LINK BUILDING STRATEGIES
Backlink explained: How to build backlinks
This is how you successfully generate high-quality & topic-relevant backlinks!
Backlink simply explained
What are backlinks? What role do backlinks play in SEO?
Let’s start with a little repetition: What are backlinks, How to build backlinks and why do we need them? Link building is the supreme discipline of search engine optimization . After all, it is important
- To find relevant websites
- To work out the perfect topic and then
- To “pitch” the whole thing in such a way that the webmaster on the other side links you.
Is it worth the effort?
Yes! Because link building and SEO belong together like pot and lid. More precisely, OffPage SEO is completely pointless without link building. You will now find out why backlinks are so important for SEO and how everything is interrelated.
What is a backlink?
A backlink is a link that leads from one website to another website, so to speak a back link . Some search engines use the number (link popularity) and quality of such backlinks to determine the search engine ranking of a page.
A so-called inbound link is a kind of recommendation for your content.
The reason that backlinks are a popular ranking factor: As the operator of a website, you usually have no direct influence on backlinks . Google’s PageRank algorithm is based on this idea. Search engines also like to include the link text as a further signal.
The entirety of all back references of a domain is called a link profile in specialist circles .
To freshen up, here is a small overview of link types and to what extent you can influence:
Completely in your hand (OnPage optimization)
Internal links – links between individual content on your site, which you can insert yourself as you wish
External links – References to other websites that you place in your own content
Can only be influenced by communicating with other webmasters (OffPage optimization)
Backlinks – not found on your own website
How does Google rate your link profile?
With the PageRank algorithm , the search engine attaches great importance to the link profile of a website right from the start. Today, however, Google is keeping a low profile on how backlinks are specifically rated – the PageRank in the toolbar is long history.
Expert tip
The more high -quality, topic-relevant backlinks your website has, the greater the ranking potential. When you have a new domain, your first goal in terms of link building should be to build a link profile that is competitive or comparable to the competition.
All in all , backlinks strengthen the authority (an important part of EAT, i.e. Expertise Authority Trust ) of your website or your brand.
Basically, links are like some kind of voting system: every vote for your website says that your content is valuable, your site is helpful, and that you are credible. Backlinks are not 100 percent democratic – because not every vote is worth the same …
What is a high quality backlink for Google?
The value of a backlink is determined, among other things, by the following factors :
- Anchor text (also called link text or anchor text )
- Authority of the linking page (mixture of link popularity and TrustRank) & website
- Relevance of the linking page & website
- Position on the linked page (e.g. in the main content or only in the footer)
- Reputation of the linking website (is the website classified as a link seller?)
- Word context on the linked website (which terms are around the backlink?)
- Other outbound links on the linking website (link juice is split; co-citation)
- ALT attribute for an image link
- rel attributes such as nofollow or sponsored
- Google Disavow
Important terms around backlinks
Before it gets practical, there are a few terms that you should know for a better understanding. You have probably heard some of them before, at the latest in the previous part of this guide.
Link building
Link building or link building is an off-page optimization measure . It’s about generating external links that point to your page.
Domain Authority
Domain Authority , engl. Domain Authority (DA), is a value that predicts how well a website will rank on the search engine results pages (SERPs). A Domain Authority Score ranges from 1-100, with higher scores corresponding to greater ability to rank.
Domain authority is calculated by combining multiple factors into a single score. These factors include domain and link popularity.
The score is useful information when comparing websites or tracking the “ranking strength” of a website over time.
But be careful:
The Domain Authority is only an approximation of how Google really rates domains. It is unlikely that Google would use this metric to determine search engine rankings in exactly the same way.
There are different names for the domain authority in SEO tools:
- Ahrefs = Domain Rating (DR)
- SEMRush = Authority Score
- Moz = Domain Authority
- Majestic = divided into Trust Flow and Citation Flow
In the screenshot you can see an example from Ahrefs:
Domain rating for backlink evaluation
Various tools provide a metric that should represent the domain authority.
Link Velocity
Link Velocity is the speed at which a site gains or loses links . Google can do this e.g. B. use it as an indicator of a manipulation attempt. The magic word is therefore natural growth. By the way, this is not just about link building, but also about regaining backlinks if they have been lost.
Link Juice
Linksaft, engl. Link Juice , describes the strength that a page receives from external or internal links. Link Juice increases the ranking potential of the linked page and is therefore essential to achieve top rankings on Google.
Backlink analysis: the biggest no-gos with Google backlinks
You can better do without references from these websites
Let’s start with a little how-not-to guide. If you have been building links as described below, it is high time to rethink your strategy.
Link building is a tightrope act . If you can land really good links, it will have a massive impact on your search engine rankings. However, if you turn to the wrong places and generate rather dubious links, in the worst case you risk a Google penalty .
So that the latter doesn’t happen to you, here are a few tips on which links you would rather decline with thanks
Buy backlinks?
Go shopping for a round of backlinks and you’re done? These tactics won’t get you very far. Google is mindful of natural recommendations from other sites and recognizes purchased links accordingly quickly. The likelihood of benefiting from such a backlink is much lower than the risk you are taking .
You can find out everything you need to know about buying a backlink in the linked guide.
What are bad backlinks?
There are a few types of websites that you should remove from your list of options to begin with:
- Websites that are not relevant to the topic at all
- Websites that already have an extremely large number of external links (you can check this with Ahrefs, for example)
- Websites that offer no added value
- Websites that sell backlinks on a large scale
- Websites that only serve to give backlinks (Private Blogging Networks, PBN )
Backlink check: this is how you recognize professional link sellers
Always take a close look at linked websites and ask yourself the questions below. Are your answers exactly like mine on the list? Then these are clearly red flags and you ‘d rather do without the backlink . Websites with the criteria mentioned are of a rather dubious nature:
- Does the website seem loveless? YES
- Could it be a free standard theme? YES
- Are they all niche topics that match? NO
- Are topics only dealt with very superficially? YES
- Are the contributions a maximum of 400 words long? YES
- Is it also linked internally? NO
- Are there multiple outbound backlinks in every post? YES
- Is Wikipedia linked in almost every post? YES
- Are companies mentioned relatively inappropriately? YES
- Are you noticeably using a lot of hard anchor texts? YES
- Does the imprint include an SEO agency or a sole proprietorship? YES
- Are posts “liked”? NO
- Are there any comments? NO
- Are there active social profiles? NO
For the sake of completeness, another note:
The questions are to be understood in the appropriate context . Take e.g. For example, suppose the link came from a large blog that covers many comprehensive advisory topics. It would be very likely that there is more than 1 outgoing link in the individual posts. After all, well-founded specialist texts cannot do without sources. In such a case, we would have to answer question 7: “Yes, but that is justified.”
Don’t worry – you will usually recognize linking pages with poor quality quickly .
The rule of thumb:
Avoid all websites that appear to exist for the sole purpose of providing backlinks and posting guest articles.
Now we come to the question of how link building works properly.
Building backlinks: the big 1 × 1
SEO backlink tools and how to get started with generating backlinks
Link building takes time . How much time? That depends, among other things, on your niche . It’s a bit like good wine that has to mature.
The following applies to backlinks: be patient and set high standards . (After all, bad grapes don’t turn out to be good wine.) In the beginning it may take some effort to be picky. Still, don’t fall for tempting offers. With content that is actually “worth linking” , you are better positioned in the long term and generate links that contribute positively to the status of your site.
Expert tip
Don’t forget that Google Organic Search is an organic online marketing channel. This means that you will benefit in the long term from the visibility that you have earned. There is no place for a short-sighted mindset here.
Backlink checker
In order to be able to look at the backlinks of your competition and to get important metrics on the strength of a link, you absolutely need a backlink checker tool. Without tools like that, you’re in the dark.
The best paid backlink checkers
- Ahrefs
- SEMRush
- Majestic SEO
- Moz Link Explorer
If you have the budget, such a professional SEO tool is a really good investment; you will save yourself some time and get a much more detailed view of your competition.
Free but limited backlink checker
An SEO tool just isn’t there? Then you can try the following free backlink checkers:
- https://ahrefs.com/backlink-checker
- https://openlinkprofiler.org/
- https://www.seobility.net/de/backlinkcheck/
- https://moz.com/link-explorer
- https://majestic.com/
- https://www.semrush.com/
Many features are limited in the free version – no wonder, after all, tool providers are careful to generate new subscriptions and do not simply give away their services.
Competitor Link Analysis
Your goal should be to do better anything that the competition is already doing really well. To do this, you need to know who you are in direct competition with and what their recipe for success is.
Danger:
Of course, that doesn’t mean that you should imitate the competition 1: 1 and write it off as hard as you can! It’s more about getting an overview and finding ideas for your own approaches .
Take a look at your top competitors for the following questions:
- What backlinks do they have?
- How many backlinks do they have?
- Which backlink gaps do you have compared to the top competition?
You should know: Google is a big fan of clique thinking.
Therefore, try to place your backlinks on the same pages on which your top competitors were published. This shows the search engine: “They are part of it.” B. with
- The Clique Hunter from Majestic SEO
- Backlink Gap from SEMRush
- Ahrefs Link Intersect
You already have a list of link sources in your hands, which you can now work through piece by piece or first check the suitability for your own project. Domains that link two or three of your biggest competitors are particularly interesting.
Track footprints on the Internet
Another way to build links through guest posts is with good ol ‘organic search from Google . To do this, narrow down the topic and keywords and simply search for the keyword + “guest post” or “become a guest author” . If nothing can be found, “author guidelines” can be a good catchphrase. Here is a very simple example:
Example of opportunities for guest authors
Which domain rating the publishing site should have depends somewhat on the niche. But what is always worthwhile in principle is a short flying visit to the relevant page . Pay attention to, among other things, whether
- The blog has comments
- Articles can be shared
- Articles are actually shared
- The page has traffic.
It’s not all about domain ratings . Even weak but serious blogs or magazines can grow big in the long run!
Expert tip
When you come across blog lists that feature the best blogs for your niche, it can turn out to be a gold mine.
Directory entries as a basis
Link building is often wrongly understood as just outreach. In fact, that’s a lot of the work in the long run but that doesn’t mean that’s the only way to set backlinks. Entries in web directories can improve visibility, especially for a new website.
Your website and business should be in the following types of directories:
- Industry-specific directories
- Local directories if useful for your business
- General web directories with a domain rating of 50 or more
In this latest video, you will learn 7 tactics on how to build free backlinks to increase your Google traffic:
Build & scale backlinks : 3 possibilities
This is how you build “natural” backlinks!
And so we come to a crucial question for the scalable backlink structure:
How do you create content that is naturally linked?
Below you will find 3 tried and tested tactics on how you can generate sustainable backlinks. They are all based on the same premise: the quality of your content is crucial . With high-quality content, you can build links much faster that will be of lasting use to you.
# 1 generate backlinks with linkable assets
Linkable asset is nothing more than the technical term for “content that is worth linking to” . Such content pieces are explicitly created with the aim of gaining backlinks in a natural way (and with the help of promotions).
The content mostly revolves around so-called informational keywords. These are keywords for which information is the focus of the search intention .
A classic for linkable assets that are based on information search terms are statistical keywords such as B. “recruiting statistics”. And how does it become a linkable asset? Very simple: Find reliable, up-to-date sources with relevant statistics (Statista, annual reports from your niche, …). Now you just have to pick out the most exciting numbers and prepare them graphically .
Such an infographic is much more interesting for other websites than just listing the numbers. This increases your chances of getting a link significantly.
Another classic for linkable assets to information keywords are all graphics that have something to do with instructions or explanations . This coffee shop has created an infographic that shows exactly what is behind the Austrian coffee classics:
With a bit of graphic skill and ingenuity, it’s not that difficult to create your own link magnets.
# 2 Create the best content and make it public
Apart from linkable assets (= content that is explicitly planned as a link target), you should ask yourself for every single post:
Is the topic / the topic coverage / the point of view / the spelling worth linking to my article?
Be ruthlessly honest about this. In a meaningful content strategy , there is only room for content that fulfills a specific purpose. If your planned content falls into one or even more of these categories, that’s a very good sign:
- Innovative contributions
- Useful posts
- Statistics
- Lists
- Entertaining messages
- Sweepstakes & quizzes
- Computer
Warning: content creation is only half the battle! Once that’s checked, you’ll need to actively promote your new (or revised) posts.
Share it on social media, refer to it in the newsletter, write to your (influential) contacts, etc. Who knows, maybe your new content is exactly what other content creators, journalists, etc. have waited – and you already have a new relevant backlink.
If you run an online shop , you will find very specific tips in our guide on building links for online shops !
I also recommend the video in which Alexander explains how link building really scales for every page:
# 3 Look for potential backlinks: rediscover your own content on the Internet
Depending on your niche and the type of content, it is possible that your content is already being shared or that you are mentioned without a link – without you knowing anything about it. The principle is simple: Find content that is yours and is already floating around on the Internet.
- You can rediscover infographics or images on your site using the image search.
- Also check regularly with YouTube videos who is using your videos.
You can find embedded videos via YouTube Analytics in the category Reach – Access Sources – External .
Screenshot find access sources on YouTube
You can usually see whether you have been correctly listed as a source if you enter site: domain + keyword on Google.
Now what if you find that your images, graphics, or videos are being used without referencing? In such a case, find the webmaster and ask for a correct reference to the source of your site. The result: a new backlink without much effort.
In the screencast there are even more ideas for simple link building strategies for established websites:
If your site was mentioned but not linked , you can find out by Googling for the pattern “ brand-ownwebsite.com -facebook.com -instagram.com ”.
The goal of your research is to find out:
- Have I been linked?
- Is the url correct?
- Could the anchor text be better?
Incidentally, this is even easier at the beginning than when a lot of your content has already been published. Keep an eye on your content portfolio as often as possible, ie check regularly whether you are missing a link somewhere .
At the end of this chapter, a video in which Alexander shows you how to generate backlinks without any new content:
Generate backlinks through guest article outreach
Generate visibility and backlinks through good emails
Guest posts are dead? But on the contrary. However, you should choose carefully where you want to post and deliver massive added value in the guest article. A topic that countless others before you have copied in the same way over and over again is of no added value.
Let’s briefly repeat why guest article outreach is so useful :
- Your brand will become better known, which increases brand awareness.
- Your site receives more referral traffic and
- You can build more links, which Google rewards.
Landing page research: Finding good pages
It cannot be said often enough: backlinks should help you and your site instead of harming it. That’s why it’s so important that the pages you post guest articles on are of good quality.
But what does good quality actually mean? When is a newspaper, blog, etc. good enough as a linking instance?
Rate a domain: when is a website good?
The most important quality criteria for publisher pages are topic relevance, authority, outbound links and traffic. Then I’ll explain in more detail what is important:
Relevance
As already mentioned, the relation to your topic is extremely important. Very strikingly speaking, has z. E.g. an SEO topic is not to be found on a cooking blog.
So sort your possible landing pages according to relevance and first contact those pages that are really highly relevant to your project. This is how you work your way to the bottom of your list.
As is well known, there are always exceptions: Even high-quality blogs and newspapers without direct reference to the topic can be a good source, as can local pages if local SEO plays a role for you.
Expert tip
Do not only search for your topic, but also for topic suggestions around the topic that may be easier to accommodate. One speaks of tangential content .
Authority
The stronger the pages you get backlinks from, the better the impact. The authority of the linking page is passed on to your website. The domain rating in Ahrefs provides information about what to expect from this site.
Backlink metric
Ahrefs’ domain rating correlates strongly with good rankings. The metric is not infallible, but it is as good as.
Outbound links
Your preparatory work is not yet finished. Next you analyze the outgoing link profile . Who is linked on this website? Are these websites reputable? Do the links look natural or bought?
If something seems strange to you here, rely on your gut instinct and let the page lie on the left. After all, you don’t want to find yourself in bad company …
Traffic
See if the linking page is really getting traffic. ( You can do that with SimilarWeb , for example ). Because only if real visitor numbers are generated does the whole undertaking make sense in the long term. Incidentally, this also applies to the question of whether the pages are indexed. If Google doesn’t have access, the backlinks for organic visibility won’t help you.
Expert tip
The harder it is to get a backlink from a website, the better for you. If you have to pass it first, then the backlink is particularly valuable.
There are different types of blogs that make linking easier or harder for you. Depending on how well known your brand is, you can knock on different types of blogs .
Small and new blogs
are happy about high-quality content
Professional blogs
publish content only if the content knocks them off their feet
Celebrity blogs from well-known bloggers or brands
publish content only if they know you and the content really blows them away
How will I be published there?
Did you find the pages on which you would like to publish guest articles? Very good, but the work doesn’t stop there. Finally, you now have to manage to get published and place a backlink on the page .
How this works best depends on the type of page. These elements are promising in combination:
- Find a really good topic
- Write a really good text
- Build good relationships with bloggers and editors
The most popular way to get really good relationships is usually through an initial email exchange that gets the guest article request rolling. You will learn how this works best in the next point.
Write killer emails: 4 steps to the perfect email
Always stay calm: You don’t have to be afraid of emails. All you really need to know is how to get your outreach emails read. By the way, you don’t have to worry about whether you are on the verge of legality with an email like this. As long as you do not produce advertising or spam, everything is completely within the framework!
Expert tip
Timing with email is critical. E-mails that are sent in the morning often get lost in an overcrowded mailbox. Therefore, it is better to send the emails in the afternoon, when the inbox has been processed so far and the end of the day has not yet started. You can even set a timer in your mailbox for when the email should be sent.
# 1 Before the email: show interest
This first point is especially true if the blog you would like to post on is well known and has a lot of authority. We advise against a cold approach . Don’t just knock out of the blue to ask if you might be able to get a publication. Think of it the other way around – would you find such an inquiry interesting and would you sacrifice your time for it? Probably not.
What you can do instead: Interact with topics on the blog or website that interest me. Write a comment, share posts in social networks, link them, etc. Now at least your name sounds somehow familiar.
# 2 discover email address
If you have done the preparatory work, now is the time to find the right contact . Quite simple, you think, there is often a contact form
Avoid such forms whenever possible. Inquiries that come in this way are gladly ignored. If, on the other hand, you can find a contact page with a corresponding email address, you’ve hit the jackpot.
Another possibility is to find the name of the right contact person via LinkedIn or XING in the first step. Then we use an email address finder like Norbert or hunter.io to uncover that person ‘s email address.
With Voila Norbert you can find the email address of the contact person quickly and easily!
# 3 Rocking first contact
As I said, ideally you are already known to your email contact. Then you can first try to point out that you have already read and shared several articles. If that doesn’t work, however, the motto is not “beg and ask for whatever’s worth”. No, you have to convince with added value in the first email .
A couple of specific examples – you could point out that
- In an article that has already been published, a point was not carried out correctly (diplomatically formulated!)
- A link in the text no longer works and you would recommend this or that link as a replacement
- You would have something to add through your expertise or could provide a different perspective.
Warning: be patient if a contact does not answer immediately. Send another email every day? Not a good idea.
If you still have no response weeks later, it’s okay to follow up . If nothing comes of it then, you may be able to send a new email after a few months with more up-to-date suggestions – or it should just not be.
# 4 Score with personalized email
The perfect email is a balance between effort and benefit . You want it to be read and answered positively, without having to reinvent the wheel with every request.
It is best to get a template , which does not look like a template and can be personalized accordingly. These elements are important for your guest article request:
- Create the perfect subject line (clear, concise, interesting).
- Tell a compelling story why you are writing to the person.
- Always, always, always pay attention to a personal address.
- Never, ever, never try slime.
- Deliver great topic suggestions.
- Avoid spelling and grammatical errors.
The art is to personalize your research and to credibly explain in the message what the publisher will get out of it . Why does your topic offer such added value that it deserves a link? What is the difference to hundreds of other, at first glance very similar articles?
You should also briefly show what a post could look like for the page (social proof). Many people are really happy to answer a friendly e-mail with interesting suggestions that represent a benefit for the site.
Write 10x content
If you have a fish on the hook, you have to deliver it, of course. Unless you rely on blackhat SEO and link buying for link building , content is your selling point . In the long run, top content pays off a lot more. Because over time, ideally, they will be shared more and more often, without any additional contribution on your part.
Outstanding content (just 10x better than that of the competition ) is admittedly not exactly little work. After all, if it were easy, everyone would do it. But it pays to become the number 1 contact for content related to your topic.
What types of content are actually popular?
The classic article with introduction, main part and conclusion? Often works wonderfully, but is just as often quite boring. Try outreach with other types of content that can be easily linked and shared:
- Visualizations (images, diagrams)
- Templates / checklists / templates for printing
- Calculator tools
Do you even have the opportunity to do your own research and publish studies ? Jackpot, be sure to use this asset!
Expert tip
Every year one of our customers (management consultancy) does a large-scale survey of influential companies on a very specific topic. The results are published on the company’s own website. As a result, the customer not only gets backlinks from the large corporations mentioned. Since the topic is also interesting for employees, it is also taken up by countless newspapers. Madness!
Also lists are popular. If you google a little, you will quickly see that there are numbered lists with X tips on (almost) any topic. The clearer and more concise the tips are presented and the faster you can skim them, the better. Or you show the readers that you really know everything about this topic and that it will answer all of their questions .
In this video you can see Alexander over his shoulder planning a text:
Bonus: place perfect backlinks
You have a blog that publishes your guest article: check.
You have produced the perfect content: check.
The last step is still missing: cleverly place the backlink . Note the following points and you can say “check” one last time:
- If possible, the backlink should not be marked with the nofollow attribute . This tells the web crawler (e.g. the Googlebot) that the backlink should not be included in the search engine ranking.
- You want a contextual backlink . This means that the link should be found in the text, not at the end or even in the sidebar / footer.
- You want a meaningful link text that is relevant to your site . The link text that you use also tells Googlebot what the linked page is about.
In one of our guest posts for Hubspot, for example, this anchor text leads to our guide on content strategies. As you can see, the link text clearly reveals where the users go when they follow the link. Just as it should be.
With guest article outreach you can get the best backlinks. I know that very few people like to email “strangers”, but it’s really worth it.
When do backlinks take effect?
This is how long it takes for backlinks to influence your Google rankings
The link building is going so far and you have already been able to set some backlinks? Congratulations, you’ve successfully mastered the most difficult part.
Yes, but when do I have a positive ROI (Return On Investment) from the backlinks set?
Link building is running and you already have some backlinks in your pocket? Congratulations, you’ve successfully mastered the most difficult part.
Yes, but when do I have a positive ROI (Return On Investment) from the backlinks set?
A Moz study from 2016 showed that it takes on average about 10 weeks for something to change in the rankings after a new backlink. This newer t3n article assumes that new links will only be “noticed” by Google after 5-15 days. But we share the conclusion of the t3n article:
It is impossible to call a blanket period . The effect of a backlink depends, among other things, on …
- The strength and relevance of the backlink
- Your link profile compared to the competition
- Your current keyword placement
The bottom line is that backlinks are not a “quick fix” , but sometimes only show their full effect after months. We remember – the links are like a recommendation for what you offer. The more such recommendations accumulate and the longer this picture remains constant, the greater the success. The age of the link profile is extremely important .
Note:
It is well known that SEO never works overnight – not even off-page optimization.
If that’s not enough for you, take a look at the video. In it, Alexander and link building expert Martin Brosy (among others) talk about the effects of backlinks and what one can realistically expect :
What does it depend on what influence backlinks have?
Before anyone can judge the link building impact, a backlink analysis is needed. In this way you can determine the initial situation compared to the competition and the weaknesses of the link profile.
After the analysis, the following factors will also give you better orientation:
The worse – the better
A contradiction? Not necessarily, because the worse the starting position, the bigger the jumps your website can make in the beginning. Always provided that someone else has not done mischief in terms of backlinks and triggered a Google penalty.
With a moderate starting position, you can roll up the field from behind and come relatively far forward. At the top, however, the strong sides accumulate . Those who are already in the top 10 usually move much slower and have to be significantly better than the competition in order to be able to leave them behind.
Dynamic vs. static
A fundamental difference lies in the dynamics of the matter. There are niches that are never quiet, that live on fast pace and freshness and that are characterized by a certain volatility.
Everything that follows current trends must always, always, always be up to date in order to be read, linked and ranked accordingly. Outdated information mercilessly disappears into oblivion.
And then there are the niches where trust is more important than anything else. Little to nothing happens here over time. For example, a tax advisor on the Internet can, once well positioned, sit back and relax and enjoy her authority. It is difficult for newcomers to fight for a place here. The jump to page 1 seems to take forever.
Speaking of dynamics: How dynamic can a link profile be so that Google does not become suspicious? At what time interval does it make sense to generate new links?
Here, too, the well-known answer is: It depends on the niche . If z. For example, if the tax consultant’s website from the above example collects new backlinks every 1-2 weeks, this should quickly appear suspicious from Google’s point of view.
Existing trust
Trust is fundamental . We have known that at least since Google’s EAT . If your website is trusted by Google, backlinks will also have more impact. Therefore, you should try to keep the cleanest possible and prove your trustworthiness.
It starts with very simple things:
- Do not publish anonymously under “Editorial staff”, but with a clear name and information on the expert status of the person.
- Respond quickly to feedback on the content (replying to comments, etc.).
- Do not use the first sources in your content, but only professionally relevant, as up-to-date and naturally correct articles as possible.
Freshness and relevance
This indicator depends a lot on the area in which you want to establish yourself. In the area of gossip, yesterday’s news will be history again the next day. In cosmetic surgery, on the other hand, the pace of online content is much slower. Depending on your niche, you put the focus in the way that makes the most sense:
Either you make sure that the quality of the backlinks is correct (which would be particularly important in our example with the cosmetic surgery clinic). Or you put the focus among other things (!) On the fact that the quantity of backlinks is given.
Expert tip
Forget the slogan “A link is a link (a link is a link)”. There is no getting around quality!
Strength of competition
The last indicator applies again to all pages in the backlink structure (and beyond) equally: How strong is your competition and how are you positioned compared to them?
Nobody can keep up with you, your link profile and your website? Very good. However, if your competition is (still) much stronger than you, a single backlink will not make any difference. The way is the goal, is the motto, and sustainable link building is the best strategy.
Expert tip
“Backlinks are no longer important,” they keep saying. This is complete nonsense. A current study by Eric Enge shows the central role backlinks continue to play. Practice confirms exactly that. Yes, backlinks are no longer the ultimate trump card, as they used to be, which makes bad content or even spam rank. Nevertheless, it is essential that you build a competitive link profile. After that, you should concentrate more on content and user experience and only take links with you on the side.
You should consider backlinks as a stable and crucial currency for search engines.
Conclusion & further information on backlinks
That ends well, backlinks are good
Building backlinks takes patience and time. However, we can say from our own experience that well thought-out link building is extremely profitable .
Link building can even be scaled in the long term. If you produce really good content, there is a chance that if you are sufficiently well known you will receive new links without any additional work.
Link building strategies for every starting situation
Depending on the initial situation, one or the other link building strategy works better or worse:
- Link building strategies for new websites
- Link building strategies without new content
- Link building strategies for established websites
