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Pillow Link Building: What It Is & How To Do It In 2024

Pillow link building creates a strong SEO foundation with diverse, low-risk links from sources like comments and social profiles. It’s essential for a natural backlink profile and long-term success.

Home / Blogs / Pillow Link Building: What It Is & How To Do It In 2024
Raghav Tayal
Raghav Tayal

Head Of Operations - Digital Web Solutions

August 4, 2024

Any successful SEO strategy relies on a healthy backlink profile. As search engines constantly refine their algorithms, diverse and quality backlinks are becoming increasingly important. Pillow link-building works to get you safe, accessible backlinks that will help with your SEO efforts on your website. Such a strategy cushions more aggressive link-building by gathering links from low-risk sources like social media, business directories, and small blogs.

This guide will explain pillow link-building, its importance, and the types of pillow links. It will also share practical tips for successful implementation and avoiding pitfalls, as well as recommended tools and resources for the same.

What is Pillow Link-Building?

Pillow link-building is an SEO technique that focuses on establishing a base of low-risk, easy-to-obtain backlinks to a site. These links are usually from less competitive sources and may include nofollow links, blog comments, social profiles, and forum links. Pillow link-building is about creating a natural, diverse backlink profile to improve a website’s search engine rankings and avoid penalties.

Pillow link-building utilizes a combination of different link types from various sources to create a natural link profile that search engines prefer. This strategy can be useful for new websites seeking initial credibility and ongoing search engine optimization maintenance to keep a site’s link profile natural and strong.

Why Build Pillow Links?

Pillow links play a very important role in your overall SEO strategy by laying a strong foundation for your website’s link profile. Here are several reasons why building pillow links is essential:

  • SEO Foundation: Pillow links build a backlink base that establishes your site’s authority with search engines like Google. It helps with your website’s search engine rankings over time.
  • Natural Link Profile: Using different pillow links, you make your backlink profile natural and diverse. Search engines are less likely to penalize your site for an unnatural or spammy link profile.
  • Safety: Pillow links generally carry low risk. It means they are a safe way to start building links without worrying about getting penalized by search engines. They are especially good for beginners in SEO.
  • Better Indexing: These links help search engines find and index your site’s pages, making your content more likely to appear in searches.
  • Referral Traffic: Pillow links, even when not from high-authority sites, can send traffic to your site, increasing exposure and conversions.

7 Different Types of Pillow Links

A varied and natural backlink profile is vital for your SEO success. Pillow links are foundational, low-risk links that get you that diversity. Here are seven pillow links to add to your website’s backlink profile:

1. Nofollow Links

Nofollow links are hyperlinks with a rel = “nofollow” attribute that tells search engines not to pass SEO value (or “link juice”) to the linked website. These links are used when the linking site does not want to endorse the linked site (for example, in blog comments, forums, and some social media posts).

Nofollow links won’t boost your site’s search engine rankings directly, but they help build a natural link profile. Search engines like a balance of do-follow and nofollow links so that the backlink profile looks natural and not manipulated. Nofollow links can also bring referral traffic to your site.

2. Blog Commenting Links

Blog commenting links are created when you comment on a blog post and include a hyperlink to your website. These links are usually nofollow but may be useful for engagement and traffic.

Blog commenting links can help you build relationships within your niche, get traffic to your site, and build a natural backlink profile. Leaving thoughtful and relevant comments shows you are an active participant in your industry and can help build your reputation.

3. Guest Posting

Guest posting means writing articles or blog posts for other websites in your industry. In return, you usually get a backlink to your site (usually in the author’s bio or the content itself).

Guest posting is a great way to generate quality backlinks. It helps with SEO and establishes you as an authority in your field. Sharing your expertise on reputable sites will bring in new audiences, generate referral traffic, and increase your brand’s visibility.

4. Image Links

Image links are images containing backlinks. These may include sharing your pictures on various platforms or even being credited for using your pictures on various other sites.

Image links diversify your backlink profile and can also provide referral traffic. They’re beneficial if you have visually appealing content others might want to share. People using your images and citing you with links increase your site’s authority and visibility.

5. Social Profile Links

Social profile links are links to your site from your social media profiles. These include Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

These links are easy to get and form part of a natural backlink profile. Social profile links help brand visibility and bring traffic to your site. They also bring to the attention of search engines that your site links to legitimate social media accounts.

6. Local Citations

Local citations include your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) on other websites (generally in local directories and business listings).

Local SEO needs local citations. They help your website appear higher in local search results so prospective buyers can locate you in your town. Consistent, accurate local citations also build your business’s credibility and trustworthiness.

7. Forum Links

Forum links are backlinks from participating in online forums relevant to your industry. You can publish a link to your website inside your forum signature or even in your posts.

Forum links bring targeted traffic to your site and connect with your audience. They build a natural backlink profile and show that you are an active participant in your niche. Forum links can be a great source of traffic and authority when used correctly.

When to Build Pillow Links

Building pillow links should be a constant part of your SEO, but there are times when they can be especially helpful:

  • New Website Launch: Building pillow links is one of the first steps when you launch a new website. These foundational links establish your site’s credibility and build a natural backlink profile.
  • Post-Penalty Recovery: If search engines have penalized your site for unnatural or spammy links, pillow links can help you recover. These low-risk links build a natural, balanced backlink profile that may help lift penalties and restore site rankings.
  • Ongoing SEO Maintenance: You should continue building pillow links to keep your backlink profile healthy and diverse. Adding these links helps your link profile stay natural and strong for SEO.
  • Before Aggressive Link-Building: Pillow links must be the foundation before more aggressive and competitive link-building tactics. This way, you can keep your backlink profile balanced and natural and avoid penalties when getting higher authority links.

Tips for Effective Pillow Link-Building

Pillow links are a key part of SEO success. To fully take advantage of this foundational approach, here are some practical tips for making pillow link-building work for your SEO:

1. Leverage Diverse Sources

A diverse backlink profile is important for any website. Use social media profiles, blog comments, local citations, and forum links as sources. This variety seems more natural to search engines and protects your site from penalties for over-optimized link-building. Each type of link builds a cohesive SEO strategy that makes your link profile organic and balanced.

2. Focus on Quality Over Quantity

In building backlinks, quality overtakes quantity. Prioritize acquiring links from relevant and credible sites in your industry. These high-quality links will help your SEO and bring relevant referral traffic. This approach increases the authority of your site and also ensures the links you get are useful in the long term.

3. Ensure Consistency

Consistency is key when building pillow links. Rather than large batches of backlinks at random, aim for a regular and steady output of backlinks. Search engines like the gradual accumulation of links that suggest real growth and less risk of being flagged for spammy practices. The steady accumulation reflects organic growth in site popularity and credibility.

4. Keep Relevance

Always try to get backlinks from relevant sources in your niche. Links from related domains are especially helpful since they improve your website’s relevancy and authority. Search engines credit contextually related links with more authority on your website, boosting its legitimacy and niche authority.

5. Monitor Your Progress

Regularly check the performance of your link-building strategy with SEO tools like Ahrefs, Moz, or Google Search Console. Such tools allow you to track which backlinks drive traffic and rankings and positively impact your SEO. Monitoring your progress helps you understand the performance of your links and informs your future link-building decisions.

6. Use Natural Anchor Text

Diversify the anchor text on your backlinks to avoid search engine penalties. Avoid using keyword-rich anchor text that may appear manipulative. Instead, mix branded, generic, and long-tail keywords. It maintains a natural-looking link profile, which search engines like, and reduces the risk of being flagged for spammy practices.

7. Engage Authentically

Genuine engagement is needed in online communities (blogs, forums, and social media). Give thoughtful insights and interact with others. Authentic engagement builds relationships and quality backlinks because community members trust you.

8. Use Tools Wisely

Use digital tools to improve your link-building. Use BuzzSumo to find popular content that will draw backlinks or AnswerThePublic to get content ideas based on trending queries. They help you identify optimal opportunities to get quality backlinks and create content that reaches your audience.

Common Pillow Link-Building Mistakes to Avoid

Even though the pillow link-building strategy is a relatively low-risk SEO tactic, several common mistakes can hamper its performance. Avoiding these issues can make your link-building efforts worthwhile and helpful to your website’s SEO.

Ignoring Nofollow Links

One common mistake is thinking nofollow links are worthless because they do not pass link juice (they do not directly impact your search engine rankings). However, this perception ignores the wider benefits of nofollow links. These links are important to building a natural backlink profile.

Mixing nofollow and do-follow links is preferable to search engines because it suggests more organic linking. Nofollow links also bring referral traffic to your site. The clicks on these links and visits to your site can increase brand awareness and conversions.

Overusing One Type of Link

Using just one type of pillow link, like only blog comments or social profiles, can make your backlink profile look unnatural to search engines. Lack of diversity may raise red flags and result in penalties.

To avoid this, diversify your link-building efforts. Include image links, forum links, local citations, and more in your pillow links. It creates an organic, varied profile that looks natural and strong to search engines. A varied link profile will avoid penalties and improve your site’s authority and credibility.

Using Links from Bad Quality Sites

Getting links from low-quality/spammy sites is less SEO-friendly than helpful. Links from such sites damage your website and may attract penalties from search engines. Instead, get links from high-quality sites relevant to your industry.

Search engines value links from authoritative sources more. They are less likely to bring you penalties and will likely boost your SEO. Establishing relationships with sites in your industry can produce quality backlinks that increase your site’s credibility and ranking.

Using Irrelevant Links

Links from irrelevant websites may look suspicious to search engines and not deliver any SEO benefit. Ensure the sites linking to you are related to your industry or niche. Relevant links are more likely to be legitimate endorsements of your content, products, or services. They also bring targeted traffic to your site, which may increase engagement and conversion rates.

When your backlinks come from relevant sources, they reinforce your site’s context and authority within your industry, helping with SEO.

Inconsistent Efforts

Search engines do not like building links in spurts or large bursts. Such patterns may raise suspicion and attract penalties. Instead, focus on steady, consistent link-building over time. Adding pillow links maintains a natural backlink profile.

Consistent efforts show search engines that your site is getting endorsements, which can boost your rankings. A steady accumulation of links looks organic and sustainable for long-term SEO success.

Over-Optimizing Anchor Text

Excessive use of exact-match keywords in your anchor text causes over-optimization (which search engines often penalize). Mix anchor texts with branded terms, generic phrases, and long-tail keywords to avoid this. The variation makes your link profile natural and varied.

For example, instead of using the best SEO services every time as your anchor text, use “check out our SEO” or your brand name instead. A natural mix of anchor texts distributes link equity more effectively and prevents your site from appearing manipulative in its link-building practices.

Tools and Resources for Pillow Link-Building

A few tools and resources can help you simplify your pillow link-building efforts:

  • Ahrefs: An SEO tool that analyzes your backlink profile and finds link-building opportunities.
  • Moz: Another popular SEO tool that displays your link profile and tracks your progress.
  • SEMrush: Offers SEO tools, including backlink analysis and competitor link tracking.
  • Google Search Console: A free tool from Google that monitors and maintains your site in Google search results.
  • BuzzSumo: Helps you find popular content and guest posting opportunities in your niche.
  • Answer ThePublic: Tool to generate content ideas and identify blog commenting opportunities.

Final Thoughts

Pillow link-building is an important part of any SEO plan. Knowing the types of pillow links and how to build them can help build your website’s search engine rankings. Beware of common blunders, utilize the proper tools, and monitor your progress to guarantee long-term success. With pillow links in your SEO, you can drive more organic traffic to your site and achieve your digital marketing goals in 2024 and beyond.

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