4 Reasons You Built Backlinks and They Didn't Work - Episode 137

Summary

Podcast Summary: Grumpy SEO Guy

Episode 137: 4 Reasons You Built Backlinks and They Didn't Work
Date: January 22, 2026
Host: Grumpy SEO Guy

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Episode Overview

In this episode, the Grumpy SEO Guy dives into the recurring frustration among website owners and SEOs: spending energy and money building backlinks, only to see little or no impact on website rankings. Drawing on 14 years of experience, the host bluntly breaks down the four main reasons why backlinks might “not work” and what you should really focus on to move the needle in search rankings. The tone as always is direct, sometimes sarcastic, and laser-focused on real-world scenarios—no fluff.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Not Enough Authority Built

[01:00–03:17]

• Explanation:
  Building backlinks is not about simply adding links. It’s about gaining enough authority to surpass competitors.

  “You didn’t build enough, such that you get enough authority to outrank the websites that are outranking you.” (A, 01:17)

• Analogy:
  SEO is a race—a runner improving by 10 seconds doesn’t win if the competition is still faster by 10 seconds.
• Important distinction:
  Number of backlinks ≠ authority. It's the quality of backlinks that matters—not just quantity.

  “It’s not about the number of backlinks… it’s about the quality of the backlinks.” (A, 02:05)

• Insight:
  You can be doing a lot right, but if you haven't accumulated sufficient authority, you’re still behind your competitors.

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2. Bad Quality Backlinks

[03:18–05:18]

• Explanation:
  Not all backlinks are created equal; some have zero value or can even hurt your rankings.

  “Just because you read about backlinks and then… you get, like, forum profile backlinks… blog comment backlinks… those aren’t going to help you. Even if you get a thousand of them, they’re not going to help you.” (A, 03:47)

• Common traps:
  Buying links from marketplaces or using outdated spammy tactics still happens far too often.
• Advice:

  “Just because you need backlinks doesn’t mean you should just go buy any backlinks...” (A, 05:10)

• Summary:
  Carefully vet the types of backlinks you pursue; bad ones are wasted effort.

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3. Technical Problems or Penalties with Your Site

[05:19–06:50]

• Explanation:
  Even high-quality backlinks won’t help if your site has technical issues or potential penalties.
• Unique nugget:
  Sometimes, only after gaining enough authority does Google scrutinize your site and discover problems, triggering a penalty.

  “…if you have a penalty, it’s possible that the penalty will become engaged and you will get a penalty. So it is feasible that you build good quality backlinks and your rank drops because you had a problem on your website…” (A, 06:22)

• Takeaway:
  Audit your site for technical issues or pre-existing problems before focus on link building.

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4. Lack of Keyword Relevancy

[06:51–08:25]

• Explanation:
  You need both authority and relevancy. Even massive authority can’t get you rankings for topics or keywords irrelevant to your content.

  “You can get as much authority as you want and if you’re not relevant for your keywords, the website is not going to rank for those keywords.” (A, 06:56)

• Practical guidance:
  Ensure your content covers the topics you want to rank for. Don’t expect to rank for “toasters” unless your site is about toasters.

  “If you want to rank for toasters, you need content about toasters.” (A, 07:49)

• Insight:
  Authority and relevancy are the dual pillars of SEO. Backlinks alone don’t fix a lack of topical content.

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Memorable Quotes

• “SEO is basically like a race… Just because you increased your performance doesn’t mean you’re going to be first.” (A, 01:32)
• “It doesn’t mean it’s not working, it means you’re not there yet.” (A, 04:00)
• “Careful—you might be building good backlinks, but if you’re irrelevant, you’re not going to rank.” (A, 07:50)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:57 – Introduction to the four reasons and quick overview of what will be discussed
• 01:00 – Reason 1: Not building sufficient authority
• 03:18 – Reason 2: Bad quality backlinks
• 05:19 – Reason 3: Site technical problems or penalties
• 06:51 – Reason 4: Lack of keyword relevancy
• 08:25 – Recap and closing thoughts

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Recap & Takeaways

• Build the right kind of authority: Quality over sheer quantity, and enough to outpace competition.
• Don’t buy junk links: If it sounds cheap, it probably is—focus on quality.
• Fix your site first: No backlink will overcome technical problems or hidden penalties.
• Stay relevant: Authority only matters if your website content aligns with your target keywords.

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Final Thoughts

“I hope this was helpful. Let me know what questions you have and I’ll talk to you later.” (A, 08:55)

If your backlinks aren’t moving the needle, this episode hands you the straight, grumpy truth: SEO isn’t magic, it’s math and relevance, and shortcuts don’t work.

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Transcript

[A]

This is Grumpy SEO Guy, episode 137. Four reasons your backlinks aren't working. I'm the Grumpy SEO Guy. Let me tell you why I'm grumpy today. I'm grumpy today because people read about backlinks and then they go build backlinks and nothing happens. And they can't understand why. In this episode, I'm going to tell you why before we get started. If you want to email me, you can email [e-mail] so this is going to be a quick episode. No theme song or anything. I'm sure you determine that. But anyways, let's get started.

[B]

But before we do that, my lawyer tells me that I have to say this right now. A quick disclaimer before we get started. Everything I say here is based on my experience and opinion from 14 years in the industry. I don't officially know how Google or any other search engines work. Everything I say here is hypothetical and based on my experience. This podcast does not constitute advice or services. What worked for me may or may not work for you. Okay, back to the show.

[A]

So there are four reasons. And by the way, you may have noticed in this podcast that I like to give lists of things. For example, the four ways to get backlinks. I'll put a link to that episode in the notes, or the four things you need to rank. And by the way, that's for regular SEO, that is not for local SEO. But in this episode, we're going to talk about four reasons. The backlinks you you built aren't doing anything. So. So let's get started. So there's four reasons. The first reason is you didn't build enough authority. Now, this doesn't mean you built bad quality backlinks. It means you didn't build enough, such that you get enough authority to outrank the websites that are outranking you. Okay, so let me give you an example here, because I have talked in this podcast before about how SEO is basically like race. Okay? It's like a race. Now, if the person in front of you is winning by 20 seconds, okay, he's winning. Or she's winning right now. If you increase your time by 10 seconds, that's good. But they're still beating you by 10 seconds now. Okay? Just because you increased your performance doesn't mean you're going to be first. Okay? So that's how authority and backlinks are. By the way, you need backlinks, because backlinks share Authority. I think you should know that by now. But if not, I don't know, we got other episodes that explain it. So anyways, look, you can build good amounts of authority, but if it's not adequate to outrank the website above you, it's not gonna really make a difference. So I hope that makes sense. And by the way, I want to be very clear, I am talking about authority, not number of backlinks, okay? Because it's not about the number of backlinks you build, it's about the quality of the backlinks. And we have at least two episodes that talk about the difference between bad backlinks and good backlinks. So I will put links to those in the notes. Anyways, that's the first reason you're doing everything properly. You just haven't done enough of it. Second reason, because you built bad backlinks, okay? Backlinks are not all equivalent, okay? They're not all equal. Some backlinks will not help you at all because they are low quality backlinks, okay? Just because you read about backlinks and then you decide it's time to go get some backlinks and then you get like, you know, forum profile backlinks or blog comment backlinks or like, those aren't going to help you. Even if you get a thousand of them, they're not going to help you, okay? So that one's really easy. The second reason people build backlinks and they produce no results is because they bought bad quality backlinks, okay? The second reason people build backlinks and they don't help because they built low quality backlinks, okay? So let's, let's kind of, let's kind of review for a little bit here because I think, I think this is kind of, kind of a neat topic to talk about. So we're talking about backlinks. Most of you that are listening to this understand why you need backlinks. You need backlinks because they provide authority. Authority is one of the things that you need to rank, okay? You do not get authority without building backlinks. So you need backlinks. Now again, that's the gist of it. So let's review these two details one more time. Okay? First, the reason you built backlinks and they were unhelpful is because you did not build the amount of backlinks necessary to give you the amount of authority that you need to rank higher than your competition. So think of it, right? You need more authority than your competition, okay? You need more Authority than your competition. So you could be building good backlinks. You could be building good quality links. You just haven't done enough of it, okay? It doesn't mean it's not working. It means you're not there yet, okay? So that's one reason. And the second reason is because you built garbage backlinks, okay? The backlinks that you regularly find for sale on different marketplaces might not be the best quality backlinks around. I'm just. I'm just. I'm just telling you, you probably realize this already. Just because you realize, oh, I need backlinks doesn't mean you should just go buy any backlinks that you see or build any kind of backlinks that you hear about or anything like that, okay? You need to understand what makes a good backlink. So reason number two is you acquired bad quality backlinks. Okay? We talked about the first two reasons that the backlinks you build don't work, okay? So let's review them really quick because there's four reasons. Let's review the first two reasons really quick. One, because you did not build the right kind of backlinks to build adequate authority to outrank your competition. Okay? You did not build enough backlinks. And I don't want to say. I don't want to talk about, like, quantity, because it's not necessarily quantity, but we'll just say you did not build enough authority. You did not build enough authority to sufficiently outrank your competition. Okay? You did not build enough authority. That doesn't mean the backlinks you built weren't effective. So that means the difference in authority between your website and your competition was. Wasn't enough, that the backlinks that you built overcame it. Does that make sense? I hope that. I hope that makes sense. Okay? And the second reason is because you built bad quality backlinks. So those are the two reasons. Let's get on to the third and fourth reason that the backlinks you built were not helpful. Reason number three, because you have a problem with your site. Okay? This is a very uncommon nugget of knowledge here. So listen, most people think that, oh, if I build good quality backlinks, I will eventually get to the top of the search engines. And that's true if you do not have any problems with your website. But a common problem is you have a penalty or a potential penalty. And by the way, we have an episode called you might get a penalty maybe or something like that that kind of mentions this issue. So listen, your website could have a potential penalty. Penalty, okay? And the search engines don't care because you don't have sufficient authority for them to even pay attention to your website. But then you start building backlinks. And even if they are helpful backlinks, what those backlinks are doing is providing more authority to your website. And now the search engines are focusing on it. And now if you have a penalty, it's possible that the penalty will become engaged and you will get a penalty. So it is feasible that you build good quality backlinks and your rank drops because you had a problem on your website that was not handled before building the backlinks. I hope that makes sense. Now, this doesn't mean it's going to happen, right? But if you're building quality backlinks and you notice like nothing's happening, or if you get a penalty after building quality backlinks, it's because suddenly you have enough authority that the search engines can concentrate or be interested in your website. And oh, look, we found a penalty. Now that we're actually looking at this website, because we were not looking at it, we found a penalty. Okay, there's a. Anyways, so that's the third reason. And reason number four is because you're not relevant for your keywords, you can get as much authority as you want. And if you're not relevant for your keywords, the website is not going to rank for those keywords. Okay, now probably you understand relevancy. Two of the factors that you need to rank are relevancy and authority. Okay? Relevancy means what is the topic of your website? And relevancy is the easiest thing to get. Just write content about your topic and you will be relevant for that topic. Okay, we have other episodes that anyways, so. But the thing is, like, people might like build all this authority and then they're like, okay, I got all these good backlinks, I got all this authority. Why am I not ranking? Well, you literally have, like unrelated content on your site. Okay. If you want to rank for toasters, you need content about toasters. Okay, you're not going to rank for toasters, even if you have lots of authority, you're not going to rank for toasters if you're not relevant when it comes to that keyword. So that's the fourth reason that you might build backlinks. And they are not helping. I hope this was helpful. Let me know what questions you have and I'll talk to you later.

[B]

Thanks for listening. Don't forget to subscribe. And if you enjoy this podcast. Subscribe Please please leave a review. It would really help the show out. I hope this episode was helpful. If you have any questions or want to suggest a subject for a future episode, you can contact me on Reddit. My username is Grumpy SEO Guy. You can visit the Grumpy SEO Guy subreddit or you can email [e-mail] if you email me, please either whitelist my email address or check your junk folders because I've been told that my replies are going into the junk folder and it's probably because we're talking about things like SEO and backlinks, and I think those words will classify an email as spam. And if you want to support the podcast because it's the best source of SEO information on the planet and it's free, you can do [e-mail] grumpy SEO guy and I will talk to you later. You're listening to Grumpy SEO Guy, the SEO podcast that doesn't waste your time with nonsense that doesn't work. Join us next Wednesday for another episode. It.