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Want search visibility that survives the next update and shows up in AI answers? We dive straight into the real calculus of link building: what still works, what crumbles under scrutiny, and how to build a backlink profile that compounds rather than collapses. Drawing on two decades of building, buying, and selling sites, Ed breaks down backlinks into three buckets—good, bad, and ugly—and explains the risks behind each, from short‑term bumps to long, painful recoveries.
We start with first principles: why links remain a core ranking signal and why AI assistants increasingly rely on citations to choose which sources to show. From there, we revisit the wild‑west years of easy link spam and the moment Penguin flipped the table, turning yesterday’s playbook into a liability. No moralising here—just pragmatic risk management. If you’re considering paid placements, niche edits, or PBNs, you’ll hear the pattern risks that can flag manipulation: lumpy velocity, repeating footprints, irrelevant anchors and networks built on expired domains.
Then we turn to the durable path. Ed outlines what makes a link “good” in practice—editorial, relevant, earned because the page genuinely helps someone else’s audience—and how to create assets that attract those links without cold outreach. Think original data, simple tools, clear frameworks, and opinionated guides packaged for easy citation. You’ll get a blueprint for seeding discovery through newsletters, communities, and journalists so that value finds the people who need it.
If you want rankings that last, less time worrying about link spam updates, and a brand that others cite because it helps their readers, this conversation gives you the strategy and the mindset to get there. Enjoy the episode, then subscribe, share with a friend who obsesses over DR, and leave a quick review to help more people find the show.

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"Werq" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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