With millions of pages being added to the web every day, search engines need a way to sift through the noise and discover which websites have the most value to offer. For a long time, backlinks have been a handy SEO metric that Google and other search tools use to evaluate and rank websites.
Building meaningful backlinks can help you stand out in the sea of websites and put your business in front of the right audiences, fattening your bottom line.
This article will explore:
- The importance of backlinks from professional standpoints and their impacts on SEO
- The qualities that make a good backlink
- The difference between quality vs spammy links
- And how best to monitor backlinks for SEO effectiveness.
What SEO Professionals Say about the Importance of Backlinks for SEO
Lately, there’s been a lot of speculation about the future of backlinks for search engine optimization. Some people believe that backlinks are dead and should no longer be bothered with. But do marketing leaders and existing data echo this sentiment?
Ahrefs carried out an experiment that involved removing backlinks from specific pages on their site by disavowing them to see how that would impact their rankings. This disavowal resulted in a sharp decline in traffic to the select pages and when the disavowed links were restored the pages started gaining increased search traffic.
Similarly, a study by Backlinko showed that a site’s link authority—a.k.a. Domain Rating—has a strong correlation with higher rankings. As a matter of fact, the number one result in Google SERPs has 3.8x more backlinks on average than the results that rank in positions number 2-10.
These findings tell us that backlinks are influential and, more often than not, web pages with plenty of backlinks will rank above pages with fewer backlinks.
Graph showing a correlation between domain rating and high rankings
Google recently updated its Core Algorithm and edited its Spam Policy to remove mentions of the importance it assigns to backlinks. However, this should not be taken to mean backlinks have completely fallen out of favor with Google’s algorithm.
Going by Google’s philosophy and ranking systems guide, it’s clear that the search giant still uses PageRank to evaluate the authority, usefulness, and relevance of a site, indicating that backlinks are still relevant to its algorithm today.
Expert predictions support this view. Over 90% of leading marketing professionals surveyed by Aria were confident that backlinks will still influence Google rankings in 5 years and 73% foresee it still being effective in 10 years.
Nathan Gotch of Gotch SEO also predicts that backlinks and branded searches will continue to be critical for long-term SEO performance. He advises that you focus on creating content that’s hard to ignore, consistently acquiring quality backlinks, and growing your branded searches each month if you want to win at SEO.
This is where GrowthOG comes in. As a results-driven link-building agency, GrowthOG helps businesses earn superior, contextually relevant backlinks using white hat techniques to give your website the boost in credibility and authority it needs to move to the top of Google rankings.
Why Are Backlinks Important for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Let’s look at the effects that building backlinks can have on your SEO performance when done correctly.
1. Improved search visibility and discoverability
Search engines use crawlers to travel around the web going from link to link, taking note of every new content it comes across. So one of the easiest ways to get your new web pages discovered and indexed for search results is to get older, authoritative sites to link to them.
When Google crawls your website, it will also review the backlinks you’ve earned to understand what other domains think of you. Suppose it finds that many highly-regarded and trustworthy sites within your industry are sending you inbound links. In that case, your site will likely be considered a trustworthy and valuable resource.
As a result, it may decide to rank your content higher in search results, so more people can find and benefit from the knowledge or services you’re offering.
Ahrefs ran a study that revealed that the number of backlinks from unique domains a website has strongly correlates with its position in search rankings.
2. Increased organic traffic
Backlinks can make it easier for people to learn about your brand and find you online. For example, if you own a pet store and provide a comprehensive guide on how to train corgis – which also receives a lot of backlinks, Google might reward you with the #1 ranking spot.
The relationship between top keywords and total traffic
So when people google that target keyword, they will likely click on your link because it’s at the top, driving more search traffic to your website.
In addition, backlinks can send referral traffic to your site from other domains. Visitors who are reading content on some other pet-related site with links leading back to your guide may follow it to learn more about training corgis.
3. Enhanced reputation and consumer trust
The more visible your website is in top-ranking pages, the more users will come to trust it because Google must think the content you’re offering is better than the rest to keep recommending your site to its users.
Similarly, when you’re consistently earning backlinks from respectable players in your industry, the authority, credibility, and goodwill those websites have gained in the public eye will be passed on to you.
The New York Times’ domain rating and backlink profile strength as calculated by Ahrefs
Users and search algorithms who see your page getting mentioned by influential and trustworthy site owners will also start viewing your brand in the same light. This will lead to a boost in your brand’s page authority and enable you to stand out from competitors.
4. Expanded link-building opportunities
Many domain owners and SEO managers, especially those with high-authority websites are reluctant to link to websites with a low domain rating, potentially limiting awareness, traffic, and conversions for your brand.
On the other hand, having a robust backlink profile can help you attract backlinks from other high-quality websites because they will take your backlink strength and high domain authority as a vote of confidence.
When your website receives positive signals from search engines and other domains, other websites will be more inclined to jump aboard and link to you, too.
Factors that Contribute to the Quality of a Backlink
Links have different SEO values depending on their characteristics. One high-quality link is far more beneficial to your rankings and domain authority than hundreds of low-quality links.
Understanding how to tell the two apart will allow you to devote your resources to acquiring the right kind of backlinks that will deliver maximum ROI.
Here are the key attributes that signal that a link is of good quality and worth having in your profile:
- Relevance: Backlinks from sites with content that’s topically related to yours carry more weight than those from other websites in an unrelated industry. For instance, if you’re in the finance space, getting a link from an investment or fintech blog will be more meaningful than one from a blog post about outdoor recreation.
- Authority: External links from influential and authoritative websites are well established with strong domain authority, hence, will help your SEO efforts better than links from lesser-known sites with weak backlink profiles.
- Anchor text: Backlinks should appear naturally in the content with keyword-rich anchor text that provides context for the pages they’re linking to, but you don’t want to go overboard with exact-match anchor texts.
- Placement on the linking page: The best backlinks are woven into the main body of a blog post rather than inserted in sidebars or footers and will pass on more PageRank than their counterparts.
- Unique referring domains: Search engines reward link diversity. This means that a link from a domain that has never linked to you before is considered better than subsequent links from domains that have linked to you in the past. You will be better off gaining 50 links from 50 different domains, than 500 links from the same domain.
If you’re not sure how to find and analyze backlink opportunities to ensure you are securing quality, relevant website backlinks that align with your preferences consider outsourcing paid link-building services at GrowthOG.
GrowthOG’s client case study showing the results of a link-building campaign
Quality Links vs. Spammy Links for SEO
Quality links are links that are created and placed in content organically because the linking domain thinks they can provide additional value to readers. These are good faith links that comply with Google’s guidelines and are not being used as a cover to manipulate search engine rankings.
They do a good job of enhancing page authority, organic traffic, and search rankings because they send a message to search engines that your link-building practices are ethical and reputable domains trust your website.
Examples of quality links include:
- Backlinks from authoritative sources with topical relevance to your website
- Links featuring relevant anchor text
- Backlinks you earn naturally from publishing valuable content
- Links that are obvious to users and search engine
- Links that send users to the expected landing page and not some random URL they don’t care for
- Backlinks you get through relationship building or targeted link requests to relevant websites rather than bulk link requests to all kinds of websites, relevant or not
Spammy links, on the other hand, go against Google’s spam policies. These types of links are considered toxic and using them can lead to devastating penalties for your website ranging from low rankings to your site being delisted from search results entirely.
Even if you manage to escape getting penalized by search engines, there’s still nothing to be gained from building spammy backlinks because they won’t help you grow your page authority, draw more traffic, or improve your search rankings.
If anything, they will make it harder for you to build backlinks from quality sources because reputable site owners don’t want to be associated with link spam. It’s a good move to disavow any toxic links in your profile before they can hurt your website’s reputation.
Examples of spammy links include:
- Links from private blog networks (PBNs)
- Links that are hidden from plain sight
- Links gotten from flooding forums or comment sections with irrelevant comments containing a website link
- Links that excessively use the same anchor text over and over
- Paid links or backlinks from link schemes and low-quality directories
One way to avoid incurring penalties associated with toxic links is to outsource your link-building operations to professionals or agencies with a track record of helping businesses acquire high-quality backlinks that adhere to Google’s regulations.
Dofollow Links vs. Nofollow Links
Having a healthy balance of dofollow and nofollow links in your backlink profile is crucial for your SEO strategy. They also demonstrate to search engines that you’re not engaging in shady link-building practices. However, both links will impact your website’s rankings in different ways.
Dofollow links are links that search engine crawlers are allowed to follow to the linked site or page. They are the most lucrative types of links you can build because they directly pass link equity or juice.
When you get a followed link from a website, Google will interpret this as a vote of confidence in your linked content and reward you by passing on link authority from referring domains to yours.
In contrast, nofollow links are links that contain the attribute “nofollow”, directing search engines not to crawl the linked page. It’s a way for site owners to share relevant or paid advertising content without vouching for it or passing on link equity. Unfortunately, this means that nofollow links don’t do much to influence rankings.
However, human visitors will still be able to see and interact with nofollow links as usual, so you still get to reap benefits like increased brand awareness, visibility, click-through rates, and lead generation.
Monitoring Backlinks for SEO Success
Link building isn’t a one-and-done affair. Your efforts must be consistently repeated and monitored to ensure that you’re accumulating the right kind of incoming links and that they are producing the right results for your website.
By reviewing your backlink profile regularly, you can uncover new link-building opportunities and tweak your strategies to attract more high-quality backlinks and build a balanced SEO practice.
Here are some trusted tools you can use for backlink monitoring and broader SEO-oriented activities:
Ahrefs
Ahrefs has the largest backlink database in the business and it offers a comprehensive backlink analysis tool for tracking your link-building operations. It can tell you the number of backlinks, the number of unique domains, and the domain rating for any site belonging to you or your competitors.
Additionally, Ahrefs can analyze anchor text, find broken links, and reveal your competitors backlinks so you can explore those opportunities to earn more links for your site.
Moz
Moz is a full-service SEO tool with powerful link monitoring and analytic capabilities. With Moz, you can measure the health of your backlink profile and then use that to predict your site’s ranking potential.
You can also identify the websites that are linking to you and determine their domain authority, measure anchor text distribution, track lost links, and gauge the ratio of follow vs nofollow links in your profile.
Google Search Console
Google Search Console enables you to keep an eye on your site’s performance in search results. It can tell you your top referring domains, how many links you’ve received from each one, the pages they link to, and which of your pages are earning the most backlinks.
Navigating these tools and keeping a finger on the pulse of your link profile can be a lot to handle. Consider partnering with a service like GrowthOG that empowers you to earn backlinks consistently over time and maintain a healthy backlink profile without the stress and confusion.
Over to You
Backlinks remain a crucial factor in determining the authoritativeness and credibility of websites, and they can deliver a ton of value for your SEO if wielded properly.
Your focus should be on acquiring quality incoming links from authoritative and relevant sources rather than getting as many backlinks as you can from anywhere because low-quality backlinks can do more harm than good.
Whether you’re still unsure about how to kick off your link-building journey or your link-building efforts so far haven’t produced positive and consistent results, GrowthOG can help you turn things around.
Ready to build intentional links that drive profitable results for your business? Get in touch to learn more about our services and get started.