully use new methods of “gray” SEO, without which in many cases it is impossible to reach the TOP.
5. 5. Comprehensive site promotion is an invariably relevant method for those who wish to save time, effort, and nerves.

Contact us, we will be happy to help you. All methods of communication can be found on the contacts page. Promotion includes an audit followed by a consultation, where the most suitable strategy for the development of the link profile will be selected.