Editorial Links (What Are They, How to Build Them, & More)

Editorial links are the gold standard of SEO, earned naturally from authoritative sites. This guide explains what they are and how to attract them at scale for stronger rankings.
Book A Demo Call
Our team is happy to walk you through the system step-by-step.
Schedule Your Free Demo
 


Editorial links are the gold standard of SEO: Organic, earned, authoritative. 

I’ve built thousands of links across hundreds of campaigns. Guest posts, niche edits, press releases, PBNs, tiered link building…you name it.

And none of them hit as hard as the links I didn’t have to build at all.

High quality editorial links are a pure dopamine hit! A DR (domain rating) 80 site linking to your content because they genuinely thought it was worth referencing – no outreach, no invoice, no negotiation. You acquired a link simply because your content was that dang good.

Even jaded black hats like me secretly love white hat editorial link building, because the sites are typically high authority and pass direct relevancy signals.

It’s why I always recommend building link bait content as part of the initial phases of a new site launch. The quicker you can attract those links organically, the quicker it’ll compound and the more you’ll rank in search engines like Google.

With that being said, any time I see a high authority, relevant link from a real site with real traffic, I’m happy. I don’t care how you got it. You can earn it naturally or pay for it. Doesn’t matter. You’ll get the same SEO ranking equity from it (more on this throughout the piece).

The problem is that, as usual, there’s a lot of disinformation, Google propaganda, and legit bad advice out there (just write good content and wait for 500,000 links to appear).

So in this guide, I’m going to teach you everything I know about acquiring the highest value type of back link in the SEO game. Including, what editorial links are, some real examples, some secrets on buying them, and my best tips for building them naturally at scale. 

Editorial links are backlinks that other websites give you without you asking for them. They are earned naturally, meaning you don’t pay for them or do any type of request (including cold outreach). With editorial link building, someone found your content, thought it was worth referencing, and linked to it on their own.

Unlike paid guest posts or niche edits, editorial links are earned purely on merit, which is why Google treats them as the gold standard of white hat SEO. When a journalist cites your data in an article or a blogger references your guide as a source, that signals to Google that it’s a high quality page.

Even jaded black hats like myself secretly love white hat editorial link building, because the sites are typically high authority and relevant to you. Any time I see a high authority, relevant link from a real site with real traffic, I’m happy. I don’t care how you got it.

Here’s a quick editorial link example we earned from Keyword.com (a DR 70 site) after I published a mega guide on 50+ link building statistics:

In this case, a trusted publisher was looking for a valuable resource to link to for its readership, so they decided to link to us. This is a high DR, relevant site linking to us from a page with real traffic and keyword rankings.

That is absolute link gold in 2026. I’d take one of those links over a dozen unrelated links.

A strong editorial link usually checks a few boxes:

  • It comes from a relevant, authoritative site in your niche (though domain rating and domain authority are not as important as they once were).
  • The linked page earned the placement naturally within the content.
  • It points to something genuinely useful, like original research, data, or a comprehensive guide.
  • The anchor text fits the surrounding context without looking forced.

If you’re building content worth citing, editorial links tend to follow.

Editorial links are extremely valuable for SEO because they signal to Google that a page is a valuable and credible source of information to readers. Think of it like a stamp of approval or a vote of confidence for your website.

That vote of confidence increases your search rankings and sends valuable referral traffic to your site. Editorial links are also 100% natural and risk free.

We know that backlinks are important for SEO because Google uses them to evaluate a website’s credibility and value. And editorial links are the most valuable links of them all.

If I had to sum up the reasons why editorial links are so good for SEO, they would be:

  • They come from relevant sites
  • They carry zero risk
  • They are contextually relevant and from real pages
  • They typically come from authoritative sites
  • They send interested traffic from one site to another (and those users typically interact, which further boosts rankings)
  • They typically come from sites that don’t link out often, which improves the link’s value

They’re the fairy tale links that white hats dream of when they say just write good content and build backlinks naturally. By the way, all of those shills 100% buy links and just don’t admit it.

Anyways…

You need to think about it from Google’s perspective. The whole idea of using links as a vote of confidence in search rankings was to display the consensus best result for a query, wasn’t it? So, when a site that Google trusts links to another simply because the content was valuable to its audience, that tells Google’s algorithm to boost the page in the rankings.

We also know that Google uses a number of advanced algorithms and ranking systems to evaluate the quality of a link. Those are your Penguins, PageRanks, SpamBrains, and all the other strange algo monikers Google comes up with. It’s a super complex topic, but the long and short of it is that Google has infinite data on what a “real link” looks like, and is scarily good at devaluing low quality links. 

Editorials are as clean as they come and pass the most link juice. Plain and simple.

Editorial links are the best type of link you can build, because they pass so much authority and trust to your website. But they are not easy to acquire. That’s what makes them so valuable.

The pros of editorial links are mostly SEO related: Rankings boost, relevant traffic, and brand awareness. And the drawbacks are time and effort related: They take a long time to build, and they require visibility (or promotion). There’s also no guarantee you land them.

Let’s cover those issues in more detail before moving on:

Pros

  • SEO rankings boost: Editorial links pass major SEO link juice to your site because they come from trusted, authoritative sites that Google respects. One well placed editorial link on a high DR site typically provides better results than a dozen random guest posts on regular sites.
  • Relevant traffic and conversions: One of the biggest advantages of editorial links is that you get a link inside content that your target audience is already reading. That means the traffic that clicks through is warm and qualified. That relevance also sends strong topical signals to Google, so you’re getting an SEO boost and conversions from the same link.
  • Brand awareness: When your name shows up in a respected publication, people start recognizing you. Over time, that builds up reader trust (and interest from other publications).
  • No risk: Editorial links are as white hat as it gets. You’re earning placement inside real content on real sites, so there’s nothing to trigger a manual action or make you sweat during the next algorithm update.

Cons

  • Time consuming: Earning editorial links takes a lot of time. You need to do the research, create the content, build relationships with editors, and wait for people to find your stuff organically.
  • Requires visibility: Nobody can link to you if they don’t know you exist. You need some kind of distribution strategy (social media, outreach, PR, whatever it takes) to get your content in front of the bloggers and journalists who might reference it. I could write a whole piece on how to do this (maybe I will…). It’s that complex.
  • Takes a long time: You could be looking at anywhere from days to months before earning your first link, depending on your distribution strategy. Compare that to buying a link, where you send a payment and have a live backlink usually within 24 hours.
  • Not guaranteed: You can pour serious effort into a piece of content and still end up with zero editorial links. I’ve seen it happen many times. There have been times that we’ve built tons of quality link bait content only to get barely any links naturally.  
  • Difficult to scale: Because each editorial link depends on genuine content quality and real relationships, you can’t just throw money or VA hours at the problem and 10x your output. You also need a team to research, write, and promote content. When you combine researching and writing with promotion and outreach, you start to see a clearer picture: These free links are not free, and it’s hard to earn them.

The main difference between editorial links and paid links is that editorial links are earned naturally without request or payment, whereas paid links are paid placements (surprise!).

Both are extremely valuable for SEO and should be used together. In other words, you should be creating high quality, original content that naturally attracts backlinks AND buying backlinks.

Let me cover more of the differences between editorial links and paid links:

  • Acquisition: This one is obvious, but editorial links are free (usually) and paid links are…well…not free. And these aren’t just free web 2.0 links that make a small difference. They are high powered links that directly improve rankings.
  • Control: When you buy backlinks, you control everything. That includes anchor text, page placement, timing, and pretty much everything else except for how long the link stays live. Editorial links, not so much. You’re at the mercy of the webmaster.
  • Cost: I know I just said editorial links were free, but sadly, nothing in life is actually free. Editorial links take a lot of work. You’ve got to create link worthy content and get it ranking or raise awareness somehow. That takes a ton of time. You need to think about other hidden costs as well. What if your content isn’t ranking well for a key term because you’re sitting around waiting for links to magically appear? Meanwhile, your competitor is ranking #1 using paid links and taking all of your business.
  • SEO Value: Google has no exact way to determine if you’ve paid for a link or not. They aren’t spying on you (at least not in that way…they for sure are spying in other ways). But they do have ways to approximate whether or not you’ve paid for a link. 

Yes, you can buy editorial links using several different methods. Some of my favorite ways of buying editorial links are as follows:

  • Paying contributors to high authority news sites like Forbes.com, Entrepreneur.com, or TheGuardian.com for placements
  • You can outsource link building to agencies with industry connections to land placements on high authority, relevant websites
  • You can purchase an editorial link by using digital PR to land news coverage or recognition in major news outlets, local websites, or other online sites. For example, you could donate to a local charity or sponsor a city event and generate a high authority backlink

While “true editorial links” are earned naturally with no money changing hands, Google has no way of determining which links were paid for and which were “natural” (at least not directly).

While even I admit that you should focus on acquiring editorial links using white hat methods like HARO outreach, link bait, and doing interviews on podcasts (more on this below), the true value of an editorial link is its authority and appearance as a natural link. Whether or not you truly paid for it bears no weight on its SEO equity to your site (so long as you don’t spam them).

Let me show you an example from PressWhizz to explain my point further.

Say, hypothetically, you were to buy a guest post from us on a site like Daily.uk.com, a DR 90+ website:

This website regularly links out to other websites in a natural manner, just like a normal website would. They have tons of articles like this with clear “guest post” or “sponsored content” vibes:

Sure, Google. A UK news blog just happens to be linking to a West Palm Beach car crash attorney. That’s totally natural!

If you were to pay us (not saying you should, but just if…) to get you a DR 90+ guest post on a relevant, high authority website with real organic traffic, it would look like an editorial link to Google. They would have no idea that you paid for it. 

The link profile would be natural. The site would not look like a PBN or link farm. And the link would be on a relevant page with high quality content. 

Should you do white hat editorial link building and try to get links naturally? Yes. Should you also buy editorial links when it makes sense to do so? 100% yes. It’s not one or the other.

By the way, there are plenty of places to buy backlinks. You don’t have to use us if you don’t want to.

You now know that editorial links are backlinks that you earn naturally by creating high quality content. Now, I’m going to show you a few examples of natural links in the wild so you can get a better idea of what they look like.

Here’s an example of where the online marketing giant, HubSpot, created a guide to Facebook marketing that attracted thousands of links.

Here’s the guide:

And here you can see that it generated over 3,400 backlinks:

Let’s take a look at that .edu link from Maryville University. That university created an article on the history of social media (no thanks). Since HubSpot had a guide on Facebook marketing with interesting statistics, the university cited them in their article. Here’s how the anchor text looks in the post:

Let’s jump out of the online marketing niche for a second and check out another massive evil corporation, NerdWallet.

As if they didn’t have enough backlinks already, they’ve got a nifty emergency fund calculator that shows how much the working poor should have stashed away for when the world ends:

 

This tool has earned them over 1,700+ inbound links, including this ultra relevant, high authority link from New York Life on how to manage finances as a married couple.

Here is the calculator cited as a source at the bottom of the article:

By the way, here’s exactly why editorial links are so valuable for SEO. This link is from a relevant article on a DR 81 website that ranks for dozens of keywords and gets 70+ real visitors a month (from the USA, a tier 1 country):

You really can’t beat that, can you?

My top methods for building editorial links safely include creating linkable assets like original research and statistical pieces, HARO outreach, podcasts, digital PR, and broken link building. The best method for you depends on which stage your website is in and what your budget or resources look like.

Some good examples of how to build editorial backlinks include publishing industry statistics like “50+ SEO link building statistics”, creating infographics, and reaching out to journalists with newsworthy stories that feature your brand.

Below, I’ll cover more on my top methods for building white hat editorial links along with examples of each and how to get them yourself.

Create Linkable Assets (Stats, Guides, etc.)

The #1 way to build editorial backlinks is to create high quality content that other websites want to link to. The most common examples are statistics roundups, recent news, complete guides, listicles, ideas posts, tools like calculators, and infographics or map-o-graphics.

In SEO circles, we typically call these posts “linkable assets,” but the true OGs of SEO know this stuff as link bait.

Link bait is when you create compelling content that informs, teaches, or entertains so well that others want to naturally link to you. It’s the #1 link building technique among white hats.Here’s a good example from Ahrefs.com. They’ve created this stats page about AI SEO (what else?) entitled “90+ AI SEO statistics for 2025” that has generated 600+ backlinks for them:

While it is time consuming and difficult to conduct this research, I urge you to think about how much it would cost you to buy 600+ backlinks. Assume the average decent link costs somewhere between $200 to $300, and you’re looking at a six figure bill.

So, as black hat as my heart is, even I can’t deny the power of white hat link baiting.

Alright, let’s get on to the types of content you should create to bait editorial links from high authority publications:

Original Research & Statistics

Original research is the gold standard of link bait in the SEO world. No matter your niche, budget, or goals, you should be creating, at the very least, statistics pages related to your industry.

These pages take relatively little effort (you’re just compiling stats), but can generate dozens, if not hundreds, of high quality links.

Here’s an example of a statistics page in the AI niche that generated nearly 500 links for an AI startup:

It doesn’t have to be anything fancy. I just suggest that you conduct original research in your niche and publish findings as often as possible (and curate it on your social channels).

You never know who will pick it up and link to you.

Here’s a study from Graphite.io on….you guessed it…AI!

Amazing content? Eh, kind of. To be fair, I did read the whole thing.

But what really matters is that this content got them a DR 90 link from Backlinko:

When to Create Original Research Pages: At least once per month, publish original research and share it on your socials, industry forums, and Reddit, if possible.

Infographics or Map-O-Graphics

Infographics or map-o-graphics make great link bait because they’re visually appealing and easy to digest. They’re also super easy to share and link to. If a journalist ever needs a source of info, they can just link to your infographic and call it a day.

Did you know that infographics boost page traffic by 12%? Yes, they’re that effective. We’ve got an entire page on link building statistics that you’ll find fascinating, by the way.

Infographics have also proven to increase time on page and reduce bounce rates, so you get even more SEO benefits by creating these.

Long story short, create infographics as much as possible, especially to go along with your original research.It doesn’t take that much work to turn original research into an infographic or map-o-graphic. Here’s an example from Howmuch.net where they turned research on apartment rental prices in the USA into a freaking cool map:

$5,000 to rent an apartment in NYC? Is this a joke? I’m moving to Wichita.

This map probably took an hour to two to make, and it generated 34 backlinks (many of them from relevant sites):

Pro Tip: Creating geo based statistics and infographics is a great way to build high authority backlinks, because local city or government websites might link to you.

Listicles

Listicles are about as link bait-y as it gets. These are the BuzzFeed-type posts you see everywhere on social media, like:

  • 25 ways to tell you’re a 90s kid
  • 50+ AI tools that every SEO needs
  • 30 bucket list places you need to see before you die

Here’s an example of Travel + Leisure using the link bait listicle to perfection with their “50 best small towns in America” guide:

I’m sure you’ve seen these on your feed at some point. I remember back in 2014 when listicles were all the rage. It’s not quite that easy anymore, but listicles can still bait links really well if you do them right.

Instead of just pumping out random listicle spam, I recommend creating niche specific “ideas posts.”

Here’s a great example from, who else, HubSpot (God, these guys are annoying). It’s 100 side hustle ideas:

There are a few reasons this is a great ideas post for their audience. For one, money is worth less and less by the day, so people need 2-3 jobs to survive. But aside from that, people reading online marketing blogs tend to be more entrepreneurial than the average bloke off the street.

In case you’re wondering, this ideas post has generated 1,703 backlinks to date:

Pro Tip: Think of what type of ideas listicles you could create for your niche, then search around and see what competitors are doing. You could even ask AI, “Here are my listicle ideas. Do any competitors in x niche do something similar?”

Complete Guides

Guides generate editorial links because people often search for “how to” key terms, and blogs tend to link to valuable sources of information on interesting topics. Since complete guides are usually free, they’re an excellent source of information for most people.

This one is self explanatory, so I won’t go into a ton of detail. My only recommendation here is to find something with some existing search volume or something that is trending (use Google Trends) to increase the chances of it attracting links.

Here are some good examples.

How to Travel and Work Remotely from World Travelers:

Everyone wants to work online and travel, so no surprises here. It’s generated 35 links so far:

And here’s a great example from Rocket Mortgage: “How to save for a house.” This is another super popular topic that appeals to a very broad audience:

It’s generated more than 300 backlinks, many of them from high authority, relevant publications:

Both Redfin and House Digest are real estate industry publications, and as you can see, both pages are related to saving for a house (one is another page on how to save for a house).

That’s the Holy Grail of link building.

Nothing warms my heart like seeing 3 massive industry publications all linking to each other in an effort to squash the smaller publishers of the world.

Free Tools

Creating free tools that are valuable to your audience or to other businesses in your niche is another surefire way to earn links naturally. 

For example, here’s a cost of living calculator from NerdWallet:

Life pro tip: Don’t live in Silicon Valley.

Now that pretty much anyone can vibe code a tool in a relatively short amount of time, there’s no excuse for not having one.

The issue now is, in a world where anyone can vibe code a tool in 0 seconds flat, where is the competitive advantage?

I’m of the opinion that proprietary data and methodologies are your main advantages now.

Check out this next-level free tool from SolarReviews.com that’s generated nearly 150 links for the site:

This tool estimates your solar installation costs for you based on your zip code. But you don’t just enter your zip code. Any tool can do that now.

Instead, they walk you step-by-step through estimating your costs based on their proprietary knowledge of the industry. Including your utility provider:

They even take into account your most recent utility bill:

Tl;DR: The biggest advantage you have is that anyone, no matter their skill or budget, can create highly valuable tools for link building. It’s on you to find out which type of tool would work best for your audience and which proprietary knowledge you can bake into it.

Digital PR

Digital PR is the industry standard for obtaining high authority links naturally from major publications. 

With digital PR, you’re earning backlinks from real journalists and publications without asking for them directly. Instead of cold emailing webmasters, you’re pitching stories that editors want to cover on their own. Essentially, you’re giving journalists or bloggers something valuable that they actually want to write about.

Here’s a good example…

Say you run a personal finance site and you conduct an original study analyzing average rent prices across 50 US cities over the last five years. You package the data into a clean report with interesting takeaways, like which cities saw the biggest spikes and where rent is trending down.

Then you pitch that study to journalists who cover housing and economics. A writer at Forbes picks it up because their readers care about cost of living trends, and they write an article referencing your data with a link back to the full study on your site.

Another good example could be the story of a 20-something millionaire living in Thailand who got his start in SEO at the age of 12:

Outlets love running stories like these.

If you produce high value content with original research that someone’s audience will love, there’s no reason for them not to post it.

Guest Posts

Guest posting for editorial links is a great way to earn top tier SEO backlinks. You’re placing valuable content on relevant publications that directly addresses their audience’s pain points.

This is one of the best ways to build a brand and position yourself as an expert in your industry.

Look at the biggest publications in your industry, and you’ll find founders doing this to earn 100% white hat, mega authority links.

Here’s one from the founder of Salt Security, an AI security firm:

Solid article. A bit of a long read, but not bad for a Sunday morning.

He gets to put his company’s link in the footer and in his bio:

It also boosts brand recognition and EEAT, so it’s a big win all around.

Go on Podcasts

Podcasts are one of the most underrated link building strategies out there. You go on someone’s show, have a conversation about your expertise, and walk away with a backlink from their website when the episode goes live. Most podcast hosts link to their guests’ sites in the show notes without you even having to ask.

A lot of podcasts publish full episode transcripts on their site, too. So you get your name, brand, and link embedded in a page full of keyword rich content that Google can crawl. One 30 minute conversation can generate links and indexable content that works for you long after the episode airs.

I’ve been trying to do this more often, but I’m too busy writing these blogs…

Here’s an example where I went on the Market Movers podcast and landed a high authority link to my SEO Careers website back in 2024:

Here is another underrated hack for building editorial links on high authority publications.

I’ll admit, broken link building is typically associated with link building gruntwork you carry out in the early days of building a website’s link profile.

But it’s actually a great way to build high value links as well. Major publications have just as many broken links, if not more, than smaller websites. So why not see if there’s somewhere to sneak your link in?

Say I wanted to get featured on Moz.com for a topic about backlinks. I could go to Ahrefs, pop Moz.com into the search bar, and click on Broken Backlinks on the left hand side:

Then, filter by the word “link,” because that’s what we do here at PressWhizz:

I’d get a ton of broken backlink building opportunities to pitch an article for. Here’s a good one for “link building guide”:

This page is currently missing from Moz.com’s blog, and in my opinion, would be a great addition.

So, I could reach out to them with an email like this:

“Hey Moz team, I was doing some broken link building research in Ahrefs and noticed that you don’t have an article for this link anymore. That’s a huge opportunity going to waste. I’m Charles Floate, and I’ve been building links since I was 12. I’d love to write this guide for you as long as you let me link back to PressWhizz somewhere in the body of the content.

Here’s what I’d like to include in the blog and why I think it’s a good idea for your website…

Your conversion rate probably won’t be too high, but think about the value of the links that you could land. 

One tip that most SEOs overlook when building links is setting up Ahrefs Alerts notifications. Ahrefs Alerts are an automated monitoring feature that notifies you of several important SEO events, such as new/lost backlinks, brand mentions, and keyword ranking changes.

In the context of editorial link building, Ahrefs Alerts ensure you get to an editorial link opportunity (such as a broken link) before your competitors do. You can also set up competitor alerts, so you get real time intelligence on your competitor’s link building strategies. I love seeing when they gain a new link. Where did they get it? How good is the link? How can I get a similar link or better? Or, when they lose one, can I poach it?

The alerts are usually low quality and quite slow, but there are some nuggets of gold in there if you’re persistent.

For example, if a link on a major website breaks, you’ll know instantly and can contact them offering a replacement. Or, if a major website mentions your brand name, you’ll get an alert in your email, and you can message them politely asking them to link to your site when mentioning you.

Note: You 100% need to invest in link building tools for acquisition and management, like Ahrefs, Semrush, and Backlinkcrm.io. In 2026, link building is a volume, optimization, and management game. You won’t be able to compete if your competitors are getting better links AND spending less to acquire them. For more tips like this, I suggest you read my complete guide on backlink management and why you need it in 2026.

Final Thoughts

Editorial links are the best performing and most rewarding type of SEO link in the business. Getting a natural, free link from a high authority publication is the link building equivalent of getting a fat affiliate commission in your account. It’s a major hit of dopamine.

I firmly believe that learning how to build and bait editorial links properly is a huge competitive advantage in any niche, and I always recommend creating link bait content when formulating a link building plan for a new website.

Even a jaded black hat SEO like me sees the value in building 100% natural links from relevant, high authority websites.

If you’re trying to improve your SEO, my advice to you is to combine a steady stream of paid links with a white hat link building campaign designed to land editorial backlinks via the methods you’ve learned here: Linkable assets, podcasts, guest posts, etc.

Google is terrifyingly good at ignoring low quality links, and they’re even better at spotting link farms and PBNs, so any attempt to game the system almost certainly won’t work in 2026.

As always, the best strategy is the one that works and fits your current budget. If you can buy high authority links from top tier publications, I suggest you do it. If you’ve got the knowledge and resources to create link bait that gets those links naturally, then you should do that too. Ideally, you should combine both.

As always, best of luck and happy link building.

Visited 6 times, 1 visit(s) today
Signup For FREE Or
Book a Demo Call