21 Benefits of Link Building For SEO, Business Growth, and More

Benefits Of Link Building For SEO

First, let’s talk about how link building can impact your site’s overall SEO.

1. Higher Keyword Rankings

The 1st-ranking results in Google have 3.8x more referring domains than results in positions #2 to #10. A 2026 study analyzing 16,008 data points confirmed that same 3.8x gap is still holding - backlinks remain one of the strongest correlated ranking factors even after the AI Overviews rollout.

Google Search documents that leaked in 2024 also confirmed that links, indeed, matter.

This holds true for your main target keyword as well as others, considering that pages with many backlinks typically rank for a multitude of keywords.

As an example, take a look at these SERP results (via Ahrefs):

2. More Organic Traffic

The higher you rank in search engines, the more traffic you get.

Position #1 in Google still pulls the largest share of clicks - around 27.6% on average in 2026, with position #2 around 15-16% and position #3 around 10%. CTRs are lower than they were a few years ago because AI Overviews now appear on roughly 55% of SERPs and absorb a chunk of traffic before users reach the organic listings.

The key point: for queries that don't trigger an AI Overview, CTRs at the top have actually risen through 2025-2026. And for queries that do trigger one, getting cited inside the AI Overview is the new prize - cited pages earn ~35% more organic clicks than non-cited competitors. Both outcomes depend on the same thing: ranking in the top 10. 92% of AI Overview citations come from pages already ranking on page 1, and backlinks are still how you get there.

3. More Referral Traffic

Referral traffic is the traffic your domain gets from other sites. Getting more of it is often one of the main purposes of building backlinks.

The more backlinks you have, the more referral traffic you’ll get - especially if your backlinks are placed on high-authority sites with high traffic.

4. Higher Domain Authority / Rating

Domain Authority (DA) is a score developed by Moz to predict how likely a website will rank in the SERPs. According to Moz, DA is calculated based on a number of factors, such as a site’s linking root domains and total number of links.

Domain Rating (DR) is similar to DA. Ahrefs developed it to indicate the strength of a site’s backlink profile compared to other sites in its database. 

According to Ahrefs, domain rating is purely link-based - which means it is calculated based on the number and quality of your links and not, for example, based on how much traffic your referring sites get. 

High DR and DA scores don’t automatically guarantee search engine rankings, but they are pretty good indicators of how high you can expect to rank. 

By increasing your DR and DA scores, you'll also be able to rank more easily for competitive keywords.

And, again, this usually indirectly leads to more traffic and more sales, as highly competitive keywords typically have high search volumes and a strong buying intent.

5. Higher Page Authority

Besides boosting your overall domain authority, backlinks also boost your Page Authority (PA). Page Authority is another metric developed by Moz but, in this case, it predicts how likely a particular page will rank. 

It is calculated based on the same factors as your DA score, with backlinks acting as a strong factor. 

The added benefit of PA, however, is that it also influences your overall DA - which means it can also impact your overall rankings. Also, pages with strong authority are more likely to attract external links.   

6. More + Faster Indexing On Search Engines

Backlinks also influence how often Google and other search engines crawl your website and, in turn, how fast they index and rank new URLs on your site. 

This is so because, in general, search engine spiders crawl the web by following links on pages. These can be internal links within your own site or external links pointing to your site.

So, the more backlinks you have, the faster you can expect to rank.

💡 While link building should definitely accelerate the crawl rates for your website, you shouldn’t solely focus on external links. Build internal links as well.

Benefits of Link Building For Brand Visibility And Credibility

Next, let’s discuss how link building can benefit your brand’s online visibility and credibility.

7. Stronger Online Presence

When you start blanketing relevant sites in your niche with your backlinks, you'll notice that your brand gains a lot more visibility.

As your website gets mentioned in more places, more users will get exposed to your site. This can lead to increased brand awareness, especially if the anchor phrases contain your brand name: 

Keep in mind, though, that it’s typically better to use descriptive, keyword-rich anchor phrases for SEO.

Which method you’ll use depends on which benefits you want.

8. Stronger Credibility

Backlinks from reputable sources can enhance your site and brand credibility. 

For example, users who find you through high-authority publications, like Forbes or Harvard Magazine, will naturally assume that your brand is trustworthy.

9. Enhanced Thought Leadership

Earning backlinks from respected sites can position your brand as a thought leader. This recognition can, in turn, help you establish authority and trust within your niche, attracting more followers and customers.

Benefits Of Link Building For Business Growth

Link building doesn’t just impact your website or your brand, but also your business as a whole.

10. More Sales

As you get more traffic (organic and referral) on your website, you’re likely to make more sales (assuming you are selling something).

This isn’t guaranteed since a number of factors, like product quality and user experience on your website, influence buying decisions.

However, higher traffic does increase the likelihood of sales by expanding your pool of potential customers.

Most link building campaigns don't measure ROI in terms of direct revenue, as it's difficult to directly attribute it to links.

Still, if you want to get an estimate, follow this formula:

Increase in revenue since acquiring links  / The cost of acquiring links = Revenue ROI

11. Increased Conversion Rates

A conversion rate is the percentage of website visitors who have completed your desired action, such as scheduling a demo, downloading a resource, or completing a purchase. 

Besides helping you increase conversions in general, high-quality backlinks should also help you increase your conversion rate by getting targeted traffic to your website. 

12. Better Customer Loyalty

As mentioned, quality backlinks help build a strong brand reputation, which can improve customer trust.

And 62% of customers who trust a brand are likely to stay loyal - which implies returning for repeat purchases and recommending your products or services to others.

13. More Business Opportunities

Being recognized and linked to by reputable sites can also enhance your brand's appeal to potential business partners. This also goes back to our point on building brand awareness.

For example, someone may hear about you for the first time on sites that organically get a lot of traffic, like Yahoo Finance. Perhaps they’ve been looking for a partner just like you, but haven’t had a chance to stumble upon you yet. 

Business opportunities you can get from link building may include:

• Partnerships
• Speaking engagements
• Additional media coverage
• Research collaborations
• Business referrals
• Investment opportunities

14. Greater Market Reach

Acquiring backlinks from diverse and authoritative sources also lets you expand your market reach.

Your brand gets exposed to new audiences who otherwise wouldn't have discovered your business, which can lead to growth in new markets.

In that sense, we can compare link building to advertising. However, unlike paid advertising, backlinks don’t stop working for you after you stop paying.

(At least if you’re working with reputable link building agencies.) 

Benefits of Link Building For Website Performance & UX

We’ve already touched upon some benefits of link building for SEO, and SEO usually goes hand-in-hand with overall website performance and user experience.

Still, we thought it’d be worthwhile to look at these benefits separately:

15. Reduced Bounce Rates

Visitors coming from reputable backlink sources are often more engaged, leading to lower bounce rates. 

Bounce rate refers to the percentage of visitors that leave a page without taking any action - and it is likely an important ranking factor, as it indicates how relevant your content is to your visitors’ needs.

• A high bounce rate suggests that users were not able to find what they needed and so they "bounced" off to another page.
• A low bounce rate suggests that users could, indeed, find what they were looking for on your webpage and decide to engage further. 

Users who come to your website through referrals are likely to spend more time exploring your site, especially if your backlinks are placed on relevant websites. 

Low bounce rates don’t just help you get quality traffic but also rank higher in the long run. Positive user behavior and user satisfaction are crucial for SEO.

16. Improved User Interaction

As mentioned, quality backlinks are more likely to bring in visitors who are genuinely interested in your content, which can lead to better user interaction.

For example, quality users are more likely to leave comments, share your content, or engage with your website in other ways.

While this can certainly help your SEO, it can also benefit you in many other ways: 

• It fosters a sense of connection between your audience and your brand.
• It can increase brand loyalty.
• It can lead to future sales and other improvements we’ve discussed in the previous section.

17. Longer Sessions

Finally, visitors from high-quality backlinks are likely to spend more time on your site.

You can track this in Google Analytics by looking at a metric called "Average engagement time per session."

Longer session durations improve your site's performance metrics and increase the chances of conversions and repeat visits.

Other Potential Benefits Of Link Building

Finally, let’s talk about some other benefits of link building that shouldn’t be overlooked.

18. 24/7, Long-Term Promotion

Link building has a longer-term ROI than most marketing tactics. Building backlinks today can help you get organic and referral traffic for months to come.

Compare that to ads, where you continuously have to pump money into your ad campaign in order to get traffic.

Link building is not something you set and forget, though. If your competitors regularly build new backlinks, you’ll probably need to do so as well.

Even so, you can at least count on referral traffic regularly coming to your site for years to come - especially if you build links on high-authority websites.

19. Stronger Online Relationships

A well-planned link building campaign can help you build relationships with other websites and land links with minimal outreach in the future.

After all, if someone liked your content enough to link to it once, they're likely to link to it again.

And if someone likes you enough to link to one of your websites, they're likely to link to your other websites, too.

20. Improved Lead Quality

Traffic from high-quality backlinks is often more qualified for several reasons:

• Visitors from relevant sites are likely to be interested in topics related to your business. Consequently, they’ll be more likely to be interested in your products or services.
• Visitors trust reputable and authoritative sites, so they are highly likely to trust the sites they link to as well.
• Finally, the best sites will have audiences that match your target demographic. So, the traffic coming from their links is more likely to include individuals who are already interested in what you offer.

21. Long-Term Website Benefits (And The Cycle Continues)

This one is kind of a chicken and egg issue, but the more links and traffic you get, the more links and traffic you'll continue to get.

As your pages start to rank higher, more and more people will start linking to them as sources for their own content.

That's why you want to have really high quality content along with lots of links.

FAQs

Are no follow links as valuable as dofollow links?

Nofollow links are not as valuable as dofollow links. However, Google does makes a note of them, as they still appear in Google Search Console's backlinks report. Many top publications like Bustle and the like only link out to other websites using nofollow links, and just getting a mention from those sites significantly boosts your credibility.

Are fewer links from quality sites better than many links from low-quality sites?

In most cases, yes; fewer links from quality sites are better than many links from low-quality sites. They typically go much further to boost your search engine rankings and site authority.

Where can I learn about link building strategies?

There are plenty of excellent resources out there that can teach you how to build links. You can start with our free guides.

Need Someone To Help You With Your Link Building Efforts? Let’s Talk.‍

The benefits of link building don’t stop there. What you get from it highly depends on your goals and the quality of your link building campaigns. 

If you need a trusted partner to help you run them, contact us or browse through our network of sites. We can help you get high-quality links and offer a lifetime guarantee for all placements.