The world of SEO is one complicated place. Many factors add up to a successful optimization strategy. Quality content, the right amount of keywords, good relationship with a search engine, all of this might not be enough to rank high. To outrank your competition, you need a brilliant link strategy as well. First, check how well you are doing already with proranktracker.com, and after you implement a link building strategy, watch your results go up significantly in no time. Here is an ultimate guide to a successful link building.
What are links for?
Inbound links, also known as external links or backlinks, are hyperlinks that take you from one site to another. For years now, search engines track the popularity of links and provide people with search results they might be most interested in. Inbound links are the currency of the Internet, and their quality is a reputation indicator.
Internal links, on the other hand, connect pages that exist within the same domain. They work pretty similarly for a website. The high amount of the right ones will provide Google with a clear message that your site is essential. Of course, all your links must be delivered in a natural and not a spammy way. It is an SEO art to balance all its elements. Only the right sync between content and links will provide you with a proper rank.
SEO eating
E-A-T is an acronym and a concept that helps the search engines to evaluate links. Google’s guidelines put a lot of importance on your websites being an expert, authoritative, and trustworthy. Sites that don’t seem to display all three of these characteristics won’t rank high, as search engines consider them as of lower quality. E-A-T concept is becoming more and more critical in the world of SEO because being able to solve user’s intent is viewed as a priority for Google. To earn trust and likeability of search engines, you will need to use links from websites that show the qualities of E-A-T.
Nofollow vs. follow links
It turns out you can indicate which links the search engine should follow or not while assessing your website. “Nofollow” links are ones that tell search engines not to follow the link. Some engines still follow them simply to uncover new sites, but these links don’t transfer link quality. They can be useful in situations where a website is linking to an untrustworthy page or was paid for or may be created by the owner of the destination page. Here is an example of a follow and nofollow link.
- Standard link looks like this:
<a href=””>I love SEO</a>
- Nofollow link looks like this:
<a href=”” rel=”nofollow”>I love SEO</a>
Not all links are worthy of being followed, as they might hurt your site’s reputation. It’s natural for your site to have both nofollowed and followed backlinks in its linking profile.
Create a healthy link profile
A link profile is basically an assessment of the inbound links your site has earned. In other words, the number of all your links, their quality and diversity. The state of a website’s link profile helps search engines figure out how your site relates to other webpages on the Internet. So what are the qualities of a good profile? A perfect link profile is one that shows search engines that you’re earning your authority justly. If you desire to be successful in the long run, you should ensure your link profile is earned via good, old-fashioned hard work and honesty.
Link building don’ts
As with every strategy, there are boundaries you shouldn’t cross and things you should avoid at all costs. Spammy link profiles are a prime example of link building don’ts. Practices, like buying links or taking part in a link exchange, might be tempting, but doing so is risky and can affect all the hard work you did. Google penalizes sites that have a spammy link profile, and a penalty is something you simply can not afford. There are three most important things you should exclude from your linking strategy. They are:
- Low-quality directory links.
- Reciprocal linking/link exchanges.
- Purchased links.
The golden rule is never to manipulate when it comes to your links and rank. The more honest you are, the better results you will see. Also, the fair linking strategy is the only one that is sustainable. With search engines getting smarter, if you don’t play it safe, you might not play at all.
If you follow all the tips and tricks from this article, you should be on your way to building a successful linking strategy. When you put enough work and thought into your link building, you will see your rank developing quickly. Use the E-A-T concept to your advantage, use nofollow links when you need to and make sure to build a healthy link profile. SEO feels like a competitive sport, and it is, but once you know how to play, you just might find yourself on the top of the race very soon.
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