It’s a question we hear a lot… Are Backlinks an important part of your overall SEO Strategy?
Yes, Backlinks are an important part of an overall SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) strategy.
Grab a cuppa and settle in for a 14-minute read…
Here’s why:
- Improves Search Engine Ranking: Backlinks act as endorsements from other websites. When a site links to your content, search engines like Google see this as a sign that your content is credible and valuable, which can improve your ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs).
- Increases Website Authority: Backlinks from high-quality, authoritative sites can increase your domain’s authority. This is a significant ranking factor that search engines consider when determining the relevance and trustworthiness of your content.
- Boosts Organic Traffic: Good backlinks can drive traffic directly to your website. If a reputable site links to your content, users of that site may click on the link and visit your site, resulting in more organic traffic.
- Indexing of Pages: Search engines discover new content by crawling backlinks from other websites. Backlinks help search engine bots find and index your site more quickly and efficiently.
- Referral Traffic: In addition to SEO benefits, backlinks can provide referral traffic from the linking websites. If you’re featured on a popular blog or news site, it could drive a significant amount of traffic to your site.
However, not all backlinks are created equal. Quality matters more than quantity. High-quality backlinks come from reputable, relevant sites. On the other hand, spammy or low-quality backlinks can harm your SEO and Google may penalise your site if it determines you’re trying to manipulate search rankings with unnatural links.
Building a healthy backlink profile should be a long-term strategy involving content creation, outreach, and building relationships within your industry. Backlinks are not for those looking for a quick win.
But what makes a good Backlink?
A good backlink has several key characteristics that contribute positively to your website’s SEO and overall online presence.
- Relevance: A backlink from a site that is relevant to your industry or niche carries more value. For example, if you run a tech blog, a backlink from another tech-related site will be much more impactful than one from a completely unrelated site like a travel blog.
- Authority of the Linking Site: Backlinks from high-authority websites are more valuable. Websites with high Domain Authority (DA), trustworthiness, and a strong reputation (e.g., news outlets, respected blogs or government and educational sites) provide more SEO value than links from lesser-known or spammy sites.
- High DA websites (e.g., major news organisations or industry leaders) tend to pass on more “link juice,” which can improve your search engine ranking.
- Editorial Nature: Links which are included naturally within the content – rather than purchased or created through low-quality schemes – are considered editorial and have greater value. Editorial links often come from a place of trust and validation, as they are earned rather than forced or placed artificially.
- Anchor Text: The clickable text (anchor text) of the backlink is another important factor. An effective anchor text:
- Is descriptive: It gives users and search engines a clear idea of what the linked page is about.
- Is relevant to the content: A good anchor text is usually related to the keywords you are targeting, but it should not appear overly optimised or unnatural (avoiding exact-match keyword stuffing).
- Contextual Relevance: A backlink is more valuable when it appears within the body of an article or content that’s related to your site. Contextually relevant links are treated as more authentic and useful to readers, and thus search engines give them more weight.
- Traffic-Driving Potential: A good backlink doesn’t just benefit SEO but also drives traffic to your site. If the website linking to you has a good amount of traffic, you can receive referral traffic, which is a positive signal for search engines and valuable for your business.
- Dofollow vs. Nofollow
- Dofollow Backlinks pass on link equity (often called “link juice”) to your website and are crucial for SEO.
- Nofollow Backlinks don’t pass link juice but can still be beneficial for driving traffic and increasing brand exposure. Ideally, your backlink profile should have a natural mix of dofollow and nofollow links.
- Geographical and Language Relevance: If you’re targeting a specific geographical area or audience, backlinks from local or language-specific sites can be highly valuable. For instance, if your target market is in the U.K., backlinks from U.K. based websites carry more weight for ranking in that region.
- Low Spam Score: A good backlink comes from a site with a low spam score. Spammy or low-quality websites can hurt your rankings, and too many backlinks from them can lead to penalties from search engines like Google.
- Position on the Page: The placement of a backlink on a page can also affect its value. Backlinks placed within the body content, especially at the beginning of the article or page, tend to carry more weight than links placed in footers or sidebars, which are often seen as less important.
- Freshness: New or recently acquired backlinks tend to be more valuable than older ones. Search engines give more weight to recent links, especially from newly published content. This reflects the ongoing relevance and popularity of your content.
- Few Outbound Links: A backlink from a page with fewer outbound links is more valuable. Pages that are filled with many outbound links dilute the value passed to your site, whereas a page with one or a few quality links is more impactful.
In summary, good backlinks are:
- Relevant
- From authoritative, trustworthy sites
- Earned naturally (editorial)
- Use appropriate anchor text
- Embedded contextually within content
- Provide potential traffic
- Low in spam score
- Often “dofollow” (though a mix of dofollow and nofollow is natural)
Focusing on building a diverse portfolio of high-quality backlinks is a key strategy in improving your website’s SEO performance.
How to check backlink quality?
To check the quality of a backlink, you can use several tools and evaluate various metrics. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to assess the quality of your backlinks:
- Use SEO Tools for Initial Analysis
Several SEO tools can provide valuable insights into backlink quality. These tools allow you to analyse multiple backlinks and assess various factors like authority, relevance, and trustworthiness. Some of the most popular tools include:
- Ahrefs
- Moz Link Explorer
- SEMrush
- Majestic SEO
- Google Search Console (for checking your site’s backlinks)
Each of these tools provides different metrics to assess backlinks, such as Domain Authority (DA), Trust Flow, Citation Flow, and more. Here are the specific factors you can evaluate:
- Domain Authority (DA) or Domain Rating (DR)
- Definition: Domain Authority (by Moz) or Domain Rating (by Ahrefs) indicates the overall strength and authority of the domain linking to your site on a scale from 0 to 100.
- How to check: Use Ahrefs, Moz, or similar tools to see the DA/DR of the linking site. Higher scores typically indicate better-quality links.
- What to look for: Backlinks from high-DA/DR sites (50+) carry more weight than those from low-authority sites. However, even links from lower DA sites can be valuable if they are niche-relevant and trusted.
- Relevance of the Linking Site
- Definition: How closely related the linking site’s content is to your niche or industry
- How to check: Look at the general topic of the linking site. Is it in the same industry or covering topics similar to yours? Even high-authority links from unrelated sites may not be as valuable as those from relevant sources.
- What to look for: Links from sites related to your niche or topic are more valuable, as they show that the backlink is contextually relevant.
- Anchor Text Relevance
- Definition: The anchor text is the clickable text of the backlink. Search engines use this to understand the context of the linked page.
- How to check: Tools like Ahrefs or Google Search Console can show you the anchor text used for each backlink.
- What to look for: Ideally, the anchor text should be relevant to the content on your page but not overly optimized (e.g., exact-match keywords). Natural and contextually appropriate anchor text (such as branded names or generic phrases) is best.
- Link Placement
- Definition: The position of the backlink within the linking page (e.g., in the body content, footer, sidebar).
- How to check: Manually visit the page or use tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush, which sometimes highlight where the link appears on the page.
- What to look for: Links placed within the main body content of a webpage (editorial links) are generally more valuable than links found in sidebars, footers, or comment sections.
- Traffic of the Linking Site
- Definition: The amount of organic traffic the linking site receives can indicate how much exposure your backlink might get.
- How to check: Use tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Similar Web to estimate the organic traffic of the linking domain.
- What to look for: A backlink from a site with significant traffic can bring referral traffic to your site. Sites with a healthy amount of organic traffic are typically seen as more authoritative.
- Link Type: Dofollow vs. Nofollow
- Definition: A “dofollow” link passes SEO value (“link juice”) to your site, while a “nofollow” link does not.
- How to check: Most SEO tools can differentiate between dofollow and nofollow backlinks. You can also inspect the HTML of the backlink and check if the “rel=nofollow” attribute is present.
- What to look for: Dofollow links are more valuable for SEO, but a natural backlink profile should include a mix of dofollow and nofollow links.
- Trust Flow and Citation Flow
- Definition: Metrics provided by Majestic SEO. Trust Flow measures the quality of the links pointing to a site, while Citation Flow measures the quantity of links.
- How to check: Use Majestic SEO to see the Trust Flow (TF) and Citation Flow (CF) of the linking site.
- What to look for: A high Trust Flow and a balanced ratio between Trust Flow and Citation Flow indicate that the backlink is from a trusted and high-quality source. A low Trust Flow with a high Citation Flow may suggest that the site has many low-quality or spammy links.
- Spam Score
- Definition: Spam Score (a metric from Moz) indicates how likely a domain is to be penalized by search engines based on certain signals.
- How to check: Use Moz’s Link Explorer to check the Spam Score of the linking domain.
- What to look for: A lower Spam Score is better. High Spam Score domains (above 30%) could potentially harm your SEO, so avoid or disavow such links if necessary.
- Link Freshness
- Definition: How recently the backlink was acquired and the freshness of the content it is part of.
- How to check: Tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush allow you to check when a backlink was acquired.
- What to look for: Newer backlinks are often more impactful, especially if they come from fresh, relevant content. However, even older backlinks can be valuable if they still drive traffic and maintain relevance.
- Number of Outbound Links on the Page
- Definition: The total number of external links on the page that links to you.
- How to check: Manually check the page or use SEO tools to assess the number of outbound links.
- What to look for: Pages with fewer outbound links tend to pass more link equity. If a page is linking to too many other sites, it may dilute the value of your backlink.
- Manual Check
- Definition: Sometimes, manually reviewing the linking site is the best way to assess backlink quality.
- How to check: Visit the linking site to review its content, design, user experience, and relevance to your site. Evaluate whether the link seems organic or part of a link scheme.
- What to look for: High-quality, well-maintained sites with valuable, relevant content are preferable. Avoid links from spammy, low-quality, or poorly designed sites.
Conclusion
To check backlink quality, focus on metrics like domain authority, relevance, anchor text, trust flow, link type, and spam score. Use SEO tools to gather this data, but also manually evaluate backlinks for a comprehensive assessment. High-quality backlinks can improve your SEO and drive traffic, while low-quality or spammy links can hurt your rankings.
Let’s be honest Backlinks aren’t the most glamorous area of the Marketing Mix. But if you are still awake after all that and want a serious chat about how Backlinks can work for your website call us now on 01765 570073.
We will have a look at what you are trying to achieve and send you a Site Audit Report to map out a solution to get you where you want to go.