Backlinks for Small Businesses: Which Links Help and Which Harm

Why do backlink offers keep arriving?

Almost every business with a website knows the emails: a hundred backlinks for 99 euros, guest posts on “strong domains”, a place in a directory with “high authority”. Behind them lies a widespread assumption: whoever has many links from other websites ranks higher on Google. The assumption is not wrong, but it is incomplete. It overlooks the fact that search engines treat bought links as deception, and that for a small business quite different links matter than for an online shop with nationwide competition.

This analysis therefore answers one question: Which links from other websites help a small or mid-sized business, which harm it, and how much effort is worth it at all? To answer it, we first clarify the terms and the model from which the importance of links stems. Then we examine what a study shows about the relationship between links and rankings, go through Google’s rules and end with a simple test and a list of sources a business already has.

A link that can be bought proves only that someone paid.

Terms and thinking model: the link as a recommendation

A backlink is a link from another website to your own. The totality of a website’s backlinks is called its link profile. The anchor text is the visible, clickable text of the link. A link marked nofollow or sponsored tells the search engine that the linking site does not vouch for the target or was paid for it. Link building refers to all measures with which a business deliberately acquires links.

Why links matter to search engines goes back to Google’s founders. Brin and Page (1998) described their search engine as a system that makes heavy use of the structure of hypertext. The basic idea resembles citation in science: a paper that many others refer to is considered more significant, and a citation from a frequently cited paper counts for more than one from an unknown one. The text of the link also says something about what the linked page is about. How the same principle works within your own website is described in the article Internal linking.

An everyday analogy makes the core tangible. A tradesman recommended independently by three neighbors gains trust. A tradesman who pays three acquaintances to recommend him gains nothing as soon as this comes to light. Search engines have been trying to detect exactly this difference for years. From this follows the most important rule of this article: a link works because it is a recommendation. Where it is no longer a recommendation, it loses its value or does harm.

How strongly do links work today? What a study shows

Industry studies on “ranking factors” have listed the link profile among the most important influences for years. Miklosik, Evans and Zak (2019) examined the question more closely. They studied Google’s first results page for nine search queries from three areas, information technology, business and finance, at three different points in time. For every page they recorded measures of the link strength of page and domain, encryption, loading time and two measures of how well the content matched the query.

The result is above all a finding about differences. On average, the relationship of each individual factor with the ranking was below 0.3, the threshold the authors set for a meaningful contribution. For some queries, by contrast, the link-based measure for the page was stable and clear across all three measurements, with values around 0.5. For others it fluctuated strongly from measurement to measurement. The authors conclude that there is no universally valid set of factors and that every sector, every search term and every point in time shows its own patterns.

The limits are clear: nine queries, searches run from Australia, link metrics from a tool provider instead of Google’s data, correlations rather than causes. For a business, the result is nevertheless instructive. It speaks against the idea that links alone decide rankings, and for the question of how much weight they carry for your own search terms.

Two readings: main factor or minor matter?

The first reading still considers backlinks a main factor. Anyone competing against large providers for contested terms will not get to the top without links from respected websites. The second reading considers them a minor matter for a small business. For searches with a local reference, the business profile, distance and reviews play a part; for specific expert questions, the content does. I consider both readings correct, but for different situations. For service plus location and for specific expert questions, good content and a well-kept profile are the bigger lever. For general, contested terms, links become more important. There, however, only the path via genuine recommendations leads further, not the one via bought links.

Which links harm? Google’s rules

In its spam policies, Google explicitly counts a number of practices as link spam. Anyone who uses them risks the links not being counted or the website ranking lower. The most important examples from the policies:

Paying for advertising and sponsorship with links is explicitly allowed, as long as the links are marked. A banner on the website of the sports club the business sponsors is therefore unproblematic if the link is marked as sponsored. It then brings no ranking credit, but possibly visitors and standing in the region.

What about bad links a business did not set itself? Every website picks up links from strange sites over time. Google writes in its help pages that in most cases it can assess on its own which links to trust, and that most websites do not need the tool for disavowing links. It is intended for cases in which someone has built artificial links on a larger scale. How to view the links to your website is described in the article Understanding Google Search Console.

The without-Google test: separating good links from bad

From the image of the link as a recommendation, I derive a simple test, the without-Google test. It asks a single question: would this link bring visitors or trust even if there were no search engine? If yes, it is almost always harmless and usually useful. If no, it is worthless at best.

The test has an advantage that goes beyond the search engine. It directs effort toward links that keep working when the rules of search change. The article Visible in AI answers describes that evidence and mentions on third-party sites count for recommendations in AI answers: business profile, reviews, trade media, associations. These are exactly the links that pass the without-Google test.

Where does a business get good links?

Most good links lie in relationships a business already has. It is less about finding new contacts than about making the existing ones visible on the web. The following worked example shows how the links of a regional business might typically be distributed after a year.

• Associations and chambers: Many keep member directories with links. Check whether your entry is complete.
• Manufacturers and suppliers: Lists of certified installers and partners often link to certified businesses. Ask if you hold a certification.
• Customers and partners: Anyone showing a joint project on their website will gladly link if you ask and link back yourself where it makes sense.
• Press: News with news value, such as an investment creating jobs, brings reports and often a link. How to find such occasions is described in the article Press relations for small businesses.
• Trade media: A guest article with real expertise reaches readers and brings a link. How to pitch topics is described in the article Guest articles in trade media.
• Clubs and events: Sponsorships, talks and apprenticeship fairs appear on the organizers’ websites.

For businesses with a fixed service area, regional links matter particularly. The article Local SEO describes that Google ranks local results by relevance, distance and prominence, and names local mentions as one way to build prominence.

The bigger picture

Backlinks show on a small scale what applies to trust in general. It cannot be bought, only earned, and every attempt to stage it is recognized over time. Search engines are a good example: what worked with bought links in the early years, they treat as spam today. Whoever built their reputation on shortcuts loses it at the next rule change. Whoever built it on genuine recommendations loses nothing. The article SEO for SMEs states the principle that technology is the entry ticket and content decides. Something similar applies to links: they amplify good content; they do not replace it.

The limits of this analysis are clear. How exactly Google weights links today is not public. The study by Miklosik and colleagues is based on a few search queries and on link metrics from a tool provider. And how many links a business needs for a particular term cannot be stated in general. What is robust is the direction: bought links are spam under Google’s rules; genuine recommendations are not.

Conclusion and next steps

The question at the start was
links help a small or mid-sized business, which harm it and how much effort is worthwhile. The answer: links that are a genuine recommendation help, for example from associations, manufacturers, customers, the press and trade media. Bought links, link exchanges, low-quality directories and comment links harm, and Google explicitly treats them as spam. The effort pays off above all where relationships already exist. The without-Google test sums it up: a good link would bring visitors or trust even without a search engine.

• Open the “Links” report in Search Console and look at the linking websites.
• Make a list of all the business’s associations, manufacturers, partners and clubs.
• Check for each whether the business is named and linked there.
• Have missing or outdated entries corrected with a short email.
• Check current offers for link packages against Google’s spam list and decline them.
• Note one occasion with news value for the regional press.

A business’s best links are not created by link building. They are created in its relationships and only become visible on the web.