Backlinks are the core of search engine optimization as they can make or break your ranking game. Essentially, the health of your link profile decides whether your website will be able to make it to the top and stay there. While the numbers matter, the quality of backlinks is actually what decides your website’s fate. In fact, having bad or spammy backlinks can damage its reputation and cause the ranking to plummet. This makes it absolutely necessary to keep a vigil on your backlink quality all the time.
So what exactly determines the quality of links? Are there any specific factors that you can assess to understand whether your link building strategy is going in the right direction? There are certain attributes that you can bear in mind while building links so that you can secure the benefits of the good ones and steer clear of the baneful effects of the bad ones. Let us list the criteria you should consider to decide whether a specific backlink is delivering quality or not.
Relevance
Primarily, relevance is the most significant factor that decides a backlink’s quality. Speaking in the context of link building, relevance is all about linking with websites from the same niche. Obviously, Google will be happy if your fashion website links with a makeup site, but a connection with an IT website will be viewed suspiciously. In simple words, you should try building backlinks with sites within your industry because such links are trustworthy and connect you with your target audience as well.
Authority
While relevance is one aspect that you cannot ignore when judging a backlink’s potential, authority is another element that makes a real difference. Authority equals trust, which matters to the audience as well as search engines. If you are linking with an authoritative source online, you will earn trust naturally for your website or brand. At the same time, the authoritative nature of the source will act as a silent endorsement for your brand. Domain Authority is a measure that lets you understand the authority of the link source. Domain Age is another factor to consider because older domains are considered to be more trustworthy.
Trust Rank
Apart from the relevance and domain authority of the linking site, its Trust Rank is another metric that needs your attention. If Google trusts the site you are linking with, the trust will pass to your website as well. This approach will earn you quality backlinks and raise your Trust Rank too. Besides getting links from trusted sites, you can also be active on social media and try earning genuine backlinks through likes, shares, and comments of your audience.
Diversity
Diversity in your backlink profile is another parameter that makes it stronger. According to experts at SEOJet.net, you should aspire to connect with multiple relevant and high-authority websites for sourcing backlinks rather than depend only on a handful of sites. An optimal mix of referring domains makes things appear more natural and earns the trust of the search engines, which definitely translates into higher rankings for your websites.
Anchor text
The clickable part of the link, which is known as the anchor text, also has a significant impact on the backlink quality. An anchor text which is the same as or closely related to your target keyword automatically elevates the quality of the backlink. However, using the exact keyword as your anchor text repeatedly is not a good idea because it appears unnatural. Conversely, using keyword variations to create anchor texts is a strategy that pays.
Placement
This one sounds surprising but it is true that the placement of the backlink determines its quality. Google prioritizes in-content links because they appear more contextual from the user perspective. Additionally, you need to make sure that it is placed naturally and in-the-flow, rather than looking stuffed in the content.
Traffic
The volume and quality of traffic that a backlink drives to your website is another parameter that decides its quality. If it fails to send traffic (or the traffic it sends is totally irrelevant), you cannot consider it a good one from the quality perspective. Obviously, this is one factor that you cannot ignore because it gets you what you actually want for your website.
Unpaid links
When it comes to link building, there are certain best practices you need to follow. Any backlink that you create by flouting these best practices is automatically of poor quality. The paid ones are something you should avoid in this context because they can cause more harm than good. They can get your website a minor boost initially but Google will penalize you as soon as it detects the wrong approach (and you can expect it sooner rather than later!). So the best advice is to stick with organic and unpaid backlinks.
Natural growth behavior
A sudden spike in the number of backlinks for your website is always suspicions and also a bad practice. Earning backlinks by the hundreds is, in fact, the easiest way to invite the Google penalty. On the other hand, making sure that your links grow at a gradual yet consistent pace wins trust and quality for your website. Your SEO strategy, therefore, should be aligned to focus only on the natural growth of quality backlinks.
Hard to earn
Anything that comes easily is often of less value and this applies to backlinks as well. A website that provides you a link without much struggle is not really great from the trust perspective. Conversely, the links that you get with genuine hard work and credible strategies like blogger outreach and guest posting yield high value that stays year after year.
With this comprehensive list of backlink quality factors, you will have a clear idea about the ones you should prioritize and those you should skip completely as a part of your strategy. The best bet is to focus on the backlinks that deliver quality because they impart strength to your website’s profile. Moreover, they keep getting you effective and sustainable results in the form of high search rankings over the years.