Source: I learned this from Grumpy SEO Guy, Episode 37. The categories are his. I use them on audits and when clients ask what to buy (or stop buying).
The question behind every confused SEO report
A client sends a screenshot: 10,000 backlinks in Ahrefs, but a competitor with 500 links ranks above them.
The report is not wrong. The mental model is.
A backlink is a link from someone else's site to yours. Search engines treat some of those links as trust signals. Others they ignore. A few can hurt.
This post is about where the link sits on the page (comment field, footer, inside an article, and so on). It is not a full lecture on domain authority, anchor text, or follow vs nofollow. Grumpy SEO Guy covers those in other episodes. Here we only sort link types from worst to best, then cover two situations that override the list.
Two rules before the list
Rule 1: One good link beats a thousand bad ones.
The moment people discover backlinks, they search for "buy backlinks" and find packs of 500 links for $5. Those packs are almost always comment spam, forum profiles, or footer networks. They will not move you up. They can move you down.
I would rather spend real money on one editorial mention than on a spreadsheet of junk URLs.
Rule 2: If it can be automated, assume Google discounts it.
Blog comment bots, forum profile generators, footer blast tools. All of it. Engines have seen these patterns for years. Mass automation is the tell.
Keep both rules in mind for everything below.
Link types that rarely help (and often hurt)
These are ordered from weakest upward. None of them are worth buying as a package.
Blog comment links
The classic form: name, email, website URL, comment. Tools can post thousands per night.
Google does not treat that as editorial trust. The same pattern shows up in negative SEO (people pointing spam comments at a competitor). I am not recommending that. It just shows how little value the link type has.
Vendors rebrand them as "quality comment backlinks" with low outbound link counts. Same placement. New label.
Forum profile links
Your URL on a forum profile you actually use is normal. Buying hundreds of profile links to rank a money site is not. Same automation problem as comments.
Footer links
"Site by Acme Web Studio" on every page of a client site. Agencies did this for years. It used to pass some weight. Then everyone did it, networks sold footer slots in bulk, and the signal faded.
One domain linking to you on every URL still looks odd. I have seen dev shops hurt their own rankings with legacy footers across old client sites. If you are a builder, do not add SEO footers by default.
Blogroll links
Sidebars that list "blogs I read," often sitewide. Same pattern as footers: repeated across pages, abused in link packages, mostly ignored now.
Packages you see on Fiverr and link marketplaces
Episode 37 does not name these, but you will see them next to the types above:
| Package name | What you usually get |
|---|---|
| Social bookmark backlinks | Bookmarking site listings, not an article that cites you |
| PBN posts | Articles on sites that exist to sell links |
| Web 2.0 posts | Spun posts on free subdomains (wordpress.com, blogger.com, etc.) |
| Wiki backlinks | Wiki pages, sometimes relevant, often same footprint at scale |
A real article on a property you control, with a link that fits the paragraph, is not the same as 50 spun posts with matching anchors. PBNs in particular fail the spam-site test in the exceptions section below.
Link types worth having
Citation links
The "Sources" or "References" block at the bottom of an article. One URL, one page, usually on-topic. Not the strongest signal you can get, but legitimate. You earn many of these by publishing something worth citing.
Contextual links (the one to prioritize)
The link sits in the body copy, where a reader expects it.
Example: a post on campus NFC wallets says, "For how universities issue card credentials, see this breakdown," and links to your guide. Topic matches. Placement is natural.
When I do off-page work for clients, this is the target: in-content, editorial, on a site that is not a link farm. Anchor text (exact match vs brand vs generic) still matters, but placement comes first.
When the list above does not apply
Exception 1: The linking site is garbage
A perfect contextual link on a penalized domain, a link farm, or a site surrounded by pharmacy and gambling outbound links is still a bad link.
Before you buy anything, ask where the links live. "500 backlinks" often means 500 links on one page, or 500 dead domains.
Exception 2: The linking site is a giant
If a household-name publisher linked to you from the footer, you would take it. You would not email back demanding exact-match anchor text in the third paragraph.
That almost never happens. When it does, say yes.
Paid media caveat: A famous domain is not enough. The URL with your link must be indexed. I have seen four-figure "placements" on major outlets where the page never hit the index. Fine for a logo slide. Zero for SEO. Check indexation before you pay.
How I use this on an audit
I export backlinks and tag each one:
- Spam placement (comments, profiles, footers, blogrolls, bulk PBN/bookmark/wiki packs): stop buying, consider disavow if it is clearly toxic.
- Citations: keep earning them, no panic.
- Contextual editorial: protect and replicate.
- Source quality: run every row through the spam-site and mega-authority exceptions.
Content still matters. You need something worth linking to. But great writing without any trusted links is a slow path in competitive niches.
FAQ
What is the best type of backlink for SEO?
A contextual link inside relevant content on a trustworthy site. The link should read like something a human editor would add, not something a bot sprayed across the web.
Are bought backlinks worth it?
Cheap bulk packages are not. A single real placement on a site you would be proud to show a client can be. The price is usually time (outreach, relationships, assets) or money (PR, sponsorship, legitimate editorial), not $5 for 500 URLs.
Why does my site have more backlinks than a competitor but rank lower?
Because counts include junk the competitor does not have, or because their fewer links come from stronger, more relevant pages. Quality and relevance beat volume.
Where to go next
For the full audio walkthrough (including link attributes like nofollow), watch Episode 37 on YouTube.
If you are launching on a fresh domain, read How I'd Run SEO on a New Website next (Grumpy SEO Guy Episode 16).
For AI Overviews and showing up beyond Google, see SEO in 2025 When Search Is Not Just Google.
For citations in ChatGPT and how that differs from classic link building, see What SEO and AEO Are and When to Use Each.
If you are untangling a penalty, planning launch SEO, or trying to tell a vendor package from a real editorial link, this taxonomy is the first pass I run. If you want help on a live site, get a quote and send your domain plus your target keywords.