Backlinks are links from a website that redirect you to another website. It’s a one-way click linking two websites together, and it is one of the most powerful tools using Google and other search engine optimization strategies. The number of times that a backlink is clicked determines how trustworthy that link is, and each click counts as one vote. The more votes for a specific page, the higher that website will appear in search engine rankings.
Backlinks are important for three reasons. Firstly, greater rankings mean your website gains more trust and confidence. Second, backlinks make your website and pages more discoverable. Lastly, backlinks increase referral traffic to your website. But not all backlinks are equal and certain attributes contribute to the usefulness and quality of your backlink. What makes a good backlink is more complicated than using keywords on a webpage.
High-Ranking Domain Authority
The domain authority (DA) of a website is a ranking metric system that was developed to determine how trustworthy and relevant a website is. These are shown on the search engine results pages (SERP) Websites are given a score out of 100, and it tells Google whether a website has enough good quality links. To improve a backlink, make sure that it is linked to a website with a high DA score. The higher that website’s DA score, the higher your website will rank on various search engines. An authoritative site shows other people and website content creators that that page is a trusted expert in the field.
You must also learn to improve a website’s DA so that other developers and writers gain more confidence in using backlinks to direct potential visitors to your page. To achieve this, you need to create great and worthwhile content that will keep visitors returning.
Include more high-quality backlinks to your website that ensures more clicks. Continuously audit your site to remove bad backlinks, update user content, and improve the customer journey. There are a lot of different things that go into increasing domain authority, but the first step is to make sure that you only link to high-ranking domains with a score of 80 or more.
Rel, Do-Follow, and No-Follow Attributes
This links directly to the page ranking of a website. If, for example, you need to include a backlink to a sponsored page, but you don’t want Google to pay attention to it, use a no-follow attribute. This happens when a page might have a bit of spam or the page isn’t exactly relevant to your content, but you have to include it for some important reason. A no-follow link is just an extra association in your code that informs search engines not to index or rank that page in the backlink.
One new feature that has been utilized effectively is the rel attribute. A rel attribute can be added to any HTML link, and it tells search engines whether the page needs to pass PageRank or not. Any time you need to include a backlink to user-generated content (UGC) or a sponsored site, you should include the “rel” attribute followed by the specific instruction. An example of what this will look like is:
“https://example.com” rel=“nofollow”/“ugc”.
This specific coding informs Google not to check the site’s reputation, whether it is a UGC site or a sponsored one that you don’t want to be followed. If, however, you want to improve a backlink that links to a reputable and trustworthy website, you must include a do-follow link attribute. Google and other search engines will index and rank that page, subsequently improving your domain authority if it links to an authoritative page with a high DA score.
All three of these attributes are considered effective with all search engines, and it’s generally advisable to use all of them when working with backlinks. For every backlink that is incorporated into a page, either one of these attributes must be included to improve SEO and give your website a better page ranking.
Relevancy Through Proper Anchoring
The anchor is the specific set of text that includes a hyperlink to the site in question. The more specific the anchor text the better chances that the site will show up in search engines when users browse the net. In every single piece of content, you need an anchor text that is both specific and relevant. The text also needs to give readers and users a clear indication of where that link will take them if clicked on.
The language you use must be natural. This means that as the reader goes over the content, the backlink is inserted in a way that looks authentic. A simple “click here” isn’t as effective as an anchor that uses topic-relevant words within a full sentence. A good backlink will have anchor text that uses the right keywords that enable search engines to bring up the most relevant content. The text surrounding the backlink must be content-specific so that Google analytics, for example, easily picks that website out of a hundred thousand others.
Essentially, Google and other ranking systems and metrics use anchor text to understand the context of a page. This then tells the system whether to ignore the backlink or not.
Linking With Unique Root Domains
Root domains are the page’s URL and not the slug that is linking the domain. They are the home domain of the website. A good backlink varies by linking to multiple different root domains. Although, linking to one website multiple times can still be beneficial, Google recognizes links to new websites as a higher ranking. This ties in with the domain authority of a website and not only improves the linked website’s DA but your website’s as well.
Having multiple unique root domains also helps to increase referral traffic to your website. As long as the backlink is content-related and relevant to your website, you will see a greater boost in web traffic. Before linking any new root domain, first, run a domain analysis tool through Moz to know its DA and spam scores.
A great backlink is relevant, comes from a reputable source, and uses the right anchoring to look natural. These are just a few tools of the features that make a great backlink.
