Will great content enough for Google to reward you?
True enough Google will reward websites that provide great content. Websites with relevant content will land in a good spot in search engine results. However, can the website have the number one spot in the rankings? Or can it even find a place on the first or second page? That’s almost impossible if you only rely on great content!
While there are multiple methods for an effective SEO strategy, the importance of backlinks is next to quality content. But, what are backlinks? How are they helpful to your website?
Today, let’s dive into the technicalities and facts on how your website can have a quality backlink profile. More so, we prepared some strategies to help you build a natural portfolio.
Introduction to Backlinks and Backlink Profile
Backlinks are inbound or incoming links, these links are created when one website is linked to another. Context matters in backlinking. Your website should be linked to a website that has a related niche. If you have quality backlinks linked to your website, you will likely have a great rank on Google search.
Backlink acts as “votes” for your website. The more authorized website linked to your site, the more Google will see your website as an authoritative resource.
Meanwhile, the backlink profile refers to the portfolio of links from all the websites that are linked to your site. It will show the links from authoritative websites, social media platforms, “nofollow” links, and spam links.
Backlinks are essential SEO building blocks to boost your website’s credibility.
Basics of Good Backlink Profile
SEO is a broad and always-evolving practice. You can go through it on and on about the technical components and how to get a good backlink profile. But, since the practices are constantly evolving, let’s only go over the basics.
- Natural-Looking – Search engines tag websites with several types of links as a red flag. You can be penalized for it. Let’s say all of your backlinks come from blog comments, if Google will notice it, you will be given a penalty.
- Authoritative Links – You have links from high authority websites, it will give your backlink profile major value. Not only to backlinking, but you should also link authoritative websites within your blog and website content.
- Varied Anchor Text – If the text that is linked is the same across different websites, Google or the search engine may penalize you. It is best to use anchor text with natural keywords and variations.
- Links from Related Websites – It would not make sense if a cooking website is linked to a laundry site. Google will know that there’s no natural relevance between the two websites.
- Contains “dofollow” links – The links will only reflect in your backlink profile if it is tagged as a “dofollow” link as opposed to “nofollow.” If we talk about your website, it should have both links in order to look natural, but in the case of backlinking, naturally obtained backlinks only contain “dofollow” links.
Backlinking Tools
Although there are several backlinking tools available in the market, only two of them are reliable to use in measuring the quality of your backlink profile.
Ahrefs
Ahrefs is a well-known toolset for backlinks and SEO analysis. It helps you track and monitor backlinks, keywords, and competitors. If you wish to try Ahrefs, they offer a 7-day trial. You can get the monthly or annual package if you think Ahrefs best helps you.
MOZ
MOZ provides the same metrics as Ahrefs. It gives information on your website’s authority, image links, and inbound links. MOZ has a friendly open site explorer. If you want to dive deeper and understand more of your website you can have the Moz Pro subscription.
SEO professionals and experts use this tool. If you are still a beginner, it’s fine they are still useful. However, if you wish to know a detailed analysis, it is best to ask for advice from an SEO consultant.
Quality Backlink or Quantity Backlink?
Now, you might think that several backlinks to your website will lead you to success in SEO. Unfortunately, it is not that simple. There are several agencies that can give you hundreds or thousands of backlinks for a price. However, if you think about it, it’s all good to be true.
With a little cash offer, you can have several backlinks and a top rank in Google search? That’s not exactly what will happen. Your websites will be linked to spammy websites that are of no value to your website. What’s worse is their backlinks might hurt your SEO efforts.
Thus, it is safe to go with quality backlinks than with quantity. You are in more advantage to have a few backlinks from high-quality and relevant websites than having hundreds or thousands of backlinks yet they are spammy or irrelevant to your website.
How to Build a Strong Backlink Profile
If you get lucky, some webmasters will link to your website or blog post without you knowing– these are earned links. It does not require time or effort at your end. However, it will take time to get to this point. You do not know when or whether these backlinks will return their value over time.
Thus, manual link building should be done. In manual link building, you have to reach out to other webmasters and build relationships to gain a backlink. There are several strategies you can do for it.
Brand Mentions Link Building
Experts say this method is the easiest and most efficient to gain a backlink. There are some websites that are already talking about your brand. All you have to do is to search for those websites and reach out to them and ask them to add a link. Since they have mentioned your brand, it should be easy to convince them to link your website.
Skyscraper Link Building
Search for keywords that you want to rank high on Google. Most likely there are several blog posts or websites that are in the number one spot, and these websites have several backlinks pointing to them right now. You can copy those backlinks with the skyscraper link building method. Create stronger and more relevant content than the competitors, and reach out to all the websites if they can link to your content.
Broken Link Building
Broken links give a negative user experience and it can have a negative impact on your website’s SEO. However, it is difficult to do this method. You have to dig deep on websites and reach out to the webmasters and let them know to replace the broken link with your website.
Leave Comments on Blogs and Join Professional Conversations
If you read a post that is related to your niche or brand, you can join the conversation in the comment section. It is best to grab the opportunity and share your expertise with them. Leave a backlink to your website.
You should know that backlinks in the comment section have the lowest value. It is the most abused SEO technique in the black hat SEO. If you overuse it, your website is prone to penalties.
How Much Does It Cost?
Technically, you do not have to worry about the financial costs of building backlinks. However, it requires more of your time, patience, and perseverance. There’s a lot of things to work on when building strong backlinks. Although you can do it on your own and save money, you can hire a dedicated agency to help you out.
However, you need to be cautious in choosing an agency. Some agencies guarantee a certain number of backlinks for a certain price and they use spammy tactics that will not benefit your website.
If you still want to hire an agency, it is best to ask for recommendations from experts. Choose an agency that has tested and perfected the manual link building process. They can surely provide relevant and high-quality backlinks for your website. Moreover, it will boost the SEO strategy for your brand.
Final Thoughts
Check out some SEO checker tools to help you determine the SEO score of your website. There are several free tools available on the web. You only have to input your URL, name, and email address to get your SEO score and report.
Besides the overall SEO score, the SEO report will provide the following data:
- SEO issues of website
- How to fix the SEO issues
- Which issue to prioritize according to its impact on the website’s SEO
- How to improve the website’s SEO issues
You will not determine the SEO score of your website and learn how to improve it without a reliable SEO checker tool.
