Learn about 10 key factors of Link Building
Learn about 10 key factors of Link Building
Link Building is the set of actions carried out with the objective of generating external links to a URL or more than one website, which boost the strength of its pages by receiving a link that transmits authority to them.
Link Building is one of the strategies that most contributes to the good positioning of a website in search results. Of course, it is necessary to know how to develop it in the correct way to be successful.
Increasing organic traffic is one of the most valued objectives within Digital Marketing. In the end, who doesn’t like receiving visitors who can become customers with little or no investment?
To achieve this, there are various techniques within SEO (Search Engine Optimization) that contribute to a good positioning within search engines . Today we will talk about one of them: the Link Building.
In this article, you will discover more about this strategy, the factors that determine its success, and some of the techniques that can help you get more links to your domain.
Join me and discover how to use Link Building to your advantage!
What is Link Building?
Link Building is the set of techniques to generate links in external domains with the aim of improving the SEO positioning of a page or website within search engines.
These external links are known as backlinks. Each of them indicates to search engines that the linked content is of value and this ends up increasing its authority.
However, not all backlinks are going to give you the help you are looking for to improve your positioning, some may even harm you in this task.
How does Google rate links?
The Google algorithm establishes a multitude of aspects to classify a page in its ranking. Among them are the factors involved in evaluating links.
Next, we will talk about the main factors that Google analyzes in the link profile of a page. Keep in mind that the evaluation goes far beyond quantity — it also considers quality, with different criteria — .
Discover now what these criteria are and what you should consider in your link building strategy.
Number of links
That was the first criteria adopted by Google. It was the basis of PageRank: the more links the site received, the more relevant it was. The number of links to a page demonstrated its popularity on the web .
Today, that criterion is still one of the most important factors in Google’s link evaluation. But it can’t come alone: it’s no use receiving lots of links from sites that aren’t relevant or trustworthy. It is necessary to combine the quantity with the factors that we will see below.
Diversity of links
What do you think is worth more: one person who says many times that you are nice, or several people who tell you once that you are nice? The more different people speak well of you, the more recognition you will have in your group.
That is also what Google thinks. For the search engine, the site proves to have more authority when it receives links from several different domains . For this reason, the diversity of the link profile also enters into the evaluation.
Link context
Google can also understand the context around the link to see if it’s really relevant .
First, understand that links from sites related to your area of expertise have more value, as they make more sense to that site’s audience.
Google also evaluates the words that appear near the link, also called co-occurrences. These help the searcher understand the topic of the page and whether the link makes sense in that context.
In addition to the words, Google also evaluates the other links that are close. If they are also links to quality sites, the page gains more relevance and transmits link juice.
But if you already have a lot of links, your page tends to get less link juice, since the site is already passing your authority to many other portals on the Internet.
In addition, the position of the link also counts. If it’s in the main content, it was probably inserted for editorial intent and therefore has more value , especially when it’s at the beginning of the text .
But if it’s in the header or footer of the page, it’s probably just there to generate a backlink and therefore has less value.
Anchor text
The anchor text also says a lot about the linked page. It usually has a keyword or a brief description of what the user will find on the page when they click on the link. Therefore, Google uses that factor to index the pages.
Also, anchor text analysis helps identify who is trying to outwit the search engine.
Using the exact keyword match in the backlinks’ anchor text is one way to reinforce authority for that term.
However, when it is used strongly on all backlinks, Google may understand it as a black hat, as this is not natural. When backlinks are conquered organically, anchor texts tend to diversify.
Reliability
One of the evolutions of Google was TrustRank. When that criteria was added to the algorithm, the search engine began to consider the trustworthiness of the sites in the ranking.
So the closer you are to trusted sites, the more trustworthy you are also for Google and the more link juice you will receive.
Trustworthy sites are those that help build a web that is safer and more relevant to the user. To assess your trustworthiness, consider factors such as domain age, use of security certificates, content quality, among others.
Links from other pages to your website
In link building, you can work with internal and external links. But it is important to know which one has more weight in the ranking.
To understand, just think: does Google trust more what the site says about itself (internal links) or what other sites say about it (external links)?
What others say has more value, which is why backlinks from other pages tend to carry more weight in search engine evaluation .
Links from your site to your own pages
The links you insert on your own site don’t carry as much weight as backlinks, but they do help show the hierarchy of your pages to Google.
Let’s say you run a promotional marketing company and you have a super comprehensive blog post explaining what promotional marketing is.
That post is important to your business, right?
Other smaller posts can then link to it, so Google understands that that parent post is at the top of the blog hierarchy.
Links from your site to other pages
Además, los enlaces dentro de tus páginas que apuntan a sitios externos también tienen un peso en la clasificación.
Google also evaluates whether you link to popular, trustworthy, and authoritative sites. It’s kind of that “tell me who you’re with and I’ll tell you who you are” idea, you know?
Speed to earn links
In the early days of SEO, backlinks were one of the main black hat tools, which are handy for fooling the search engine.
Many sites created link farms or used link buying and selling schemes. Because of that, they got backlinks quickly.
For this reason, Google reinforced its algorithm to identify and penalize this type of practice. One of your resources to do this is to check the speed to gain links.
Obtaining many links in a short time usually creates a black hat scheme, since a natural link profile has gradual growth.
Nofollow x Dofollow
Another factor that Google evaluates on a page is the nofollow attribute. When this attribute is inserted into the link code, the robot knows not to consider it for the ranking of the linked page.
That is, nofollow links do not pass link juice.
Automatically, all links are dofollow, that is, they transmit link juice. So when you don’t want to convey authority through a link, you have to enter the nofollow tag.
If you need to cite a dubious site, for example, you can use the nofollow tag to avoid conveying your authority to it.
That tag is also often used on social media links or blog comment boxes.
Facebook, Instagram or the owner of a blog do not want to take responsibility for transmitting authority to the links that any user inserts on their pages, mainly because these spaces are often used to spam.
What are the key factors for a successful Link Building strategy?
It is important that you consider some important elements that backlinks must have. Next, we will talk about 10 key factors for a Link Building strategy to be successful.
1. Opt for quality over quantity
When talking about Link Building and SEO, it is important to explain that quality is much better than quantity . Therefore, having a large number of links to your website will not bring you results if they are not of value.
A link within a single domain, for example, is much better than multiple backlinks on the same domain.
Another aspect that you should also consider is the Page Authority and Domain Authority, which are page authority and domain authority, respectively.
The higher the authority of the page and the site that hosts your backlink, the better, since part of this authority is passed on to the linked page.
In this case it is better to have few backlinks from high authority sites than many links from low authority sites.
2. Look for naturalness
The backlinks must be natural and this is something that you must keep in mind at all times.
Everything that is exaggerated or forced is not well seen by search engines, and the same thing happens with Link Building techniques.
Backlinks are important because they show search engines that your content is being cited as a reference.
By doing something artificial, the search engine will understand that what you want to do is deceive him, so instead of favoring you, he will harm you.
3. Worry about the anchor text
The anchor text or anchor text is the one in which the link is linked and, although it may seem insignificant, it is more important than many think.
Phrases like “click here” make the link less relevant. The ideal is to put the keyword or its variations, so you will give it much more value and naturalness.
4. Look for links in domains of your topic
In the backlinks the context is also considered.
Therefore, links from sites that have the same theme or pages that talk about issues related to the general focus of your blog are much more valid.
5. Give priority to backlinks placed within the text
The place where the links are placed is also important in a Link Building strategy.
As we have already seen, naturalness is essential. For this reason, backlinks within a text, integrating into the content, are better seen than those that are placed in the footer (at the bottom of the page) or in the sidebar (sidebar).
6. Don’t just look for dofollow links
There are two types of links: nofollow and dofollow . The nofollow are those who do not intend to pass authority to the linked page and the dofollow those who do intend to pass the authority.
Many think that their Link Building strategy should be full of dofollow links. However, the best practice is a balance between the two.
7. Get rid of toxic backlinks
Toxic backlinks are those we find on poor quality sites, link farms, or links without any context, so you should get rid of them so they don’t hurt you.
It is good that you do a constant review to see if you do not have this type of backlinks and if you find them, do not hesitate to eliminate them.
To find them you can use the SemRush backlink detector and remove them later.
8. Get your backlinks little by little
If you get a lot of backlinks in a short time, search engines will surely determine that they were not obtained organically.
Because of this, create a strategy to get them little by little and not overnight.
9. Worry about the TLD of the links
The TLD is a very important aspect that you have to worry about for an international reach.
The TLD is the last segment of a domain, it can be .com, .org, .ar, .co, .pe, etc. In the case that you want to reach a specific country, you should seek to obtain backlinks from the TLD of the country in which you want to enter.
In this way it will be easier to open up a field and improve your positioning in these new territories.
10. Generate quality content
I saved this factor for last because it may seem pretty obvious. However, it is essential to obtain valuable backlinks.
By generating really good content, you will naturally be linked to by sites that see your content as a reference and these are the best backlinks you can get.
11. Find Unlinked Mentions
Mentions without a link also have ranking value, right? Google realizes that brands are being cited on the web and are gaining popularity.
It then associates the mention with the brand’s website and uses that factor in ranking ranking.
However, mentions do not convey authority from one site to another. Only links do that. Better than a simple mention is a mention with a link !
What you can do, therefore, is go after the mentions your brand has already received and contact the site administrator to include a link. With a friendly approach, there are high chances of getting a positive response.
To find those mentions, you can use Google Alerts, which sends a notification every time your brand (or the words you define) are mentioned.
Another way to do that is to simply use Google search. Simply type your brand into the search terms to find sites that mention it. But here’s a little tip: remove your own site from the search results.
12. Use topic groups for internal links
Topic Clusters is a strategy to classify the pages of a website or blog through a network of internal links .
Here’s how it works: create a post based on a keyword that is essential to your business. This will be the main content of the topic clusters strategy.
In the case of Rock Content, for example, we can say that a post about Content Marketing is pillar content.
Then other posts with more specific keywords link to that main content. Preferably, that link should be the first in the text. In the case of Rock Content, the SEO, email marketing and social media posts do just that, with links to the Content Marketing post.
Thus, these satellite content strengthens the authority of the pillar content, which is at the top of the site’s hierarchy. Google understands that and values the main contents in the ranking.
What Link Building techniques can I use?
There is a wide range of possibilities when it comes to Link Building techniques. Of course, within Digital Marketing only those that are ethical, transparent and, at the same time, effective should be applied.
Some of them are:
Guest Post
Perhaps this is the most popular Link Building technique, and it is very fair, since it is a guarantee of positive results.
It is about writing as a guest author on sites that have a better or similar domain authority than yours and, preferably, that are of the same subject as yours. So you can place some links to your domain naturally.
Get in touch with the sites with which you most identify and that have the requirements you are looking for and offer to write a guest post .
A variation of this practice is the exchange of posts. You write for a website and he writes for your domain.
This strategy also brings positive results, but not as many as when the links are not reciprocal. Something important for a good result is not to abuse this practice.
Improve content that already exists
If you see that a piece of content in your theme receives constant backlinks, then write a better one so that it can replace it.
For example, if there is an article “The 20 Best Ways to Relax”, what you can do is write another article like “The 35 Best Ways to Relax Anytime”.
Of course, new content should have more than just a strategic headline and effective keyword placement. It is important that it really contains additional relevant information.
Find broken links
If you find broken links in content on your subject, you can search your blog for some texts that you have written and that can replace them.
Contact the website with the broken links and offer to replace them.
If within your blog you can’t find content that can replace the broken links, then it might be worth creating one and offering it.
Create press releases
A good press release can easily be reported in the media, as long as the content is relevant.
Create a press release about a new product , the opening of a new store or some other novelty in your sector. Send it to the media so that it is disseminated on their networks or their website and in this way you can obtain a relevant link.
Conclusion
Good! You already know the importance of Link Building and how a good strategy can contribute enormously to a good positioning in search results.
This strategy not only consists of getting a large number of links, but of getting valuable links, which transmit authority to your page.
Techniques for obtaining backlinks can be used, however, they should not be abused.
Other very useful tools for SEO: