When it comes to building links to your website, you may be asking yourself “how many backlinks do I need to rank?” and “is having more links better than a few from high authority websites?”
It’s difficult to deny the importance of possessing numerous links. However, the SEO environment has changed. Compared to how it was several years ago, search engines can now better determine link relevance and can identify unnatural links with ease, making quality far more important than quantity.
Although having numerous links is desirable, this approach can be risky, particularly if they aren’t acquired naturally. That is why SEO specialists today are now focusing on obtaining quality backlinks. Let’s take a look at how one should develop a strategy for doing this.
Building Quality Backlinks
Since search engines can now recognize intent, linking patterns, and relevance, there has been a change in the way experts build links today. Rather than focus on obtaining as many links as possible, link builders acquire them from trusted sources. These sources often have a higher page ranking or are seen by search engines as having high domain authority.
According to Moz, domain authority is a ranking score in search engines that predicts how likely a site is going to rank on the search engine results pages (SERPs). Domain authority scores range from 1 to 100, with the greater number corresponding to a higher probability to rank.
If you've never checked out the links on your site. Moz's Link Explorer is a great place to start.
Acquiring a link from a high domain authority website not only improves the exposure a website or content gets, but it also increases its own authority.
For instance, if a national news website discusses a topic and links to a website as a resource, it is basically saying that they trust this link. Readers will see the website as an authority while search engines will look at it the same way.
Quality Backlinks and Google Ranking Go Hand in Hand
The quality of a link is better than obtaining numerous links from low authority sources. If the number of links was considered to be more important than their quality, it can be very easy for websites to trick search engines. People can simply build hundreds of links that lead to spam or unrelated sites.
If you look closely, the first page of Google for "surf boards" features a variety of pages. Some have thousands of links, some have hundreds and some have only a handful. But every single one has a Domain Authority (DA) over 25. What does this show? That no matter if you have thousands of links or a handful, you can get to the first page of Google if the quality of links is sufficient.
This was the strategy during the early days of link building. Webmasters tried to develop as many links to their websites as possible through various methods. The more links a site could get, the better, and the higher the likelihood that it would rank well in search results for various queries.
Recent years have come with algorithm updates from Google which now penalizes websites that build links this way.
Link Building Takes Time
Another important aspect is the rate at which a site acquires links. Most websites tend to attract links slowly, with little bursts every now and then. Gaining a regular 50 links per month is not a problem but going from 50 to 5,000 and then back to 50 will cause search engines to suspect a website.
This is what link building should look like on an SEO campaign. It should be incremental and steady. Make sure your SEO agency is showing you all the links they are building.
It may not look strange for a marketing blog to have a few links from other similar websites, but a site is going to look suspicious if it suddenly has hundreds of inbound links from unrelated blogs.
Develop a Strategy
Ultimately, high-quality backlinks are now considered a priority when talking about link building.
The goal in link building is to establish website credibility so it can earn the trust of Google in return. Achieving this trust will result in better SEO rankings including web visibility. Besides quality backlinks and Google ranking, search engines will also see the website as more trustworthy and reliable.
People today should aim to get as many high-quality backlinks from high domain authority websites as they can. Having more quality backlinks will result in improved rankings for any website. It is best to get in touch with partners that can help get this task started right away.
The downside with regards to aiming for quality backlinks, however, is that obtaining them is going to be harder and potentially more expensive. Unless the company already has an established name with numerous connections to reputable sites, link building will be more challenging and time-consuming.
The good news is that the results of quality back linking efforts are going to be worth the time and hard work. There is a reason why building links is still important in search engine optimization. It is because the online presence of companies and their rankings in search engines will improve in the long run.
Conclusion
Any website should develop its backlinks naturally over time. It is vital to understand that this is an ongoing process and in most competitive sectors, it is going to take time to see the results of such efforts.
Search engines want to see websites grow naturally as time goes by. It is best to avoid spikes in backlinks that would appear abnormal in the eyes of search engines. Most sites don’t suddenly get 500 new backlinks overnight.
Rather, you should prioritize developing high-quality backlinks that provide users with the content they are seeking. Search engines like Google and Bing tend to put more importance on where the links are coming from rather than the amount present.
By focusing on building quality backlinks and Google ranking, you can avoid being penalized by search engines while increasing your overall visibility on the web.
At Agency Jet, not only do we use white hat SEO approved backlinks, we have served hundreds of small businesses and supplied thousands of website assessments free of charge. You can get your free website audit here to see where you stand.