Linkbuilding, or building backlinks, is a great way to help your site in search. If taken at the right end… But let’s look at it from the beginning.
What is linkbuilding?
Google considers links from various places to your site as votes that say your site is of good quality. The more “quality votes”, the more Google prefers to show your site in searches.
However, that this is a much broader activity than just “getting links” is well illustrated by Philip Podstavec’s definition of linkbuilding:
Linkbuilding is a continuous activity leading to the acquisition of strategic partners and placements. These activities aim to improve the visibility of websites in the places where potential customers are looking for them.
The goal and purpose of linkbuilding is well illustrated by Philip’s illustration:
Source: https://www.podstavec.cz/co-je-linkbuilding-a-kdo-je-linkbuilder/
So we should have an idea of what’s going on. But why should you actually care about linkbuilding?
Why is linkbuilding important?
Google has confirmed that back links remain one of the top three ranking factors in search engines.
In other words: If you don’t find linkbuilding important, but your competitors do and take steps to implement it, they will most likely outrank you in search. Which you don’t want.
What links to pursue?
There is no such thing as a link. I will try to write down 4 basic tips to keep in mind when getting links.
1. The link must be of good quality
Would you trust more links from affiliatetester.webnode.cz or aktually.cz? Exactly. Google has it exactly the same way.
Seek links from known, primary domains that you yourself find trustworthy. Links from social networks, email signatures, special web directories, etc. don’t have much effect.
According to Brian Dean of Backlink, one quality link can be more powerful than 1,000 poor quality ones.
Quality > quantity. Simple.
2. Focus on links from related sites
If you’re writing about air conditioners, focus on links from other sites selling home furnishings, electronics, white goods… These are the links you want.
By common sense, even according to Google.
On the other hand, avoid links from sites with erotic stories, gardening tools, or pot sales. In most cases, the links probably wouldn’t hurt you, maybe even help slightly, but the energy is finite. And if you’re going to stretch it towards linkbuilding, stretch it in the right direction.
3. Get links from authoritative sites
A link from Masaryk University’s site carries more weight than the link from your vysokaskolazivota.cz site you set up yesterday… Weird…
How can you find out the authority of the site?
There are many ways. Many paid SEO tools have this feature. If you don’t use such tools (yet), you can use, for example, the MozBar Chrome extension, which will show you the authority of the page and domain.
However, the main point is that you want backlinks from quality domains.
And you can often tell a quality domain by sight, which is another great free tool).
4. Contextual and literal link usage
When you already get a link from a domain, try to make sure that the link is used in context and in the form “under which you are trying to rank.”In other words, always try to make sure your link is used like this:
The How to Sell a Condo in 2022 article on Honza Szajter’s site is a great place…
Try to avoid:
*Article: How to Sell a Condo in 2022 on Honza Szajter’s site is a great place…*
or
How to sell a condo in 2022 on Honza Szajter’s website HERE.
Google likes context, it helps it to find its way around the site, even simple links that “roll” you lower down the page seem to play a role. So try to accommodate him and use links correctly.
What to look out for when building links
When building links, it’s good to keep two things in mind, which we’ll look at right away.
Multiple links from multiple domains
According to a Backlinko study, the importance of links from a domain that has already linked to you once drops dramatically with additional links.
Source: https://backlinko.com/hub/seo/backlinks
Links are important, but as the infographic shows – whether you have 5 or 12 links from one domain doesn’t matter too much.
Another Backlinko study on search engine ranking correlation showed that the number of sites linking to you (not the total number of backlinks) correlates with Google search engine ranking more than any other factor.
Source: https://backlinko.com/hub/seo/backlinks
Summary: Focus mainly on building new links, the number of links from individual domains doesn’t play too big a role.
I hope this article has given you a basic overview of linkbuilding. Let me know in the comments what your experience with linkbuilding is!
