Quality vs Quantity: The Link Building Dilemma Dividing SEO Experts

Quality vs. Quantity in Link Building

Link building is one of the most important pillars of an effective SEO strategy. It helps increase:

• website visibility
• improves its credibility
• directly impacts search engine rankings

However, when building a backlink profile, we often face the question: what matters more – the quality vs. quantity of backlinks? The answer isn’t black and white. High-quality link building delivers strong value, but acquiring such links can be time-consuming. On the other hand, a quantity-driven approach offers faster results but comes with several risks.

What Are High-Quality Backlinks?

High-quality backlinks are links from trustworthy, thematically relevant, and authoritative websites that naturally point to your content. They are the foundation of a successful SEO strategy because they increase your website’s trustworthiness in the eyes of search engines and also provide added value for users.

The difference between a quality backlink and a poor one lies primarily in its source. Authoritative sites with an already established reputation typically provide links with greater weight. That’s why high-quality link building is a key element for long-term SEO success. But let’s look at the practical side. How are quality backlinks built in an SEO agency?

“We use various tools (such as SEMrush, MOZ, Majestic) as crutches to help us evaluate the domain authority and the authority of the linking website, as well as the topical relevance of the links. When we secure a backlink for a client, we always link from portals or websites with a higher domain authority than the client’s website. If we dive deeper, we always take into account the authority of the specific page we are linking to and the authority of the referring domain — the latter must always be higher, ideally as high as possible compared to the linked subpage.” – explains Katarína Rusňáková, ONLINE TORO SEO Consultant – SEO help

There are several factors that determine backlink quality:

• Relevance – The connection between the content of your website and the site from which the backlink originates is crucial. Both websites should focus on the same or similar topic. High-quality backlinks from websites with a common theme relevant to the target content bring added value.
• Domain Authority – Another key factor is domain authority. Strong websites are stable, authoritative, well-known, and have a strong online presence. Backlinks from such sites carry real weight and significantly impact search engines. Search engines treat them as trustworthy sources, helping push your site higher in the Search Engine Results Page (SERP).
• Naturalness – Don’t overlook the importance of natural link building. It’s a gradual process that should not be artificially accelerated. If bots detect an unusually high number of backlinks gained in a short period, your site may be penalized or suspended. That’s why we recommend acquiring backlinks responsibly, gradually, and organically.
  

What Are the Benefits of High-Quality Backlinks?

Responsible, high-quality link building not only improves search engine rankings but also brings long-term benefits that impact the overall success of your web strategy. It offers sustainable, stable growth and a range of additional advantages:

• Improves rankings in SERP
• Increases domain trust and authority
• Supports long-term organic growth
• Boosts brand building through appearances on authoritative websites
• Can drive relevant traffic
• Increases the chances of earning additional backlinks

OK, but Are There Any Disadvantages to Focusing Solely on High-Quality Links?

The fact is that high-quality backlinks are extremely valuable for search engine optimisation. But what happens if you focus exclusively on quality?

The answer is simple — you’ll hit limitations. Quality link building can be challenging, especially if you’re not an established business with strong domain authority. A link building strategy focused purely on quality can take months, and the number of acquired links may be too low — which could result in slow traffic growth. While link quality is indeed crucial for Google searches, if you’re targeting Bing — whose search engine is associated with ChatGPT — quantity becomes key.

The most effective approach is regular linking through fresh, unique content, but at sufficient scale — depending on your chosen strategy. For some, this may mean publishing 3 articles per month on 3 different domains; for others, it might be 20. Every SEO strategy should have individual link-building goals. If you know where you want to go with SEO, more advanced agencies can help quantify the number of well-rated links you need to build in order to achieve your goals.

If you ignore quantity, it can lead to lower traffic, fewer opportunities to earn new backlinks, slower growth on Google, and there’s a risk that your site may not appear in other search engines like Bing at all.

Understanding Backlink Quantity

Advocates of this approach do not recommend spamming thousands of links from questionable sources. However, they argue that a larger number of backlinks from smaller, yet still reliable websites with low to medium domain authority can also strengthen your SEO strategy — even within Google’s search ecosystem.

Focusing on quantity link building often leads to a rapid increase in the number of backlinks, which can result in a short-term boost in organic traffic — especially through Bing search, which powers the core of ChatGPT’s search capabilities. As of June 2025, available data shows that ChatGPT is used by approximately 180 million people daily and around half a billion weekly. According to initial research by Evercore in the U.S., up to 8% of users have ChatGPT set as their primary search engine. Quantity is more important than ever before.

For this reason, insisting on a link building strategy based solely on high-quality backlinks may become counterproductive in the era of AI-driven search.

The problem arises when quantity becomes the sole objective and quality is neglected. This can lead to an unbalanced and unnatural backlink profile, which may harm your SEO more than help it.

These Are the Risks of Focusing Solely on Quantity:

• Unsustainable Link Profile – If your link profile is flooded with low-quality backlinks, it becomes not only unstable but also suspicious in the eyes of search engines. Search algorithms assess backlink quality holistically and may penalize sudden spikes in poor-quality links.
• Link Spam – If you ignore backlink quality and focus purely on numbers, you’ll quickly accumulate links from irrelevant or even spammy websites. This can lead to reduced traffic relevance and even penalties from search engines, resulting in lost rankings or complete deindexation of your site.
• Wasted Resources – Mass, uncoordinated link acquisition often requires more effort and budget than it initially seems. Without a clear strategy, these efforts may fail to produce meaningful results and drain resources that could be better invested in high-quality link building techniques.
• Weak Impact on Brand and Authority – While links from lesser-known sites may increase your total backlink count, they won’t boost your brand perception or domain authority. Without connections to reputable websites, trust isn’t built — which is essential for long-term SEO success.

Fortunately, There Are Benefits to Prioritizing Quantity

Although quality is often emphasised over quantity, that doesn’t mean focusing on backlink quantity is inherently wrong. In some cases, this approach can be quite pragmatic — especially during the early phases of a link-building strategy, when your website has yet to establish strong domain authority.

Building a larger number of links from smaller or lesser-known websites is usually easier, cheaper, and faster, helping to create a foundational link profile.

While these are often low-quality backlinks, they can still help improve search engine rankings — especially if they are technically clean and come from indexed pages. A higher volume of backlinks can also drive more traffic (even if less relevant), positively impacting secondary SEO signals such as time on site and user engagement.

This approach can, in certain situations, effectively complement a mixed high-quality link building strategy in a way that is both functional and realistic, particularly when budgets, time, or access to authoritative sites are limited.

Looking for the Best Results? Mix High-Quality Link Building with Quantity!

As we’ve mentioned, SEO is not black and white. If you’re aiming for outstanding results, take the best of both worlds and focus on both quality and quantity when it comes to backlinks.

TIP!

Conduct your own GAP analysis. Analyze your competitors and find out how many high-quality links — or referring domains — they have built. Identify which of these links have established trust flow.
If you want to outrank your competitors in organic search, you’ll need to build at least as many referring domains and backlinks as they have.

Example:

Strategies – Some Quality Link Building Techniques

High-quality link building is about systematically building value — for both users and search engine algorithms. The main goal is to create content that is informative, relevant, and naturally shareable. This is where content marketing proves highly effective.

One of the most efficient strategies is guest blogging — publishing expert articles on thematically related and relevant websites where you can naturally earn a backlink to your own site. Focus on the quality of your output and your choice of platform: the article must deliver real added value, and the host domain should have good authority and thematic relevance to your content.

Another effective approach is actively building relationships by reaching out to bloggers, collaborating with influencers, and engaging through comments or social media. In the long term, this relationship-driven strategy can lead to partnerships where backlinks are earned organically.

BONUS: 5 Link Building Tips 

Regularly Audit Your Backlink Profile

Even a well-constructed backlink profile can deteriorate over time — links may disappear, break, or point to irrelevant pages. That’s why, at our agency, link monitoring is a standard part of our link building services. We regularly check for lost links and, if possible, reach out to the referring site to request a replacement. We recommend performing a full backlink portfolio review at least once per quarter. Track which domains link to you, monitor shifts in link quality and distribution, and check for potentially toxic links in your profile.

Run a Backlink GAP Analysis

This will help you quantify the number of domains you need to build in your backlink portfolio — especially for targeting Google Search. Comparing your backlink profile to competitors allows you to identify link opportunities and set realistic goals.

Choose Your Anchor Texts Wisely

Anchor text plays a major role in SEO. While many SEO experts recommend frequent variation and natural use, we advise beginners to start with 3 specific keyword phrases and build at least a few links with exact match anchors. Choose anchor texts based on how users search — tools like the Google Ads Keyword Planner can help with this. Within a single article, use at least 3 different anchor texts linking to 3 separate subpages. In quality link building, every anchor must fit naturally within the context and feel organic.

Use the Right Tools

You can’t build backlinks effectively without proper tools. For monitoring and evaluating backlink quality and quantity, we recommend:

• Ahrefs – Ideal for detailed backlink profile analysis and tracking changes over time. It also shows keyword difficulty scores, factoring in competition levels.
• SEMrush – Great for competitive analysis, identifying missing backlinks, and monitoring backlink toxicity.
• Majestic – Provides metrics like Trust Flow and Citation Flow, and evaluates topical relevance of links.

Be Consistent and Build Regularly

If you want to rank in Google search, focus on building links from domains with higher authority than your own. Every article you write should be unique and contain 3 backlinks using different anchor texts, each pointing to a different subpage you want to rank higher. Publish and link such articles consistently, month by month — gradual backlink growth is key to long-term SEO success.

Conclusion – The Best of Both Worlds

In the world of SEO, the best results are usually achieved not through extremes but through a balanced approach. The quality and quantity of backlinks should not be seen as opposites but rather as two sides of the same strategy that complement each other effectively.

Focus on building high-quality backlinks from trustworthy, thematically relevant websites that strengthen your domain authority. At the same time, don’t ignore opportunities to acquire a larger volume of backlinks — as long as they are safe and natural.

Monitor your metrics, manage your backlink profile, and regularly evaluate the effectiveness of both approaches. Only by combining both factors can you ensure long-term stability and growth in organic search.