What is a Natural Link?
A natural link is a backlink that is earned organically without any direct request, payment, or manipulation. These links are given freely by other websites because they find your content valuable, relevant, or trustworthy. Unlike links built through outreach or link schemes, natural links occur as part of the web’s normal referencing behaviour.
Natural links are typically editorial in nature and align closely with search engines’ guidelines for link building.
Why Natural Links Matter
Natural links are considered the gold standard in SEO. Because they are given voluntarily, they signal genuine authority and trust to search engines. Earning natural links shows that your content resonates with others in your industry or niche.
Benefits of natural links include:
- Strong SEO value and link equity
- Reduced risk of penalties from search engines
- Improved trust and credibility
- Higher potential for organic traffic
- Long-term authority building
Focusing on creating high-quality, useful content is the best way to attract natural links.
Example in Use
A blogger writing about content strategy links to your guide on topic clusters as a helpful reference for their readers. You didn’t ask for or pay for the link, and it fits naturally within their content. That’s a classic example of a natural link.
Sites with lots of natural links tend to perform well in organic search over time.
Related Terms
- Editorial Link
- Link Building
- Organic SEO
- Content Marketing
- White Hat SEO