Dec 30, 2019 08:35 AM
(This post was last modified: Dec 30, 2019 08:48 AM by Ganja.)
I see this mistake made so often that I decided to share a small heads-up on backlinks for those that are relatively new to SEO. If you have any useful insights on this as well please feel free to post them below.
HOW TO DETERMINE THE QUALITY OF THE WEBSITE YOU WANT A BACKLINK FROM
Do not rely solely on third-party metrics (moz, majestic, ahrefs, etc). These can be helpful, but Google isn’t basing anything on these metrics. The easiest, most accurate way to determine the quality of a backlink is to simply check how Google values the website and page that it’s from. You can even do this without any tools; just ask yourself if people will actually see and click on the backlink. If the answer is yes, it’s a good backlink (keep in mind: you prefer ‘dofollow’ backlinks still, altho there are some studies reporting that it doesnt matter so much anymore as it used to).
You do want to use certain tools however, either SEMrush (free/paid) or Ahrefs (paid). These tools show howmuch traffic a certain url probably gets from Google. The more traffic a website gets, the more google apparently likes it, the more value the backlink from it will have. But keep in mind that the specific page that the backlink is on matters! Getting a backlink from a page deep within a huge website, a page nobody will ever see, is still pretty much worthless. To check if this is the case, enter the url of other, similar pages as the one your backlink will be on in either SEMrush or Ahrefs. If these similar pages get traffic, it’ll be a good backlink!
Always use common-sense. Google isn’t stupid, its not possible to rank #1 on anything competitive with a $100-backlink package, and so on.
HOW TO FIND GOOD WEBSITES TO GET BACKLINKS FROM
Search for the keyword you want to rank for in Google (incognito-mode ofcourse. You can check SEMrush for howmany people actually search for your keyword). Copy the top 10 results. Enter them in SEMrush/Ahrefs/majestic - any somewhat reliable backlink-checker tool. Copy the top X backlinks from all of them.
Visit the sites they got backlinks from, use the ways I described to determine the quality of a possible backlink from them to see if they’re really good or not, and if they're good think of a way to get a backlink from that site as well (preferably a better, more prominent one). Be creative! Think of something that will add value to that website as well, so you both benefit - and then just email the webmaster about it.
If the website is a social one (like a forum or reddit), its an easy target and you want your link on it still (in a non-spammy way. Be clever and work it in somewhere). Remember that you have to add value for the website you’re getting a backlink from, because why else would they want to help you.
Goodluck!
HOW TO DETERMINE THE QUALITY OF THE WEBSITE YOU WANT A BACKLINK FROM
Do not rely solely on third-party metrics (moz, majestic, ahrefs, etc). These can be helpful, but Google isn’t basing anything on these metrics. The easiest, most accurate way to determine the quality of a backlink is to simply check how Google values the website and page that it’s from. You can even do this without any tools; just ask yourself if people will actually see and click on the backlink. If the answer is yes, it’s a good backlink (keep in mind: you prefer ‘dofollow’ backlinks still, altho there are some studies reporting that it doesnt matter so much anymore as it used to).
You do want to use certain tools however, either SEMrush (free/paid) or Ahrefs (paid). These tools show howmuch traffic a certain url probably gets from Google. The more traffic a website gets, the more google apparently likes it, the more value the backlink from it will have. But keep in mind that the specific page that the backlink is on matters! Getting a backlink from a page deep within a huge website, a page nobody will ever see, is still pretty much worthless. To check if this is the case, enter the url of other, similar pages as the one your backlink will be on in either SEMrush or Ahrefs. If these similar pages get traffic, it’ll be a good backlink!
Always use common-sense. Google isn’t stupid, its not possible to rank #1 on anything competitive with a $100-backlink package, and so on.
HOW TO FIND GOOD WEBSITES TO GET BACKLINKS FROM
Search for the keyword you want to rank for in Google (incognito-mode ofcourse. You can check SEMrush for howmany people actually search for your keyword). Copy the top 10 results. Enter them in SEMrush/Ahrefs/majestic - any somewhat reliable backlink-checker tool. Copy the top X backlinks from all of them.
Visit the sites they got backlinks from, use the ways I described to determine the quality of a possible backlink from them to see if they’re really good or not, and if they're good think of a way to get a backlink from that site as well (preferably a better, more prominent one). Be creative! Think of something that will add value to that website as well, so you both benefit - and then just email the webmaster about it.
If the website is a social one (like a forum or reddit), its an easy target and you want your link on it still (in a non-spammy way. Be clever and work it in somewhere). Remember that you have to add value for the website you’re getting a backlink from, because why else would they want to help you.
Goodluck!
![[Image: AAjOYL.gif]](https://vgy.me/AAjOYL.gif)
![[Image: AEMUV3u.gif]](https://i.imgur.com/AEMUV3u.gif)