Being an SEO means spending a lot of time digging for connections.
When it comes to SEO link building, there is no denying that high-quality backlinks are superior to low-quality ones in terms of driving organic rankings and, by extension, increasing the likelihood that a website will be seen by search engine users. requires careful focus.
Links used to be a more reliable indicator of a page’s potential as a response to a search query, but search engines have gradually adapted their algorithms to provide alternative explanations for links. To add insult to injury, Google is savvy and watchful enough to penalise high-quality connections.
Yet, not every one of them is created equal.
In this piece, I’ll outline the characteristics of a strong backlink profile and the criteria you can use to identify quality backlinks from those that merely appear to be beneficial to your SEO.
Relevant inbound connections are crucial
Back when Google’s search algorithm was still in its infancy, it ranked websites in part by how many other sites linked to them.
In a nutshell, search engines used the total number of incoming connections to determine the credibility of a page and its placement in search results. However, in time, SEOs began using dishonest methods, such as backlink manipulation and Blackhat strategies, to artificially boost the results of their clients’ websites.
It’s not surprising that Google would swiftly roll out an algorithm upgrade to begin punishing sites that engaged in such blackhat backlinking practises.
How Do You Recognize a Good Backlink?
While a hyperlink’s ability to drive targeted traffic is the gold standard, there are a number of other criteria that must be met in order to keep a backlink profile in good shape.
Website Host Information
Name service records
It’s important to see if the site’s IP address is shared with any low- or high-quality sites. A single IP address or host is possible for spammy link factories or mass-produced blogs.
SSL/HTTPS encryption used
This prevents access to low-quality websites. Insecure sites are the product of owners who don’t care enough to maintain them. Also, a connection from them is not something you should expect to be welcomed.
Google confirmed in 2014 that it uses SSL/HTTPS as a ranking component. SSL-enabled sites are safer, while HTTPS may have security flaws. SSL is the most important factor overall.
The Country Host
Checking this will help you filter out low-quality sites because it will tell you where the name is hosted. A hyperlink from India is useless for my site if it is targeted at the United States. There is always an advantage if the host nation and the target country are similar.
TLD and Language: English
This refers to the primary language used on the website. If the domain extension doesn’t end in.com or.in, for example, and your intended audience is in those nations, it could be spam or a red flag. This is a great method to reduce the amount of spam and low-quality websites.
No Drugs, No Poker, No Adult Sites
External connections to sites selling drugs, poker, or pornographic material must be thoroughly investigated. Not just the connected ones, either. Yes! Your website must remain free of any SEO that could be considered malicious.
Primary Indicators
20 entries indexed
Before including a link, you should see if the target website has been included in Google’s index. Twenty or more pages must fit the criteria for indexing.
Monthly Unique Visitors: 500+ (minimum)
If the site you want to connect to gets a lot of natural traffic, that’s great! You can expect to receive a reasonable amount of traffic from such sites, as their quality is high and yours is similarly high. There needs to be at least 200 visitors per day, most of whom are from the target nation.
Growth Patterns And The Site’s Past
Verify any Dead Links, Expired Links, or Sudden Changes in Traffic.
In order to avoid spam, keyword stuffing, unnatural connections, hacked or spammed sites, and other undesirable outcomes, you should verify that the domain has not expired or been penalised.
We all know that SEO is a slow process, so any site that suddenly experiences a surge in traffic should raise red flags.
Growing Visitor Flow and Top Referring Sites
Any website that sees a steady rise in visitors over time can be said to be expanding in a normal way. Surely you would want to link from sites that demonstrate such upward patterns in quality.
If a website’s reference domains are growing, it indicates that the site is either producing high-quality articles or aggressively building links with respectable content marketing.
Domain Anchors and Types for Referrals
Google’s ability to comprehend a site’s quality is largely dependent on anchor texts and the relevance they have to the content of the site.
This is also significant because it may indicate low-quality links or unethical Black Hat SEO practises if a website consistently receives anchor texts that seem odd or suspect.
Examining the Content
When Was the Site Last Updated?
If you’re going to link to another site, make sure it has current content. (at least a month or less). Because abandoned sites that haven’t been updated in decades are useless.
Indistinct PBN connections
If we look at the technological side of things, Google is against all linking, and PBNs are even worse. If you use PBN links that aren’t obvious, you risk penalties and losing SEO value.
Meaningfulness plus Readability
If a link doesn’t go somewhere relevant, it doesn’t make sense to include it. Google will assist you in getting SERPs if you position backlinks only after you have determined their relevance to the content of your website.