When optimizing a website, external link building is essential. Although Baidu has changed its rules and reduced the importance of backlinks, it remains undeniable that external links still significantly impact rankings. Generally, higher-quality backlinks can effectively boost a website's authority and are also beneficial for keyword rankings. However, low-quality backlinks can equally harm your site. Today, we'll discuss how SEO beginners can properly build external links.

I. What Are Backlinks?
Backlinks, also known as external links or inbound links, refer to links from other websites on the internet that point to your own site. A common misconception among SEO beginners is that backlinks should always link to the homepage. This is actually incorrect. Backlinks pointing to internal pages of your site also exist, and such backlinks can help boost the authority of those internal pages. Backlinks primarily come in three forms: plain text URLs, hyperlinked URLs, and anchor text URLs.
1. Plain Text URLs
Plain text URLs are non-clickable links, often seen when editing documents in text editors. The most common example is a sentence like This article is from www.yourdomain.com Please indicate the source of the article when reposting. within someone else's writing.
2. Hyperlinked URLs
Hyperlinked URLs, as the name implies, are clickable links that direct users to a website. This is their key distinction from plain text URLs. Compared to plain text URLs, hyperlinked URLs are significantly more effective. They not only enhance a website's authority but also drive traffic.
3. Anchor Text URLs
Anchor text URLs, also known as hypertext links, allow keywords to be added to links. This subconsciously connects the link with the keyword in search engines' eyes. This practice not only boosts a website's authority but is also one of the methods to quickly rank keywords.

II. How SEO Beginners Can Find Backlinks
1. Learn from competitors. Examine competitors' websites to see how they acquire backlinks. Use Baidu's domain search function on competitor sites, e.g., domain:www.yourdomain.com. If they employ white-hat SEO tactics, replicate their approaches.

2. Build backlinks from websites competitors haven't targeted. Don't assume imitating competitors is sufficient. SEO beginners must also select backlink resources suitable for their own sites. Blindly copying competitors will ultimately leave your rankings behind theirs. In such cases, you need to seek out more effective backlink resources.

3. Accumulate backlinks. Many SEO backlink resources are built through accumulation. Therefore, as an SEO beginner, you should actively accumulate quality backlink resources in your daily work and life. Use an Excel spreadsheet to categorize and archive these resources. This makes them readily accessible when seeking relevant platforms later.

III. Develop a Backlink Strategy
As a new SEO practitioner, establish a backlink strategy. Focus less on perfection or granularity, and more on execution. This plan can be long-term or short-term, and can include daily task schedules and work plans.

IV. Monitor Backlink Indexing
As an SEO beginner, the key is learning to summarize. Spend a few minutes daily checking the indexing status of backlinks placed that day or the previous day. Use Excel to create a backlink list, adding each new link daily. Then, either that day or the next, review the indexing status of these links. Remove any low-quality backlink resources and retain the good ones. Consistently maintain this backlink indexing summary. Before building backlinks, you should understand which types of websites typically index your links and which do not. Even if a site indexes your link, ensure its quality remains high.