Quick Answer: What You Need to Know
How to Get Backlinks (In Plain Language)
A backlink is a link from another website pointing to yours. Getting them matters because Google uses backlinks as a vote of trust and authority, and the more quality backlinks you have, the higher you can rank.
The most effective ways to get backlinks:
- Create content worth linking to, like guides, data, and tools
- Guest post on relevant, authoritative websites
- Use journalist request platforms
- Broken link building outreach
- Reclaim unlinked brand mentions
- Use a managed link placement network like ALT Placements for restricted industries
This guide covers every method in detail, from beginner tactics to advanced strategies used by professional SEO teams.
A backlink is a hyperlink on one website that points to a page on another. When Website A links to Website B, Website B has earned a backlink from Website A. Search engines treat backlinks as one of the most significant signals of a page’s credibility, on a simple logic: if many reputable websites link to a piece of content, that content is likely valuable and trustworthy.
What Backlinks Are and Why They Matter
This concept is rooted in Google’s original PageRank algorithm, which was built on the premise that links act as endorsements. The algorithm has evolved considerably since then, but the importance of backlinks has not diminished. Analysis from Backlinko’s large-scale study of search results found that the number of domains linking to a page correlates more strongly with first-page rankings than nearly any other factor. If the fundamentals feel new, start with what backlinks are and how search engines weigh them.
| Benefit | What it means for your website |
|---|---|
| Authority | Links from high-authority domains transfer equity to your site, raising your standing |
| Discoverability | Crawlers follow links, so backlinks help search engines find your pages faster |
| Referral traffic | A well-placed link on a popular site sends direct, qualified visitors to your pages |
“Links remain one of the clearest signals search engines have for discovering content and judging its importance, which is why earning them consistently still matters.”
ALT Placements
Analysis from Ahrefs has found that a large majority of pages have no backlinks at all, and those pages receive almost no organic traffic. The takeaway is clear: if you want to rank, you need to earn or acquire backlinks consistently.
How Google Evaluates Backlinks
Not all backlinks carry equal weight. Google assesses link quality through several signals before deciding how much authority a link passes. Domain authority matters, since a link from a strong, established site carries far more weight than one from a brand-new domain. Topical relevance matters, since a link from a site related to your industry is worth more than one from an unrelated aggregator. Anchor text should be a natural mix of branded, partial-match, and generic anchors, since repetitive exact-match anchors are a red flag. Link placement matters, since contextual links within the body of a relevant article outperform footer, sidebar, or bio links. And indexation matters, since a link only works if Google has crawled and indexed the page it lives on, which is why low-quality sellers placing links on never-indexed pages offer no value.
Types of Backlinks That Actually Move Rankings
Understanding the difference between backlink types helps you focus time and budget on links that produce real results.
| Backlink type | SEO value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Editorial / earned links | Highest | Naturally given; hardest to earn but most powerful |
| Guest post links | High | You write the content and place the link naturally in the body |
| Niche placement links | High | Placed on relevant, authoritative sites with real traffic |
| Resource page links | Medium | Listed as a recommended resource on a relevant page |
| Journalist and PR links | High | Earned by providing expert quotes to reporters at major publications |
| Directory links | Low to medium | Limited value alone; useful only from high-quality niche directories |
| Forum / comment links | Very low | Often nofollow; negligible direct ranking value |
| Low-quality network links | Risky | Short-term gains but real risk of manual penalties |
For businesses in restricted industries like cannabis, vape, or psychedelics, earning editorial links organically is extremely challenging, which is where managed, private placement networks serve a legitimate function when operated with the right standards. The broader topic of how private blog networks operate is worth understanding alongside this.
Step by Step: How to Get Backlinks to Your Website
The following is a structured, repeatable process, whether you are a blogger, a small business, or an enterprise brand. Audit your current profile first using a tool like Moz Link Explorer or Google Search Console to count referring domains, identify your strongest links, spot toxic links to disavow, and set a baseline. Analyze competitor profiles to find link-gap opportunities, the content formats attracting the most links, and publication targets for guest posts. Create linkable assets, since you cannot build a strong profile without content worth linking to, like original research, definitive guides, free tools, infographics, expert roundups, and documented case studies.
Then build a target prospect list with criteria like reasonable authority, topical relevance, real organic traffic, and an active publishing history. Execute your outreach with personalized, brief, value-led emails and a single follow-up after several days. And track, verify, and scale, logging every contact and placement, confirming each live link is indexed, and systematizing whatever channel produces results. Knowing how to check backlinks makes the tracking step straightforward.
Proven Tactics to Build Backlinks
Guest posting remains one of the most reliable methods, where you write an original article for a relevant publication and earn a contextual link in the body. Find opportunities with search operators like “write for us” or “contribute an article,” focusing on publications with genuine editorial standards rather than pay-to-publish sites. The skyscraper technique, associated with Backlinko, means finding popular content with many links, creating a clearly better version, and reaching out to everyone linking to the original. Journalist and PR link building through source-request services connects you with reporters seeking experts, and when they quote you, they typically link to your site from an established publication, among the highest-quality links available.
Broken link building finds dead links on authoritative sites and offers your content as a replacement, which works because you are solving a real problem for the webmaster. Unlinked brand mention reclamation turns existing mentions into links with a simple, friendly request. Digital PR and data-driven content like surveys, studies, and industry reports naturally attract links from journalists and bloggers who want to cite your findings. Resource page link building gets your genuinely useful content added to curated resource lists. The moving man method finds links pointing to closed, rebranded, or moved businesses and offers a superior replacement resource.
Podcast appearances almost always include a link in the show notes while building brand authority. Link insertions, or niche edits, add a contextual link to an already-published, indexed article, which can accelerate impact because the page already has authority; for regulated industries, a private, vetted network provides a compliant, scalable version of this approach. Strong internal linking distributes the authority of your earned links across your site, amplifying every external link. And industry partner collaborations like co-authored content, co-hosted webinars, and joint research generate genuine editorial links from both audiences. A diverse mix of these tactics is what builds a natural, resilient profile over time.
How to Get Backlinks in Restricted Industries
For businesses in cannabis, psychedelics, vape, tobacco, cigars, CBD, and alternative wellness, standard tactics face barriers most SEO guides ignore. Most mainstream publications will not accept guest posts from these brands, paid advertising is largely unavailable so organic search becomes the primary growth channel, standard PR campaigns hit editorial walls around regulated substances, and many directories explicitly exclude these businesses.
This creates a real competitive gap: brands in these industries need backlinks to rank, but access to standard channels is severely limited. The ones winning top rankings have built systematic, compliant acquisition strategies through industry-appropriate channels, including industry-specific trade publications that accept editorial contributions, niche authority blogs within the cannabis and wellness ecosystem, and private managed placement networks designed specifically for these industries for scalable, consistent acquisition. If you have inherited risky links along the way, understanding how to remove bad backlinks is a useful companion.
Why ALT Placements Is Different
The link building industry is crowded and plagued by low-quality providers who sell links on spammy networks, content farms, and non-indexed pages that provide zero value while putting client websites at risk. ALT Placements operates differently, and the difference matters most for businesses in regulated or restricted industries.
It is a private network of niche authority websites built specifically to serve businesses in cannabis, psychedelics, vape, tobacco, cigars, and alternative wellness, providing high-quality, contextual backlinks placed on real, trafficked websites rather than throwaway domains assembled purely to sell links.
| Feature | Typical providers | ALT Placements |
|---|---|---|
| Content quality | Mass-produced or spun | Human-written, editorially reviewed |
| Specialization | Generic, broad-niche networks | Cannabis, psychedelics, vape, tobacco, cigars, wellness |
| Transparency | Public or gray-area footprints | Private, managed, footprint-controlled |
| Indexation | Often non-indexed pages | All placements indexed and verified |
| Traffic | Little to no organic traffic | Sites with real traffic and topical authority |
| Risk profile | High, spammy networks risk penalties | Low, natural placement on real sites |
Every link is embedded within relevant, human-written content on a topically appropriate website, mirroring the pattern of a natural editorial link. The network is private, so the sites are not publicly listed or sold through mass marketplaces, which protects the link equity and footprint integrity of the whole network and, in turn, your site. You can review sample content and see how the process works before committing.
How to Measure Your Backlink Progress
Building links without tracking results is like running ads without checking conversions. Monitor your referring domains, your overall profile strength, organic traffic growth, keyword ranking movement, the net of new versus lost backlinks month over month, and how many of your links are actually indexed. Together these tell you whether your link building is translating into real ranking gains.
As for timing, new backlinks are typically discovered and indexed within the first few weeks, early ranking movement on less competitive keywords appears over the next couple of months, more consistent gains follow over several months, and compounding authority makes harder keywords attainable over the following year. Link building is a long-term, compounding investment, and consistency is what makes harder keywords reachable over time.
Common Backlink Mistakes to Avoid
Buying from link farms. Sites selling hundreds of cheap links a day are almost universally link farms with no editorial value, which Google targets and devalues, so the low price reflects low or negative value. Over-optimized anchor text. Repetitive exact-match anchors create an unnatural pattern, so favor branded, URL, generic, and partial-match anchors. Ignoring relevance. Links from unrelated niches provide minimal value and can signal low-quality acquisition, so prioritize topically relevant sites. Neglecting existing link health. Adding new links while ignoring toxic ones is counterproductive, so audit regularly and disavow genuinely harmful links. Treating link building as one-time. It is continuous and compounding, and bursts followed by long gaps produce inconsistent results. And building links to the wrong pages, since sending everything to your homepage leaves the value of your key service and product pages untapped. A grounding in how to get high-quality backlinks prevents most of these.
About ALT Placements
ALT Placements is a private network of niche authority websites that helps businesses in cannabis, psychedelics, vape, tobacco, cigars, and alternative wellness build high-quality, contextual backlinks. All content is human-written, indexed, and placed naturally to drive real traffic and improve search rankings. The network is fully managed, private, and scalable, providing safe, long-term authority growth for brands in restricted industries.
For brands where mainstream advertising is largely off the table, organic search authority built through strategic link building becomes a durable competitive advantage. For anyone weighing options, it is worth reading whether you should buy backlinks at all first, and you can review the available plans when ready.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many backlinks do I need to rank on the first page of Google?
There is no single answer, since it depends on your competition. High-competition niches like cannabis may require many referring domains, while low-competition keywords may need only a few quality links. Focus on building more and better links than your direct competitors on a page-by-page basis rather than chasing an arbitrary number.
What is the fastest way to get backlinks to my blog?
The fastest legitimate methods are link insertions into already-indexed relevant articles, followed by journalist responses and guest posts on publications with quick editorial turnarounds. For restricted-industry blogs, a managed placement network provides the fastest path to scaled, quality acquisition without the access barriers of mainstream channels.
Are nofollow links worth building?
While nofollow links do not directly pass traditional ranking equity, Google treats nofollow as a hint rather than a directive, so some may contribute indirect value. They also drive referral traffic and keep your profile natural and diverse, so do not avoid them, but prioritize dofollow links for core goals.
Is link building still relevant?
Yes, definitively. Despite years of speculation that Google would reduce the importance of backlinks, they remain among the top ranking factors, as Google’s own documentation and spokesperson statements have consistently confirmed. The quality standards have risen, but the importance of building links has not diminished.
How do I get backlinks for a new website with no authority?
Start with strategies that do not require existing authority: journalist responses, guest posts on mid-authority publications, resource page submissions, podcast appearances, and partnerships with complementary brands. Consistency matters more than scale early on, and one quality link per week from a relevant site will outperform ten low-quality links over time.
Is it safe to use a backlink placement service?
It depends entirely on the service. Services that place links on genuine, trafficked, topically relevant sites with human-written content are safe and effective, while those using link farms, non-indexed pages, or low-quality networks create significant risk. A private, niche-relevant network built on real sites with real traffic and original content fits the former model.
Final Thoughts
Learning how to get backlinks is one of the highest-leverage skills in modern SEO. It is not about chasing shortcuts or buying cheap links in bulk, but about building a consistent, systematic program that earns and acquires links from relevant, authoritative websites over time. For most businesses, the right approach combines multiple strategies: earned media through great content, outreach through guest posts and journalist platforms, and strategic placements through trusted providers in your niche.
For businesses in restricted industries, the playing field is different, since standard channels are closed and editorial access is limited, and the brands that win rankings are the ones that have built systematic, compliant acquisition strategies through niche-appropriate channels. That is exactly what ALT Placements provides. For the full process focused on this topic, see the complete guide to getting backlinks.
