Link building builds authority and credibility on Google
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Build authority with link building

Strong backlinks from external sites, internal link building and outbound link building increase your website's credibility and authority in Google's eyes. A good link building strategy is thus quite valuable in the context of SEO. Here you will find answers to all the typical questions about link building.

Nicolai Vittrup
- CEO
Last updated: Apr 18, 2023

Link building creates credibility

Link building is about creating links from other relevant and trustworthy websites to your own website. This can help build authority and credibility, as Google and other search engines use links as an indicator of how relevant and trustworthy a website is.

Besides content, link building is therefore one of the most important factors in search engine optimization.

Link building can roughly be divided into three sub-categories:

  • External link building
  • Internal link building
  • Outbound link building.

Links to your page tell Google that it is worth a visit. It's a bit rough, but the more links your site receives, the higher Google will rank it. You can see them as a kind of recommendation to Google that a website is worth a visit.

Build authority with link building
Strong links can be your shortcut to stronger SEO - and thus visitors to your website

External link building

External link building is about getting links from external websites, and is by far the most important sub-category of link building. Because the more websites that link to your website, the more credible it will appear to Google - and this is something that gives your website's ranking in search results an extra boost.

However, it does matter whether the link comes from a trustworthy and relevant website or whether it comes from an Indonesian casino website, a Russian porn site or some other more or less suspicious site irrelevant to your business.

Credibility is a key word when it comes to link building. To take an example from the real, analogue world, this is the equivalent of a restaurant being awarded a star in the Michelin Guide. Here, a credible source is behind the review and the restaurant will feel this in the number of reservations.

Conversely, a competing restaurant that few know about and few have anything nice to say about is unlikely to have any significant turnover.

The same is true in the digital world aka the internet. Here, however, your website's reputation depends not on publicity but on quality links from relevant and trustworthy websites - so-called backlinks.

Internal link building

Internal link building is when the subpages of a website link to each other. These are links that send the visitor to other (relevant) pages.

Right now, for example, you're on a subpage about link building. Therefore, it makes sense for us to link to the subpage about SEO in general. Because that way we create better coherence between the subpages on our website to give you a better user experience.

Internal link building also makes it easier for Google to understand what your website is about and can therefore help it rank higher.

Internal link building is not least an effective tool to get more traffic on the most important pages of your website. Because with internal link building, you are in control of how many times you link to your most important pages from the other pages on your website.

Outbound link building

Outbound link building is when you link to external websites with relevance to the visitor.

Right now you are reading a text about how important link building is for your SEO. Therefore it makes sense for us to link to an external page that talks about the 200 most important factors for success on Google.

Quality links from trustworthy sites

In short, quality links are links from credible sites with authority and relevance to your website and business.

For example, a link from the Copenhagen Bricklayers' Guild would be a quality link for you if you own a bricklaying business. If you run a restaurant, a link on a recognised food blog would be a quality link. If you have a business selling clay, a link in an article on TV2 about the TV programme "Keramikkamp" would be a quality link.

But you won't sleep on those links - just like a restaurant won't sleep on a Michelin star. Of course, the content on your site needs to be valuable and give people in your industry a reason to link to your site.

Good content on your website is the key to getting quality external links.

If you want to know more about best practices, Erick Back has written an excellent article on link building on his blog.

Is link building shady marketing?

Unfortunately, link building has a bit of a bad reputation outside of SEO circles. For example, Politiken and Zetland have written less than laudatory series of articles on link building. And the kind of linkbuilding they talk about is also one of the less ethical ones.

Because just as there are quality links, there are also more shady ways to get links. For example, web agencies buy links on websites with long lists of links to get their clients quick backlinks.

Another and frequently used way to get links is through so-called PBNs (private blog networks). PBNs are simply "fake" blogs with catchy and often generic domains like nyheder-om-alt.dk, billig-autohjælp.dk or hele-molevitten.dk.

Here you'll find mass-produced blog posts that seem informative on the surface - but only exist so that marketing agencies can link to their clients' websites.

In other words, link building may be less ethical - but it certainly isn't always.

How we work with link building

At Webamp , we have a philosophy that quick PBNs and mass purchased links are not the way to go. We don't want to turn the internet into a landfill, and we always think long-term when we create SEO strategies for our clients.

Google is constantly refining and evolving its algorithms to provide users with the best, most valuable and relevant results. And if we look into the crystal ball, it won't be many years before Google is smart enough to filter out PBNs in search results. That's why we never work with quick fixes when we do link building for our clients.

Instead, we focus on delivering real, high-quality content - content that is relevant to the industry and targeted at each client's audience.

That's why we have our own content department, whose main task is to write valuable and well-written content for our clients' websites. This is partly because content is king when it comes to getting higher in search results - but also because relevant content increases the chance of quality links.

Typical questions about link building

What is link building?

Link building covers both external, internal and outbound link building. Overall, the aim of link building is to make your website appear even more credible and relevant. Good link building strengthens your SEO.

What is internal link building?

Internal link building, unlike the external form, takes place on your own website. You do internal link building when you link from one page to another on your website. 

What is external link building?

External link building is backlinks/hyperlinks from external websites that link to yours. Good backlinks, from credible and strong websites, strengthen your SEO.

What is outbound link building?

Outbound link building is when you create links to external websites. Outbound links must fit into the context and be relevant to the visitor.

Learn more about SEO, and increase your online presence

Whether you're a generalist or a marketing specialist, our SEO specialists have put together some great advice for you on our blog.

Learn more about SEO in Webamp Academy.