Link Earning vs. Link Building: 5 Key Differences

Is there really a difference between link earning and link building?

Back in 2013 or so, link building became a dirty word– but we still needed links for our websites. Then, magically and out of thin air, the phrase “link earning” appeared on everyone’s radar. We had to justify those essential links somehow, after all.

At that time, link building was associated with spam emails, automated websites run by robots, and questionable article directories. Digital marketers (and their clients) were sick of the spam and the general shadiness.

So, link earning rolled into town. Basically, the gospel of link earning told us that if our content was good enough, webmasters would link to it naturally and without any prompting from us.

So, what was the problem?

The people who preached about link earning either ran big name websites with huge marketing budgets, or worked on marketing teams for big-name websites with huge budgets.

In the real world, the “little guy” never gets what he deserves by being passive and waiting for the recognition to roll in.

No matter what kind of business you’re in, sitting on your hands and waiting is never a recipe for success.

But now, in 2023, we’re removed a bit from the bitter feud between link building and link earning. There’s a real symbiotic relationship between the two concepts, and their differences may not be quite as vast as you think.

In five quick steps, I want to show you how link building and link earning interact with one another. I also want to help you feel better about link building, and renew your enthusiasm for building great links, in the process.

1. Link Earning is the Reward for an Awesome Website

Traditional link earning wisdom tells us that if you put a ton of time into your website, the links will roll in. If you have great content, sensible navigation, stunning web design, and dazzling images, you can’t help but be noticed by other webmasters in your niche.

Before I get deeper into this, let me be clear– your website absolutely should feature all of those elements I listed above. You won’t find new customers or attract any kind of audience with a shoddy website.

Your website must bring something valuable into your target audience’s life.

In the link earning school of thought, you’ve already done the hard work once your website is awesome. Sure, you need to create content on a regular basis, but the links should roll in if you’ve got a great website.

This is what the late Eric Ward called a “passively-obtained natural backlink:”

“A passively-obtained natural backlink is a link given from one site to another site that the receiving site had nothing to do with obtaining. You got a link, and you didn’t know a thing about it. You didn’t ask for it, didn’t pay for it, didn’t swap for it. It just happened.

The search engines all love passive links like this. Why? Because they can be trusted.”

Now, let’s focus on that word– passive.

2. Link Earning is Passive

So, an ideally earned link is one you didn’t ask for, didn’t pay for, or didn’t swap for. Someone just found your content so useful that they linked to it. Building a great website wasn’t a passive endeavor, but earning the link was.

In the real world, this almost never happens. There’s a reason why new restaurants, politicians running for office, and public health campaigns put up billboards all around town– they have to get the word out somehow.

Now, here’s where we get into the weeds a bit. Some folks argue that link earning isn’t passive. Take this article from Branded3, for instance, that talks about how link earning is something you roll into a broader campaign.

They talk about clever, almost sneaky ways, to get links from journalists and webmasters who find your content valuable. They have some great ideas in there, but they’re probably not realistic for a link builder or a small marketing team to implement. They may not even be realistic for a large marketing team to implement.

Link earning relies on PR, promotion, and high-level marketing strategies in this case. The problem is, link building is very specialized. Many expensive ad and marketing agencies don’t even have one link builder among their teams.

Just as you, a link builder, may not have the skills and knowhow to execute a very complex PR campaign, many PR professionals are a little bit uneasy when it comes to building a good link.

So you’re left with either relying on a type of complex, high-cost marketing synergy that’s very difficult to pull off, or passively waiting for links.

Neither one is an ideal scenario for most brands, which is why link builders still exist.

3. Link Building is Marketing, and Marketing is Active

When you boil it down to its essence, link building is just a form of marketing.

You’re gritting your teeth, making the strategy, and getting the word out about your brand. And there’s nothing passive about marketing– your sweat, sleepless nights, late hours at the office, and coffee budget confirm this fact.

Link building is a highly specialized form of marketing, though. I write these articles to help you become an effective link builder. I know you can do it. But it’s never going to be easy. Link building is less complex and costly than the PR campaigns I mentioned in the last section, but it’s still not “light work” by any means.

And link building is just one part of your marketing strategy. I’m passionate about link building, but I’d never advise a business owner to devote all of their marketing dollars to a link building campaign.

That being said, I believe link building is necessary for every brand with an online presence. You have to be thoughtful about it and you have to do it right.

Marketing is active, and link building is marketing.

4. Link Building is Actively Pursuing Links from the Right Websites

If you rely on a passive “link earning” approach, you don’t get to choose the types of links you’re getting. Really, you never fully get to choose the types of links you’re getting– it’s always a webmaster’s final decision to link to your website or not, and anyone with a website (no matter how bad or spammy) can link to you without your knowledge or permission.

But, with a thoughtful link building campaign, you can choose to target links that make sense for your website. If you’re able to build links, in some way you can mold the types of links you get.

I always talk about how important relevance is to link building. If you’re not asking for links from the right websites, you probably shouldn’t be building links in the first place. Since link building is very active, it consumes time, energy, and resources. Sometimes quickly. So you have to be smart about how you spend that time and money.

Again, here’s some wisdom from Eric Ward:

“The key is to be strategically active, rather than randomly active. Make sure you know which sites are the best targets for your link requests. If you aren’t sure, seek advice from someone you trust.  Me maybe.

The goal is not to trick the engines into thinking an actively pursued link is a passive link. The goal is to make sure you obtain the merit based links your site deserves and has a natural and logical reason to obtain.

Identifying the natural and logical targets is 90% of the battle.”

As Eric stated, we don’t want to trick search engines with our links. We want to keep it relevant and natural. That’s why we need to create useful linkable assets for our industry. Our links have to make sense, from both a human standpoint and a search engine standpoint. And we have to be active about pursuing those links.

We can’t just sit on our hands.

5. Link Building is the Work, Link Earning is the Reward

To me, link earning is the result of a job well done. It’s the combined effort of a compelling linkable asset, razor-sharp site targeting, and great outreach. Link building is hard work, but it’s the only way to make sure you earn a link.

You’ve already worked hard on your content, and you want to make sure you get links from the right webmasters. You have to go out and do the work. You have to put that billboard up. You have to be active.

I like how Jesse Stoler put it here:

“Why does the webmaster’s method of discovery matter? So what if you had to manually promote it to a specific person. If anything, isn’t that more impressive? Not only did you have to create a linkable asset, but you had to prospect for sites and promote that asset on an individual basis! In my opinion, that’s earning a link.

That webmaster still has to make the editorial decision to link to you. There’s nothing a link builder can do to force a webmaster to place a link. Nothing legal or ethical anyway.

And that webmaster won’t link to you unless they think your site is worth it. There’s too much at risk for them to link to a questionable site.”

You need webmasters to discover your website and your linkable assets, and you can’t just sit around waiting for it to happen. And, when it comes to securing links, most smaller brands can’t afford high-concept PR campaigns that may not even involve a link building specialist.

You need someone who knows how to build effective links, and can get the job done in the smartest, most efficient way possible.

Link building is the work and link earning is the reward. You put in the effort, and you did everything the right way, so you earned the link.

Final Thoughts

Link building and link earning are joined at the hip. You can build a cheap, irrelevant link to your website. But, when you get penalized from that link or find out it was a waste of time, you’ll hardly feel like you earned anything.

When you put in real link building effort, backed by grit and strategy, your links are relevant and effective. You can mold your backlink profile.

At the end of the day, it’s always a webmaster’s decision to award you a link or not. You can’t control it. There’s the active role of reaching out to those webmasters, but your linkable assets have to “earn” the link, as well.

I advocate earning links. But I can’t advocate being passive and just hoping the links will roll in. Earning links almost always requires link building, and link building is nothing if it’s not active.

Put in the work on your website and content, do your research, perfect your outreach, be strategically active, and find the right sites. Then, you’ll earn every link you build.