Today we’re talking some hard truth about link quality, search and ranking. Here’s the reality. Google evaluates links differently by each site. As an example, a link that’s valuable to a plumber may not necessarily be valuable to a company that sells kitchenware. Any company that assumes it can simply buy links is on the opposite side of success. Or a company that pursues links from a non-relevant source actually causes harm to their ranking.
Links must be custom-built for every site. While the approach is never scalable, it drives the needle for acceptable and predictable SEO results. Link quality is important, even more so than the actual amount of inbound links pointing at your site. There are three elements marketers you can use to qualify an inbound link.
1. Look at the page rank from the source of the inbound link. Google offers an equation that will measure 0 to 10. Each inbound link is like a vote of trustworthiness to your site. It means a website places enough trust in your site to share it with their readers. The more readers a site has that links to your site, the more valuable the link.
There is also an element called ‘spread’ or ‘share’ factor. If your website receives an inbound link from a page that has 5 outbound links, the inbound link has higher value than if the same page had 100 outbound links. Any links coming from a low rated page will not offer much benefit.
2. Domain authority is another factor that can help determine if an inbound link is worth receiving. Domain authority is a result of calculating how well a website ranks for its relevant keywords. As such, the website offering the inbound link should be relevant to the site receiving the link. Google places a lot of emphasis on whether an inbound link is relevant in this manner.
3. Page authority is the third element to pay close attention to. It may very well be the most important factor for anyone looking to build link opportunities. Page authority offers insights into how much influence a websites will likely gain from the page providing the inbound link.
There are methods and ways site owners can proactively solicit inbound links. However, the quality of links that anyone tries to obtain is critical to the success of any link building campaign.
Plan your link building efforts just like the pros:
- Know your audience. Growing your audience is a matter of knowing who they are along with the kind of information they enjoy consuming. This will also help you choose your inbound links wisely.
- Create a list of websites that appeal to you, either for inbound or outbound links.
- Write content that is amazing and relevant. If the content is good enough, it makes it easier to ask other relevant websites to link to your site. This may also entail writing blog posts for other sites with a link back to your site. This can be accomplished through guest blogging, social, and press releases, as well as other link building ideas.
Think of link building as a growth strategy. It will take time and effort. However, Google rewards those sites who play by the rules. Your link building strategies should always be focused on bringing new audiences to your website. Study link building techniques like there is no tomorrow.