6 Types of Backlinks to Get in 2024 and 4 Types to Avoid at All Costs
Editor / December 27, 2024
The importance of backlinks in SEO will continue to remain intact in 2024, and it seems they will keep on influencing SEO in the coming days.
There are quite a few types of backlinks out there. In this FastLinky blog post, I’ll suggest 6 types of backlinks to get in 2024 and 4 types you should avoid.
Backlinks and the Importance of Choosing the Right Ones
What are Backlinks?
Backlinks are links your webpages get from other websites. These links are an important ranking factor for search engines.
Importance of Choosing the Right Backlinks
But search engines don’t treat all backlinks equally. There are some backlinks that top search engines like Google love. There are also some they hate.
So just getting backlinks won’t help your SEO much. You’ll have to carefully choose the ones that Google favours and avoid those that the search engine doesn’t like.
A backlink from a reputed and authoritative site in your business niche will tell google that your pages contain high-value content relevant to that niche.
Otherwise, that reputed site wouldn’t have anything to do with you.
Now Google will take you seriously and consider your pages for a higher ranking in the search results.
Similarly, if your pages are flooded with backlinks from low-grade sites with questionable business ethics, it may harm your SEO campaign.
Some Relevant Technical Terms and Their Meanings
| Backlinks | Links your website gets from other websites. |
| Link Building | Link building is the process of getting quality backlinks from reputed authoritative websites. |
| Link Velocity | The rate at which you get backlinks from other sites. |
| SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) | The process of getting better visibility in search results. |
| SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) | The pages Google returns against a query. |
| Anchor Text | The text part of a link that viewers read and click on. |
| Link Juice (also known as Link Equity) | The value an authoritative site attaches to your pages through backlinks. |
| Robot (also known as bot or spider or crawler) | A component in search engine algorithms that finds, scans and indexes your pages. |
| Crawling | The process through which bots find and analyse your pages for indexing is called crawling. |
| Referral Page | The page that contains the backlink to your site is called the referral page. |
| Destination Page | The page that the referral page links to is called the destination page. |
| HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) | A programming language used to build websites. |
| SEO Scam | Unethical practices to trick search engines into giving you an undeserving high SERP ranking. |
| Link Scheme (also known as Link Spam) | To get backlinks in an unethical manner that violates Google’s guidelines is called a link scheme or link spam. |
| Spam Score | A score is given to sites that indicate the extent of their spammy nature. This is a spam score. |
| Link Exchange | The exchange of links between two or more websites based on an agreement is called link exchange. |
Signs of Valuable Backlinks
The types of backlinks to get in 2024 have some common features. They are listed below.
They Come From Reputed Sites
Reputed sites that carry a lot of weight in your niche, provide you with rankable backlinks.
Remember, one backlink from such an authoritative site can provide you with link juice that 20 backlinks from low-grade sites cannot.
They are Relevant to Your Niche
Google evaluates backlinks that you get by their relevance to your niche business.
Suppose you deal in apparel and you get a backlink from a site that deals in medicine. Wouldn’t you laugh at such a phenomenon?
Well, Googlebot would.
Anchor Text Relevance
Backlinks with anchor text that contains your target keyword are useful to you.
Such backlinks help users and Googlebot understand the relevance of your content to the referral page’s niche.
They Have Contextual Relevance
Webmasters must insert links to your pages at contextually relevant places in their content. The link must align with the context that necessitated its insertion and make sense.
Randomly placed links will make Googlebot sceptic about the legitimacy of the link.
6 Types of Backlinks to Get in 2024
Here are 6 types of backlinks to get in 2024 that may help your SEO campaign.
1. Dofollow Backlinks and Why They Matter
Dofollow backlinks have a “dofollow” attribute in their HTML codes. This tag tells search engine crawlers to pass on the link juice.
When a high-authority site gives you a dofollow backlink, it tells Google that it respects the quality, authority and relevance of your linked content.
Google then takes your pages seriously, because such a vote of confidence from a reputed site is always a mark of excellence.
2. Editorial Backlinks and Why to Get Them
Editorial backlinks come from reputed publications like news sites, blogs etc. These sites inform and educate and usually are of the highest quality and authority.
These links are the most natural and you don’t have to reach out to anyone to get them.
Dofollow backlinks from such sites are always greatly cherished and almost instantly establish you as an authority in your niche topic due to the link equity they carry.
But they are the most difficult backlinks to get because a reputed publication will voluntarily link back to you only when your content is too good and too relevant to ignore.
3. Backlinks From Guest Blogging and Their Importance
In our discussion of 6 types of backlinks to get in 2024, next comes guest blogging backlinks.
When you write for a niche blog site, it is called guest blogging. The webmasters of those sites usually allow you to provide links to your site.
Some webmasters are reluctant to insert the backlinks in the body of the content, but they almost always allow backlinks to you in the author’s biography section.
These links serve both parties. You get an excellent backlink from a reputed blogger, but he also gets relevant high-quality content for his users.
4. Image Backlinks and Why They Matter
In our list of 6 types of backlinks to get in 2024, next comes image backlinks.
You get image backlinks when a webmaster uses your images and gives you a photo credit through a backlink.
These links are also worthy of getting as they reveal your authority and usefulness.
5. Backlinks from Free Tools and Why They Matter
These backlinks come when you provide a useful free tool on your site and webmasters refer their users to your site for it through a backlink.
These backlinks are considered important as they reveal your authority, expertise and usefulness in your niche business.
6. Video Backlinks and Why to Get Them
Video backlinks come from webmasters who use your videos and give you credit through a backlink to your site.
Suppose you’ve a great video of a popular tourist destination. A travel agency may use it on its website and give you a video credit.
These video backlinks will also help your SEO as they reveal your expertise and authority in your niche business.
Backlinks You Should Avoid
While these 6 types of backlinks to get in 2024 will help your SEO campaign, some backlinks will harm it gravely.
Here is a list of backlinks you should avoid at any cost. Google considers these links as spammy and against its SEO guidelines.
Using them in your link-building process may earn you serious punishment from Google. Even vanishing from the SERP altogether is not entirely out of the question.
Private Blog Network Backlinks
This is a clever trick to cheat search engines that Google hates. When a guy owns many websites that exchange links, it is called a Private Blog Network (PBN).
On detection, Google will punish you for indulging in this unethical link-building practice.
Excessive Backlinks from Link Exchange
Link exchange occurs when two or more websites clinch an agreement and give each other backlinks.
This link-building practice is somewhat acceptable if the sites are authoritative and the backlinks they exchange are relevant and contextually valuable.
But Google considers too much link exchange and unnatural link velocity a red flag. So better cut it out from your list of types of links to get in 2024.
Irrelevant Directory Backlinks
Getting your business profile enlisted on low-grade irrelevant business directories may get you several backlinks, but they will get you Google’s wrath too.
Google considers such backlinks spammy and the process to get them a link spam. So stay away from these backlinks.
Spammy Forum Backlinks
Flooding forums with links to your site is an unethical SEO practice as old as the hills. Since this is a widespread link spam, Google is wide awake to this menace.
Don’t do this unless you want to see you on the 1000th SERP or don’t want to show up at all.
Link-Building Best Practices in 2024
So here are the 6 types of backlinks to get in 2024 and 4 types to avoid.
I’ll end this post with some strategies that will immensely help your link-building in 2024.
Create Linkable Assets
Content on your site should be so good and relevant that others will voluntarily link back to it to provide their users with a better user experience.
Create content so valuable and authoritative that it will be the best in its class and natural editorial backlinks will come automatically.
Write Evergreen Content
Focus on creating evergreen content like in-depth how-to guides. This type of content remains relevant and useful for a long time and may yield high-quality backlinks.
Prefer Quality to Quantity
Always give preference to the quality of your backlinks. This is an effective strategy to bag the 6 types of backlinks to get in 2024.
Getting one dofollow editorial backlink from an authority site will easily outweigh 20 backlinks from low-grade domains.
Do a Competitor Analysis
Competitor analysis involves going through a competitor site with a fine-tooth comb to find out its SEO strengths and utilising the insight in your own SEO strategies.
This analysis will help you ascertain the link-building strategies that are working fine with your competitors.
This will help you identify the best link-building strategies for your SEO and build better assets than your competitors.
Do Original Research
A key strategy to focusing on the types of backlinks to get in 2024 is to post original research.
Original research always gets dofollow backlinks as they are unique and relevant pages must link to them for the benefit of their target audience.
These backlinks are not only citations from authorities with brimming link juice but they also establish you as an influencer and a thought leader in your niche.
Stay Miles Away from Link Scheme
Listen, it is very difficult to take Google for a ride. Google can easily detect unethical link-building practices and link schemes.
Why look for trouble? Apply ethical strategies to build a top-class link profile. If you ask me, in the long run only honest efforts yield happy results.
Create fantastic original content that is useful, valuable and relevant to your niche and slowly but steadily your SEO will get the expected momentum.
Conclusion
Well, here are the types of backlinks to get in 2024 and the types to avoid.
Backlinks are an essential component in any effective SEO campaign and I hope this post will help your link-building efforts.
Valuable backlinks lend authority, reliability and a vote of confidence from established leaders in your niche and force search engines to respect your expertise and authority.
Quality backlinks from reliable and authoritative sites have the potential to bump your SERP ranking too.
Don’t indulge in any SEO scam and you’ll be fine.
So go ahead and get some backlinks.
Good luck.
FAQs.
Q. What are backlinks?
A. Links that your pages get from other websites are called backlinks.
Q. Do I really need backlinks?
A. Yes, you do. Backlinks from reliable authoritative sites in your niche business significantly boost your SEO campaign.
Q. What is the best backlink?
A. Dofollow editorial backlinks are the best backlinks.
Q. What is a link scheme?
A. An unethical method of getting backlinks to trick search engines for better SERP ranking is called a link scheme.