Editorial Link
TL;DR
A backlink that is earned organically when another website links to your content because it is genuinely valuable — the gold standard in link building.
An editorial link (also called a natural link) is a backlink given voluntarily by another website because the content it links to is genuinely useful, informative, unique, or newsworthy — without any payment, negotiation, or reciprocal agreement. Google considers editorial links the highest-quality signal of authority and credibility.
Editorial links are the target of sustainable link building strategies because they are algorithmically safe (no risk of manual penalty), inherently relevant (sites link because the content fits their context), and durable (editorial editors rarely remove valuable links). By contrast, paid links, link exchanges, and PBN links violate Google's guidelines and carry penalty risk.
Earning editorial links requires creating "linkable assets" — resources so genuinely valuable that others cite them naturally: original research and statistics, comprehensive definitive guides, free tools and calculators, data visualisations, and expert commentary quoted by journalists. Guest posting on reputable, editorial publications can earn editorial-quality links when the content meets genuine editorial standards.
Examples in Practice
A marketing statistics page on your site gets cited by 50 different blogs writing about digital marketing. A journalist quotes your AI research in a TechCrunch article with a link back.