7 SEO Link-building Strategies that Work in 2025

The process of link-building for your website might sound complicated and overly technical; but it doesn’t have to be. Sometimes, the simplest and most straightforward techniques are the most effective, and this still rings true in 2025. In this blog, we’ll breakdown our top 7 actionable SEO link-building strategies that you can use for your website.

What are Backlinks in SEO?

Backlinks are links from other websites that point back to your website. These are crucial in improving your site’s authority score in the eyes of search engines. The more links you have, the more search engines like Google will trust your site. You will then be rewarded with higher ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs).

There’s a common myth that backlinks are no longer as valuable to websites as what they once were, but this simply isn’t the case. Backlinks are still highly valuable in conveying the trustworthiness and quality of your website’s content to search engines. Whilst you can still achieve high rankings even without high-authority backlinks, having the right link-building strategy in place is essential for achieving long-term growth.

Here’s our top 7 link-building strategies that you can action to increase your website’s backlink total, boosting your website’s authority score:

1. Regularly Publish High-quality, Shareable Content

Bill Gates once said that “Content is King“. Even in the age of AI-generated content, this observation has never been more relevant. The more engaging, informative and unique your content is, the more users are going to want to interact with your content and link to it, earning your site an organic backlink (a link that is added to your website naturally).

Google still selects websites for SERP’s based on their relevance to users’ search queries. The more effective your website’s content is in providing users with answers to their queries, the higher chance it will have of ranking.

Writing high-quality, shareable content is therefore the simplest way to start earning organic backlinks, as more users will both find – and will want to link to – your content due to its usefulness.

Regularly publishing high-quality content – and relying as little as possible on AI-generated content – is therefore the bedrock of an effective, long-term link-building strategy, as it will effectively convey the authoritativeness and uniqueness of your brand to your target audience.

2. Research Your Competitors’ Backlinks

A second technique that should form the foundation of any SEO link-building strategy is competitor research. This means more than just clicking around your competitor’s website and stealing a few keywords. This means gaining a solid understanding of where your competitors are sourcing their backlinks from, which can form a blueprint for your own website.

Use an online backlink analysis tool like SEMrush to highlight how many backlinks your competitor has, what pages they are linking to, and what gaps you can exploit. Are they listed in more local directories than you are? Are they missing links from local publications that you could potentially write to?

Learning how your competitors are acquiring their backlinks can act as an important guide for how your own website can start building up more links. Whilst it’s impossible, and indeed undesirable, to perfectly replicate your competitors backlinks, it can give you a good idea of where to start.

3. Leverage Local SEO

If you run a local business, focusing on local SEO is a powerful way to build backlinks and improve your online presence. Local SEO is all about tailoring your website and content to meet the needs of users in a particular location.

The real link-building potential for Small-to-medium sized businesses (SME’s) lies in getting your business listed in local directories, publications and online community spaces. Consider reaching out to local news outlets or community blogs, either to get yourself listed in their directories, or to volunteer to write for their site. If they value the content you offer to their website, or the services what you offer to the local community, it’s highly likely they’ll want to link out to you.

Participating in local events, such as fundraisers, is also an opportunity to gain community backlinks for your business, such as those from local charities. Don’t underestimate the impact of local backlinks as search engines want to reward businesses that have a strong reputation in the local area!

4. Engage in Guest-blogging

Guest-blogging is also still a highly relevant tactic in 2025. Guest-blogging is simply volunteering to write content for other websites within your industry. In return for your content, the website will offer you a backlink.

Good-quality, relevant content can add significant value to website’s within your field. It can save writers and editors time, whilst also allowing them to tap into expertise that they might not posses themselves.

A mutually-beneficial arrangement, guest-blogging can grow to become a significant source of backlinks for your brand. If your content is high-quality enough, readers of the publications might be inclined to link to your content themselves, producing (quite literally) a chain-link reaction. At the very least, readers might want to visit your website and see what unique value your brand offers if your writing made an impression.

Guest-blogging is therefore a great way to boost your brand’s online visibility, as well as earning backlinks the right way – organically!

5. Collaborate within your industry

Sometimes however, building backlinks isn’t about chasing them one by one; it’s about building relationships within your industry.

Collaborating with other businesses or leaders in your industry is a fantastic way to create a solid network of contacts who may end up naturally linking to your site.

Look for opportunities to collaborate on content, join together for research projects, or co-host events and webinars. By working with others in the field, you can not only build long-lasting partnerships, but also secure backlinks from their sites.

6. Broken-link Building

One of the most underused but surprisingly effective techniques still used in 2025 is broken-link building. Put simply, this strategy involves finding broken links on other websites, and then offering your own content as a replacement.

Start by identifying authoritative sites within your niche. Use tools like Screaming Frog to locate broken links on those sites. Once you find one, reach out to the site owner and let them know about it, before then offering your own content to take its place.

Not only is this a helpful way to provide value to other site owners, but it’s also a great way to score a link back to your own site.

7. Skyscraper Link-building

Last but certainly not least is the Skyscraper technique. The idea is simple: Find content that’s already ranking well, come up with ways to improve it, and then promote it online to earn backlinks.

Start by identifying popular, well-performing articles in your field. Once you’ve found them, look for gaps, outdated references, or areas where you can add more detail or expertise.

If the site owner likes your content and agrees that it’s better, they may replace the existing link with a link to your content instead. This technique not only helps you build links but also positions you as an authority in your niche, further boosting your trust score.

SEO Link-building in 2025: Final Thoughts

By taking advantage of local SEO, writing high-quality content, guest-blogging and collaborating within your industry, you can pursue a sustainable, effective strategy for winning more organic backlinks for your site. It will take time, as all good things do, but if you keep at it, your website’s backlink profile – alongside your website’s trust score – will see meaningful long-term growth, enhancing your website’s overall SEO performance.

Reach out to Chameleon for Effective Link-building Strategies

If link-building for your website still seems too daunting however, Chameleon can help. As Birmingham’s leading digital marketing agency, we know all about how to plan and execute effective SEO link-building strategies for a wide range of businesses.

No matter where you’re based in the UK, contact us today to learn more about our industry-leading SEO services, and discover how an effective backlink strategy can revolutionse your businesses’ online performance!