A lot is said about link building, but very little is truly understood, especially when budget or expertise is limited. Which, let’s be honest, is the most common situation. Does that mean we should give up on backlinks and leave our SEO efforts without this powerful growth driver? Well, it depends. In this practical guide, Costanza Martín —a link building specialist— shares recommendations for different scenarios so you can make the most of the resources you have (time, knowledge, and money) and build the best link strategy possible. Let’s get started!
Few areas of SEO generate as much confusion as link building. And for good reason.
Even among highly experienced SEO professionals, there are still many misconceptions about how backlinks actually work and how they should be approached. Naturally, the confusion is even greater among professionals from other areas of marketing and communications.
It’s understandable: link building isn’t quantum physics, but it’s not exactly easy to grasp either, especially when it comes to actually doing it.
That’s why—and thanks to an invitation from the fantastic Crawla team—I put together this guide. I hope it helps you better understand the logic behind backlinks and, most importantly, encourages you to strengthen your SEO efforts and organic visibility through link building.
These recommendations come from years of experience as a link building consultant and as the director of Bambú, an agency that has specialized in backlink building for more than 10 years. We’ve worked with large enterprises, small startups, and businesses across all kinds of industries and budgets. Based on everything I’ve seen, I feel confident recommending what to do depending on your situation.
Let’s start with the basics and then move into practical advice.
Keep reading, and let me know afterward whether you found it useful!
What Is Link Building?
In simple terms, link building is a sub-discipline of SEO, or organic search optimization.
For a domain to perform well in organic search, its internal factors (On-Page SEO) must be properly managed. This means creating quality content and maintaining a solid technical setup so both Google and users can clearly understand the site.
However, beyond understanding and indexing your website, Google also needs signals indicating that your domain is a good result for specific searches. In Google’s language, that means: “Hey, this is a valuable result for these queries.”
One of the main ways to provide those signals is by getting other relevant websites to link to yours. Google interprets mentions—whether linked or unlinked—as recommendations.
The techniques used to make that happen are known as link building or Off-Page SEO.
There are many different methods. Most of them are actually counterproductive because the easier a technique is, the easier it is for competitors to replicate—and the easier it is for Google to identify it as an attempt to manipulate rankings.
That said, the basic process looks something like this:
Once you have your list of prospects, you can pursue one or more of the following actions:
In an ideal world, successful link building requires three things: time, knowledge and money.
So when I talk about budget, I’m really talking about how these three variables interact. Different combinations create different scenarios.
I’ll walk you through the most common combinations I encounter, so you can understand what makes the most sense for your particular situation. If you’re studying link building, you may find it useful to read the entire guide. If you’re looking to start building links as soon as possible, feel free to jump straight to the scenario that best matches your circumstances.
1. Little knowledge, little time, some money
| What I Recommend: | Delegate it to someone who knows what they’re doing. |
|---|---|
| Why: | In link building, it’s incredibly easy to burn through a budget in just a few months and end up with zero results. More than one person reading this has experienced exactly that. The learning curve for figuring out how to use a limited budget effectively is long and requires testing—which usually costs money. If you lack expertise and don’t have time to learn, your best option is to invest that budget—even if it’s modest—in someone who can immediately identify the best opportunities. In other words, someone who has already gone through that learning curve. Even if their fee reduces the amount available for link placements, the strategic work they provide will save you significant time and make your overall investment much more effective. |
| What You Need to Understand: | Move away from the PPC mindset. SEO timelines and metrics are slower and less precise than pay-per-click advertising—and that’s perfectly normal. |
| Pro-Tip: | Don’t be tempted by offers promising huge quantities of backlinks. The sign of a responsible, up-to-date strategy is not the number of backlinks but their quality (links from authoritative websites) and relevance (sites ranking for your target keywords, even if only within the Top 100). And make sure they don’t have major traffic drops. |
2. Little knowledge, some time, no money
| What I Recommend: | Learn organic link building techniques and apply them through controlled testing. |
|---|---|
| Why: | Today there are dozens of excellent tutorials available. This option works only if you have time because you’ll need to understand the fundamentals before applying tactics. Link building is not a simple equation—it’s a process of analysis followed by action. What Should You Learn First? How to evaluate the strength of websites where you might be able to earn a backlink, by checking whether they rank for topics related to your target keywords (viewed broadly as subject areas rather than exact-match terms). How to assess their SEO safety: A quick way to do this is to look for significant traffic drops from which the site never recovered. You can go a step further by checking whether the site has an excessive number of low-quality outgoing links, such as links to gambling websites or other questionable or illicit activities. What Links Can You Build Without Paying? Listing your business in reputable industry directories can be a very viable approach. For example, if you host a podcast on your own domain, there are many podcast directories and curated lists where you can submit it. Some of these sites have strong authority and provide dofollow links. The well-known guest posting strategy is another option, although it’s important to set realistic expectations: most websites no longer publish guest content for free. I’m not saying you shouldn’t try it—just don’t get discouraged. You’ll likely need to contact a large number of sites before securing a single placement. Another effective tactic is to find external lists featuring companies like yours (articles or directories that already mention several of your competitors). In those cases, you can offer to contribute a ready-made paragraph about your company to enrich the list. It’s not magic, but it works surprisingly well. |
| What You Need to Know: | With unpaid link building, it’s generally harder to earn backlinks pointing directly to your commercial pages. Once website owners recognize a clear commercial intent, they’ll often either lose interest or ask for payment. Instead, try building links to your most informative and audience-focused content pages. Then, make sure those pages internally link to the commercial pages you’re trying to promote, using relevant keywords in the anchor text. This allows you to pass the authority gained from your organic backlinks on to your transactional URLs. |
| Pro-Tip: | Every successful backlink usually comes after many unsuccessful attempts. It’s perfectly normal to feel like nobody is paying attention to you. Keep experimenting, refining your approach, and improving your techniques. With every small success, your link builder mindset will develop new ideas. The visibility you gain over the long term will make the effort worthwhile. |
3. Little knowledge, some time, some money
| What I Recommend: | The same approach as the previous scenario, but with a greater willingness to purchase backlinks. |
|---|---|
| Why: | Straight to the point: organic link building is the best long-term approach and, in my opinion, the one that will work best for AI-driven search results. That’s why it’s a great idea to invest your time in learning how to do it. However, there are excellent websites for link building that can only be accessed through paid placements, whether by negotiating directly with the publisher, working through an agency, or purchasing placements through a marketplace. Everything you learn about evaluating websites for organic outreach will also help you compare your options and decide which links are worth buying. |
| What You Need to Know: | When you gain access to a list of websites along with their placement prices, the sites with high metrics and low costs tend to be purchased by almost everyone, because people naturally make that basic calculation. Before buying links from those sites, check whether they have too many outgoing links pointing to all kinds of domains. If they do, their SEO value becomes diluted. What will always benefit you most is focusing on the keywords those sites rank for, because that’s where you’ll see the SEO value they can actually provide. |
| Pro-Tip: | Search Google for your primary keywords in your target market and review the Top 100 results. Aside from your direct competitors, almost every website appearing there is an excellent link prospect. Try reaching out to them or finding a way to earn a backlink from those sites. |
4. Some knowledge, some time, little money
| What I Recommend: | Create linkable content and do press outreach. |
|---|---|
| Why: | “Linkable content” can also be described as a “link magnet.” It refers to content assets, resources, or tools that your audience will find genuinely valuable and that other websites serving the same audience will want to reference on their own domains. Starting with your keyword topics and your understanding of your audience, ask yourself: “What irresistible content could I offer them?” It needs to be genuinely useful. Once you’ve created it, offer it to media outlets or blogs that may find it relevant to their readers. If your asset is a piece of content, you can offer an exclusive rewritten version for their publication. If it’s a tool, such as a calculator, you can provide the code so they can embed it on their website. In exchange, ask for a backlink to your domain or at least a visible mention of your brand, which is also valuable. |
| What You Need to Know: | There’s a good chance someone else has already had your first idea. Check whether similar resources already exist and add a differentiating element. Even a small distinction can make a significant difference in how interested publishers are and improve your chances of earning a link. |
| Pro-Tip: | In these situations, who receives your outreach message is extremely important. If you send it to a generic email address such as [email protected], they’ll probably overlook its value and never respond. That’s why, if you can’t find the contact information of the person who would truly appreciate the proposal, contact the generic email address and ask for the appropriate person or department. |
5. Some knowledge, little time, some money
| What I Recommend: | Buy a handful of high-quality backlinks every month. |
|---|---|
| Why: | The two major advantages of purchasing backlinks are: a) You can control the variables, including the text, the location of the link, the anchor text, and the destination URL. b) It significantly reduces the time required. Whether you purchase links through a link building agency, a marketplace, or by conducting your own outreach, offering payment tends to accelerate the entire process. |
| What You Need to Know: | Money doesn’t buy true happiness, and it doesn’t buy true effectiveness in link building either. You still need a strategy, and you still need to evaluate the relevance and safety of the websites involved. |
| Pro-Tip: | If you’re going to outsource the work to an agency or marketplace, it’s ideal for them to search for websites specifically suited to your business rather than simply offering endless lists of websites from their database. |
6. Some Knowledge, Little Time, Little Money
| What I Recommend: | Ask to be included in competitor roundups and comparison lists. |
|---|---|
| Why: | This is probably the most frustrating situation because you know what could be done, but you don’t have the resources to act on it. In that case, my advice is to focus on one of the easiest and most powerful opportunities available: asking to be included in “best of” lists within your industry. In other words, lists where your competitors are already being mentioned. It isn’t always easy, especially if your brand is still small, but don’t exclude yourself before you’ve even tried. Asking the right person at the right moment—which often requires many attempts—can put your brand in places you never expected. After all, a long list usually benefits from the addition of another relevant option. And those backlinks are incredibly valuable. |
| What You Need to Know: | Link intersection tools, often called “link intersect” tools, are extremely useful in this situation. You enter your competitors’ domains, and the tool identifies websites that link to all of them but not to you. Among those results, you’ll often find competitor roundups and industry lists. Those are the opportunities where you should focus your limited efforts. |
| Pro-Tip: | Send them the paragraph yourself. You can ask your preferred LLM or AI assistant for help. Provide the article where you’d like to be featured, along with a complete description of your company, product, or service. Ask it to write a paragraph in the same style as the article, but using information about your business, so it can be added naturally to the piece. If you send that ready-made content to your link prospects, you’ll make their job much easier and increase your chances of receiving either a backlink or a brand mention. |
| What I Recommend: | A diversified strategy that combines the best elements of every technique. |
|---|---|
| Why: | You have knowledge, time, and money. What a privilege. Now it’s time to turn those resources into a solid and diversified strategy: High-quality paid backlinks to build authority in the short and medium term. Consistent organic outreach to secure placements where your brand deserves to be and maintain those relationships over time. Ongoing monitoring of developments in AI search so you can stay one step ahead, experiment with emerging techniques early, and begin accumulating authority within this new ecosystem. |
| What You Need to Know: | Even if all three variables are covered, keep in mind that none of them matter if they can’t be sustained over time. It’s better to pace yourself and move more gradually over a longer period than to start aggressively and stop halfway through. |
| Pro-Tip: | Take the time to analyze your competitors’ backlink profiles and do some reverse engineering by identifying all the link building techniques they’re using. Since you have the resources to do so, incorporate the most relevant ones into your own strategy so that nothing is missing. |
| What I Recommend: | Don’t do link building. |
|---|---|
| Why: | That’s perfectly fine. The right moment will come. Since link building is a long-term investment, it’s not an area where you should risk the little you have. It’s certainly not worth going into debt or trying to learn something with a steep learning curve when you don’t have the time to do it properly. Instead, focus on marketing channels or tactics that can produce a faster return and adopt a savings mindset. When you’re eventually able to cover at least one of the three variables, you can return to this guide and choose your own adventure. |
| What You Need to Know: | Anxiety is the enemy of healthy growth. |
| Pro-Tip: | As someone who has been in that situation many times, my advice is to take care of your rest, your mental health, and your physical well-being. It may not seem related, but you’ll notice how much better your ideas become when you take care of those aspects of your life. And with time, you’ll find yourself in a much better position, with far more opportunities available to you. |
In every scenario, the golden variable is patience. And I don’t mean staying still in the face of a lack of results. I mean understanding that anxiety is the greatest enemy of SEO (and of many healthy things in life, wouldn’t you agree?). Anxious thinking causes people to pull budgets halfway through a strategy, turning everything invested up to that point into a complete waste.
But with a strategic mindset and consistent effort, there’s no way to fail. Give link building a try for your website, you won’t regret it!
What Did You Think of My Guide? Write to me in the comments on the LinkedIn post or email me at [email protected]. Your feedback is incredibly valuable to me.
Podemos ayudarte a ordenar prioridades, detectar oportunidades y convertir el diagnóstico en un roadmap accionable.
