The spectrum runs from “too easy to matter” to “genuinely hard to earn.” Comment links and Fiverr placements technically work sometimes — but they work the way a rest-stop hookup works: transactionally and briefly. What actually builds durable authority is showing up in your community, creating content worth citing, and earning mentions from sources that care about their own reputation.

I’ve had technically sophisticated black hat SEOs on the podcast. The honest truth: some shady tactics work — temporarily, in low-competition spaces. The issue isn’t whether they work. It’s whether the strategy survives the next algorithm cycle and whether you want to rebuild from zero every 18 months.

The most durable local links I’ve seen came from community cleanup events. When you host an event, the city lists it, local news covers it, nonprofits link to it. You get geo-relevant editorial links from sources that have never heard of “link building” and would never sell you a placement. I’ve run these in San Diego, Sarasota, and Cookeville — and the link profiles hold up years later.