For decades, the internet has provided brands and businesses with the opportunity to generate traffic through both search engine results and through other websites. Link building has long been known as a popular strategy for websites: by generating links from other websites that point back to your own, you can earn both traffic and search engine appeal. However, times have changed.

Not all links are good links, and not all links generate positive search engine gains. Ultimately, knowing the difference between earning links and building links is crucial in today’s highly-competitive online arena.

So what exactly are the main differences between earning links and building them? Today, we’ll explore the concept and help you know how each may provide benefit.

How People Build Links

For most of the internet’s history, link building has been a popular form of driving traffic and improving search engine result visibility. By generating links from other websites that point back to your content, they are not only pinging search engines, but also potentially driving traffic from those sites to yours.

Search engines like to see websites that have a large number of reputable links scattered across other websites, which is why this tactic is so popular. While it was common in past years for people to buy links or simply generate links anywhere and everywhere, search engines are much stricter now in terms of which links provide real SEO value.

One common example of modern link building is guest posting opportunities.

How People Earn Links

While the end result can be similar to that of building links, earning links takes a slightly different route. Whereas link building pursues proactive measures to generate links back to your website, earning links involves a more passive approach.

By creating useful and engaging content that is initially shared through various sources and indexed in search engines, more people can find it. This in turn can lead to other websites linking back to your website organically, providing legitimate links that require no work on your part other than the initial creation of content.

Benefits of Link Building

The biggest and most obvious benefit of link building is that you do not have to wait for results to begin the process. While high-quality content can earn you links over time, various link building exercises can be pursued immediately. Whether you are writing guest content for other websites or pinging search engines for opportunities to supplant competitors’ broken backlinks with your own, link building offers the chance for instant action on your part.

Benefits of Earning Links

Whereas building links offers that ability to begin cultivating opportunities immediately, earning links is a gradual process. However, you can generally step back and allow your content’s visibility to grow via organic improvements in search results (along with persistent marketing efforts via social media and email), making it possible to earn links over time as more influencers and brands come into contact with your content.

Ultimately, link building is more commonly practiced. Earning links can take longer and doesn’t always happen (especially if the content isn’t excellent), but both have a place in the broader process of earning backlinks and cultivating a more expansive reach online.