In the last chapter, we talked about technical search optimization and how it fits into the bigger picture of onsite search engine optimization. In this chapter, we’ll dive into how you can go about building high-quality and effective backlinks to your site.
High-quality links are one of the most important factors for ranking well on search engines and achieving your SEO goals. Websites that appear as the top results in Google’s SERPs usually contain over 3 quality backlinks more than the websites that appear below them.
Off-site SEO pertains to all strategies that involve another website other than your own, so understanding how it works is crucial to make the most out of these strategies.
This chapter will walk you through how to build these links and what they should look like so your website ranks well on Google and other major search engines.
Factors to Consider for Off-Site SEO
Before diving into the strategies of building backlinks, several main factors should be considered while performing off-site SEO. These include the following:
Domain Authority
Domain Authority is a score given to each website by MOZ, which calculates how well the site will rank on search engines. It considers several factors, such as the number of backlinks and types of links pointing at your page.
The higher your domain authority, the easier it’ll be for you to get high-quality traffic from search engine results pages.
Site Traffic
Search engines place a lot of value on website traffic. The more relevant and valuable your content is, the more likely it is to attract quality traffic to your site, which search engine algorithms reward with high rankings.
Link Type
There are several different types of links that can point to your website, but here are the two most important ones you should know:
- Do-Follow Links: These links are the most valuable links you can get. They allow other sites to pass link juice or authority through them. Your website will have a higher chance of ranking for any given keyword the more of these backlinks it has.
- No-Follow Links: These links don’t allow sites to pass authority through them. These types of backlinks are still quite valuable as they can help you rank for specific keywords and drive traffic from those pages. However, it’s best not to focus on getting only no-follow links.
What Are Backlinks and Why Do They Matter?
Backlinks are links from other websites that point back to your website. Aim for quality—not quantity—when it comes to these links.
Building high-quality backlinks are important because they help you rank better in search engines, which means your website can get more traffic from Google and other major search engines.
Getting a high-quality domain to link to you or getting links from sites that already have a good number of high-quality backlinks themselves are the best types of backlinks. These will give your site the most juice when it comes to ranking in search engines.
Tactics for Building High-Quality Backlinks
There are many ways to build a foundation of quality, effective backlinks for your website. Here are some strategies and techniques that you should consider implementing:
Build a Library of Evergreen Content
One of the best ways to get high-quality backlinks is by publishing evergreen content that will have a long lifespan on your site.
Evergreen content refers to articles and blog posts that are relevant, helpful, and interesting today as well as five years from now. It doesn’t focus on time-sensitive material or trends that may go out of fashion, allowing it to have a longer shelf life.
Publish High-Quality Content
This is one of the most important things to do for off-site SEO. You should always aim to write content that directly addresses your target audience’s problems and questions so they’ll share it with their network, helping you build links naturally as time goes on.
Like we discussed in chapter 4, it’s also good practice to research top ranking sites on Google to see what they’re publishing so you can come up with ways to make better content.
Guest Posting
Guest posting is a great tactic to build backlinks. You can write an article on a blog that is relevant to your industry and link back to one of the pages of your website.
It’s important not to overuse this technique though, as doing so will look unnatural in search engines, leading to penalties or lower rankings.
When guest posting, make sure you’re getting links on sites that have high domain authority and good page rank. Also, only write content for websites where your target demographic is present in large numbers.
Skyscraper Technique
The skyscraper technique is a way to build high-quality backlinks quickly by identifying the most popular content on your website and publishing something better.
The new content should be better than the original piece in every way possible. It needs to be longer, more comprehensive, and include more helpful information for readers. This helps improve the quality of backlinks as the original content gets replaced with something more refined.
Do An Interview
Another tactic you can use to build backlinks is by doing an interview with a high-quality website. Look for websites that are relevant to your industry and have good domain authority, then contact the site’s editor or writer to see if they’re interested in doing an interview.
Getting mentioned on a major news outlet gives your website more credibility and authority with search engines, leading to better rankings over time.
Common Mistakes People Make When Trying to Build Links
There are a lot of mistakes that people make when they’re trying to build backlinks. Some examples include:
- Trying to manipulate the system: Manipulating the system means buying links, spamming blogs with your website link or comments, or engaging in other unethical SEO tactics that will get your site penalized by search engines over time.
- Only focusing on one technique: Some individuals only use one off-site SEO strategy like guest posting or link building on their websites. You need to have a well-rounded strategy that includes many different tactics to achieve better results.
- Using links from small websites: Getting links from a random website will not be effective for off-site SEO. You need to get links from the most reputable websites that have been around for years and are trusted by search engines, such as Forbes, BI, or arXiv.
Conclusion
You should always aim to build high-quality backlinks for your site. Building these links can help you get more traffic and increase the overall performance of your website in search engines. However, it’s important to avoid common mistakes as well, like those we’ve outlined in this chapter. A high ranking is great, but it’s even better if it comes from the quality, helpful content visitors love.
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