Do You Need to Keep Buliding SEO Backlinks After You Are In First Place? - Episode 123

Summary

Grumpy SEO Guy — Episode 123

Title: Do You Need to Keep Building SEO Backlinks After You Are In First Place?
Host: Grumpy SEO Guy
Date: August 27, 2025

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Overview of the Episode

In this episode, Grumpy SEO Guy tackles a common SEO dilemma: Should you keep building backlinks after your website reaches the number one spot in search results? Drawing on his 14 years of agency experience, the host explains how authority works, demystifies the role of ongoing backlink acquisition, and addresses when you might need to step back or double down. The discussion uses race metaphors and practical examples, guiding listeners on how to manage SEO efforts post-victory.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Big Question: Backlinks After #1 Ranking?

• Grumpy SEO Guy sets the stage by addressing a frequently asked question:
  "Do I have to keep building backlinks continuously given a case where my website is already in first position?" (03:53)
• He clarifies that authority—primarily derived from backlinks—is what propels websites to top rankings.

2. Authority as a Competitive Factor

• Authority is Relative:

  • "The amount of authority you need is normally based on the amount of authority that your competition has." (04:39)
  • Detailed competitor analysis is vital before starting a backlink campaign (04:55).

• Not Blindly Chasing More:

  • "It makes no sense to just start trying stuff if you don't know what the competition is doing." (05:05)
  • Agencies don’t just pile on backlinks; they assess the competitive landscape first.

3. The Race Analogy in SEO

• Race Metaphor:
  • "SEO is like being in a race. There's always somebody in first place...That person could be in first place by one inch, by a few feet, or by a lot." (03:20)
• Implication:
  • If you're ahead, you might be able to slow down. If competitors get faster, you need to step it up again.

4. Should You Keep Building Backlinks?

• Short Answer:

  • "You do not need to keep building backlinks, but you might have to if you lose your rank." (05:40)

• Maintain Vigilance:

  • "It's not like you have to keep doing it...If you're already in first place, it almost definitely means you have more authority than your competition." (05:55)
  • However, don’t just stop all SEO efforts after reaching #1.

• Reasons for Rank Loss:

  • Two main causes:
    1. Algorithm updates (06:51)
    2. Competition upping their SEO game (06:52)
  • Listeners directed to episodes 89 and 90 for deeper dives on rank loss causes (06:31).

• If Competitors Push Harder:

  • "That's like the person in second place starting to run faster and eventually they pass you. SEO is the same way." (07:13)

5. Organic Backlinks and Authority Over Time

• Top Sites Get Linked to More:
  • "When you're on the first page, you generally will organically collect backlinks anyway. Because people link to websites on the first page because they can find them." (09:11)
• Organic Links vs. Marketing Links:
  • Emphasis on the difference between genuine organic links and low-quality marketing links (09:34).

6. Practical Recommendations and Nuances

• Can You Slow Down?
  • "Generally speaking, if you're in first, you can maybe step back a little bit from building backlinks...But you should always be focusing on things like where you rank, because you never know when your competition's going to do something or when the algorithm is going to change." (10:05)
• It’s Not Binary:
  • "SEO is not like a formula that you follow. It's not like, well, I'm in the first position now, I'm done doing SEO. It's like, no, it continues, but when you're in the first position, you can maybe ease off a little bit, maybe." (10:32)

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On competition:

  "The amount of authority you need is normally based on the amount of authority that your competition has."
  — Grumpy SEO Guy (04:39)

• On the SEO race analogy:

  "SEO is like being in a race... There's always a website in first position, there's always a website in second place, and so on."
  — Grumpy SEO Guy (03:20)

• On maintaining top authority:

  "It's not like you have to keep doing it and just build more backlinks... If you're already in first place, it almost definitely means you have more authority than your competition."
  — Grumpy SEO Guy (05:48)

• On motivation for ongoing SEO:

  "Maybe you might want to keep doing it if you want to make your lead even further. Like, just cause you're in first place in a race doesn't mean that you slow down necessarily."
  — Grumpy SEO Guy (08:41)

• On real-world backlink acquisition:

  "Websites on the first page regularly get more backlinks..."
  — Grumpy SEO Guy (09:53)

• On when you can ease off:

  "Generally speaking, if you're in first, you can maybe step back a little bit from building backlinks...Some people are like, I'm in first position. I need to keep building backlinks because I want to maintain my lead. That's fine. You can absolutely do that. But you don't necessarily have to."
  — Grumpy SEO Guy (10:05)

• On the unpredictable nature of SEO:

  "SEO is not like a formula that you follow. It's not like, well, I'm in the first position now, I'm done doing SEO."
  — Grumpy SEO Guy (10:32)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:40–03:20: Setup and race analogy discussion
• 03:53–05:48: Direct answer to "Should you keep building backlinks?"
• 06:27–07:13: Why you might lose rankings (algorithm updates/competition)
• 08:13–09:34: Easing off link building and organic link growth
• 10:05–10:32: Strategic recommendations and summary

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Tone and Style Notes

Grumpy SEO Guy maintains a candid, no-nonsense tone that’s slightly sardonic, brutally honest, and very practical. He relies on analogies ("SEO is like a race") and speaks directly to both misconceptions held by SEO newcomers and the nuances missed by more experienced practitioners. He also frequently references his own back-catalogue of episodes, encouraging listeners to explore related topics for a deeper understanding.

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Final Takeaways

• You do not need to infinitely build backlinks once at #1, but you should remain vigilant—competition and algorithm changes can threaten your position.
• Monitor competitors’ moves and be prepared to ramp up efforts if challenged.
• First-page visibility often leads to natural backlink accumulation.
• SEO is an ongoing process, not a destination—but once you're leading, you may be able to ease efforts judiciously.

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For further questions or topic suggestions, you can reach Grumpy SEO Guy on Reddit or via email at hellorumpyseoguy.com. Full episode links and referenced episodes are provided in the show notes.

Transcript

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

This is Grumpy SEO Guy, episode 123. Do you need to keep building backlinks after you are at the top of the search results? You're listening to Grumpy SEO Guy, the SEO podcast that doesn't waste your time with nonsense that doesn't work. I'm the Grumpy SEO Guy and I'm sharing with you the strategies that have helped me successfully run my SEO agency for the last 14 years. In this podcast, I'll be sharing my knowledge and experience, discussing tips and strategies, and trying to help you cut through the confusion that permeates this industry. If you listen to this podcast, you will know more about SEO than 99% of people on the planet. Ready? Let's get started. I'm the Grumpy SEO Guy. Let me tell you why I'm grumpy today. I'm grumpy today because people still aren't quite grasping how backlinks and authority work. And there's a question that I'm continually asked. So we're gonna address that question today. But before I do that, I gotta remind you of some stuff. New episodes come out on Wednesday, 9am Central Standard Time. That's on podcast platforms. If you're on YouTube, it's gonna be a little bit after that. If you leave a comment on YouTube, I try to respond on Wednesday, but sometimes it's not until Thursday. If you like the podcast and you wanna subscribe, that would be great. If you really like the podcast and wanna support us on Patreon, you can do so at patreon.com grumpyseoguy. And if you have something that you, if it's more than a short little question and you want to set up a zoom advisory call, you can email [e-mail] and we can talk about getting that arranged. If you just have a little question and you want to stop by the Grumpy SEO Guy subreddit and say hi, you can do [e-mail] r grumpyseoguy okay, on to the podcast. Oh, by the time you listen to this episode, I'm not aware if this will have ads or not. Not talking about YouTube, talking about on like reg podcast platforms because I'm not really sure what's going on with that. But if there are ads and you want to not have ads, you can do [e-mail] and any existing paid Patreon members, meaning before the ads started, will automatically get ad free episodes. So thank you to all my Patreon members. Okay, so. 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. Another reminder, because this topic keeps coming up, we have other episodes on this. Good SEO will help your AI SEO. There is no difference between AI SEO and regular SEO. Just do good regular SEO. This is not the topic of today's podcast, but this is a reminder. Just do good regular SEO that will help you be mentioned in AI. Here's. Here's a question that I get asked pretty frequently. Do I have to keep building backlinks continuously given a case where my website is already in first position in the search results? Okay, I'm gonna try and answer this question without taking up too much time. So, as you know, authority comes from backlinks. Backlinks are the only way to get authority, okay? They're the only way to get authority. And people think that once they get backlinks and they start ranking, they just need to keep building backlinks nonstop. And they need to keep building them. Like, they're gonna lose their ranking if they don't keep building backlinks. Look, SEO and I have made this comparison before. SEO is like being in a race, okay? It's like being in a race. Now, in a race, there's always somebody in first place, right? And that person could be in first place by one inch, but they're still in first place. They could be in first place by a few feet, but they're still in first place. Or they could be in first place by a lot. Maybe they're a much better runner than the second place person.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

SEO is like a race, okay? There's always a website in first position, there's always a website in second place, and so on. So the amount of authority that you need. And we're going to not talk about the other things in this episode. We're only gonna talk about authority. So the amount of authority you need is normally based on the amount of authority that your competition has, okay? That's why competition analysis is a big part of SEO. You can't just do. Well, I mean, you can. You can just do stuff, but if you don't know what you're up against, there's no reason to do it. That's why I've mentioned this before, but we don't even. For example, we don't even start building backlinks until we have gone through a complicated assessment process that takes three or four weeks where we look at a lot of stuff. A lot of that is spent looking at your competition and what they're doing and finding out why they are ranking. Because it makes no sense to just start trying stuff if you don't know what the competition is doing. Do you want to spend thousands of dollars and months and get no result because you don't know what your competition is doing? Or how do you know if it's even possible to outrank somebody if you haven't looked at your competition? So anyway, long story short, the answer to the question is, basically, you do not need to keep building backlinks, but you might have to if you lose your rank.

[Listener]

Okay.

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

It's not like you have to keep doing it and just build more backlinks. I have to build more. And I have to build more. And I have to build more. If you're already in first place, it almost definitely means you have more authority than your competition. Okay, so once you're in. But that doesn't. Okay, but that doesn't mean that you can just like stop doing SEO, right? Like, okay, look, if you're in a race, just cause you're in first place.

[Listener]

Right.

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

Doesn't mean you can necessarily slow down.

[Listener]

Right.

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

Or stop. It doesn't mean you can stop. But like, this kind of brings us to another question, and we already have two episodes on this other topic, but this other question is why do you lose your rank?

[Listener]

Okay.

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

By the way, that's episode 89 and episode 90.

[Listener]

Okay.

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

I think they are titled why your SEO position is losing rank, part one and part two or something like that. I can't remember. I'll put links to them in the notes. But anyways, look, there's a number of reasons that you can lose rank, okay? For example, we're not gonna go through all of them here, but two of the main ones are algorithm updates.

[Listener]

Right?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

Obviously. And your competition is stepping up their SEO game.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

So let's think of that as if it were a race. You're in first position, you're winning the race. Okay, but what happens if your competition decides to turn up their SEO efforts?

[Listener]

Right?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

What happens? Well, that's like the person in second place starting to run faster and eventually they pass you. Now they're in first position and you're in the second position. SEO is the same way.

[Listener]

Okay.

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

You can be in first position and your competition can start doing better SEO. And then now they're in the first position. Okay, so. And by the way, that's why people work with SEO agencies. Because they need better SEO.

[Listener]

Right?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

So like nobody? Well, I can't say nobody. Usually people don't hire us if they're in the first position because they don't need SEO. I mean, there's exceptions to each thing. Right? But generally speaking, people that hire us are not in the first position.

[Listener]

Okay.

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

And so then if we get them to the first position, the person who used to be in the first position is like, wait a minute, now they're on the discussion boards posting. I'm not in first position anymore. What happened? Well, your competition stepped up their SEO game.

[Listener]

Okay.

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

You need to think of it like a race. Like you're in a race.

[Listener]

Okay.

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

So the purpose of a race is to win the race.

[Listener]

Right?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

Obviously. Anyways, so let's say you're in first place. You're in the search results. You're in first place. I don't want to tell you that you have to keep building backlinks because you might not. You obviously already have sufficient authority to be at the top of the results. So I don't know that you need to keep getting more. That's going to take you time and money.

[Listener]

Okay.

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

But maybe you might want to keep doing it if you want to like, make you make your lead even further. Like, just cause you're in first place in a race.

[Listener]

Right.

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

Doesn't mean that you slow down necessarily. Maybe you're gonna try and win by even more. So you don't necessarily need to keep building more back. Or let me. Let me put it this way. When you're in first, when you're on the first page, you generally will organically collect backlinks anyways. Because people link to websites on the first page because they can find them. If you recall from a different episode, there are four ways to get. Okay, I'll put a link in this episode to that episode if you want to go listen to it. But there's four ways to get backlinks. One of those ways, the first way is to wait and let people find you. Right now, that doesn't work. Every time I mention this, I say, this does not work if you are not already ranking. Because if you're not ranking, why would anyone find your website? Okay, they wouldn't. But if you're at the top of the search Engines, of course people will find you, and of course they will probably link to you. And I'm talking about real links. I'm not talking about those marketing backlinks that everybody gets right now. By the way, we have another episode on that, too. I will put a link in the description to that one, too. Anyways, look, so if you're on the first page, people are gonna link to you, probably. So websites on the first page regularly get more backlinks.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

So you can maybe decrease your efforts a little bit, but it also depends on how competitive things are. It depends on what your competition is doing. It depends on a lot of factors. But generally speaking, if you're in first, you can maybe step back a little bit from building backlinks. Now, that's not to say that everybody does. Some people are like, I'm in first position. I need to keep building backlinks because I want to maintain my lead. That's fine. You can absolutely do that. But you don't necessarily have to. But you should always be focusing on things like where you rank, because you never know when there's going to. When your competition's going to do something or when the algorithm is going to change or, you know, the other reasons it can cause you to lose rank. So I hope this answers the question. It's not like a quick question to answer. SEO is not like a formula that you follow. It's not like, well, I'm in the first position now. I'm done doing SEO. It's like, no, it continues, but when you're in the first position, you can maybe ease off a little bit, maybe. I don't know. I hope this answers the question. Thanks for listening. Don't forget to subscribe. And if you enjoy this podcast, 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. 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 Seoguy 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.