Editorial links
What are editorial links?
An editorial link is a backlink that a writer or editor adds by choice, because your page is a useful source for their readers. Nobody paid for it, traded for it or placed it themselves. Editorial links usually sit in the main body of an article, next to text about the topic.
They are the opposite of paid links and other link schemes, and they are the kind of link Google’s systems are built to reward.
Editorial links can come with no outreach at all, when someone finds your content through search, or as the result of white hat outreach such as digital PR, where you tell a journalist about your research and they decide to cite it. The decision to link stays with the publisher.
Why editorial links matter for SEO
Google’s guidance has long described good links as those given freely, as an editorial vote. Editorial links are the hardest to fake and the safest to have: they come from relevant pages, they are surrounded by context, and they bring real readers.
They also compound. A page that ranks well because of editorial links gets found by more writers, who link to it in turn. That is why pages with original data or clear explanations often keep earning links for years.
How to earn editorial links
- Publish things writers need to cite: original statistics, studies, free tools, clear definitions and expert analysis.
- Make findings quotable, with a clear headline number or statement and a visible methodology.
- Rank for the queries writers search when they need a source, such as “[topic] statistics”.
- Tell relevant journalists and bloggers when you publish something new.
- Keep the page updated, so it stays the source people link to.
Editorial links FAQ
What is an editorial backlink?
A link a publisher adds because they chose to cite your content, not because you paid, traded or placed it yourself.
Can editorial links be nofollow?
Yes. Some publishers nofollow all outbound links as policy. The link is still editorial and still brings traffic and credibility.
Related SEO terms
A backlink is a link from another website to yours. Search engines treat backlinks as votes of trust and use them to rank and discover pages.
Link buildingWhite hat
Link building is the work of getting other websites to link to yours, to earn referral traffic and the trust that helps pages rank.
Digital PRWhite hat
Digital PR is earning coverage and links from news sites, blogs and online publications by giving journalists stories, data or expert comment.
Paid linksBlack hat
Paid links are links bought to pass ranking credit, without rel="sponsored" or nofollow, which breaks Google’s link spam policy.
Link equity, or link juice, is the ranking value a link passes from one page to another, based on the linking page’s authority and relevance.
Information gain is the new, useful information a page adds beyond what other pages on the same topic already say.