How to Build External Links: Boost SEO Success

What Are External Links?

We know that internal links refer to the mutual referencing of various links within a website, forming a tightly structured network that enhances user navigation and information flow. In contrast, external links refer to links added to other websites, allowing users to conveniently jump to their own websites through these links.

During website development, reasonably using internal and external links can enhance website accessibility and influence. 

The Importance of External Links

To quickly understand how external links can improve our website, I have divided the explanation into four key points:

• SEO ranking factors

• Enhancing website credibility

• Facilitating Google crawling and indexing

• Driving traffic (planning pages and keywords that need promotion)

1. SEO Ranking Factors

As previously mentioned, if your article keywords and traffic rankings have not shown significant improvement, an external link strategy may be an effective way to boost your website’s visibility in Google search results. By strategically utilizing external links, you can create a positive impression in Google search and gradually achieve better rankings.

By associating your website with high-quality external link sites, your rankings on Google will gradually improve. This is a cumulative process where Google will increasingly recognize your website’s authority and credibility in its respective field.

2. Enhancing Website Credibility

When you successfully obtain high-quality external links, such as links from authoritative sites like Wikipedia, directing them to your own website can significantly increase Google’s trust in your site. Although obtaining a link from Wikipedia is challenging, partnering with other high-quality external link sites can also build credibility over time. By improving credibility, your website has the potential to rank higher in search results, attract more visitors, and establish a solid online reputation.

3. Facilitating Google Crawling and Indexing

If your website pages have not been indexed by search engines for a long time, an external link strategy can be an effective way to accelerate the indexing process. By building external links on high-quality websites, Google’s crawlers will discover your links while crawling these pages, leading them to your site and uncovering more of your links.

This process helps speed up Google’s crawling and indexing of your website or pages, effectively improving the indexation rate. Establishing connections with high-quality websites makes it easier for search engines to discover your web pages, positively impacting the overall visibility and ranking of your site.

4. Driving Traffic

To build a successful website, high-quality content is essential. However, for most websites, external links remain an indispensable component.

In addition to great content, we should actively implement external link strategies by creating links on other high-quality platforms or websites to guide our target audience to our site. This traffic-driving method can increase website exposure, improve user visits, and lay a strong foundation for website growth.

How to Assess External Link Quality

1. Relevance of Website Content

If your website focuses on yoga apparel, but you place external links on beverage-related websites, this would be a low-relevance link. We need to ensure that external links are relevant to our site, emphasizing a natural approach. Only then can the external link be considered suitable.

2. Website Authority

Website authority is an indicator of a website’s importance and influence in search engines. Factors affecting authority include content quality, the quality of external links, and user experience. Several tools measure website authority:

• Moz uses Domain Authority (DA) to indicate a website’s authority.

• SEMrush uses Authority Score (AS) to evaluate website credibility.

• Ahrefs uses Domain Rating (DR) to represent website authority.

3. Website Traffic

To assess the quality of an external link website, in addition to considering absolute global traffic numbers, we must also analyze the targeted country demographics (e.g., the US, UK, India). Traffic from specific countries may be more aligned with the target audience, making it more relevant.

Additionally, it is important to observe the overall traffic trend of the external link website—whether it is increasing, decreasing, or fluctuating. Keyword rankings and the number of ranking keywords are also useful reference metrics.

4. Spam Score

Spam Score (SS) is a metric provided by the SEO tool Moz, used to assess the risk of spammy links on a website. It is measured on a scale from 0 to 17, with higher scores indicating a greater likelihood of spammy links.

A high Spam Score does not necessarily mean a website is spammy, but it serves as a warning to carefully evaluate link quality to ensure it does not negatively impact search engine rankings.

5. Website Content Quality

By examining the quality of articles, writing style, and anchor text arrangements on an external link website, we can determine if its content is authentic and reliable.

In SEMrush, go to Organic Research → Pages to view detailed information about a website’s pages, including traffic and keyword rankings. Checking a few top-ranking articles can reveal whether the writing is professional, clear, and aligned with the site’s theme, as well as whether anchor texts are relevant and natural.

6. External Link Profile

Since external links are a key ranking factor in search engine algorithms, a website with many high-quality external links from other sites is likely to rank higher.

• In Moz, check the external link profile.

• In Ahrefs and SEMrush, review Backlinks reports.

Types of Backlinks

After understanding the importance and quality evaluation of external links, let's explore the types of external links available:

• Guest Post

• Link Insertion

• Web 2.0

• Q&A Forums

• Blog Comments

1. Guest Post

Guest posting is a common and effective type of external link. It involves manually writing a high-quality, unique article and inserting anchor text links to your website, which is then published on another website. Most guest post links are do-follow and, as mentioned earlier, should be placed on relevant websites.

2. Link Insertion

Link insertion refers to adding a link to your website within an existing article on another website. This type of link is also usually do-follow and does not require writing a new article, but relevance remains important.

3. Web 2.0

Web 2.0 platforms emphasize user participation and content creation. Users can share opinions, content, and media while interacting with others. Platforms include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and content publishing sites like WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, and Medium. When using Web 2.0 sites, avoid immediately posting link-heavy content; instead, publish a few regular articles first.

4. Q&A Forums

Q&A forums, such as Quora and Reddit, allow users to post questions and answers containing links. However, these platforms often require account credibility before allowing extensive link posting. Avoid posting irrelevant content to prevent being banned.

5. Blog Comments

Blog commenting involves leaving comments on other blogs or articles while embedding a website link. These links are usually no-follow. Avoid spammy or overly promotional comments, as they can result in being flagged or banned.

Besides these types, other link-building methods include image links, profile links, social bookmarks, and PDF links. Compared to guest posts and link insertions, these are generally less stable and may not always be indexed.

In the next section, we will discuss how to implement Guest Post strategies effectively.

How to Conduct Guest Post External Link Building?

Guest post and link insertion require more time and effort in external link building. Let’s first explore how to implement Guest Post strategies. The two most commonly used methods are:

1. Keyword Search Method

Use specific keyword combinations to find guest post opportunities:

• Keyword + “blog for us”

• Keyword + “guest blog”

• Keyword + “become a contributor”

• Keyword + “guest column”

• Keyword + “guest author”

• Keyword + “guest article”

• Keyword + “guest blogger”

• Keyword + “guest post”

• Keyword + “write for us”

• Keyword + “write for me”

For example, if my keyword is lamp, I can search lamp write for us (or lamp “write for us”). Based on Google’s search results, open relevant websites one by one (or filter out non-relevant sites directly from the search results).

Next, use SEO tools to check the quality of these websites based on the evaluation criteria mentioned earlier.

2. Competitor Backlink Analysis

Using tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs, enter your domain in Domain Analytics, scroll down to view Main Organic Competitors. Select a competitor’s site, open it, and navigate to Backlinks.

• Filter by Follow links.

• Focus on Authority Score (AS) and Outbound Links.

• Outbound links refer to links directing to other websites from the external link source. More outbound links on a page mean the link equity is more diluted.

Ideally, when selecting blogs for external links, choose websites or pages with fewer than 10 outbound links. However, this is only a reference standard, and an external link source with more than 10 outbound links is not necessarily spam.

Analyze and record competitor backlinks based on traffic, relevance, authority, and contact information.

Steps to Conduct Guest Post Link Building

1. Planning

As mentioned earlier, plan the pages and keywords you want to promote. This will help you determine appropriate anchor text keywords and links when writing guest posts. Additionally, keep track of external links for these pages and keywords to assess their effectiveness.

Create a table to record:

• Website Content Relevance

• Website Authority

• Website Traffic

• Contact Information

• Whether Contacted

• Response Status

• Pricing

2. Contacting Website Owners

Finding Contact Information:

• Write for Us Page: Many websites have a “Write for Us” section detailing how to submit guest post inquiries.

• Social Media: If no contact information is listed, check their social media accounts, where email addresses are often shared.

• Contact Us Page: Websites may provide email addresses or contact forms.

Read the contact page carefully—some sites specify email content requirements, accepted topics, word count limits, or even indicate that they do not accept guest posts.

3. Writing an Outreach Email

Once you have identified the site’s theme and contact information, craft an outreach email for collaboration.

Outreach emails should be concise and clear. You can use ChatGPT to generate an initial email template and refine it based on your needs.

A good outreach email should include:

• A greeting

• Who you are

• Your website

• Examples of your blog posts

• Why you are a good fit for their site

Wait for their response. During the negotiation, confirm:

• How many links can be inserted (typically 1-2 links per article)

• Whether the link is permanent (some sites may remove your article or links after a certain period, which is beyond your control)

4. Paid Guest Posts

The cost of a Guest Post link starts at $20+, with high-authority sites charging hundreds of dollars. Pricing negotiations should be based on your budget and the website’s quality.

Things to Watch Out For:

• If a high-quality website offers a very low price (e.g., $10-15), verify whether it is an open submission site where anyone can post for free.

• Some Guest Post collaborations require upfront payment. Ideally, pay only after the article is published and indexed.

• Trusted vendors might allow partial payment upfront and the remainder upon publication.

• Some vendors provide traffic estimates—always verify website traffic manually.

If you are new to external link building, avoid sending too many outreach emails at once via Gmail, as this may result in your emails being marked as spam.

Regarding relevance, if you find general websites with high traffic and authority but low niche relevance, they may still be worth considering. Avoid linking to gambling, adult, or unethical sites.

Conclusion

Building smart external links is key to SEO success. Focus on relevance, quality, and authority to gain strong backlinks that boost rankings. Use guest posts, link insertions, and forums strategically. Stay consistent, choose wisely, and let your site grow with trusted connections.