Link earning is the work of giving other sites a reason to link to yours, with no payment for the link. We include it in our SEO management at $1,000 to $1,600 a month, with no separate price; see pricing. Google’s spam policies decide which ways of getting a link are allowed, so they come first below.
By Donnie Strompf. Updated October 2026.
What does Google say about buying links?
Google’s spam policies define link spam as creating links to or from a site primarily to manipulate search rankings (Google Search Central, updated August 28, 2026, read October 19, 2026). The list of examples is longer than “do not buy links”. It covers exchanging money or goods for links, sending a product in return for a post that links back, and excessive link exchanges. It also covers automated programs that create links, low-quality directory links, and optimized anchor text in guest posts or press releases distributed on other sites.
Two items on that list matter to a local business that signs agreements. One is widely distributed links in the footers or templates of other sites. The other is requiring a link in a contract without letting the content owner qualify it. In our reading, a credit link repeated across every site a vendor builds, or a sponsorship contract that demands a followed link, could fall under those lines.
Google says violating sites may rank lower or drop out of results, and that automated systems and human review can lead to a manual action. The Search Console Manual actions report lists unnatural links to your site as one type (Search Console Help, read October 19, 2026).
Paid links are not banned outright. The spam policies call buying and selling links a normal part of the web’s advertising and sponsorship economy, and say it is not a violation when the links carry a rel=”nofollow” or rel=”sponsored” attribute. Google’s page on qualifying outbound links says to mark advertisements and paid placements with sponsored, and that nofollow is still acceptable although sponsored is preferred (read October 19, 2026).
Our test is the reason the link exists. A link someone placed because your page helped their readers is earned. A link paid for to lift rankings falls under the policy. A marked sponsorship is allowed, but we would count it as advertising and not as an earned link.
Earned links need something worth citing, and a reader should be able to check it. One example comes from our own site. On October 17, 2026 we checked 49 agency sites ranking in 10 Florida cities for “digital marketing agency”, and 40 of them (82%) name clients on the home page while 8 (16%) publish a price; the survey shows the counting rules. A dated count with its method shown gives a writer something to cite and a way to check it.
Who is link earning for?
Google says it uses links as a signal of a page’s relevancy and to find new pages to crawl (Google Search Central, link best practices, read October 19, 2026). That makes links worth pursuing only when the pages being linked can be found and are worth reading. The work fits best in these situations.
- A professional services firm. Accountants and consultants hold knowledge that local associations and trade publications may want to quote. A short guide or a dated local data point with a named author gives those sites a page to cite. Our professional services marketing page covers the wider approach.
- A site that inherited its links. A business that hired an earlier provider may carry links it never reviewed. Before paying for more, open the Links report and the Manual actions report to see what exists and whether Google has flagged anything.
- A business that already does things worth citing. A company that sponsors a youth team, hosts an event, publishes its prices or keeps a record other people use has material to point to. Outreach begins with that material, and any link is the other site’s decision.
Hold off if the site has pages Google cannot crawl or pages with nothing worth citing. In our view, fix those first, because a link to a page that cannot be read gives a visitor nothing.
The other parts of SEO have their own pages: local SEO services, technical SEO services and SEO content services.
How do the ways of earning a link compare?
The table sets each route against an example from our own site and what Google’s pages say about it. Where our site has no example, the link would sit on another site’s page and not on ours.
| Way a link is earned | Example asset on our site | What Google says about it |
|---|---|---|
| Survey | Florida agency survey, 49 sites | Linking out to sources can help establish trust |
| Statistics page | Local SEO, Google Ads and AI Search Statistics for 2026 | Anchor text should be descriptive and concise |
| Local sponsorship | None; the link sits on the organizer’s site | Paid placements get a sponsored mark |
| Directory listing | None; the link sits on the directory | Low-quality directory links are link spam |
| Guest article | None; the article sits on another site | Optimized anchor text in distributed guest posts is link spam |
The statistics page ends with a line on how to cite it, and the survey states its method and limits. Both make it easier for a writer to quote the figures correctly. Google’s link best practices page also says that external links, such as citing your sources, can help establish trustworthiness.
What does link earning involve?
Link earning covers five tasks, each tied to a Google help page.
- Reading the Links report. The Search Console Links report lists top linking sites, top linked pages and top linking text. Google describes it as a sample, groups the data by root domain, and notes that listed links may since have been removed (Search Console Help, Links report, read October 19, 2026).
- Building pages that earn a citation. A page that states its data and method, like the survey above, gives a writer a source to cite, and a clear page title supplies words for the anchor text. Donnie leads SEO strategy, Jay Hebbar handles design and development, Roni Strompf writes content and runs paid media. You approve every page before it goes live.
- Outreach that offers nothing in return. Outreach tells a relevant site or local organization that a page exists; the site decides whether to link. Offering money, goods or a free product for the link is on Google’s list of link spam examples.
- Marking paid and user-generated links. Google asks publishers to use sponsored for paid placements and ugc for links in comments and forum posts, so the attribute decides how a link is read.
- Watching for problems. The Manual actions report tells you if a human reviewer at Google has found pages that do not comply with its spam policies, so it is worth opening before and after any link work.
When you compare providers, ask how they earn links. How to choose an SEO company: 20 questions to ask and red flags to avoid includes that question and lists link packages as a red flag. Link earning is part of SEO management at $1,000 to $1,600 a month (see pricing), and the cost guide for SEO shows what raises or lowers that fee.
What should you measure?
Read the reports Google names. In Search Console, the Links report shows Top linking sites, Top linked pages and Top linking text, with the limits above. A rise in linking sites does not prove the links help, and a fall does not prove harm, because the report is a sample.
The Links report also separates external links from internal ones. Its external views cover Top linked pages, Top linking sites and Top linking text, plus the top linking sites for a given page and the backlinks from a given site to a given page (Search Console Help, Links report, read October 19, 2026). Use the per-page views to see which sites sit behind the pages that others cite.
Read the Links report with two questions in mind: which pages gained linking sites, and are those sites relevant to your trade or city? The Top linking text list also shows whether any link text looks stuffed with keywords.
The Manual actions report should stay empty. To trace each number back to a report in an account you can open, read what a monthly marketing report should include, and how to check it yourself.
FAQ
Is link earning priced separately from SEO?
Link earning has no separate price here. It is included in SEO management at $1,000 to $1,600 a month, as listed on the pricing page (prices reviewed October 2026). To buy it alone, ask on the call. Be wary of any quote that sells links one at a time, since buying links for ranking is link spam.
Does a sponsorship link need a special tag?
A link that comes from a payment, such as an event sponsorship, should carry rel=”sponsored” or rel=”nofollow”, set by the site that publishes it. Google says sponsored is preferred and nofollow is still acceptable. Ask the organizer how sponsor links are marked before you pay, because the attribute sits on their page and not on yours.
Should we disavow links we did not ask for?
Usually not. Search Console Help says Google can usually judge which links to trust, so the disavow tool is rarely needed, and that it is an advanced feature that can harm performance if misused. It advises disavowing only when a considerable number of spammy links have caused, or likely will cause, a manual action.
How can we see who links to our site?
Open the Links report in Search Console and read Top linking sites, Top linked pages and Top linking text. Tables hold up to 1,000 rows, and the report does not say which links are nofollow. Export the data as a CSV or Google Sheet to look through it, and treat it as a sample and not a full list.
What anchor text should another site use for a link to us?
Anchor text is the visible words of a link. Google says good anchor text is descriptive, reasonably concise and relevant to the page it sits on and the page it points to, and warns against forcing in keywords. You cannot dictate another site’s wording, but a clear page title gives a writer natural words to use.
Can a guest article earn a link?
A guest article can carry a link, but the spam policies list optimized anchor text in guest posts or press releases distributed on other sites as link spam, as well as paid advertorials with links that pass ranking credit. In our view, an article written for that site’s readers, with a link readers want, is the safer case.
Next step
The free AI-visibility audit comes first, then a 15-minute call. We meet clients by Google Meet or Zoom.