Backlinks remain one of the most important ranking factors in SEO. A backlink is simply a link from another website pointing to yours, and search engines treat them as votes of confidence. The more quality sites that link to you, the more authority your site earns in Google's eyes.
Back in 2009, I ran a promotion offering free backlinks to my readers through a blog network. The mechanics of that specific approach are outdated, but the underlying principle is timeless: building backlinks requires creating value for other people, not just for yourself.
Why Backlinks Still Matter
Google's algorithm has evolved dramatically since 2009, but links remain a core ranking signal. The difference is that quality now matters far more than quantity. One link from a respected, relevant website in your niche is worth more than a hundred links from random directories or low-quality blog networks.
In the early days, people could game the system with mass link building through article directories, blog networks, and automated submission tools. Google caught on and rolled out algorithm updates like Penguin that penalized sites using manipulative link building tactics. The landscape today rewards genuine relationships and legitimately useful content.
How to Build Backlinks in 2026
The most reliable methods for earning backlinks have not changed in principle, even as the tactics have evolved.
Create content worth linking to. This is the foundation of everything. Original research, comprehensive guides, useful tools, and unique data all attract links naturally because other content creators need to reference something authoritative when they write about your topic.
Guest posting on relevant sites. Writing quality articles for other websites in your niche remains one of the most effective link building strategies. The key is to contribute genuinely valuable content to sites your target audience already reads, not to mass-produce thin articles just for the link.
Build real relationships. Get to know other content creators in your space. Comment thoughtfully on their work. Share their content. Collaborate on projects. When you have genuine relationships, link opportunities happen naturally through mentions, recommendations, and co-created content.
Digital PR and expert sourcing. Platforms like HARO (Help A Reporter Out), Connectively, and Qwoted connect subject matter experts with journalists and content creators who need quotes and insights. Providing expert commentary earns you high-quality backlinks from news sites and industry publications.
Fix broken links on other sites. Find relevant websites with broken outbound links, create content that fills the gap, and reach out to suggest your resource as a replacement. This provides genuine value to the other site owner while earning you a link.
What to Avoid
Do not buy links. Do not participate in link exchange schemes. Do not use automated tools to submit your site to hundreds of directories. These tactics can result in manual penalties from Google that are difficult to recover from. If a link building tactic feels spammy or too easy, it probably is.
The Bottom Line
Building backlinks is a long game. There are no legitimate shortcuts that work at scale in 2026. Focus on creating exceptional content, building genuine relationships in your niche, and consistently showing up as a valuable resource. The links will follow.
Hey Mark,
Thanks for this, I saw the trackbacks coming by pretty much instantly so just need to wait for indexing now…. was fantastic…. I have twittered this post 🙂
Hi Mark, Thanks for the great offer. Will work on this today 🙂
Wow Mark, you go man! I’m in.
Let me work on this today, get a good post on my blog with links and a good article together for 1WL.
Thanks, Joe
Hi Mark,
This is definitely worth looking in to and I really like the offer of 21 free links.
I do have a question about Jon’s product. If you sign up for a few months at the monthly rate and then decide to discontinue service, do you get to keep the links you have paid for or do they go away?
Thanks
Rich Hill
Hi Mark,
This is a pretty clever offer and not that much work so I’m going to definitely give it a go. Are you going to write up how successful this offer was for you down the road? I’m very curious to see how it turns out from your end as well. Thanks, Jason
All right!! I’m up for this.
It will take me some time to come up with a nice article though.. How long is you offer is going to be live?
Cheers,
Alex
Mark,
just finished everything up and sent you the article. I’m looking forward to seeing how this works.
Thanks
Joe
Alex — you are in. Let me know when you are ready.
OK — here is the official list of people that are participating. If you are not on this list and you think that I missed you, ping me. I will update the list every day or so.
Forest
Alex (Net)
Bridgett
Joe
Joanne
Rich
Tony
CD
Gandree
Ron
Rusty
@Rich — I am almost certain that the links persist, but I need to make sure. Let me check in with Jon to get you an official answer.
I’m in 🙂
Very well done post and idea.
Roll on the marketing machine!
Hi Mark..well..since I’m getting my zip drive..and I have sites being set up using the Wonderful Adsense templates you provided….I would love the backlinks. Ill reread this again…(Remeber..Noob)…and proceed to do what is required.
May take a bit..But I’ll do it!
Thanks again
Gary
Delete trackbacks? wow I’ve always accepted them.. Thats good to know and makes sense!
Hi Mark…thanks for the offer…I’m in!!! 🙂
@Jason — Sure, I would be glad to.
@Joanne — OK — got you down!
Thanks,
Mark
Hey Mark, This is starting the New Year off right. Thanks! Consider yourself Posted, Tweeted and Stumbled. Now I just have to come up with an article that covers three diverse sites.
Question, I understand about the 2 say trackbacks. Do you have the same problem with pingbacks?
Joe — I have posted your article for review.
Mark
Mark,
I’m in but it will be a while. Got a lot of irons in the fire.
Let me just be sure. I can write a post on one site, and put links to three other sites, right?
Where do you post the articles for review that you mentioned to Joe?
Rich Hill
I sent you an email Mark.
I’m also interested in the status of the links after you cancel your membership.
@Rich — no problem. Take your time.
You write a single post with 3 links in it. The three links can point to any site you want, and you can use any anchor text that you want. I will publish the post to 7 sites on the 1WL network. That will result in 3 x 7 = 21 backlinks to your sites.
Make sense?
Once written, the article is “submitted” to the 1WL network. A human reviews the article and the target site for adherence to the 1WL TOC, which includes a very strict “family friendly” and “non-religious” policy.
Once approved, the post gets dripped out to sites on the network.
Regards,
Mark
@Alex;
Got your email and replied.
As for the links…. As part of the 1WL program, you “donate” a blog to the network. I just took an old domain that I was not using and installed WP. This blog is referred to as the “donor blog.”
The unofficial word in the 1WL forums is that as long as you leave your blog up (after leaving the network), your links will remain.
I have not heard from Jon specifically on this yet…so I am waiting before I give the official answer.
Hi Mark,
Letting you now of my intention. Have already twittered and stumbled, will post a link as soon as my sites come back up. Grrrrrrr Looks like DDOS on my shared hosting. Will work on the article.. 🙂
Joe — your post was approved. You will start seeing trackbacks soon. You should delete them as trackbacks create 2waylinks. 1waylinks are better, so delete the trackbacks.
And remember, the trackback URLs are confidential.
Thanks,
Mark
Ok Mark… I’m in. Thanks. I’ve Backlinked and Twittered… now I’ll work out this Stumble thingy… (I’m over 50… still learnin’)
Mark, I have a question, why don’t I just write for EzineArticles.com and get this for free? I hope someone didn’t already ask this…. Why is 1way better than I can get for free?
I don’t know if I can write 250 articles a month, my imagination is not that good. LOL I’ve resisted PLR, not a lot of them in my niche anyway. Maybe I need to rethink PLR and I don’t have the funds to hire people, not yet anyway….. Thinking out loud maybe you have some suggestions to help with underfunded.
I’ve had people tell me when they submit to EzineArticle they often take the post word for word off their site. That doesn’t seem like a good idea to me.
Thanks!
Mark,
I would love to partake, but I don’t use twitter. I suppose I could sign up, but I just don’t want to deal with twitter at this point. I have enough as it is. Can you think of an alternative?
I’ve considered some of these programs before, somewhat nervous, about Google being able to track the links some how.
@CD — sure. Any social bookmark will do. Thanks!
@Joe — well, the reason to delete them is because natural linking is usually 1way. link exchanges which are more artificial, are 2way. My rule is that if the trackback adds value (like social proof), I leave it. Otherwise, I delete it.
The other issue is that the trackbacks increase the blog network footprint.
@Tony — thanks!
Okay, I stumbled and I added a link from Reddit. I also added a link from my blog.
I will write the article in a few days. I’m working on taxes. Argh!!!!
So do you have any comments on Google’s ability to detect the linking system?
Great way to market it though.
@Gandree — I would delete anything that links back to the 1WL blog posts. So, yes.
@CD — sounds great. Thanks.
The bottom line is that Google can detect anything they put there minds to. My opinion is that Jon does a good job of not attracting attention. However, there is never a guarantee on anything where Google is concerned….
I think the risk is small and worth it.
Plus, at the end of the day I see very little difference between this approach and article marketing from Google point of view.
Regards,
Mark
@Gandree — by the way, my opinion is that you are always better off with a single topic article linking to 3 pages in one site (or at least related topics). So, you might write an article about your shoe website, link to the home page and then deep link to two interior pages (red shoes and blue shoes) or whatever. Just an opinion.
Great Rusty.
We will allow just a few more…..
Hi Mark- I would like to give this a try even though I am a buck newbie. It could take some time to figure it out… Do you still have a space available?
@Earlyriser — no problem. You are in and I will help you. Just post here if you have any questions.
@Rusty — Your post was approved (it required slight moidifications by the 1WL team). Will send you a link. It will fan out to 7 blogs over the weekend.
Remember — backlink URLs are confidential, and you should delete any trackbacks.
Thanks,
Mark
Glad you mentioned the trackback, I’ve often wondered about that.
Will keep an eye out for those. Is there a setting to block all track backs from being posted or maybe a plugin?
I’m trying to find someone working cheep in the Philippines (where I live) to write for me so I can come up with 250 articles. I too really need to know if the links are persistent. Did you ever get an answer?
Thanks….
Mark,
I commented, stumbled, twittered, linked, and have posted an article which I will email you a copy of. This is way cool and I can’t wait to see the results.
Your explanation of deleting the trackbacks was something that I would not have thought of because I always considered a trackback to be another link in.
One other thing that your readers might not have caught is the fact in the very first part of this article you stated that these backlinks will all be “do-follow” links and that is a very powerful point to emphasize.
Thanks again.
Rich Hill
Hey Mark,
Great offer, thanks.
Have put a link to this post on my blog http://www.grandopening.e-storz.com
I will send you an e-mail with the details of the the Web 2.0 submissions soon.
It may be a day or so before I can get a good article put together. Hope that’s OK
John
Mark,
Don’t know if you are still running this offer. I’ve Digg’ed, StumbledUpon and Twittered this post in hopes that I’m not too late to participate. I’m sending you an email with my article just in case I am not too late. I’m not sure how to prove my Web 2.0 submissions but I am more than willing to provide whatever proof is necessary.
P.S. Judging by your Twiiter handle, I think I’m safe in saying “Gig’Em Ags!”
Greg R
OK — closing this offer today, and increasing the number of links to 30. So, you all get 10 posts on the 1WayLinks network instead of the original 7.
Mark
Joe and Rusty — your posts have been published on 7 sites. I will increase the count to 10, and then send you the URLs (which are confidential).
aaah, Mark, I’ll need another day for that post to be done.
Long weekend with the kid and wife 🙂
Hey Mark,
Fantastic. I’ve been trying to get backlinks but it’s
been a struggle. I can’t believe you’re offering this
to people.
I would like in Mark if I could but I would need a
little time to get all the tasks done that you are
requiring.
Later,
Jeff Sargent
Hey Mark,
Bummer, I just went back and read all the comments and
noticed that you closed this off Feb 1 and in my previous
comment saying I want in you’ll notice it’s Feb 2.
Surely you can let one more person in.
Please, I’m begging. LOL! 🙂
Thanks,
Jeff Sargent
@Jeff – no problem. You are in.
@Alex — no problem. Take all the time you need.
@John — no problem.
@Rusty — You lost me. 250 Articles? No need for that, if I understand your intent. The whole point of 1WL is to put a single article on many sites. So, you could write 10 articles, and put them on 25 sites each (total of 250 posts total).
Does that make sense?
Regards,
Mark
@Rich — Thanks. Yes, you are exactly correct. These are DOFOLLOW links for the purpose of SEO. Thanks Mark
Just a reminder to everyone — I think I was not very clear,
so sorry about that.
Your article that I submit to the 1WL network should be 250
words (or more). In that post, you should have no more than 3 links
back to your site(s) using anchor text that you are trying to rank
for.
That will result in 3 dofollow links to your sites from each place
where the article is posted. I will post it to 10 sites, resulting in
30 links to your site(s).
Articles must be completely family friendly.
Does that make sense?
Here is an answer to the backlinks question — what happens if you quit 1WayLinks:
According to Jon, as long as your donor blog is still active and the posts kept live, then nothing happens. You quit paying, but all links stay there. If you take down the donor blog, then all you posts on other people’s sites also disappear.
Hope that clears things up.
Mark
Mark, it’s been a great idea. I’d got your email when you sent it the other day, but felt a bit lazy to sit down and write. Today, I noticed that I’m almost writing a post everyday. Why not writing another one at the end of the day for this interesting offer. So, You’ve got it now in your links@emailaddress.
Keep up the good work and we get addicted to you.
Thanks Rahman — got your submission and will take care of it this weekend.
I’ve found getting backlinks to be quite helpful in creating additional traffic to my website, microjumps.com. Linkmarket is a good site to get solid reciprocal link exchanges. It’s only $19 per month for full membership.
Just wanted to come back and give some feedback. I’ve seen an increase in traffic from the keywords that I targeted. I want to see if it remains stable and/or increases even more. If so, I’ll be a believer.
Seems like a great way to target lower competition keywords/phrases. Any thoughts on how competition ones?
Is there a limit on the # of links you can obtain for any given phrase?
@CD — Excellent. Don’t be surprised if this dances around a bit up and down. You are correct that this system is great for long tail keywords. High comp keywords typically have thousands of backlinks. You can use this system as part of a balanced attack on them — but it will generally not be powerful enough to get the job done on the tough ones.
Very interesting deal:) Sounds good. PUt me on the list. I’ll write a 3 links article and send it to you by mail:)
Hi
iam trying to submit my link in websites that are based in France without reciprocal links where can do this
Mason, you might want to read this post here and tell me your thoughts…
http://danielmcgonagle.name/1waylinks-reversal-on-my-1waylinks-review
Thanks,
Dan
P.S. I see you all over the place in the SERPs, good job!
Hi Mark,
I started to follow up on your offer for free backlinks and ran into family trouble and had to put it off. My grandson was born with a disconnect in his aorta that keeps blood from reaching his lower organs. They did surgery today and the little fellow is doing well but his almost two-year-old brother is living with me. As you can imagine, life has pretty much been put on hold. Since you were nice enough to make the offer, I thought you should know why I disappeared.
By the way, your contact form didn’t load when I tried to get to it from this page.
thanks mark for the great offer, this really nice idea
your design kicks some serious ????
sharing such helpful information is great it can help me at my backlinks tnx!!!!
Well thank you for all the info in this blogg I hope all the work I am doing with bloggs pays off in the end. I have spent lots of time and money trying to launch an online bussiness only to find i get no traffic.
Great article on creating backlinks
Thanks for sharing such helpful information .
It is really nice to see people like sharing this kind of private information. But everyone is talking about the back links. I understand it maybe a major ranking factor in search engines but what about the other factors. I have heard that there are more than 200 ranking factors in order to get on the top of the search engines. But have not read more than 20 to 30.
Good idea to get much more one way backlink to your websie/blog.
Good luck Mason.
Thanks. Good luck to you as well.
Thanks for the tips. This is great stuff!