Individual links together form the backbone of the internet. When a website links to another via a hyperlink, we call this a backlink. Such a backlink generally represents a vote of confidence. Let's explore why that is and why you need backlinks.
Summary: Backlinks are an essential tool for defining the authority of websites. Link building is the process of increasing the number of links pointing to a website, using a variety of strategies and techniques.
Questions About Link Building
Let's first address your most important questions about link building. After that, we'll dive deeper into the topic. If you're already looking for link building strategies, you can skip this section.
What is link building?
Link building is a process to increase the quantity and quality of backlinks — that is, external links pointing to your own pages.
Why is link building important?
Link building aims to acquire high-quality backlinks. Search engines weigh the authority of a page based in part on the number of backlinks it has. Increasing that number can lead to better placements in the SERPs.
The reasoning behind this is that Google and others treat a backlink as a vote of confidence. If a website links to your page, it counts as a kind of "trust vote" for you. The more you are trusted, the more willing search engines are to suggest your content to other users.
Quality Over Quantity
Links are an essential part of a successful SEO strategy. Nevertheless, the guiding principle in link building is quality over quantity — at least in the long run.
Differences Between Backlinks
Not every link is equal. A good rule of thumb: the easier it is to obtain a backlink, the less it is worth. (Backlink Farms) For your link building efforts, this means you cannot create hundreds of fake websites, link to your site from each of them, and expect to build meaningful backlinks. Technically it's possible, but these links are worthless and are fairly quickly penalized by search engines. You'll do yourself more harm than good.
2,000 backlinks from
my-fake-website-126.biz
→
Negative impact
2 backlinks from
microsoft.com
→
Positive impact
Place high value on the quality of your link sources.
Dofollow vs. Nofollow
A website owner who links to a page can choose to "devalue" that link. There are many reasons for this — one is to protect their own reputation with search engines if they're linking to a questionable site. In this case, the search engine crawler will not follow the link. This devaluation is done by assigning the value "nofollow" to the rel attribute of the link:
html<a href="example.com" rel="nofollow">Link</a>
Dofollow links work differently — the search engine follows them and passes some trust on to the linked page. This trust is often described as a currency or "link juice."Admittedly, the value "dofollow" doesn't technically exist as an attribute. By default, every backlink is a dofollow link, since search engines crawl links unless prevented from doing so by a "nofollow."
Nofollow links
→ No / minimal impact
Dofollow links
→ Positive impact
Aim to collect links without "nofollow" in the rel attribute. If you do receive a nofollow link, it's not a disaster — the link still has some value, it just won't have much SEO influence.
Evaluating Link Quality
When assessing the quality of a link for SEO purposes, several factors need to be considered:
Relevance:
The link should be relevant to the content of the page it points to and come from a website that is also relevant to your content.
Authority:
Links should ideally come from a reputable source with a high level of authority in the relevant subject area. This can be determined using the Domain Authority (DA) and Page Authority (PA) of the linking website, both of which can be assessed via SEO tools such as Ahrefs or SEMrush.
Context:
The content surrounding the link should be topically relevant.
Placement:
Links placed in prominent positions on a website (the higher, the better) are generally considered more significant.
Rel attributes:
The rel attribute of the link should ideally not contain "nofollow."
Diversity:
Aim to obtain links from a variety of domains and different types of sources.
Natural and organic:
The link should appear natural and organic — avoid purchased links or participation in link schemes.
Always aim to follow the above points in order to obtain high-quality backlinks.
Natural Link Building
You can accumulate backlinks naturally — for example, by creating high-quality content that other websites want to link to. When you receive a link from a third party out of genuine conviction, we call this natural link building.A key element of natural link building is creating content that is valuable, informative, and useful to your target audience. Think carefully about what content would genuinely benefit them.
Tip: Create content specifically tailored to bloggers and journalists in your field. This increases the likelihood that you'll be cited as a source on trustworthy websites.
This can include blog posts, infographics, videos, and other types of content that people enjoy sharing and linking to.
Creating High-Quality Content
You create valuable content by incorporating the following steps into your creation process:
Understand your target audience and their problems, and create content that addresses those problems.
Use data and research to back up your content and make it credible.
Use visual elements such as images, videos, and infographics to make your content more engaging.
Promote your content via social media, email, and other channels to reach a wider audience.
Continuously update and improve your content to keep it fresh and relevant.
Build relationships with other websites and influencers in your industry to increase the likelihood that they will link to your content.
Guest Posts and Outreach
One of the most effective ways to build backlinks is through guest posts on other websites. Look for websites in your niche that accept guest contributions and create high-quality content relevant to their audience.
Include a link to your own website within your post to generate traffic and backlinks. Another important step is outreach — directly approaching webmasters and blog owners. Look for websites with similar content to yours and compile a list of potential link partners. Draft personalized emails and offer a link exchange or a guest post in return.At the same time, pay close attention to the quality of your own content as described above.
Finding Websites That Accept Guest Authors
Wondering how to find websites that accept guest authors? Fortunately, there's a tool that lets you quickly locate such sites — Google Search. To use Google Search to find blogs and websites that accept guest authors or guest posts for SEO purposes, follow these steps:
Choose relevant keywords related to your niche and combine them with phrases such as "submit a guest post," "write for us," "guest post by," "contribute to our website," "become a guest blogger," "guest post guidelines," "submit content," or "guest author."
Put terms in quotation marks ("text") to search for exact matches and get more relevant results.
Use the "site:" operator to restrict the search to a specific domain or website. Example:
site:example.com "submit a guest post"to look for guest posting opportunities on that site.
Sort results by date to find the most recent posts, which may indicate the site is still accepting guest contributions.
Review the site's guest post guidelines and requirements before submitting, to ensure your post meets their standards.
Following these steps will increase your chances of obtaining high-quality backlinks. Keep in mind, however, that your guest posts should provide genuine value and should not read as promotional content.
Link Building Through Broken Links
Broken link building is a powerful SEO technique that involves finding broken links on other websites that point to your content and having them fixed. By repairing these links, you can improve the user experience for website visitors and increase your own website's visibility to search engines. Here's how to get started with broken link building:
Identify broken links:
Use tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush to search for broken links pointing to your website. Look for 404 error pages and links that return a "page not found" message.
Contact webmasters:
Once you've found broken links, reach out to the webmasters of the affected websites and inform them about the broken links. Offer to provide alternative resources or updated information to replace the broken link.
Create high-quality content:
Make sure the content on your website is of high quality and provides value to users. This makes it more likely that webmasters will link to your site and that users will engage with your content.
Monitor your progress:
Regularly monitor your website's backlink profile to see whether new broken links have appeared and whether the ones you've fixed have been restored.
By following these steps, you can effectively use broken link building to improve your website's search engine rankings and drive more visitors to your site.
Skyscraper Link Building
The Skyscraper Technique is a powerful link building strategy in which you find popular content in your industry and create a better, more comprehensive version of it. This can help you attract backlinks to your website, improve your SERP rankings, and drive more visitors to your site.
Research Demand
Start by researching popular content in your industry or niche. Use tools like Google, Ahrefs, or SEMrush to find articles that have received a lot of traffic, engagement, and backlinks. Compile a list of these articles and note what makes them successful — for example, the topics covered, the format, and the type of imagery used.
Create Better Content
Once you've identified the popular content in your industry, it's time to create a better, more comprehensive version of it. This might mean adding more information, updating outdated details, or making the content more visually appealing. Focus on creating content that provides added value to your target audience, and make sure it is well-researched, engaging, and easy to read.
Promote Your Content
After creating your new, improved content, it's time to promote it to your audience and other relevant websites. Reach out to websites that linked to the original content and let them know about your new resource. Use social media, email, and other marketing channels to reach your target audience. Encourage them to share and spread your content.
Collect New Backlinks
As your content gains visibility, you should start receiving backlinks from other websites. Focus on building relationships with other websites in your industry and continue creating high-quality content so that backlinks keep coming. Be patient and persistent, and don't be afraid to reach out to websites and ask for links.
Monitor Results
Finally, monitor your results and track your progress. Use tools like Google Analytics and Ahrefs to see how much traffic your content is receiving, how many backlinks you've earned, and what impact this is having on your website's rankings. Continuously adjust your strategy as needed to maximize your results and stay one step ahead of the competition.
Measuring Link Building
Measuring the impact of your link building efforts on your SEO is important to ensure you're achieving the best return on investment and making optimal use of your time and resources. Below are some key metrics to help you measure your link building results.
Rankings
Use tools like Google Search Console or SEMrush to track the keywords you're targeting and monitor your website's rankings. Look for trends over time and check whether your rankings improve as you acquire more backlinks.
Traffic
Use Google Analytics or Piwik PRO to monitor traffic to your website. Pay attention to both the volume and the quality of traffic, as backlinks from high-authority sites can bring more targeted and engaged visitors to your site.
Backlink Profile
Use tools like Ahrefs or Moz to monitor your backlink profile. Review the number of backlinks you have, the quality of those links, and the domains that are linking to you. Be sure to track how the number of your quality backlinks changes directly after carrying out active link building measures (e.g., guest posts).
Domain Authority
Use tools like Moz or Ahrefs to monitor your Domain Authority. This metric measures the overall strength of your website and how well it can rank in search engine results pages. Look for trends over time and check whether your Domain Authority improves as you acquire more backlinks.
Acting on Measurements
By tracking these metrics, you can get a clear picture of the impact your link building efforts are having on your SEO, and make data-driven decisions to optimize your strategy and maximize your results.
Conclusion
Link building is the process of acquiring backlinks from other websites to your own. These backlinks serve as a vote of confidence for your website and can help improve your SERP rankings and drive more visitors to your site. Effective link building strategies include creating high-quality content that can be used as a linkable resource, writing guest posts, and replacing broken links on topically relevant websites. It is important to measure the impact of your link building efforts. This can be done using metrics such as rankings, traffic, backlink profile, domain authority, and conversions.
Written by
Gegenfeld Team
Gegenfeld Team