Makey Updates

Link building strategies that still work in 2025

The phrase "link building is dead" gets thrown around every couple of years, usually after a Google update shakes up the search rankings. Yet here we are, and websites with strong backlink profiles are still climbing the SERPs faster than those relying on content alone. Off-page SEO has simply matured rather than disappeared. Search engines now reward links that look earned rather than manufactured, which is good news for bloggers and small business owners willing to do the work.

What separates a backlink that moves the needle from one that disappears into the void comes down to relevance, context, and the trust signals surrounding the referring domain. A link from a respected Australian business publication, a university resource page, or a niche industry blog carries more weight than hundreds of directory submissions. That shift has forced marketers to think like publishers instead of spammers, and the rewards for those who adapt have been substantial.

Across the Southern Hemisphere, Aussie bloggers and SEOs have noticed the same pattern. Whether you are running a coffee blog out of Brunswick or an e-commerce store shipping to Perth, the playbook that delivered results five years ago needs a refresh. Below are the approaches that still earn high-quality backlinks this year, complete with examples and tactics you can borrow. No worries if you are just starting out, these methods suit every experience level.

Pitching journalists through digital PR platforms

Help a Reporter Out, or HARO, was the original connector between sources and journalists, but it shut down in 2024. Several platforms have stepped in to fill the gap, including Qwoted, Featured, and SourceBottle, the last of which is Australian-owned and used regularly by journalists at The Guardian Australia, the ABC, and SmartCompany. Signing up as a source lets you respond to journalist queries in your area of expertise, and a single mention in a major outlet can deliver a referring domain with serious authority.

The trick is responding quickly and providing quotable, specific insights. Generic pitches get ignored. If you run a small business blog, share a real stat from your own data, such as "73% of Melbourne-based tradies say their leads doubled after updating their Google Business Profile." That kind of detail is gold for a journalist on deadline and far more compelling than a fluffy generalisation.

You can also pitch stories directly to reporters who cover your beat. Tools like Muck Rack and Prowly help you find Australian journalists writing about tech, marketing, or small business. A friendly email offering a fresh angle on a trending topic often beats waiting around for a query to land in your inbox, especially if you can point to a local angle from Sydney, Brisbane, or Adelaide.

Guest posting on genuinely relevant sites

Guest posting went through a rough patch when Google cracked down on low-quality article swaps, but the practice remains one of the cleanest ways to earn contextual backlinks. The key is choosing publications where your audience already spends time, not just any site that accepts submissions. A post on a respected Australian marketing blog run by a prominent agency in Sydney or Melbourne can drive both referral traffic and a powerful dofollow link.

Before pitching, study the site's existing content and look for gaps. If they have written about on-page SEO but never covered internal linking audits, that is your angle. Editors appreciate writers who make their job easier, and pitches that demonstrate familiarity with the publication get a much higher acceptance rate than generic spray-and-pray submissions.

Avoid the temptation to churn out guest posts purely for links. A single, well-researched article on a domain with real readership beats five thin submissions on mediocre blogs. Aim for publications with their own engaged audience, and write something that would earn shares even if the backlink disappeared tomorrow. That is the test of genuine quality.

Broken link building and resource page outreach

This is one of the oldest link building tactics in the book, and it still works because the underlying problem never goes away: websites link to pages that eventually move, get deleted, or 404. Finding these dead links and suggesting your replacement content is a win for everyone, including the webmaster who wants to fix their broken pages.

Tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, and the free Check My Links extension make finding broken outbound links on competitor domains straightforward. From there, you craft a polite email explaining the broken link and offering your content as a substitute. Keep the message short, helpful, and free of manipulative language. Nobody appreciates a long sales pitch in their inbox.

Resource pages are another goldmine that often gets overlooked. Search for "[your niche] resources" in Google, and you will find curated lists compiled by universities, industry associations, and bloggers. Australian TAFEs, for example, regularly maintain resource pages for students learning digital skills, and getting listed there is easier than you might think if your content is genuinely useful for learners.

Building linkable assets with original research

The fastest way to attract backlinks without chasing them is to create something worth citing. Original research, industry surveys, and unique data visualisations act as reference material that journalists, bloggers, and academics link to again and again. It is the kind of content that pays dividends long after publication, sometimes for years.

You don't need a massive sample size to produce something valuable. Even surveying 200 small business owners in your state about their marketing habits produces useful insights. Tools like Google Forms, SurveyMonkey, or the free tier of Typeform let you collect responses cheaply, and platforms like Canva or Datawrapper help turn raw numbers into shareable graphics anyone can embed.

Once your asset is live, promote it through the digital PR channels mentioned earlier, share it in industry Slack groups and LinkedIn communities, and email a few key journalists who might find it interesting. The goal is to make your study the obvious source whenever someone writes about the topic in the future.

The skyscraper technique done right

Brian Dean originally popularised the skyscraper technique back in 2013, and despite endless claims that it is dead, it continues to produce results when executed thoughtfully. The idea is simple: find content ranking well for a target keyword, create something significantly better, then reach out to anyone linking to the original.

The reason this still works is that most top-ranking articles are outdated, shallow, or poorly formatted. A 2025 update with fresh data, better visuals, and clearer structure will often outrank the original on merit alone. From there, the outreach becomes much easier because you are not begging for a link, you are pointing out an improvement.

When reaching out, mention specifically what makes your version better and why their readers would benefit from linking to it. Personalised, value-focused emails outperform templated blasts every single time. Aim to improve the content by at least a factor of two before hitting send, otherwise you have no real reason to bother the person on the other end.

Tapping local communities and Aussie online spaces

For businesses operating in Australia, local link building opportunities are often hiding in plain sight. Sponsoring a community event in Adelaide, hosting a free workshop at your local library in Hobart, or partnering with a Brisbane-based charity can all earn you mentions from local news sites, council pages, and community directories. These locally relevant backlinks signal to Google that you are a real, geographically anchored business.

Aussie online communities are also worth engaging with. Subreddits like r/Australia, r/melbourne, and r/sydney regularly feature threads asking for recommendations, and being genuinely helpful there can lead to organic mentions. Facebook groups for Australian small business owners, LinkedIn local chapters, and even industry-specific Discord servers all function as informal link ecosystems. Just remember that dropping links without context will get you banned, so contribute first and link only when it genuinely helps the conversation.

Local directories still have a place, though stick to reputable ones. Your state government's business portal, the Australian Trade and Investment Commission, and industry-specific bodies like the Australian Marketing Institute all maintain listing pages that pass authority. Pair these with consistent NAP (name, address, phone) details across the web, and you strengthen your local SEO footprint considerably.

Tools worth trying for Aussie outreach

Quick wins to try this week

The link building tactics that endure are the ones built on genuine value and real relationships. Aussies have a knack for cutting through corporate waffle, and the same principle applies here. Reach out like a person, create content worth linking to, and the backlinks will follow. Pick one or two of these approaches, commit to them for the next quarter, and watch your referring domain count climb without resorting to shady shortcuts.