Link building has been at the forefront of search engine optimization for many, many years. The need to cultivate connections with other websites and earn both authority and trustworthiness is crucial to visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Earning various backlinks and credentials from other reputable entities can have a meaningful impact on visibility, but not all links are equal. Some links provide real benefit, while others can actually cause harm. How should you know which links to pursue?

Continue reading to find out about tips that’ll help efficiently elevate your rankings by choosing the right types of links to pursue.

Focus on Established Brands

Not every brand has a reputation that makes earned links from it inherently valuable. While earning dozens or even hundreds of links from relatively unknown entities can bolster rankings if the links are earned, relevant and contextual, this is a rather inefficient strategy to pursue. As such, you want to limit approaches for earning links proactively to brands that already have established reputations within SERPs.

The more prominently a particular website ranks within one or more SERPs, the more likely earning a link from it will bolster your website’s rankings. If one link can do the job of ten, then why waste time chasing ten? By pinging users with one or more links to your site, established brands can have a big impact on how well your pages do against competitors in select search results.

Focus on Authoritative Domains and Entities

We’ve already covered that not all links are equal, but it’s additionally important to note that not all websites and domains have the same potential. In many respects, the top-level domains (TLDs) available now are incomprehensibly vast compared to previous eras of SEO: all but a handful of these TLDs are unregulated entities, which means anybody can purchase a domain ending in .work or .ga (as two of many examples).

So which TLDs are the most authoritative (and therefore most likely to provide link juice for your website)? The two strongest entities are .gov and .edu: this is because it takes a lengthy process with verification to obtain one of these domains, thereby minimizing the chances of low-quality content, illicit behavior and other undesirable concepts.

Standard .com domains are also acceptable options. While earning links from other TLDs can still be beneficial, they will not provide on average the same kind of boost as .com, .gov and.edu TLDs can provide in terms of higher SERP rankings.

Focus on Earned Media

Media outlets can be among some of the most coveted sources through which to earn links. How can your brand earn links in the media?

There are numerous ways to consider this approach. One notable example is to provide assistance to local reporters as an authority on a particular subject. In exchange, they will often provide a link to a website related to you and the topic at-hand.

Other opportunities to generate earned media links include engaging in charitable endeavors, submit editorials with expert opinions on relevant topics, and even just creating link-worthy content that has the ability to go viral (such as infographics).

All of these methods can potentially generate numerous links via media outlets that can dramatically improve performance in key SERPs.

Remember that pinging users with content isn’t enough to rank well in today’s age of SEO. You need to build trust and authority with search engines and users alike. With search engines, earned links can be a sure-fire way to do so – but focusing on earning links with the most juice simply makes the most sense.