Link building need not be a stressful exercise. While it is still one of the best strategies for getting your off-page SEO campaigns in place, a lack of expertise on the part of firms and independent business owners minimizes the potency of the approach.
Also, with Google finding it hard to cross-check every single link for authenticity, it ensures that link building, despite being a reliable SEO tool, gets a bad rap and a questionable reputation. But then, you, as a client, need to realize that link building has evolved over the years, and companies that are still following an age-old norm and approach are going to cause more harm than good.
The New Era of Link Building
Link building via organic guest blogging is still one of the more sought-after strategies to get off-page SEO on track. However, the days where mass backlinks were common, have passed and at present, Google is more accommodative towards relevance, quality of posts, and certainly the quality of websites that you would want to get links from.
But then, it all boils down to the quality of the website, as once you have zeroed in on the platform, you can monitor the nature of the posts, link-building guidelines, and other aspects for proceeding forward. Also, instead of opting for 100 and even 1000 authoritative websites, the focus should be on a niche-specific model.
This means a tech-dominant website should look for links for tech websites as anything else would summon Google’s conjectures. However, if you are still confused as to which website is a good fit for getting backlinks from, here are the most important factors to consider in your search for perfection:
-
Domain Trust
Firstly, one should not undermine the efficacy of several online platforms that offer trusted insights related to the domain trust value of a particular website. While outreach agencies have select features to analyze the websites, as per specific ratings, an independent outreach professional can rely on Ahrefs, MOZ, and Alexa for ascertaining the value of the source interface.
Also, the data to be analyzed is further segregated into trust metrics and ratings. While the former talks about how trusted the website is, according to the select search engines, the latter summarizes the page’s position, as ascertained by independent ratings.
However, if we were to enlist the diverse metrics under one segment, some of the key aspects to check to include the Domain authority, followed by the MozRank, Ahrefs Ranking, domain rating, and the local and global ranks, as per Alexa.
-
Keywords
If you haven’t previously looked at the keyword spread of a top-ranking website, it might just be the right time to rejig the priorities? It is a reliable approach to check for the top keyboards that a specific website ranks for, and you can try and include them in your link-building approach for better traction.
Also Read: 10 Content Marketing Strategies that Startups Should Focus
This approach also helps you with the outboard marketing plan as it can easily spice up a rewarding piece of content even better and make it a perfect fit for the concerned website. However, if you are still clueless about the exact method, try domain analysis and activate SEO research.
-
Relevance
This is probably the most important factor that you need to consider while zeroing in on a website. Niche relevance means that the website you are trying to connect with is directly in line with your products and services.
However, unless you have paired with a committed outreach firm, you might still end up locating authoritative yet less relevant websites. As per Google’s new approach towards link building, relevance easily outwits authority, and your focus should be on locating websites that are in line with your niche and services.
-
Location
If this identifier leaves you curious, you need to reassess your priorities all over again. Unless you are a startup that is reliant on globalization, the local presence of the website, along with the language and even host address, is important.
Google is often hard on local websites that have links scattered all over the globe. According to this search engine behemoth, relevance takes a hit if a Florida-based business is getting links from an Indian website, especially if there are no global ramifications and functionalities on offer.
-
Content Layout
Selecting a good website to get links from, based on its content structure, is more of a given. Also, if a website is already ranked and rated higher, as per the mentioned metrics, it would have the best set of content pieces, and that too in a healthy structure.
A healthy structure, in terms of website health, signifies proper segregation as per the H1 headings. However, you should also pay attention to the H2-H6 breaks, as this makes the content worth scanning, thereby adding to the reader experience.
-
Backlink Profile
This is one of the most important considerations while selecting a website for link building. Before drafting the pitch, it is necessary to assess the quality of the existing links by taking a closer look at the anchor list and the linking domains.
Websites that link out to spammy pages should not be trusted once you get hold of the backlink report.
-
Growth Dynamics
Now that we are going a bit technical with the identification, higher levels of attention are expected. Once you have the backlink report ready, you should understand the growth dynamics of the same. This attribute showcases how the links have developed, grown, been eliminated, and even steadied out over a period of 120 days or even more.
Steady peaking and plateauing need to be prioritized over sharper spikes, which reveal backlink manipulation and the existence of spammy interactions.
-
Penalties, if any
A website is as good as the type of links it has. But then, you must check whether the same has ever been penalized for incorporating spammy links or any other reason for that matter. If you are connecting with an outreach agency for link building, you need not worry about the website’s credibility.
However, if you are a self-learning individual, we would prefer reliance on Moz, SiteCheck from Sucuri, and other resources for cross-checking the issues and penalties. These platforms also reveal that the website of interest might have been penalized for a host of other reasons, including low reader value.
Also, if you are planning to connect with several websites at once, the Netpeak website checker is a good resource to invest in as it can analyze websites in bulk.
-
Quality of Adverts
One of the more underrated aspects of website identification is to check for the number of advertisements and the quality of each. While even the top websites will have a few search engine-influenced advertisements to account for, multiple pop-ups and blinking ads can kill off the page’s reputation, and you must refrain from connecting with these sources.
-
Traffic Volume and Page monitoring
Another essential yet underrated factor is the ratio between the number of website pages and the total traffic volume generated by the website. While some inexperienced link-building agencies get influenced by the higher traffic volume and end up handpicking them for building links, the results are often subpar and below expectations.
Instead, it is necessary to check for the number of optimized and indexed pages that are driving the total traffic volume and take a call accordingly.
-
Latest Update
Always consider websites that have been updated in the recent future. This way, you can rest assured that the metrics and performances are in line with the user’s expectations. Moreover, even if the website looks good but hasn’t been updated for over a year, it is better to stay away from the same.
These 11 identifiers need to be prioritized if you are planning to select the best websites for efficient link building. Also, with Google launching new metrics with time, we shall keep updating the space and add new resources for identifying promising websites in a more rewarding manner.