Are you smashing your head into the keyboard trying to figure out what is and isn't true about offpage SEO? Here's a simple, definitive tier-list ranking 28 of the biggest link building techniques. And also a few non-link-building techniques.

The 28+ Link Building Methods Ranked as a Definitive Tier List

The video below discusses link building methods and ranks them as a tier list. Originally, this was the only video in this thread and is a stand-alone guide.

Context for Video Tier-List Format

iDubbbz Fast Food Tier List [ReviewBrah]

eBooks Mentioned in Video

• [eBook] https://www.256kilobytes.com/content/show/10325/does-black-hat-seo-work-7-black-hat-link-building-methods-that-are-used-by-professional-spammers-in-2019
• [eBook] https://www.256kilobytes.com/content/show/10337/the-ultimate-guide-to-internet-marketing-seven-years-and-seven-figures-of-internet-marketing-experience-in-seven-in-depth-chapters

Follow Up Video: 27 Link Building Methods Added to the Definitive Tier List

Here's another video with more link building and SEO methods. These methods lean more toward the "guru"/"white hat" side of things.

These methods are listed in the SEO tier list below denoted with asterisks.

Infographic Overview of Tier List Segmented into Black, Grey, and White Hat Methods

Final Offpage SEO Tier List

S-Tier

Guest Posts

The absolute S-tier of link building. Links from the body of content, customizable links and anchor text. Clean links when done correctly.

Full Video Tutorial on How to Find Guest Post Leads

A-Tier

Donor/Sponsor Links

Currently used by many sites that are ranking for very competitive and profitable keywords. "Not selling links." Generally on very authoritative pages that are close to the site's homepage, often linked on the main navigation bar.

*Sponsor Events, Venues, Etcetera

Like donor and sponsor links, but rather than seeking out specific existing pages, funding events/venues/other independently. Have seen sites get quality links from very clean pages using this method, although these are generally gotten incidentally by companies that are already planning to donate money and/or sponsor events.

Doorway Pages, Cloaking, and Hacked WordPress Sites

Blatantly illegal. Still used by various people (mostly in Ukraine et. al.) to great effect. Probably don't do this. A somewhat recent post from Google also discusses these. Cloaking and doorway pages are not necessarily illegal (many sites, such as Forbes, use light cloaking), although are grouped with hacked sites here, since they are often used together.

*Social Media Links

Can be very powerful, especially for posts that get a lot of traction where your link appears on high-profile pages (such as a social media site's homepage or its more important directories).

B-Tier

Wiki Links

Wiki links, particularly Wikipedia's nofollow links, are discussed in more depth in this case study, which suggests that these links can in fact improve SERP position. Wikis are generally good at filtering out spam via neckbeards, which makes these links mostly used by real/"legit" sites.

Expired Web 2.0s

Like PBNs, bu but with web 2.0s, such as site.wordpress.com, asdf.weebly.com, and goldenhookers.tumblr.com. Commonly done on Tumblr because many old account names were made available because of users not logging in for over a year. Limited utility due to a lack of diversity in platform (lack of variety in referring domains), but still used in black hat niches.

*Expired Twitter Account Links

The same as expired web 2.0s, but for Twitter specifically.

Scholarship Links

Even though many of these "scholarships" are completely, fake even terrible scholarships like the "Clash of Clans Lovers" scholarship mentioned in the video (clashofclanslovers.com/scholarships/) have backlinks. Despite being situationally and having many limitations, a number of sites still use these and seem to be relatively successful with them. 10Beasts may or may not have been penalized for scholarship link building with his scholarship page, although that might have been bullshit.

Parasite Pages

An SEO method where instead of attempting to rank one's own site, they create pages on other large sites (such as web 2.0s and social media platforms) and then attempt to rank those. Often blasted with a tier of spam with the concept that search engines will be less likely to suspect pages on large, existing sites of being ranked with spam links. Some sites use these types of pages effectively, such as the Huffington Post parasite example discussed in the video. Often done poorly. Used to be more heavily used back in 2014, plus or minus a few years.

*Content/Site Acquisitions

Situational link building method where you can purchase sites that were formerly owned by others in your niche. Often times redirecting to a specific subpage of your site.

*Email People That You Mention

Works in some cases when you're not blatantly shilling for links (or in the event that the recipient is oblivious that you're blatantly shilling for links).

*Help a Reporter Out (HARO)

A link building methods where you either do an excellent job at it or you do terrible at it. Requires that you get your foot in the door with various reporters. Having an existing reputation can be helpful for getting traction.

*Review/Testimonial Links

Can be good links if/when you can get them. Generally, sites only list a few testimonials, which means unless you're the one of the most notable people who've reviewed a site, product, or service, you will generally have a harder time of getting these links.

*Interviews/Podcasts with Other Sites

Situational and require connections with others within your niche. Can be solid links. Easiest to get if you're notable within your niche.

*Plugin/Theme/Developer Footer Links

If you happen to be a web developer who works with clients, and/or a plugin/theme developer, these can be good. Otherwise, these are likely inaccessible to you, unless you become a developer in those areas.

*Roundups and Crowdsourced Posts

Situational. There are a limited number of roundups that exist. Generally easiest to get if you're notable within your niche.

C-Tier

Blog Comments, Forum Posts, and Fresh Web 2.0s

Generally done poorly and sold by various spammers on freelancer sites for $0.10 per link. Can actually be done relatively cleanly and effectively if you do these personally. 

Social Signals

While social signals are mostly only a thing in that links from social media sites are still links, links from social media platforms are useful when done correctly.

Infographic Submission Sites

Despite the fact that infographics are relatively easy to make, people are often to lazy or busy to make them, which means that infographic sites are often fairly clean, although some are still terrible.

GSA, XRummer, and Automated Link-Building Tools

Bulk automated spam is mostly devalued/ignored, but some ends up slipping through. Hard to penalize sites for this type of spam because of the potential for abuse it would create related to negative SEO.

Suggesting 404 Replacements

Sound effective, but in practice mostly ignored. Even if your link is actually relevant, these emails are generally ignored, because they feel like/are spammy. Constantly shilled as a good method by terrible SEO articles on Medium et. al., but completely overhyped as a link building method.

Bonus side note: Backlinko estimates that roughly 8.5% of outreach emails (in general, not just 404 link replacement requests) get replies. That's probably roughly accurate.

*The "Moving Man Method"

Like 404 replacement, but looking for domains/sites/services that have been shut down. A term created by Brian Dean.*

*Brian Dean comment ITT for a nice White Hat Unlinked Mention SEO

*"Outreach"

Generic term with many different methods within it. Depending on what specific method you're referring to, this could go up or down a tier.

*Unlinked Mentions

As far as outreach-type link building methods go, this is one of the methods that is more likely to result in replies and links. Of course, this requires that there are actually unlinked mentions of your brand, which makes this method limited in its utility due to the limited number of available links. Best for larger sites and/or corporate marketers/SEO consultants who work for larger brands.

*Content Syndication

Can get some halfway decent links. Potential issues with syndicated content outranking your original article.

See Also: [Ultimate Guide] Muh Copyright, Duplicate Content, Scrapers, and Enforcing Infringements.

*Local Listings and Directories

Can actually be good if you run a local business. There are a limited number of relevant local directories, but the ones that are actually good can be halfway decent.

D-Tier

DOC/PPT/PDF Submission Sites

Generic cheap spam. Almost all are complete trash. Basically nothing else to note.

EDU/GOV Links

Complete trash links discussed primarily by people who are unaware that non-causal relationships exist. Anyone who can Do You a Nice SEO with EDU and GOV links is selling trash.

Paul and Angel Links / Profile Links

These links consist of registering a bunch of user profiles on various sites and then adding links to the bios. Often orphaned, which is why users often make a post somewhere on the forum as well to create internal links to their bios. Mostly trash/complete spam, although there are actually real scenarios where you might add links to user profiles; if you have a website, feel free to add a link to your 256 Kilobytes biography/signature field.

Directory Submissions

More generic spam. No one has used a directory for anything since 1997.

GuestBooks

While most sites made in Current Millennium don't have guestbooks, some old sites with guestbooks are still spammed for links. They're basically all trash and complete spam.

Public PBNs

Complete anarchy spam. There are also a number of people who claim to have been penalized by using them. Most of these are run by people who don't give a fuck about you or your site. Regardless, there are sites that rank with these. If you use these, you know what you're getting into.

*"Stealing Inferior Links"

An obnoxious link building method that consists of sending emails that will mostly be ignored without reading.

*RSS Feeds

Having an RSS feed set up can result in sites (generally low-quality sites) syndicating your content. Easy one-time setup. Good idea to have internal links in your article to ensure that scraped content includes a link back to your site, as scrapers may not cite the original source.

*Resource Pages

While often oversaturated, it is often easy to pick up a few of these by sending a few emails.

*Articles Pre-Dated for Next Year

Potential to get a head start on ranking for "[...] 2020/2021/Other" by updating your site's content and title tags in December.

E-Tier

URL Shorteners

The absolute shittiest of all of the terrible, cheapo spam sold on SEOClerks and other similar sites.

Custom PBNs

One of the most "black hat" SEO methods out there. Obscenely expensive with recurring costs. Technically complicated. Inferior to guest posts in basically every possible way.

301 Redirecting Expired Domains

Scroll into the comments to read Hash Brown's comment on these.

*Link Reclamation

Mostly bullshit. If a link to your site was removed, there was probably a reason why that occurred that probably doesn't even have anything to do to you. You look like a fool groveling for links.

*Creating an Affiliate Program

A massive amount of work. Only worth it if you actually want to run an affiliate program, which is enough effort to potentially be a full-time job.

*Microsites

Gimmicky, hit-or-miss link building method. Probably a good idea to set these up as subdomains to avoid recurring domain registration costs. Can be good when pulled off correctly.

*"Linkable Assets" and "Link Bait"

While it's a good idea to have content that is actually good, this creates a "chicken-and-egg" problem. To get links, you'll need visibility, which can be a limitation here for new sites, barring the most exceptional, top 0.1% of content.

*Intern/Job Postings

Potentially fine links, but:

• Require that you actually want to hire someone; and
• Often disappear after a week or two

F-Tier

*The Skyscraper Technique

A method that involves creating content slightly better than the currently-best article. The concept is that everyone cares about the tallest skyscraper, but not the second-tallest. Name created by Brian Dean. While this is a fine method for developing content, to get links, you need visibility, which is not guaranteed purely because of the quality of your content, especially for new sites.

*Link Exchanges

A thing that hasn't existed since like 2001. While you can certainly link to a site that has also linked to you, creating shitty lists of "our nice friends" on your homepage/sidebar as part of a link exchange is far too blatant black hat SEO to be used by anyone in Current Year.

SAPE Links

Hacked links that were, back in like 2010-2014 (plus or minus), sold by people who were probably Ukranian (or similar). Links were generally injected into site sidebars and/or footers. These links aren't sold anymore, are easily detectable as sidebar/footer links, and are also, at the minimum, questionably legal.

Link Wheels

If anyone mentions these to you while trying to sell you SEO services, ignore their opinion on SEO. Easily detectable and generally consist entirely of terrible web 2.0s.

Exact/Partial Match Domains

While domain name used to be a massive ranking signal that allowed for sites to easily rank by registering domain names with keywords in them, they have been substantially devalued (at least by Google; Bing seems to put more value on these). Having a brand name is extremely useful and EMDs are completely pointless in Current Year.

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August R. GarciaLARPing as a Sysadmi...Portland, ORJoined 02 December, 2018Site Owner

August Garcia is some guy who used to sell Viagra on the Internet. He made this website to LARP as a sysadmin while posting about garbage like user-agent spoofing, spintax, the only good keyboard, virtual assitants from Pakistan, links with the rel="nofollow" attribute, proxies, sin, the developer console, literally every link building method, and other junk.

Available at arg@256kilobytes.com, via Twitter, or arg.256kilobytes.com. Open to business inquiries based on availability.