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If you are looking to improve your website’s search engine rankings, a strong backlink strategy is essential. Backlinks, or those links that point to your website from other websites, are a key factor in search engine algorithms.
They indicate to search engines that your site is valuable and authoritative. Being an SEO agency for small businesses, we can tell you that this is one of the most complicated parts of digital marketing. Since we do this for all our clients, here are some important factors to keep in mind for your backlink strategy.
What are backlinks and why do you need them?
Backlinks are links from other websites to your website. The more backlinks you have, the better your chance of being found by Google when searching for relevant keywords related to your niche.
If you want to drive traffic to your site, increase rankings in search engines and improve your brand, a backlink strategy should be the backbone of any online marketing plan. It is an important part of every digital marketing campaign, as it helps provide credibility to your website by linking back to it.
Your backlink strategy should include factors like how many links you need to build for your website, the number of links that have been built on your site, how these links are distributed, where they are hosted, and how their quality is in front of the search engines.
5 things that make for a solid backlink strategy
Quality over quantity
Backlink building is a complicated task. But building quality backlinks is even tougher, considering that quality is more important than quantity when it comes to backlinks.
A few high-quality, relevant backlinks from authoritative websites are much more valuable than many low-quality, irrelevant links. This is why it is so crucial for you to focus on building relationships with websites in your industry that have high domain authority and relevance to your site.
Google is constantly changing its algorithm, and the way it ranks websites that have a lot of backlinks may not be the same as it was a few months ago. So, a good rule of thumb is to choose the traditional way of doing things and have a sustainable SEO plan. Because while having lots of backlinks might be good for short-term SEO, in the long run you will want to focus on how much value each link is bringing to your site.
Anchor text
Anchor text is the text that appears as the clickable link in a backlink. And it is important to use relevant, descriptive anchor text that accurately describes the content on your site. Therefore, your anchor text should be made up of keywords that are relevant to the contents of your content so that it helps search engines find your site more easily.
For example, if you have an article about “downtime management” and you use “time management” as your anchor text, it will increase the likelihood of Google indexing your site because your content makes sense to its algorithms.
Lastly, avoid using generic or spammy anchor text, as this can be seen as manipulative by search engines.
Diversify your links
There is no better way to get penalized than by being outed for link farming or black hat SEO. And sometimes, even if you are doing things right, it is just not enough to keep Google from penalizing you.
Having a diverse range of backlinks can be beneficial for your website’s authority and relevance. You can try to acquire links from a variety of sources, such as blogs, news sites, industry publications, and social media platforms. This will show search engines that your site is indeed a valuable resource across different platforms and channels.
Although there are many ways you can diversify your backlink strategy, one of the best ways to do so is by using an SEO tool like Ahrefs or Majestic SEO to find quality directories that will help you identify link-building opportunities from different sources at once.
By doing this, you will be able to target multiple industries and niche topics with one single link-building campaign, which will increase the chances of getting a high-quality anchor text placement for your site on these pages.
Monitor your backlink profile
It goes without saying that it is important to regularly monitor your backlink profile to ensure that all links are high-quality and relevant. Not only that but also that they are functioning and not broken.
You can consider using a wide variety of tools, such as Google Search Console or Ahrefs, to identify any toxic backlinks that could be harming your site’s authority or search engine rankings. You can also use the same tools to identify new backlink opportunities, manage your backlink portfolio, and keep track of your backlink strategy’s growth over time.
Focus on content
Ultimately, the best way to acquire high-quality backlinks is to create valuable, shareable content that others in your industry will want to link to. Focus on creating content that provides value to your audience, such as how-to guides, case studies, infographics, and industry insights. By creating valuable content, you can naturally attract backlinks from other websites and increase your website’s authority and relevance.
Besides that, you must also make sure that the backlinks you are creating on other websites show up for content that is relevant to you. Anything that looks inorganic or forced doesn’t bode well with Google’s algorithms. This can lead you to be flagged and your backlink-building efforts might go to waste.
When you create backlinks, Google considers that as an indication of the quality of your site and thus, integrates it into its search index. In essence, shifting your focus towards high-quality links is at the core of all backlink strategies. By focusing on quality over quantity, using relevant and descriptive anchor text, diversifying your links, maintaining content relevance, and constantly identifying backlinking opportunities, you can build a strong backlink profile that shows search engines that your site is a valuable resource in your industry.
