You’ve launched your website, created some content, and maybe even dabbled in SEO—but you’re still not seeing the traffic or rankings you hoped for. It’s frustrating, especially when everyone keeps talking about link building like it’s the magic bullet. The truth? It can be—but only if you start at the right time and do it the right way.
With years of experience in SEO strategy and link building solutions, I’ve helped countless sites go from invisible to unmissable using smart, well-timed link building. In this article, I’ll break down exactly when your site is ready to start building links and show you how to do it effectively, step by step.
What Is SEO Link Building?
Link building is about getting hyperlinks from other websites that point back to yours. These links help search engines like Google understand your site’s relevance and authority.
In the broader SEO picture, links act like votes of confidence. When trusted websites link to your webpage, it signals to Google that your site deserves to rank higher. So, while on-page SEO helps search engines understand your content, off-page SEO—especially backlinks—helps build your reputation. This is important for digital marketing in general, but will also help you climb Google’s search engine results pages.
Why Is Link Building Important for New Sites?
Link building directly impacts your rankings and visibility. Google has confirmed links are one of its top ranking factors. When you have high-quality backlinks pointing to your site, you’re more likely to outrank your competitors.
It also builds trust. Think of backlinks like referrals—if reputable sites are sending traffic your way, Google assumes you’re worth trusting. That’s a big part of E-E-A-T: Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness.
When Is Your Website Ready for Link Building?
Link building is an important part of any SEO strategy, but when should you get started grinding for backlinks? The answer is simple: Build links as soon as possible. There isn’t really any reason to wait, if you can help it.
However, when people ask me “When should I build links for my new site?”, they often are really asking: How do I prioritize building links amidst everything else I have to do, and when will my early link building efforts pay off for me the most? So, that’s going to be the focus of this section.
I’ve included an easy When to Build Links Checklist below (which you can also download as a PDF for your own use), but I’ll go into more details for each section, too. Keep reading!
1. Your Pages Are Indexed in Search Results
If Google can’t find your pages, it can’t rank them—no matter how many links you get. Make sure your content is indexed before starting any link-building campaigns.
How to get indexed faster: Submit your sitemap in Google Search Console, build a few internal links, and share new content on social media to encourage crawling.
2. You Have Enough High-Quality Content
No one wants to link to an empty blog or a homepage with three paragraphs. You need solid, helpful content that solves real problems.
What makes content link-worthy? Original research, in-depth guides, useful tools, expert opinions, and well-structured how-to articles.
3. Your On-Page SEO Is Solid
There’s no point in bringing in traffic if your site isn’t optimized.
Technical SEO basics: Make sure your site loads fast, is mobile-friendly, has proper meta tags, and avoids duplicate content.
4. You’ve Identified Target Keywords
You need to know what you’re trying to rank for. That way, the links you build actually push those specific pages higher in the results.
How to find the right ones: Use tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Google Keyword Planner to find relevant, low-competition keywords that match search intent.
5. You’re in a Competitive Niche or Need Faster Results
If your niche is saturated or you’re trying to catch up with established competitors, link building can help you close the gap faster. In competitive spaces, it’s not optional—it’s essential.
6. You Have a Clear SEO & Link Building Plan
Random backlinks won’t help much. You need a strategy.
What to include in your strategy: Your target pages, anchor text plan, outreach targets, content roadmap, and benchmarks for tracking success.
What Happens If You Build Links Too Soon?
If you start link building before your site is ready, it’s like sending people to an empty store with broken windows. It wastes your budget and can even harm your rankings.
Common early-stage mistakes:
- Linking to thin or low-quality pages
- Using spammy directories or link farms
- Over-optimizing anchor text
- Ignoring technical SEO issues
- Not tracking links or setting KPIs
Types of Links + Importance of Each
At its core, link building is about earning links or acquiring them through outreach. But there are different types of backlinks, each with their own value. I’ll break them down for you:
Dofollow Linking [>90% of your links]
Dofollow links pass PageRank and SEO value, helping boost rankings and domain authority. Here’s how dofollow links work and why they matter:
- Backlink profile: A healthy backlink profile should include quality dofollow links to improve SEO signals.
- Domain authority: Dofollow links from trusted sites improve your DA over time.
- Search engine optimization: Dofollow links are a core ranking factor in Google’s algorithm for search engine rankings.
- High-quality links: Dofollow links from reputable sources have more SEO impact.
- Website’s authority: Boosted by relevant dofollow links from credible sites.
- Referring domains: A wide variety of dofollow referring domains improves link equity.
- Organic traffic: Well-placed dofollow links can improve rankings and lead to more search traffic.
Nofollow Linking [<10% of your links]
Nofollow links don’t pass PageRank directly, but they still have value for traffic, trust, and link diversity. Here’s how nofollow links work and why they matter:
- Brand awareness: Nofollow links from high-traffic sites (e.g., forums, directories) can boost visibility.
- Press releases: Most modern press releases are nofollow but help generate buzz and brand mentions.
- Healthy metrics: You’ll want to track both nofollow and dofollow links to evaluate link quality and diversity.
- Diverse website links: A balanced website link profile includes both nofollow and dofollow links for naturalness.
Natural Linking [mostly out of your control]
Natural links are earned organically, without direct action to get them—usually the highest quality. Here’s how natural links work and why they matter:
- Authoritative websites: Links from respected sources that choose to link to your content naturally carry strong weight.
- Organic traffic boost: Natural backlinks tend to come from sites with real audiences, which drives both SEO and clicks.
- Easy content marketing: Publishing valuable content increases your chances of earning natural backlinks.
- Higher SERPs: Natural links help your content show up higher in the SERPs organically.
- Website’s authority: Earned links from other reputable sites improve perceived expertise and trust.
Manual Linking [mostly in your control]
Manual links are acquired through outreach, submissions, partnerships, or tactics like guest blogging. Here’s how manual links work and why they matter:
- Backlink building backbone: Manual backlink building includes direct efforts to place links across the web.
- New website growth: Manual links help get the ball rolling before natural backlinks start arriving.
- Target relevant sites: Manual links work best when placed on contextually relevant websites.
- Use guest blogging: A widely used, not-too-hard tactic to build manual backlinks on relevant blogs or publications.
- Backlink opportunities you control: Identifying sites that accept contributions, link exchanges, or three-way trades for links is completely within your control and can be scaled up or down as needed.
How to Get Started with Link Building in 5 Steps
Ready to get started? I know envisioning your link building checklist feels overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. After years of trial, error, and success across dozens of campaigns, I’ve nailed down a simple, effective system for beginners. I’ll walk you through it now.
Step 1: Analyze Competitor Backlinks
Whenever I’m kicking off a new backlink campaign, I start by reverse-engineering what’s already working for others in the same niche. SEO tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Majestic are perfect for this. If you’re on a tighter budget, free tools like Ubersuggest or Backlinko’s free backlink checker can still give you a solid starting point.
Start with this basic checklist:
⬜ Identify your top 3-5 organic competitors (search your main keyword and list the top ranking domains).
⬜ Plug their domains into a backlink checker.
⬜ Export their backlink profile to a spreadsheet.
⬜ Sort by referring domain authority (DA) and traffic.
⬜ Look for patterns: Are they getting links from guest posts? Are they mentioned in “best of” lists? Is there a lot of forum or blog comment activity? What pages are earning the most links?
If you’re in the fitness space and your top competitor has 50 backlinks to a “Full Body Workout for Beginners” guide, that’s a clue. Build something better—or at least different enough to warrant fresh links.
Pro Tip: Set SMART goals. Don’t just say “get backlinks.” Say, “Earn 30 backlinks to my product page in the next 3 months from sites with DA 40+.”
Step 2: Create Content That Attracts Links
I don’t just write blog posts—I build linkable assets. These are pieces of content that offer such high utility or value that other sites want to cite or reference them. Think:
- Ultimate guides (e.g., “The Complete Guide to Local SEO in 2025”)
- Original research or stats roundups (e.g., “47 SEO Statistics Every Marketer Should Know”)
- Free tools and templates (e.g., “Backlink Outreach Email Template Generator”)
- Case studies with results (e.g., “How I Built 100 Links in 60 Days”)
- Infographics or data visualizations
A template I use when brainstorming link-worthy content: “Is this something someone would want to link to, or do I have to beg them?”
Pro Tip: Use the Skyscraper Technique. Find a page with lots of backlinks, create something better (more updated, more thorough, better design), and then reach out to everyone who linked to the original.
Step 3: Fix Internal Links
Before building external links, I always audit internal links. This helps distribute any link juice I earn to the right pages. If you’ve got a great backlink pointing to your homepage, internal links can funnel some of that authority to deeper content or product pages.
Here’s my internal linking mini-checklist:
⬜ Use descriptive anchor text (not just “click here”)
⬜ Link from high-traffic or high-authority pages to underperforming ones
⬜ Ensure every page is 3 clicks or less from the homepage
⬜ Use tools like Screaming Frog, Ahrefs Site Audit, or LinkWhisper (for WordPress) to automate the process
Example: If your “SEO Guide” is getting links, internally link from that to your blog posts about keyword research, on-page SEO, and link building. It helps pass authority and improves rankings site-wide.
Step 4: Start Outreach Campaigns
This is where most people drop the ball—but it’s also where the real gains happen. I treat outreach like a mix of PR and cold emailing. Your content has to offer value and your emails have to sound like they’re written by a human.
My best-performing outreach formula:
Subject: Quick question about your [blog post/tool/resource]
Body:
Hi [Name],
I came across your post on [topic] and loved the part about [specific detail].
I recently published something similar that I think your readers would find valuable: [brief link description].
Would you consider adding it as a resource? Either way, thanks for the great content!
– [Your Name]
Golden Rules for Outreach:
- Personalize every email—mention their name, site, and a specific piece of content
- Lead with value (what’s in it for them or their audience?)
- Be concise (nobody reads walls of text)
- Follow up at least 2x (usually Day 3 and Day 7)
When to Start Link Building FAQ
Here are some questions people also ask me about when to build backlinks, beginner backlink strategy, and SEO more generally.
How many backlinks do I need to rank?
It depends on your niche and keyword difficulty. Some pages rank with 10 good links. Others need 100+. Use tools like AHREFs and Moz to see how many backlinks the #1 page for your keyword is getting. Aim to match that, and then to beat it.
The top-ranking page on Google has, on average, 3.8x more backlinks than competitors. Use that average to roughly estimate where you need to end up in order to rank higher than your comps.
How long does it take for link building to work?
This is one of the first questions clients ask me, and I always give the same honest answer: It depends—but it’s never instant.
Generally, I start seeing some movement in rankings around 2 to 3 months after consistent link building efforts. But that depends on a few things:
- Your site’s age and authority – Newer sites take longer.
- The quality of the backlinks – High-authority links make a bigger impact.
- Competition level – Going after low-competition keywords shows results faster.
- Your content’s quality – Even great links can’t prop up weak content.
In my experience, the sweet spot is around 3 to 6 months for noticeable SEO impact, but I always think long-term. The backlinks I built years ago still drive traffic and boost rankings today.
If you’re just starting out, don’t get discouraged. Link building is a snowball effect. It’s slow at first, but as you build more credibility and trust, things start to accelerate.
Can I start right after launching my website?
Not yet. Focus on getting indexed and building content first. Get some traffic flowing before you dedicate hours of your day to backlink outreach. Build a foundation—good content and technical SEO. Then focus on backlinks.
Is link building different for new vs. old websites?
Yes. New sites should focus more on trust-building and content promotion. Older sites can go after higher-tier links more aggressively.
Can I stop link building once I rank?
Nope. Link building is ongoing. If you stop, your competitors will catch up and outrank you.
What are the best link building strategies for beginners?
If you’re just starting out with link building, focus on simple, proven strategies that build trust and authority without needing a huge budget. As a link building specialist, these methods always help me land my first real backlinks and start seeing traction in Google:
- Guest posting on small, relevant blogs
- Submitting to high-quality niche or local directories
- Finding and replacing broken links on resource pages
- Building real relationships with bloggers and site owners through social media and community engagement
- Leverage digital PR platforms or media request platforms to get your voice out there as an expert: Help a B2B Writer, Terkel, Qwoted, SourceBottle, JournoLink.
Start Link Building Right Now
Link building isn’t just about getting links—it’s about building authority, trust, and long-term rankings. But timing is everything. Don’t rush it. Make sure your foundation is strong, your content is ready, and your strategy is in place.
Relevant, contextual: the type of backlinks you actually want. Get them with Authority Exchange, a premium link building marketplace without per-link costs. Just a monthly, predictable subscription fee. We specialize in easy ABC linking without manual negotiations, to ensure you don’t get penalized by Google.
