How To Improve Natural Link-Building After Google Anti-Scrapping 2025 Update

Google and SEO specialists have a complex relationship.

The Google algorithm is always changing, forcing us to evolve with it. This is not always an easy thing to do, as we have to unlearn a lot of SEO tactics and strategies.

The latest anti-scrapping 2025 Google update is a prime example of this!

Dubbed the “Enhanced Anti-Scraping Protections,” this January 15, 2025, Google update aims to stop how SEO tools automate data collection from its search results.

Google now requires JavaScript to be enabled to access search results, blocking traditional scraping methods that rely on raw HTML extraction. This change complicates data extraction for scrapers and automated tools that do not render JavaScript.

That is why we recently saw an outage and delays from SEO tools like SEMrush, SimilarWeb, and SE Ranking in updating keyword rankings and SERP features.

One of the main ways SEO experts like us get backlinking opportunities is by conducting a competitor analysis using such tools.

As a result of this update, getting this data has become more difficult.

But, as it stands, many SEO tools have developed workarounds around the anti-scrapping Google update.

For example, some tools have started using Google’s official API to retrieve search data in a way that complies with its policies. Others have improved their JavaScript rendering capabilities to mimic human browsing behavior, allowing them to access search results despite the new restrictions.

This technological shift can lead to price increases across SEO tools, making them more expensive for us and you.

As a result, we are looking for natural, organic, sustainable, and better ways to identify link-building opportunities.

In this article, we will list natural ways to build backlinks and eliminate over-reliance on SEO tools.

But first, let us take a quick look at the evolution of SEO backlink strategies due to Google updates. This will quickly help you see the importance of adapting to the new Google algorithm.

Evolution of SEO Backlink Strategies

Backlinks have always been important for SEO, but their role has changed significantly over time.

In the early days, websites could rank higher simply by having more backlinks, regardless of quality. Many took advantage of this by using link farms, paid links, and other manipulative tactics.

But, as search engines evolved, they started cracking down on these practices.

Google wants to ensure rankings are based on genuine authority rather than artificial link-building.

So, between 2011 and 2020, Google introduced major updates like Panda and Penguin. This shift focused on quantity rather than quality.

Websites with spammy or irrelevant backlinks were penalized.

While those with natural and relevant links gained an advantage. Search engines began valuing links from authoritative and niche-related sources. This made it essential to earn backlinks from reputable websites rather than simply acquiring as many as possible.

From 2021 onwards, user experience and intent have become key ranking factors.

It’s no longer just about having a backlink; the context and value of the link matter, too.

Search engines now prioritize organic and natural links from sources relevant to the user’s search intent, ensuring they provide real value.

As a result, successful link-building today focuses on creating quality content that naturally attracts links from trusted and relevant sources.

With this in mind, let us look at the best link-building strategies for 2025.

How to Improve Organic Link-Building

To make it easier for you to go through this article, we have divided it into different sections. You can click on a link below to jump to the section you want to read.

1. Create User Focused Content
2. Leverage Social Media
3. Participate in Webinars, Podcasts and Interviews
4. Participate in Online and Offline Forums and communities
5. Partner with Influencers and Blogger

1. Create User Focused Content

As mentioned, Google has evolved from focusing on quantity to quality. This goes beyond links; it also includes content. So, the first and most important step is to create content focused on helping your users.

You should create content that directly addresses your audience’s needs, interests, and problems. Instead of just optimizing for search engines, focus on delivering value that keeps readers engaged.

Today, it is important to identify why a user is searching for something. Are they looking for information, making a purchase, or comparing options?

So, instead of using SEO tool scrappers to identify keywords, you can do your research on forums like Quora and Reddit. This is why these community forum sites suddenly rank high on Google because they answer the users’ queries more effectively.

This content strategy on its own is a great way to improve Google’s rankings. The higher you rank on a search query, the more likely other sites are to link back to you, increasing the odds of getting natural contextual backlinks.

But to push your user-focused content a step further, you need to include E-E-A-T.

a) Focus on E-E-A-T

So, what is E-E-A-T?

E-E-A-T stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.

This is the new way Google uses to tell if your content aligns with the user’s needs and expectations. First, your content should demonstrate a deep understanding of the topic. It should also link to credible sources to back up your claims.

E-E-A-T is another reason we are seeing sites like Reddit rank higher today. The platform is known for its vast user-generated content.

This includes insights from a wide range of experts and authoritative voices within specific communities. At the same time, it creates a strong sense of trust through active moderation and community engagement.

But, since duplicating Reddit’s SEO strategy is difficult on a business website, there are other ways to improve your E-E-A-T.

Clear author information

A detailed author bio can quickly help establish the expertise and authoritativeness of the content creator. The writer’s bio should include the author’s qualifications, experience, social profiles, and any relevant credentials.

Check out below the author bio of Syed Balkhi, founder of WPBeginner and IsItWP.com, as an example:

This helps search engines, and users trust that the information provided is accurate and reliable.

But, creating a detailed author bio, especially for a large site, can be difficult.

That is why we recommend AIOSEO.

All-in-One SEO plugin can help you set up social metadata like the author bio more effectively. With a few clicks, you can add the author’s name and social media profiles.

Check out this detailed AIOSEO review to learn more.

Use Testimonials and Reviews

You can improve E-E-A-T using reviews and testimonials from satisfied clients. This is especially beneficial if the customers giving you reviews have relevant experience or expertise on your site.

Positive reviews can build trust by showing that real people have had a positive experience with your products or services.

To give these reviews more authority, you need to collect them from trusted third-party sites like Google Reviews, Trustpilot, and Yelp. This increases your credibility and signals to both users and search engines that you are a reliable authority in your industry.

To ensure you receive and manage reviews and testimonials, we recommend Thrive Ovation.

This testimonial plugin allows you to add reviews manually. More importantly, it also allows you to collect and manage reviews from multiple sources in one place, streamlining the process and saving you time.

You can easily import reviews from third-party platforms like Google and Yelp, making it easier to display them on your site without manually copying and pasting.

Thrive Ovation provides flexible and customizable templates, allowing you to present third-party reviews in a visually appealing way that matches your site’s branding. This can also improve your social proof and make you more trustworthy in front of users.

Get started with Thrive Ovation here.

b) Make your Content Scannable and Readable

Apart from ensuring your content abides by Google E-E-A-T policies, your content should also be easy to read and scheme.

As you can imagine, there are thousands of websites and pages talking about the same thing as you. You need to get your user’s attention quickly so they can stay on your site longer.

One of the best ways to do this is by making your content easy to read. As a result, your users are more likely to stay on your site longer and reduce bounce rate, another important ranking factor.

To improve readability and scannability, you can use AIOSEO.

AIOSEO provides a built-in readability analysis that evaluates your content for factors like sentence length, paragraph structure, and use of headings. By following these SEO plugin recommendations, you can improve your content’s readability, making it more scannable for readers.

Check out this comparison article between One SEO Vs. Rank Math to see which one works better for you when optimizing readability.

Apart from this, AIOSEO helps you use proper heading tags like H1, H2, and H3. This organizes your content better and makes it easier to scan.

Structured data can also be added through AIOSEO to help search engines better understand and present your content in rich snippets, enhancing its appeal and scannability.

Check out this comparison article on AIOSEO vs Yoast SEO to see which one is better for you when adding metadata.

As you can see, the main aim of creating user focused content is to ensure your content ranks higher on Google. As mentioned, the better your content is ranked, the more likely you will get more natural backlinks.

But it is not enough in this day and age to rely solely on good content to get backlinks.

Here are other direct ways to get backlinks naturally.

2. Leverage Social Media

First, we should point out that most social media sites offer a nofollow backlink. This is to prevent spamming from SEO experts looking for backlinks.

This means it does not carry the same link juice as other sites. But why is social media still so important for natural and organic link building?

We mentioned that ranking higher on Google is more likely to get you more organic backlinks because more people will see your content.

This is also true for social media shares!

Sharing your content on social media platforms helps increase its visibility to a wider audience. The more people see and engage with your posts, the more likely others, like bloggers, journalists, and influencers, will link to your content because they find it valuable.

But the power of sharing your content on social media does not end there.

This is because your users are also likely to share your content with their audiences. This increases the chances of people outside your target seeing the content.

In the end, social media can not only help you get more natural backlinks, but it also diversifies your backlink profile.

On top of that, you can increase your traffic easily with social media as well.

The good thing about sharing content on social media is that anyone can do it, not just you.

This means allowing your audience to share your content on social media. You can do this by adding social media buttons to your posts. This makes it easy for visitors to share your content with their own networks, increasing exposure and potentially leading to more organic backlinks.

Social Warfare is a good tool to help you add social media share buttons to your site.

It can help you add social share buttons anywhere you want on your site.

We like Social Warfare because it gives you full control over how your content is shared. For example, you can personalize the post title, description, image, and image when your visitors share a post on Twitter ( now X.)

If you are looking for more options, check out this article on the best social media plugins.

As you can see, you can use social media to grow your website.

But how do you use your website to grow your social media?

Adding social media feeds to your site is the best way to achieve this. This way, once someone visits your website, they can easily see your posts on social media, encouraging them to follow you there.

To add feeds to your site, we recommend Smash Balloon.

This social media plugin allows you to create feeds for a wide range of platforms. You can create feeds for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (now X), YouTube, TikTok and more.

It also allows you to create multiple feeds on the same page, showing feeds from different platforms in one place.

Check out the latest Smash Balloon review here.

3. Participate in Webinars, Podcasts and Interviews

Any SEO expert will tell you that press releases are one of the best ways to get backlinks. But the problem is that many press sites only provide nofollow links.

Apart from backlinks, press releases are meant to create a buzz around your business. But with more and more people moving away from traditional media, it can be hard to get people talking about your business after a press release.

Don’t get us wrong, press releases are still a fantastic way to get backlinks.

But since many press companies require you to pay, the backlink is not completely natural. That is why we consider participating in webinars, podcasts, and interviews as the perfect alternative.

By participating, we mean you can be the host in some and a guest in others, mixing it up with like-minded people in your industry. This approach ensures exposure to different audiences, helping you attract traffic and backlinks from different places.

These platforms offer a more personal and engaging way to connect with your audience.

When you participate in webinars, podcasts, or interviews, you are not just promoting your business but providing valuable insights and expertise that people are eager to share.

This can help you build trust and authority in your niche.

Plus, this approach aligns perfectly with the new Google directive of putting the user first.

As a result, you increase the likelihood that your content will be shared and linked to, further enhancing your site’s visibility and credibility.

The best part is that the evergreen nature of webinars, podcasts, and interviews means that your content can continue to generate backlinks over time, leading to sustained SEO benefits.

But to host webinars, podcasts, or interviews, you need an audience and panel.

To start with, you can create beautiful landing pages for the upcoming virtual event. We recommend SeedProd because it allows you to quickly build custom pages to capture attention and promote your events.

If you do not want to build an entire landing page, a good alternative is a WordPress form.

For this, we suggest WPForms.

WPForms can help you collect contact information before, during, and after your webinar. You can nurture this relationship and hopefully get natural backlinks from panel or audience members.

Here is an in-depth WPForms review.

Another great tool you can use is Optinmonster.

It can help you create highly customizable registration popups and slide-ins to display while people browse your site.

But, you also want to make the online event easily accessible after recording.

For this, you can use Smash Balloon.

Once you upload your podcast, webinar, or interview to a platform like YouTube, you can use Smash Balloon to embed it on your site.

This way, users do not need to leave your site to view it.

4. Participate in Online and Offline Forums and communities

Another way to interact directly with your audience is through communities and forums, both online and offline. Both are equally important and can also help you improve your branding.

Let’s start with online forums and community participation.

First, make sure you join industry-specific forums and communities where you will find like-minded experts. This ensures the right people see your contributions.

You can ask questions, answer questions from others, offer links to authority resources, and more. Most importantly, you should mix it up with links to your site. But ensure sharing your links is not your main focus, as others will catch on quickly and brand you a spammer.

The priority is to be helpful in the community.

Make sure you join different platforms such as, WordPress forums, SEO-focused groups, tech-related communities, or any field in which you are an expert.

The good thing about joining niche communities is the platforms allows you to add author profiles. This zeros back to what we discussed earlier about E-E-A-T. Use this opportunity to link back to your website or blog and build your author authority.

Apart from being helpful with your questions and answers, you can make the discussions more interesting.

You can do this in unique ways that help you gain authority.

For example, you can share a survey form or quiz link in the community or forum to redirect users back to your site.

Check out this post on how to create a survey in WordPress without coding.

Once the users are on your site, you can offer something of value, like a free downloadable resource or guide. With this backlink strategy, users can find your content helpful and reference it in their own discussions or posts. As a result, it can help drive more traffic to your site.

In the end, it can encourage further participation in the conversation, leading to organic backlinks.

Check out this tutorial on how to make quizzes in WordPress. You can also check out this list of the best Quiz plugins for WordPress.

Now, let’s look at how offline forums and communities can help with natural link building.

While online forums and communities are a popular way to gain contextual backlinks, offline and in-person communities can also play a crucial role in natural link building.

This is because engaging and sharing valuable insights in offline events and networking with industry professionals can create link-building opportunities that are organic and authentic.

Events like industry conferences, business expos, and networking meetups are excellent opportunities to connect with people. Many of these people own businesses and might link to your website with the right interaction from you.

On top of this, many event organizers publish speaker lists, attendee lists, and summaries of discussions. To improve authenticity, they often include links to businesses and personal websites.

Check out this list of the best bookings and appointment plugins to see which one works best for you to set up offline events.

Apart from this, you can also host an event.

This can lead to attendees and speakers linking back to your site, leading to natural backlinks. What we like about offline events is that they are one of the best ways to attract journalists and bloggers.

Remember, we mentioned that press releases do not always lead to natural backlinks. But in this case, the press teams will be coming to your event or one you attend.

As a result, they are more likely to link back to your business naturally as they report about what happened at the event.

The biggest issue we have faced with offline events is tracking.

Since the event is in a physical location, it is hard to quantify its effectiveness to an online business.

To help with this, you can use MonsterInsights.

This is the best Google Analytics WordPress plugin. It can help simplify complex Google Analytics data and display it right in your WordPress dashboard.

With this analytics tool, you can quickly monitor traffic spikes and sources, allowing you to analyze offline events.

Another way you can correlate your online and offline traffic is by adding QR codes to your flyers and other promotional material.

Check out this article to learn how to set up Google Analytics with MonsterInsights.

These QR codes can send your users to your website quickly and easily. This way, they have your information at hand while creating content about the event, making it more likely to get a backlink.

You can also add Stripe QR code payment to the flyer and allow event-goers to make purchases in a simple way, essentially killing two birds with one stone.

5. Partner with Influencers and Blogger

Top niche bloggers and industry influencers have large followings that look up to them for advice, entertainment, and comradery. This has helped them cultivate a loyal and engaging following.

Since their following listens to them, their audience is also likely to place you and your business in high regard, increasing your brand credibility. This association can lead to other websites viewing your content as authoritative.

This makes it more likely for them to offer your business a backlink or social share.

The best approach is to co-create content with these bloggers and influencers. This way, their audience will still experience your content in a style they already like and enjoy.

You can use social media platforms, offline and online events, or sites like Buzzsumo to get these industry bloggers and niche influencers.

Remember to research and select influencers whose audience aligns with your target market.

After the initial collaboration, continue to nurture the relationship by staying in touch, sharing their content, and exploring future partnership opportunities.

Long-term relationships appear more genuine and can lead to consistent engagement and backlink opportunities.

You can reinforce this relationship on your website by using targeted popups for the traffic they redirect.

OptinMonster allows you to display popups based on the referral source or location. This can be social media platforms, marketing campaigns, or specific influencer and blogger sites.

This allows you to create personalized experiences for traffic redirected from bloggers and influencers, reinforcing your partnership and enhancing user engagement.

You can also tailor offers and lead magnets to this audience to increase conversion rates and the likelihood of getting a natural backlink.

Check out the latest OptinMonster review here.

Great! You now better understand how to get more natural backlinks without overreliance on SEO tools.

But, even though these strategies will lead to a better variety of backlinks, you still need to ensure you diversify your SEO backlink profile.

How to Diversify Your SEO Backlink Profile

An anchor backlink is the most common type of backlink. If your site has too many of the same type of link, Google and other search engines may view it as not a naturally built backlink portfolio. This can hurt your rankings, even though you used the best SEO practices.

A natural backlink should have a combination of every type of backlink.

First, your anchor backlink profile should be spread out as follows:

• Branded Anchors: Use your brand name as the anchor text.
• Generic Anchors: Phrases like “click here” or “learn more.”
• Exact Match Anchors: Anchor text that exactly matches your target keywords.
• Partial Match Anchors: Anchor text that includes a variation of your target keywords.

Then, they should be sourced from different platforms like:

• Editorial Links: Naturally earned contextual backlinks from reputable websites.
• Guest Posts: Contributions to other blogs or publications.
• Directory Listings: Inclusion in relevant business or industry directories.
• Social Media Mentions: Links from social media platforms.
• Forum Participation: Engagement in industry-related forums with links back to your site.

Apart from that, there should be a good mix of low and high authority sites. There should also be a mix of nofollow and dofollow links. After all, if you get natural contextual backlinks, they cannot all be dofollow from high authority sites.

But apart from organic anchor backlinks, you can also add visual backlinks like:

• High-Quality Infographics: Develop infographics that are informative, visually appealing, and relevant to your audience. Provide an embed code on your website to make it easy for others to share your infographic while linking back to your site.
• Original Images and Photographs: Upload your images to platforms like Flickr or Wikimedia Commons under a license that requires attribution, encouraging others to link back to your site when they use your images.
• Develop Data Visualizations and Charts: Create visualizations based on your original research or data analysis. Publish these visuals on your website and share them with industry publications and blogs, offering them as resources to enhance their content.

But at the end of the day, as you improve your backlink profile, you should also work on your interlinking.

Importance of Internal Linking

Interlinking involves creating hyperlinks that connect different pages within the same domain.

Internal links guide visitors through your website, helping them discover related content and navigate seamlessly.

This improved user experience encourages visitors to spend more time on your site, increasing engagement and reducing bounce rates.

Check out this article on Ahrefs vs SEMrush to see which one works best for you for interlinking.

By strategically linking pages, you can define the hierarchy and structure of your website. This organization allows you to highlight the most important pages, ensuring they receive more visibility and link value.

Search engines use internal links to discover and index the content on your website.

As a result, a well-structured internal linking strategy ensures that search engine crawlers can efficiently access all important pages. This improves the likelihood of your content appearing in search results.

But, it can be difficult to carry out an effective interlinking strategy, especially for a large site.

That is why we recommend AIOSEO.

This SEO tool comes with the Link Assistant tool, designed to streamline and enhance your internal linking strategy.

Link Assistant thoroughly scans your website to assess your existing content and link structure. It identifies potential internal linking opportunities by analyzing the relationships between your posts and pages and recommends them.

It also detects orphaned pages without internal links pointing to them and recommends the best opportunities.

Congratulations! You now have a complete understanding of how to build natural backlinks, what type of backlinks to look for, and the importance of interlinking. If you have any more questions, check out the FAQs below.

FAQs: How To Improve Natural Link-Building After Google Anti-Scrapping 2025 Update

That’s it from us today. We hope you enjoyed reading about the best ways to build your backlink profile naturally. Check out this article if you want to improve local SEO beyond Google Business Profiles.

Apart from that, here are other articles you may be interested in reading.

• 10 Best SEO Tools to Grow Your Website Traffic, FAST!
• How Effective Are Bluehost SEO Tools?
• 24 Best SEO Optimized WordPress Themes

The first article lists the best SEO tools to grow your website traffic fast. The next post walks you through everything you need to know about Bluehost SEO. While the last article ranks the best SEO themes.