How Backlinks Will Rule the World In 2023

Back To SEO and Backlinks

One of the most important ongoing tasks you will work as part of any SEO campaign is the process of getting other websites to link to your site. 

You want real, editorial links so you can get other sites that will see your content and give you that all coveted links needed. Let's start with link management basics as an explanation to make it clear what is paramount to our website when building backlinks.

Google spiders use link to discover pages on the web. The spiders crawl websites following links to other pages, and when a new page is found, it's added to Google's index.  Google in turn uses links to measure authority, based on the idea that the worthiest websites will have more. Links are like popularity votes. Links as a measure of authority is what sets Google apart from other search engines. Backlink management becomes the cornerstone of search engines optimization. Let's follow this closely guys and gals.

In the early days, backlinks were a numbers game. Whichever sites had the most inbound links ranked at the top of the search results. Marketers quickly learned how easy it was to game the system by buying links. So, in 2012 Google refined the algorithm and today link management is a vital part of any SEO campaign. What this means now is that you must analyze the websites' backlink profile and then use various factors to acquire new inbound links. Links are a valuable source of referral traffic. These links help with brand building and as users are exposed to your brand you become well known. This leads you to be considered as an authority in your particular area by other websites discovery by new users.

The most important weighted signal are inbound links relevant to Google's algorithm. You simply cannot do SEO without building or earning links to your website. Google looks at inbound links likened to votes that your website has worthwhile content.

The Penguin update rolled out in early 2012 which adjusted the algorithm to consider the relevancy of each link instead of simply looking at the overall number of links. Therefore, it is important to be sure that you are getting links from relevant sources, there need to be a connecting present, a reason for that site to link to your site. The quality of the link is much more important. Here are some factors when you are analyzing your website's link profile or researching opportunities for new links:

1. The authority of the linking domain and the page where the link resides.

2. The anchor text, or actual clickable text of the link. The type of placement of the link also matters.

3. A followed link in the main body of a post will carry more value than a link with a nofollow.

4. Attributes in the comment section of a blog post. Google wants to see that you have earned where another site link to yours simply because there is something worth seeing. It is also important to get a link that will pass referral traffic where users will follow the link from that site and will result in traffic as well. The links should be featured high on the page content and ideally include an important keyword in the anchor text.

Anchor text is the actual link text that humans see on a page, the clickable text that is typically underlined and in a different color. Looking at the HTML code for a link, it is the live text inside the link mark-up highlighted in red. There are four (4) different kinds of anchor text, explained here:

1. Exact Match: Exact match keyword

2. Brand: Business name

3. Generic: Phrase-like "click here", "read more", and "view more".

4. Naked URL: The link displays the page that the link points to.

Click more Here

Contrary to what you might read on many blog posts, there is no optimal percentage breakdown of which types of anchor text should make up your link profile. Google is really just super advanced pattern detection. If the algorithm sees that all your links or the vast majority of them are the same exact anchor text, that doesn't look natural. For best practices, try and mix the anchor text type in your link prolife. Google rewards unique links so be sure to target unique websites.

Bad links such as Spam signal, paid links, non- links from foreign countries, and reciprocal links should be avoided for your site's health. Google detects reciprocal links easily and they are typically devalued. Links from groups of websites with specific questionable industry that tends to send out lots of links to unrelated businesses, like online casinos, adult websites, or pharmaceutical sites are considered links in bad neighborhoods. You should avoid these links that are not relevant to what you are selling as well as sites that have been hacked. This is all about relevancy people. Any link from a site that is not related in any way to your website (niche) is a bad link. 

 

Successful backlink building depends on having an awesome website with awesome content as well. It helps to also have a solid SEO strategy as a foundation. If you are building links based on content, that could be any of the following:

Text content

Images

Videos

Infographics

Whitepapers

Guides

Stay away from buying links, PBNs or link wheels, press releases, article spinning/article directories, forum spam and blog comment spam.

Start with a solid analysis of both your own links as well as your competitor's link.

 How To Recover from a Penalty with Google

There are two kinds of penalties to watch for: Manuel Penalty and Algorithm Penalty

Manuel Penalty is less common, and you can request reconsideration by letting Google know you have done your due diligence by clearing up any bad links.

Algorithm Penalty means you have got a significant number of spamming links. Contact the sites and try to get them to remove and disavow any links you were not able to remove yourself. This kind of penalty is much more common and are not a technical penalty.  There is a link building tool for this on the Semrush website, so check it out.

SEO Fundamentals

We should build off of the links based off of relationships that already exist, or things that the business is already doing.

Using tools such as SEMRUSH's Brand Monitoring tool, Link Building tool, and Site audit tool will help to keep things moving alone.  Use Follow and nofollow links.   Know that nofollow is a link attribute that is added in the link code that tells Google algorithms not to pass any value to the targeted site. Nofollow links will not be as beneficial as a follow links. 

Social media is a perfect example. If someone shares a link to your website on Facebook, that link came from the user, not from Facebook that is why all shared links are set to be nofollow links.

There are other poor link building tactics such as:1. Widget embeds where the embed code would also include a backlink. 2. Spamming directories as mentioned earlier where it is easy to go on tons of sites and fill out a simple form to get links. Always look for signs that any of these factors were used on your website in the past. Use links that other people give you, natural links are best. Create great content and be aware of outreach link building to up your game. Manually contact site for organic links. Earn links, not build them!

Whenever you have made content worth connecting, now is the ideal time to advance them in the correct ways through promoting, exceeding to sites, and partaking in networks:

Here is some third-party referencing in link building site optimization:

1. Promote in Paid Media Stages

You might pay organizations or paid media stages like Google, Facebook, and Twitter to direct people to your site. You can likewise go out to any site that your interest group routinely visits and organize a publicizing concurrence with them. The more individuals you publicize about your substance, the more probable somebody will interface with it. We are simply not buying links but paying to get more exposure to said links through social media, this will be the key difference.

 2. Effort to Bloggers, References and Offshoots

The simplest method to get your material before individuals who have sites and can connection to you is through outreach. This can be achieved through customized email messages, reference(referral) promoting, or even offshoot showcasing. Furthermore, most of these strategies will find success if you have any desire to further develop your website design enhancement third party referencing possibilities. 

 3. Share in People group That Fall in Your Specialty

Finding people groups that follow your business specialty can be perfect for elevating your substance to pertinent crowds, who could have sites, stages, or sites of their own where they can share your important connections. Find Facebook groups and forums that specializes in doing what you do to promote your website.

4. Attempt Guest publishing content to a blog on Famous Sites

Lastly, attempt visitor contributing to a blog on famous sites that will distribute great substance that carries worth to their crowd. Furthermore, publishing content to a blog such is a decent procedure to acquire hyperlinks from the interfacing sites. We call this quest blogging on websites that promote your niche. Using such sites as Quora and Medium can be great places to start guest blogging. This will allow you to gain hyperlinks from connecting with such websites. 

Further develop believability of your site with outstanding external link establishment in website design enhancement. Content is king and always create the best value possible. Here are some helpful tools for link analysis to get you started in the right direction:

MOZ and MAJESTIC are the most popular tools for pulling link profile. AHREF is another big player in the link profile game as well. These tools emulation of Google's spiders each has its own crawlers that follow the link trails of millions of sites on the internet. It is recommended to use as least four of these tools in combination when doing or performing link building profile. MOZ uses domain authority and page authority. MAJESTIC uses trust flow, and each tool has different metrics. 

Build links off of relationships that already exist, or things that the business is already doing. It is important to remember how business is involved in the community as well, whether it is local sponsorships, charity work, business associations, or clubs. Do your best outreach so that other websites will see your content and give you those coveted links you seek.

In conclusion, if all goes well and you have done organic link building your website will be among the leaders in having been known as a great content site. Repurpose content that is done well in the past. Use infographics and short videos. Figure out creative ways to share successful old content. Reclaim links to your site that are broken to get those sites to link to yours. Contact sites that once link with yours and has stop. Get them back on board again.  Interviews are another link building tactic, finding someone who is famous or semi-famous to interview will help improve your authority as well.  Finding unlinked mentions is another great way to reach out to these sites., thank them for the mention, and ask if they'd be willing to add a link. It IS ok to ask! You can find source sites and point out that their link direct their users to a page that no longer exist. Show them the alternative content available on your own site. Resource pages by writing something better and let the original website know what you are doing. You probably might get a link. And lastly, piggybacking off former reclaiming idea by finding backlinks that point to 404 pages on your site and either set up redirects or contact the source.

There are several different ways to get relevant backlinks and as you get better at this other website will take note and began to link to you as well.  Here are some ditties that I think you may find helpful when building better backlinks:

1. Newsjacking: Tap into the fleeting zeitgeist around a popular or breaking news story.

2. Sponsorships: Buying sponsorships that results in a link. This can be events, charity organizations. and other organizations that has sponsors that will list sponsors on their website. Sponsorships can net you some authoritative links that will be helpful to your business growth.

3.Seaerch Operators: Tell Google you want results that use the specific keyword phrase in page URLs. Examples like search Chicago inurl: sponsorships (pages on those sites that include the word sponsorships in the URL).

Thanks for allowing me to share the mysteries of the Universe with you.