36 Types of Backlinks you must know for Boosting SEO in 2025

Instead of tossing around backlinks, understand their power and how to use them efficiently to enhance search engine rankings. It’s important to know the difference that some types of backlinks can either sink or swim your link-building strategy. According to stats, pages with the highest Google ranking have 3.8 times more backlinks than other pages. 

So, how do you navigate the backlink maze to ensure you’re earning the right kind? This blog covers 36 types of backlinks you should know about, how they can help you, and what to avoid for a successful link-building strategy and SEO plan. 

How are Backlinks Useful? 

Backlinks are the hallmark of credibility from other websites, pointing to search engines that your content is trustworthy and valuable. The more of these “votes” you collect, the higher your site climbs in Google’s rankings. SEO aligns with Google’s growing preference for quality over quantity. 

You don’t need to gather a sea of spammy backlinks that add little value, instead focus on having a network of relevant, high-authority backlinks that enhance your site’s credibility. And Google has made it clear: backlinks continue to be one of the top 3 factors that determine your ranking in search results.

36 Types of Backlinks

These types of backlinks help you create link-building strategies that will help you earn high-authority backlinks to improve your SEO: 

1. Editorial Backlinks

These links are naturally integrated into the content (article) often because the website or publication considers the source as valuable and relevant. Editorial backlinks come from genuinely authoritative and link-worthy content. Along with boosting your site’s authority, they also help with long-term visibility in search rankings.

Smart tip? 

Efficiently use SEO tools to detect popular keywords and topics that competitors specialize in, but your website has yet to cover. 

2. Guest post backlinks

Guest post backlinks are one of the most popular ways to build authority in your niche. These backlinks are inserted in the author bio or within the article itself, providing both traffic and credibility. Guest posting is a smart option to gain new audiences while improving your website ranking.

How to stand out? 

Write relevant and high-quality guest posts to avoid being seen as spammy.

3. HARO backlinks

HARO (Help A Reporter Out) backlinks are earned through responding to media queries, providing statistics, original tips, reliable references, and more. Journalists and bloggers often use HARO to gather expert insights for their stories. These links are powerful because they come from reputable news outlets and can drastically increase your site’s credibility and visibility. 

4. Comment backlinks

Comment backlinks are earned when people leave thoughtful comments on blogs or forums on relevant niches. These types of backlinks can be beneficial for building your online presence, but you also need to be careful of spammy links that can deteriorate your reputation and SEO. 

5. Business profile backlinks

You can earn these types of backlinks by creating a profile for your business on various online platforms like Yelp, LinkedIn, or industry-specific directories. These profiles often allow you to link to your website, boosting both local and overall SEO. 

How is it beneficial?

It improves your chances of being discovered by potential customers who are looking for services or products in your field.

6. Forum backlinks

You earn these links by participating in online forums relevant to your industry. These forums provide spaces where users can ask questions, provide answers, and share experiences. By contributing helpful, relevant content and including a link to your website, you can build authority backlinks.

7. Press release backlinks

You earn these links when a business or website issues a formal press release that gets picked up by news outlets or industry-related websites. Press releases are a great way to get attention for new product launches, events, or other updates. 

8. Badge backlinks

These types of backlinks come from displaying a badge or award on your website. Many organizations, websites, or associations offer badges as a recognition of achievements, certifications, or contributions. When you earn such a badge, you can often include it on your site with a backlink to the awarding organization. 

Why should you earn these? 

These showcase social proof of your achievements along with signals to search engines that your site is authoritative in your niche

9. Webinar backlinks

Hosting or participating in webinars can make you earn these links. During the promotion of the webinar, participants or organizers often include a link back to your website. This is an amazing opportunity to showcase your expertise and create valuable content that attracts backlinks. These platforms can also give you a chance to engage with a live audience, increasing both traffic and authority for your website.

Where do these backlinks come from?

These backlinks can come from webinar promotion emails, event pages, or even after-event content like slides and recordings. 

10. Directory backlinks

When your site is listed on a reputable online directory, it gives your business an easy way to be found by users looking for specific services or products. These links are a great way to enhance local SEO and give your website an extra boost in visibility. These types of links hold value, especially when they’re from well-known, industry-specific directories.

11. Acknowledgement backlinks

Acknowledgement backlinks are earned when your content gets mentioned or credited on another website. These types of backlinks are an approval of the value and quality of your content, often appearing in a blog, article, or research study that cites your work.

12. Paid backlinks

While many backlinks are earned organically, paid backlinks involve a financial exchange. These links are purchased from high-authority sites to give your website a boost in search rankings. 

Paid backlinks can quickly enhance your SEO, but they can be risky if done poorly. Google doesn’t prioritize spammy or unnatural links, so it’s crucial to ensure these backlinks come from reputable sites and are used efficiently.

13. Dofollow backlinks

Dofollow links are crawlable and help search engines to discover your content. When a site links to yours with a dofollow tag, it sends a vote of confidence to search engines, passing along valuable link equity (link juice). This link juice helps improve your site’s rankings, signalling to Google that your content is worth showing to users. 

14. Nofollow backlinks

Nofollow backlinks are often misunderstood. While they don’t pass link equity to your site, they still offer value. These types of backlinks are earned through social media, blog comments, or forums. 

When a website uses the nofollow tag, it’s telling search engines not to count the link as a ranking factor. However, you can reap the benefits of referral traffic, engagement, and exposure to new audiences, enhancing your backlink profile.

15. Social media backlinks

These links are earned when you share your content on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, each post has the potential to drive thousands of eyes to your website. Social media backlinks are traffic generators, leading to more engagement, shares, and mentions across the web.

16. Podcast backlinks 

Backlinks from podcasts have become an underrated SEO advantage. When a podcast mentions your website or brand, it often includes a backlink in the show notes or description. Podcasts offer a unique backlink opportunity because they are hosted by experts, further boosting your site’s credibility. 

17. Footer backlinks

These types of backlinks are placed at the bottom of a webpage, or often across multiple pages of the site. These are also known as sitewide links, help to navigate and provide information. Footer backlinks are highly valuable and mainly lead to important pages like the site’s About Us/ Contact page, or even external resources. 

Smart tip? 

The key is to ensure these links come from high-quality sites, as overuse or misuse could appear spammy to search engines.

18. Automatic backlinks

Automatically generated backlinks are programmatically formed links. They automatically post links that target specified anchor keywords for websites in forums, comments, and online posts. These links might offer you temporary results but Google notices them quickly.

What’s the downside?

Automatic backlink is a clear violation of Google’s policies. This manipulative strategy affects the internet with low-quality and spammy tactics.

19. Infographic backlinks

These are visually appealing, after all, who doesn’t like a well-designed infographic that breaks down complex data into something informative and easy on the eyes? They swiftly grab attention and every time someone embeds your infographic on their site, they’re linking back to the original source. Also, 36.3% of experts prefer infographics as top link-building assets. 

20. Influencer-generated backlinks

When an influencer links to your website, it’s more likely similar to receiving an endorsement. Renowned influencers in niche-specific industries are trusted, so, a backlink from them is a vote of confidence to tell their audience that “this is worth watching!”. These backlinks are often earned through product reviews, mentions, or sponsored posts. 

21. Free tool backlinks

You earn these when you create and offer a tool, calculator, or resource that others find useful enough to share and link to. It could be either a free SEO audit tool or an online currency converter. 

These types of backlinks are incredibly valuable as they are often linked from resource pages, blogs, and other high-traffic sites, driving referral traffic and improving your SEO.

Are These Reliable? 

36.3% of SEO experts rely on linkable assets to earn authority backlinks. 

22. Testimonial backlinks

Testimonial backlinks come from writing testimonials for products, services, or tools you’ve used. Many companies feature customer testimonials on their website and, in exchange for a positive review, offer you a backlink to your site. 

These types of backlinks give you credibility by showing you’ve used the product or service, and the company receives a glowing endorsement. 

23. 301 redirect backlinks

A 301 redirect navigates and takes users and search engines from an old webpage to a shiny new one. The backlinks from the original page often get transferred, passing valuable link equity along with the redirection to a new URL of an expired page, for example, if you revamped your site, updated content, or moved to a new domain. 

24. Sponsored backlinks 

These types of links come from sponsored content, ads, or other promotional material where you’re paying the publisher to include your link. This could be a quick way to improve visibility, but there’s a fine line between spending strategically and over-saturation.

25. Fix Broken backlinks

Broken backlinks lead users and search engines nowhere, however fixing them can help to maintain a clean, high-performing website. You can either replace the link with a new, working one or reach out to the referring site and let them know.

26. Referral backlinks 

Referral backlinks come from other websites that send traffic your way, such as someone recommending your website to others. These can be earned through word-of-mouth that drives people from one corner of the web to yours. 

27. Reciprocal backlinks

Reciprocal backlinks are like friendly “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” agreements between two websites. You link to my site, and I’ll link to yours. Overdoing or manipulating can make it look spammy to the search engines. 

However, 43.7% of top-ranking pages have reciprocal links, So, doing it authentically with relevant, high-quality sites, to earn reciprocal backlinks can drive traffic and build relationships. 

28. UGC backlinks

When users create content about your brand it could be a blog post, a social media mention, or a customer review, they often include backlinks to your site. These user-generated links are authentic and relatable, showing that your audience engages with your content, also values it enough to share it with others. It builds brand loyalty, as happy customers and fans become your brand ambassadors. 

29. PBN backlinks

Private Blog Network backlinks are received from networks of blogs that are specifically created to manipulate search engine rankings. These might seem temporarily powerful but can be very risky. Search engines like Google understand these networks, and if you get caught using them, you can end up with a Google penalty or even a site ban.

30. Business listing backlinks 

Websites like Google My Business, Yelp, or Yellow Pages let you create a business profile that includes a backlink to your website. These types of backlinks improve local SEO and also make it easier for potential customers to find you. 

31. Video backlinks

Videos are the best storytelling marketing tools and are powerful enough to attract views and audiences. In platforms like YouTube and Vimeo, embedding video content that links back to your site can increase traffic, boost engagement, and enhance your site’s credibility. 

These grab attention receive a 157% traffic boost and keep visitors on your page longer, signalling to search engines that your content is engaging.

32. Government and educational backlinks 

These sites are incredibly authoritative, and when they link to your site, it’s a huge endorsement of your content’s value. But getting these backlinks isn’t easy, they usually require high-quality content, research, or a legitimate reason to get featured. 

33. Blogroll

Blogroll refers to where bloggers link to other blogs they recommend. Being featured on a reputable blogroll can provide valuable backlinks. They are a great way to network within your niche and share audiences. However, they should be organic, but if a blogroll is just a list of irrelevant sites, search engines might consider it spammy. 

34. Digital PR backlinks

You earn Digital PR backlinks through press releases, media features, and online publications that mention your brand. If a major news outlet, a niche magazine, or a well-read blog features you, these types of backlinks enhance your SEO and increase brand awareness. It also provides an opportunity to get your brand in front of a larger audience and reputable media sources. 

35. Author bio links

Writing a guest post or article for another website can get you a chance to include a link to your website in your author bio. These are an excellent opportunity for driving traffic and establishing authority in your niche. 

36. Resource page links

You can earn these links when your website is featured on a curated resource or “link” page. Other websites create these pages to list valuable tools, articles, or services within a specific topic or industry. Getting a backlink from these pages indicates that your content is trusted and relevant to others.

5 Types of Backlinks You Should Avoid

Some backlinks can degrade your site’s rankings and credibility. Here’s a quick rundown of the types of backlinks you should avoid:

Low-Quality, Spammy Sites	Google is smart enough to spot them and may penalize you for irrelevant and spammy links.
Paid Links	Google’s against paid links, this shortcut can backfire and drop your rankings.
Link Farms	Link farms are groups of websites created to increase backlinks. Search engine considers them low value.
Excessive Reciprocal Links	Swapping links excessively can look manipulative to search engines, affecting your rankings negatively.
PBN backlinks	Google is skilled at identifying these networks and will penalize sites linked to them.

Why Trust Us For High-Quality Backlinks?

Creating a high-quality backlink profile can be a tough nut to crack. However, At OutreachMani, we create strategic link-building campaigns with dedication to escalate your website’s visibility, and credibility, ultimately driving more organic traffic and boosting your rankings. Our team is devoted to helping your site to attract valuable, relevant links. 

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