We have been following Edward for a long time; whatever he says is absolute gold. His SEO knowledge is supreme, and in his latest video, he said that most SEO teams don’t realise this, but the ones who are making real money are dividing link building into two types: link producers and association producers.
Link and Associate producers
Link producers: This technique is used by agencies when your site is still building authority. Agencies use a combination of guest posts, niche edits, resource link pages, outreach, and directory links to help you build credibility.
For instance lets say that you write a post, “ How to make your website gain traffic.” The publication posts your information on their website, and you gain a backlink.
Associate producers: This is a harder technique, but when done right, it can be a game changer. The goal of the agencies is not to provide you with a backlink, but to provide an impact on how your brand is perceived by the audience.
The end goal is topical authority, not a backlink only. The agencies operate through PR campaigns, making your content cite original research and studies, and getting your brand mentioned by major publications.
For instance, agencies might create an article saying “ How businesses are making powerful backlinks in 2026”. The article is completely value-driven, and high-authority journals might cite it. You are not only getting backlinks but also brand recognition.
In layman’s terms
Link producer = They get you backlinks
Association producers = They create your brand authority
Blueprint to build your website authority through link Building
Step 1: Understand Google’s Knowledge Graph for foundational links
Take a look at this screenshot: when you type “Ahrefs” in the search bar, you will get this result.
Now move your eyes to the right, and you will see a section known as “Profiles”. This section has their social media linked. Please note that Ahrefs has not done that; Google has done it automatically as part of its knowledge graph. Though these links are “nofollow,” they are treated as a hint.
Now, once you have this information, don’t go all out listing your website on all possible social channels, as that would be a royal waste of your time. This is to show you “foundational links” are created when agencies deal with a new website.
Step 2: Link prospecting
This is the process where agency owners reach out to relevant websites in your domain. For instance, if you deal in farming, agency owners might reach to owners who have “farming-related websites.” This process of collecting relevant websites is known as “ Link prospecting”.
Now the real question: “Why would a high-authority website even want to link your masterpiece ?” This is where the real game happens. The seo professionals use a combination of the following
- Skyscraper technique
- Broken link building
- HARO technique
- PR
- Unlinked mentions
- Image link building
These might seem like a caveat to you, but you will be surprised by the results they can generate. Even if the outreach team sends 100 emails and gets responses to five. They have done a good job.
Step 3: Earn links
This is a tough step, and your content needs to be truly praiseworthy to earn links. Citations, data, visuals, and user experience all need to be there to earn links. Think of the video that you truly like; you saved it or shared it with somebody.
The creator naturally gained a view because of you; the same goes for content creation. Take a look at an Ahrefs article, “How long does it take to rank on Google?” Ahrefs published it in 2017, and this blog post has reference links from 1700 websites, and over time it will gain backlinks again.
Step 4: Buying Links
Buying backlinks is legal. What made your site suffer was buying spam backlinks from non-reputable agencies that trigger penalties. These spammy backlinks tend to manipulate rankings, and that can be the end of your site. Many website owners want a quick win, and hence they try to manipulate the search engine by purchasing low-quality links that hurt your business and wallet.
In closure
In the end, the question has been, “It’s not who builds your backlinks; it’s who builds your brand. It was never about how many backlinks a website could secure; it was always about how many websites cite you naturally so that you build authority, relvenace and reach. Remember, traffic can make you seen, but it’s authority that makes people do business with you.
