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Off-page SEO basics: the 9 link-building precautions

Sir Khurram Malik's off-page SEO basics, the 9 precautions for safe link building (spam score bands, bad neighborhoods, link farms, OBL, anchor text shares and more), and link velocity, relevance and indexing.

human reviewedAhmed Raza2 min

Chapter 5 of the Local SEO, AEO & GEO course notes, from Sir Khurram Malik's lecture of 21 July 2026.

Sir's tip

  • You do not need to follow everything 100%: implement 60% consistently.
  • Follow Sir's methods sincerely for 90 days.
  • After 90 days you will be at a new level.1

What is off-page SEO?

Google does not only look at your website. It asks: "Are other websites giving you a vote of confidence?" Off-page SEO is also known as off-site SEO, link building, or backlink creation.1

The 9 precautions (every one matters)

1. Low spam score (Moz)

RangeVerdict
0 to 10%Safe, the ideal range
10 to 30%Acceptable, evaluate carefully
30 to 60%Risky, mostly avoid
70%+A time bomb, never

2. Bad neighborhoods

Gambling, casino, betting, adult, drugs, weapons: taking a link from these damages your own site.1

Sites built only to give backlinks, with zero real content. Risk of a Google Penguin penalty.1

4. Auto-approval sites

Forum and blog comment links: fine if relevant, but avoid spammy use.1

5. High-OBL sites

OBL = outbound links. On a page with 500 links, your link's value is 1/500.1

6. Paid / commercial sites

"1000 backlinks for $5" is 100% harmful. Evaluate quality first.1

7. Penalized sites

A link from a Google-penalized site risks a negative association for your site as well.1

8. Over-optimized anchor text

Important

No exact-match keyword at all in your top 5 anchors. This is Sir's most important point.

Anchor typeRecommended share
Brand name40 to 50%
Naked URL (e.g. fiverr.com)20 to 30%
Generic (Read More, Learn More)15 to 20%
LSI / variations10 to 15%
Exact-match keyword5 to 10% maximum

Diversify: citations, foundational, social, Web 2.0, blog comments, forums, niche edits, guest posts, podcasts, article marketing.1

Extra important points

  • Dofollow + nofollow mix: a natural profile.
  • Link velocity: gradual building earns Google's trust; a sudden spike is a Penguin flag.
  • Niche relevance: same-niche links have the highest value.
  • Index your links: an unindexed backlink has zero value, so get them indexed by Google.1

Quick revision

  • Low spam score (under 10% ideal)
  • Avoid bad neighborhoods
  • Avoid link farms
  • Quality-check auto-approval sites
  • Avoid high-OBL pages
  • Evaluate paid sites before using them
  • Never use penalized sites
  • A natural anchor text profile
  • Diversified backlink types

Footnotes

  1. Local SEO, AEO & GEO: AI-Powered Ranking Notes, Sir Khurram Malik, chapter 5. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10

More in this chapter3

  1. LessonOff-page SEO for local sites, Part 2: citations and social signalsSir Khurram Malik's lecture on social profiles for rank and rent sites, foundational links, why nofollow links and brand mentions still count, local business citations, citation types, and three ways to find citations.Read lesson
  2. LessonSales psychology for client hunting: sell results, not SEOSir Khurram Malik's client hunting notes, why you sell business outcomes and emotions instead of SEO features, what local businesses actually want, client language, meeting questions, and selling FOMO and hope honestly.Read lesson
  3. LessonAI enhancement: competitor reviews, Search Console data and keyword gap optimizationSir Khurram Malik's advanced AI usage notes, a four-stage loop of competitor GMB review analysis, Google Search Console analysis, SEMrush keyword gap and keyword mapping, with the exact prompts for ChatGPT and Claude.Read lesson

Off-page SEO for local sites, Part 2: citations and social signals

Sir Khurram Malik's lecture on social profiles for rank and rent sites, foundational links, why nofollow links and brand mentions still count, local business citations, citation types, and three ways to find citations.

Sales psychology for client hunting: sell results, not SEO

Sir Khurram Malik's client hunting notes, why you sell business outcomes and emotions instead of SEO features, what local businesses actually want, client language, meeting questions, and selling FOMO and hope honestly.