“You need quality backlinks to rank in the top positions of Google SERP.”
But, what does quality backlink mean? What factors determine the quality of the backlink? How someone can build quality backlink to improve their website’s rankings?
These are a few of the questions that pop up in everyone’s mind as soon as they start building links to their website.
If you have been struggling to find answers to these questions, continue reading; the following guide will help you understand the factors that determine the backlink quality.
There’s no denying the fact that acquiring links from other domains on the Internet is a crucial part of performing SEO.
Why?
Because backlinks are one of the top three ranking factors used by Google while ranking websites.
Moreover, they also improve the domain authority (DA) of the website.
But, it’s worth noting that not all the backlinks are the same. The quality of the backlink matters a lot.
A low-quality backlink will never give the same ranking boost like a high-quality backlink from an authority domain.
That’s why SEO Experts always focus on building quality backlinks to a website, even though they have a different theory on what determines the quality.
So, today we have scribbled down a list of factors that’ll help you decide whether a backlink is high-quality or not.
1. Relevance
Since Google always focuses on displaying relevant search results, there’s no surprise that relevance is one of the factors that determine a backlink’s quality.
Acquiring a backlink from a relevant source is far better than other backlinks. This will tell Google that you haven’t used any unethical approach while building the backlink and have built authentic backlinks.
The relevance of the linking website is checked on different levels, though.
The entire website, specific web page (from where the link is acquired), and the content around the anchor text (the text that contains the link) are considered while checking the relevance of a backlink.
2. Backlink Source
It’s obvious that a backlink will be of high quality if its source is a high-authority domain. When you acquire backlinks from authority websites, Google considers your website as high-authority as well.
Another reason why Google favors authority domains is that such websites don’t give away backlinks that easy. So, in this case, if you have managed to acquire the backlink, you are most likely to have valuable information on your website.
3. Anchor Text
The anchor text (clickable part of the link) also has a huge impact on the backlink quality. If the anchor text is the same as or related to your target keyword, the quality of the backlink automatically increases.
Although it is not a good strategy to use the exact keyword as anchor text too many times. This seems unnatural to Google and as a result, can do more harm than doing any good. That’s why it is a good strategy to use keyword variations while writing the anchor texts for your backlinks.
For instance, if your target keyword is ‘car rental services’, it is a wise approach to build backlinks using ‘can rental’ or ‘cars for rent’ as the anchor text.
4. Link Position
Even though it may seem a bit hard to digest, the position of the backlink has a huge impact on the backlink.
Obviously, in-content backlinks are valued the most by Google, however, where you have placed the backlink in content matters as well.
For instance, when the link is placed at the top of the content, it is natural for Google to consider that it is of high importance. Not only will it be crawled earlier by Google, but it will also improve the overall backlink profile.
Here’s a quick example:
Since UberSuggest is Neil Patel’s tool, it is obvious for him to place it at the top of the blog.
5. Referring Domains
Referring Domains are the websites that link to a particular website. The more numbers of domains link to your website, the better the overall backlink profile will be.
Google always prefer websites that have acquired backlinks from different domains. For instance, 10 backlinks from 10 websites are far better than 100 backlinks from 5 domains.
6. Unpaid Backlinks
Even though paid links can give a minor boost to your website rankings, they are never a good option as they can damage the overall website performance in the long run.
Google and other search engines strictly prohibit buying and selling links and in case anyone’s caught doing such activities, their website is likely to be penalized.
7. Not Easy to Acquire
Like we mentioned earlier, backlinks that are difficult to acquire are always considered high-quality.
A backlink that can be acquired within minutes without any hassle is most likely to be already acquired by the majority of people, even your competitors.
That’s why there’s no point in acquiring such backlinks. The search engines consider such backlinks low-quality. A backlink that is difficult to acquire, on the other hand, is less likely to be acquired by other people.
And, that’s why Google considers them high quality. So, if you have come across a website that’s not giving away you a backlink that easy, put in your efforts on acquiring it. If anything, it’s going to improve your backlink profile.
Conclusion
At this point, you already know what makes a backlink high quality. So, next time you start building backlinks, make sure that you acquire high-quality backlinks. However, it is also important to understand that building backlinks are a critical task.
If you don’t have the required technical expertise, it is a better strategy to hire a team of link builders who can help in acquiring high quality relevant links
