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Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the cornerstones of marketing in the digital age. Although SEO is a catch-all phrase that sometimes gets loosely tossed around when talking about digital marketing, the truth is that SEO is comprised of multiple different disciplines.
Three Main Types of SEO
In general, there are three main types of SEO. Instead of one generic description for SEO, the term can mean:
On-Page SEO
On-page SEO involves the keywords, content, and internal links that make up a website. This data tells search engines what your site is about.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO concerns the technical aspects of a website, including page load times and meta titles. This data tells search engines how trustworthy and/or professional your site is.
Off-Page SEO
Off-page SEO involves optimizing content outside of your website to boost signals to search engines about the authority and trustworthiness of your site. Off-page SEO can include backlinks, social media signals and citations in directories that support name, address and phone number (NAP) consistency.
What’s the Most Important Part of SEO?
While these three core components can work together in an SEO strategy to influence search results, they vary in importance depending on your goals. In addition to the three types listed above, entity marketing or entity SEO is also gaining prominence in the age of artificial intelligence (AI).
How Does Entity SEO Work?
Entity SEO is where you seek out opportunities to get mentions about your business in prominent, relevant places around the web. In doing so, you stand a better chance of AI picking up your data to include in outputs for relevant queries made through large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT or Claude. You will want these mentions to be attached to entities or nouns that describe key aspects of your business.
SEO is Constantly Evolving
It’s also important to note that SEO is constantly changing, just like the web. As technology evolves and things like AI enter the scene, how people search change. SEO strategies also need to change and evolve, so it’s a good idea to stay on top if you want your digital marketing efforts to generate success.
What Are Backlinks?
We mentioned backlinks above as a part of off-page SEO, but in 2025, the role of backlinks is changing. Backlinks are a ranking factor, and they have been key components in SEO for many years.
In fact, when Google first got started, its PageRank system relied heavily on backlinks to rank pages. In a way, you can think of backlinks as popular content.
The greater the number of high-authority sites linking to yours, the more search engines can trust you. This raises your “popularity” and makes your site more likely to rank higher.
One of the ways to get sites to point back to yours is through link building. Essentially, you need to give people a reason to include links back to your site from theirs.
Abuse of Authority Has Changed How Search Engines weight Links
SEO link building, often done by seeking out opportunities to submit guest posts to sites to gain backlinks, has been prominent in the SEO industry for many years. Unfortunately, so-called “black hat” techniques have caused Google to change how it weighs backlinks.
Because Google and other search engines place weight on backlinks based on the authoritativeness of the source, some black hat link-building efforts involved purchasing backlinks from well-known publications, colleges, and other high-authority places on the web. This technique is known as parasite SEO, and it works by using (and abusing) the domain authority of a high-profile source to transfer that authority to your site through high-quality backlinks.
Because of the abuse by SEO professionals who build links, Google now examines the relationship between the source and the sites it links to. If there is no relevant connection, for instance, a medical school linking to a gambling site, that link is devalued.
How to Build High-Quality Links in 2025
Given that reputation abuse guidelines are now in place by Google and AI search is becoming more prevalent, business owners and digital marketing professionals need to re-evaluate backlink-building strategies for 2025. To help you solidify your approach, below are some link-building strategies that take into account Google’s guidelines and the AI angle:
Create Link-Worthy Content
At the core of any effort to build links, you must have quality content. This means creating content that people will want to link to. When doing this, think about your industry and what’s important to people who may link back to your content. What types of content will speak to people in your industry, as well as your customers, to attract searches and, potentially, backlinks?
One way to develop content worth sharing is to create resources for others in your industry. For example, if your business operates in retail manufacturing, you could create a resource guide for inventory management.
This resource can attract backlinks from businesses in your industry that may wish to reference the guide in their own content. As an added bonus, the backlinks will likely be more relevant in the eyes of search engines because they are coming from sites that relate to your business.
It’s also a good idea to optimize your content for users, not just search engines. This means including features like a table of contents for easy navigation in large pieces of content or providing sources for your content where site visitors can get more information. Including these features may or may not impact how search engines view your content, but they definitely can have a positive impact on user experience.
Encourage Sharing
Building links involves outreach, but don’t limit yourself to just websites. Instead, publish high-quality content on social media and encourage your followers to share this content.
This approach is an effective link-building strategy because it gets your content in front of audiences that may already be in tune with your industry. Although social media activity is not a ranking factor, it does send signals to search engines about the trustworthiness of your website.
In keeping with the above, make it easy to interact with and share your content on your site. Include questions in your content that encourage feedback. You can also include link buttons for social media sharing to make it easier for someone to link to your content.
Host Online and Real-World Events
Speaking of encouraging sharing, one of the best ways to get people talking about your company is to partner with others to host virtual or real-world events. For example, you could host a webinar with a complementary business in your industry or sponsor a local event and give a presentation with a complementary business.
This is an effective backlink building strategy for 2025 because it promotes your business to more people through the event. You can promote your event to newspapers, sites devoted to industry news, and other relevant places online. In turn, you stand to get positive press, which can benefit entity SEO, as well as backlinks to your site in any reviews or write-ups about the event.
Use Targeted Anchor Text
While backlinks from high-authority sources are great, they may cause more harm than good if they contain an anchor text mismatch. An anchor text is the actual text that is linked. This is the blue text that you click to follow a link. If the anchor text doesn’t align with the page it links, the link may not carry as much value.
For example, if your website sells running shoes and your anchor text says, “athletic gear,” that backlink may not be as valuable. Also, make sure any links you build lead to pages that correspond to the anchor text.
Not all web traffic should be sent to your homepage. Instead, create dedicated pages for the products or services you sell and use anchor text that reflects the page a link leads to.
Work on Personal Branding
“Personal branding” is a buzzword that’s been thrown around by online influencers in recent years, but the truth is that personal branding can be a great way to attract backlinks. You can think of personal branding as establishing your personal experience and professional expertise on the web.
To get started, publish articles on your company's website that contain your name as the author, along with a short bio detailing your experience. You can also start publishing on platforms like Substack and LinkedIn to support your credibility.
Once you’ve developed some content, contact relevant outlets to offer collaboration. Because you’re an expert, you’re more likely to find opportunities with publications to submit your take on news items, industry developments, and things going on in the communities your company serves.
When an outlet publishes your opinion piece, quote, or thought leadership content, you stand a good chance of receiving a backlink to your company’s site. As with other methods we’ve discussed, this can also be a benefit for entity SEO since these types of published works have the potential to get picked up in AI training data for inclusion in outputs for relevant queries.
Engage in Email Outreach
Email is a foundational aspect of link building. You can email potential hosts for guest posting opportunities and build an email list comprised of professionals in your industry.
For guest post outreach, craft a compelling subject line and compellingly pitch your guest post idea. You can use traditional, effective sales techniques to win over prospects when pitching your content for the best results.
Content is once again king for email list subscribers. Give your subscribers a reason to share your content and link to it on their websites.
Use SEO Tools
You can also use SEO tools like those included with services from SEMrush and Ahrefs to find link-building opportunities. These SEO tools can analyze your website, determine various forms of search intent, offer suggestions for content creation, and identify potential matches for pitching your content to gain backlinks.
As a side note, these tools may not be right for all businesses as they can be a bit pricey if you aren’t fully invested in an SEO strategy. On the other hand, many SEO tools offer free or heavily discounted versions with a limited feature set. These options may be good for business owners or SEO professionals who don’t have a need to fully commit to going all-in on ranking pages just yet.
Partner With a Digital Marketing Professional
Building high-quality backlinks can take a lot of time, effort, and strategy, and many business owners find themselves too busy with daily tasks to invest in the process. If you’re in this position, consider investing in marketing by working with a professional.
SEO professionals can not only take care of the outreach for you, but they can also develop content around targeted strategies, ensure that all of the technical SEO information is in place, manage off-page placement for SEO content, and more. This approach frees up time to focus on your business while helping your company’s digital presence grow.
Contact E-Marketing Associates to Learn More About Backlinks in 2025
Contact E-Marketing Associates to get personalized backlink-building strategies for 2025 and beyond. Our experts develop digital marketing solutions that increase leads and grow visibility across the web. Whether you’re looking for a newsletter for business growth, SEO, web design, or other ways to grow your business, our team is here to deliver.
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