Link-building is a pivotal aspect of website SEO. If a business incorporates backlinks in their website content, they become more likely to appear at the top when someone Googles their products or services.
So should online businesses and content managers focus more on the quality of the backlinks or the quantity? The truth is, quality matters the most, and the quality of your backlinks can make or break your website’s ranking on Google Search Results.
Before we dive deep, let’s look at the basic definition of backlinks.
So, What are Backlinks?
You’ve probably come across highlighted words on a blog post that transport you to another website/ webpage when you click on them. This happens when the text is hyperlinked to another page or a website. This hyperlinked text is also termed, ‘’backlinks.’’ Backlinks help drive traffic from a third-party blog to your website. If you’ve got high-quality backlinks for your website, you’ll receive higher referral traffic from 3rd party websites.
Backlinks also help in increasing your website’s ranking on Google. If there’s a high domain website you think would like to add links to your website, try to negotiate with them. If a high-domain authority website adds a backlink to your website on their blog, Google will consider that your website is of an equal rank as them.
How To Get High-Quality Backlinks
If you want to rack up a considerable amount of backlinks, these strategies can help.
- The most common way of acquiring backlinks is to become a source for bloggers and reporters. To rank on the first page of Google, you need to get links from high authority news sites, blogs, and websites.
- Try using services like Help a Reporter Out (HARO) that connect people looking for exposure to those who need sources. (journalists and bloggers).
- Create skyscraper content to attract your target audience. Creating skyscraper content is a highly effective technique to provide unique content to your audience.
- According to a study byBuzzSumo, about 94% of all digital marketing content gets no links at all. However, certain types of content perform better. Try using content formats that have been proven to generate links, such as what posts, why posts, infographics, videos, and how-to posts.
The most tried and tested way of getting other sites to link to your website is by sharing ultimate guides. Once you start ranking higher, you’ll have to pay more attention to the websites linking to your website. If you find any spammy website with a backlink to yours, immediately deny those links. Otherwise, these links will drag your ranking down.
Why Do High-Quality Backlinks Matter
While high-quality backlinks are critical for your SEO rankings and domain authority, building them is no less than a herculean task. Because of this reason, a majority of people argue that backlinks’ quantity is more important.
If you’re getting backlinks from websites like Forbes or Entrepreneur, those should be good enough. But, if not, you should also try getting backlinks from medium domain authority sites that look authentic and reliable. This may seem counter-intuitive at first, but many people acquire links this way and find them effective as well. But, before you start building links like this, always remember that they can potentially lead to massive low-commitment traffic on your website.
But since you can get a lot of traffic by building such links, if your business is at its initial stage, you can use them to spread awareness about your brands or increase traffic.
So, if you’re looking for a final verdict, there’s nothing we can say for sure!
While some businesses have massively benefitted from generating high-quality backlinks, others find focusing on the quantity more effective.
How to Ensure a Backlink’s Quality
- Make sure that the backlink is coming from a website that’s relevant to yours.
- Find out their domain authority and online reputation.
- Make sure that the link is relevantly placed. If, for instance, you run a clothing brand and a blog related to food recipes links to you, it’ll do more harm than good to your business reputation.
Guest article written by: Laura is an experienced Senior SEO Executive at Search Berg—an award-winning digital marketing company in the US. Her expertise in offering SEO services and backlink audit services, website link audit services and, backlink building services has helped several businesses boost their conversions, rankings, and sales. She has demonstrated experience in the digital marketing industry and helps businesses keep up with the latest digital marketing trends.